Abundant mercy begets an incorruptible inheritance (Quality: Good)

[0:00] as the Lord helps me I would like to direct your attention to some thoughts found in 1 Peter and chapter 1 and my text is found in verses 3, 4 and 5 that's the first epistle of Peter chapter 1 and verses 3 through 5 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 that's the first epistle of Peter chapter 1 and verses 3 through 5 once again friends as we seek to look into the truth which is contained here in these verses all I can say is what a mercy if God brings us into a lively concern into a lively relationship to the word of God this particular epistle as all the epistles of Paul and Peter are spoken to a particular people to those people whom God hath called out by his sovereign grace now we find here in the beginning of this epistle

[1:46] Paul Peter refers to them as strangers scattered throughout these different areas the epistles of Peter unlike the epistles of Paul Peter generally wrote to the believing Jew and we know that Paul wrote generally to the believing Gentile however we may believe that Paul when he wrote to the book of Hebrews wrote to the believing Jew for the most part but it is a mercy friends when we look at scriptures and know that scripture is no private interpretation therefore when we look into the book of Peter or look into the book of Hebrews or Romans or whatever book it is we know that it was written to the church of God to all ages and as I said in the beginning friends it is a mercy when you find the word of God as it were written to you individually individually first of all then we see that they are strangers here is what grace does if you are not a stranger to this world to its world religion and to its worldly pressures then friend I can say you are in the most pathetic state you are outside of the work of grace in the soul because the very workings of grace in the soul and being born again will make you a stranger to this world to its pleasure and to its worldly religion but one thing it will not make you a stranger to and that is to the cry of mercy and to the throne of grace or to the others who are quickened also into divine life because when God works and quickens a soul into divine life they are the new creation the old things pass away and the glory and the wonders of it is behold all things become new now when we look at our church text the apostle here in the language of God with the Holy Spirit is brought to see the fountain and the source of all of our blessings that's why we be commenced our service this morning hour by that well-known hymn come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy praise and so we find here he begins to see that all the blessings that he possesses in his own soul all come from God and so he pronounces a blessing unto God now certainly friends we as evil worms even though if we are quickened into divine life cannot impose any blessing upon God what is the meaning of the apostle here when he says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in other words it is a way of transpiring you remembered an agenda continually into the psalms the psalmist used to often begin some of the psalms in such manner remember to the one psalm he says bless the Lord oh my soul and then he goes on and relates all what God has done for him nothing we can impose because all blessings and there is none higher than God and there is nothing we can give unto God nor bring to God which can exceed or increase his glory or his favor but it is a way of thanksgiving and certainly friends if one has never been brought to humble as it is a humble constriction in their own soul in true godly thanksgiving

[5:47] to God friends you might well fear that you are devoid of divine life not only the temporal mercies of which we are surrounded with but above all the spiritual blessings now we find in the words of our text Peter relates these blessings of which he is recipients of and all of those who are quickened into divine life and would it be that as we look upon these blessings which are found here for the church of God that we also might unite our soul with these words of the text blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and as we look upon these particular blessings which are found here for the true and living church of God would it be that those who hear and listen and if they are outside of these blessings might be brought to this place to realize

[6:53] I'm missing something I'm coming short of these things which are needed for eternity and that you might search your own souls and know what it is to cry unto the Lord for mercy that he might save you friend it is a mercy to be in the day of grace it is a mercy to be found under the means of the gospel it is a mercy to know that you live in a day when hope can be found now let us notice here all these blessings of which we find here in the words of our text all flow out from God to the Father through the mediator he refers to him as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ now if we are true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ remember that God is our Father why because he is Christ Father and that God is our God because he is

[7:54] Christ God those are blessed words which Jesus said to Mary there by the sepulchre he says go unto my disciples and tell them that I ascend unto my God and your God my Father and your Father why were the disciples why is the Church of God then have God as their Father because he is the Father of Christ I believe much is lost for the comfort of our salvation because we fail to realize the absolute union between Christ and the Church we hope to trace a few of these things out and it is an endless subject but now we find what are these blessings of which Peter then exhorts the Church of God to bless God for I would trust there might be more and some of these blessings friends are so interwoven one with the other that it's hard to divide them but I would just mention first the first blessing of which we might well praise God for it because it is abundant mercy is because he has begotten us the second is that we have there is a lively hope and thirdly that they are in possession of an inheritance which is incorruptible and fourthly that it is reserved in heaven for them and fifthly it is because they are kept by the mighty power of God and no doubt friends if we had the mind and the understanding we could divide it into many more but let us notice a few of these things the first of all friends is we might well bless

[9:45] God and the father of our Lord Jesus Christ on the ground is his abundant mercy that he hath begotten us unto a lively hope begotten us here Paul uses the word Peter uses the word begotten setting forth what is the new birth and in the original Greek we find that the same word is also used in verse 23 of this chapter being born again now this word begotten in the original Greek as I can see friends there is only two places in the New Testament where it is used it is used in the words of our text and in verse 23 now our translators friends who had far more knowledge of the Greek and who were men of great grace seemed fit to use it in two different ways I like that word begotten and as I was enabled to meditate upon it friends I thought that there was something contained in it of which I have possibly never viewed before

[10:55] I like the word born again but begotten seems to bring as it were a living union between God and the church in other words once found dead in their trespasses and in their sins without God and without hope in the world friend there is nothing so wretched as a man upon or woman upon the face of the earth who is devoid of the new birth there they are the world is their God Satan is their captain there they are rushing headward long on the open and the broad way to an endless eternity without hope but then by the abundant mercies of God and by his free and sovereign grace something takes place I realize friends it was something which was connived I don't like that word which was actually brought out in the councils of eternity that before the foundations of the world

[12:01] God would love a particular people and would in due time come quicken them souls into divine life now friends the secret things belong unto God but what a mercy there is that election of grace not based upon any foreknowledge of God seeing that there would be some goodness or something worthy in a person that he might show but he chose because he would it was his eternal love his mercy he would not let as it were all men go on in their way to destruction but he chose a particular people who in due course would be brought around by his abundant mercy to be begotten begotten to me friends sets forth a union it means that now they are brought into a relationship with God of which did not exist before oh what a mercy friend if we can bless

[13:02] God and look back and say yes begotten born again by the spirit of God born from above now our first birth excuse me when we were born brought us into this material world but by being born again brings us into the spirit of children by the nature friends we cannot enter into those things which are spiritual they are unknown they are foolishness and folly but it is to those who have been quickened into divine life who are brought into the blessedness of these truths what are the evidences then because time goes rapidly friends what are some of these evidences and this is what I want to bring out into the words of our text what are some of these evidences then that I am begotten that I am born again by the spirit of God because friend a person can be born again and quickened by the spirit of

[14:14] God and yet have not been brought into the full comfort of it I would say when the public can there begin to see something of his sin and something of his wretchedness and vileness and lost state before God he did not recognize that he was quickened into divine life but friends remember they are quickened into the divine life while they are dead in their trespasses and in their sin and it is quickened into divine life they are brought to see themselves as a lost and an undone sin but that is not their comfort but friends God never quickens a soul into divine life only to recognize and to be slain by the spirituality of God's law but he quickens them into the divine life that he might wound them that in due course he might heal them and here is the wonder it is only after we are brought into some healing or there's some hope in God's mercy or some hope in the

[15:17] Lord Jesus Christ that we can actually look back to the time and say what a mercy God brought me as a lost and an undone sinner and brought the spirituality of God's holy law before me and I begin to see that I was a sinner as Paul said by the knowledge of the law we know what sin is and as he says when the law came it slew me in other words it slew them of all hope himself now what are some of these evidences of begotten first of all we know that the the evidence here the course or the truth is they are begotten because of the resurrection of Christ when we look after the resurrection of Christ friends it is a marvelous truth we know how it was the one theme of the early church the apostles in the book of Acts when they would speak of and Christ and God rose brought or rose Christ from the dead or Christ the father resurrected

[16:24] Christ from the dead now keep this in mind friends when Christ rose he never rose as an individual the whole of the church rose with him and there is the might and the power of that resurrection of God there is might there is power now as Christ rose from the dead the whole of the church rose with him and then down through the ages there was those who also were quickened into divine life now if Christ did not rise from the dead friends then we are without hope let me use an illustration we let us use an illustration of a grain of a wheat Christ identified himself as a grain of wheat a grain of wheat was placed into the ground it dies but where it dies friends and decays but Christ never decayed in that respect but it is a type and a figure that grain of wheat rose from the ground that is there was life and the grain and there was life there was first the little green blade breaking through and finally there is all the many seeds of wheat there upon the stock now friends there is going to be no harvest there is going to be no grain rather in if the seed dies in the ground and if the seed remains in the ground unmoved but Christ did rise and as the seed rises from the ground that is in its new life so there was the whole of the church all the other grains found with it but again friends there is no resurrection there is no grain to be found if the one seed did not bring forth life and so when

[18:21] Christ rose from the dead the whole of the church rose with it now getting back once again to my subject and I've been wandering around a little bit let me come back what is the truth that I am found as one of those grains which come from the dead that of which was resurrected with Christ who was part of him who was the resurrection and the life the proof is of a lively hope now there is such a thing as a dead hope all had a dead hope he trusted in his blood he trusted in the fact that he was a Jew and he goes on and relates it in the book of Philippians how that he was there if he had anything to trust by nature there was plenty he was the seed of Israel he was of the tribe of Benjamin he was circumcised and he followed the order of the Jews he followed the Jew religion and he lived in it and as far as the law was concerned he could look upon the law and say he was blameless but it was all a false hope now friends if we are resting upon anything of itself of anything of our free will of anything which is of a fleshly nature that is not a lively hope but let us look a little bit what is a lively hope a lively hope is something which is alive within the soul it is something which like the child when it is born into this world it has its breathings it has its desires it has its longings and a lively hope is this is I have come to this place that there is no hope in self that is one of the first evidences of a lively hope that there is no hope in this world or anything of which is of man but my only hope and I can come in a very low state and bring it very low as it were to the smallest one who is in possession of grace is this

[20:31] I as a sinner as lost and undone and guilty in the sight of God have no hope in self but my hope is here it is in the mercies of God and the very evidence of a lively hope is the prayer to the publican who went about smiting upon his breath with a recognition of sin and guilt before God and the crying of mercy that is a lively hope and in that lively hope it is unto him who alone can save unto the other more that is a lively hope a lively hope is something friends which has a conflict which has a struggle because we find there is the flesh and the spirit and the flesh thrives against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh there is the old man and there is the new which is brought about by this heavenly birth by being quickened in the divine life and though at times we fear the old man and friends when we be brought to this place to fear our flesh to fear our sins our unbelief our doubts and our fears in such a way friends that is a lively hope because where there is a dead hope we begin as it were even to look to our unbelief and doubts and say well that's part of the work of God but not such as a lively hope a lively hope is that of which struggles and fights against all the powers of sin in this world a lively hope is one of which confesses their sins before God but friends a lively hope is this though it may not be clearly wrought yet in the soul it is my only hope and trust is in that savior who died and came into this world for lost and ruined sinners and that lively hope friends is that clinging in spite of all of our doubts in spite of all of our misgiven in spite of all of our backsliding in spite of all of our darkness yet looks again towards the Lord and to the holy temple and if

[22:54] Jonah did what not in possession of a lively hope friends what a lost and a wretched state he would be there as it were in the very tip of the belly of the pig so this is a lively hope it is a lively hope which is there of which it finds in possession of a living faith it is a lively hope who says my hope is in God's mercy in the word of promise and the fact that he came for sin a lively hope is something of which is worked again by the nature of love if it was not true living love there which was found there in the heart of the apostle Peter after he had denied his Lord friend he would have been without hope but there was something of the nature of love which kept the nature of lively hope alive a lively hope is this looking upon the precious blood of

[23:57] Jesus which is able to cleanse and wash the vilest of sinners a lively hope is this which looks and would longly desire to come to that fountain which is open for sin and uncleanness a lively hope is this which reviews the glorious robe of righteousness a lively hope is this like the prodigal who went unto the father and says though I could only be a servant I would desire to be found in thine house although we know that the worship and the desires of his father was that he would be a son and to give him all the blessings which are found for those who are the true sons of God oh what a mercy to have a lively hope a lively hope which is found in the continual exercises of prayer notice notice again a lively hope but why by the resurrection of Jesus

[25:02] Christ from the dead once again though I have spoken a little bit about the resurrection of Christ have you thought because he lives I will live did your lively hope again look again to him who rose from the dead is there something within your own heart which as it were though he is not seen by the natural eye yet you see him by the eye of faith whom you love as one who hath not seen whom having not seen he love and whom now though now you see him not yet believing he rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory a lively hope is that it would see something of the preciousness of Jesus a lively hope is that of which takes hold of the words of the promise and pleads them before the throne of grace oh can you bless God this morning though you may not be in possession of the full assurance of faith yet to be able to see you see some evidences and some marks of a lively hope which is wrought about by the resurrection of Jesus

[26:19] Christ from the dead but are some of these other privileges which are then found for the children of God of which we may well unite our praise unto the Lord and say bless the Lord blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ he speaks of them an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you what is this inheritance which he's speaking about I believe friends if I have any light upon this inheritance of which Paul Peter is speaking about here is possibly little different than the inheritance of which we have been speaking this last few Wednesday evenings which are found in the book of Ephesians I look upon this inheritance in the book of Peter as that of which this means that eternal glory in other words yes poor sinner do you have the struggles and the disappointments in life now I believe we might well look

[27:32] I realize friends there are many disappointments and trials in this life but we might well look are they used and are they sanctified for our good are they the means of God to sickness of this world and of self and to make us more fond of him is there some little inklings that finds in your own soul and I believe the church is far removed from this but it ought not to be does it sometimes make you a little desires and longings to think yes but the day is coming when I shall have to leave this body of sin and death behind and to re-resurrection and to be with the Lord forever oh I realize dying grace is only given on the dying dead but yet I believe there ought to be little tokens and evidences from time to time to realize that someday

[28:34] I shall see him face to face and then all the sorrows and the troubles and the disappointments of which I've had to wade through in this life and not really knowing its purpose and its end then it'll all be made plain but often I think of those words there of that man of God who rather brought these words the bride eyes not her garment but her dear bride who says I will not gaze at glory but on my king of grace not at the crown he gifted but on his pierced hands the lamb is all the glory in Emmanuel's land this is the inheritance of which I believe Peter is speaking about here into the words of our text there is an end there is a future oh how sad to know that our hope is only this side of the grain it is only here that we have some hope well friends then we might just as well eat drink and be merry but yet the nature of grace and the soul will let you say well eat drink and be merry here upon the face of the earth well let the word they have that it hath no part for me once

[29:54] I desired its joys but now grace has set me free all to be able to see the truth and the reality of those things which I have in my and know what it is and despite of all the disappointments of one figures there is a place there is a heaven there is an eternal joy I do I do feel much of those inheritance of which Paul speaks there in the book of Ephesians are to those things of which the believer is brought in a measure to enjoy here because he speaks about those seals of little tokens and friend the little token of God's mercy and of sweetness in the word is only as it were a little token or an evidence that someday we shall be with him eternally oh to be able to rejoice but what about this inheritance is it preserved in our will is it preserved by my holding on oh friend how many have been our slips and our fall but that eternal inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you in other words it is there there reserved in

[31:19] Christ Jesus I want to tell you a true story there was a certain person who was brought this person was gone into glory who was brought into some particular inheritance and the family would have to gather from sometimes to read of all the different dealings that had to be taken care of and the property which had to be sold it was quite a mound of money but at this particular time this person also was brought into a very lively concern for her soul and he was brought under deep conviction there was sin and all the time she hardly knew anything what was going on and when questioned afterwards about the meeting she said I didn't hear she didn't know because she kept praying Lord I want an inheritance that fadeth not away you know it is a mercy when we can look upon everything that we have whether it is great or small and whether it is even our own loved ones the time comes friends it will fade away it will all come to naught but there is something which will not come to naught it will not decay it is incorruptible it is incorruptible as the very nature of

[32:41] Christ when the body of Christ was laid in the grave and it could not corrupt why because it was sinless why does a body laid in the grave now come to corruption because it is a body of sin and death and therefore friends that inheritance which belongs to the church of God is not something which will fade and decay away we may not see it we may not be able to grasp it it may as it were in our own mind become very dim and have many doubts and fears over that we will ever yet possess it yet friends it does not in our feelings even upon our belief but it is found there reserved in Christ Jesus Christ says I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you I will come again oh to believe it is unchangeable as his nature it is unchangeable as

[33:47] God himself it is undecayable as God and as Christ in the Holy Spirit is in himself isn't it a mercy to have to know there's no change in him and because he changes not he says the sons of Jacob are not consumed and because that with all of our misgivings and with all of our slips and our fall it is not reserved in man but it is reserved in glory but what is another marvel one may speak about the glories of God and the glories of the hereafter and the glories of the kingdom but yet friends there's another gift another great blessing which is found in the words of our text and when one respects friends isn't exhaustless we we find that they who are kept by the power of God kept oh how many times may you look back how you have been kept kept from turning aside kept possibly from unbelief kept from a prayerless life kept from a carelessness kept from backsliding

[35:08] I wonder sometimes how much of our prayer life would be if God didn't bring some trial look to some particular trial in your experience now through your pilgrimage some of us have been a little longer on the road maybe than others but was it not through some trials and disappointments and temptation of which the Lord put into our pathway which livened prayer and as I have said friends if that prayer was not enlivened with true repentance it was no prayer at all it brings out searchings it brings out repentance it brings out true confession of our sin it brings out more and more of the need of the application of the blood to our conscience more and more we're brought to realize the sustaining nature of grace I realize friends these are strange words and when we realize these are the means of which

[36:09] God uses to keep to keep us alive but then there are those things which are in the sight of God but let us put in these keepings there are the invisible and then there is the visible let us notice some of those things which are invisible to us not that we do not enter into the joys and the blessings of them from time to time but they remain unchangeable in the sight of God first of all friends they are kept by God's grace and what is the definition of grace it means an unmerited favor and others we are not kept by God because of any favor or any goodness himself I wonder how many of us can look back to see how the Lord kept us in the days of our own regenerancy how that we sported with death and we very easily could have been snatched away by death but we weren't because we were kept by God that the time might come that he would regenerate us into divine life oh the invisible hand of God but now when we think through grace we are kept by his grace we are also and I want you to think this through we are kept in a justified state though in my own conscience

[37:41] I may see fresh views of sin and my unworthiness and my backsliding and even be brought to a place of beginning to doubt the reality of the work of grace in my soul now let us never deny or never be brought into doubts that is of a sinful nature there are the true spiritual doubts which drive our souls and exercise in prayer before God that the Lord might yet again reveal himself but yet that soul remains unchanged in his justified state before God God may chasten us for our sin but he deals with us as a child of grace and he deals with this upon the ground of a person just to the sight of God in other words a person doesn't enter into a just I realize there's the eternal justification but a person does not enter into a justified state in his own soul or in the sight of God and then fall into an unjustified state it can't be so in that respect invisible it is on the part of God they are kept in a state of justification before God then let us look at temptations no temptation befall of them of which there is not a way of escape in other words there is no temptation which are trial or trouble which is brought into a pathway of a child of God of which the

[39:21] Lord himself doth not make a way of escape look at the trial of which Job was brought into and yet we find that in the midst of all the sorrows of which Job was brought into there was the sustaining hand of God's grace for Job says though he slay me yet will I trust friends that was faith and so they are kept in the hands of God in the prayer of Christ Peter was known by Christ that he would deny him but he says I have prayed for him we see how that Peter was kept then in the prayer of Christ that that faith which Peter had though it as it were almost extinct yet it prevailed this was something of which Judas knew nothing about this is something of which the unbeliever knows nothing about I'll tell you it is sad as it were to be kept in the measure for it in the profession of religion and then to fall away and never to be brought back oh but

[40:33] God's people are kept in spite of the great depths and the stride of the great seasons they may pass to they are kept by their power but by the power of God oh we find here who are kept by the power of God through faith that is that faith which brings about confession of sins that faith of which yet clings as it were to a hope unto God that faith of which keeps love alive in the soul they are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to reveal at the last time oh and I see sometimes and it comes to me the article of death how will I face it how will it be with me I'm not getting younger and I noticed in the paper there were many in the paper this last week and I noticed the ages younger than me and some older some whom

[41:37] I have known on the face of the earth who were younger than me who I attended school are gone taken away and here we are now it's going to come I haven't that many more years naturally to be existing upon the face of the earth why and why do not we entered into the joy and comfort of it as we are because we always have come to this place for such wretched things even with grace that we think it's going to be our own keeping but what a mercy sometimes when the Lord lets us slip not into sin but let us slip into doubts and fears and to realize it is not me who's going to do the keeping it is the Lord who keeps even friends in the confession of our sins is a divine work of God in the keeping of us so there is the invisible and the visible and the keeping of the children of God on the part of

[42:43] God that we remain in one state in our own place we waver and we come up and down doubts and fears the wrath is livened and sometimes as it were gone down but yet it is kept alive by the mighty irresistible power of God in the soul now friend what a mercy with what I have said this morning we can look at the very expression which is the opening words of our text blessed be the God and Father oh to be able to contribute all of this unto God who is the fountain who is the source who is the strength of every blessing to the soul oh friends how shortly come how shortly come in these things may the Lord enliven our faith and set new life and new exercises within our own soul and that to you who are yet unconverted and are stranger to these things oh may you be brought to see what you're missing what you lack in your own soul and beg the God of all grace who says upon the ground of his tree and mercy and mercy alone bring you to a true lively exercise in these things that you might go home and beg

[44:06] God that he might give you these blessings and to this inheritance which is incorruptible and that fadeth not away and may you see the things of this world fade each earthly joy and to be able to sing say like the hymn writer Jesus is mine well may the Lord bless these few remarks and use them for our own good and profit for his name sake amen shall we conclude then by the singing of hymn number 243 hymn 243 great great father of glory how rich is thy grace what wonderful love is displayed in thy face in Jesus thy image with brightness we view and hope to be formed to that likeness anew hymn number two two four three great father of glory of glory how rich is thy grace what wonderful love is displayed in thy face with

[45:46] Jesus life in which rises we hear and look in his heart is that life is the truth life is unground in life not we appear and that by that we make the heart is wrong near in Jesus the moment once washed in his blood with hope we have forgotten the first to love come up and live and but in

[47:04] God While the fear that brought in His spirit we knew.

[47:16] The word of this not but in this spirit is joy. The darkness ranging but objects that joy.

[47:32] His love from the darkness became a hope. Where shall we also be in safety to come?

[47:49] A great in obedience of God by the Lamb.

[48:09] By Christ our Dehovah the Ancient I Am With fullness we journey while Christ leads the sun And hope soon in glory to praise the Grief One May the grace of the Savior and the love of the Father And the communion of the Holy Ghost rest upon all Now and forevermore. Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen

[49:09] Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen so