Eternal Encouragement
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1 Peter is a letter of hope. Not hope such as we hope for; “hope against hope”, because we do not really expect what we hope for.
Peter writes of a sure hope, a hope that holds the future in the present because it is anchored in the past. Peter hopes for God’s salvation from sin and death.
His hope is sure, because God has already accomplished his salvation in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:3-5 frames the message this morning. It offers a word of eternal encouragement to us this morning as it reminds us that our ultimate salvation is secure.
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.
The safest place on earth is Fort Knox, it is home for the U.S. Bullion Depository. It houses 137 billion dollars worth of gold—5,000 tons of precious metals—behind a 22 ton door.
The combination to that door has been disseminated to 10 different staff people. Each person has a partial code; no one person knows the total code.
The code has to be inserted one person at a time. Behind that door in the treasury is the safest place on earth. But even if you are crafty enough to break the code and get in, you wouldn't get far. You would have to get past armed guards, missile tanks, Apache helicopters, infrared surveillance, video cameras, and concrete reinforced granite walls.
If you try to break in, you're going nowhere. At the height of World War II, Fort Knox had the privilege of housing some of the most precious documents in the world:
the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, and the Gutenberg Bible.
It's housed the crown jewels of the English family and some of the national reserve of other European countries.
Let's move from public protection to private protection. People build houses now with safe rooms. These rooms are designed to protect from inclement weather and intruders.
However, there are some situations where all the protection in the world cannot shield us. In reality there is no safe place on earth that can protect us from the inescapable realities that threaten our lives.
Nowhere is safe; no amount of money can protect you from aging, weakness, disease, and death.
We are all subject to these realities, and there are no safe places on earth that can protect you from them, regardless of who you know, where you've been, what networks you're hooked up with.
So we ask ourselves, Are there any safe places? Is there a place that protects our future, a place humanity cannot touch, problems cannot reach, that is overseen by an ultimate Protector that doesn't allow any tragedy to come up against us?
Peter reminds us that there is a safe place and a powerful Protector who watches over our future salvation.
Our ultimate salvation is being protected this morning by a strong Protector.
God is presiding over our future to make sure what he has paid for is safely deposited in your hand.
This text is tailored to provide us with an eternal encouragement that our ultimate salvation is kept in a safe place.
Our inheritance, is being presided over by a Protector that will not allow anyone or anything to tamper with what he himself has put in safekeeping.
Peter is writing to a group of Christians. They are new believers, a new community that has been called together in the name of Jesus Christ.
They are living in modern day Turkey. They are camping out on the borders of Iran. And they are under strict, intentional persecution from the authorities.
They are living under the terror and tyranny of these officials. They are suffering for what they believe in.
In the face of pressure and persecution, Peter writes to them that God has established something for them, that he has reserved something for them.
He has guaranteed a deposit, an inheritance for these believers.
Peter says, "Your inheritance, your ultimate salvation is kept in a safe place."
Now, God cannot renege on what he says. God is a gentleman. He is not dishonest; he does not lack integrity.
If God makes the promise, he will keep it. God is not deceptive. God says, "You have an inheritance."
The people that Peter's talking to are poor, marginalized Christians. God is saying to Peter, "Tell them I have an inheritance for them."
Notice that Peter does not describe to us our inheritance for its greatness exceeds human language. He only tells us what it is not.
It is imperishable. In chapter one of 1 Peter, Peter points out a few things that are imperishable.
Your new birth is imperishable, the word of your redemption is imperishable, the mercy of God is imperishable, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is imperishable, and the inheritance that God puts your name on is imperishable. These things will not spoil.
It is undefiled.
Your inheritance is unfading. When Peter used that word, he could see one of the runners in the Olympic Greek games wearing the laurel wreath, the "stephanos" crown.
It was neatly placed on the head of the victor, who ran up the steps next to the king, and the king held up the hand of the winner.
But that laurel wreath is short-lived. It was made out of a plant, so after a day or two, those leaves would start withering.
They would dry out and turn brown and then start falling away. What the victor won disappeared. But when you win your inheritance from Christ, it shall never fade away.
It is kept by God. The word kept is in the perfect passive— it implies that what God did in Jesus Christ back then has a positive effect right now.
The power that resurrected Christ in the past is the same power that preserves your inheritance right now.
He not only protects it but he cherishes it. He looks over it. His eternal surveillance is on it.
Anybody that tries to disqualify you from claiming what God has already put in his account shall be turned away, because the Lord is keeping it.
Our inheritance depends on God's truth.
Maybe you're asking, "I'm no attorney, but I've been around long enough to know this: Inheritances are always contested."
Sometimes people do contest these wills and documents by undue influence, where one person exerts influence over another to pressure them into making a different decision than the one that has been documented.
It's like a son threatening his aging mother and saying, "Unless you give me more of the inheritance, I'm going to put you in the nursing home."
We know these kinds of things have happened. People also point to incompetence.
They ask, "Did the person that wrote the document not include me in the inheritance because they were not of sound mind and body?"
This becomes a ground of arguing against the document. There are also times when fraud can be interjected, where one person says to a parent,
"I know my sister's involved in criminal activity," putting her in a negative light to change the parents' intention.
Or a person could appeal to ambiguous language. The language used in the document could be interpreted in a number of ways.
God knew that all of these kinds of things could happen, so he sent me here today to reassure you that he cannot be unduly influenced.
Satan can't bring enough against you for God to change his mind. God is not incompetent.
Those that try to challenge his character have to remember that God is completely competent. Anybody that says God is incompetent is incompetent themselves.
He cannot be accused of fraud because his name and nature are truth. If God doesn't stand on truth, he stops being God.
Since he can't stop being God, he can't stop being the truth.
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
There's nothing ambiguous about the Bible's language. It's got an Old Covenant and a New Covenant, and covenant means testament.
That is the will of God in the Word of God. God has already signed his document, and it's in your hand.
If you want to know what you're going to inherit, read this document: new birth, living hope, and resurrected power in Jesus Christ.
People may contest wills on earth, but they can't negotiate with God in heaven. He stamped it with his blood, and wrote your name on it, too.
So if you get weary and heavy laden and tired and doubtful and feel like you can't go on, remember this: God has already signed the document and your name is on it.
Your name is under lock and key. Nobody can steal it. He's written your name in the palm of his hand, and nobody can pluck it out. Your inheritance is secure.
One final word of truth before I sit down: while your inheritance is kept for you, you are being kept for your inheritance. This truth should compel us to trust God.
The Chinese language is a picturesque language. Many times they blend characters to create words.
For instance, when they want to describe crisis they blend the characters for "dangerous" and "opportunity" together. A crisis is a dangerous opportunity.
When writing the word for integrity, they draw "person" and "word." So for the Chinese, integrity is honesty of one's word.
If the word and the person don't match, they lack integrity. Some of you all remember a time when people said, "Let's shake on it." Your word is your bond.
People get agitated when you say "I'm going to do it" but then you don't.
Now we need legal documents for legal documents for legal documents. But according to integrity, when a person and a word come together you can believe them.
When God sent Jesus, the Word became flesh, he embodied integrity. If God said it, it doesn't matter whether you believe it or not. Let God settle it for you. Your inheritance has been settled up in heaven.
Your salvation is kept by the power of God through faith. God says, "I'm going to keep it. I just want you to have faith to experience my power on earth."
If God can keep your inheritance in heaven, the Lord can help you on planet earth. What have you been praying for?
Pray, but then get off your knees. Go to work. Believe God and go about your business. Watch God work it out. Have faith in God. He is in control.
You don’t need big faith, gargantuan faith, Herculean faith, titanic faith, just faith the size of a mustard seed.
What is authentic faith? The cultivation of an optimistic outlook on life with a kind of spirituality attached to it? A holy hoping for the best? Is this how you think of faith?
Authentic faith is the confident assurance in events not yet seen. Faith is not a call to believe in things when common sense tells you not to.
Faith is not a mindless stab in the dark It is not a crossing of the fingers and hoping for the best. It is not a leap into apparent nothingness. It's a word that speaks of reasoned, careful, deliberate, intentional thought.
Thought upon what? God and His promises. If you are absolutely gripped by the coming realities that have been promised to you by God, then how you live your life in the present will be radically different than if you did not possess that certainty.
Faith is, positive certainty expressed in action. Authentic faith is not merely believing in God. It is believing God.
Taking God at His word, living in obedience to His revelation whatever the cost because you know down deep in your bones that God will always do what He says, that His speaking is his doing.
It is an abiding assurance in God and His promises that animates you to persevere in your obedience to Him. Do you wish to be a more consistently obedient, steadily persevering Christian?
A stronger Christian? A more courageous and outspoken Christian? Then you need to strengthen your faith!
Your faith instinctively strengthens in direct proportion to the expansion of the object of your faith!
You expand your understanding of the object of your faith and faith itself will obediently follow. The object of your faith--if indeed you are a Christian--is Jesus Christ and all of His promises.
Is your faith weak? It is owing to the fact that you don't know the object of your faith well enough.
But when Jesus Christ becomes progressively bigger, or better yet, your understanding of who He is progressively conforms to reality, your faith will become increasingly stronger.
But how does that happen? By immersing yourself in the faith-arousing Word of God.
Read of Jesus Christ! The same powerful Word that long ago brought the universe to life is the same Word that can bring you to life and furnish you with a faith that is truly and authentically Christian.