Amen. You can turn this evening to 1 Peter 1, verse 3 to verse 5. And we will consider the living hope that we've been born again to the great end or the great goal of God's new birth in our life. And I want us to read our text once more. 1 Peter 1, verse 3 to verse 5. Peter writes, 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." Again, we've seen this theme, the calling to which we've been called, and Peter's beginning his letter here. Verse 3 is the introduction to the whole main body of this letter. And if you've ever been to a sports game, maybe you could remember a time where you didn't really want to be at the game but a friend invited you and you're not paying attention at all and then all of a sudden someone scores and then you hear the crowd rise and you hear a great anthem and then all of a sudden you're almost pulled up into that though you're not really paying attention to what's happening when you hear the crowd cheering That does something to you, and so you rise on your feet and you clap away as well. And as we consider 1 Peter chapter 3, you could say that the anthem or the praise that's coming from Peter's pen and lips is just growing louder and louder. And we see this momentum in verse three all the way down to verse five, and it almost pulls us in like that person at a sports stadium. Even if we're not paying attention, Peter begins by blessing God, and he just wraps us into what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. And Peter wants us to know one thing in these three verses. He wants us to remember that all the blessings that we have in Jesus Christ They cannot be separated from the person of Christ. We've considered that quote that, as Mark Johnston said, that Peter wants God's people to see the ample provisions of Jesus Christ. And one temptation for us as we look at all the various blessings that we have in Jesus Christ, is to actually separate the blessings from Jesus Christ, and we forget that when we look to Christ by faith, we get the whole Christ in all of his fullness and all of his wholeness, and because as believers, we're united by faith to Jesus Christ, we get the whole Christ with all of his benefits, and they're not separated. And Peter will go on to show us that. We've been born again by God, and here's these three blessings that are united to be born again by God, and it's to be born again to a living hope, verse three, to be born again to an inheritance, verse four, and then finally, verse five, to be born again for a salvation ready to be revealed. This is all wrapped up in Jesus Christ, and we ought not to miss the Christ of the blessings that we enjoy, and I want us to look at this in two ways. We're gonna consider the blessing, in verse 3, and then after looking at who the one that we bless, who he's like, what he's done, we're going to consider the blessings that he gives, but they come and they flow out of the goodness of God towards us. So number one, the blessings of God, it's in verse 3 of 1 Peter 1. Peter writes, be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's praising the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he tells us why, because it's according to his great mercy. He's blessing God the Father because of this great mercy that he's lavished upon his people and he tells us of this great mercy. This great mercy is the following, that he's caused us sinners by nature, He's caused us to be born again. And I want us to stop there for a moment. We know as we consider the whole of the Bible, the Holy Spirit is the agent. God the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration. And here in verse 3, Peter's praising God the Father for our being born again, for regenerating us as believers. And when we consider the whole of Scripture and God's triunity, we see that God the Holy Spirit He proceeds from God the Father and God the Son. You can see those in various texts that the Father says that the Spirit proceeds from Him, and you have other texts that speak of the Spirit proceeding from the Son. And when we put all that data together, we understand that God the Father and God the Son, well, the Spirit proceeds from them. And with that said, in verse three, Peter's praising God the Father by this Holy Spirit's work has caused us to be born again." And that phrase there, caused us, it eliminates any effort of us or any will of us or any, you could say, heritage or bloodline of us. This is God who has caused us, Peter's saying, to be born again. In other words, Peter's saying that this is God's sole work. This is God's sovereign work. It was God's work alone. It was his unmerited work. It was his gracious work. It was his great merciful work towards us that he did within us. And when we understand what we've come from, what we deserve, mercy means we We don't actually get what we deserve. Well, we deserve to be children of wrath, but Peter's saying, God in great mercy, he's caused us to be born again. And Nicodemus asked our Lord in John three, how can a man be born again? Can he enter his mother's womb a second time? And Jesus says, no, no, no. You can only enter the kingdom of heaven if you're born from above, born by the spirit of God. And what Peter is saying is that Well, God's great mercy shows us that we don't deserve to be born from above. We don't deserve the Father of glory to create new life in us, to create us into spiritual children, being born again as children of God. And what Peter's saying is we really didn't deserve to be regenerated. That idea of being born again is described by theologians as being regenerated. And I'll give you a definition. John Murray speaks of regeneration or of what it means to be born again. And he says it is the basis of all change in the heart of the sinner and in the life of the sinner. And it is God's recreative act where God affects a change in us that is radical and all-pervasive. Peter's saying we cannot forget this. This is why we bless God, because in mercy, He didn't have to have this recreative act in our soul. He could have left us in our dead spiritual state justly. Peter says it's the mercy of God that He recreated in you life in Jesus Christ, and a radical change of heart, and an all-pervasive change of heart. And the prophet Ezekiel Describes it this way, the Lord says in Ezekiel 36 verse 26 that a new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And he'll go on to say that God will write the law upon the heart of his people so that they love what God loves and hate what God hates. That's regeneration. That's a mercy of God where God, He took our heart of stone and made it into a heart of flesh. And there's, as William Chalmers said, this expulsive power of a new affection. We didn't have affections for Christ. Our will, our mind, our heart had no desire to follow Him, to obey His commands, but God the Holy Spirit What did he do? In regeneration, in conversion, he gave us this new expulsive power, you could say, of this all-pervasive radical change of heart, where we now want Christ. In 2 Corinthians 5.17, Paul puts it this way about regeneration, He says, therefore, if anyone is in Jesus Christ, he is a new creation. That's what John Murray's speaking about. Regeneration, being born again, is God's recreative act in us. We're a new creation. Paul says, the old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. This is God the Holy Spirit's work. And Peter says, we ought to praise God for this blessing. I want to pause there for a moment and you may say, well, how can you receive this blessing? And you can look at it in two ways. From the human standpoint, the scriptures don't want you, if you're unconverted, to just sit back and wait until God zaps you. But if you look with me in John chapter 1, In the context of regeneration here in verse 13 of John chapter 1, prior to that, Jesus Christ in verse 12 gives a moral obligation, or you could say a free offer, of the gospel, of eternal life, of God's recreative act in the heart of man. And it's for whoever believes in His name. So here in John 1 we see the moral responsibility. If you're here tonight and you read what Peter's talking about and you say, I want God to do that re-creative act in my heart and in my life. I want eternal life, I want freedom from enslavement to sin. Well, John chapter 1 verse 12 tells us this, but to all who did receive him, and prior to that we see that it's Jesus Christ, the word of God made flesh, God who dwelt among us, to all who received him, that's another word for believing in Jesus, trusting in him, receiving him as your personal savior, All who received Him, who believed in His name, John says He gave the right to become children of God. So if you're here tonight and you say, I want to be a child of God. I want Him to do that recreative act. Don't sit back, take that promise. John chapter 1 verse 12 that tells you that if you receive Jesus Christ, He'll make you a child of God the moment you come to Him. That's the context, but then you pull back, appeal, and you understand that that reception or that receiving of Christ, that believing on Christ, it only took place because of God's great act and great mercy towards us. We would have had no desire to want to receive Him or believe in Him unless it was God working in us. So the fact that you have that desire is a work of God. And you see that in verse 13 of John 1. Here's all who received him and who believed in his name. It's those who were born, not of blood, so not your genealogy or your Christian heritage. Not of blood. nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." That phrase of God is the same phrase used in John 3 and all through John's letters is to be born again. The one who receives Jesus Christ, well that's evidence of new life, of new birth, this reception of Jesus Christ. And that's why Peter says we ought to praise God for that because he didn't have to do that in our life. But the second question, how do we go from that of understanding who Christ is, the Savior who drew us, the Savior who created new life in us, how does the whole Christ that we've received by faith How does He give us His blessings? How does He pour out His blessings? They're not separated from Him, but they're wrapped up in Christ Himself. And John Murray puts it this way before we move to the second part of this sermon. If you think of redemption, Murray says it's seen in redemption accomplished and then redemption applied. Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption on the cross. It was satisfied. We saw that in his triumph over the grave and what he did was he was raised and ascended to the Father's right hand and then at the Father's right hand Jesus says he'll pour out the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost and then you see redemption applied and that's God the Holy Spirit's work. You see the whole work of the triune God, God the Father. We saw that in chapter 1 verse 2 that we've been saved, elect exiles, chosen According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, so in eternity past, God the Father set his heart upon sinners to love and redeem through his Son, and in time and space, the Son of God came into this world to accomplish your redemption. And now, God the Holy Spirit is applying that redemption, of sealing, you could say, Christ in the sinner through the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. So what does the Spirit then apply in the new birth? What benefits are yours in Christ if you've received Christ? That's where Peter goes if you look in 1 Peter 3 verse 1 to 5. He blesses God who's caused us to be born again, but look what the great aim is. Why did God in mercy? make you be regenerated, cause you to be born again. It's for these three great eternal realities, these three glorious benefits. He caused you to be born again to a living hope, to an inheritance, and for a salvation ready to be revealed. What are these glorious benefits that are yours if you've been born again? Let's look at these briefly. First, Peter says you've been born again to a living hope. I love the picture that John Bunyan puts about a man that's forgotten his hope. There's a man in Pilgrim's Progress that goes into Interpreter's House. And Christian sees this man, and this man has a crown of righteousness over his head, but he's looking down at the ground, and his feet are just slopping together, and he's just so disappointed and discouraged. And Christian says, well, why is he so gloomy? Why is he so disappointed all the time? An interpreter said, because he's forgotten to look up. He's forgotten the crown of righteousness on his head. And that describes the Christian life so often. We forget that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope. And Peter's saying, blessed be the God and Father because he's caused you to be born again to a living hope. And you can imagine John Bunyan saying through the pen of Christian in Pilgrim's Progress to go up to that man and say, just look up, look to that living hope. and you won't be slumbering around anymore. Well, what is this living hope that Peter wants us to look up to, that God has caused us to be born again for? Look what he says, it's a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Do you see how the benefit here, this blessing of having a living hope is tied, is united to the person of Jesus Christ? Peter's saying if Jesus Christ wasn't raised from the dead, you wouldn't have the blessing of a living hope. You actually have no hope at all. But Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead. And Peter's saying if you've received this Christ, the one who defeated death on your behalf, You actually have a living hope. You ought to look up more, not look down. Look up because your Savior, He's a risen Savior. And Peter doesn't just say this, but Paul says this. We heard at our church anniversary, 2 Timothy 2 verse 8. Timothy would have remembered that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, but But Paul knew that the tendency is to forget practically that we serve a Savior who's been raised from the dead. That we who are united to Him in His resurrection have a living hope. And Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 8, remember Jesus Christ? Risen from the dead. What Peter's saying here in chapter 1 verse 3 is that if you've looked to this living Savior who has been raised from the dead, You're united to his resurrection life. That's what Peter's saying. This living hope is the hope of the resurrection. And you hear that at funerals all the time, that we're here today in hope of the resurrection. And Johnny Gibson says in one podcast that those who die in Christ, though their bodies laid in a graveyard, That's God's acreage. That's holy ground. That if a Christian is laid to the grave, their body is like a dead seed. But Johnny Gibson says that's God's acreage. On that day of resurrection, that living hope that they have in Jesus Christ has not died when their body went in the grave. But Gibson says, on that day in that acreage, on that plot of your loved one that died in Christ, God by His Spirit will raise them to a beautiful oak tree, a glorified body. Peter's saying, bless God for that. That if we die in Christ, He's going to raise us up to a beautiful glorified oak tree. Why? Because this is the living hope of the resurrection that we need to anchor our soul in. Why is Peter saying this? Well, we know the context. These believers in Asia Minor, they're going to suffer greatly. They're already suffering for the cause of Christ. But Nero's going to put them to death. And you can imagine the fear when the blade of martyrdom comes to their neck and they say, you better deny Christ and say Caesar's Lord. If we don't have the hope of the resurrection, if these believers don't have the hope of the resurrection, well, fear is going to cripple. And Peter says, don't forget that. As Luther said, the body they may kill, But if we're in Christ, we have a living hope. I won't turn there, but we can, I think also of 1 Corinthians 15, verse 12 to 26, verse 12 to 19, Paul says, if Christ wasn't raised from the dead, we're all those who should be pitied. We're those who have the least of hope. But he doesn't stop there. He says, Christ indeed has been raised from the grave, the firstfruits of all who believe in him. And what he's saying is that if you're united to this Savior, who's gone before you and was raised from the dead, you too will be raised on that great day. Don't forget this living hope. The second blessing, if you look back in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 4, is that you've been born again to a glorious inheritance. And he's building upon what he's already established here. He writes, verse 4, you've also been born again to, that second preposition, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith. What is Peter saying here? Well, he's saying, don't forget what's before you. And I remember going to Niagara Falls and on the Maid of the Mist, you want to go up close to the falls and see what's before you. And realistically, right when you're on that boat, you don't see anything more than the mist before your eyes. And you don't actually see the falls. You can hear something of it. But you don't see the falls and the temptation is, well, you're just so preoccupied with the mist around you that you forget what's before you. And Peter here, again, he doesn't want the believers to forget what is before them. That you can be so overcome with the cares of this world that you forget the inheritance that is set before you in Jesus Christ. Don't be like that man or the woman on the Maid of the Mist. You could say, Peter's getting that. Don't forget what is before you. These believers we've seen in verse 1, they're from the dispersion. There would have been Jewish believers in Jesus Christ that were exiled out of Jerusalem and now they're out of their, where they call home. And you can imagine the homesick feeling and all the different trials of feeling like strangers and aliens and exiles and hurting. and worried and all these things. And Peter's saying, well, the temptation there is to forget what this glorious inheritance is that is to come. And that glorious inheritance, in verse 4, Peter's picking up language in the Old Testament. If you look throughout the Old Testament, when that phrase inheritance is used, it's often in relation to land. And in the Old Covenant, you can see that phrase, the inheritance, and it's tied to the land of Israel. But what you see throughout redemptive history is that God's goal for his people in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, is not just to give them a plot of land in this world, but his goal is to allow them to inherit the new creation, the heavens and the earth, And I want you to see that briefly just in three texts. If you look in Hebrews 11, verse 13 to verse 16, look what the patriarchs, even Abraham, look what he was looking forward to. He wasn't looking forward to that time in redemptive history when Israel would be given their plot, but there was this, even a greater looking, a greater longing for this greater inheritance of land. Look what he was looking forward to. Hebrews 11 verse 13 to verse 16. Speaking of those who look by faith to the Son of God, these all died in faith. Hebrews 11 verse 13. Not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland." What's that homeland? Look what the author says. If they had been thinking of a land from which they had gone out, They would have had opportunity to return, but as it is, they desire a better country. You say, well, what better country? A heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. And we see back in Hebrews 11 verse 10, Abraham, he was looking forward to the city that has its foundations, whose designer and builder is God. What? Land? What better country? What heavenly country are those in the Old Testament and New Testament longing for? Well, we'll have two hints here. If you look in 2 Peter 3 10-13, here's the day foretold, this glorious inheritance that we will receive on that last day. What is before God's people when our Lord returns. 2 Peter 3 10, listen to how Peter describes it. He says, but the day of the Lord, so our Lord's second return, His second coming, 2 Peter 3 verse 10, but the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with a roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness? And look at this, waiting for the hastening, the coming day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn. But look at this, but according to his promise, Peter's saying, look at this great inheritance that is yours if you've been born again. According to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and new earth in which righteousness dwells. That's what Abraham was longing for. That's what Peter is saying. You have to remember this inheritance that's yours in Christ. It's a new heavens and a new earth where righteousness fully dwells. And we see that day consummated, one last text in Revelation 21, verse one to three, John's given a vision of this last day when our Lord returns. And look where the city, the heavenly city, whose builder and designer is God, look what happens in the new creation. The city comes down from heaven. Revelation 21, this is our inheritance, don't forget it. Verse one of Revelation 21, John says, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more. That meaning there's no more calamity, this apocalyptic language. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And behold, I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. We'll stop there, but Peter's saying, this is our inheritance, that when our Lord returns, this heavenly Jerusalem will descend in the new creation, and God will be your God, and you shall be his people, and you will dwell with your Redeemer face-to-face forever. Peter's saying, that's your living hope, this future inheritance. Now, where does he end if you go back in 1 Peter 1, verse 12? 5. How can we be assured, as Peter says, that this inheritance, verse 4, is imperishable? How do we know it will be imperishable? How do we know That this glory to come, this glorious inheritance, won't be corrupted. How do we know that it won't have rust on it? And it won't need a tune-up, and it won't need new painting. How do we know this glorious inheritance will be undefiled? Verse 4, that it will never lose its beauty. How do we know it will never fade? It's unfading, that it will last forever. This is how, verse 5, that final preposition. who by God's power, this inheritance, verse four, kept in heaven for you. Verse five, look who's holding this glorious inheritance for you in heaven right now, soon to be revealed. who by, verse five, God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. What Peter's speaking about here, he uses salvation to describe different language here. He's not speaking of salvation in terms of your conversion or your sanctification, but he's speaking of salvation in terms of the ultimate deliverance, the consummation, the climax of all things when our Lord returns. Peter's saying that that this salvation it's ready to be revealed at that last day when our Lord returns Well, it's Him who's guarding this. It's by God's power. One commentary says that phrase revealed or revealing, they call it the divine passive verb, that it is God who will bring this about. And how do we know that? Peter says it's guarded. You have a firm hand guarding this glorious inheritance for you, kept for you. It's God, it's His hand keeping this glorious inheritance and keeping you So that one day you'll inherit this glorious inheritance. It's His power. It's His preservation. But it's interesting. Verse 5, He also talks about our responsibility. It's guarded through He's saying that this isn't a call to just lay back and just cruise to your glorious inheritance, but here's your moral responsibility. God's made you one who's alive in Christ. You've been called by God and caused to be born again. You have a living hope. You have a glorious inheritance. What he's saying is that you must run this Christian race with faith in Jesus Christ daily before you. We'll conclude by looking at Hebrews 12. I find this helpful in terms of what Peter's getting at, this running kind of endurance that we are called to, to endure through faith in Jesus Christ. Look what the author says in Hebrews 12, verse 1 to 3. What does that look like? to be guarded, sustained through faith. Well, this is God's means of sustaining his people. Verse 1 of Hebrews 12, Since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, all these men and women in chapter 11 who died for the faith in Christ, this great cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and every sin which clings so closely. Put sin to death as you live this race and light it out in inheritance. Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. How are we to run? Looking to Jesus, that's a phrase used to talk about looking to Him by faith. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. In other words, Jesus has run the Christian life that you and I could never live. And when we understand that, that this is the Savior who endured for us, who secured this glorious inheritance for us, that we receive by grace through faith, that frees us to serve Him. Because I'm looking to Jesus who despised the shame of the cross, who paid for my sin, who's now seated as the reigning King. Verse 3, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, for what reason? So that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. Here's God's means of sustaining you and I so that we enjoy that glorious inheritance on that great day. It's basic, but it's of full substance. The Bible says consider Jesus every day. Daily, as Jerry Bridges says, habitually gaze at your Savior every day. Go to the Gospels and see His pity and His mercy and His heart towards sinners. Go to Revelation, see Him reigning as the King who's returning with a sickle in His hand. Peter says, if you forget the calling to which you've been called, That you've been born again, Christian, to a living hope, to a glorious inheritance, to a salvation ready to be revealed. you're not gonna endure, you're gonna stumble, you're gonna fall, you're gonna be like that man in Pilgrim's Progress with his head down and a crown of righteousness before our head, not looking up, slugging along. One man, James Montgomery, says, we ought to remember that we are a day's march nearer home. And that's the reality today, as Paul says, that we are one day closer than when we first believed to see this glorious Savior who's purchased us with His own blood and that we will praise for all eternity. And that's the greatest motivation to serve Him now and enter the joy of the rest that He's wrought for us in Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you as Peter reminded us that you, as the Spirit has worked in us, have caused us to be born again to this living hope. Lord, we confess so often we're like that man in an interpreter's house who does not look up as often as we ought. who does not glory in this living hope, this future inheritance that is ours by mercy, by grace, we pray, Father, in this week to come, that we would look up, that we'd consider Jesus, that we gaze upon Him day by day, and that that would be enough for our soul, enough to sustain us, enough to motivate us, enough to bring us to that eternal joy, that is set before us through our risen Savior. And we pray if there's any here this evening who see these blessings that Christ has wrought, we pray that they would come to the one of all blessings, the fount of every blessing, that they too would join in your praises for all eternity. And we ask this in your precious name. Amen.