Let us open the scriptures to the first epistle of Peter, chapter one, and read the first twelve verses. 1 Peter, chapter one, beginning at verse one, and we'll read through the twelfth verse. The Word of God Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to the stranger, scattered through our Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. 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, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you, searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven which things the angels desire to look into. Here ends the reading of God's Holy Word. Blessed are they who hear, understand and keep God's Holy Word. Reading it now again, you know, you could preach twelve sermons on the first twelve verses, and you could say you could preach twenty-four sermons, you could preach maybe many more. It's loaded. We'll just select the part that is perhaps most familiar to us, verses 3, 4 and 5. Not that the other parts are not familiar to you, but we'll particularly focus on verses 3, 4 and 5. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that faith hath not a way 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. Beloved congregation, actually every Lord's Day, we remember the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even though somehow we don't always think of it, because instead of calling it the Lord's Day, we usually call it Sunday. That's good, but actually it has a pagan background, doesn't it? It's the day of the sun, Monday is the day of the moon, but the Lord's Day is special. Every Lord's Day, though we don't preach every Lord's Day on the resurrection, we do preach every Lord's Day in a measure on Christ and Him crucified. But not apart from, surely, the fact and the implications and the significance of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We go over these great doctrines again and again that He suffered. that he suffered on the Pontius Pilate, that he was crucified, that he was dead, he was buried. And the third day, early that week, he arose, he was raised from the dead. The enemy had done everything to stop that from happening, but sealed the tomb, set a watch about it, And even the disciples, by and large, had forgotten the promise of Christ that the third day He would be raised. But yet, while they were expecting it or not expecting it, Christ arose and He brought immortality to light through the Gospel. And in the resurrection of Christ, there is something that governs all of life, or that impacts all of life, if it is right. And if the riches of Christ, or Christ and His benefits become your portion by a true faith, then your life can no longer be the same the way it was before that. Then there is something in your life that changes or colors your life that colors everything in your life. And that something in our text this morning is called hope. H-O-P-E. Hope. And we'll look at that this morning. And I've included it in my theme by not the noun, but the adjective. Hopeful Christianity. Now you can improve on the theme. but you can perhaps catch the drift of the text in that theme of hopeful Christianity and you'll see first of all that it is focused on a living hope and it's based on a living Christ and thirdly, it is experienced by a living Christian those three thoughts of hopeful Christianity focused on a living hope based on a living Christ and an experience by a living Christian. Now, first of all, focused on a living hope. We read this first part of Peter's first letter to those who were in Pontus, in Galatia, in Cappadocia, in Asia, in Bithynia. Those Christians, they were scattered, that's how Peter puts it, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia. Scattered over what we would know today as Turkey. Turkey, the province Asia in the Roman Empire in those days. You could say, here a small group of Christians, and there a small group of Christians, and in another territory another small group of Christians, and another small group of Christians, with many Gentiles all around them. And the Christians, the believers in Christ, were going through heavy trials. That's how Peter puts it in verse 6, for instance. Ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. So they were having a very difficult time in life. And now the Apostle Peter, in their trials, is proclaiming to them hope. That's the focus. Hope. A notice. I hope the young people will catch that too. We may talk about that a little later. He's not pitying them. We tend to do that, right? If somebody is in trial, and we hear him sigh and groan, and we tend to sit with him and sympathize. That's good. But Peter does not irry them. He points them to hope. A living hope. Or, as our Authorized Version has, a lively hope. You know, Paul is often called the Apostle of Faith. And John is often called the Apostle of Love. But Peter is often called the Apostle of hope. And even though the apostle Paul also refers to love and hope, and John also refers to faith and hope, Peter, in a measure, he stands out for being the apostle of hope. Let me just quote a few lines from his first epistle. First of all, 1 Peter 1 verse 13, and you can see it if you have your Bible open there. In verse 13 of chapter 1, wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope, so there it's a verb, hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. If you go down a little further to verse 21, then you have these words, who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. Then if you take 1 Peter 3 verse 15, then you have these words, "...but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you." Think of those words. "...of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Then if you just go back to verse I must have a misquote, but it is from his epistle and I'm just reading it here. For after this manner, I think it's in chapter 3. I'm looking at the wrong page. It's talking about marriage. If you look at verse 5 of chapter 3, for after this manner in the old time the holy women also who trusted, literally it says, who hoped, Alpizo is the Greek word, who hoped, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, speaking about women, adorned themselves being in subjection unto their own husbands. You could say that to these persons, the Christians to whom the Apostle Peter is writing, hope was really at the heart of what he was writing to them, these scattered believers going through all these trials. So, first of all, Peter was focusing on hope. Now, we need to, for a moment, think about what then was that hope? And is that hope? And we need to talk about it for a while, because in our contemporary English, we use hope in such a different sense than the biblical usage of the word hope. We say, for example, I hope so. It doesn't mean a whole lot, but I hope so. Or we say, what can you do? I'm hoping for the best. What are you saying then? Not very much, are you? Or we say, well, as long as there is life, there is hope. Again, one of those contemporary usages of the word hope. And what do you mean then when you say, as long as there is life, there is hope? You say, well, it could fall the right way. Maybe not. I'm just banking. Things will turn out well, and if not, well, we'll see. That's our today's use, and it's been like that in the world for centuries, congregation. And in the Scriptures, the word hope has such a different meaning. The word hope always refers to something in the future, looking forward to something, not just maybe someday a miracle will happen, but looking forward to something that God has promised, and of which you can be sure. Take Hebrews chapter 6, where the apostle is writing about the anchor of hope. Now what does he say? The anchor of hope that is both sure and steadfast. Now that hope is a different kind of hope. That enables a person to live. And you could say that a Christian is a person who has the promise of God to live by. And he always has the fulfillment of that promise in view, in focus. when he prays, when he reads the Scriptures, when he struggles, or always, there are times he does not. We have to say that to our shame. But when he reads the Scriptures, then he may catch that again, focusing on what God has promised. That is to say, his outlook is not limited by the present life, or by the present world. So maybe that helps you understand the biblical usage of the word hope. But how could we illustrate hope? Often we associate hope with being young. Our children, for instance, or our young people, they tend to always think of the future. Children, they say, I'm four, I'm going to be five pretty soon. And that pretty soon may be nine months, they don't quite know how to gauge that. Or someone who is twelve thinks of something down the road, something in the future. What are you going to be? This is what I'm thinking of. That's kind of how they always live, with something in the future. You could say that they live in the present, kind of in the light of the future, that they have in mind later on, to be quite different. But it can become a matter of prayer too, for the Lord to direct them. It's only an earthy example that I'm trying to give to you. But a Christian, a Christian, not only a young Christian, but also an old Christian, should really live like that. That is, he lives today, but he lives today in the light of what God has promised him or her. What God has promised that tomorrow will be like, and the day after tomorrow, as it were. Maybe I could put it better than what I just have done, and say that the Christian is a person who is living his life in the light of what God has promised not only tomorrow to be like, but eternity to be like. And that eternity is to begin here. This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. And this is how Peter had learned to live. And this is how the early church had learned, or was learning, I should say, was learning to live. And the church in the days of Peter, you could say, was a young church. And at that time, people, maybe in their early years, they hadn't thought they were going to face persecution. But at this time that Peter is writing to them, they were facing the threats of the world around them. And Peter was saying, live with the vision of how God, how the Lord has said things will be like in the future in His kingdom. Do you understand that? I can also think of another illustration of what hope is in our text. Because Peter puts it in a different sense too, in our text, when he talks about being an heir who will inherit something. An heir who is awaiting the inheritance. Look at verse 4, where he says to an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that faith hath not a way, reserved in heaven for you. That's how he goes on. So, that's the great focus of their hope. What? The inheritance. How then? through Christ dying on the cross. He had thereby obtained and was now giving to them an inheritance holding before them. And they had nothing to do to purchase that inheritance. But He had made them to inherit How then? By His blood, by His righteousness. They were heirs of God and joined heirs with Christ, as Paul, for example, puts it in Romans chapter 8. And then notice that Peter says five things about this inheritance. I wonder if you can remember those five things as we go through them in a kind of quickly because you could preach five sermons on each of those aspects of that inheritance. But he says, first of all, it's incorruptible. Incorruptible. Which means something like, it will not decay over time like everything else around us decays over time. You see these young people, so young and fresh looking, and then you see the same faces as their grandparents. But their grandparents have begun to fade. Grey hairs, new glasses, a hearing aid. Everything in life is corruptible. For this corruptible must put on incorruption postures. You can buy a brand new car, and how long does it look brand new? Everything, everything is corruptible. But Peter says, this inheritance is incorruptible, will not decay, not today, not tomorrow, not forever. That's first of all. Secondly, he says it's undefiled, an inheritance that is pure, pure, uncontaminated. Believers on the Son of God don't need to worry that that inheritance will ever become unclean, impure, spotted, because it turns out something is wrong with it. No, Peter says it is undefiled. Thirdly, he says it does not fade away. Even if Christ would not return for another thousand years, it will not fade away. Nothing of that inheritance would fade in the least. And fourthly, Peter says, it is reserved in heaven for you. Think of those words. Reserved. Reserved. It is kept. You could say, the Lord has written the name of each believer, true believer, on that inheritance, and He reserves it in Heaven. And fifthly, it is, what does it say? It is ready to be revealed. Ready to be revealed. Nothing more that needs to be done to it. It is all ready. What a hope! And if you are a true Christian, that you have an inheritance with your name written on it, reserved for you. It's something great, something incorruptible, something perfect, something worth waiting for, focusing on. Now, one more thought under this point, and that is, Peter calls it a lively hope, a living hope. not some empty hope, not some vague hope, but a real hope, a living hope. You could say it was a hope that had a pulse on it, and it was beating. Living, that's the thought. Somebody has given this example. He says the Christian hope is like the oxygen from heaven, that a Christian breathes in this carbon monoxide world. What a way to put it. It's like the oxygen from heaven that a Christian breathes in this carbon monoxide world. You know, when a person who is dead in sins and trespasses, and when God begins to do a work in him, in saving him, and he applies the life that is in Christ and he makes him pass from death to life. The Bible says, except a man be born again. You can also translate that, except a man be born from above. It's not being born from here on earth. It happens here on earth, but it's a birth from above. You get the same kind of thought here. It's a living hope, and it keeps this man, this woman, A Christian is a person who, in a spiritual sense, breathes an air from another world, from a future world. And it makes him to be truly alive in this wicked world. It keeps him alive when everything around him or her is gasping for air, you might say. And Langlod, he breathes in something that energizes him. It gives him focus on that inheritance. It's a living hope. Now the Christian congregation, are you beginning to see that hopeful Christianity that here the Apostle Peter is proclaiming to us? You know, no other religion has this. In our days, Many, many great philosophers, so-called great, and theologians, there are many, many meetings in every major town in Canada and in the United States. They sit around the table, Muslims and Buddhists, and they are going to, they have grand ideas for our society. But Buddhism has none of this. They have got all kinds of dreams. The Muslim religion has none of this. What they have is all kinds of vague ideas about an afterlife. Those religions, they promise the people empty promises. But what living hope do those religions offer? They don't have a living hope. They can't offer a living hope. Why not? because they are living for here and for now. If Peter would be here, as it were, and Peter would say, you know what the hope is of a Muslim? You know what the hope is of a Buddhist? You know what the hope is of a New Age person? He says, you know what the hope is of a person who sits here in church, who has the name of God on his forehead, but he's unconverted. has not been born from above. What's that man's hope? Peter would say, that man's hope, or that young woman's hope, is what? He would say, is corruptible, is defiled, and it faded away. You could also say, it's a dying hope. I was reading a book a little while ago, a very, very fine book, and it was telling the story of a minister who was on his deathbed, But it took some time before he died and somebody from New England stopped by to see this man. They took leave and then this dying minister said to this man who was going back to New England in the 1800s, he said, tell my family in New England that I'm still in the land of the dying. That's what he said. I'm still in the land of the dying, but I'm bound for the land of the living. And those who don't know this Christ and don't have the birth from above, don't have this hope, they have a hope, but it's a dying hope, the opposite of this lively hope. It's dying, it's decaying. But how different the Christian hope, focused on that living Well, this is the first point, congregation, of the hopeful Christianity. Much more to be said about, but I'll leave it for now at this. Let's go to the second point, that this living hope has a ground, a basis. What is it based on? It is based on the living Savior, the living Christ. Notice how Peter puts that in verse 3, the second part. He says, "...to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." So, he points to that glorious truth, to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, which makes all the difference. Christianity, or the true Christian believer, doesn't simply have a hope regarding the future, but he has a grounded hope, a solid hope, grounded on something that happened in the past. Better yet, it is based, you could say, on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, And Peter mentions, especially here, his rising from the dead. Now, that has implications. First of all, you and I need to see that it's not grounded in ourselves. You know how the Forum for the Lord's Supper uses this thought that when a man or a woman comes to the table of the Lord, that's not to testify thereby that he is perfect and righteous in himself. On the contrary, but he considers that he is seeking his life out of himself, in Jesus Christ. That's the difference. Not grounded in me or in you. You remember that Peter, who was writing these words, Peter had said before Jesus died on the cross, Peter had said, Lord, I am ready to go with Thee both into prison and to death. That's what he had said. But what had Peter done? When Jesus stood before Caiaphas, the high priest, he had disowned Christ. denied Him thrice. As it were, he had sent Jesus to the death of the cross and he said, I'm not going to go with you. What had he said? He had said, Him? I don't know Him. Him? I'm not connected to Him. There is no bond between Him and me, Peter had said. You see, from Peter, from his sight, from Peter's experience, that living hope that he is writing about in our text did not come from Peter's sight or from Peter's experience, this living hope of which he is speaking. It didn't come from within his soul. He somehow did not muster it. from within, when that cock was crowing, then Peter, at that moment, was not hearing these words, Peter, just keep on hoping now. When this happens, how do I say this properly, but when this happens, he denied Jesus, then you could say, his hope that he had. Because he had confessed Christ to be the Son of God. Flesh and blood have not revealed that unto you, but my Father. But it clearly seemed it had died, that hope. And those men on the road to Emmaus, they said something like that A stranger walked up to them and said, what are you so busy talking about? And then a little later they said to him, we had trusted in him. And again there is the verb there, we had hoped that it was he that would redeem Israel. Their hope too had died, you could say. The same with thee. And you could say with regard to the others too. They had, what did they have then? A dead hope that is from a certain perspective through this awe. Maybe I should put it like this. They had a dying hope. That's what they had. It was not a lively hope, at least not in Peter's experience at that time. And when Christ on the cross said, it is finished, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit, and he bowed the head and he gave up the ghost. You could say then, in a certain sense, everything was passed for Peter. You could say in a certain sense, Peter, when he is writing these words to these Christians in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia and the like, he was not pointing them to himself. He wasn't pointing to his faith. He wasn't pointing to his own ability to keep on going even in those difficult circumstances. No. This hope, of which he writes, is grounded, he says, in Christ. And what happened when on the day of resurrection Christ, the risen Lord, appeared to Simon Peter? Well, we don't know. The details are kept from us. But one thing we do know, that when Christ appeared to him, his hope which had died, revived. His hope revived, became alive through Christ rising from the dead. Oh, Christ had to die in order to be able to blot out Peter's sin of self-righteousness and Peter's sin of vain and dying hope. But when Christ appeared to him and spoke with him, Peter received a living, a lively hope. When Jesus Christ met him there on that resurrection morning, what happened? What was there? There was life from the dead. There was a promise in full view of the inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that faith is not a way reserved in heaven. There was life, unending life for sinful Peter who from his side had cut through the bond with the Lord Jesus Christ. But Christ had worked in Peter and also worked in Peter there. Even when Peter had denied him, Christ had turned and looked at him in love. And in his look of love, he was holding on to Peter in his sufferings in his death and also in his resurrection. And he came and he met Peter. Peer to him and what happened then? You could say he faced him with the ground, the basis for this living hope. As it were, something like this that he said, Peter, look to me. Look at my pierced hands and my pierced sides. Look at this. Listen to my voice. I am Jesus, who was dead, but am alive forevermore. And Peter, I have the keys. I have the keys. of death, of hell, and of life. And Peter, your deadness, your denying of me on Friday, is not strong enough to extinguish the resurrection, and the resurrection hope. And at that moment, Peter must have looked upon Christ, his Lord, and his God. And, that's the next point, and I'm not there yet, an experienced hope. The resurrection hope. Jesus Christ is alive. And now I can face tomorrow. All fear is gone. And here is the ground. Solid, steadfast, divine ground in the risen Savior from the dead. O congregation, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was so real and so fresh to the minds and the hearts of the early church. It was to them the unshakable ground to which they ran time and again. And it's so important for you and for me as well today, also for our witness in the world, for our lives to be conformed to this living, this lively hope. And for that, you know, we need to learn to look away from ourselves and look to Him, the Person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, His dying. Remember how Paul puts it? That He was, how does it say, that the Lord Jesus Christ that he was put to death for our offenses, but he was raised, he says, for our justification, for our redemption. You know, it's the only ground congregation, the only source of a hopeful life and a hopeful Christianity. We must learn to look away from ourselves for the ground of this living, this lively hope. The ground of this hope does not lie in your true conversion, if you may partake of a true conversion. And the ground of your hope does not lie in a Christian's daily walk with the Lord. But it lies in, you could say, an eternal foundation of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. That's what gives this hope a living character. A living hope. Forevermore! But Peter says even more than that. That will be then our third point. That this hopeful Christianity is experienced by the living Christian. And I'll try to be brief. Go back to the first three. listen to these words, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to His abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I was flying home one day from Abbotsford, British Columbia to Hamilton and arriving in Hamilton airport I hopped in the car, somebody had dropped off the car And I was on my way to Grand Rapids, and just before I went into the plane, my son, living out there, he gave me a tape, actually gave me three tapes, Dutch tapes of sermons of the late Reverend Hoffman. He was a Netherlands Reformed minister. Served also in Chilliwack for some years, passed away I think the next year. And one of the sermons was on this text. I remember it so vividly, I think I listened to it three times on the way to Grand Rapids. At one point in the sermon he said, people of God, do you ever have that? That you start to say, blessed be God. It lives in your soul. That you say it with Peter, 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." What is Peter saying in those words? He is not only saying that a Christian has hope for the future, also that he has a hope that is grounded in Christ in the past, But he says more than that, he also has a hope in the present, in the reality of his life here. And now, something of that risen Saviour has been applied to him, has been handed out to him, has become his portion and has become real in his life. How then, what Peter says, begotten again, you could say, by rebirth. When a person is born, for a second time in his life. When he is born from above, to use that terminology, he's translated from a world of hopelessness, of a dying hope, onto a lively hope, into a world of a lively hope. From being dead himself in sins and in trespasses, he's made alive. The Spirit of the Risen Lord comes and blows new life, new life. life of the resurrection of Christ upon His soul, and instead of death, there comes life. And all this is based on what happened there that Lord's Day morning in the sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea. There the Son of God, who was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, and had given up the ghost on Calvary Street, and breathed His very last. On the third day, He was raised from the dead. How? The Father raised Him. And He arose in the power and through the power that He had obtained through His suffering and death. That's the reason for the whole congregation. And by that rebirth, there comes that life to your own soul, if this is then true of you, then the deadness that was yours by nature and that was in all of your heart and soul and mind and strength, you could say, the deadness that had lain over your soul was changed into life, this life. What a gospel! What a gospel! And is it possible for you and I to know if we were begotten again? As Peter is writing here. Is it possible to know that I am, that you are, born again unto a living hope? And Peter says, yes it is, if there are these marks. And he mentions, first of all, by the fruits of that life in your soul, because that's really what he is writing about here. He says, if that has happened to you, then you have, as it were, this oxygen from heaven already raising your spirits now, first of all. And secondly, then you will love the Word of God, That's what he says in verse 23. That's a little bit further in the chapter. That's where he writes these words, in verse 23. He says, Born again of incorruptible seed by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And from that follows, you see, that the Word of God then, for us, is the Word of life, of eternal life. and that from there we are led by the Word of God in a way that we have not been led before, that we have not known before. Then we begin, as it were, to seek and we are permitted to find. So that's secondly. And then thirdly, Peter says, then there will be also this fruit in your life, that you will not settle your hope on the things of this world. It's that rebirth. congregation that we need. And if you don't have it, then you need to draw the conclusion that you don't have it. Then don't say, oh, but I'm a covenant child. Nothing wrong with me. If you don't have this that you need, then you are still dead in sins. and you don't have really, you don't have anything that's alive, is that you perhaps, on this day of resurrection, you are still dead, still, oh you're sitting, you're listening, but you are not alive. Now what is the gospel today then? What is the good news today? It's this, that there is mercy with God. That's what Peter writes about. And you don't need to first perform all kinds of works. A long program of self-humiliation or a physical discipline You can't get this life through that. You can't obtain this life by studying for years and trying to be better and trying to rid yourself of your deadness and your dullness. You can have only this hope because of Christ, because He has dealt with sin on Calvary Street, and because there is life in Him, he must learn to look to this risen Christ. It lies outside of you, outside of me. It lies in Christ. And that must come to us by, through the Holy Spirit. And that's why Peter adds these words, according to His abundant mercy. Let me try to very briefly say something about that. According to His abundant mercy. When you experience this life, then you experience mercy. And what a riches there lie in that mercy. And the word mercy in the Bible indicates that in the heart of God there is compassion. God in His heart is moved with compassion. Mercy, also in our English language, is really a very lovely word. Mercy that refers to a heart that is burning or moved with compassion. And that's how God is merciful. God is moved with compassion for sinners as we are. And God is moved to regard us in our sins, congregation. He bows down to persons who are deep in their misery and wretchedness, to have mercy on them. And when it happens, you can't explain it. You cannot explain God's mercy. At most, you can be astonished over it. And you can say, yea, the Lord is full of mercy and compassion for distress. And He has shown it in His Son giving Him, sending Him, giving Him. And then Christ giving Himself even unto death. And He shows that every time anew in the Scriptures. And especially when then He shows mercy to someone through the Scriptures and by His Holy Spirit. And by that mercy then you are given grace. Grace. Oh, you think of that coming day. Great is our sin before God. Great is our dead before God. Great is God's mercy. Remember that Paul says in Romans 6, where sin abounded. grace did much more about. It means that God's mercy is greater than my sin, greater than my debt, greater than my wretchedness. And when we learn to look to that, then there is ground for hope. When you learn to expect it from God's mercy, that He has revealed in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He revealed Himself in His Son. Do you know how Paul puts that? As the Father of mercy. The Father of mercy. And then what else? He does it by keeping those persons. That's my very last thought for this morning congregation. You read that in verse 5, and then you need to know that that word, kept, is different from the word in verse 4, reserved in heaven. It's a different word. Kept, that means guarded. It means you are being guarded. Very strong expression. It's the picture of a city with walls guarded. And on the walls, there were the guards that would guard the city. They kept their eyes open for any enemies. And that's how the Lord guards, watches over His people. That word is used for protective custody. God has put us, as it were, under arrest to keep us safe for the great day of His Son. And we may live by that. Sometimes our sense of it is strong, that He keeps us, that He guides us. Sometimes you can feel it. That is, you're a child of God. Sometimes you can feel it. But there are also times that you say, I haven't felt this for a long time. I don't have the sense of it so much. And I even find myself, and I say it to my shame, not living by it so much. But what Peter writes here is this, that this being guarded by the Lord does not depend on my experience of it. It's not without experience, it does not depend on my experience, or my sense of it. Actually, Peter uses this. He says, you are continually kept. You are continually being guided. So, not only when you think of it, but also when you don't think of it for a moment. And that's why one day, when God's children look back, they say, It is grace that I have come thus far. That no fatal accidents have happened on the way because He has kept me safe. He guarded me. And that's why Peter says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, Thy Name. be praised for it. Is it any wonder, congregation, that actually our text, you may not have thought of it as a song, but actually is a song. Our text is a song. Hopeful Christianity not only has a living hope, and a living Christ, and a living Christian, but also has a lively song, a song of praise to God. Can you say it with me, Peter? Blessed be God, even the 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 God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Then you have a hopeful Christianity for Christ's sake, to the glory of God. Amen.