Richard Baxter, a 17th century English pastor and writer, often said, “I preach as a dying man to dying men.” And that’s where we are today, isn’t it? We are all smart enough to know that we are only one car accident, one house fire or one cancer diagnosis away from the grave. So my goal, as a man who is dying and who does not know the number of his days, is to proclaim to you the glorious inheritance prepared for the children of God. And, my prayer has been that you, as people who are dying, may see more clearly the majesty of what Christ has purchased for you. May we all be moved to no longer cling to the stuff that can never satisfy us and pursue that which is truly life.
I need to admit at the outset that there is more in this passage than can be adequately covered in one sermon. So, my approach today is to first look and the arc of what Peter is saying to his 1st century audience and, by extension, to us. Following that, by God’s grace, we will drill down into just a few of the deep anchors Peter lays for us in these verses.
As we begin, we need to remember that Peter was writing to a collection of persecuted churches. While we don’t know the extent or the severity of the persecution, a few things are clear. Peter’s original audience had fled their homes. They were exiles for the gospel. In addition to that, Peter saw the warning signs and the seeds of doubt in the goodness and faithfulness of God.
Think about it. How often have our expectations of God failed to line up with the reality of God and resulted in our disappointment, maybe even the beginnings of our own doubt? I thought God really wanted me to get that promotion. I thought God really wanted us to get married. I thought God loved children. If we can be transparent for moment, (we can do that in church, right?) we would have to admit that we do this a lot. And it betrays that our vision is not focused on the right object.
Undoubtedly, Peter’s audience had similar problems. We’ve trusted in Christ and now we’ve lost our homes. We’ve lost our jobs and our friends. Not only that, the government is looking to arrest us. How can following a dead man possibly be worth all of that? How can we possibly go on?
This is the pastoral problem that Peter is speaking into as he starts his letter. Note his choice words as he begins to redirect our vision. In Christ we have:
• A living hope (v3)
• An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading (v4)
• God as the guard of our salvation (v5)
• Necessity of trials (v6)
• A tested, genuine, precious faith (v7)
• A faith the results praise, glory, honor for Jesus (v7)
• An inexpressible and glory filled joy (v8)
• A salvation is ours (forever) (v9)
If we take these truths as a package, the question we should ask is this: how do these truths overcome and overwhelm our tendency to lose sight of God’s faithfulness in our circumstances? How do they take us from looking at what we want or expect and re-orient us so that we are looking at what God’s doing and what He wants for us? In dealing with this question, Peter provides the answer in four parts.
First, we have a living hope. How often in the New Testament do we see the writers not simply stress the death of Jesus, but his resurrection as well? Christ died as a propitiation, a wrath absorbing sacrifice to God, but he also rose again as a clear testimony to God’s acceptance of that sacrifice. Paul makes this case profoundly in 1 Cor 15:17 when he states “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins”.
Peter’s point here is that Jesus did rise, that he is alive and that the hope we place in him is not static or fixed (like my hope of retirement), but rather it is alive and dynamic. Also, implicit in Peter’s statement here is that a living hope is a sure hope. If Christ had simply died, we could say he paid for our sins and that we have peace with God. But how could we be sure? However since Christ died and rose again we can clearly see that all of God’s promises are “Yes” in Christ.
The second part of Peter’s answer is that our inheritance is being secured by God. I’m not sure why, but it seems our human tendency is to think that when things are the toughest, God is the furthest away from us. Even the Psalmist thought so (read Ps 22:1-2, Ps 74:1 or several others). And yet Peter states clearly, as does the rest of Scripture, that God does not abandon his children.
The Psalmist says it this way in Psalm 121:1-4“I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.”
Jesus says it like this in John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.”
Paul makes a similar claim in Rom 8:38-39 “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
And Peter states here that we are being guarded by God for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last days. Peter is not simply talking about what we often refer to as our conversion. He is talking about that and everything else tied up in Jesus presenting us spotless and blameless before God’s throne.
On top of that, look at the adjectives Peter uses to describe our inheritance in Christ in v4. Imperishable – it will never spoil and will always be good and useful. Undefiled – sin will never tarnish it and it will never let us down. Unfading – the general effects of the curse (a world that doesn’t last) are now reversed for those who are found in Christ.
Each of these biblical authors, along with others I didn’t have time to reference, underscore the simple but profound reality that God is preserving us. He is protecting us. Jesus has secured for us an eternal redemption so the Father, the Son and the Spirit are always near us and working for us no matter how we may feel.
There is a third aspect of how Peter addresses our easy distraction from God’s vision when troubles come upon us. He reminds us that our trials serve as a test of the genuineness of our faith. And, as much as we may not like the idea of being tested, tests have a purpose. I think if we take a Christ-centered perspective on the testing we may find ourselves agreeing with Peter that the results are more precious than gold.
Perhaps we can think of it this way. Since our faith is in the finished work of Christ and our salvation depends upon the gracious gift of God and our comprehension of what we’ve received is through the enlightening of the Holy Spirit, then the test is not really directed at us but at God. In a very real way, God uses struggles and trials in our lives to demonstrate to us that the faith we have received from Him is genuine. And a genuine faith that secures our eternal redemption is more precious than gold. Let me expand that: it is more sure than gold, which Peter reminds us, perishes even though it is also tested by fire.
A fourth antidote to the ease at which we replace God’s vision with our own vision is that Peter reminds us of the magnificence of our salvation. It has been said that we under value our salvation because we both under estimate the seriousness of our sin and we over estimate our own righteousness. Peter cuts through that mirage by clearly stating that our salvation rests exclusively on Christ. Anything else would result in glory going to someone other than Jesus. And it would result in a shaky and unreliable salvation.
But Peter is clear. Our salvation is secure and it brings glory and honor and praise to Jesus. On top of that, it produces a joy that is inexpressible. And this joy, this inexpressible joy, is what replaces our desire for the fading and fleeting things of this life. Since joy is one of those words that are often vaguely defined, I want to share one man’s description of joy. Thomas Watson summed up Christ-centered joy in this way:
• Joy is a delightful passion. It is contrary to sorrow and the perturbation of the mind, and it overcomes the heart that is perplexed and cast down.
• By joy, the soul is supported under present troubles. Joy stupefies and swallows up troubles; it carries the heart above them, as the oil swims above the water.
• By joy, the heart is fenced against future fear. Joy is the antidote by which the fear of approaching danger is blocked off. "I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me."
At this point, I would be remiss, if I didn’t underscore the fact that everything Peter is proclaiming, both to his original audience and to us, hangs on one inescapable reality. We must be born again. Peter states it directly in verse 3 and comes back to our salvation in verse 9. He also sprinkles in references to salvation and faith in Christ throughout the intervening verses. Thus, he leaves us no other choice than that the hope, the joy, the security and the preciousness that we have been promised is intricately tied to our salvation in Christ.
I want to stress this because I think it is very easy for each of us to focus the entailments of our new life in Christ and neglect the foundation. It would be similar to driving in a fancy suburb and admiring a magnificent 3rd floor deck while forgetting that the house and the deck only stand because of the sureness of the foundation. We dare not think in our minds or in our hearts that we somehow outgrow the gospel and move on to its implications. Instead, as Peter says in chapter 2 verse 2, we must grow up into salvation.
At this point I want to address myself to anyone who may not believe that Jesus died as a payment for their specific sins. I need you to listen very carefully. You need to know you are in a very dangerous place. To put it bluntly, you are headed to Hell. But the good news is that Christ has died. The price has been paid. The gift has been offered. Will you not repent and believe? You need to know that none of the good and glorious promises in the Bible apply if you reject the salvation that God has freely and graciously provided. In the words of Ezekiel I would plead with you, “Turn! Turn! God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. O that you would turn from your way and live.”
I also want to speak directly to those of you who would call yourselves believers, Christ-followers, disciples. I have one question for you: What place does the gospel have in your life? Is it one among many important things? You want to work on your marriage and your parenting. You want to be diligent and productive at your job. Perhaps you want to excel at a craft, say singing or karate or preaching. And of course you have the gospel to make everything fit.
Or perhaps you have the gospel first on your list. All the other things have their place, marriage, parenting, job, hobbies and interests, but gospel is always first on the list of all the important things in your life.
Or, is the gospel the list?
If we take a serious look at what Peter has to say, not just here, but throughout both of his letters, we can’t escape the fact that he saw that the gospel is in a category by itself. In chapter 1, his call to holiness is grounded in the gospel. In chapter 2, his view of the church and suffering flow from the gospel. In chapter 3, his call to prayer and to witness, even in the face of persecution depend on the gospel of a savior who suffered for those who deserved to suffer.
We can add to this Paul’s relentless pursuit and proclamation of the gospel and Jesus unwavering drumbeat of His kingdom transforming our lives. At the end of the day we are forced to stand back and admit that the gospel drives everything. We cannot have the gospel in our heads only. We dare not keep it on a shelf like some piece of treasured china. We must allow it to own us, to mold us and to shape us, to propel us and to sustain us.
As I said at the beginning of this message, I wanted to drill down into just a couple of the deep anchors that Peter is laying to strengthen and solidify our faith. The anchors I want to focus on are not more important than the ones that I’m passing over. They are simply the ones I sense are perhaps more neglected than the others. But, I would encourage each of you, young or old, new believer or senior saint to take some time, either this afternoon or this evening or maybe tomorrow and slowly, reflectively, prayerfully reread this passage. Allow the Holy Spirit to sink all of His anchors deep into your soul.
Anchor number 1 is found in verse 3. Look at it again. “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.” There’s a ton packed into that single verse, but I want to zoom into the very basic statement that is being made. God caused us to be born again. Let me say that again. God caused us to be born again.
Brothers and sisters, this goes beyond the concept that most of us have of election. I would dare say that most of us see God’s election like picking teams on the grade school playground. God chooses who He wants on His team. If we think about it hard enough and long enough, we would probably admit we don’t have the skills to play the game we’ve been picked to play. On top of that we are the most antisocial kid in the school. Yet God picked us anyway.
But, what Peter is saying goes deeper than that. God did choose us. God did pick for himself people who were the most unlikely followers and set His affections on the most rebellious of people. Yet Peter insists that God not only choose us and set His affections on us: He caused us to be born again. This is not just a selective action. This is an operative action. He didn’t just declare us not guilty by some act of divine fiat, He worked in and through His Son to cause our sins to be absorbed by the body and blood of Jesus. He strained to take the righteousness of Christ and set it on us and locked it in place, never to be moved again. He groaned through the compassion of the Holy Spirit to awaken our spirits to the truth and the reality of everything that He has done and continues to do for us in Christ.
My friends, God saved us. And He continues to sustain us in that salvation. That’s Peter’s point in verse 5. And to top it off, God will ultimately, finally and completely save us when we stand before His throne. Nobody expresses this truth better than Jude in verses 24-25: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”
What is our response to this great God? How do we even begin to express our love and gratitude? How can we hold back when He lovingly commands us to obey? How can we doubt His love and mercy and grace and power for us who believe? Should we not proclaim with Jeremiah: “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.”
The second anchor I want to focus on in the time that remains is the preciousness of our faith. Peter points to the breadth of our faith in verses 5 and 9, but verse 7 is the key verse that I want to drill into. “so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Peter states clearly that our faith is more precious than gold. As good, Bible reading Christians, we may intellectually agree with this statement. But do we believe it practically? Do really see our faith as being that valuable? Or have we lost sight of what is really precious, what is really valuable?
It should be noted that from beginning to end, the Bible consistently paints God’s economy as totally different often antithetical to ours. Our economy is always based on work and resources, our work, our resources. It results, if we work hard and have the right resources, in our wealth. The problem is, our work doesn’t last, or isn’t enough. And our resources never last and are often the wrong ones at the wrong time.
God’s economy is also based on work and resources. However, His work is perfect and His resources are infinite. But what makes God’s economy totally different than ours is that it is outward focused not inward focused. We work for money for food or clothes or rent for ourselves or our family. If we are really altruistic, we give some our stuff to ministries we support. God, however, does everything for the benefit of others, even those who hate Him. He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust. He sent Jesus to die for a rebellious and sinful people. He delays the day of Christ’s return so more people can hear the gospel and believe. And he ties our salvation to faith so that it can be made secure in Christ and result in praise and glory to our Savior.
The bottom-line is this: God secures our salvation through faith. Any works on our part and our salvation would rely, at least in part on us. If this were the case, we would have reason to doubt, since we could never be sure if we did enough or if we did it correctly. This is the religious heritage in which I was raised. But thanks be to God that we are saved by grace through faith and that faith itself is a gift from God (see Eph 2:8), so there is no room for doubt. God secures our salvation, He gives it inestimable value and He brings it to completion in Christ.
There is one thing about our faith that must be made crystal clear before we conclude. As precious as it is, as secure as it is, as God glorifying as it is, it is only as good as its object. D.A. Carson tells a story of two Israelites talking at the well on the morning before the first Passover. One man is quite anxious and asks the other what he thinks of all the plagues. The second man replies that they have been traumatic and frightening, but he has confidence in God and so far everything Moses has said has borne out. The first man, still quite nervous presses. What about this sacrifice of a lamb? And the spreading of its blood on the door posts and frame? He only has his one son. He can’t lose him. How can a lamb’s blood stop the angel of death? It doesn’t make any sense. The second man responds with calmness. Everything Moses has said about the plagues has been true. Everything he has said about God matches what the elders told us from Noah and Abraham and Joseph. I don’t how a lamb’s blood can avert the angel of death, but I will do what God told us to do and trust Him. The first man, still nervous, leaves shaking his head and wringing his hands, saying, I just don’t get it. I’m just not sure. Yet, that evening both men followed Moses’ prescription, sacrifice their family lamb and spread the blood on the door posts and frame.
Then Carson asks this provocative question. Which first born son was saved?
The answer is that both boys were saved. You see it is not about the quality of our faith nor is it about the quantity of our faith. The preciousness of our faith, the genuineness of our faith and the sureness of our faith is found in its object: Jesus Christ.
As I close, ponder the words of Charles Spurgeon: “Consider this, believer. You have no right to heaven in yourself: your right lies in Christ. If you are pardoned, it is through his blood; if you are justified, it is through his righteousness; if you are sanctified, it is because God has made Him your sanctification; if you shall be kept from falling, it will be because you are preserved in Christ Jesus; and if you are perfected at the last, it will be because you are complete in him. Thus Jesus is magnified-for all is in him and by him; thus the inheritance is made certain to us-for it is obtained in him; thus each blessing is the sweeter, and even heaven itself the brighter, because it is Jesus our Beloved ‘in whom’ we have obtained all.”
To God Alone be the Glory
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