Derek Thomas: A Living Hope

thank you it's wonderful to be in Wichita my my sister who lives in Britain my family are all in Britain do I I should say I'm an American citizen texted me this afternoon as she said where are you and I said I'm not sure I said but if you you know if you stick a pin right in the middle of the United States I'm I'm right there a long way as we heard earlier from the beach now most of my congregation have wonderful excuses for not being in church on Sunday and one of them is they have Beach homes within a couple of hours of of Columbia in South Carolina I guess that's not one of the issues that you have to deal with here well it's my privilege to begin and dr. Godfrey will continue expositions and and Steve Nichols will continue in these expositions of first Peter but I've been assigned at the very beginning and I want to read chapter one first Peter chapter one and verses one through twelve let's read the Word of God together Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect exiled of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood may grace and peace be multiplied to you unless it be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his grace 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 being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time in this year rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials 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 though you have not seen him you love him though you do not now see him you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls concerning this salvation the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things into which angels long to look well so far God's holy and inerrant word he had it blessing to the reading of it now in many respects and against preachers say this about whatever book they happen to be in at the time but there is in many respects a sense in which first Peter was written for the time in which we live I know that's true of all the Bible but there is a special significance I think about first Peter because it is written in a period as we've just heard where Christianity is being assaulted now those of us who lived in Europe have been used to this for half a century or more but I think here and and and even even in the southern states where one time perhaps under the euphemism of the Bible Belt there is the growing wave of animosity towards Christian things and you cannot assume any longer a judeo-christian base or ethic to society well what is Peter saying and if I were to well if I were to boil it down to her sentence it would be this that if Jesus is worth living for he is what dying for and there I think is the twist as it were in this particular epistle that Peter is although he's writing of course to urge Christians to be faithful to stand firm indeed against opposition but he's also hinting that may be standing firm will cost you and maybe it'll cost you your life I can't stand here this evening and as I was sitting listening to my dear friends preach earlier my mind as it has been over these last few weeks and months and particularly in the last couple of days has gone to a friend of mine I don't know him personally but he has become a friend because I've been praying for him almost every day over the last year and a half he has been in a prison in Turkey and his life is being threatened and currently I understand the president in his trip overseas is going to raise this issue I trust he does and I trust that he will be successful and that this man who has been arrested for no other reason other than he preached the gospel and insisted on the uniqueness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of Islamic claims to the country and so on and he was in prison for it and wife and family here in this country and I remember him because he's a member of the denomination in which I serve I won't mention his name lest lest that get him into perhaps further trouble but I can't preach on this passage tonight without thinking of him you see this isn't just a tale about Christians who were persecuted 2,000 years ago who felt the onslaught of the Opposition of Emperor Nero in the late 60s of the 1st century my dear friends there are men and women tonight in their hundreds and thousands whose lives are being threatened there are men and women who are being beheaded because they believe in trust in the Lord Jesus this is a daily occurrence this is something that is happening now in parts of the world it's so very easy for us to live here perhaps and sit in these comfortable peers and look at this astonishing stained-glass window I'm glad I was preaching second when the Sun has gone down what a what a gorgeous window this is absolutely breathtaking even even in the darkness it's revealing different colors I need to get back to my topic I can't even begin to expand first Peter this evening without drawing through our attention the fact that brothers and sisters of ours are facing the very thing that Peter is addressing here it's not an emperor Nero it is something else and it's another religion or it's another it's another philosophy and so on so the urgency to stand firm it's particularly relevant that's what Peter is saying if Jesus is what living for then he's worth dying for and he's writing as I say in the middle of the 60s and shortly Peter himself of course will be taken from prison and he'll be taken outside of the walls of the city of Rome as tradition has it and he will be crucified and at his own request crucified upside down because he didn't feel worthy to be put as it were alongside his Blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the man who's writing these words would be get within a few years crucified upside down because he believed in the gospel because he believed in the absolute uniqueness of the Lord Jesus that you can be saved and there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved Archbishop Layton a 19th century at the scope alien who lived in Scotland and ministered in Glasgow in Scotland Episcopalians and blatant wrote well-known and much-loved commentary on first Peter and still to this day regarded as something something of a standards by way of a commentary on first Peter says that Peter has three things to say in this epistle and those three things are faith obedience and patience faith obedience and patience faith to establish us in believing obedience to direct us in doing and patience to comfort us in suffering at the summary of first Peter now it's also important for us to understand that the very things that Peter is drawing attention to in this visit in this epistle and in particular the suffering but trial and the difficulty that that he's warning Christians about and indeed that his readers are all too to aware of is a suffering that has come upon them because they're Christians now suffering can come upon us for all kinds of reasons and for no reason at all there's no reason that we can understand or discern they're always there's always a suffering is always purposive there's always a reason with God but the suffering of the child that Peter is talking about here is not suffering because we've done something wrong suffering because because we've walked into danger suffering because it's our own fault suffering because because because of something that we've done or said no the suffering that is that is on the surface here is that suffering that comes in following the Savior now before Peter addresses all of that and we'll see some of that tomorrow he wants to say something very positive and he wants to say five things in particular about what is true of us and I want you to see something of the logic of what Peter is doing here in this opening section of our first Peter he's saying something that's so very important in terms of Christian ethics he wants to say to them stand firm in the face of opposition and trials but before you can stand firm you need to know who you are you need to know your identity you need to know what the blessings are into which you have been drawn and I want us to look at these together five of them the dimensions in the first that we are chosen by God chosen by God well this is a Ligonier conference of what did you expect verse 1 this is the Ligonier contrast verse 1 Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who are elect and there is this right in your face it's in the Bible it's here in verse 1 I didn't make that up I wasn't I wasn't told to speak about election of predestination or for ordination it's right here in the opening verse verses one hand and verse 2 according to the for knowledge of God the Father and not for knowledge now in the Armenian sense that God can see into the future what decisions we make and then he kind of check the box this is for knowledge in the biblical sense to know to love He loves us before hands before we were ever born he said his love and affection upon earth chosen by God that's who we are we are chosen by God the title of a book is enough I had a baptist minister coming to my office this week he's new in Columbia is a wonderful man young man he was one of these typical Millennials he was fittest could be wearing jeans and a t-shirt I was in a black suit and a white shirt inside Presbyterian Baptist he was telling me that he had gone on a on a marathon run last Saturday up in Charlotte and I said I've never done it it'll never be on my checklist I said to tell me about your journey what I mean the story not just how he came to Columbia he was won and raised in Columbia but but you read chosen by God by dr. Sproul some 20 years ago accepted him deeply moved in deeply still one of the books that he that he's been influenced by the most he and said that he had no idea I was a linear fellow he was completely still actually Alan again you I was but but there it is chosen by God Peter is writing to these exiles of the dispersion in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia Bethany modern-day Turkey where my friends us and they are relaxed they are elect now notice how he how he passes this not notice sir notice the trajectory along which the language of election and and and foreknowledge goes and you see he refers to the father and he refers to the spirit and then he refers to to Jesus Christ this is entirely and thoroughly Trinitarian now I have something of an ax to grind I I tell my students at seminary all the time I see a trajectory that is but it's kind of Jesus centered and Christ centered but sometimes Jesus enters and Christ centered at the expense of being Trinitarian my dear friends if you are not Trinity and you're not a Christian does that shock you if you're not Trinitarian if you don't if you don't believe that the father is God and Jesus is God and the Holy Spirit is God but there's only one God then you're not a Christian and Peter is writing to these exiles in the dispersion in what we would call Turkey today facing the onslaught of Roman persecution and he saying to them I want you to think for a minute of what it is that God the three-person God has blessed you with you have been chosen by God the Father set apart by the Holy Spirit given over to a relationship with Jesus Christ it's as though because though he's looking down the corridors of history as God sets his loved one on this one and that one it turns to the Holy Spirit and and and says I want I want this one to be mine and the Spirit comes to you and brings you to Jesus Christ and as you're brought to Jesus Christ Jesus I want to introduce you to my father no wonder he says in verse three blast is that what you think of when you think of how God has chosen you from before the foundation of the world how he set his affection upon you who are you what is your identity what is your significance well you're not just the thing of the moment you're not just a johnny-come-lately God has had his mind and heart upon you from before the foundation of the world before there was a creation God had you in mind in our pulpit and first in churches made of marble and it is it is more solid than the Rock of Gibraltar so I'm used to leaning on it and it doesn't give way but if I live on this it kind of moves I wonder there's the doctrine of election bring you a sense of joy deep-seated joy that that nothing else does but God has had you in my view you may be totally insignificant maybe you're made to feel totally insignificant but God has had you in the center of his purposes from before the foundation of the world you are not insignificant to God God the Father sent his son to die for you God the Father sent the Holy Spirit to call you and cook in you and introduce you into fellowship and Union and communion with the Lord Jesus chosen chosen by God that's who you are and then secondly a Living Hope you see there in verse 3 he has caused you to be born again to a Living Hope you be brought to a new birth actually this language is not that common in the New Testament there are other ideas in the New Testament other than not just the idea of regeneration and quickening but here it is Peter is saying you've been born again born anew it's not important that you can give a dates or at a time I certainly can 11:30 December the 28th 1971 I was 18 years of age you can do the math as to how old I am I wasn't raised in a Christian home never went to church hadn't never read the Bible somebody put into my hands a copy of John starts basic Christianity it was a friend of mine I was studying physics and mathematics science was the answer to everything I wasn't sure there was a God and if there was it wasn't it he wasn't of any relevance to me and I thought well what is this book because a friend of mine in fact my best friend had given it to me I read it and within two days I was on my knees asking God to forgive me of my sins because I thought I was going to go to hell and two days before I didn't even believe in Hell I was born again I was given a new heart God took the old stony heart away now my wife is my wife is a boring Presbyterian we've been married for 41 going on 42 years she went to church Sunday morning she went to Sunday school she came home she sat and played hymns with her mother around the piano on Sunday afternoon she went to evening church she doesn't remember a day or an hour when she did not believe in the Lord Jesus from the moment of her consciousness she was surrounded by the gospel and she believed it God caused her to be born again in a way that was entirely unconscious to her it doesn't matter whether you can give a time or a date what matters is if you believe are you resting in the gospel are you resting in Jesus Christ is he your only hope for salvation and this won't and in the world to come on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand then if that is so you you've been brought to a new to new life you've been brought to a new world and you notice the language let's pick it up is caused you to be born again to a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead this is Peter writing this is a man who saw Jesus Christ from the dead this is a man who stood next to Jesus who had been who had been raised from the dead this is an eyewitness who's speaking here this is a man who knows the power of God in raising Christ from the dead Oh death where is thy sting o grave where is thy victory in Acts chapter 3 when Peter is preaching after Pentecost Peter uses well he speaks of Jesus as the author of life it's a sermon that you find in in Acts chapter 3 and he speaks of Jesus is the author of life and uses a Greek word a hagas it's quite a rare word in the New Testament a trailblazer the first person to do something I remember in the 1960s and well there are some of you may not admit it you look as if you were around in the 60s and had a pulse and you you remember Yuri Gagarin the first cosmonaut astronaut into space you know he looked out at the little capsule and said he couldn't see god what an idiot what did he think he was going to see well even then as a teenager I thought I wasn't even a believer I remember thinking what an idiot you didn't go far enough well my point is that Yuri Gagarin was the first he was the first cosmonaut in space or roger bannister was it the first person to to beat the four-minute mile race and so on Jesus is the foreigner he's the first one to rise from the dead and because he rose from the dead those in Union and communion with him also rise with him until now in the sense that's already happened to us we anticipate a resurrection of the body on the last day but in the sense we sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that's who we are what is your identity you've been born again and you sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ you've been raised from the dead spiritually you've been raised from the dead you've been given new life and power remember the two on the Emmaus Road as as Jesus who when they did not recognize it that began to open up the scriptures to them did not our hearts burn within us did not our hearts burn within us when they realized that they had been walking with with the one who who had been raised from the dead and realized his identity they're not our hearts burn within us as we as he opened to us the scriptures well we are chosen by God and we have a Living Hope of living hope through the resurrection of Jesus right it's not a dead hope it's a Living Hope there's a hope that is a life and it's a hope that promises life well the word that must have been to the original recipients of this letter who some of whom were facing death and torture and execution being burnt alive and being thrown to animals and so on and the amphitheaters and all manner of things that were threatened against them but they have a Living Hope and the third thing and in destructive inheritance you see that in verse four and an indestructible inheritance to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading and unfading non perishable non-spoiler both non-tradable and in the Greek it rhymes so three words Ryan contrast that with some the distribution exiles in verse one to those who are exiles well in the eyes of the world maybe that's all they are strangers scattered exile they have nothing they have nothing but in Jesus Christ they have everything you have an indestructible inheritance an inheritance that no one and nothing can can take away or diminish kept notice in verse five kept in heaven guarded through faith kept in heaven who by God's power of being guarded through faith for a Salvation ready to be revealed at the last time kept in heaven guarded shielded military word Garrison's well Peter Peter knew what it was to be assaulted this is Peter who denied the Lord any word it was to be assaulted by the devil doesn't he one in this very episode about Satan prowling about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour well you have a glorious inheritance an inheritance that is that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading kept in heaven for you glorious things have their spoken Sian city of our God he whose word cannot be broken formed before his own abode on the Rock of Ages founded what can shake my sure repose with salvations wall surrounded now miss smile but all thy folks I was John Newton chosen by God a Living Hope an indestructible inheritance this is tornado country I've only seen a tornado once from afar in Mississippi I lived in Mississippi for 16 years that's my claim to fame I remember seeing it that funnel being absolutely terrified pulling over in the car I was driving and no idea what I was supposed to do whether I should get out and get soaking wet lie on the ground I just sat in the car I saw the damage it had done later unbelievable damage and maybe I'm speaking to some of you I don't know who've experienced that I was on the coastline in Mississippi coastline after Hurricane Katrina saw the absolute devastation from miles and miles and miles nothing left but the bare concrete on which buildings had once stood family in the church and First Presbyterian Church in Jackson Mississippi where I served as the evening preacher for sixteen years and had retired a doctor's wife retired bought a house built a house on the very coasts of the Mississippi on the Gulf beautiful home they'd been in it just a few years they lost everything the only thing I remember the wife saying to me one time she went they went down to examine to look to see if they could find anything and she found one cup of a tea set that somebody had given to her on our wedding the only things you found one tea cup salty that's all they had left they lost absolutely everything well you cannot lose your salvation you cannot lose the inheritance that God has promised to you it is unfading it is imperishable it is indestructible nothing can take it away glorious things of the aspo kansai on city of our God he whose word cannot be broken there it is an indestructible inheritance well fourthly a persistent joy a persistent joy well in verse 16 this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been greed by various trials various times for all kinds of trials physical trials and psychological trials and and trials in relationships and and trials in health and trials in the loss of money and Finance and jobs and thousand others there is trials you rejoice even though you may find yourself undergoing various trials what does Paul say in Romans and his epistle to the Romans I consider this present suffering unworthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed here after suffering now glory fear after how does he put it when he writes to the Corinthians secondary's Inceptor for our present light affliction is achieving for us a weight of glory mercy of Lewis's book was an essay at the weight of glory it's a title taken from this passage our present light affliction is achieving for us a weight an eternal weight of glory that far outweighs them all what a beautiful image that is you've got the sufferings Christians undergo all kinds of sufferings the marriage that is breaking down my husband or wife who has has betrayed you you lost your job and you can't find gainful employment your health has deteriorated you can't do the things that you once used to do and so it's like oh wait it's like a burden you wake up in the morning and you go to sleep at night and sometimes you can't sleep because of this weight just like a burden never goes away then there's glory to come and you put it as it were in the balance and and here's the trial and the balance goes down and then you put glory and and it almost breaks the balance because it's so heavy the eternal weight of glory it's not worthy to be compared and by comparison this affliction through which were passing it's almost life in comparison i'm not saying and neither is Peter saying that the affliction is actually light but in comparison to the glory it is light you rejoice what does he say well you remember in Romans chapter 5 do you have your Bible so let's have a bit of Bible rustling here let's go to Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 therefore since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ one of my favorite texts in all the Bible since we have been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God not only that but we rejoice in our sufferings welp all of you lost your mind you might be able to endure sufferings but that's not what he says he says we we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us there is a purpose in this trial there is a purpose in this difficulty through which you're passing and it is to get you as it were into a position whereby you desire that glory and appreciate that glory all the more when you realize that here we we have no earthly city that's what living is one but we seek one which has foundations whose builder and maker is God but it's es lewis' say that pain is God's megaphone and it can speak to you in ways that other things cannot spoke to the dying see studentís as he endured the pain of crucifixion as he realized that he was being put to death next to one that was altogether sinless remember me when you come into your kingdom he cried to which he heard those beautiful beautiful words today you will be with me in paradise now suffering doesn't always do that in one it was life transforming but in the other the other on the other side of Jesus it only further hardened him in his unbelief you find yourself in trouble today you find yourself facing a future that looks troublesome let not your hearts be troubled you believe in God believe also in me Jesus said and my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there you may be also that's not your hearts be troubled you see when Peter says this and what he says is in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been greed but various trials you get the sense that Peter is saying it's not simply a matter of chronology that's suffering now glory after but Peter seems to be saying that the only way to get to glory is through the pathway of trial and difficulty you can't avoid it George Whitfield once said that God puts verse you know those little things that that stick to your clothes from from bushes with little prickly things verse God puts burrs in our bed to keep us awake do you know something of this persistence joy in this you rejoiced verse six drop down to verse eight with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory now people express that joy in different ways Presbyterians do it very quietly but don't mistake that for not experiencing true genuine joy a contentment with a lot an assurance of the promises of God in the midst of pain and darkness I was texting somebody this afternoon she's probably not far from experiencing that eternal weight of glory a family of gathered I promised I would get to see them on Sunday afternoon God spares her till then they spoke of a joy but only the gospel could give as God takes this life into his near of presence as he will pass from this world into the presence of the Lord Jesus to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord you close your eyes and this was an opening in the world to come at a moment you know something of that joy my friend because of who you are in Christ because of your identity in the gospel no matter what's coming no matter what horrendous difficulties there may be before you and that's what Peters anticipating here this is what's true of you you are chosen by God you have a Living Hope you have an indestructible and arrogance and you have this persistent joy joy and then fifthly a much-admired salvation a much-admired salvation and Peter speaks of it in verses 10 and 11 rooms and 12 and he talks about it first of all in terms of course there was no New Testament so the only salvation that they could read about was the salvation that had been written in the Old Testament and we heard a marvelous exposition of that in Isaiah Isaiah Isaiah chapter 40 earlier oh I would love I would love to have been within recording distance of Jesus and the two on the Emmaus Road and beginning with Moses and in all the prophets he expounded to them the things concerning himself well Luke could you not have told us a little more and and you call yourself a historian I want to know what passages he went to did was it genesis 3:15 of course it must have been genesis 3:15 was it you jarana me 18 and the and the prophecy about the coming prophet and so on did he expand to them the significance of the Levitical sacrifices did he go to the suffering servant passages in Isaiah did he go to the new covenant promises in Jeremiah and so on I want to know what passages they were and you notice not just not just the prophets in verse 10 but if you lie your eye to drop down all the way to the end of verse 12 angels angels remarkable isn't it there's no gospel for angels there's no gospel for fallen angels the Angels fell like humanity fell but there's no gospel Bible doesn't speak of a gospel for angels the salvation of fallen angels as there is the salvation of fallen men and women so no wonder they are fascinated as angels get summoned and given tasks to perform and and and they're there at the birth of Jesus and and they're there in the Garden of Gethsemane and they're there at the time when Jesus rises from the dead and they're there at the time of the attention and they'll be there at the time of the second coming because they're all together fascinated what is it what is it about God that shows that extraordinary love for human beings what do you see what Peter is doing were merely four we're really expanding here on the surface of things he's saying count your blessings name them one by one and it will surprise you what the Lord has done do you remember in pilgrims progress now this will test you we're talking about the second part of pilgrims progress the one the book that most people don't read you know there's part one and then there's park two but one is the story of Christian part two is the story of Christians wife and four children sons and in that second part actually the same part contains some of the best illustrations and best use of of allegory I think he talks about a man you remember and he has a mock Rick and it had his down and he's some I planted some plants yesterday I was coming here today tomorrow I'm very busy while Sunday of course and then Monday I'm very busy so so these plants needed to be planted I bought them a week ago they were looking rather sad my wife was going on at me and I came home about an hour early yesterday and planted them I have looser an 85-pound Chow lab mix here I've got Gracie here she's about 50 pounds and she's oh she's well Ivan our cheese and I planted these plants and well my wife had be pictures of them today they are strewn all over the garden so this was me a city I had my head down and I was waking the soil and putting in some mulch and stuff I hate gardening I love the result of it but I'm not it was 92 degrees yesterday so if I head down the bunion talks about this man but the mutt retinas its head is down and I'm all he's saying is Wallace may wallace me life is hard and my dogs are gonna mess everything up that I done here I'm bunion says above his head is a golden crown but he doesn't see it look up my friend look to Jesus remind yourself in Christ by faith of all the blessings that are ours despite the trials despite the difficulties come what may nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord father we thank you thank you for your word timely it is right it upon our hearts for Jesus sake

Channel: Ligonier Ministries

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Length: 51min 3sec (3063 seconds)

Published: Fri May 26 2017