Victorious Living: Why and How

Automated transcript of the sermon audio, generated with OpenAI Whisper (small.en). It has not been checked against the recording and may contain errors, especially in names and Scripture references.

As we turn our attention to the reason we’ve gathered this morning, I want to point out that for the next 90 minutes, our job, our joy, our get-to, is to corporately focus on the ones whose image we bear and to magnify his name together. So I want you to really be thinking about that. We get 90 minutes, so let’s make them count. As we do so, we remember that our help is the name of the Lord. For me, heaven and earth. For God alone my soul waits in silence. From him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be greatly shaken. How long will all of you attack a man to batter him like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?

They only plan to thrust him down from its high position. They take pleasure in falsehood. They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse, Selah. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress. I shall not be shaken. On God, rest my salvation and my glory. My mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times. O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. Selah.

And Father, you are the rock of our salvation, unmovable, unchangeable. Your word continually goes forth, bringing substance and purpose to all that there is. The wicked continuously ask the question, has God said, as they go about exalting the false, the bad, the ugly? Thank you that we are not deceived because you have taught us through your word and by your spirit what is true and good and beautiful. May God be true in every man a liar. We exalt you, O Lord, our maker and savior. To you alone, we offer up our worship this morning and we pray that it would be acceptable in your sight. Amen. There are many ways for Christians to mess up their gospel witness.

At the top of the list would be preaching another gospel. In Galatians, Paul prays that those who do so be a cursed of God. I take that to be pretty bad. But there are other ways of messing up the message and impeding its progress that don’t rise to the level of being accursed, but are sins nonetheless. I say impede because no one can ultimately stop the gospel from doing its work, since it’s the power of God onto salvation. Nevertheless, those of us who know Christ, there are two primary means by which the gospel spreads, and we can and do, I’m sorry, nevertheless, those of us who know Christ are the primary means by which the gospel spreads, than we can and do interfere with that process.

Most of us hopefully will never be guilty of preaching another gospel, but we often mess up our gospel witness in at least two ways. One is through hopeless living and the other is the absence of good works. 1 Peter 3.15 tells all of us to be ready to give an answer to all who ask, what is the reason for the hope that is in us? Do you exhibit the kind of hopeful living that prompts this question? Are you a pessimist disguised as a realist? Are you good at pointing out everything that’s wrong with the world? Is your thankfulness reserved for national holidays when we’re prompted to be thankful? Is joyful near the top of the list of adjectives people use to describe who you are?

Matthew 5, 16 tells us to let our light shine so that men may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. How bright is that little light of yours? Is it hiding under a bushel? Are you known for your good deeds, or are you the kind of person who doesn’t make much of a ripple in other people’s lives for good or bad? Does tending to your own cares keep you from seeking opportunity to bless others? Are you good at finding excuses for not making sacrifices of time, energy, or money for the sake of loving others? Joylessness and wimpy working weaken our witness usually kill any credibility we have when we do attempt to share the good news.

True gospel sowing is much more than just getting our sentences right on evangelism nights. It is daily bearing the fruit of good works in a joyful manner that simply cannot be ignored. If you’ve been guilty of the sin of joylessness or passivity or if any other sins come to mind, now’s the time to confess those sins. And then as we do so, you’re invited, if you’re able and willing, to go ahead and kneel during this time and we’ll just take a moment now in silence and confess our sins before God. Let’s do that. Father, we confess that we often fail to exhibit a joy that is commensurate with one who has been saved and no longer under condemnation. Jesus said his desire is that his joy would be in us and that our joy would be complete. Forgive us for letting the cares of this world steal the joy that you have set before us.

Revive our spirits onto a true joy rooted in the knowledge that we are counted among the redeemed of God, and may that joy manifest itself in abundant thankfulness and much fruitfulness in good works. You have made us more than conquerors in Christ Jesus. May our lives reflect that truth more and more every day. Thank you for your patience with us when we do sin in these and other areas, and your readiness to forgive us when we confess them. Keep us from growing calluses on our sin, and make us more tender to it so that we might be truly grateful for your forgiveness. Impress upon us the daily need to be killing sin, lest it be killing us.

We pray this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You’re invited to stand. Our assurance of forgiveness this morning is found in Isaiah 55, 6-9. Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Let’s sing like the Redeem to the Lord.

Today’s scripture reading is 1 Peter, 1 chapter, verses 3 through 9. 1 Peter, 1 chapter 3 through 9. 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 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 the faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time? In this you 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 the praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not see him now, 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. Let’s pray. Father, we come to you again, asking our supplications and praying for our country and our families and all of that. Help us to understand that you would have us be those parts and the solutions to these things also. We do think of our government. We think of the 60 million babies that have been killed since abortion was legalized, and yet we see a renewed interest in that in different states passing laws to try to slow it down or to stop it.

We praise you for those awakenings. Help them continue. Help that momentum be stronger. us to understand the great sin that our country bears in that. We think of the leaders in our nation, the military, and the honor it is to have Dan Wibbemeyer serving in our congregation right now on active duty, and yet the responsibility there is in the crazy world that we live in with the ships being taken and all of that in the Middle East. We know that there’s trouble there. We know that you design that trouble. Help us to be on the right side in those situations. Give wisdom to the people that are in those spots. I pray for our families especially that it’s the cornerstone of our civilization.

Help the fathers in those families be the leader that they should be and the moms and the women that are in those families and the daughters and the sons and all those situations how they travel down and how those examples need to be followed and lived in each of the families. Help us as church leaders give those same examples as it trails down through our congregation. Help each one of us understand that we have that relationship with you and in that relationship comes responsibility. Help us to live out that responsibility. We We think of the people now that have sickness and all of those kind of things going on.

We think of Ralph Durden and his fight with cancer and his treatment this week that went as easy as could be expected. And we think of Mary Kaye’s faithful partner in all of this and that her coming up cataract surgery this week help it to be a comfort. And one of those aha moments like those of us that have had it happen to see after we get our cataracts repaired and that we live in a time when they can be repaired. What a blessing that is. We think of Debbie Wold as she is ongoing and being a miracle with the treatment that she has and how many times it seems to be working for her. We think of Don Vanderbeeken as he continues to recover from his stroke and how he’s looking so much better, but I would ask that you would also give him the mobility in those limbs so that he could be more mobile than he is now.

And you can do that, so we ask for that. We think of Aisha Bone’s sister, Becca, that in her ongoing recovery from her stroke, and we ask that that would bring her closer to you. maybe even more important to the family than the strokes, so help that go too. We also think of Autumn Marlap and how she is recovering from her surgery and how already she’s able to live a more normal life from it and we thank you for that and continue to recover with her. We also think of the people that have ongoing situations in our congregation. We think of Morgan Higgins and Nadine Rothenberger and Carmen Nielsen and Jeff Hathaway.

Help each one of them in their battle to get everything dialed in right that that would happen for them in a way that would please you. We also think of our outreach. We think of our school and that we’ve decided to stay in our present location, but I would ask that you would see forth what we’re going to need in the next year, Obviously we’re growing and going to need a new place. And we pray that you would give us the clear indication of what we do the following year and help us to think ahead for that. We think of anti-op adoptions and that we want the homes, good Christian homes for those kids and that to put them there.

We think of the I squared ministries and Joshua as he is on the front lines battling Muslims and giving the gospel to those countries. We think of the Good Shepherd’s children’s home in India, and that a good recovery from the stroke that Sanji had, and that they would be able to continue their work and rising up those young women in a really bad society. And the president, how he is favoring the Hindus, I would ask that you would ease some of his prejudice against having Christians there and allow the missionaries that are there to be able to stay. We also think of Project 92 with Matthew Smith and unbelieving countries and all the people that are on the front lines there help them to be good representatives for you.

Locally, we pray for the gospel to be preached in the churches that we do have some relationship with. We think of the Reclamation Church, Damascus Road, Cornerstone Bible, very Marysville Community Church. Help each one of them preach the gospel strongly this Sunday and help us to do the same. We thank you for all of these things in Jesus name. Amen. All right. This him does remind us it is not with swords loud clashing a role stirring drums but with deeds of love and mercy the heavenly kingdom comes and as you lead we do not follow with fear but with confidence we pray that as we do live in light of what you have already accomplished for us that we would be faithful to represent you well in this world and to live in light of all of these truths as we turn now to your scriptures to your word to find direction in that. Grant clarity we pray and we pray this in Christ’s name. Amen.

You’re welcome to open your Bibles to the book of 1st Peter. We’re going to be almost exclusively in chapter 1 for this morning, but your bulletin says selected scriptures because we will be elsewhere as well just a little bit. On the night of July 20th in the year 64, the commercial district of Rome burst into flames. That means a mere 1,955 years ago today Rome was victim to a devastating fire in the city. Some say that Emperor Nero, that great enemy of Christians, started the fire himself to clear space for an ambitious building project. Other and complimentary accounts say that when suspicion fell on him for starting the fire, Nero found an easy scapegoat in the Christians. Regardless, this ushered in a period of unprecedented persecution of Christians in the massive Roman Empire.

Many biblical scholars believe that it was in the months following the great fire of Rome that Peter penned this letter, 1 Peter, to Christians dispersed in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, these Roman provinces in Asia Minor. These were tough times for believers, no doubt. It was under Nero’s rule that both Peter and Paul lost their own lives, and countless others lost their homes, their families, and their lives. Let me read you a brief excerpt from Tacitus and his Annals of Imperial Rome. All human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor and the propitiation of the gods did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration, that is the devastating fire, was the result of an order, consequently, to get rid of the report neurofastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their own abominations called Christians by the populace.

Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. And a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out, not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their center and become popular.

Accordingly, an arrest was first made of all who pleaded guilty, then upon their information, an immense multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as of hatred against mankind. So the Romans were dominating the narrative there, that what the Christians were doing was not just irreligious, it was hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths, covered with the skins of beasts, so they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination when daylight had expired. Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting a show in the circus while he mingled with the people in the dress of a charioteer, or stood aloft on a car.

Hence, even for the criminals who deserved extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion, for it was not as it seemed for the public good, but to glut one man’s cruelty that they were being destroyed. So in this from, no sympathizer, this is from Tacitus. Put lightly, the reign of Nero was a hard time to be a faithful Christian. And though we are rarely threatened physical death or harm as modern American Christians. Still we can find direction and instruction in the words of Peter. And yet when we read this letter, we find that it is dominated by hope. Peter never tells his readers to just bide their time.

He never tells his readers to just wait it out. He encourages them to strike while the iron is hot. If you read the book of 1 Peter, you will find not a book full of despair and sadness. Instead, you’ll find that Peter seems to think that the persecution of his readers has positioned them uniquely to impact the world around them, even if it means their own death. Persecution, difficulty, slavery, suffering, these presented these early Christians a gift-wrapped opportunity to demonstrate their love for each other and their allegiance to Christ above all. I think that we should take some cues from Peter this morning.

Peter points his readers to the accomplished, finished, over and done with work of Jesus in securing for them an eternal inheritance in order to motivate them to live joyfully now. Jesus’ finished work of securing our eternal inheritance should be the bedrock of our lifestyle. Jesus’ finished work of securing our eternal inheritance should be the bedrock of our lifestyle. We should be living in light of our guaranteed inheritance, the spoils of war, because our victory is in Jesus. I think that this is very, very intriguing. A few years ago, I got to study 1 Peter and teach all the way through the epistle. And there’s no doubt that he is writing to persecuted Christians and the instruction that he’s giving is a formula for upsetting the world.

It is a formula for transforming culture with their testimony in the face of terrible persecution. And where does he start? What is his baseline when giving them that instruction? He starts with what’s promised. He starts with what is awaiting them in heaven. He starts with what Christ has already secured for them. And he would have them… He would have that as kind of the program running in the background while he offers all of his instruction over the course of the rest of the letter. We should be living, says Peter, in light of our guaranteed inheritance, as we said. And as you read this book with modern ears, though few of us can relate to these readers suffering, I am intrigued by how he orients them by addressing two significant questions that also carry with them an assumption, namely, why should we live as victors?

And second, how should we live as victors? The victorious piece is not negotiable. It is understood. He’s addressing the question, why and how. Lately, I’ve had occasion to wonder how many of us have good questions, for good answers to these questions ourselves. Recent conversations, recent events have caused me to wonder how much staying power there is to our philosophy of life. Philosophy’s great, principles are great. When you can tie those principles and philosophies back to a theological point, they’re more defensible and more likely to last. How many of us have a theological explanation for the way that we go about the mundane tasks of life, about the day-to-day workings of our lives, about our regular concerns?

Some of us are troubled by the notion of living victoriously. We think it’s probably selfish when we do. We think that Christian life is a zero sum game. And if we’re asking God to give us victory, then it means that we’re asking God to give somebody else a loss. There can only be so many winners, and when we live victoriously, it necessarily means that we’re wanting others to lose, and that’s just mean. That’s just unchristian.

Or perhaps we confuse then meekness and weakness. Or as Ryan Hall recently observed, a steady diet of he must increase and I must decrease might just rather than be causing the right perspective, might be causing us to simply observe culture meekly from the sidelines.

And still others are actually compelled by the victorious living of certain of our post-millennial brothers and sisters, wishing that we had a theology like that. Before we go any further, I should take and stick my toe into the eschatological waters for just a moment. I am a convinced dispensational premillennialist. That is also the position of the church. It’s in our doctrinal statement unapologetically. I’ll be operating from that position this morning.

And my assumptions are dispensational assumptions, but my aim today is not to make a defense for dispensationalism as much as it is to say that we are all without excuse, regardless of our eschatological persuasions. I wanna offer encouragement for us all, No matter your eschatological persuasion, no matter when you think Christ is coming back, there is no good reason for any Christians to be living bored, quiet, defeatist lives, letting the culture then dominate the narrative and our culture, letting the world dominate the narrative and the culture. No matter your eschatological persuasion, we have every reason to be leading robust, happy, intentional, and faithful lives that provoke the curiosity, and I would even say the jealousy, of our neighbors.

Those of us who are pre-tribulational, pre-millennialists, believe that the rapture is imminent. I believe that nothing more has to happen from a human standpoint before Christ returns for His church. That’s not the same thing as His second coming, which we believe will happen after the tribulation, a seven-year window between the rapture and then Christ’s second coming to establish his millennial reign on the earth. This is a position held by most modern dispensationalists, but many of these folks applied this theology differently from how I would. Many of our brothers and sisters believe that since the rapture could happen at any moment now, what we need to be doing with our waking moments is soul winning.

We need to be filling our days doing evangelism, and you probably should feel guilty if you’re not doing so right now, because there’s a soul out there who needs the gospel, and you may possibly be wasting your time feeding your kids dinner or working your day job. Others of us feel like we are doing enough if we provide for the real full-time ministers. We work our day jobs to be able to help pastors and missionaries. Even though we have zero interest in evangelism ourselves, we’ll save that for the pros. Some dispensational Arminians think they probably shouldn’t sleep at night because they believe the very salvation of souls depends on their consistent and clear articulation of the gospel.

Or if they are tired enough, their guilt keeps them awake because, man, if they had just articulated the gospel properly, so-and-so might now be saved. Some dispensational Calvinists think that they may as well circle the wagons and enjoy their small and like-minded fellowship. And if God wants to save some before Christ’s return for the church, well, He’ll ordain those means as well as the ends. It’s misguided faithlessness and it’s a problem. If Jesus is coming for His church at any moment, and if there are seemingly infinite ways to practice our disobedience, well, what do we do? But what do we do? Well, so many, and Jim mentioned this in the confession time, so many of us super spiritual folks go to great lengths to justify our being boring.

Brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. We ought to be able to answer these questions for sake of our own faithfulness and our decision making. So I’ll return to eschatology in a little while. But we’ll move on for now and start to address or consider how Peter addresses our two big questions, namely, Why should we live as victors and how should we live as victors? So first, why should we live as victors? Peter opens his letter to persecuted Christians with a greeting and then a promise that should get them excited and ready for action. Peter is equipping his readers, these persecuted Christians in a context of terrible affliction to upset the world around them with their joyful submission, their holy lives, They’re pure speech.

They’re generally robust Christian lives. And the first point that he drives home is that they have something that merits their living a certain way because of what waits them on death. Read with me again. I know I had Dave read a little while ago. First Peter, chapter one, verses three through nine.

So keep in mind, we’re at the very beginning of the letter, right after the greeting. And then he is, this is the first thing He is putting in their minds before giving them four and a half additional chapters of instruction. 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. In this you 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.” So with his opening, Peter is reminding his readers of all that has been secured for them already in Christ. If this inheritance were not guaranteed, or if it depended on their performance and their own faithfulness, well, that would not be an encouragement. No matter what was taken from them in this life, they had an eternal reward awaiting them them, that was as certain as the word by which they were saved.”

This is the groundwork that Peter wishes to establish before coaching his readers in cultural influence. It’s as though he’s saying, no matter what happens, Christian, you win. No matter what they take from you in this life, there awaits for you a glorious inheritance that nobody can take from you, and remember this, then go and transform culture. He says that God has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our inheritance is spiritual, and so you need to be spiritually alive in order to obtain this inheritance to receive it. Our eternal life is knowing the Father and Jesus Christ whom He sent, John 17.3.

And of course, then by having eternal life, it enables us to have an eternal inheritance. Our comfort and anticipation of our eternal inheritance is only as secure as our salvation. And since God gave us our salvation, He will ensure that it is revealed to us in the last time. So salvation is one of those things that we have and we are receiving.

So there is a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time, and that’s for the safe, for those who have salvation. Conversely, any hope that the unbeliever has is in this world alone. When contrasted with the believer’s living hope, that means the unbeliever’s hope must necessarily be dead. So really, what is there to hope for in this world? An easy life, good health, a beautiful, happy family, a nice house and car, material wealth. Sounds like the American dream, if not the Judean dream. And this is for those who are exceptionally fortunate. Not everybody gets these things. Most people in the world don’t enjoy it, but maybe one or two of these things.

And any hopes that they have are dashed pieces as life and its troubles destroy our hope, slamming us back to reality. But let’s say that someone gets all of these good things. How long will it last? At best, a lifetime, which we know is a teeny dot on the timeline of eternity. Now, go from lesser to greater. consider the context of First Peter. What sorts of hope did these Christians and Peter’s audience have? A hope that they might make it through the night, the week, or the month without being robbed or killed, even if they did have such a hope on what was at based. What is the best protection they could possibly enjoy when Rome herself was behind their suffering?

In Christ, we have a living hope from God himself, not an empty hope from the world. And this is all affected, it is all brought about through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Consider with me briefly the nature of our inheritance. Look at verse four, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. By nature, a view to an inheritance is a look forward. We’re looking forward to our inheritance. We are thinking about our inheritance in Christ. And when we are, we are not looking to what privileges we enjoy now or what we get in this world, although there are plenty.

And victorious living does require that we live in light of those things, but we focus on the life to come. So both where and when we place our focus has a bearing on our conduct. So Peter would have his readers be heavenly minded enough to be of some earthly good. Now, you’ve heard the old adage, she was so heavenly minded he was of no earthly good. That’s silly. The one who’s properly heavenly minded is very useful here and now. You might remember the story of the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. And in it, the older son was bitter because he had always done what his father asked, and it appears that he was motivated by the promise of his earthly inheritance.

That’s a pity. I think this is a self-interested focus, and this son was obedient to his father because he wanted to make sure that he got as great an inheritance as possible. That’s not good. A promise of an earthly inheritance will help us to behave well and to keep our noses clean. Yet the inheritance that Peter is speaking of is completely different. It is a spiritual, a permanent inheritance. It is lasting. Our good behavior in this world doesn’t have any bearing at all on its permanence. We can’t make it last longer.

In fact, a focus on this inheritance will likely make your life harder, though perhaps more impactful even now. But it will ensure incomparable joy and eternity. So what does Peter say about the nature of this inheritance? These descriptors have a clear sense of permanence. Let’s look at them briefly in turn. Our inheritance is imperishable, says Peter. Imperishable, this stands of course, and start contrast to an earthly inheritance. All inheritances that we enjoy or anticipate here will perish with us. We cannot take them with us. Kings of ages past have figured that they would be able to enjoy worldly riches in the afterlife and they’ve commanded to be buried with riches, with treasures unspeakable and priceless.

As for Christians, we inherit heaven, that’s all. It’s not as though our treasure is something that’s particularly special here, enabling us to take it with us. Rather, it’s not even of this world. Paul says, even in Ephesians chapter one, verse 14, that the Holy Spirit of promise is a guarantor, a pledge of our inheritance. And what a great inheritance, of course, if God himself is the pledge. When we become Christians, we embrace Christ as our Savior and we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. He is our earnest, He is the guarantor of our inheritance. And if our treasure were of this world, only a perishable document could guarantee what we would receive.

As Christians, the guarantee is spiritual, not subject to perishing or decay or death. When a person perishes, he dies, he is no more. Similarly, when the things we inherit or enjoy also perish and are no more. Not so with the believer’s inheritance. It will last forever. Forever is not a concept that we actually think about very often. We throw it around thinking that the sermon’s probably gonna last forever. But I assure you it won’t. What the Christian is to receive will never be taken away. This is speaking of our inheritance in heaven to be sure, but even now, true believers are no more in danger losing our inheritance, or of our inheritance being taken away, then we are of our heavenly citizenship being stripped of us.

That’s because God Himself has promised it. What we receive is absolutely guaranteed and everlasting. Also our inheritance is undefiled. It has not been stained or corrupted. Everything in and from this world is corrupted by man’s sin. It’s a sad fact. the earth itself and its beauty maintains only a fraction of the beauty with which it was designed because of the fall. Israel’s inheritance was still a pile of corrupted dirt for all it was worth. And Paul says in Romans 8 22, we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Even the most wonderful and beautiful things that we see out our kitchen window are awaiting man’s redemption because even they are corrupt and defiled.

Not so with our inheritance in Christ. This inheritance is in heaven and it is untouched by sin or by corrupt creation. It has nothing to do with it but is pure and undefiled and will remain so until we come into our inheritance in the end. It’s also unfading. Our inheritance is unfading. The Greek adjective that is here rendered unfading was used in secular Greek to describe a flower that did not wither or die. In this context then it suggests, says one commentator, that believers have an inheritance that will never lose its magnificence. Are you getting the picture that what we are promised in Christ is nothing like what we can fathom or imagine here?

How different would our lives look if we could wrap our minds around our inheritance? I think Peter is banking on that, promoting victorious living on the part of his readers. Our inheritance will not fade away. It is not subject to decay like the things of this world. Even rocks and mountains last thousands of ages. But they will evidently be reduced to dust and ashes. And the span of their existence will have been but a moment when our inheritance is still new. Our inheritance also is kept in heaven for us. I’m beating a dead horse here and hitting the drum over and over again. But you can blame Peter, because he does it first.

The inheritance has your name on it. It’s kept. It is securely guarded in heaven, unable to be disturbed or destroyed. This too stands in stark contrast to Israel’s experience in ours. They knew that their inheritance not only could be, but had been taken away on a bunch of different occasions. Every time they would turn from God, they endangered not only themselves, but also their earthly inheritance. Our own experience comes to bear on our understanding here.

I mean, how many of us have had things stolen from us? Plenty, no doubt. The human mind is a debased and a corrupt thing. And if we would ever justify ourselves simply for taking something that does not belong to us, simply because we want it, I’ve never been able to understand the mind of a thief when I worked at Lowe’s and the electrical department for years. And when, you know, zoning, cleaning out the department, you see empty packages of items that have been lifted. And I never could understand that. And sometimes things that were just really bizarre but expensive, you know, buy them then make, then go make a return and get a store credit so you can go buy something for free, right?

Well, likely, likewise, there are some things that are difficult to wrap our minds around and relate to. The human mind is debased and corrupt, and it’s sad. No earthly thing is really safe. We understand that nothing we have in this world is actually guaranteed to us. That’s one of our only guarantees. It’s all God’s, and of course He’s entitled to give it and take it away as He pleases. But with our inheritance in heaven, it is already, it is already being kept in heaven for us, kept in heaven for us, and it is awaiting its presentation to us. It’s important to remember that the riches of our inheritance are not riches as we know them.

It’s not as though the Christian will be extremely wealthy in the monetary sense when we get to heaven. It’s heavenly. And it’s not currency. It’s not something we use to exchange for something else because what would you want to buy when you have God? And who would take your money? Look at verse 5. by God’s power, who by God’s power, that’s us, are being guarded through faith for a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. A final reason that Peter would suggest that our new inheritance is better than our earthly inheritance is that it’s payable upon death, and it’s as certain as our death.

And even if we don’t taste death, so let’s say we are raptured from the world, we still get to taste the inheritance. Like Earth the Inheritances, it is guaranteed to one party alone and it’s payable to him alone. However, for Earth the Inheritances, all guarantees are off. All guarantees are gone and the inheritor, if the inheritor dies. For Peter’s readers, they need to know that this was when the inheritance was actualized and came to full fruition. That’s a pretty important distinction. One, you don’t receive if you die, and the other you receive when you die.

The guarantee of our inheritance is only as good as our fellowship then with Christ after death. And as Peter is continuing to make the point, it’s a pretty good bet. As such, 1 Peter 1.5 teaches us of our eternal security. A promised inheritance to one whose status as an inheritor is not secure is no promise at all. There’s no reason to find that encouraging. The reason we can glory in what is to come is because we are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Now, this had to have been a source of tremendous encouragement for Peter’s audience.

When all around them, they were watching family members and friends suffer and many of them die, Peter was saying, just wait. But meanwhile, live. They were alienated, they were hated, they were violently persecuted by the world around them. And Peter tells them that no matter what happens to them in this world, they are protected by the power of God.

So having established this groundwork, again, to return and just reiterate, keep in mind, This is what he comes out of the gate with when he is penning a letter as to how his readers should live so as to upset the world. He comes out of the gate by talking about what awaits them in glory. What do we know for a fact? What is secure? What awaits us? That can’t be taken away no matter what happens next. And in light of that, chapters, well, the rest of chapter one and then two, three, four, five. And of course, he does pepper in some other philosophical and theological principles throughout, but the rest is painfully practical. It’s very, very good.

Having instructed his readers then about the nature of their eternal inheritance, Peter then shifts his focus to the practical with theological reminders throughout. And as chapter 1, verse 13 suggests, he helps them to prepare their minds for action, to get ready for action. He coaches them to leverage their current situation. as persecuted Christians in such a way as to influence the culture around them. He has laid the groundwork of our living hope and our secured, imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance in Christ. We have a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. We are victors. So the next question then is how should we live as victors?

I’ll be nearly as long here. I’ll finish this morning with a few suggestions that I think I think, conceptually, I draw from all the New Testament, but I could have proofed them from passages in 1 Peter. They’re defensible from 1 Peter and from the rest of the New Testament as well, I do believe. And I would suggest first that we should live in such a way as to communicate our blessed status to a watching world. We should live so as to communicate our blessed status to watching world. Peter anticipates this in in chapter 3 in the middle of it on the heels of the second half of chapter 2 and where he’s talking about gracious submission to ungodly authority. It’s worth noting that the Emperor at the time was Nero and Peter was saying, yeah it is it is certain that God is sovereign in control and he has placed this Emperor over us and how we we respond to him is going to broaden our platform for influence and ministry.

Then he goes on in chapter 3 to talk about pretty awesome marriages, what that looks like. They’re to be marked by submissive wives and by patient and understanding husbands. And then he expects that the world around them is going to ask, okay, what gives? Don’t you realize that the world around us is crumbling and you find a way to be happy in the midst of that? that passage that is so often referred to by apologists, chapter 3, verse 15, where he assumes that the world is going to ask for a reason for the hope that we have. We should be living in such a way as to provoke the curiosity of our neighbors. We should be living in such a way as to showcase God’s kindness and our blessedness.

How many times have you heard somebody say that they became a Christian because a random evangelist came and preached the gospel to him? How many times have you heard somebody say that he became a Christian because he was compelled by the testimony of Christians he knew and he wanted what they had? Or last, how many times have you heard somebody say he became a Christian because he grew up in a Christian home? There’s probably a lot of overlap between scenarios two and three, but the point is this, lifestyle matters. Actually, I’m curious. So even right now, how many of you know somebody who became a Christian on, like what we would call, soul winning or some kind of cold call gospel presentation?

Just out of the blue. Awesome. I bet those are amazing stories and I saw three people in the room. How many of you know somebody who became a Christian because he was compelled by the testimony of other Christians?

And how many of you know somebody who became a Christian because he grew up in a Christian home and grew up Immersed in a Christian culture. Yeah, sure. So it goes without saying that their lifestyle matters That how we live our lives actually matters for sake of our evangelism proper and of course our disciple making you can’t export what you don’t have and Making disciples requires disciples to make disciples that is obedient disciples who are executing the Great Commission. If God has blessed us, if God has blessed us, then we showcase His grace to others when we boast in Him. Man, Christians don’t like the idea of boasting. That sounds really shady. That is arrogant. That is prideful. But it’s not when we do it the right way. When we boast in God and in His kindness to us, it actually brings Him great honor because it is not saying, look at what I have done. It’s saying the exact opposite. Look at what God has, look how God has showcased His gracious character in me. You can have it. You can. It’s awesome. You should want in. We

don’t boast of our deserving. Of course, we don’t deserve His blessings. We boast in his kindness, and when we boast in such a way as to proclaim God’s goodness, we invite others to share in it, and humble Christians choke on that idea. The two best represented eschatological positions at Trinity Evangel Church are premillennialism and post-millennialism. And while both camps, and I would add to it amillennialist as well, manage to butcher the application of our eschatology. I think that none of us have any excuse for leading lazy timid boring lives if 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 9 is true. So no matter what eschatological camp you fall in, if our inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us is undefiled, imperishable, unfading, then we ought to live like it.

Post-millennialists believe that Christ has now established His millennial reign and that’s going on around us. They style themselves optimistic because Christians are aboard a cultural freight train that’s crested the hill and is only gaining momentum even if there is still a lot of track ahead. And in their defense, I don’t think there’s any denying whatsoever the generational, the leavening influence of Christian faithfulness in the world. The world has gotten better with the advent of the gospel proper. And as the gospel is called meant to live faithfully, Christians, as self-conscious bearers of God’s image, have brought all sorts of good to humanity.

That’s awesome and it’s undeniable. Our post-millennial brothers would say that it’s the generational leavening influence and final victory of the gospel that will usher in the return of Jesus. This motivates the post-millennialist to build, faithful post-millennialist, to build communities, to have kids open businesses plant trees, run for political office, and that sort of fruitfulness is clear and it’s awesome. It’s great. Omellennialism, which has been predominant in reform circles for as long as reform circles have been around, also requires living robustly and victoriously. Very few of our people are on millennialists, and like others, omellennialism has had more than its share of dualistic proponents.

But as the photo-negative of morality becomes into greater clarity, that is, the black gets blacker, the white gets whiter, the righteous get more righteous, and wickedness becomes more wicked, righteousness and wickedness will increase in parallel until Christ comes again. And Christians applying the one and others of the New Testament should strive to be used by God to grow the good in culture and love people and build the kingdom among God’s people. At Trinity Evangel Church we affirm pre-millennial, well dispensational pre-millennialism, meaning there’s rapture, tribulation, second coming of Jesus. In his death and his subsequent resurrection, Christ did accomplish a final victory over sin and death, which secured the salvation of the elect and ensured the defeat of Satan.

Christ then sent the Holy Spirit to end well believers, and in this age, what we call the church age, and because of the gospel influence of Christians, the wiles of the devil cannot gain the cultural foothold they once did before Christ’s first coming. So while others may say it’s because Satan’s actually bound right now, we would say it’s not because he’s bound, it’s because of the faithful influence of Christians, he’ll be bound later and it’ll be obvious when he’s bound. In this age, the number of the elect is being completed. Not to say that God’s not done choosing yet, but the sheep are coming into the fold.

When that number is complete and when he’s good and ready, Jesus will return for his church. will remove the church from the world in what is often dubbed the rapture. Again, based on our reading of Scripture, there is nothing more that has to happen before the rapture other than the number of elect souls being completed, which is something we can’t see. We don’t know who’s elect. We spread the gospel liberally and to all men calling all men to be saved. And so God alone knows that number. And of course, lots more will come to faith after the rapture and the tribulation as well, but that’s a different study. And so why do I offer this brief overview?

And it is just to say that it’s not to make an apology for one position over another in this message, rather to say every one of us are without excuse. Every one of us are, if we rightly apply what we believe the Bible says about the end of the age, then we should be leading robust, winsome, compelling lives now.

lifestyle matters. To the post-millennialist, our labors energized by the Spirit are not going to be in vain because the gospel will conquer the world as Jesus’ victory over sin and death in the lives of believers and their families is being worked out. To the pre-millennialist, Jesus won’t return until the number of the elect is complete and all his sheep are brought into the fold. Our faithful labors will be means that he will use to draw men to himself. Our leading blessed lives will promote Jews and Gentiles alike to be jealous, will promote in them the sort of jealousy that Paul was laboring to affect among his brothers. Paul was interested in and making the Jews jealous so that, and by his faithful ministry to the Gentiles, he wanted the Gentiles to get blessing upon blessing upon blessing that could be the Jews if they would embrace their savior, that they would be grafted in again.

And so that that completed number of the elect would be done unto Christ’s return. We are blessed and we need to live like it, unto the curiosity of the Gentiles. redemption, the jealousy of the Jews, their completed number, and Christ’s return. Do you see how it works? It is going to be our faithful, robust living that is going to compel the world to want Jesus. Statistically speaking, better than door-to-door evangelism. Does that have its place? People don’t get saved without the gospel. We’ve got to use words. Yes. But why Why are they going to ask? Why are they going to want to know? Because of how you live.

We should live in light of our blessed status. We should also live as though we’re going to be around for a while, even if we’re not. There’s an apocryphal statement that’s attributed to Martin Luther that it’s not found in any of his written works. So they think he probably didn’t say it. But maybe he would have. That if I knew the world were ending tomorrow, I’d plant a tree today.

I kind of like that. And I think that the rapture is imminent. Because what does it look like when we have the urgency of dispensational lists and the patience of post-malignal lists? We recognize that we don’t save people. God does. And so it means that our task is to be faithful here and now with what we have, what is given to us. So that will look like faithful, patient rearing of our children. It will look like running for political office, working to to leaven the community with our own influence for the gospel’s sake, and maybe like Martin Luther, yeah, plant a tree. Have that mindset to be investing where you are.

I’m convinced that it is faithful generational living that will be the most compelling to the dying world around us. And last, I would say that we should live as though we can’t lose. Some Christians are living like they’ve won, and I think on the ground that’s okay. I would encourage us to live like we can’t lose. You know why you can’t lose? Because you have an inheritance that is waiting for you, that is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away. It is secured and awaiting you in heaven. This is victorious living.

This is what sort of perspective we would have if we really believed that this life is relatively short and that our heavenly and perishable inheritance is eternal. And for many of us, if we did this, our lives would look a whole lot less fearful. So as I said, these truths give us reasons to love our lives, to love our families, to start businesses, to laugh in the kitchen, to volunteer at the soup kitchen, to coach your kids’ soccer team, to edge your lawn, and to watch CNN with a smile and a contented come Lord Jesus on your lips. But keep in mind too that Jesus isn’t evidently in a hurry. And God is operating on his own timeline.

If we really wish to see people loving Jesus, then we need to be not just making converts, but we need to be making disciples who can in turn make more disciples. Our inheritance is guaranteed by the one who brought it about. It’s as sure as the word that saved us. Chapter one, verse 25. May God give us the grace to live as those who are victorious in Him so that the watching world around us may see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Let’s pray.

Father, would you please enable us to believe what we know, help us to think enough on eternity, help us to think enough on what is guaranteed, us in glory, help us to think enough on how you view people to be of earthly good now. It is our prayer that we would have robust, happy, faithful lives living victoriously unto the curiosity of the dying world around us. May the unbelieving world look on us with curiosity so that we can point them happily to you. Help us to lead blessed lives because we are blessed. We thank you for your grace, we thank you for your mercy, and we thank you for giving us opportunity to find this direction from your word and worship you together. Help us to again apply what we know. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.

We now come to the part where we all get to partake in communion. I think it’s interesting. I’ve been reading a Wilson book on end times and it starts out that he wants you to suspend any belief that you have about what’ll happen in the end time and listen to his story and think about how wonderful it’ll be. The one thing that I’ve noticed in the whole thing is that the end of time comes and Christ is going to return. If you don’t believe that Christ will bodily return to the earth, you’re a heretic, all right? The OPC declared a number of years ago that anybody that was a hyper-predatorist that said that Jesus’ return in 70 AD, you know, solved that problem.

Don’t get in that camp. That’s heresy, all right? So Jesus is coming back bodily to return. So that we can agree upon. And when he comes back, he’s going to set up his kingdom, and it’s going to be incredible. And we get a little taste of that in our body life as we remember what he did to bring us into that kingdom. So we, here at Trinity, we have everybody do it together. For those of you maybe that are here, I don’t see any visitors, but maybe there are that I don’t know about yet. but we all come down and do it together. And we have open communion. And this I really like that we open the table to anybody that’s a believer and feels in their heart that they should commune with us.

We welcome them to commune with us. And we realize that as a person that has been baptized into the body by faith, as those who have repented of sin and put their faith in Jesus Christ, they’re able to partake in this communion. So I like that part of it, and we do have wine, which we believe the Bible clearly states that it’s wine, it’s not grape juice, and yet we still have a tray with juice in it that has a J on the front. So if you’re in the situation where you do not want to have wine, pay attention to that. So see how wonderfully we’ve covered all those bases for you. We’re just, we love everybody. So this part of the service, I think, changes us in ways that we don’t even know.

I’ve talked to a lot of people that are attenders here, and I think that that’s a pretty safe bet that most of you realize over the period of years we’ve been holding our services that our liturgy and especially this part of it does change you in some kind of way that you weren’t changed before because we do celebrate what the Lord has done from us. We’re not over in the corner whipping ourselves and all of that, we’ve taken care of our sin by confession. We’ve learned about the Lord through all the situations of our service, and now we’re here to commune with him and to start our week off right. We have one more charge that we’ll get after we do all this together.

And that’s a great thing for us to look forward to in the future. When we die at this present state, we will be with the Lord, but we won’t be in this place that He is going to prepare in the future. So let’s listen to these words and be encouraged. So we do not lose heart. Through our outer nature is wasting away, though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. With that, go and be wise and change our world. Amen.

And that’s a great thing for us to look forward to in the future. When we die at this present state, we will be with the Lord, but we won’t be in this place that He is going to prepare in the future. So let’s listen to these words and be encouraged. So we do not lose heart. Through our outer nature is wasting away, though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. As we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.