1st Peter
Scripture References
1 Peter 1:3; Exodus 34:6; Psalm 103; 5:7; 31:7; 43:5; 89:14; Exodus 34:7–8; Proverbs 28:13; James 4:6–10; 2 Corinthians 12:7–9; Hebrews 2:16–17.
Sermon Transcript
From all that we've heard, I would feel comfortable just singing the benediction and going home. It's been good. Thank you for the things we've heard so far today. 1 Peter, as we continue in our worship, we understand the placement and importance of God's word to our time together. 1 Peter chapter 1, we will continue our thoughts from verse number 3. I'll read this verse and you can consider it as I read and then we will break down some of its parts again. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now, we've mentioned as we've entered into verse 3 that verse 3, 4, and 5 constitute a block of divine information. It's a single sentence, but it's divine inspiration that has been given to us. And it's not a bunch of random truths or doctrines. There is order here. There is scope in sequence. Each part is connected to what comes before and what follows after. Every inspired writer of God's word uses simple human words to communicate to us, the people of God, what he, God, wants us to know about him and about his work for his people. Our ability and inspiration to praise God is dependent on our knowledge and understanding of the words we read in his word. Therefore, we move slowly. We move slowly through each sentence, each phrase, considering the words and phrases used to communicate God's mind to us. And Peter, like the other inspired writers, doesn't pause on every word to explain the meaning or usage of a word in a sentence. That duty falls upon your shepherds and your teachers in the church. The worship of God includes the hearing and instruction of God through his word to his people as we gather as the assembly, the church of God. And Peter wants us to know and understand what God wants us to know and understand. So we pause to explain how and to apply words like strangers, an important word to know, to identify, to accept, to embrace as a believer. We consider the word elect unpopular in some circles, but not in ours. We believe and understand what it means. It's an important word to the people of God. We consider the foreknowledge complicated in some people's minds, but as Peter works it out in the text, it makes sense. And we need to know and understand God's foreknowledge and how we've been sanctified by the spirit of God, set apart for his purposes. We are vessels that are to be dedicated, consecrated to the service of God. And we are led by the spirit. We who are the strangers, the elect, the foreknown, sanctified, led by the spirit of God to obey. This is how you know we are the elect of God. We obey the father's will. That is of great interest to us. And we also keep ourselves clean so that we can continue to serve our Lord and walk with him and fellowship with him. These truths that Peter has set before us are designed to inspire us as we come into verse three, to come into the presence of God and give him our offerings of praise and thanksgiving, to bring our good words, our eulogy before him. As you have heard stated very well clearly already, there's nothing, there is nothing to be compared to the gift of everlasting life. Could the world offer itself to you and you give your soul for the world? Jesus asked the question. There is nothing more valuable than eternal life. And we praise and thank God for his great sacrificial gift of his son who accomplished all that was necessary for us to receive our everlasting life. And God has made his son to be our Lord, our Jesus, our Christ according to Peter. And so we praise God who out of his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. A lot of stuff here, a lot of great doctrines folded together in just a couple of verses in 1 Peter. And they demand our attention that we would do everything we could to clarify and understand them. God wants us to recognize his abundant mercy that is on display in our regeneration, which has been given us during our time on the earth, which has brought us to this place, begotten again unto a lively hope. Well, there's some great information we'll get into, God willing, next Sunday on that. As the elect of God, the benefits, as you've heard expressed already, the benefits continue to pile up, riches upon riches that flow through our Lord Jesus Christ to us. God's mercy, abundant mercy as it's expressed here in verse 3. Mercy is a characteristic, a quality of God's nature. This parenthetical phrase could have been left out, but it is added for clarity, right? Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He could have said, who hath begotten us again? And it would make sense. But he inserts this phrase for the purpose of clarity about what God is doing is out of abundant mercy to us. So God inserts this, and his intention is for us to pause and consider his mercy and just how abundant it really is toward us. And that requires us to be able to define it and to explain how it's used in this passage. By definition, when we look at this particular Greek word, much like the Hebrew word, it refers to someone who is compassionate which implies that they are tenderhearted and kind toward a person or persons who have a need. Take that out of the equation, there is no need for mercy. And I stand amazed in my contemplation of this, that this quality of God was never known until man fell. God could not be mercy to his Son and to his Spirit in eternity past. This quality of God's nature necessitated a collapse of the world's condition of its original creation. It is only then that the mercy of God can be on display. It deserves our consideration. God's mercy is expressed in a variety of ways. You've heard it hinted at already. God's mercy is expressed when he withholds what we deserve. He looks upon our condition. He knows that his justice and righteousness and holiness could demand something from him of judgment and consequence, but his mercy withholds that, and in its place, he gives what we don't deserve. God's mercy is much more than just sympathizing with someone who has a need. That may be a part of it, but it doesn't stop there. And it's important to understand this in God because you'll never understand how it is to be worked out in you if you don't first understand it in God. When God chooses to be merciful, it will include his intervention to help those that are in need. He cannot simply look upon something, have compassion toward it, and walk away. Every child of God who is traveling through time—that's us this morning—is exposed to all kinds of trials and sufferings. We are in a constant battle with the world, the flesh, and the devil. Our journey is difficult and dangerous. And how pleasant is this truth to our ears. The blessed God is a merciful God. This is who he is, particularly as we find it worked out in his word to his elect. There are many wonderful passages in God's word that speaks about God's mercy. Steve mentioned Moses in Exodus 34, and let me just remind you a little bit of that setting where that event took place. God has redeemed his people out of Egypt. He's led them into the wilderness on their way to the promised land. Much has happened in a very short period of time, and Moses is very concerned, very frustrated with the children of Israel. They are fickled, and he's growing concerned about God's willingness to tolerate their conduct and attitude toward God, their unbelief. And he knows that God is an eternal, infinite, self-existing God who is holy and to be revered. He met that God at the burning bush, and he knows that God is all-powerful and that no other God can rival him. He witnessed that in the destruction of Egypt. The knowledge and understanding of Moses concerning God, this knowledge is still not enough for him. It's not adequate. He needs something deeper, a fuller revealing of God to him to assure him that God is not only able but willing to journey with human weakness that is on full display. God knows what Moses needs to hear from him. And so he says, hide here in this rock. I'll let my glory pass by, and it will pronounce my qualities and my glory to you. And just as it was said by Brother Steve a moment ago, the qualities of God's nature are on full display in that little passage. And the first words out of God's mouth is, God is merciful. Why was that so important? Moses needed to know that. If he's going to lead these people in all of their tendencies, he needs to know that the God who is leading him forward is this kind of God. He is a merciful God, abundant in his mercy. What makes God's abundant mercy so endearing to me and to you is that God's mercy is freely given to us because he is intimately acquainted with our brokenness. He knows the difference between the original design and the one that is moving through the earth now. He knows the difference. He created the original man and woman. And he knows what sin has done that has ruined the human frame. Look at Psalms 103. We only have time to highlight some important passages this morning, but this is a subject that deserves much consideration. Psalms 103, listen to what David says here in verse 14, or verse 13, he begins, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, for he knoweth our frame. He remembers that we are dust. God knows our frame and he remembers that we are dust. God wants his children to know he is a merciful God. He knows your weaknesses. He knows how difficult it is. He knows your struggles. He knows you're prone to wander from the God you love. He knows this. And so for this reason, we are told that out of God's infinite grace, his mercy flows upon us. What a benefit to know that God knows our frame, our construction, how we're made, and that we are but dust. He knows the limitations and the weaknesses of our nature. So we rejoice that he is holy. We rejoice that he is great and infinite in so many ways. But we also rejoice that he's merciful, abundantly so, toward his people. Go back to Psalms 5. Did you know that the book that talks the most about the mercy of God is in the book of Psalms? And it's mentioned there more times than every other reference you can find in the New Testament. Put them all together. Psalms says more about mercy than the entire New Testament. You've heard it read already. Founded in Psalms 119. Different Psalms have been read. It's there. It's everywhere. The psalmist found great joy and encouragement in the knowledge that God is merciful, and so should we. Listen to this statement by the psalmist David, chapter 5 and verse 7. He's talking about the foolish just before this, and they shall not stand in his sight. But in verse 7, but as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. There's an interesting observation for the worshiper, right? How do you come into the house of God? You come thinking about God's mercies, about his compassion upon your life, and all that he has done to display his kindness, his tenderheartedness toward your life. Come into my house and worship me in the multitude of the mercies of God. I've read an older author, older preachers made this observation. Listen to this. God's mercies and his goodness to us should be laid up in our memories and treasured. God's mercies should have a great room in our memories. People will never do any great matters in godliness till they learn to meditate on his mercies. Unless the mind be well employed, fixedly and seriously employed in thinking upon the Lord's mercies, we shall never pay the debt of thanksgiving and praise. Great statement. Amen is how I feel about that. It speaks the truth to me. The mercies of God deserve great attention in our life. Look at Psalms 31. Just a few more out of this book that contains so many. Psalms 31. I was in this psalm a couple of weeks ago, just reading it, reading it every day, reading it, reading it, and just gleaned so many wonderful things from it. But one that stood out in preparation for today's sermon was found in verse number seven for me. I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy. You see the resolve? Do you see the determination of the psalmist? I will. Oh, soul, what's wrong with you? Remember in Psalm 40. Soul, what's wrong with you? Why are you so disquieted and disturbed? And here he is saying to himself, I will, I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy because thou has considered my trouble. You know my need. You know my infirmities. You know that I am but dust and thou has known my soul in adversities. God has become intimately acquainted with David. David's projecting it here. God has become intimately acquainted with David. There's been this walk and fellowship and communion with David through troubles, through troubles. They've spent time together in troubles. And God has been quick to look and see and react, considered David's trouble. David's prayer, inviting God to look at his trouble, to inspect his situation and to judge and relieve it with his mercy. Look at Psalms 89. This Psalm contains a lot of references. We won't look at them all, but one particularly, Psalm 89 and verse number 14. We find a lot of verses like this when we read about the mercy of God in his word, that mercy is often attached to other qualities of God. There's a reason for that. Here we find mercy in chapter 89, verse number 14. We're told that justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth go before thy face. And this is an interesting expression written from someone that understood the whole royal procedure of that ancient period, of those who rode before the king, pronouncing his coming. And so we have here the government of David's throne is founded on God's righteousness and his judgment. Mercy and truth go before him and cry out to the rebels and to all that are out there that this righteous judge will extend mercy within the framework of his truth. For those who hear his truth and bow to its authority, he will extend mercy. He is willing, he is able to give his mercy, to pity us, to show compassion toward us. And his truth tells us how we can receive mercy. We hearken, we hear what he has to say to us. We respond by confessing and repenting and he will receive us and he will be kind to us. Remember in Exodus 34, where Moses begged for God to show his glory to him and he showed to him that he is a merciful God. He talks about all of those wonderful things and wonderful qualities that Moses needed to hear. But then just a little bit later in a few phrases, he says this, but know this, know this. Yes, I am merciful and I'm long suffering, but know this. I will not ignore rebellion. I will not overlook rebellion. God is not a doting God. If there is rebellion in the hearts of his people, read the Old Testament. You can't come away from that without some deep awareness that yes, he is merciful. Oh, how much mercy he has shown to his people. But he will not overlook rebellion. He will hold them accountable. In a frightening way, even unto the third and fourth generation, I will hold them accountable if they rebel. So do you want mercy? Look at Proverbs chapter 28. So many in Psalms, we just don't have time, but I encourage you to look them up in your concordance and or just read through the book of Psalms this year and list them all. There's about a hundred of them, I believe, in Psalms. Proverbs 28, and here's a warning to us, a proverb that we ought to live by to manage our life with these proverbs, these principles for living. And here is one very important one. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh shall find mercy. God is a merciful God, but as the Psalmist said, and as Moses records, as Solomon records, the mercy of God is attached to the fear, those who fear him. If you don't have reverence for him and you're crying out in the midst of some difficulty for God to be merciful to you, you're going to be like Proverbs chapter one, the person crying out and crying out and crying out, and God would not hear. You could be like what James says. He records what God, how he responds to pride and those who are unwilling to submit to him. He fights against them. He wars against them. He will not show mercy to them, but to those who humble themselves and confess, guess what? God's mercy is abundant. There is no end of our finding the rich flow of God's mercy to our life, but it requires certain dispositions. And so we find mercy attached to truth. God will never just pour out mercy. Truth manages God's mercy. We find mercy attached to his wisdom. God just doesn't, oh, he's crying for mercy. Let's give mercy. Wisdom and mercy are wed together in the scriptures. Meaning what? That's kind of your favorite subject, right Caleb? The wisdom of God, James chapter three, for your wedding, we went through that. The wisdom of God speaks of God doing the right thing at the right time in the right way. That's his wisdom. And God will never just simply display mercy at every crying that occurs out of his mercy. God will exercise wisdom in the giving of his mercy. Faith has to trust him in this, right? We have to trust him. If we trust God, we're okay with him doing it this way. Sort of like Paul, when Paul begged God, please, please, please, three times. Would you remove this infirmity from me? It's a hindrance to me as far as I can tell. I would be a much better evangelist and preacher if this hindrance was removed from my body. Please, please, please, three times. God said, no. What I'm going to do is better. I'm going to give you the grace to live with it. So God has wisdom attached to the display of his compassion. But you can always believe that you have a merciful God if he is your father. He will not abandon you. He may correct you, but that is only because he loves you. If you want to enjoy the mercy of God, then you need to have the dispositions that are required to receive it. God's mercy, when we hear of this great subject of the merciful God, it ought to impact his people in two ways primarily. It ought to impact us this morning in our worship of him. If knowing the mercy of God does not inspire your worship, then there's something wrong with what you know about the worship of God and about the mercy of God. How do we do that? Well, as the psalmist says, we bring our praises and thanksgiving. We come before him contemplating dwelling in his mercies when we enter into his house to worship. The other thing that this consideration of God's mercy ought to do to God's people, it ought to change how we treat others, right? That's a very important part. It's the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Our men are teaching that in Sunday school time every Lord's day. The Sermon on the Mount tells us the attitudes that we are to have. And it says, blessed are the merciful for they are going to receive the mercy of God more fully into their life. That's the promise of Jesus. So Jesus is attaching your reception of his mercy to what's flowing out of you. And the more you understand the mercy of God, if it's not inspiring you to be more merciful, then you don't understand the mercy of God. It hasn't impacted you and it hasn't influenced your life. To truly know that God is abundantly merciful ought to change how we all deal with each other permanently. There ought to be kindness and forgiveness, patience, long suffering. All of these are facets of God's mercy and it ought to be seen in us as well. There are things about this subject that I don't understand. Danny read from Hebrews about Christ being the merciful high priest. I've often asked why? God has already declared himself to be merciful. Are we saying he doesn't know what that means? He can't experience that? He doesn't have any grasp of it? Or is he saying that for us? He sent his son to be a merciful high priest to encourage us to come knowing what God has achieved on our behalf through his only begotten son. A song that I love in our hymn book is called When All Thy Mercies. Just the first verse. When all thy mercies, oh my God, my rising soul surveys. You see this soul beginning to grow in their grasp of the mercies of God that have been shown to them. My rising soul in worship begins to survey, transported in the view I'm lost in wonder, love, and praise. That's what the mercy of God ought to do to all of us. Transport us. Take us to a place where we are lost in wonder, love, and praise. I know there's many more things that could be said about this subject, but I felt we needed to say something in light of what Peter mentions for us. Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope. So the mercy of God is pivotal to all of that that is unfolding there. And it's something that deserves to be considered. And I trust our thoughts this morning at least have helped you to see the value and the importance of its contemplation, the value of it as you even prepare to worship him. Remember his mercies to you. Can you count them up? Have you already forgot the ones that came to you this week? The one thing that you must never forget as it is attached here in a moment, he hath begotten you, he has saved you. That is his mercy to you. May that fill your mind and your heart as you come together to worship every Lord's day. Father, we thank you for your word and for the privilege of standing and opening up its truths and sharing thoughts together around thy word. We know it's important when we've gathered as your people, we are in your presence, we are hearing from you through your word that we are ready to hearken to those things that we hear. Give your people, I pray this day, the ability to not only know but understand the application of these things concerning your mercy upon their life that it would impact how they worship and it would impact how they treat one another. I pray in Christ's name and for your glory, amen.