A few thoughts before we get into our verse number five this morning. By way of reminder to you, I like review. It's sort of the runway that builds us for the next additional thoughts that we will add. The Apostle Peter is writing this letter to the elect of God. He doesn't write it to the world. This is designated for God's people. All of the Bible is designated for God's people. There's not a book in the Bible written to the world. It's written to his people. We are always strangers on the earth. That will never change. From the moment of our salvation, when we were born again, saved, we became and remain strangers until we die and leave this world. So, while both terms describe us, the word elect is eternal. When we get to heaven, we're not going to be strangers anymore. That word is for time. It won't go into the world to come. But as the elect of God, that is eternal. Peter is leading us, his readers, to join him in this eulogy of God. Blessed be God is how the eulogy opens, just like the song. I was so glad I've never heard that song by Watts. What an amazing servant of God he was. Wrote songs for all of the messages he preached. It's just, I can't comprehend that. But what a beautiful song that describes what Peter says here. Peter is leading us in this eulogy to bless God. And that Greek word is the eulogetas. It's the eulogy where we come and we bring good words and we speak out those good words to God. That's what we're being exhorted to do here with Peter, to come with him in his eulogy and bless God. And Peter has issued a call to worship God in this statement. He gives his words, his good words, to consider and even for us to recite as we join with him. Peter's intention with this eulogy is that we participate with him. We are to use his words just as we use the words of the psalmist to guide us in our worship of God, or we use songs and spiritual songs and hymns, as Paul said, and we make them our own and sing out of our own heart as our own expressions. This is what Peter is doing for us. He's giving us a eulogy to recite in our own preparation and entrance into worship. Look at these three verses here, three, four, and five. He writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, the great God hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So this makes up his opening eulogy of praise. When you hear the name God spoken in Peter's eulogy, both at the beginning and at the end of his eulogy, what comes to mind when you hear God? How are your affections impacted when you hear this name, this word? The primary focus of our message this morning is to answer the question, who is God? Peter's eulogy, like all eulogies, begin with God. This eulogy is structured like all the calls to worship that we find in both the Old and the New Testament. So obviously our knowledge of God is essential to our worship of God. Peter's eulogy, like all eulogies, is also given to us in an imperative call. Blessed be God. Because of who he is and what he has done for us, he is to be constantly and forever praised. Would you look at a psalm that I've been reading over the last week, just Psalm 34, and just the first few verses here, just to get a sense of how this is so common with David the psalmist. And he says here in verses 1 through 3, I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make her boast in the Lord. All that I am is because of him. He is my glory. My soul shall boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear this, and they will be glad when they hear me bless the Lord. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. There is a desire for those who genuinely worship God to have his brothers and sisters around him sharing the moment with them. Can you do it alone? Sure, you can. But as we find often in the scriptures, there is something very unique and special when we gather together and offer together our exaltation of his name. He uses the name Jehovah here in this text. The name Yahweh is under consideration by David when he speaks Lord, that he's referring to here. He is speaking of God's eternality, of God's self-existence. He doesn't draw life from any other source because he is life itself. He is the only one who creates and can give life, as we've heard. He has no beginning and no ending. Jehovah is who God is. And we find that Jehovah being referred to as shepherd and many other things, as rock, as provider. This is who God is. Peter is very focused. Back in 1 Peter chapter 1, Peter is very focused on God in his eulogy and throughout this letter. Thirty-nine times he mentions God in this letter, and twice at the beginning and the closing of this eulogy. And he is to be exalted, he is to be lifted up through our good words that praise him for who he is and what he has done for us. Peter lists a number of things in this eulogy that we have identified that God is and what God has done for us that ought to inspire our praises in eulogy. So we come with these ideas in mind. We borrow from Peter. We borrow from the Psalms. We borrow from Paul and all the others, their knowledge and understanding and the praises they offered to God. And at the very beginning, blessed be God who is the eternal father of the eternal son. I can't even go down that road. My brain just can't fathom the reality of this concept. I know it's true. I don't doubt its reality, but it's mind-boggling. God is the eternal father of his own eternal son. And even though this fact is incomprehensible, we are told in his word that God gave him to be our Lord Jesus Christ. That's incomprehensible as well. God gave him to be our Lord Jesus Christ. He, by God's appointment, became everything we could not become. And he accomplished by God's appointment everything we could not achieve. So that we, the elect of God, would be brought into the family of God. And God has poured out his mercy abundantly upon us. He has begotten us again from spiritual death to spiritual life, that we could have ears to hear his promises and his words to us. And through spiritual life, we have eyes now to see his future plans for us, which includes a resurrected body like Christ's body, transformed that we can fully enjoy our inheritance. Well, God blesses us with many good things, as the hymn writer said, a thousand sacred sweets we enjoy in this journey. We won't receive our reward, however, until the end, when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. And so as we have dealt with this inheritance, it should stir us up to anticipate what we actually wait for and long for. And through the word of God, we are able to conceive of it and see it with spiritual eyes afar off. And it's described as being different from all earthly inheritance. Inheritances, incorruptible, not subject to any form of decay, undefiled. Sin cannot stain it nor pollute it. It's an inheritance that will never fade. It never loses its luster and value for all eternity. And it's reserved in heaven for you. We are with Peter saying these words to God that we understand what he's done for us. He's reserved this in heaven in that other realm, not material, physical realm. He's reserved our inheritance for you, says Peter. And all of these things will come to pass when our Lord Jesus Christ returns. Reserved in heaven for you. Now, verse five. Who? You who are kept by the power of God. And you've been hearing it in things that have been said and read and songs that we've sung and prayers that have been prayed. You've heard this already, that God promises to you to use his infinite power to guarantee that we will arrive at our destination. You who are kept by the power of God. And so here in verse five, the first part of it, we have the divine means used by God to bring us to himself, right? Who are kept by, there's the means, the divine means. We are kept by the power, the dunamis, speaking a great word. It speaks of a mighty force, a miraculous power. There is nothing to equal this power of God. This is what he uses. This is his means to make sure we get to our final destination. Yeah, the road will be rough at times. There will be many trials along the way. We will face many temptations that will attempt to distract us from eternal things. And we will not always succeed. We will stumble along the way much more than we would want. But we are promised that even though there will be rivers that attempt to overflow us and sink us down, they will not succeed. And the trials like fire will try to consume us, but they will fail. How is it possible that any human is able to survive all the forces that oppose us during our pilgrimage, unless there is the power of God at work, the divine means, the divine means to get us home? Kept, Peter says, meaning that God himself is watching. It's a military expression, watching, guarding over our life. He doesn't, it doesn't always feel to us that he's attentive. Well, don't let that unbelief change the reality of God's word. He is watching. He is guarding. And he has appointed his angels, according to Hebrews, they are like sentinels. They are posted and stand ready at his command to intervene and to provide for us aid. Jesus came to the end of his temptation. What happened? Angels came and ministered unto him at the end of that difficult season of his life. Commissioned by God, they came from his throne and ministered to him. I don't understand how that functions fully, but I know it's true. They are there. They are created, says the writer of Hebrews, to be agents for our well-being. God has ordained that they have that mission. How that looks and works out, I'm not always sure. There are glimpses of it throughout the scripture, for sure. The point is this. We must grow in our confidence of God and his power to keep us and bring us home. His power is infinite power because it comes out of God himself. It is described as the power of God. So we're not just talking about any kind of power. We're talking about the power that comes out of God. This is what he uses to bring us home. Although you do notice here, and we'll get to both of these parts this Sunday and next Sunday, there are two means spoken of in verse 5. Two things are appointed by God to keep us and bring us home. One is his power by the power of God, and the other is through, also means, our faith. He has appointed these two means. And our faith definitely deals with the matter of the perseverance of the saints, which I look forward to opening up next week. Both are used as God's means to keep us and to bring us home at the end of our life. And so I'm focusing primarily on this first means who are kept by the power of God. Let me circle back to a question that I raised just a moment ago and develop it a little more. From what we understand so far, we would say that our appreciation, our understanding of the power is only to the degree we understand the God of the power. If you have a very limited or even a wrong grasp of the God of the power, then your version of God's power is also distorted, limited. And so, I want you to just continue to think about him. It is God's power that keeps us. And so, when you hear, or as we read Peter's eulogy together, we are called to bless God, bless God. Who is God, right? What is it? What is it? Who is God? What is God? What do we know about God? And so, the words that Peter uses to bless God illustrate his knowledge of God. And not only who God is, but what God has done. Peter's not just dreaming these things up. These are born out of a knowledge and understanding of who God is and what God has done. The Old Testament Hebrew word that the Jewish scholars translated into the Greek Septuagint 200 years before Christ was born took the Hebrew word Elohim, and they translated it into the Greek word Theos. That is the word that is translated in our English version as God. But it has some roots to it. It has a history to it. Theos, Elohim. Into the Greek, he is Theos. The remarkable thing to me about this, all of the Greek gods were called Theos. It's not as if God dreamed up a new name just to give to himself. He took a name that was given to every false god throughout the world and says, that is now my name. I am the almighty. I am the supreme power. There is no other god that will rival me. He took the name, gave it to himself. He is Theos. The supreme, the supreme power. Paul uses and Peter uses this word, all the apostles, the New Testament, Jesus uses this word to speak of his father as Theos. You remember when Paul went up, he was in Athens. The Greek philosophers, I mean, they were great thinkers, no doubt about it. They have given to us over time has evolved just our understanding of sound government and different branches of government. It had its birth at that period of time in Greek history. So, they were thinkers. And they were asking Paul some questions and Paul had the opportunity to go up to the hill, Mars Hill, and there were all the philosophers gathered and where all the monuments and altars had been erected to all of the Greek Theoses, all the Greek gods. There was one there that said, to the unknown Theos, to the unknown God. Paul says, that's the one I'm going to tell you about, the one you don't know. And then he begins his sermon. And the interesting thing for Paul in dealing with biblically uneducated, unregenerate people, he begins with creation. It's a good place to start. If you don't believe that, it's hard to get past it. He starts with creation, the God, the Theos that created all things that you see. There is only one Theos who had the power to do it. It is the unknown God that you are speaking of in this monument of yours that I'm telling you about. This is the God that I preach. He goes on in his sermon to preach about the God, the Theos, who is the only provider for redemption and salvation. None of the other gods could do this. And then he concludes with this God that you don't know, this Theos is going to be the judge of every one of you. And he has appointed his son whom he raised from the dead to be that judge. And the crowd went wild. They went mad. They couldn't tolerate the idea that the resurrection was real. But he didn't start with it. And so Peter's eulogy that we have here calls us to come and worship this Theos, this great God that he's speaking of. This is the one we come before. This is the one we bring our praises to. This is the one we speak and we acknowledge with good words who he is. We know him. We know his nature. We believe these things that were revealed to us to be true. And we know what he has done through his son. Peter's eulogy calls us to trust in the infinite power of God to get us home. The bigger your God is in your mind this morning, the God of the Bible, the more trust and confidence you will have in him as you live out your days in this world. And as Paul wrote to us, church going through much suffering, a Macedonian church, the Philippian church, he reminded them, being confident of this very thing that he that has begun the good work in you, he will finish it. He will perform it to its end. It will not. It will not stop until his son returns. Learning to live each day with this kind of thinking is encouraged throughout the Psalms, thinking about who God is and his great power. I'm going to take you back to the Psalms. There's a triplet of Psalms, 46, 47, and 48, that I'm going to read, and I want you to think about the things that we're considering. 47, Psalms 46, they're short. And these are for us who are the people of God, the elect of God, the pilgrims, the strangers on the earth. And so the song opens up. God, Elohim, is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And therefore, for that reason, because we know who God is, we know of his power, we know that he's a refuge, we know of his strength, therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed. Everything that we think of and understand as stable and mountains of security in this world, it can all crumble, it can all melt down to nothing. We will not fear, though the mountains be removed and be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and are troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. And this is kind of the imagery of human governments just melting down. It happened to the Jews, the Hebrews, it happened to the Northern Ten Tribes, it happened to the Assyrians, to the Babylonians, to all of them, melted down, causing turmoil in the world. The people of God will not fear. Why? God is our strength and our refuge. That's why. This is the God we need to know and be familiar with and to bring our eulogies of praise to. In the midst of all the chaos, there is this river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. There's this place in the midst of the chaos that we can actually enter into where there is peace, and it's a city, meaning it has walls, it's fortified, it has provisions. There is safety. There is a city. It's the city of God that we run into. God is in the midst of her, in verse 5, she shall not be moved. That's a pretty secure place. God shall help her in that right early. Beheathen rage, they raged, the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted. Here it is seen as God melting down what has been described earlier as the mountains falling and melting into the sea. God is doing something in the midst of the world. People of God, trust him. Run into his refuge. Find strength in him alone. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Saleh. Come, oh, come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh a bow and cutteth a spear in sunder. He burneth a chariot in his fire. Be still and know that I am God. Calm yourself. Know who I am. Know that I am God, and I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Saleh. Think about these things. Then he goes to them. Oh, clap your hands, all ye people. Shout unto God with a voice of triumph. For the Lord, most high, is terrible. He is the great king over all the earth. He shall subdue the people under us and nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance for us. The excellency of Jacob whom he loved, Saleh. God has gone up with a shout. The Lord with the sound of a trumpet. Sing praises to God. Sing praises. Sing praises unto our king. Sing praises. You see the appeal here. When you know him and what he is doing on our behalf, we ought to be moved to sing praises. For God, the reason is we sing praises because God is the king of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Don't just mouth all of the songs that you're offering, but know what you're singing. Understand it. God reigneth over the heathen. God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness. The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham. For the shields of the earth belong unto God. He is greatly exalted. This is the God Peter is offering his eulogy to and inviting us to participate with him in. This Elohim, this Theos, God. And then finally, the Psalm 48, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion. On the sides of the north, the city of the great king. God is known in her palaces for a refuge. When you come to the city of God, you find the people that are there know him for their refuge. Wherever the palaces are, they're all speaking about God is our refuge. He is our strength. For lo, the kings were assembled. They passed by together. He's envisioning all of the nations of the world, kind of trying to figure this thing out, what God's people are trusting and relying on. The kings were assembled. They passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled. They were troubled and hasted away. Fear took hold upon them there, and pain as of a woman in travail. Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. And as we have heard, so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God, God will establish her forever. This is the God that we are eulogizing in 1 Peter. This is who he's inviting us in to consider, and bless his name. We have thought of thy loving kindness, O God, in the midst of thy temple. What a great place to contemplate the loving kindness of God in his temple. According to thy name, O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let Mount Zion rejoice, calling upon the church and all of the saints. Let the daughters of Judah be glad because of thy judgments. Oh, walk about Zion. Look at what God has created as our refuge. Walk about Zion, the city of the great God that we are members of and participants in. Walk about Zion. Go around about her. Tell the towers of, acknowledge them, see them, observe the towers. Mark you well her bulwarks. Consider her palaces that ye may tell it to the generations that come. Isn't that wonderful? You gotta get it understood so you can tell it to your children. Tell them about God, the God we eulogize, the God we worship. We must understand it. We must see it, envision it, we must be able to put our trust in it. For this God is our God forever, and he will be our guide even. This is our God. This is the God that Peter is referring to. And he knew the scriptures well, Peter did, as an apostle, as a preacher, as a pastor in a church way out on the edge of Babylon at the time when he wrote this letter. Peter knew the scriptures. He knew what it said about Elohim. He knew what it said about the Theos, and he leads us into the worship of him. Eulogize him. Come with good words. Tell him what you know he's doing. Tell him what you know he is. What do you know about him? Praise him for these qualities. Praise him for what he's doing for us through our Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son. And so, I pray this morning that we will find courage and comfort in the words which contain this eulogy that we are to think about this morning as Peter gave it to us. You, you, oh, the people of God who are capped by the power of God. What a glorious thing. The mighty power of God is devoted to you arriving at your destination. And he will not fail, as you have heard. He will not fail to bring us all home. This is the God that we must trust. And I trust that we will find courage in these words. It's interesting, and I'll close with a couple of final thoughts, that this great God 39 times Peter mentions and breathes out Theos in his letter. Three times he mentions Father. You would think as a New Testament Apostle he would have said 39 times Father and three times Theos. But that's not what he did. In fact, when he speaks of Father a little later in chapter 1, he says, if you claim that he is your Father, then pass your sojourning here in fear. If you claim he is your Father, show it by your reverence for him. So, the idea of a Father has become so abused today in our common evangelicalism. To call him Father before you know him as God doesn't work very well. You need to know him as God, how great and powerful he is, and that he has engaged his power for you, that you would find a place you could run to and find refuge and strength throughout all the days of your life. That's the divine means to get us to our destination. But Peter didn't stop there. He says there's a human means. If God's power is at work in your life, it's going to show up somewhere. You know where Peter says it's going to show up? In your faith, in your faith. And he's going to open that up for us to consider next Sunday. Father, thank you for the time we can spend in your Word and consider just the wonder and the beauty of every word and every phrase. And may this morning we have a greater comprehension of who you are as our God. And may it inspire, Father, a holy reverence for you as we live out our life, trusting, leaning upon you to preserve us and carry us to the end. We ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.