1 Peter is our text. Most of my sermons have already been preached with songs and readings and comments, and I'm grateful for the things that we've heard already. God willing, this morning we will wrap up the bulk of Peter's eulogy that is given to us in verses 3, 4, and 5. Well, we'll sort of pull out of it as we move forward, but I think we can bring it to closure this morning. Follow as I read these few verses, 3, 4, and 5. He begins, blessed, eulogy, eulogetas, blessed be God or bless the God is what we're being invited, like you've heard already in the readings of other men from the Psalms. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy, he 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. And so we understand the eulogy refers to someone, Peter, us by extension. We are taking good words, these are good words, and we're speaking them back, God's words to God. And as a church, we are committed to following biblical patterns for worship that are given to us in God's word. The apostle Peter gives us such a pattern. It's simple, but it's structured. We or he begins with God like we do in our service. We are called by this eulogy to come into his presence and to bring with Peter our good words. And we speak these words that ascribe to God praises to him for who he is. We are telling God what we know and believe about him, what we adore about him. Didn't you hear that in the chronicles that was read so clearly? I was so impacted by that. What a great passage. Thank you, Joe. We use his word that tells us who God is. We use our own words that frame God's word to express these things. We sing words in a similar way from the Psalms and from other worshipers who've written songs, and we make them the expressions of our own mind and our own affections. This is a biblical pattern for worship. Peter's words, something just to keep in mind, Peter's words are not the only words that we are to use in the worship of God. This isn't it. It's a pattern. It's one of many. God has revealed himself to us throughout his word, and we can choose to focus on any of his qualities and attributes. And we, like Peter, we are doing the same thing. We are guided by a theme here. When you read Peter's eulogy, it's structured the way it is because of where he's going with his message. And so the fact that we take and we put together our eulogy to focus on where the message is going is biblical. It's thematic. It's meant to be that way. It's not random. It's not miscellaneous. And so our opening eulogy is intended to connect our words about God to the theme of the message, just like Peter is doing here. Peter's eulogy contains his thoughts about the person and work of God that are pertinent to the content of his letter. And so you could put together a thousand possibilities of different themes, and God and all that has been revealed about him, we can draw from those things and put them into our eulogy of God. While eulogies may focus on different themes, we find that they're all structured in similar ways. All eulogies contain words that adore the person and work of God. We gather to do that first and foremost. God is to be worshiped. He is to be adored, acknowledged. And so we are to give to him the praises that are due unto him. And we also find that eulogies praise God for his unspeakable gift to us, our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Peter's eulogy focuses on particular truths that are intended to encourage the people of God who are strangers in a foreign land. It all blends and works with great perfection and beauty. Peter calls upon us to adore the abundant mercy of God, mercy that regenerated us, mercy that raised us from spiritual death and has given us life, a mercy that through this life now gives us spiritual ears to hear the promises of God and spiritual eyes to see afar off the life that God is preparing for his people. What an abundant mercy comes to us from our being born again. We who are pilgrims are to live our life under the influence of this living hope that Peter talks about to strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We are to live out our life with hope. Doesn't matter what the world is going through. Doesn't matter the chaos around us. We are to live out our life with hope, hope of eternal life, hope of a resurrected body like our Lord Jesus Christ so that we can enjoy those things that he has prepared and promised to us in our inheritance and God himself will fulfill his plans concerning us. As we noticed in verse five last Sunday, we focused on. We are kept by the power of God. So Peter continues his eulogy by reminding us as we come together and we enter in and engage in worship. He is reminding us to acknowledge and praise God who preserves us onto the final phase of our salvation. It began when we were born again. It continues to develop our salvation does through sanctification throughout our lifetime, but our salvation that Peter is referring to here is he is praising God who will carry us through this life onto our glorification. The end of our salvation kept by the power of God unto salvation. Kept speaks of a military maneuver or function. It denotes the stationing of guards to protect a position or a person. We are kept. Pilgrims living in a foreign country surrounded by evil forces that are attempting to destroy our life are meant to find great comfort when we hear these words. We are kept by the power of God. Our confidence in his keeping power is measured by our knowledge and understanding of who God is. If I just say the phrase kept by the power of God and that doesn't overwhelm you who is doing the keeping, then you don't know God very well. And again, the chronicles David articulated in detail, wonderful detail of who God is. The Elohim of the old and the fias of the new, the supreme God who has no equal. His strength is omnipotent. His power is dunamis, meaning it is innate. It's his power. It's not dependent on any other source outside of himself. And so hearing these words, we praise God who is able, as Paul said, to keep that which is committed unto him unto that day. He is keeping you unto that day. Kept, this word we notice is also a verb. He is who's doing the keeping here. You? No, God is doing the keeping. Kept by the power of God. We also notice it's in continuous action, means what? He is always keeping us. And yet it's interesting, it's found in the passive voice, meaning God alone keeps us. The object you cannot keep yourself. God is doing the keeping. We need to be very clear about that. And so Peter is leading us to praise God who keeps us by the means of his own power. God keeps us unto the day of salvation by his power. And pilgrims, we are to take comfort and find courage in the knowledge of this truth. I'm going to get there, not because of who I am and what I can do, but I'm going to get there to the final destination because of the power of God. There are no powers in this world that can prevent you, that can keep you from your appointment, from the reservation that God has made for you. And so God, as Danny was talking about a moment ago, God watches over us. He's put his own presence through his son in the midst with us and his spirit. God is our guardian. He's our refuge and our strength that we flee to. He's our companion on our journey. There is a psalm I want you to read. It's a short psalm, Psalm 121, one of the pilgrim psalms. Look at it. I want you to see it. Observe these words. It's a pilgrim song. These are titled and identified as songs that were sung by the children of Israel as they pilgrimage. Typically from wherever their homes were several times a year, they would take the journey and go to Jerusalem. And so these are songs that they sang as they pilgrimage toward Jerusalem. Listen to one of the songs they sang. We ought to sing this ourselves. It's for us. Listen to what he says. As a pilgrim here speaking, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. Where is his helper? My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth. He, he will not suffer thy foot to be moved. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. He will always keep you. Behold, consider this. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. He's fully engaged in your journey. He's watching over you all the time. The Lord is thy keeper. The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil. He shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth and even forever more. For a pilgrim to sing that on his journey, he has identified what Peter is talking about here, kept by the power of God. Peter sort of condenses it for us, but it's that psalm that Peter is condensing. We noted last Sunday, back to 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 5, we noted last Sunday that Peter mentions two means that are mentioned here. You've heard it referred to a little bit already. Two means used by God to preserve us and bring us to our final destination. Two means. The first, and in order of importance, we are kept by, there's that word, the means of, we are kept by the means of the power of God. Whatever other means God uses, it works in conjunction with God's power, but it cannot supplant the first means. Peter acknowledges a secondary means that God uses to keep us, and that is our focus for the next moments. This morning, verse 5, he says, not only are we kept by the power of God, but we are kept through faith unto our salvation. And so what we have here by Peter are two different Greek prepositions. They're both different. They both mean the same thing. They both speak of the means to achieve something, but they're both very different. One is translated by, the other is translated through. By, the first one that Peter uses, the means by the power of God, by speaks of, there's energy in it, and it expresses movement. There is a force at play here, which is the power of God. By the power of God, there is movement and force. Peter is referring to a thing here, the power of God, a quality of God's nature that he will use to keep us to our ultimate destination. The second preposition that Peter uses that refers to the use of means to preserve us is the word through. But this word is passive. There is no expression of power to it. It's passive. By speaks of movement of God's power, passing through a vessel, a channel, producing and using faith to preserve us and bring us to salvation. What a marvelous plan that God has designed. Can I state that again? Because it's really, really important. By speaks of the movement of God's power, passing through a vessel, a channel, producing and using faith to preserve us and bring us to our salvation. Ultimately, this statement answers the question, how are we able to receive God's power operating in our life? Peter says, kept by the power of God. The question is, how do we receive that power through faith? God does not act toward us in power apart from faith. Omnipotent as it is, it will not operate in your life without faith. This is simply subjective faith in objective truth. Truth that we find in God's word, you've heard it stated. We've used this phrase and I'll use it this morning again. When we refer to this faith that is operating here, we are speaking of faith that is hearkening, hearkening to God's word. That is a faith that is hearing with interest. If the word of God bores you, then there's something very wrong in you. To hearken with interest in the things of God, that's biblical faith operating. And we hear with interest and we trust in the truth we're hearing and we submit to it. We actually place ourselves beneath its authority over us and we are resolved to practice in obedience the things that we have heard. That's biblical faith. That faith will be empowered by God. We know that God's word, and we all agree, I'm sure, that God's word is powerful, right? I mean, it even says it. David refers often to the word of God being the quickening agent, the life-giving agent to his life. In Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12 talks about it. The word of God is powerful. It's living. It's pulsating with the very breath of God. It never goes out. It's alive. How does it enter into our life? How does it become a part of our movement through this world as pilgrims? By faith. Faith in the things that God has declared to us. Faith. Without faith. Without faith, the power of God is restricted. It is limited. It is hindered. God's power and our faith cannot be separated in our conversation about eternal security or the perseverance of the saints. You can't simply say, well, I'm saved. It's a done deal. The perseverance of the saints that we believe in, eternal life, is connected to the operation of faith in our life. And so this is a great display in my mind of the wisdom of God when I contemplate this. Our faith is evidentiary or the necessary evidence that God's power is actually keeping us. Everywhere in God's word, we find this healthy tension between God's part in our salvation, in our part. God's sovereignty and human responsibility. These are real things. Jesus said to those who were following him and they were listening to him, it says, and many that heard these words in John chapter 8 believed in the things that Christ said to them. Jesus responds to those who believed what he had said. If you keep my commandments and continue in my word, then are you saved indeed. The truth will make you free. So he knew there's a difference between mental consenting to something. Yeah, I believe that. I believe God's word. I believe that about God. How does that live and work itself out in evidence in your life? Jesus says, if you continue in my word. So faith is first given to the elect, as Stephen pointed out so well this morning, as a gift and through faith we then believe. It now, as Peter will say in his second letter, it is a precious gift of faith that has been given to us and we are now responsible to do something with that faith. Grow it. Grow your faith. And the only way for faith to grow is to feed it, to nurture it as it hearkens unto the word of God. Peter will focus on how God purifies our faith throughout this letter as pilgrims. He wants us to understand faith and he also wants us to know that your faith that you have right now in possession, operating in your life, needs refinement. It's cluttered. It's contaminated with human particles of self. And God is going to have to purge it out. You know how he does it, Peter says, trials. The fires of suffering and trials of life will purge your faith. And so those who have true faith are meant and responsible to grow their faith, but they can also anticipate that God is going to purify it. Because what you think right now is faith in your life operating is going to have to be subjected to some testing. And you're going to find out how strong and pure your faith is in the midst of a trial. Look, for example, we'll get to these in more detail later, but look at verses six and seven. He says, concerning our salvation that's ready to be revealed in the last time wherein you greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need be, as it is necessary, God appoints the necessity of these things. You are often in heaviness, heaviness through the manifold temptations or trials and testings of life. But God is doing this, according to verse seven, so that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that is perishable, though it be tried with fire, your faith, that your faith might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. I'm not going to get into the full details of this, but what he is speaking of here is quite remarkable about that which you're going to present at Christ's coming. There's going to be this grand presentation of our faith, but it is going to be the faith that has been purified, and that faith that we offer in response to what our Lord Jesus Christ has done for us will be to his glory and his praise and his honor. Our faith has the capacity to bring glory, honor, and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ. That is remarkable, but it has to be purified to get to that pure state in order to do that. So we can't just sit back and simply think that I'm a believer. Yeah, I believe in the doctrines of biblical Christianity, those statements of faith. I believe in those things. The book of Peter is talking about something far beyond that. It's your belief system, your resting, your trusting in the truths that God has taught to you and declared to you, and those things need to be purged and purified. For one purpose, for the honor, the glory, and the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why wouldn't you want your faith tested for that purpose? Right? Purge out the unnecessary dross, the unattractive parts. Whatever you must do, Father, to bring me through these trials of life, it is to bring me to this place that my faith, far more precious than gold that perishes, will be able to be presented to our Lord Jesus Christ at his appearing and bring honor and glory and praise to his name. Our faith can do that. That is God's plan. And therefore, he is designed that his power would operate to carry us through life, to achieve those things and bring us to this pointed destination of our life. Think of how often we are warned throughout God's word about the dangers connected to unbelief. Unbelief is not a warning that is given to the unconverted. They're in a state of unbelief. The warnings of unbelief are warnings given to believers that their faith can be stymied, stunted, hindered by unbelief. And so we are warned. Unbelief is not denying a particular truth that you accept as true. At some level, unbelief is when we choose not to hearken, to hear, to embrace, to submit, and to obey and have the fruit of our faith being manifested. Unbelief causes a breakdown in this process. And unbelief will not receive the power of God upon their life. And the evidence that will be lacking, which is the fruit that is produced by faith, it also will be lacking. Unbelief hinders that process. And so the Christian is warned against it. The writer of Hebrews goes to great lengths to develop this idea. Look at chapter 3 in the book of Hebrews. I want to read a few verses here, beginning in verse number 7. The writer is making a comparison to believers at that period of time, particularly Jewish converts who had gone into Christianity, accepted the Christian faith. And so this book of Hebrews is being written with them in mind, like the gospel of Matthew you mentioned this morning. And what were they in danger of? They were in danger of letting unbelief control where they were going to go with their faith walk with God. And so this warning is given here. Verse number 7, chapter 3 of Hebrews, Wherefore, as the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost saith, Today, if you will hear his voice. Notice the urgency. Today. I mean, don't put this off. Today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. As in the provocation in the wilderness when Israel was guilty of this unbelief, when your father's tempted. They tempted me. They proved me and saw my works for 40 years. Wherefore, I was grieved with that generation and said, they do always earn their hearts and they have not known my ways. Well, they were educated. They witnessed it visibly. What does he mean? They've not known my ways. Not as a way of life. They have not known my ways. They have not made him their ways to live. So I swear in my wrath, they shall not enter into my rest. So, okay. So what's the point? This point, take heed brethren. This is the warning. Lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from movement away from the living God. Beware for that reason. But exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. So there's urgency with the word of God. Don't put it off. He's writing to believers. Don't stall out here. Don't say, I'll think about it later. Today, if God has spoken to your life about particular things through his word, today is the day to respond. Unbelief is to wait. It's to deny the urgency and the importance of God's word in our life. And so in verse 14, for we are made partakers of Christ. Oh, listen to this. If we hold the of our confidence steadfast unto the end, a condition is inserted. If so, therefore, the urgency, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation. Don't put off God's voice through his word to your life. For some, when they had heard, did provoke. Albeit, keep this in mind, not all that came out of Egypt by Moses. There were a lot of unbelievers sewn into the group that came out of Egypt. But with whom was he grieved for 40 years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest? But to them that believed not. This is not the denial of the existence of God. How could you be in the wilderness and deny the existence of God who divided the Red Sea and destroyed the Egyptian armies who fed them with manna from heaven and divided the waters and water gushing out of Iraq? How could they deny God? They're not denying the existence of God. They're disobeying him. They believe not what he had said to them. So we see, then, that they could not enter in because of unbelief. They did not inherit the promise. So the warning to us, verse 1 of chapter 4, let us therefore fear, lest the promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. The word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. See, the value of faith, the power of God operating in our life, is hinged to our faith. And in a great mystery to me, this is a human responsibility. We will give an account for how we have taken the gift of faith and used it in our life. Can't blame God for the lack of its development. He has given his word for its growth and development. He has provided opportunities throughout our life to show that we believe. What are we doing in faith in response to the things that he teaches us? And just a couple more verses. Finally, he says, verses 9, 10, 11, there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. Yes, we're anticipating a rest indeed, for he that is entered into his rest, he has also ceased from his own labors as God did from his. Well, we all want to reach that culmination, don't we? We all want to reach that destination of our salvation culminated. We all want to enter into that rest. Restful day of eternity. We all want that. What happened in Israel was an example to us to be mindful that just because you think you believe in God, it doesn't mean you're going to enter into the rest. And so he then says in verse 11, let us labor therefore to enter into the rest. Labor to enter into the rest. Lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. So when you read these things, what should happen in your life? You should be inspired to labor. Labor, work, work it out. Peter is putting a tremendous amount of importance on faith when he includes our faith as a means to bring us to our final destination. Peter uses this word, same Greek word pistosin in his first letter five times and then refocuses on the same word in his second letter. Every time he uses this word, it's that noun feminine gender. What is he saying here? He is speaking of a mindset that governs our life. We are faith people. That's who we are. We're faith people. We're people of faith. We are people who hear the word of God and we take it earnestly. We hearken. We're people of faith. We don't just hear with our ears. We become engaged in the actions of being doers of the things that we heard. That's faith people. Therefore labor to enter into your rest. This is important to Peter. He's talking to pilgrims scattered throughout all of the parts of the Roman empire, struggling, being persecuted, dying. They need to hear these words. You are kept by the power of God through faith, through faith unto your final destiny. And so pilgrims are faith people. We live our life believing what God has said to us in his word and we hearken. Not always perfectly as we should. Sometimes we forget and go backward. But the spirit and nature of a true believer is we are faith people. We are cautious of the dangers of unbelief operating in our life. I would dare say if you search your soul, as I have mine this week, there are areas where unbelief will show up. Unbelief. Be wary of unbelief. Faith people have their confidence, their courage, find their courage and comfort in the power of God to keep them. And faith people can point to the evidence of God's power at work in them. That's why Peter in his second letter, I will take a moment. You need to look at this second letter, chapter one, second Peter, chapter one. Look at what Peter says here. He's writing to, he opens his letter to them that have obtained like precious faith. Oh, think of what you have been given, obtained is something that has been given to you. You didn't earn it. It was given to you and it was accomplished through the righteousness that was provided for us through our savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is a precious gift that God gave to you at a great expense to himself. Your faith. Many talks about how we are to respond to this and what we ought to be doing. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. I mean, here's where this whole thing begins to multiply and develop is through the knowledge of God. We grow in the things and our awareness of who God is and his word, according as his divine power. Here's that power, the power, the omnipotence of God has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness to the knowledge of him who has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And besides all this, brethren, giving all diligence, add to your faith. Add, you be responsible, take that precious gift and begin to add. This is the whole idea of bringing all these different virtues into your life. And he lists them here in the following statements. Add to your faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, charity. And then in verse eight, if, if you hear that word, if, if these things be in you and abound, they make that you shall neither be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the goal here, is your faith is productive, producing fruit. But he warns those who do not see this and take this warning seriously. He says, but he that lacketh these things, these, these, this evidence of biblical faith in their life, he that lacketh these things is blind. How in the world can you not be engaged in these things? Don't you see a far off? Don't you see what this is all about? You have to be blind, spiritually blind. Something has covered your eyes. Maybe it's unbelief. Blind. He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and have somehow forgotten. You've forgotten. Have you forgotten that you were purged from your old sins? Wherefore, the rather brethren give diligence to make your calling in election. Sure. For if these things be in you, you shall never fall. And so he challenges them here to be committed to adding to the faith and developing their faith as they should, because that's the way of the elect. You want a positive affirmation? Do you want assurance that you are the elect of God? It's not that you can define the theology of it, but you give the evidence of it. You show your election by your fruitfulness of faith. So add to your faith these things and you will have the assurance. Faith people can point to this evidence in their life. Faith people know that they cannot rely on their own strength, but draw from that power of God that is at their disposal. Faith people continue to strive for the goal. They labor. They are overcomers by nature. They are working out their salvation constantly. They are perfecting holiness in the fear of God. They are growing by the word of God and only the people who are faith people please God. Hebrews 11 6, without faith it is impossible to please God. Peter is leading us to acknowledge before God in our eulogy that we know and understand both his power and his wisdom are at work to bring us unto our salvation. There's power here, but what wisdom is on display? And what a glorious end, right? 1 Peter chapter 1, finish out verse 5 quickly, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. What a glorious end for God's people, his faith people. Faith people believe and are experiencing faith in their life. We've learned to use faith to defend ourselves against our enemy. We've learned to use faith as a weapon to overcome our enemy. Faith people are skilled in the use of that shield of faith. Two closing thoughts. One is in 1 John chapter number 5. Look at that quickly. Both of these will be brief, but I need to mention these. 1 John chapter 5, we'll limit our reading here to verses 3, 4, and 5. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. So here's how we display the love of God. We see it not only through his commandments, we see the love of God being displayed by our response to his commandments. And we are a people who do not find his rules, his commandments to be grievous to us. The commandments of God are not burdensome to faith people. They welcome that kind of guidance to their life. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world. Our faith. Our faith. There is something about the wisdom and the design of God that those he has chosen to give his salvation to, he gave his gift of faith to, and that faith now becomes the means of their operating and living out their life effectively in this world. But do you realize that faith gift is in your hands? You're responsible for it. How it is utilized, how it is developed, how it is exercised in your life. And in the end of your life, when all things are over, it all boils down to this. What will you have to offer to the praise and the honor and the glory of the return of your Lord? Want to know what it is? Your faith. Your faith. You believed. Peter will go on and talk about that. People who believe who've never seen. You believe it's true. And you've lived your life according to those things you've heard. One last statement of Jesus. This will be our last text. John chapter 16. John chapter 16, verse 33. Jesus is getting ready to come to the end of his mission, the cross work, the resurrection. And he is encouraging his disciples. And John is particularly interested in those things because he spends from chapter 13 to the end of his gospel just on those last few days, hours of the life of Christ. And he records so many of the words of Jesus in those last hours that the other gospel writers do not record. So John writes in verse 33, these things I have spoken unto you, all the things that I've been teaching you and developing you and preparing you. These things I have spoken unto you that in me, you might find peace. You won't find it in the world. In the world, what are you going to find? He says, you're going to find tribulation in the world. That's a statement of fact. It's not a possibility. In the world, you shall have tribulation. Expect it. But, and I love these words, be of good cheer. And this is, I can see, see this spoken with tremendous force here. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And in this statement, be of good cheer, it is simply putting it literally, it is act like victors. Act like victors. Go through this world knowing you are overcomers. I have overcome it for you. Act like victors. Carry out your life as those who are living like faith people in this world. So, final destination, salvation that awaits us, ready to be revealed in the last time. We are promised that we will get there. We will be kept by the power of God through faith. So we can't separate those. They're both amazing truths. And therefore, our edification and hopefully they do to you what they're meant to do, cause praise and stir you up to labor. They cause you to praise God and stir you up to be more faithful to the gift that has been given to you. Father, thank you for your word and just the constant reminders of those things we need to hear. May it cause us this morning to be more committed in our faith life that will bring honor to your glorious sons appearing, in whose name we pray. Amen.