Salvation is Secure

Very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. I'm going to invite you, brethren, to please open up your Bibles to the first letter of the Apostle Peter. The first letter of the Apostle Peter.

Today, we are going to continue, by God's grace, with our series of a study that we started two weeks ago on what biblical salvation is. or the characteristics of biblical salvation. We have already said that biblical salvation requires the preaching of the gospel, and last week we said that biblical salvation produces a new life. Today, I want us to come to the first letter of the Apostle Peter, and I want us to read together the first nine verses of chapter number one, Today we're going to be making the assertion that biblical salvation is a salvation that is secure, that is kept, that is guarded by the Lord. Those whom the Lord has saved, the Lord will keep and will preserve.

Those whom the Lord has saved, the Lord himself is the one that is going to take them until the end. We're going to be making the assertion here that those who have received genuinely the grace of the Lord will also receive the grace that is going to sustain them and keep them until the end. And I'm taking the words for this sermon from verse four and five. If you pay attention to chapter one, it says to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfaithful, kept in heaven for you who, verse five, who by God's power are being guarded or kept or protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. So the assertion that we're making today, it is a biblical salvation.

It's a salvation that is kept, that is protected by the Lord. So we're going to be reading together, brothers and sisters, from chapter one, verse one, all the way through a chapter, verse nine. We're going to be reading. That is going to give us the context And I hope that we may address from verse three to verse seven if the Lord gives us enough time this afternoon. So let us come before the Lord and let us ask that he will help us, guide us as we consider this biblical salvation that is kept, that is protected by God.

Let us come before the Lord that he will help us and guide us. Let us pray together. Father, once again we're coming before your presence, Lord, and we enter into the throne of grace by your Son, Jesus Christ. He's not according to our merits, he's not according to our works or our deeds, Lord, and I ask that by your Holy Spirit you will guide us, you will lead us as we read the Scriptures and as we preach the Word of God. that your Holy Spirit, Lord, please be upon us as we receive it.

We need to understand what biblical salvation is. We want to be encouraged and be trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We want to take our eyes and not to set them on things of this world, but to send them on things above. And we are so weak. We are so feeble.

We are so distracted. We're so easily taken by the things of this world. We are so easily taken by our thoughts. We are so easily taken by our weaknesses, Lord, that we need your Holy Spirit to guide us and to take us as we consider your word and as we consider the truths that are contained in the scriptures. You have told us, O Lord, that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of the Lord, and you have called us, Lord, not to live by eyes, by sight, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

So we pray, O Lord, that the life that we live for you, we may live it by faith, a faith that is strengthened, initiated, empowered by your word. And we ask, Lord, that you will give us the freedom to speak, that you will give us the freedom to receive, that you will strengthen us in the inner man, so that we will live for your glory. Whatever things that we do, study or work or family, husbands and wives and children, that we will do what you have called us to do for your glory. Your word is sufficient for every single person, Lord, and the situation that every one of your children are going through. So I pray that you will give consolation to the one who needs consolation, that you will give exhortation to the one who needs exhortation, that you will give us encouragement as we go and read your word.

that you will give us illumination and understanding of the gospel, that as we consider the things of the scriptures, our eyes will be placed upon Jesus Christ and not so much upon ourselves and our circumstances, but more upon the completed and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless us, Lord, as we consider this glorious truth that those whom you have saved are the ones who you are going to preserve and keep until the end. Help us and lead us that we will speak according to truth and not according to the imaginations of men. I pray that you will do this in Jesus name. Amen.

Very good, brothers and sisters. As I said today, we're making this assertion that biblical salvation is also a salvation that is kept, a salvation that is guarded, a salvation that is protected. We're going to be addressing verses three through verse seven. As I said, perhaps even we may go on to verse nine, depending on the time. But we're going to be reading now from verse one through verse nine.

First Peter chapter one, verse one through nine. Let us read. This is the word of the Lord. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect, exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood. May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

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 unfaithful, 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, everything that we've said up to this point, 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. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. As I said today, We're going to be considering this statement that biblical salvation is a salvation that is kept, that is protected, a salvation that the Lord keeps and the one whom the Lord has saved, the Lord will take until the end.

In a sense, the topic that we have here is this topic of assurance of salvation. The fact that a person, that a Christian, can know and should know that they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and that in belonging to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord is going to complete the work that He has started, and the salvation that they received is a salvation that the Lord is going to preserve and is going to give them until the end. whom the Lord has saved is the one that is going to protect. This is the doctrine of assurance or certainty of salvation that a person will know, spiritually speaking, that they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not that they simply say that they belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather that their professing being in Christ corresponds to the reality of heaven.

In heaven, God says, this is my child, and they say, I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. There has to be an agreement between the divine testimony and the testimony of the person. Because when we go through the scriptures, we realize that there's going to be people that are genuinely convinced. that they are in Jesus Christ. They're genuinely convinced that they belong to the Lord, that they say, Lord, Lord, I belong to you, and I do certain things.

But their testimony of their lips does not correspond to the testimony of heaven. So a spiritual certainty is not one that is originated in the mind of the person, but certainty that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ is one that is spiritual in nature. The Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 8 and Galatians chapter 4 that the Spirit of God is the one that testifies with our spirit, that we are the children of God. So it is a testimony that comes from above that tells us that you are a child of God, because of grace and through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, because of what Christ has done. And then this testimony, a spiritual testimony, is the one that gives us certainty that the one who has begun a work in us will bring it to completion.

The doctrine of assurance of salvation, it is to have an agreement with the divine testimony. confess before you, my dear brother and sister, that perhaps within the practical context of the local church, this doctrine of assurance of salvation is perhaps one of the most challenging when it comes to the life of the local church and the life of the Christian. Because when it comes to assurance of salvation, you can have two groups of people. Perhaps, or three, but we're just going to mention two. One, perhaps, in which we have a genuine brother and a genuine sister who, by grace, through faith, has been inserted into the Lord Jesus Christ.

They have repented of their sins, they have trusted in the Lord, and they're genuinely in the Lord, but because of their sins, Because of their situations, because of their lack of faith, they have fallen into sin and now they are struggling with assurance of their salvation. They do not know if they belong genuinely to Christ. The conviction of sin that they have is so much that they feel that they are separated from Christ and they struggle and they suffer and they are within the captivity of their own thoughts and their own efforts. They are suffering because now they feel disconnected from the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, there's another group of people that may be within the context of the Church, and that is those who are certain that they are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Whatever it is that is giving them assurance of salvation, they are certain. They may be walking in darkness, they may be doing things against the Lord, they may be going against the commandments of the Lord, but they are certain that they are in the Lord Jesus Christ, and the sins that they commit do not pierce their conscience, and they never even doubt that they are in the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever the situation is, we are never called to give assurance of salvation to anyone. Whether it is the brother or sister that is struggling because of their sins, or a person that is walking in darkness, we are not to give assurance of salvation. We are not to take away assurance of salvation.

Why? Because this is a spiritual work that should be done only by the Spirit of the Lord. the one who gives testimony to a person that they are the children or they are a child of God. The Spirit of God is the one who comes and convinces the brother or sister that is in sin, and is the same Spirit of God, the one that through that conviction brings that brother and sister to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the same spirit, the one that applies the grace of the gospel and the assurance and the certainty that if they come to Jesus and if they confess their sins, 1 John 1, verse 9, He's just and faithful to forgive their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

It's the same spirit that through the person that is walking in darkness, that is walking in unrighteousness, is the same spirit that we hope and expect will convict a person of their sins. Once they are convicted of their sins, they will have certainty that they belong to Christ, not because of their fleshly externalities, but because of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The assurance that we are supposed to have in Christ is not derived from our circumstances, who we are, or what we have done. The assurance that we are in Jesus Christ and that we are the children of God is meant to be derived from the presence of the Spirit giving us testimony through the gospel and through the scriptures that Jesus Christ has died upon the cross and that that is enough for me to be a child of the Lord. Our circumstances should not inform us whether they are positive or negative.

And that is exactly what was happening with these churches of Asia, Cappadocia, Galatia, and Bithynia as the Apostle Peter is writing this letter. These churches that we have here in verse 1 and verse 2 were churches that were in Gentile land. They were not Jews, and they were struggling. They were going through tribulations and trials and persecutions, and they were going through many sorts of problems and difficulties, and they were tempted to believe that because of the trials and because of the difficulties that they were going through that God was no longer on their side. That the difficulties that they were going through was an evidence that they were not in Christ.

So Peter is going to write this letter to give these people hope that our circumstances, the sufferings, trials, tribulations, the things that we go through are not that which inform us of the certainty that we can have that if we belong to Jesus And it's truly a biblical salvation. He's the one that is going to keep us. Some of them were struggling with persecution that was coming from the government. Some of these people were struggling with the fact that they were married to unbelieving husbands or unbelieving spouses. Some of them were going through trials and tribulations.

So the apostle is going to say, chapter 3 and chapter 4 and chapter 5, Do not think that the sufferings that you're going through are actually something strange that is not happening to your brothers and sisters, but you are to remain faithful. You are to remain in the faith. Also, you may remember that famous verse there in 1 Peter 5, verses 8 and 9. he is going to summarize Peter, that all of these sufferings, all of these tribulations, all of these things that the people of God are going through, this is like Satan, who is like a roaring lion that is seeking someone to devour, but he says in the next verse, firm in your faith, knowing that the same type of trials your brothers and sisters in other parts of the world are going through. And once you have gone through those sufferings, verse 10, then the Lord who has called you to the glory of Christ is the one that will perfect you and will establish you.

In other words, that the sufferings of this present time should not tell you that God is not going to keep you, that God is not going to protect you, that God is not going to sustain you. Why? because a biblical salvation is a salvation that is kept. A genuine salvation is one that is going to be preserved. The one whom God has genuinely saved is the one whom God is genuinely going to keep and sustain until the end.

Our circumstances, whether they are positive or negative in this present time, should not inform us about a spiritual condition. The only thing that informs us upon a spiritual condition is our eyes placing Jesus Christ. This is the substance of what it is to be a Christian. The externalities of the spiritual reality will be manifested as the result of it. But we are not to look outside to define what is inside, we are to look to Christ.

And in looking to Christ, we can have certainty that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. So the Apostle Peter is going to go through this book trying to point to that reality. And not so much the reality that God is the one who keeps us, but rather pointing the believers to what God is and what God has done. because we can only have certainty about ourselves when our eyes go outside of self and they are focused by faith on who God is and what God has done. Lack of assurance of salvation or fleshly assurance of salvation is the result of not looking by faith to Christ and what he has done, but looking to our circumstances and deriving either fear or satisfaction from who we are presently.

That is not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to look to him who who he is and what he has done, and the more that the spirit of the Christian, by grace, detaches themselves from who they are and what they accomplish, but focus more on who Christ is, the more that we are strengthening our faith to know that he who began a good work in us will bring it to completion. The Apostle is going to point the Church through different things that God is, that God has done, and what I want us to do in this time that we have is that I want to point you to three, perhaps four, or perhaps five things that we see in the first chapter of 1 Peter 1 that are going to give us assurance that He who has begun a work in us will bring it to completion, that him who God has saved is the person that God is also going to preserve. And the question, perhaps the practical question that is derived from this is, do you know? Like, do you have certainty that if you die tonight, you're going to be taken into the presence of God?

Do you have assurance and certainty that you are a child of the Lord? Do you know? And not so much or perhaps only do you know, but how do you know? that you belong to Christ. How do you know that if you die tonight, perhaps you may be brought into the presence of the Lord?

How do you know that you're going to be received into the presence of the Lord? What is the grounds that you have to make the assertion of saying, I believe in Jesus Christ? I have faith? Or is it that I prayed a prayer? Or is it that I've been baptized?

Or is it that I was born in a Christian family? Or is it that I've been attending church and doing Christian things? Then the answer that we're going to see here implicitly, and the Apostle Peter, is that we are not to look to any of those things. any of the trials, tribulations, or the positive things that we may have in our lives, we are to look to the things that God has done, who he is, and only in that we can rejoice, as he says in verse 6. We can rejoice even if for a little while we might be going through various trials.

So I'm going to point you, as I said, to all of those things that hopefully point our eyes to the Lord Jesus Christ. If I was going to put this in terms of a question, the question that we would ask ourselves is, How can we know that God is going to keep us until the end? How can we, as Christians, know and have certainty that those whom the Lord has saved are going to be preserved until the end? How can we know for sure That those whom the Lord has saved are not going to have a surprise in the end and receive the words from the Lord, depart from me you workers of iniquity. But how can we know for sure and have certainty in that God is going to keep his people, that God is going to preserve us, and that God is going to take us until the end.

Three to five different things that I wanted to point you here. The first one is going to be found in verse 3. Pay attention to verse 3. The apostle is going to say this. He says, The first one is here, the reason why we can be sure and know that God is going to take us until the end.

It is because the salvation that we have been born again and be children of God is not the result of our own works, but we are told here very clearly is the result of the mercy of the Lord. Very clearly we're told there in verse 3, One of the things that we need to remind ourselves is this, brother and sister, if we are found forgiven and we are found to be a child of God and we call ourselves Christians, this is not the result of our own works. This is not the result even of our own faith because the Apostle does not say there that we have been born again because of our faith. Rather, the Apostle tells us that we have been born again according to the mercy of the Lord. This concept of the mercy of the Lord, brethren, is really powerful because mercy in a general way, in a general sense, is that God does not give you what you deserve.

That is the mercy of the Lord, that God does not give us what we actually deserve, that God restrains from giving us what we actually deserve. You and me know that that which is inside of us, inside of our minds and our hearts, is enough for God to give us the totality of His wrath and the totality of His judgment. But the mercy of the Lord is manifested in that He does not give us what we actually deserve. This concept of the mercy of the Lord is more clearly seen in the Old Testament. You remember when the people of Israel were captive in Egypt and then the Lord will come down to liberate them and to take into the promised land.

And you remember that the people of Israel, they fell into sin into the wilderness. And as Moses is coming down from the mountain, then God is going to bring wrath upon the people of Israel and he's going to destroy them and he's going to eliminate them. But Moses comes before the presence of the Lord and he prays and he says, Lord, please, keep and preserve these people, and there the mercy of the Lord was manifested. The people of Israel deserved the wrath because of their sins. God restrained His wrath.

He did not give them what they deserved. It is true that a whole generation perished in the wilderness, but it's also true that the whole people of Israel was preserved, and some people made it into the Promised Land. That was the mercy of the Lord that did not give His people what they actually deserved. When you look into the Old Testament, you realize that the mercy of God not giving you what you deserve always comes with the grace of the Lord. On the other side, we have the grace of the Lord.

The grace of the Lord is that God gives you what you don't deserve. With the mercy of the Lord, we don't receive what we deserve. With the grace of the Lord, we receive what we don't deserve. And we see that in the people of Israel, and we see that in the people of the Church of the Lord in the New Testament. The people of Israel did not receive the judgment that they deserve because of the mercy of the Lord.

They received the grace of entering into the Promised Land. So it is for the people of God. We don't receive the judgment that we deserve, but we receive the glorious gift that we have in this verse here of having been born again. The grace of God is the one that gives us new life and that we are born again. So then that means that mercy is that which caused the childhood of a child of God.

We are not a child of God because of your faith. You're not a child of God because of your works. You're not a child of God because of your church attendance. We are not children of God because of the things that we do. We are children of God because of the mercy of the Lord.

And the mercy of the Lord is a powerful concept because it's also a legal concept. Once the mercy of the Lord has given unto a person, a veredict has been given, and that is that person is forgiven. Just as the Christians, when they are forgiven, they are forgiven once for all, that mercy that we receive is given to us once for all. It does not mean that God is not going to discipline us when we do things that we're not supposed to do. But when it comes to eternal matters of salvation, once a person has received the mercy of God, he will be wrong of God to take away that mercy in the future.

God does not change once a person has received the mercy. that this person is not going to receive the judgment that they deserve, but rather receive the mercy and the grace of salvation that is given once for all. Being born again is hence eternal because the mercy of the Lord is eternal. And being born again, it is not only a status, but it's a transformation. If you come with me to verse 23 and 24 of chapter 1, this is the second time in which Peter is going to use this idea of being born again.

And being born again is an eternal thing that is not going to change because of the nature of what it is to be born again. Pay attention to verse 22 in chapter 1 of 1 Peter. It says, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again. This is the second time that Peter uses this idea. The first one is there in chapter one.

It is according to his mercy that we have been born again. Now he says in verse 23, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable. through the living and abiding word. The apostle is saying that the fact that we have been begotten again, that we are made Christians, is the result of a seed. A seed that is not perishable.

You know that perishable means that it dies. But it's an imperishable seed that comes and abides inside of that person. The person who has been born again has been born again of an imperishable seed, and that is the Word of the Lord. Verse 24, The Word of the Lord remains? forever and is the seat of the Word of the Lord, the one that has cost the begottenness of the Christian.

So it is the seat of the Word of God, the one that is given into the person that is generally saved. So then that means that the person who has received the mercy of the Lord is a person who has been born again and this person who has been born again receives the imperishable seat of God that is never going to die. Why? Because biblical salvation is a salvation that is kept and that is preserved. Not human salvation, not church salvation, not religious salvation, but biblical salvation is one that is kept and that is protected by God himself because the Christian receives the imperishable seed of God that makes that person to be born again.

And we could explore this even further if you go to John chapter 1, then you realize that to be born again, not according to the flesh and blood of men, but according to the will of God, is also to receive the right or to receive the authority to be the sons and daughters of God. Because to be a child of God, it is not only a transformation that happens in a person, but it's also a legal status. You know how many times the Bible speaks about adoption? that we have been adopted as sons and daughters of God. How the Bible speaks that we have been born again.

Being born again and adoption are two sides of the same reality in the scriptures. To be adopted is not to have legally in heaven the status of a son and daughter of God. So the one who legally receives this status of being born again a child of God will never lose that status. If it has been received by the grace of the Lord, it will be kept by the same grace of the Lord. And if we return to chapter 1, then you see that the glorious thing about mercy, brethren, or at least to me, when I hear this word mercy, that I don't receive what I deserve, but by His grace I receive that I don't receive the punishment that I deserve, but by His grace I receive the blessing that I don't deserve, the only thing that comes to my mind is, the cross is sufficient.

Because if the atonement of Christ upon the cross is sufficient, then I can receive the mercy of the Lord. If the cross of the Lord is sufficient, then I can receive the grace of the Lord. Because God is not an unjust judge that simply is going to take my sins and put them under the carpet and then just simply forget about them and I'm just simply not going to give you what you deserve. If a judge in our system was going to take a criminal and not give them to what they deserve, that is not mercy. That is an unrighteous judgment.

God does not do unrighteous judgment. He gives us genuine mercy that is righteous and that is good. And the reason why mercy is righteous and is good, it is because the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is sufficient to pay the price of the wrath that I deserve. So God does not give me what I deserve, but rather gives me what I don't deserve. And that is the beauty of what it is to be a Christian.

Second, the reason why we can be sure that God is going to keep us and is going to preserve us, it is not only because of the mercy of God that gives us life, we are born again from an imperishable seed that is not going to pass away, but second, because of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross. His resurrection, namely. Pay attention to verse 3 once again. How? through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfailing, that is kept in heaven for you."

Here, what the Apostle has in mind is something that he is going to expound in verse 10. We're going to read verse 10, but pay attention to what I say here. And this is that the victory of Jesus Christ as the Savior, that is his resurrection from the dead, it is the point that divides and separates the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he lives a perfect life, he submits himself to the commandments. He submits himself to the Father, he submits himself to everything that was expected of the Messiah, and he fulfills all of those things, and willingly, he goes to the cross, and then he dies, and is powerfully resurrected.

In this point of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, this separates. the sufferings of Christ in coming down to this world, like, be like one of us, and to die upon the cross, and the glories and the exaltations of Christ. This is the victory of Jesus Christ over death and over sin. Jesus Christ defeated death not only when He died, but more importantly, Jesus defeated death when He was resurrected. It is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ that shows us that he is victorious over sin and that he is victorious over death.

So then we have that in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ we have the beginning of the glories of Jesus Christ who has conquered. And now he's given to his people, the church, the same pattern. The church is to come to this world to suffer in this present age and then to enter into the subsequent glories. Read with me please. verse 10 of chapter 1, here's where the Apostle expands this idea of the sufferings of Christ, that is the point of his death and then his resurrection, and the subsequent glories.

Pay attention to verse 10 of chapter 1. It says, concerning this salvation of 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 10, concerning this salvation of The prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours, that is to us, the church, searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. The prophets from the old times were prophesying about the sufferings of Christ, that is, that Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, will come to this world to humble Himself in the likeness of our flesh, that He will be mocked, that He will be rejected, that He will be persecuted, the sufferings of Christ, that He will be taken up to the cross, that He will be killed, Isaiah 53, that He will die upon the cross, the sufferings of Christ. But that was not the end of the Messiah. It was the subsequent glories that will come for Jesus Christ.

That is that upon His resurrection, the resurrected Jesus Christ declared His victory over the system of this world and His sufferings, and now He is victorious. These are the glories of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was, it says in verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from them, things into which the angels long to look." In other words, those things that the prophets prophesied in the Old Testament about Jesus Christ, his sufferings, and the subsequent glories, it was not for them to witness and to experience, it was for you. It was in your times that he was going to come and die, and it was for you that he was going to be resurrected and the pattern of suffering and subsequent glory is the pattern that the church is meant to repeat in this present time.

So the pattern of suffering in this present time is not to make us hopeless, but rather is to give us the expectation of the things that are going to come into the future. That's why the apostle says that we have been begotten again to a living hope, a hope that is attached to an inheritance, that is undefiled, that is kept in heaven for us. What the apostle is trying to tell us is that the victory of Jesus Christ ensures that we can have a hope of things that are going to come even if our trials or tribulation of the present time inform us of something different. The trials and difficulties of this present world do not take the fact that we are going to go through trials and sufferings, but there's going to be subsequent glories for which we have been chosen and appointed. We have an inheritance, pay attention there to verse 4, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.

kept in heaven for you. It is through the resurrection of Jesus Christ that we have been born again to a living hope. The hope that we have of the future inheritance is not dead. It's not empty. It is a living hope, a hope of things that are to come, an inheritance that is kept in heaven for us.

The Apostle Paul uses this concept in Romans chapter eight. If you come with me, please, to Romans chapter eight, we have explored that in the past. But let me just simply show you that there. How the Spirit that has made us the children of God is the one that testifies that we are children, and not only children, but we are also heirs together with the Lord Jesus Christ. Heirs as long as we suffer in this present time and as we receive the glory that is to come.

Pay attention to verse 15 of Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans 8, verse 15, This is what I was referring before. with our spirit that we are children of God. It is the Spirit of God, the one that tells us that we're children of God.

He's not the pastor, he's not my brother or sister, he's not the church, he's not my friend. The one that gives us testimony that we're children of God is the Spirit of God. Verse 17. And if children, pay attention, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we might also be glorified with him. So we are heirs of this future hope that we have, this living hope of the things that are to come, provided that we suffer with him, that we are united to the sufferings of Christ to enter into the subsequent glories.

Christ Jesus came and humbled himself and died and he went up to the cross and upon his resurrection he entered into the subsequent glory. So the church is to come to this world and to suffer because of the presence of sin that is around us, in us, and the opposition of the system of the world against the church. There's going to be trials, there's going to be tribulations, but we have a hope I live in hope of an inheritance that is kept and is undefiled and that is not fading away, that is reserved, the Apostle says, in heaven for you. This is the subsequent glories to which we hope. So that means, my dear brother and sister, that the present circumstances of the Christian should not inform the certainty of our belonging to God, but only what Jesus Christ has done upon the cross and the promises that he has given us of the future.

We might be going through trials. We might be going through tribulations, as the early church was going through trials and tribulations and persecution and infirmities and sufferings within the household, sufferings outside the household, sufferings with the government, sufferings in all sorts and types. That is the whole 1 Peter. But the certainty that we have is not derived from how good our circumstances are or how negative our circumstances are. Our certainty is derived that the mercy of the Lord has made us his children.

and that in being made a children of God, we have been given life to a hope. A hope that is not of this world. A hope that is an inheritance that is to come, that is kept in heaven for us. And the hope that we have of that inheritance is a living hope. Why is it they live in hope?

Because hope and faith are connected. If we have faith to look back into the past and see what Christ Jesus has done, the same spirit that gives us faith to look back and to see what Jesus Christ has done is the same spirit that makes us look forward to the glories that are to come and the expectations that we have. The work that he has begun in his church, he will bring it to completion. Why? Because the work in the church is not the result of how good the church is, but is the result of his mercy.

And this mercy produces a new nature. We are the children of God. We have the imperishable seed of the Word of God in us, and also we have this living hope towards that inheritance. And finally, and with this I think I'm going to finish, otherwise I will go too long. If you come with me and return to verse 5, there we have another reason.

Why can we be sure that those who are biblically saved are going to be kept and guarded? First, because of the mercy of the Lord. Second, because of the victory of Jesus Christ in His resurrection. But third, and very important here, the apostle is going to use these terms because of the power of God. Pay attention to verse 5.

Verse 5, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Such an strange expression. I don't know if it is for you and your ears, but it is for me. Pay attention in verse five. Who, that is Christians, by God's power or through God's power are being kept.

So presently being kept, being protected. And this is through faith. for a salvation and this salvation is ready to be revealed in the last time. So that is that there is something in the future that is already certain. That there is a salvation that is ready to be revealed.

And that salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time, in the future, We are walking towards that salvation that is ready, and as we are walking towards that salvation, as those who have received mercy, as those who are partakers of the victory of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're walking towards that salvation being guarded by the power of the Lord. And the question that I asked myself many years ago is, what is the power of God that keeps us and preserves us? I know that God has power to create and he speaks and all things are made. I know that he has power just to simply to transform and to give life. But what is the power?

Is this his strength? Is this his might that will preserve me just walking in righteousness? Or is this this energy, this power that will keep me just looking to Jesus? What is this power? of God that is going to operate in his people.

And as you see here, it is not only the power of God that we're told, but we're told very clearly here in verse five, that is the power of God through our faith. And the combination of those two things, it only happens two or three times in the scriptures. The first one, it is a very famous verse in Romans chapter one, you remember verse 16, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God. unto salvation, for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it, that is the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, right?

That is the first instance in which we see this power of God, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, working together with the faith of those who receive it. And that is not the last time that the Apostle uses it. Actually, if you come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, we are going to see once again the combination there of faith, the faith that we are supposed to have, and this power of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2.

1 Corinthians chapter 2 in verse 1, and it says, And I, when I came to you, Corinthians 2, verse 1, and I, that is Paul, when I came to you, that is to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 1, and I, Paul, when I came to you, Corinthians, brothers and sisters, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided, Paul says, for I decided not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. For I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling. And my speech, that is the things that he preached unto the Corinthians, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith may not rest in the wisdom of men, but that your faith may rest in the power of God. There's another instance, but we're not going to see that.

The power of God operating through the people so that the faith of them will be established not upon the empty wisdom of men, but upon the power of the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to Pauline theology, to Pauline writings I mean, we realize that for Paul, The gospel, the message of the gospel was so powerful that he even compares the message that is preached to the power of creation. Actually, please do come with me and see that in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. The power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is such that Paul is going to consider and compare that with that which happens in creation. 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

It says in verse one, therefore, the apostle is speaking to the Corinthians, therefore having this ministry by the mercy of God. You see that, the mercy of the Lord. Because Paul did not deserve to be an apostle of God, remember? He deserved to die, but he didn't. And then by grace, he received the apostleship.

It says, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced this graceful Under hardened ways, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even, then Paul says, and even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Glory is another word to speak about power. It is the glory of Christ who is the image of God.

But now pay attention to 5. For what we proclaim, that is the gospel, It's not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for your sake. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, that is creation, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is that the power of God that was in creation, when you bring it into the consummation into the New Testament, is seen and is manifested into the new creation that happens in the sinner that has been forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ. When the power of the gospel comes into a person, then that person receives the light of God, of the new creation, the new beginning, mercy of the Lord is manifested by the power of the Lord, and the power of the Lord now is resting not upon the wisdom of men, but is resting upon faith, genuine given faith.

The person who is biblically and genuinely saved is not the person that comes to the agreement of the mind that Jesus Christ is Lord and that he died upon the cross. That is true, but the person that is biblically saved is the one that receives the transforming grace of God that opens our eyes to know that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ is the only one who can pay for the price of our sins and the wrath that we deserve and when the Spirit of God give us new life or makes us the children of God from the inside then we believe and that faith is not standing upon the wisdom of man but is standing upon the the power of God and that faith that God has given us is going to exist within us until the end. Not because faith is strengthened by my own self, because faith is strengthened by the Word of the Lord that continues to be given to the child of God. Why? Because faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of the Lord.

The person who has been genuinely saved has been begotten of the mercy of the Lord. No words and deeds. And this mercy is seen that we have the imperishable seed of the Word of the Lord in us. And as we receive the imperishable seed of the Word of the Lord, we are partakers of the victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was resurrected, we are also resurrected, and we are going to enter into the subsequent glories.

We have the inheritance that is ahead of us. And as we are walking in this living hope to this future hope that we have of this inheritance, we are being guarded, we are being kept by the power of God that is operating through our faith. So we are becoming more like the Lord Jesus Christ and the work that he has begun in his people, he will bring it to completion. That's why God, through the apostle Peter, now can tell to all of these people in verse six, in this you rejoice. even if now for a little while you are grieved by various trials.

In this you rejoice. The Apostle says you are not to have a perspective of the circumstances that are making you suffer and the trials and the tribulations. You are to rejoice in the greater perspective, in the eternal perspective of what God has done by his mercy, what Jesus Christ has accomplished upon the cross, and this glorious inheritance that you have, this living hope. In this you are supposed to rejoice. I never call you to rejoice on the things that are going to happen in your life.

In this I call you to rejoice, even if now for a little while you're grieved by various trials." Because then he says in verse 7 and 8, the purpose of these trials, you know what it is? It is to test the genuineness of your faith. Count it all joy when you fall into various trials. You remember James chapter 1?

Count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience, and let patience have its perfect work, that you might be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." The testing of our faith is what makes us complete. The genuine Christian is going to suffer yes, is going to suffer in this world. But the hope and the expectations that we have is not rooted in this present world and the absence of suffering or the absence of joy. It is rooted in a future reality that we have in Jesus Christ.

Brethren, That's why any message that does not confront the church with the reality that we are to be partakers of the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories is a message that tells us either that brings the subsequent glories into the present, like many people will do, and they will tell you if you suffer it's because you didn't have sufficient faith. If you're sick, it's because you don't have sufficient faith. If you're going through struggles in your relationships, it's because you don't have sufficient faith. And if you're going through all of these difficulties, it's because you don't have sufficient faith. Faith is not the reason why we enter into the subsequent glories.

Faith is the instrument that connects us to Christ, and He is the one who has accomplished the subsequent glories. And even if we suffer in this present time, there's going to be one day in which these sufferings come to an end, and we will be in the presence of the Lord. Why? Because biblical salvation is a salvation that is kept. Biblical salvation is a salvation that is guarded.

Biblical salvation is one that is preserved. Biblical genuine salvation is one that gives us the promise that God who has begun a good work in us will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why it is so important that we will be proclaimers of the biblical gospel of Christ that saves. Because if a person has been saved generally by the grace of the Lord, then that person is no longer the responsibility of a church of people, but this person now is in the hands of the Lord. And the mercy of the Lord that has given eternal life is the mercy of the Lord that is going to keep that person until the end.

That person will not receive what they deserve, but they will receive the grace of the blessings of Christ, the things that we've done deserve. That is the glory of being in Christ Jesus. And only if the Spirit, brethren, will give us a perspective that these things which this Colombian person has spoken about in these last 46 minutes, that they are more greater, or that they're greater, of a greater value than any of our lives, then we will face the reality of our days in a different way. We are to ask the Lord that by his spirit he will open our eyes every day to see that the most important that a person can have is to be right with God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything else is going to be under the sovereign hand of the Lord as he conforms us to Christ, our trials, our tribulations.

And as we can say, even though we have not seen him, we love him. Even though we do not now see him, we believe in him and we rejoice with joy unspeakable. awaiting for the outcome of our faith. Verse 9, the salvation of our souls. That is the glorious message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Praise be to Him. Amen? Amen. Let us pray. Father, we give you thanks, Lord, and who are we to speak of these matters, O Lord?

I only pray that for any one of my brothers or my sisters that you will bring by the power of your word and your spirit the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that when we are tempted to look to self, when we are tempted to look to our circumstances, to our works and our deeds, that, Lord, that you will come by your Holy Spirit and that you will take us to the finished and the completed work of Jesus Christ, that you will take us, Lord, through the word of God to this glorious hope that we have, this living hope. We don't want to have a hope that is death, Lord. We don't want to have a hope that it is empty. That is the only hope that we find within ourselves. That is the only hope that we find within our circumstances.

That is the only hope that we find within our strength and our plans and our affairs. This is the only hope that we can give to ourselves when we plan what is going to happen tomorrow or what is going to happen next week or next year. That is the only hope that we can give us, uncertain and empty. We want to have a living hope, the living hope that has been accomplished and conquered through the victory over Christ, over death, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This victory that is given to us by grace, that even though we know we have to walk through these times of trials and tribulations, just as our Lord did, enter into the subsequent glories also your bride.

Provided that we suffer with Christ, we will receive the glories that are to come. So I pray, O Lord, that you will teach us to count our lives as nothing and as lost, that you will teach us, Lord, not to be not to be easily taken by the things of this world, not to be easily taken by the things that are passing away, that you will teach us, Lord, to see our money, that you will teach us, Lord, to see our work, that you will teach us, Lord, to see our family, that you will teach us, Lord, to see our husbands, our wives, our children, that you will teach us, Lord, to see our plans and perspectives and the things of this world in light and in perspective of this other glorious reality, this eternal reality in which we are called to rejoice. Help us, Lord. We're so feeble and we're so weak and it's so easy for us just to say these words And he's so easy, just in the next statement, just to think about and to be utterly taken and distracted by the things that are passing away. I pray, O Lord, that as we are diligent with the temporal things that you have given us, we might do it in light of the glorious eternal things that are found in Christ Jesus.

that our identity might not be found only in temporal things, Lord, but that our identity might be found in the completed work of Jesus Christ. Preserve us. Keep us, O Lord. We know that you have promised that you will do. Give us your mercy.

Give us your grace. Give us, Lord, a greater understanding of this living hope that we have in Christ, this inheritance You have given us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of this glorious inheritance that we're going to receive in the last time. So that through that Holy Spirit, you might testify to our spirit that we're children of God, and not only children, but also heirs, co-heirs with Christ Jesus, provided that we suffer this present age. Help us, O Lord, please, to know that you are the one who keep us, that you are, that is your power, the power of your gospel, the one that brings that which is dead into life, that which is in darkness into light. Help us, O Lord.

And if there is anyone among us that, as we have just simply read these things, if there is anyone among us who is not in Christ Jesus, I pray, O Lord, that you will not give them certainty and assurance and peace of their spiritual ways just in the flesh. But rather, Lord, that through your Holy Spirit, you will bring genuine and biblical conviction of sin. And as you bring biblical conviction of sin, you will also bring the peace and the joy that is found only in Christ Jesus. And that today is the day of salvation, that we can come to Christ and rest in him and live in him. And I pray for everyone here, my brothers and my sisters, that you will strengthen us.

Lord, we are so feeble, we are so weak. We hear these things and we are just so tempted to despair, to doubt. We are so tempted, Lord, to fix the problems of our sin in our own strength. We are tempted to fix the problem of our unrighteousness in our own wisdom. Teach us, Lord, to look to you and to have a glimpse of the completed work of Jesus Christ.

Bless us, Lord, And I pray that you will do this for each one of these brothers and sisters, husbands, wives, marriages, for our children, Lord, for each one of the families here present. We pray for our brothers and sisters who, for some reason, are not able to be here with us today. We pray for them, and we ask, Lord, that you will protect us from ourselves initially, and that you will protect us from this world. I pray that you will do this in Jesus' name. Amen.