God's Merciful and Mighty Salvation

I. The God of Our Salvation (3)

II. The Gift of Our salvation (4)

III. The Guarantee of Our Salvation (5)

I. The God of our Salvation (3)

Blessed

A. Praise God for His Election

B. Praise God for His Regeneration

C. Praise God for His Resurrection

1 Peter 1:3 ESV

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,

a. Praise God for His Election

Blessed, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Following Peter’s introduction his letter to the exiles, and his message of God’s work of salvation he then burst into praise. Peter’s Trinitarian doctrine of salvation results in God honoring doxology, praise and worship. He starts these two verses off with a phrase used over and over in the Scriptures,

Psalm 28:6 ESV

Blessed be the Lord! For he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy.

Psalm 65:1 ESV

Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.

These are just a couple of examples in the OT of the people of God praising God by proclaiming, Blessed be the Lord… The NT writers us the same phrase to bring honor, glory and praise to the LORD!

Mary proclaims,

Psalm 65:

Luke 1:68 ESV

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people

Paul begins his letter to the Ephesians in,

Ephesians 1:3 ESV

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

There is one change or addition you will notice that Peter and Paul both add to this doxological phrase, The OT authors often wrote and proclaimed Blessed be the LORD, or Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. However, Peter and Paul both praised God saying, Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ! They have added a new name, the name of our Lord and Savior,

the second person of the Trinity,

the one who is the exact image of God the Father,

the radiance of the Father’s glory,

the perfect lamb of God, slain for the sins of the world.

the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,

the Lord Jesus Christ!

Peter and Paul understood the deity of Christ the fact that he was coequal and coeternal with the Father. They understood Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, the sinless Son of God who had been sent to this earth born of a virgin, living a sinless life, preaching a gospel of repentance and trust, and then being crucified that He might pay our sin debt, and rising from the dead so that we would be the firstfruits of our resurrection!

We must be careful here and not interpret Father as the one who created the Son, because the Son has always existed with the Father. Instead the Father directs, the Son obeys. The Father creates through the Son. The Father sends and the Son goes where the Father sends. Our salvation is made possible by the call of the Father and the crucifixion of the Son.

Blessed and praise be to that God, our God, our Savior, our LORD. Here is why this is important, when we are in the midst of trials, suffering, spiritual warfare we ought to be meditating on the Gospel of God. When we think of the good news of Jesus Christ, the plan or our salvation, the purpose of our salvation, and the surety of our salvation we ought like Peter, burst into praise, giving God glory and honor for giving us new life in Christ and promising us a perfect eternal life in glory when He returns.

b. Praise God for His Merciful Redemption.

b. Praise God for His Regeneration

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

Here is the phrase I want us to camp out on a minutes. We cannot miss the sovereignty of God in our salvation. Our salvation and new birth is caused, brought about, made to happen according to His great mercy.

Mercy here expresses,

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. ἔλεος

kindness or concern expressed for someone in need, mercy, compassion, pity, clemency

This kindness, compassion, and clemency is expressed of God toward us as, In Paul says this about humanity,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Do you see the state of everyone of us? Would any of us say that this does not describe us, pre salvation? How many of us were spiritually dead, with no desires for God or the things of God? How many of us were following the course of the world? Carrying out the passions of the flesh? If that is true then we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind!

We want leave here without the next verse in Ephesians,

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Do you see it? What did Peter says, according to his great mercy He has caused us to be born again!

Now let’s think about the phrase born again. Where have we heard that before? Turn to .

Here we have Nicodemus a Pharisee questioning who Jesus is and by whom He receives His power and authority.

John 3:3 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 1:3 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Nicodemus is confused, wondering how can he enter the womb a second time and be born,

John 3:5–7 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

John 3:5 ESV

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Here we see the new birth, our salvation is a work of the Spirit who is sent by God to cause us to be born again. It is not a work of man, it is not because we said a prayer, walked and isle, or asked Jesus into our heart. These things may have occured when we were saved, but they did not cause us to be saved. Salvation is a work of God, by the Spirit, and through the Son!

Jesus goes on to say

John 1:5 ESV

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Does anyone want to share their testimony on how their new birth happened? How you came to recognize you were a sinner, a rebel against God, and you understood that you needed a Savior, and that Christ had died so that you should repent of your sin and trust in Him?

c. Praise God for His Resurrection

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,

When we are born again, we are born to a living hope. We no longer dread the future, we no longer doomed to hell, we no longer doubt our destination.

As born again believers we are saved to a new hope. We now look to the future with great confidence. We long to be with Christ who is our living Hope. He is the One who secured our living hope through the resurrection from the dead. Because Christ has risen from the dead we have hope and confidence that we will one day rise from the dead. We will either burst forth out of the grave, or just be snatched up right behind those who have gone up before us. At that time we will join him for eternity and worship and serve our King with great unadulterated joy, passion, and love.

1 Thessalonians 4

Peter is preparing his readers for the subject he is about to address, suffering and sojourning in this present world. He lets us know that we have something greater than the present groaning we experience, we have a living hope!

Paul tells the Thessalonians,

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 ESV

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.

1 Thessalonians 4:

The believers living hope in Christ Jesus;

overcomes sorrow in the midst of suffering,

perseveres through pain in the midst of persecution, and

encourage us as elect exiles expecting His return.

Spurgeon say’s it this way,

Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter Exposition

A Christian’s hope purifies him, excites him to diligence, makes him seek after that which he expects to obtain.

How then have we obtained this living hope?

We have obtained this living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead!

If Jesus Christ had just died on the cross and stayed in the grave we would have no hope. If Jesus would have stayed dead there would be no reason for us to expect eternal life. If Jesus would not have risen from the grave we would have no confidence in our future resurrection.

Apart from Jesus’ resurrection we have no hope of our future glorification.

I read where a comment on one of Josh’s post this week where someone posted they had escaped the faith several years ago. And was basically mocking the gospel.

That is why it is so important that we remember this is not a fairy tale we believe. This is not just some passed down story that is embellished from generation to generations. From Genesis to Revelation is the story of our Savior Jesus Christ and his work of saving sinners so that they might escape the wrath of God. The Scriptures are full of facts that cannot be disproven, they are not fiction and fables.

When it comes to the resurrection we must not forget,

1 Corinthians 15:3–8 ESV

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

1 Corinthians 15

The risen Lord was witnessed by men and women for 40 days following his short three day stent in the grave. He rose and walked, ate, and taught before he ascended into glory before their eyes!

Along with that Paul writes,

Luke 24:24 ESV

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see.”

1 Corinthians 15:14 ESV

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

1 Corinthians 1:14 ESV

I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,

Our living Hope is in a living Savior, who burst forth out of the grave so that all would believe in Him might be born again! Blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because of His resurrection,

1 Corinthians

The dead are raised to newness of life.

The blind are given spiritual sight.

The lame will one day walk again on the streets of gold.

The cancer ridden will one day be cured.

Those in chronic pain will hurt no more.

Those who cry will have their tears wiped away.

Those who worship will have their minds wiped clean of corruption.

Those who have been born into sin because of the first Adam will are born into the kingdom of Heaven because of the second Adam!

Spurgeon explained,

Spurgeon Commentary: 1 Peter Exposition

So then, the resurrection of Jesus is virtually my resurrection. If He were dead still, then I might fear that I, dying, should die. But He, having died, arose again in due season and lives. Therefore I, dying, shall also rise and live, for as Jesus is so must I be.

How will our living Hope in Christ affect our worship this morning? How will we respond as we read from this morning and hear the account of the mocking and abuse of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? Knowing that this was on our behalf, we look at that crucifixion with great reverence, sorrow, and shame. However, the resurrection turns the sorrow and shame into great joy and adoration so that as we turn from worshipping in word to worshipping in song we have a great hope and confidence that because of Christ death and resurrection we will one day join Him and receive the great inheritance He has for us which we see coming in verse 4!

II. The Gift of our Salvation (4)

III. The Guarantee of our Salvation. (5)