Intro…
Welcome to the Cornerstone Baptist church podcast. My name is Justin Wheeler, I am the preaching pastor for Cornerstone Baptist Church in Wylie, TX.
It is April 2020 and we are one month in to the new normal of working from home, keeping our social distance from one another, trying to learn how to be the church when we can’t meetup and can’t gather together for worship. So far, 2020 has shaped up to be a very challenging year and we are just 3 months in.
But in the midst of this challenge the promises that God has made to those who trust in Christ has not changed. That’s what I want to talk to you about today. Actually, I want to follow up on last week’s podcast where we looked at the first half of Peter’s introduction to his first letter.
Last week, we talked about the living hope that we have in Christ and how this hope motivates our worship of God, even in the face of trials. But this week, I want to look at the future hope that Peter tells us about; a hope that takes the form of our Christian inheritance.
I Peter 1:3 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, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice,
Transition…
Now, one of the things that is important to keep in mind as we read this passage is that the main idea is the living hope that we have as believers in Christ. That’s the main point of this passage and all the surrounding truths serve to explain the depth of our hope. Our Hope as believers is not affected by the circumstances of difficult days because it is rooted in God’s mercy.
COVID-19 has taken our world by storm and it has caused panic in some, fear in others, caution in most; but whatever the outcome of our current situation, nothing can take away the hope we have in Christ. Our hope extends beyond this life and looks to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Our inheritance is being guarded by God’s power and it will be revealed to us in the time to come.
What exactly does this mean and how does it strengthen our hope in the midst of this trial?
Podcast Focus…
Let’s talk about the Power of Hope
Hope is a powerful thing. Hope causes us to get completely emotionally wrapped up in the prospect of something great happening even despite evidence to the contrary.
With hope in our hearts we can not only live but also endure great difficulty. Cancer patients fight to live because they have a driving hope that health is just around the corner. Soldiers battle on against all odds driven by the hope that soon the bullets will stop flying and there will be peace. Hope fuels in us a powerful desire to face the trials of life because hope holds out the promise of peace and rest.
But what is hope? I can’t remember who said/wrote it, but somewhere along the way I picked up this definition of hope. Hope is faith in the future tense. When we talk about having faith, especially saving faith, we are saying that we trust that what Christ did for us on the cross is sufficient to rescue us from our sin, bring us to God, and keep us there forever.
Our faith as Christians, is based on Christ’s person, Christ’s work, Christ’s teaching, and Christ’s resurrection. All of these things are in the past, which means that our faith looks back and says, “I believe these things to be true and I accept these truths as the basis of my hope.”
But hope is faith carried forward. Our faith not only has a past element but also a future element. We have hope that what took place in the past is true and that what has been promised us in the future is true and both of these will help us to live in the present.
And that is exactly what Peter wants us to do, to live in light of our present suffering with hope that helps us to overcome. Peter wants us to live in this present life of sorrow with one eye on the past (The finished work of Christ) and with one eye on the future (God’s promise of future rest for His people).
So the question we have to ask is, “What has God promised us?” and Peter says that God has promised us an amazing inheritance.
I don’t know about you but the prospect of receiving an inheritance has never been part of my expectation. It’s a really exciting idea but it’s just not something that I have put much thought into. My family is not wealthy so it’s just not part of my expectation, but every one of us would have to admit that the idea is pretty powerful.
For instance, imagine that you get a random phone call this afternoon from a number you do not recognize and rather than ignoring it you decide to answer the phone. Then as engage in conversation with the person on the other end you learn that you are the great, great grandchild of a very wealthy Texas oil tycoon who just passed away and left you a portion of his $5 billion estate.
The prospect of an inheritance like this is enough to completely change your outlook on life, but even if this was legit, how secure would such an inheritance be?
There are circumstances to life in this fragile and fallen world that would render this type of inheritance pretty worthless. For instance, what good is billions of dollars if you don’t have long to live? What good is money when what you need is a cure? Or to quote Jesus, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”
The level of excitement and joy that wells up in our hearts at the prospect of an earthly inheritance should be magnified by billions as we consider the heavenly inheritance that God has promised us, because nothing can take His inheritance away from us.
Peter tells us that our Inheritance can never perish.
Have you ever had the opportunity to go back to a well-known place that you haven’t seen for 20 years or so, maybe a childhood home or something like that. When you were a kid it just seemed like that house was the most stable thing in the world. But after 20 years it just doesn’t look the same. The paint is dull, the roof is sagging, the vitality that was once there is now gone. It has succumbed to the slow decay of time like all things will.
But Peter tells us here that our inheritance as born again Christians is imperishable. This word means that it is impervious to corruption and death. Our inheritance cannot perish. Our future as Christians, the future that goes beyond life in this world, is pervious to every form of corruption and decay. It is imperishable.
Our inheritance can never spoil
To defile something means to take something pure and to make it impure in some way. The Prodigal son spoiled his inheritance when he spent it all on sinful pleasures that did not last.
Some of us have experienced a huge depletion of our retirement savings. In a matter of days, the market crashed and the money we had watched build up over a period of years/decades was just gone. In a sense, our earthly inheritance has been defiled.
But Peter says that the inheritance that God has promised us is free from such defilement. It cannot be tainted by the crash in the market, nor can it be affected by our own sinful choices. The inheritance that God promises to us is impervious to defilement of any kind. On the day that we receive it will be pure and it will remain pure for eternity.
Our inheritance will never fade
Isaiah 40:8 tells us, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever.” Peter quotes this verse at the end of the first chapter to show the fading quality of the earth in comparison to the unfading quality of God’s Word. Flowers die and their beauty is forgotten. Israel’s inheritance was subject to the slow fade, but ours will never fade away.
Like an early spring bloom our inheritance will never cease to be striking in beauty. It will always exist in its most beautiful and vibrant form. We will never tire of it and it will never run out. It will never lose its pristine quality.
But how is it possible for something to remain in such a perfect state?
Our inheritance is in Heaven
It is an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you. In this instance we see the true nature of the difference that exists between our Christian inheritance and a worldly inheritance. Ours is kept in Heaven.
There is a reason that sin cannot affect it, there is a reason that time cannot take its toll. It is in Heaven, in the presence of God, and it is being kept there until the time comes for it to be revealed.
When will that be? Well, we don’t know, but we do know that it is ready.
Our inheritance is ready
The term ready implies that there is no reason for delay save the Father’s purpose. He is not laboring to build something for us so that we have to wait until He finishes the job, no our inheritance is ready. It is finished. Nothing needs to be added to it.
So why is it not here? Because the appointed time has not yet come.
2 Peter 3:8 But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
The great mercy of God has not yet claimed all of His chosen people and so the day of the Lord has not yet come, but it is ready and it is being kept in Heaven for us.
Our inheritance is kept for us and we are being guarded for it.
1 Peter 1:5 By God’s power (we) are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice,
This word guarded gives us the idea that God has provided a type of security that shields us until the times comes for us to receive God’s gift. We are under protective custody. God has promised to shield us from anything that might cause us to miss out on the promise that He has given us.
(Illus…Think of Israel on their way out of Egypt when the army of Pharaoh began to follow them. They were certain that the day would end with them being slaughtered on the banks of the Red sea, but God had other plans. He fought for them. Israel was told to stand fast so that they would see God as a shield around them. They would make it to the Promised Land because God would protect them until they entered it.
God delivered Israel from their enemy. He freed them from their slavery. He promised to give them a land of their own as an inheritance and He guarded them until their obtained the promise.
All of this is but a shadow of the greater work of redemption that God has done through Christ. Christ has not simply delivered us from our enemies, but from our sins. He hasn’t freed us from an earthly oppression but a spiritual one. He has promised us an inheritance that is greater in every way and He has promised to guard us and protect us until we acquire possession of it.
Why is this important? The same power that keeps our eternal salvation guards us as well. What comfort would it be to know that something beyond our imagination was waiting for us, if there was no hope of our ever reaching it? God not only promises us an eternal inheritance, He will guard us so that we will get to enjoy it.
Last question, how? How has this inheritance become ours and how are we going to be guarded by God to enjoy it? Is this a bait and switch? Having heard about this amazing blessing are we now going to be told how much we have to pay for it? No. This blessing does not come on the basis of our works, it is ours by faith.
Ed Clowney writes…
“God who works for us also works in us. Our faith is his way of keeping us; it is His gift. Why does God use faith as the instrument of his keeping power? Because faith is not our achievement, but our trust in God’s achievement.”
All that God has given to us, all that God has promised to give us in the future is a gift to be received by faith alone.
As you consider all that is going on in the world today and how your life has been affected by it, remember that God has promised that the future for His people is brighter than we can imagine. This world is not our final home and the pains of this world will not follow us into the next. In fact, the brokenness of this world is going to end and when it does the future that we long for will no longer be our hope, it will be our reality.
Let the wonder of our inheritance as Christians give you comfort today and let it stir our hope for the days to come
Conclusion…
If you want to learn more about Cornerstone Baptist church, you can find us online at Cornerstonewylie.org. You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram @cbcwylie. You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/cornerstonewylie. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes or google play to stay up to date on all the new content.
Thanks for listening.
