Praising God Amidst My Problems, Part 2a

Where you are today and what you're experiencing in your own personal life or family life or or workplace, you need to understand that that God wants you to experience something from Him and understand how valuable your hope is because it's rooted and grounded in the God who is called the God of hope. Peter's reason for writing his epistle is to help us keep pain in perspective. We need to gain perspective and he wants us to understand that when adversity arrives, when conflict comes, when pain is present, when trouble takes its toll, he wants us to be able to see and understand what we are to be doing.

And so he commands us to bless God. He commands us to worship our God, to praise our God, because that is the unnatural thing to do. And yet Peter wants us to understand that if that is the case, if we set our heart and mind on praising God amidst our problems, we will begin to see the value of that glorious hope. And we will begin to see things unfold before us that maybe we've never seen before. And tonight I want to pick up where we left off last week and cover with you that principle as well as the next two that are basically theological in nature.

And then next week, Lord willing, we'll cover the next two, which are more practical in nature. But the theological substance comes first that we might understand how to practically praise our God.

Let me read to you verses three down through verse number 12, because that's where we want to go. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

As to the salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Peter begins by telling us we need to bless God for his wonderful provision. And we talked about that wonderful provision last week by looking at point number one under that main point and helping you understand the description of that provision.

And Peter helps us see that we have been born again, he says, because of God's great mercy to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord. God has provided for us the most wonderful thing in all the world. He's giving us a living hope, a living hope. And it's because God is great and merciful. God is wonderfully merciful, so much so that he gives us something that we could not obtain ourselves. He gives us hope. He causes us to be born again. And that's a phrase that was used in the 80s and 90s, and pretty much Hollywood ran it into the ground.

But the whole element of being born again, being transformed into a new creation is so significant. I love what Stephen Sharnock has said when he says this word about the new birth. He says, the new birth is a universal change of the whole man. It is as large in renewing as sin was in defacing. That's a good definition of the new birth, being born again. The Bible says that we are a new creation.

Old things passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We become a new creation. We become completely different than we were before because of what God has done in his light, in our lives, because of his great mercy toward us. And we are born again. And because we are born again, we now have a hope that is alive. It's called a living hope. You will note over in chapter one, verse number 23, these words, you have been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable. That is through the living and abiding word of God.

We are born again because of God's great mercy to a living hope. And we are born again unto a living hope because of a word that is alive, the living word. And there is a living word, look at verse number four of chapter two, because there is a living stone.

It says, and coming to him as to a living stone rejected by men, but choice and precious in the sight of God, that living stone is Jesus Christ himself. And what happens is that that living stone has a living word that causes us to be born again because of the great mercy of God to a living hope. Over in Paul's epistle to Timothy, in first Timothy chapter three, he talks about the church of Jesus Christ.

He calls it the household of God, the church of the living God. You see, everything about Christianity is alive. It's vibrant. It's vigorous. It's energy. It's dynamic. It's not boring. It's not dolesville. It's not dragsville. It's a living hope because it's a living word because it's a living God. And we must understand that. And therefore Peter says, let me tell you something.

You need to bless God. You need to praise him. You need to adore him. You need to worship him. Why? Because of what he's done in your life. That's why he's, he's caused you to become a new creation, a new creature. And upon doing that, he's giving you hope. We talked about that hope last week. If you weren't here, I would challenge you. Get the tape to understand how that hope is rooted in God and how that hope one day will be realized at the return of Jesus Christ our Lord. But you need to understand the significance of a living hope.

And that's the description of God's wonderful provision that leads us now to its declaration. There was a time that all this was declared. Look at verse number 10.

Peter says, as to this salvation, as to this provision that you have that causes you to be born again unto a living hope by the great mercy of God. He says this, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful search and inquiry, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. Boy, I tell you, those two verses are loaded. When you think about what God did, he tells us as to the salvation thing, as to the experience of the new birth, it was all written about.

It was all prophesied about by the prophets of old. That this grace would come to you. Now understand this, that the grace that came to us is not something different than the grace that came to the Old Testament saints. There are some people who believe that those in the Old Testament were saved by the law and we in the New Testament are saved by grace. No, that's not true. Everybody who's ever been saved has been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And if you've been with us in our study of Genesis, you'll understand that.

And these Old Testament prophets, they understood grace. Way back in Genesis chapter 6 was the very first mention of grace.

Back down in verse number 8 where Noah found favor or Noah was graced by God. Noah was just as wicked as everybody else, but Noah was graced by God. He found favor in the eyes of God. That is, God graced him. And so we begin to understand how God works. You've got a whole world full of wicked people. They're all evil. They all should be damned to hell. And what does God do? God graces a man. He graces his family so that when the flood comes and the world's destroyed, this family then begins to populate the earth.

And yet it goes way beyond that. If you go all the way back to Exodus chapter 33 and Moses wanted to see his God, it says, the Lord said to Moses in verse number 17, I will also do this thing of which you have spoken for you have found favor in my sight and I have known you by name. Moses, you have been graced in my sight. Then Moses said, I pray that you show me that glory. And he said, I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.

But you cannot see my face, Moses. God says to Moses, you want to see my glory? I'm going to tell you about my glory. It's about my compassion. It's about my goodness. It's about my graciousness. Remember Jonah? Jonah was so upset when the Ninevites repented. That's why he didn't want to go to them. Do you know why Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh? Because he knew about the grace of God. He knew about it. In Jonah chapter four, verse number two, it says this.

He says, I fled to Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness and one who relents concerning calamity. Jonah says, Lord, you know why I didn't go to Nineveh? Because I knew that if I preached the gospel because of your wonderful grace and mercy, they would repent. And I hate those people. And I didn't want them to repent. I don't want to spend eternity with those people. I don't like them. But more than that, Lord, I knew your character.

I knew how gracious you are. You see, the graciousness of God, the mercy of God was proclaimed throughout the Old Testament. The prophets knew all about it. But I want you to notice what it says.

Because this puts us to shame. It says these prophets prophesied of the grace that would come to you, make careful search and inquiry. These prophets, these Old Testament prophets who spoke of the grace and mercy of God had a passion to study. Salvation of God. The grace of God. They took special note of God's saving grace. And they took great inquiry because they wanted to know what was going on. You see, they didn't have all that we have. And maybe that's why we take it for granted. But remember, they didn't have the picture that we have.

Remember, they knew about the crucifixion. And this is what is so mind-boggling to me about the Jewish people. Because you read Psalm 22, you understand about the crucifixion. You read Isaiah 53, you understand about the suffering of the Messiah. You read over in Daniel chapter 9 and Zechariah chapter 12, you begin to realize that our Messiah was a suffering Messiah. But then you go over to read Psalm 2 and Psalm 16 and Isaiah chapter 9 and Zechariah chapter 2, you begin to realize that not only was our Messiah going to be crucified and was going to be suffered, but that he would be triumphant.

They knew about that. In fact, this is what Jesus said on the road to Emmaus to two disciples. He said, O foolish men, it is so hard to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures. It was all about the suffering of the Messiah. It was all about the glory of the Messiah. Oh, you foolish people.

You missed it. You didn't get it. But that's what they wrote about. They wrote about his sufferings. They wrote about his triumph. In these Old Testament prophets, knowing of the grace that was to come to us, searched with great diligence to understand about this salvation. You see, they didn't understand about the indwelling of the spirit of God. That was a mystery just revealed in the New Testament. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ said in John 14, I'm going to send to you another comforter and he's going to come in and he's going to make his abode with you.

He's just like me. He's the spirit of God. He's going to come into you. You see, the Old Testament didn't have that. The spirit of God would come upon them. The spirit of God would speak to them. The spirit of God would speak through them and enable them to write the word of God. They understood that. In fact, Peter tells us over in second Peter chapter, chapter one, verse number 20, he says, but know this first of all, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

So Peter is affirming that these people who were prophets in the Old Testament, who took great inquiry and search into the grace that was to come to us, they realized the spirit's work to cause them to write down these marvelous truths. And yet they would search diligently to know more about this salvation. You know, I wonder about that because a lot of those prophets, man, they were ridiculed and they were persecuted and they were treated harshly. They were not well liked people. And yet they would search diligently to find out about this.

Maybe they were so preoccupied with the grace of God and the salvation of God that the things that happened around about them just didn't matter that much. You ever think about that? You see, we, we're not too preoccupied with God's salvation of our lives. We, we, we, we tend to think of salvation as an eternal thing. That is, you know what, I know I'm born again and I know that one day I'm going to go home to be with the Lord and I'll think about it when I get to glory. We think of salvation, yes, we're born again now, but right now we have forgiveness of sins and we look at life eternally into the future.

We don't see eternal life as something we possess now. John 17 and three tells us that, that knowing God is eternal life. So when you know God, you have that life, which is eternal. You have that living hope because there was a living word because he is the living God. You had that dynamic life. That's why he said, I came to give life more abundantly. The life that Christ gives goes way beyond anything else in this present life. So it's important to know about the declaration of this provision. It was declared by the prophets of old of the sufferings of the Christ as a spirit of God would speak to them right through them.

That's how we, we got our Bible today. But the third thing I want you to notice is, is its designation because it says this, this is so interesting.

Listen to what it says, of the grace that would come to who? To you. Verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but who? You. Now you think about that. It was revealed to them by the spirit of God that what they were doing in their study of salvation and the study of grace and, and trying to figure out what God was doing, that they were really not serving themselves, but were serving you. Serving me. Wow. Think about that. Maybe another reason these, these prophets who, who, who suffered greatly didn't really ponder too much their own pain was because they realized that life wasn't about serving them.

It was about serving someone else that they did not even know or would ever see. Because they were consumed with the character and nature of a God who bestows grace upon people who don't deserve anything, but how? It says in these things, which now have been announced to you, through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy spirit sent from heaven. You see that four times, but you, to you, to you, Peter is saying, look, this is about you. Look what God has done for you. It's about you. This provision is for you.

It's a, it's an individual provision. It's a specific provision. It's designed specifically for each and every one of you. Peter says, you are very important to our God. So important, so important that the prophets of old would realize that what they were doing was in fact serving you today. Which leads us to the fourth point. And that is its desire. Look what it says, things into which angels long to look. The word long epithumio is a very unique word. It's, it has a lot of negative connotations in the Bible because it, it deals with the, the lust of an individual, an unfulfilled passion and desire, but here it's using the good sense that angels had this unfulfilled desire.

They are passionate about something. And what are angels passionate about? They long to look into something. What this salvation, you see angels can't get saved. God didn't come to die for, for spirit beings. He came to die for man. Fallen angels can't get saved. They're doomed. Holy angels don't need salvation. They're already in heaven. But you know what angels announced the birth of Christ when it came to earth, they were involved in, in that whole scenario there at his birth. And they were involved at his temptation there in, in, in the wilderness.

They would come to assist him there in the, in the garden amidst all of his agony there the night of the crucifixion. They would be involved in rolling away the stone so we could look in, not for Christ to get out because he didn't need us to roll or the angels to roll away the stone. Just to roll away so we could look in and see that he wasn't there. They were there at the ascension when, when he, he, he went up into glory. So the, the angels were actively involved in all the, the fact of the incarnation and the ministry of Christ, his death, his burial, his resurrection, they were involved in all of that.

And yet angels have a strong unfulfilled passion to understand what God did when he saved man. Now you think about that. These are holy angels, sinless in all they can think about and long to look into. The word look is the same word used in John 20, verse number five, when Peter and John would, would stoop down into the tomb and look intently into the tomb to see whether or not Jesus was there. So not only is there an inward passion of the angels as they have an unfulfilled desire to know what's going on, they are constantly looking into that which God did for man.

Wow. That's why the Bible says there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. Now you know why the angels just go bonkers in heaven when somebody repents. Oh man, can you believe this? This is unbelievable. Another one did and they just go haywire up there. There's great joy in heaven over one sinner that repents. In fact, it says over in first Corinthians four and nine, Paul declared that he was made a spectacle unto the world and angels, angels, angels trying to figure out this guy persecuted Christians.

He destroyed Christians and God saved him. They got to be scratching their spirit bean heads trying to figure out what's going on here. And I wonder about us in this provision. Peter goes to great length to help us understand this is important because you've been born again to a living hope.