The Foundation of Our Security - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, July 13th. If you're a Christian, you are not a victim of circumstance. You experience only what God allows. Let's return to the study of 1 Peter Chapter 1 to be reminded that all believers are protected by the power of God. Let's begin with verse 1.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father by the sanctifying work of the Spirit that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood. May grace and peace be yours in the fullest measure. Then he says, 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, undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

That is, for you who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Then he goes on to something else. And so what he wants to say is, now that you're going through this difficulty and heartache, I want you to remember something.

I want you to remember what your position is. He says, I want to build for you the spiritual foundation so that no matter what happens, you can always refer back and refocus your attention on who you are and where you are. So he says, 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 what? To a living hope, not a dead hope, but a living hope. Now, look in verse 13 of the same chapter. Verse 13.

Listen to what he says. Therefore, gird your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit. Fix your hope. Listen, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is, when the Lord Jesus Christ comes and he takes us away, he says, Fix your hope. Well, he says that again in a different way in verse 21. Who through him are believers in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in whom? Are in God.

Chapter three, verse 15. But sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for what? Listen to what he says in this verse. Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always listen out to believers undergoing persecution.

He says always being ready to make a defense to how many people? To everyone who asks you to give an account of the reason why you have a hope. That is, to give an account for the hope that is in you.

He says you to do that. He says yet with gentleness and reverence. Now, why would he mention hope so often in these five chapters?

Because these people undergoing persecution needed hope. Now, what is he saying here? That you and I have been born again unto a living hope.

Listen through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at Peter for just a moment. When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, you'll remember before that that Peter and those disciples had the idea they were going to be part of a kingdom. But it was going to be an earthly kingdom.

And naturally, I'm sure that Peter had the idea. He was going to be up in the inner circle when Jesus set up his kingdom. Then what happened? He saw the Lord Jesus crucified.

And what happened? All of his dreams and all of his goals and all of his imagination were shattered right there on the cross. Not only that, the fact that he had denied the Lord Jesus Christ put him in a great sense of depression.

I believe for a short period of time he repented of that sin, but still there was this awful sense of disillusionment. Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Messiah, he confessed him to be the Messiah. Now, here he is having been crucified on the cross and on occasion, you remember what Peter said?

He said, I'm just going fishing. Now, what is it that changed Peter's whole outlook? It was when they said, Peter, he has risen just as he said. And who are the two disciples that went running to the tomb? Peter and whom? John.

Who outran whom? John outran Peter, but when they got to the tomb, who went rushing inside? Peter did. And what do you suppose lit the dying coals of his hope? It was the fact that that tomb was absolutely empty and all of those shattered dreams suddenly came back together again because Peter said now he had a hope. And what was it that gave him hope? But the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, you and I are around death constantly, people dying all the time.

What is your hope based on? But the fact that Jesus Christ not only made the promise rose from the dead. It is the fact that you and I believe in a resurrected living Christ. Suppose the Christian religion was like this, that you believe everything you believe about Jesus, but he never rose from the dead. Let's eliminate that whole section of doctrine. You believe all the things he said, but he never rose from the dead.

He'd be like other teachers and other rabbis and so forth. And so if somebody said, well, why do you believe what you believe about the this coming of Christ and one of these days in this heaven and all the rest that you and this answer? What is your basis for believing that? Well, there was a time when Jesus Christ was on the earth about 33 years and he died. Well, he died. Yes, he died.

Well, what's the basis of your hope? Well, he said he was going to come again one of these days. Well, when did he die? Oh, about 2000 years ago. Have you seen him since?

No. Any evidence that he's alive? Well, what is the basis of your hope? Friend, did you realize that only Christians have any basis whatsoever for any hope of life beyond this one that has anything about it that you and I would desire?

You are the only ones. Only believers have a living, vibrant hope because our hope is based upon the visible, unquestionable, undeniable, historical resurrection of the living Christ. And that's why we sing. I know that he lives because he lives where? In our heart.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead as sinner to the father's right hand and through the power of the Holy Spirit. He's now living within you and me. And you and I have the hope within us because we listen. We have the witness of the Holy Spirit of the living God on the inside of us that Jesus Christ's life has become our life. And we are not scared of death because we know this thing has been taken from it.

And you and I are living. Listen, we are living in the person of Jesus Christ. He is within us. He conquered death. And if he conquered it, he says he has given to all of us the assurance that we too shall conquer it. Now, for those who are undergoing persecution and facing the possibility of death, what a tremendously encouraging word.

But now listen to what he said. He said, by his great mercy, he has brought about this new birth experience that now we're new creatures in Christ Jesus. Now we have a living hope brought about by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Listen, he says we have been born again to what?

Born again to a living hope through the resurrection to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. Now, in Ephesians, for example, he talks about our inheritance in the first chapter. You recall in verse 11, he says in him also we have obtained an inheritance. That is, it's already ours, having been predestined according to his purpose. Now, when you look at the word predestination, the Bible, we are predestined in verse five to the adoption of sons. He says we've been predestined to our inheritance. And he says, if you'll recall, in Romans chapter eight in the eighth chapter, the twenty ninth verse, he says that for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to his likeness. He says predestined to be conformed to his likeness. So he says here this inheritance of ours is an inheritance that you and I can be assured of because he says in the first chapter of Ephesians, he says of the Holy Spirit who is given as a pledge of our inheritance. That is, we have an inheritance. We have been born again to a living hope, to an inheritance, which he says, this is the nature of it. It's imperishable.

It's undefiled. It's not going to fade away, reserved in heaven for you. That is, every single believer has an inheritance promised by the living God already has a name upon it. And he says there's no way for it to ever become tarnished.

There's no way for it to ever just fade away, no way for it to be destroyed. It is protected and reserved in heaven for us. Now, listen, he says you and I have been chosen, elected by God. He says you and I have been born again. And then he says in verse five, we have also or we are protected by the power of God. Now, when you're going through troubled times, these are encouraging words.

What am I to do? Here's the whole principle of what Peter is trying to say. Now, facing troubles and heartaches and tribulations and trials, he said affirm, affirm these three great truths. Number one, you have been elected by Almighty God the Father. Secondly, he says you have been born again by the Spirit of the living God through the atoning death of Jesus Christ. And thirdly, he says you are now being guarded. Listen, he says you are now being guarded, protected. You are being made safe by the power of God through faith.

That is every single one of us. We don't have to worry about what's going to happen to us because the Bible says that we are being guarded by the Lord God. Now, if you and I are protected by the power of God, nothing sneaks in, no demonology, no satanic infiltration beneath God's great protection. The only thing that can touch us is what God Almighty allows. I may not understand everything he allows, but he says in Romans 8 28 that God is engineering your circumstances in mind. And he says he's going to engineer our circumstances so that we will always come out the winner in no matter what we face in life.

We are going to win. Ultimately, we may go through tribulations, trials, heartaches. We may be persecuted. We may lose our life for the cause of Christ. But listen, he says nothing happens apart from the protective sovereign power of omnipotence who has chosen to live within you and live within me. Therefore, we can face whatever we need to face triumphantly, absolutely confident that only what God allows will come into our life. Now, as I said before, I may not like it.

I may have to weep over it. I may tell God I don't like it. But if I believe what the Bible teaches, every single believer is being kept by the power of God. Now, if I choose to sin against God, then I'm going to be chastised. But that doesn't mean that God has let me loose.

You see, here's the problem. Those folks who believe that you can be saved and be lost again, this is the way they see it. They see them holding onto God and God holding onto them. You know, man, as long as I endure, as long as I hang in there, I'm going to be saved. Because my salvation depends upon my conduct or my performance. And as long as I'm doing the things I ought to do, I'm doing my part and God's going to do his part. But when I choose to let go, then God lets go. Let me tell you the way God does it.

An eternal omnipotent grip. And it doesn't make any difference what you're doing. My friend, he says you are protected unto the inheritance which the Holy Spirit has sealed you for, and you can't ever be lost. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that says I am forever and eternally a child of God. And it makes no difference what the devil and all of his demons and all tribulation and all heartache and all troubles do.

Listen, it doesn't make any difference what happens. You can't shake loose the grip of omnipotence. And what he's saying to these people is simply this. As you undergo and as you go through difficulty, you walk in it confidently that you have been chosen by Almighty God. You are a chosen child of the living God. You have been born again into a whole new life, and therefore you have become a part of the family of God, born into the family of God. Not only that, that family of God has a living hope, an eternal inheritance which is yours and will be yours forever one of these days. It's there waiting for you. And until you get there to claim it, he says Almighty God has committed himself to protect you until Jesus calls you home. Now suppose all hell was going to break loose about five days from now, and you knew that persecution was going to flourish in this city. What would you want to know?

What would you want to be focusing your attention on? Are you going to escape it? No. But now on the basis of who I am, I need to recall the fact that I'm chosen by God, I'm one of his, born into a whole new kingdom. So no matter what happens, I'm walking on a different level in this crowd anyway. And thirdly, only what God Almighty allows is going to touch me. So if God sees fit for me to be martyred, I'm just going to get my reward quicker. I'm heading to heaven. And you see, what did Paul say?

I have been what? Crucified to this world, to all of its allurements and everything else. He said, I've been crucified.

You see, the problem is sometimes you're not a little bit too much alive to what's around us. And if we have really and truly surrendered, submitted, yielded everything to Jesus Christ, you know what happens? A man or woman who has laid it all down. I mean, you have yielded it all. You've laid down your ambitions, your goals, you have laid it all. Whatever God wants to give back, that's his business, but you've laid it all down. Your finances, your relationships, you've laid it all down. That is, he's got it all. Do you know when he's got it all, what you don't do? You don't worry about what you have given to the Lord God. If he's got it, it's up to him to deal with it, and he's responsible. Whatever I turn over to God, you see, he says he wants everything turned over to him.

When you turn it over to him, who's responsible for handling it, he is. Do you know why we were in fret and fume? I'll tell you why. Because we still have our hands gripped around some things that we are yet to surrender to Almighty God. You want to go through a heartache, you want to go through troubles and trials triumphantly, then you focus your attention upon who you are, but at the same time, you've got to yield what you have.

When you lay it all down, including your life, what really matters? My goodness, you've already been chosen by Almighty God. You've already been born again to a brand new life.

He's getting you ready for heaven, guarded under the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let me ask you a question. Have you ever been saved? That is, have you ever placed your trust in Christ?

Have you ever been born again? You say, well, suppose I'm not elected. That's none of your business. If you say, well, God, I'd have been saved if I'd have known whether I was elected or not. That'll never hold no water in judgment, brother.

That's not the issue. The issue is you're being presented with the gospel, and the question is, do you know that you're saved? Has there ever been a time that you know that you've been born again by the grace of God?

And if you can't say, yes, I have, then, my friend, you need to settle that tonight, because you don't, everything we've said doesn't even, has no relationship whatsoever to you. You're on your own. When you're without Christ, you're living in a world all alone. I don't care how many friends you've got.

I don't care how many folks around you. The truth is that for all practical purposes, you are alone when you're separated from God. Do you know tonight that you can point to some time in your life where you placed your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you said, yes, I am receiving Jesus Christ as my personal Savior? If not, you have no hope, separated from God, doomed to an eternity, which the Bible calls the lake of fire, and the truth is that you're a walking dead man or a walking dead woman, wherein in times past, dead in trespasses and sins, but now alive in Him. If you've never trusted Him, I want to ask you, my friend, to make that decision tonight. Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not next year, but tonight, because I can tell you're going through difficulties and heartaches and trials and troubles and persecutions.

Will you be ready? Not if you're not saved, you won't. Do you know why folks booze it up, drug it up, and everything else? That's their substitute for living in the grace of God, and it doesn't work. It just compounds their problems, and so I want to ask you, don't compound your problem. Why don't you just surrender your life to Jesus Christ tonight and be saved?