This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

This is day 2 together of our study of 1 Peter chapter 1, just starting our
study of 1 Peter. Yesterday in verse 1 we looked at the truth that we are
strangers in one sense in this world. We are a people who are different and
distinct.

And the world needs to see those who are living a cut above. The world needs to
have people who stand out, not just blend in. The truth behind this for you is
don't be afraid to be different.

From the day that we start kindergarten, we are conditioned to fear being
different because there's always someone who will point out the differences and
there's always a group that will laugh at the someone who pointed out the
difference. Look he has a big nose. Look he has funny looking hair.

That's what happens in kindergarten and then all the kids laugh. And we think
well I don't want to be different, but the truth of the matter is it's the
differences that change everything. And Jesus has made you to be different in
this world.

And as Peter walks through 8 specific differences Christ makes in your life, my
prayer for me and you both is that we'll feel more and more comfortable with
being different in a good way. There are some bad ways to be different, there's
no doubt about that, but being different in the good ways that God has made us
different. And it begins in verses 1 and 2 then down in verse 3.

It begins with the truth that we have a different hope in Jesus Christ. Now in
verse 3 he's going to talk about this hope very specifically, but he sets the
stage for it. He tells us where this hope comes from in verses 1 and 2 that we
looked at yesterday.

So let me read those verses again. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's
elect, strangers in the world scattered throughout Pontius and Galatia and
Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the
foreknowledge of God the Father, to the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for
obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood, grace and peace be yours
in abundance. " As you look at these verses you see that the hope that you have
is based on a different calling in your life.

Elect in verse 1. You have been elected by God. God has called you.

He has chosen you in verse 2. You are chosen. When you feel confused in this
world, and all of us do sometimes, remember that you are chosen and nothing can
change that in Christ.

Once you have come to faith in Christ, you are elect. You are chosen. You think,
"What do I have to do to be elect or chosen?

" It's not what you've done. It's what God has done by sending Jesus for you. So
when you come to faith in Christ, you know you're elect, you're chosen.

Whenever you feel weak, you remember, "I am chosen. " When you feel doubtful,
you remember, "I am chosen. " Nothing can change that truth.

And that is the truth that your hope hangs on. How solid is your hope? Peter
says in verse 2 that your hope is based on the perfection and power of the
Trinity of God.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's a solid hope. This different hope, it grows
from three sources.

So when hope seems far away from your life, you tap again into these three
sources. Notice he says, "According to the foreknowledge of the Father, through
the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to the Son. " First, according
to the foreknowledge of the Father.

That word foreknowledge in the Greek language is the word prognosis. When you go
to a doctor, you get a diagnosis of how you're doing, and then you get a
prognosis of looking forward to how you're going to do after the treatment. Now
the truth is, all of us, all of us have a horrific diagnosis to deal with in our
lives.

We are all born in sin. But according to the foreknowledge of the Father, you
have an excellent prognosis with God. And it comes from before you were born.

You are chosen. God looks not at your life according to the past. He looks at
your life according to the prognosis to the future, to what He knows is going to
happen in your life.

And it is excellent. You've got the greatest joy to look forward to. You are
chosen according to the foreknowledge of the Father.

And then you're chosen through the sanctifying work of the Spirit. That word
sanctifying literally means setting something apart to be different. God has set
you apart through His Spirit to be different.

It's not your work. You didn't set yourself apart. It's not you setting yourself
apart.

It's not you trying to be different. It's God setting you apart. It's God making
you different.

It's God causing you to stand out by what He's doing in your life. So don't try
to be different. Just trust God, and you will shine out as different.

If you put one small light in a dark room, it's going to shine. Everybody's
going to see it. And the light of the world is coming to your life in Jesus
Christ.

That's the sanctifying work of the Spirit. So you've got the Father, you've got
the Spirit, and then you've got the Son for obedience to the Son and sprinkling
by His blood. That word sprinkling reminds us, goes all the way back, it would
have reminded them too as they first read this, of the entire Old Testament.

Because throughout the Old Testament there was the sprinkling of blood. In
Exodus 24 verses 3 to 8, the people of Israel are marked as the people of God by
having blood sprinkled on them as a people. And there was often blood sprinkled
on the altar.

This is saying the blood of Jesus has been sprinkled spiritually on your life.
It's been put upon your life because of what He did on the cross. And that is
where your cleansing comes from.

And because of that, He says, you are chosen for obedience. You're chosen for a
different kind of life. Now out of all this, He says, I want grace and peace to
be upon you.

There's this quick prayer that Peter prays. And we often skip by the prayers
because, you know, we've seen them in other letters. But the truth of the matter
is, I need these things every day in my life.

You need these every day in your life. You need God's grace. You need God's
peace.

And I love the fact that Peter, typical to his personality, remember, he's got
this brash emotional personality. And the Holy Spirit works through people's
personality even as He perfects His perfect word, even as He writes His perfect
word. So Peter's personality is to say, grace and peace be yours in abundance.

Let it be multiplied. Let it overflow like a waterfall upon you again and again
and again and again throughout the day. That's how you set the foundation in
your life for the kind of hope that God wants in your life.

And so based on this foundation, Peter talks about your hope in verse 3. It's
one of the great verses on hope in all of the Bible. First Peter 1-3, "Praise be
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. " We said it a couple of days ago,
in the world below, hope is just wishing. We use the word that way often.

We don't really mean what the Bible means when it uses the word hope. We mean
what we say in our culture when we use the word hope too often. You say to
somebody even, will you be in heaven?

And they say, well, I hope so. You should have got to draw it out, this kind of
hope. Not I hope, but I hope so.

They're not confident. They're not sure. They're wishing that somehow based on
enough good works or enough times going to church that somehow they're going to
make it in by the skin of their spiritual teeth.

We use this word all the time this way, not just with religious things. I hope I
get this present at Christmas. I hope my car doesn't break down today.

Well, the car above living is different. We have new birth into a living hope.
This hope is something that's real.

It's something that's alive. It's not something that you wish for. It's
something that you count on.

Because He is alive, hope is alive. And as much as Jesus is alive, your hope is
alive in Jesus Christ. Now as He walks through what this hope is like, it's sort
of like a chain reaction that you see in these verses.

And it begins with mercy, in His great mercy. That's where it starts. There is
no hope without mercy.

If you look at your life and you think, I don't deserve hope because of the
things that I've done. That just means you're being honest with yourself. None
of us deserve hope because of the things that we've done.

The only way we get hope is because God was merciful enough to send Jesus to us,
to rescue us out of our desperate condition. It starts with mercy. And then this
chain reaction, the next thing that happens is mercy results in a new birth.

Now it's a new birth and the new birth makes you new. That's what it means to
have a new birth. You don't look new on the outside.

You don't get this new personality. Everything else that's important about you
though becomes new. Your soul becomes new.

Your eternity becomes new. Your spirit before God becomes new. You become a new
person in Jesus Christ.

God essentially changes the spirituality of who you are. That's what his mercy
does. That's why you can have hope.

If you try to base hope on who you are or who you've been, you're never going to
find hope. You only find hope by the mercy of God to do something new in your
life. And he's the one who does it.

I'm not the one who does it. You're not the one who does it. He does it.

And that new birth, the next thing that happens in the chain reaction is it
gives us living hope. Living hope. It's not just hope you talk about.

It's hope that you live. The hope that I have in Christ, that you have in
Christ. We don't just talk about it in church.

We live it in our daily lives. Now it's interesting. You look at these verses.

This reminds me that when your hope is dead, you need a new birth. Or as a
follower of Jesus, if you feel like your hope is dead, you need to remember your
new birth. Because that's the thing right before hope in this chain reaction.

Mercy. New birth. Living hope.

This is the resurrection. This living hope comes through his resurrection. Hope
is alive because he is alive.

And then in verses 4 and 5 he says, "Then this living hope results in an eternal
inheritance. " Listen to those verses. "And into an inheritance that can never
perish, spoil, or fade, kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded
by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed at
the last time.

" This hope results in an eternal inheritance. In this world, inheritances don't
last. Most of them, you don't even get them in the first place.

You might count on them and then you never even got the inheritance. But even
one that you get isn't going to last. In the Old Testament, the promised land
was described as the inheritance of God's people.

But even that inheritance was eventually lost because of their unfaithfulness to
God. But look at how Peter describes your inheritance in Christ. He says, "It
will never perish.

It is living is never dying. " He says, "It will never spoil. It's always
getting better.

It's never getting worse. " And he says, "It will never fade. It is always as
bright and new as the first day that you found it.

" And then he ends with this powerful phrase, "It is kept in heaven for you. "
This inheritance, it's not earned by you. It is kept for you.

This inheritance is not protected by you. It is kept for you. And this different
inheritance is what makes you have living hope.

It's not based on the things you've done, it's based on what Jesus did for you.
Let's thank God right now for it in prayer. Father, thank you for hope.

Thank you for hope that's not based on a bunch of things that I try to do better
and better and wish I can get to heaven. But thank you for a kind of hope that's
a security, a certainty of your love for me, of your mercy given to me, of the
new birth I have, the living hope that I have, and the inheritance of eternally
being with you. Thank you for the hope that I have in Jesus Christ.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at a
different faith.