For our scripture reading this morning, turn with me to 1 Corinthians 15 as we read together the first 19 verses of that chapter. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. The text this morning being 1 Peter 1 verses 20 and 21. I know sometimes when we are working through a book and sermon or in a series and we take it, there's a couple of verses at a time, it seems like we don't get anywhere. It seems like it's taking us forever. And I have to confess that sometimes for a minister that's the same, the truth is the same, that when we come to the study at the beginning of the week again, and think, well, now what? We've just handled part of this, what does Peter have to say next? But believe me, it's such a rich blessing when God opens up at least my eyes to see the rich truth of this new thought that Peter has. And that's why it's good and necessary for us to go through the Word of God verse by verse to consider the whole counsel of God. And so my prayer for us as a congregation, that we would not grow weary as we work our way through this book and any other book we may work through, but that God would indeed show us the riches, the riches to be mined from His Word of God as we consider it. And may that be true again this morning. 1 Corinthians 15, 1-19, as we give our attention to the Word of God. Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. For what I received I pass on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Peter and then to the twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, He appeared to me also as to one abnormally born. For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And His grace to me was not without effect. No, I work harder than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Whether then it was I or they, this is what we preach. And this is what you believed. But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead. But He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. And of course, we know Paul goes on to talk about the great truth that Christ has been raised from their dead. The first fruits of those who have and will fall asleep in Him. 1 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21. He, that is Christ Jesus, was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God. Beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ, of course you know that we've been talking here about holy living in a hostile world, in a world that does not fear God. Privileged pilgrims, those who are called and elected by God are called to live holy lives before His face even as we live in a pagan world. Now remember, we also live before the eyes of a watching world. And indeed, the world is watching God's people. We live before the eyes of a watching world even as we also live before the face of God. Now last week we said that the characteristic of this holy living is that we live before our God and Father with an attitude and posture of reverence and awe and respect. We are driven, or we should say we should be driven to our knees in godly fear, as Peter points out, when we understand the cost of what Jesus Christ has done for you and me. that He shed His perfect, imperishable blood and gave His perfect life for us. You see, when we as children of the Heavenly Father count that cost, then we are to be driven to our knees in godly fear. You see, beloved, the truth is in this life, if someone does something nice or wonderful or let's say life-changing for you, how do we then describe that relationship? Well, we say, well, they are your friend for life. Or you are their friend for life. You see, that's how special it was. That's how wonderful it was. Well, God has done that which is most wonderful, most life-changing for you and for me. And therefore, how can we not have this kind of a relationship with Him? In this text, Peter continues speaking of the greatness of Christ's redemptive work. He has been considering this. And even though it's familiar to us, beloved, may we never tire of hearing it, but continue to dig deeper, as we've said, in the minds of the Word of God, as Peter has even more to show us. More to bring to our attention. More with which to give you and me comfort. God's work of salvation, Peter would have us to know and remember, is that this work is a complete work from beginning to end. It is an eternal work. And this work of salvation includes a specific Savior for a specific people. And as we consider this, let's notice the plan of Christ's work, the picture of Christ's work, and the purpose of Christ's work. Now, God's plan of salvation indeed included a specific Savior. This is not new. Peter spoke about this Savior already in verse 19. His Savior had to be a Lamb that was unblemished and spotless. In other words, completely perfect. And Peter also tells us in no uncertain terms that this perfect Lamb is Jesus Christ. Again, something we know. We confess. We believe. But now in this text, Peter talks about this perfect Lamb, Jesus Christ, in relation to God's plan from all eternity. Peter says, He that is Christ was chosen. Another word, foreknown. He was chosen or foreknown before the creation or foundation of the world. This means a number of things. First of all, this means that God knew before He created the world. He knew that Jesus Christ would die for you and for me. In fact, God chose His only begotten Son and He determined Him to be that sacrifice for us. And that means also that Jesus Christ is eternal. He's always existed. Again, something we don't question, right? Boys and girls, at Christmastime, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. But we must not think that when Jesus was born, that was when He began. The Son of God was real long before He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. He has always existed. There was never a time when He was not in existence. But this also means that God knew before He created the world and man, He knew that man would reject Him and fall into sin. He knew that before He created the world. Now some would say, well, why did God continue then? Why did He go ahead and create the world? Why did He create man and us if He knew that would happen and mankind would offend Him greatly? Why? But you see, beloved, that's an inappropriate question. It's not the right question. The beauty here is not only did God anticipate the sin and disease of man, but He made ready a remedy for those He chose to save. The cure was in place before the deadly disease came. Different from our life experience, isn't it? Because we know that it takes doctors and scientists and researchers a long time to study a disease, its cause, its origin, and its effects and so forth, and then to try to come up with a cure or remedy before that disease, after that disease has already taken many lives, possibly. But in the case of our spiritual condition, the remedy was in place before the disease came. Yes, not only did God choose a Savior before He created the world, but then He also determined whom the Savior would save. Paul says in Ephesians 1, God the Father chose us in Him, in Christ Jesus, before the foundation of the world. And in Revelation chapters 3 and 17, we read about those whose names are not written in the Lamb's book of life. When? From the foundation of the world, John says. Which means that there are names that were written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world. You see, beloved, the point of all of this that we know already is that Christ's work of salvation and the saving of His children was not an accident. It was not an afterthought. It was not a last attempt on God's part after everything else had failed. It is a part of a perfect plan of salvation from eternity. You see, here we see even more how awesome is the God we serve. You want to talk about the amazing grace of God, this is even more amazing. That which Peter wants us to be reminded of right here. That God in His grace planned for the saving of His children long before we even needed His saving grace. That's amazing. That's amazing grace, you see. And the comfort here for you and me, indeed, from all of this, is that God is in control in time and in eternity. He was in control before the foundation of the world. He's in control today. He will continue to be in control in eternity to come. And that must be a comfort for you and me because there are some who say that throughout history, since God created the world, there are some who say that there have been some surprises that God didn't really plan on. Some turns in the road that he didn't expect. Some oopses, we might say. For example, the dispensationalists say that the Jews, you see, well, the Jews weren't supposed to reject and kill Christ. That's not the way it was supposed to happen. He was supposed to be their king. So when they did reject Christ and when they did kill Him, God was forced to change His plan. And Jesus went to the cross, of course, and the New Testament church began. Our age. See, according to this false teaching, the idea of a church age was unknown. Not planned. It wasn't even a forethought in the Old Testament, they say. And then when God is through with this time period with you and me, then He will again bring about a physical kingdom, get back on the right track, and bring about a physical kingdom for the nation of Israel. Christ will come and set up His kingdom on earth with Israel. And also within this teaching, there are two peoples of God. One heavenly, namely the church, and one earthly, namely the Jews. But you see, beloved, this doesn't fit with what we studied earlier in verses 10 through 12. And it doesn't fit with the rest of Scripture. Earlier, you recall, Peter talked about the prophets of the Old Testament. And he says that the gospel that is preached now to these pilgrims, the New Testament church, to you and me, that that very same gospel is the one that was revealed to the prophets way back when. Long before Jesus Christ even came to this earth. And of course we know from reading the Bible, especially the Old Testament, that God's plan did include that Jesus Christ would give Himself for His people, that he would be despised and rejected. God told Satan already in Genesis 3.15, He will crush your head. And Isaiah, we know, talks very descriptively about Christ's sacrifice. He was despised and rejected. He was pierced. He was crushed. He was oppressed and afflicted. He was like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. He was offered as a guilt offering. Beloved, there have been and there will be no surprises or mistakes in God's plan. He is a sovereign God. He never changes. He is the same as His Word says yesterday, today, and forever. That's the God of Scripture, the true God. That's my God. Is He your God too? You see, think about this for a moment. If God could change or would change or if He could have His plans changed by something outside of Himself, then there would be nothing secure about His plans. There would be no eternal security for you and me. There would be no reason, no need for us to trust in God's promises. Because you never know, you see. But Peter's point is that God's plan is perfect. And our comfort is that in all of life, whether it's difficult situations, whether we face death, whether we look forward to Christ's return, or even in the good times, We do not have to live in fear of the unknown. Oh, unknown to us, maybe. But we do not have to live in the fear of the unknown. But God's people live in the joy of God's perfect plan. Our redemption and our salvation, beloved, was planned in eternity. Peter wants us to understand that we go way back with God. It was planned in eternity, but it was accomplished in history. You see, we look to history to see the picture then of Christ's work as it unfolds, we might say, on the stage of history. Peter says in verse 20, He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. We're living in the last times. We're living in the last days which began when Jesus came to earth the first time and will be over when He comes again to judge the living and the dead. From our perspective, 2,000 years, wow, that's a long last times. That's a lot of last days. But when it comes to eternity, what does the song say when we've been there 10,000 years? Bright, shining as the sun. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. This word for revealed, also translated as appeared, it does not mean that Jesus Christ suddenly appeared. Boom, there He is. That He was a surprise, you see. The idea is like when the sky is filled with clouds, but every now and then the rays of the sun shine through and we get a glimpse of the sun. That's what history is like. Our salvation was worked out again fully in eternity, every last detail. But God made it a reality. He accomplished it in history at just the right time. And throughout the Old Testament, for example, there were glimpses of the Savior in the types of Christ. Gideon, David, even Samson and many others. And there were other glimpses in the Old Testament sacrifices which we know pointed forward to the one great sacrifice of Christ. All of these glimpses. But then at just the right time, in the fullness of time, when God's plan was right, when He knew it was right, as Paul says, God gave a clear revelation of these Old Testament glimpses. And that clear revelation is Jesus Christ. And think about how God revealed His Son. Think about how He appeared. At His birth, the heavenly host of angels announced His coming. At His baptism, God the Father spoke from heaven announcing His beloved Son. Jesus made Himself known through His works and miracles, and He will appear again on the clouds of heaven with a trumpet blast to announce His coming. And today, congregation, He continues to be revealed in the pages of Scripture through the preaching of His Word. And He continues to be revealed when we, as His redeemed people, witness of the truth of Him. Did you know that? Did you think about that? He is revealed when we share with others the hope we have in Christ Jesus. He is revealed when we live with the love of God radiating from our hearts and lives when we indeed are the salt of the earth and the light of the Word. Jesus Christ is revealed. May we never tire of and forget about being a reflector of the revelation of Jesus Christ. Again, God's plan of salvation included that Christ was foreknown, chosen by God before the foundation of the world to be the Savior of the world. And then the picture of salvation was that He appeared. He came to earth to indeed accomplish what He came to do in history. That which was planned long ago. And then notice finally the purpose of His work. Peter says He was chosen and He was revealed for your sake. And then he goes on in verse 21, Through Him you believe in God who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him and so your faith and hope are in God. Did you catch that? For your sake. Again, from the beginning. For your sake. What a comfort. God did this for me. He did this for you, for your benefit, and for mine. You know, we love, and rightly so, we love that verse in Romans, Romans 8, verse 28, and all things work together for good to those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose. We cling to that verse and rightly so, but sometimes I think we limit it to this life and to the situations that we face in this life. But I believe it includes God's work from eternity. From eternity He was working out that all things work together for your good and my good. And therefore, we must consider for ourselves this question. Did you know that God put so much thought into you? Did you know that? God's plan of salvation included a specific Savior for a specific people. But notice the qualifications with the word you. Who are the you? Well, very simply and understandably, as we would say, those who believe in God. Those who through Jesus Christ, and Peter says, So apart from Jesus Christ, he is saying, you cannot believe in God, you won't believe in God. He's tying the two together so intimately. But those who through Jesus Christ believe in God. Now again, what does this tell us? A few things. First, salvation is not for everyone. It's not universal. Jesus did not die to save every single person from the curse of their sin. It sounds harsh. Many don't like to hear this. Many reject it. and they say, well, if that's true, that makes God out to be unfair. Well, you know what? In a sense, God is unfair. Why? Because you and I are saved, and we don't deserve it. Jesus died for those He chose who would come to believe in Him by true faith. He did not die for those who don't and won't believe in Him. Of course, many do believe that He did die for every person who ever lived and will live, and that every person will go to heaven no matter what. Well, congregation, if that's true, then what are we doing here this morning? What are we doing here? What do we waste our time coming here Lord's Day by Lord's Day for? If that's true, then why did Joe and Rachel Ellis, as well as many of us in our lives, why did they bother to come here this morning and stand before God's people, first come before the elders and then here to stand before God and His people to profess their faith? What's it in any of our business, you see? Why? If this is true, then what do we really care what the Bible says? And if it's true, then why do we as Christians fight in the strength of the Holy Spirit? Why do we fight to resist the tempting things of the world that our sinful nature so desperately wants? And if this is true, why did Christ bother to establish His church? You see, the answer to these questions is really very simple. It's because it's all a part of God's perfect plan. And by the grace of God, we believe what He says. We take Him at His word. But the fact is, God's plan of salvation is only for those who believe in Him by the grace of God. John writes, What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. and these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. Again, the purpose of God's plan and Christ's work is that you and I, that we believe. God's purpose from the foundation of the world was to bring us to Himself, to a saving knowledge of Himself. But there's more. Whom or what you believe in? Not just anything or anyone. Of course, in our day, some say, it doesn't matter what you believe. Just have faith. All you've got to do is have faith. Faith is the magic you see. But again, it's clear, and we know it, you must believe in God, which is only possible through Jesus Christ. The Scriptures are clear. You must believe in the God of Scripture. And there's only one way to the God the Father, and that is through His Son, Jesus Christ, who said of Himself, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me. No one comes. You see, that does not mean that some might be able to sneak by to God the Father without going through Christ. It won't happen. It doesn't get any clearer than this. No one, not anyone. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't matter who you were on this earth. It doesn't matter what kind of position you held. It doesn't matter how popular you were or what status you held among men. No one comes to God the Father except through Jesus Christ. And congregation, we all know of those, don't we? Who say they believe in God, but they don't believe in the Christ of Scripture. They don't believe in a Christ who is God, who gave Himself for our sins, who died, rose again, ascended, who will come back again. They don't believe. He's a good man. He was a great leader. He was a good teacher. He's a great example. But He's not God. Congregation, may we not rest when it comes to them. May we not rest, but we are called to plead with them over and over and over again as we will hear tonight the Lord willing to look to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone and live. Young people, we want to be a part of the in crowd, don't we? Because the in-crowd is where it's at. The in-crowd is the popular crowd. The in-crowd gets all the attention. The in-crowd is the one, the crowd that everybody wants to be a part of. But make no mistake about it, the in-crowds of this life are temporary. Some might last longer than others, but they're temporary. Each one will end. And the true in-crowd is made up of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus said in 1 John 3, and this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. And then in chapter 5, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. And who is the one who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? You see, if you don't believe in God, then God's salvation isn't for you, And you cannot believe in God. You cannot know the true God apart from Jesus Christ. God sent this specific Savior so that we might know Him. What love, huh? Our greatest need to know God. He's taking care of it. We can't come to know Him on our own. We don't have to worry about that. He's taking care of the details, you see. Yet Peter also teaches us what it is that we are to believe about God. The basis of our belief is that God raised Him from the dead and glorified Him. The resurrection and ascension, that's what we must believe. Oh, we believe that, don't we? We profess that. We will tonight when we recite the Apostles' Creed. Believe the resurrection, ascension. But many don't believe it. Again, science can't prove it. Can't be recreated. Must not be true. And you see, beloved, if you believe it and you witness to that truth, you will get laughed at. You will be persecuted. And are you ready for that? Christ's resurrection from the dead and His seat at the right hand of the Father are the core of the Christian faith. Why? Because these are proof, these are signs and seals that our salvation has been accomplished. When God raised Jesus from the dead, He was accepting Christ's payment for your sins and mine. And this is the core because this is what salvation is all about. The resurrection means that Christ's work on the cross, His sacrifice was finished. Complete. Perfect. Sufficient. And best of all, it was accepted by God. You see, apart from Christ's resurrection, salvation isn't finished. And that's why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, 17, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. You are still in your sins. And we know what that means, don't we? Not reconciled with God. Again, some say that it doesn't matter if Jesus actually, physically, really rose from the dead. Just believe that He died for your sins. That's the important thing. But Peter says, uh-uh, no way. If you believe in God through Jesus Christ, you will believe that God did raise Him from the dead. And if you don't believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then you don't believe in the God of Scripture. And again, Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 15 that apart from the truth of the resurrection, there is no comfort. But we find such great comfort as God's people in this truth, don't we? We confess in the Heidelberg Catechism that through Christ's resurrection, we partake of His righteousness. His resurrection, again, shows to us, proves to us of Christ's righteousness, which He freely imputes to us. He gives it to us. To our account. As well, we participate then in a new life. A new heart by His power. And then we have a sure pledge, promise, guarantee that we will also rise again one day. Our bodies will not lie forsaken in the grave, but will be raised again, reunited with our souls, and will be changed like unto Christ's glorified body. Because He lives, we too will live. And then Peter also says that God glorified Him. Now that's talking about Christ's resurrection. We need to get brutally honest here. For a moment. Maybe even to the point of causing us to squirm in our seats. At least I hope so. We often don't think about the Ascension much. And our actions demonstrate that we don't think much about the Ascension. And I say that because our annual Ascension Day service proves that. It is so pathetic. It is shameful. It is hard to understand how those who profess to believe in such a great truth as that of the Ascension do not see it important to celebrate that event, even though it's on a Thursday night, along with God's people. You see, we tend to make the resurrection the really important aspect of God's plan of salvation. But we've got to understand, beloved, that His Ascension is equally as important. Apart from the ascension, salvation is not complete. The ascension demonstrates that Christ indeed completed the Father's work on this earth. That He has earned the right to be King of kings and Lord of lords. That every knee will bow before Him and every tongue shall confess Him. You see, He reigns and rules even at this very moment. He intercedes with the Father on behalf of those who believe in Him. For you and for me because He ascended. And as He sits in heaven, He has also pledged a guarantee, a down payment for you and me that our flesh is already there. And one day, beloved, we will be there with Him. And again, all of this, every last bit of it is for the purpose of pointing us to God. That's God's plan for eternity. Peter says, and so your faith and hope are in God. That's the goal of it all, to bring us to faith in God. We've talked about that living hope earlier in this letter. That living hope, remember we said, is salvation. Our hope is in God because only He gives salvation through Jesus Christ. And by faith we believe that the risen and ascended Christ is our only Savior. That for His sake our sins are completely forgiven. And that we will live in glory with the Father for all eternity, beloved. What a message, huh? Salvation was planned in eternity. It was accomplished in history to enjoy for eternity. Even now. For whom? For those who believe in God through Jesus Christ by true faith. All throughout history and even before God had the church's redemption, yours and mine, in mine, all along. God did this for me and for you. You see, I'm no afterthought. You're no afterthought in God's mind. Isn't that comforting? And you see, if we are not afterthoughts for God, how can we let Him be an afterthought in our daily lives as He often is? Isn't it true that when someone or something is really special to you and me, That someone, let's say, constantly occupies our minds. Whether it's your husband or wife, whether it's your boyfriend or girlfriend, whether it's your children. That someone special constantly occupies our minds. When we count the cost of what Jesus Christ has done for us, how can we not have that relationship with God, that special relationship? And how can we let Him be an afterthought for us? We do, don't we? god gives to each one of us me included and i blow it he gives each one of us many opportunities to stand up for him for example when someone in your presence takes his name in vain or many other situations of life we don't do it afterward we think well you know i should have said yeah yeah i should have or when someone says to you you may not even know this person and they say, what a beautiful day. Congregation, what an opportunity to respond by saying, isn't it wonderful what God has done? Isn't the work of His hand gorgeous? What a conversation that will start. But even at times when we are going through difficulties, there may be hours, days, maybe even weeks, when we are in despair and finally it hits us. I did not take it to the Lord. in prayer. Oh, may God not be an afterthought with us, whether in good times, times of praise, when we ought to thank Him, or in times of difficulty, especially in times of doubt and temptation. And when our friends forsake us, may we always remember that we are safe in the mind of God. If you don't believe in God through Christ Jesus, you are sincerely and earnestly called to repent of your sins and turn to Him in godly fear because eternal security can only be found in Him. But for those who don't believe, the warning is that hell, complete separation from God and His mercy and grace, hell is also planned for eternity. From eternity, for eternity. The message of salvation. What a message. This is exciting, isn't it? I hope you get excited about it. For God's children, this message is to drive us to our knees in godly fear because it is awesome to know that our God had the salvation of His people in His mind and in His plan from the beginning. It was all of His doing. None of us, which means it's perfect. It will not fail. That's grace. And why did God do this? Well, because He loved us to be sure. The Bible is clear about that. But even more, God planned and carried out His plan of salvation so that He would be glorified both now and forever. He did it for His own glory because when you and I recognize His saving plan and picture and purpose in Christ Jesus, that brings glory to Him. To God be the glory. This message of salvation, that's the good news. God's good news to you and to me. Is that the good news you needed to hear today? Maybe it is. May we never cease, beloved, to praise His holy name. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, indeed, we respond to your word with Amen. It is true. And it will surely be. We thank you for that blessed hope and that comfort. We pray, Father, that you would always be in our thoughts and minds. Every moment of every day as we consider what you have done for us. As we consider that we have always been a part of your thoughts and your plan. Father, use us, we pray, to reveal in some small way but a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give to us and help us take advantage of the opportunities you give to speak the truth in love to everyone with whom you give us contact. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray all of these things. Amen.