WHAT’s So GREAT About GOD?-II—1Peter 1:3-12(:3-9; 10-12)
Attention:
We can sometimes miss the power of God preferring rather to enjoy the social aspects of ‘our church.’ And when confronted with our fears in such situations, we come to a standstill, not realizing ‘What’s So Great About God!’
Peter recalled basic justifications for glorifying God.
Blood-bought believers are justified in their glorifying/pointing to God.
Why are believers justified in glorifying/blessing/pointing to God?
Why is God considered Worthy?
10 justifiers/justifications for blessing God.
WHAT’s So GREAT About GOD?
Previously, we found that,
God is Great because He offers...
1. GOD(:3a)
2. His MEANS OF SALVATION(:3a)
3—God is Great because He offers...
MERCY(:3b)
Explanation:(:3b)Compassion
:3—“Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
?What does “Mercy” signify?—Help for those in misery.
NOT giving the sinner what his endeavor in sin deserves.
God’s mercy is a “abundant/great” mercy. i.e., it is employed to alleviate & override every misery resulting from sin. Therefore sin itself must be dealt with mercifully(removal of the dangers posed—misery), as well as graciously(removal of its results—guilt). This is both a statement of the quality & quantity of man’s need & God’s love/willingness/forgiveness.
Both “mercy” & grace are extensions of God’s perfect love.
Grace is lavished upon men because they are guilty.
Mercy is lavished upon men because they are miserable.
—Trench per ISBE/MNTC—
“Abundant/Great”—poluv—Adj.—1) Many, much, large. Strong—singular--Much(in any respect) or plural--Many; neuter(singular) as adverbial,--Largely; neuter(plural) as adverb or noun--Often, mostly, largely.
“Mercy”—eleov—1) Mercy: kindness or good will towards the miserable & the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them—1a) of men towards men: To exercise the virtue of mercy, show one's self merciful, 1b) of God towards men: In general providence; the mercy & clemency of God in providing & offering to men salvation by Christ—1c) The mercy of Christ, whereby at his return to judgment he will bless true Christians with eternal life. Both eleov[Mercy] & oiktirmov[Pity/Compassion] denote sympathy, fellow-feeling with misery, mercy, compassion. Eleov, however, manifests itself chiefly in acts rather than words, while oiktirmov is used rather of the inward feeling of compassion which abides in the heart. A criminal might ask for eleov, mercy, from his judge; but hopeless suffering may be the object of oiktirmov, compassion. Eng. per M-W—‘Compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one's power; also : lenient or compassionate treatment.’
Argumentation:
Rom. 9:14-16—“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, & I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”
Lam. 3:22-24—“Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!””
In Jesus’ earthly ministry, mercy was partially manifested in His healings.
Lk. 1:50—[Mary stated...]“And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.”
Titus 3:3-6—“But when the kindness & the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration & renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
Mat. 5:7—[in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said,]“Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.”
1Jn. 4:18—“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us.”
Mat. 9:13—“But go & learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy & not sacrifice.’[ Hos. 6:6] For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”
It is a horrible, sinful state in which we find ourselves.
Mat. 23:13-14, 23—“ “But woe to you, scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in”......“ “Woe to you, scribes & Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint & anise & cummin, & have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice & mercy & faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.”
Mark 7:9-13—“He[Jesus] said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. For Moses said, ‘Honor your father & your mother’; &, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ “But you say, ‘If a man says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban”--’(that is, a gift to God), “then you no longer let him do anything for his father or his mother, making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Much of the OT is built around mercy, because God’s people must know what it is to be like their merciful God...:
Ex. 22:21-24—“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. You shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. If you afflict them in any way, & they cry at all to Me, I will surely hear their cry; & My wrath will become hot, & I will kill you with the sword; your wives shall be widows, & your children fatherless.”
Deut. 10:18—“He administers justice for the fatherless & the widow, & loves the stranger, giving him food & clothing.”
Deut. 24:21—“When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward; it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, & the widow.”
Mal. 3:1-6—“Behold, I send My messenger, And he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to His temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says the LORD of hosts. “But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire And like launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner & a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, And purge them as gold & silver, That they may offer to the LORD An offering in righteousness. “Then the offering of Judah & Jerusalem Will be pleasant to the LORD, As in the days of old, As in former years. And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners & widows & orphans, And against those who turn away an alien--Because they do not fear Me,” Says the LORD of hosts. “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
Js. 1:27—“Pure & undefiled religion before God & the Father is this: to visit orphans & widows in their trouble, & to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
Js. 2:13—“For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Illustration:
A male dog in the highway/He got there because a female dog is in heat on the other side, & he allowed his fleshly urges to control his choices—Before he entered the highway, he was guilty because he broke away from his master/But he is also miserable because of where its choices have taken him/Choosing to not run over the dog/Recognizing the dog does not grasp his situation/MERCY
A criminal may beg the judge for clemency-leniency(to NOT give him what he deserves) as it is within the judge’s power to appropriately sentence/MERCY
FBCC’s ministry to public school kids—provide shoes & shirts for those obviously in need/MERCY
Missions—Medical, Dental/Mercy upon people who have no knowledge or resources/Mission of MERCY
Are you in misery?/Not knowing your future?/Frightened of the days ahead/Fearful of your demise-end?/MERCY
Application:
?You accepted God’s offer of MERCY?
?Is God Great/to be Blessed for you?
4—God is Great because He offers...
REGENERATION(:3b)
Explanation:(:3b)
:3—“Blessed be the God & Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”
This great mercy of God ‘has caused’ something wonderful to occur in the lives of believers...
“According” to this mercy, which has been lavished upon us by God, our second/spiritual birth was wrought/initiated & secured.(Jn.1:12-13;3:3-8).
Jn.1:12-13;3:3-8—“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Jn. 3:3-8—“Jesus answered & said to him[Nicodemus], “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb & be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water & the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, & that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ “The wind blows where it wishes, & you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from & where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
“Begotten...again”—anagennaw—1) To produce again, be born again, born anew; 2) metaph.--To have one's mind changed so that he lives a new life & one conformed to the will of God. Strong—To beget or (by extension) Bear(again). Used 2X.
Argumentation:
Job 15:14-16—“What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is abominable & filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!”
Isa. 59:1-2—“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”
Titus 3:3-7—“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts & pleasures, living in malice & envy, hateful & hating one another. But when the kindness & the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration & renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
Rom. 3:19-26—“Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, & all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law & the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all & on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned & fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just & the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
Rom. 6:3-14—“Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, & your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”
Gal. 2:20—“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; & the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me & gave Himself for me.”
Eph. 2:4-9—“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), & raised us up together, & made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, & that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
2Cor. 5:17—“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Gal. 6:14-15—“But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, & I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
Illustration:
Suppose you drive a 20yr-old used car/You bought it used/You have never know what the original was like/You have never known what it is like to have a ‘worry-free’ ride/You never plan long trips—Fearful of its failure, lack of security, know nothing of comfort, it smells funny, lack of pride-appreciation/Take it to specialists who refit, repaint, recharge, etc. making it better than it was even when new!/Need...REGENERATION!
Our whole-house water filter in the piedmont area of NC(red clay territory)/The filter continually filters the ‘stuff’ contained in the water—Seemingly clean water goes in & clean-er water comes out/After several months of filtering, the filter eventually turns a reddish color from minute particles of clay riding in the water/The filter itself needs to be cleaned(or replaced) because it becomes bogged down & clogged with continual exposure to the red-clay particles/Needs...REGENERATION
My first car was a 1969 VW beetle/It had a unique oil filter which was permanent!/It had six bolts which were made of a softer metal than the pan to which it was bolted/I was always shearing off & replacing bolts!/Whenever the oil needed changing, the filter had to be cleaned—Not replaced!/I used a brush & gasoline/Blow dry it & return it to its place & the filtration system is brand-new, ready to go!/REGENERATION
Application:
?You accepted God’s offer of REGENERATION?
?Is God Great/to be Blessed for you?
CONCLUSION:
Action:
God is Great because He offers...
3. MERCY(:3b)
4. REGENERATION(:3b)
1. GOD(:3a)
2. His MEANS OF SALVATION(:3a)
pts. 3-4 Presented 11/16/2014am to:
FBC Cbelle
206 Storrs Ave.(SE Ave A) SE
Carrabelle, FL 32322
