Print

I PETER 1: 3 - 8 
"THE LIVING HOPE"

I. WE HAVE BEEN "BORN AGAIN?"
        A. What do we mean "born again?"
                1. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
                   Spirit is Spirit.
                        a. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom.
                        b. That Spirit has been lying dead within.
                                1. My capacity for God -understanding and communing.
                                2. It has come alive. "And you hath He made alive who were
                                   dead.
        B. "Why must I be born again?"
                1. My problem is with my nature.
                        a. I was born once of the flesh a natural man.
                                1. "And by nature, a child a wrath."
                                2. I went around sinning because I was a sinner.
                        b. "For by one man (Adam. sin entered into the world, and death (of 
                           my spirit) by sin, so death passed unto all men for all sinned."
                        c. Uselessness of reformation.
        C. The result of being born again.
                1. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation."

II. WE HAVE A "LIVING HOPE."
        A. What is the basis for the living hope?
                1. The resurrection of Christ from the dead.
                        a. Disciples on road to Emmaus.
                2. Mohamadism - Buddahism.
                3. What hope in world apart from Christ? "Without Christ, and without  hope in
                   the world."
        B. The nature of the hope.
                1. "Inheritance."

aphthartos a. Incorruptible - imperishable - unravaged by invading army.
                        b. Undefiled.
                        c. Unfading.
                        d. Reserved in heaven for you.
                                1. Some lose everything at death.
                                2. Others gain everything.
        C. The security of the hope.
                1. Who are "kept" garrisoned about" by the power of God.
                2. "Through faith." Believe that God is able to do what He says He  will.
        D. The result of the hope.
                1. "Wherein ye greatly rejoice."
                2. "Even in present trial of faith."
                        a. "The enduring power of hope."
                                1. "They endured as seeing the invisible."
                        b. Every trial is a test.
                                1. Gold must be refined by fire.
                                2. The hard training of an athlete not to make him.
                                collapse - to create greater endurance.
                        c. Jesus is waiting at the end "well done" some of the highest efforts
                           of life put forth not for money but for the "well done."