1 Peter 1:20-21 - The Sovereign King

Today we are stepping into a glorious mystery as we consider the sovereignty of our God. In 1 Peter 1:20–21, we are reminded that Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world and revealed in these last days for our sake. Long before creation, long before our birth, the redeeming work of Christ was already established in the perfect plan of God.

As we examine God’s foreknowledge and sovereign rule, we are reminded that He is God and we are not. Yet this truth is not meant to trouble us—it is meant to comfort us. Because the God who planned our salvation from eternity past is the same God who walks with us through suffering, hears our prayers, and holds our future.

His sovereignty gives us comfort in our suffering, confidence in our prayers, contentment in our waiting, and clarity in our uncertainty. Nothing about our lives is outside His knowledge or beyond His care. The Sovereign King is holy, good, just, and merciful—and He can be trusted with all things.

Join me as we consider the sovereign grace of God and the foreknown work of Christ. Let’s dig in and look to Jesus, our true hope!

Transcript

9 - 1 Peter 1:20-21 - The Sovereign King

Intro

• If you would please take your Bibles and turn with me to 1 Peter and find chapter one and drop down to verse 20.
  • Today we step into a glorious mystery as we prepare to explore the Sovereignty of our God.
• As we consider together the Sovereignty of God I want you to recognize from the start that we can no more understand the Sovereignty of God than an ant can comprehend written language…
  • Which means we must approach this topic with great humility and the perspective that He is God and we are not.
• A good starting place for the consideration of this topic is the story of Job. 
  • Think about it with me for a few moments…
  • We are told that Job was a righteous man in his generation, a man who feared God and turned away from evil…
    • Yet in spite of that, or perhaps because of it, Job became the focus of a cosmic conversation between the Lord our God and satan.
      • Go back and read it, as satan presented himself before his Creator it was the Lord our God who brought up Job.
        • He asked satan, “Have you considered my servant Job?”
      • Through that question we find the Lord giving satan permission…
    • To tempt and test him, he did this in three ways…
      • He attacked his possessions, for Job was a man of great wealth.
      • He attacked his posterity, for Job had ten children whom Satan snuffed out.
      • Then he attacked his physical body, bringing Job to the very edge of death, yet not having the permission to deliver the final blow.
    • This all occurred across the first two chapters of the book of Job 
      • Then over the course of the next 35 chapters we find dialogue between Job and his supposed friends.
      • I say “supposed friends” because we learn they are miserable comforters.
    • Throughout the conversation though we see a common thread. 
  • Job insists that he could argue his case before God, he insists that his own sin did not bring this upon himself…
    • His friends argue that there must be some hidden sin in his life, otherwise this disaster would not have fallen upon him.
  • Then after his friends had all spoken to him, he finally gets his wish and the Lord answers Job.
    • In chapter 38 God speaks, let me remind you where He begins.
      • He begins with a question…
        • Job 38:2 - “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”
      • That is just the start, He then goes on in the next several verses, continuing to question Job, He asks…
        • Job 38:4-7 - “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
          Tell me, if you have understanding.
          Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
          Or who stretched the line upon it?
          On what were its bases sunk,
          or who laid its cornerstone,

when the morning stars sang together

and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”

• The Lord goes on like this for four chapters, and we could summarize it by saying that the Lord was making clear…
  • That He is God and Job was not.
  • Job was His Creation, and is therefore subject to Him.
• God does not answer to Job, and He will act according to His own Good Purpose.  
  • Sometimes that truth is hard to swallow, sometimes it does not make sense, sometimes our questions are not answered.
    • Just like we can observe in the book of Job.
  • We can read it now, we can read about his suffering, and still not understand why God did what He did.
• More than that, we are not sure what all Job knew at the end of his meeting with the Lord.
• However, we do know his response…
  • Job 42:6b - “...I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
  • Though he justified himself before his friends, he realized that before the Lord he is wretched.
  • Is that why he suffered?
    • No, but his suffering became subjected to the Sovereign King.  
• What Job took notice of is a truth that we also must grasp at the start of our time together today…
• God is the supreme ruler, the only God, His purposes cannot be thwarted and His Will will be done.  
  • In other words, He is God and we are not…
    • Though we need to discuss His Sovereign rule because it is addressed in the scriptures…
      • What we must do is approach it with great humility.
    • We are His Creation, all we see we have experienced over the course of our lifetimes…
  • Is but that is a mere drop in the ocean compared to the existence of our God.
• Furthermore, this is His story, His plan, His Creation…
  • Let us keep that in mind as cast our eyes upon that which we cannot fully grasp.
• With that, let us read our text and humbly approach our God in prayer.

1 Peter 1:20-21

• Let us recall what has led up to these verses…
  • Peter begins this section of scripture in verse 13, where he begins to call the church to live a certain way.
    • They are to prepare their minds for action…
    • They are to be sober-minded, to set their hope fully on the grace of God.
    • They are to not be conformed to the world around them but they were to be set apart and different.
  • In simpler terms Peter is calling them to live lives that are holy before God and before their Savior.
• His reasoning for this is simple, we are to be Holy because the God we serve, our Creator, our Redeemer, He is Holy.
  • Our lives are then to reflect this reality about who our God is…
    • I know we have been covering this over several weeks…
    • We have been dwelling upon the holiness of our God…
    • We have examined at length what this is to look like in our lives practically.
  • However, please bear with me as we consider this context and this important truth once more today.
    • What Peter has called us to, because of the character of our God, is to live holy lives before Him.
      • Holy means to be “set apart”, to be “pure”, to be “without blemish”.
    • Brothers and sisters, would this be how we would describe the church today?
      • Pure, without blemish, set apart from the world…
      • So often are we not found living as the world lives?
        • Having the same priorities, giving into the same desires, making the same decisions…
      • How often do we see our churches shifting to look more like the world…
        • Intended to attract a crowd…
      • How often do we soften the Gospel or abandon it completely when we are afraid of the offense?
    • I remind you again today that we are the church, we are the called out ones, set apart by the Gospel to be holy as He is Holy.
  • Let us not forget this important part of this passage, for it the foundation that we rest upon as we continue in this passage.
    • It is why as we begin to consider the sovereignty of our God that it is not an alarming thing to us.
    • He who holds the world is Holy and Good and Just and Righteous and Merciful.  
  • So we must keep this context in mind as we step forward in the text.  
• After Peter references the Holiness of God he then shifts and begins writing about the character and nature of our God.
  • Last week we began to examine this as we saw and were reminded that God is Judge and God is Redeemer.  
  • Today we continue forward as we will see in these verses that we just read that God is…

The Sovereign King

• Look again with me at our two verses, there are two words that jump off the page in verse 20.
  • Vs. 20 - “He was foreknown [underline, highlight, or circle that word, it is important.  Let’s continue…]”
  • “…before the foundation of the world but was made manifest [there is our second important word, please do the same with this word.
• Foreknown and manifest or appear if you are using the NASB version, we are going to discuss both of these words because they are vital to this passage and what Peter is pointing out to us.
  • Let's start by defining these words…
    • Foreknowledge means to know beforehand or to select in advance.
      • It is used five times across the New Testment…
        • Twice by Peter, twice by Paul, and once by Luke in the book of Acts.  
      • The most famous verse that uses this same Greed word is found in Romans 8:29.
        • Romans 8:29a - “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son…”
      • In this context that we are examining it, it is used to describe the knowledge of God regarding the redeeming work of Christ upon the Cross.
        • Peter makes it clear, before the foundations of the earth were laid, from eternity past, God knew what was to come. 
      • The second word to define is…
    • Manifest or appear it means to reveal or to make clear.
      • It is a much more common word and is used nearly 50 times throughout the New Testament.  
      • In this context it is Peter referencing Jesus being revealed in the flesh.
        • He is writing about the incarnation, when God became man and dwelt among us.  
      • As He came in the flesh it was the plan and purpose of God being manifest before those who witnessed it.
    • We look back on it now and see the plan of God more clearly and how He worked to set the stage to send forth His Son.  
• These two words are going to guide the majority of our time together today as we discuss…

God’s Foreknowledge

• What does it mean that God foreknew Christ?
  • Well considering the context we must look at the prior verse because that tells us specifically what Peter is referring to…
    • Vs. 19
  • What is Peter referring to?
    • He is referring to the death of Jesus, springing forward from that he makes it clear that God foreknew what was to happen.
  • How long before?
    • Since eternity past, or to say it differently…
      • There was never a time where God did not know that Jesus would die in the place of man.  
    • This is a difficult concept to wrap our heads around because we know nothing but learning.
      • We are born and know very little, we spend our formative years doing nothing but learning how to live and exist.
        • Even as we grow into adults we are still found to be learning.
      • Even if you think that you are done, let me just ask, when you see someone you know that you have not seen in a while, what do you do?
        • Do you not ask them about their welfare, do you not concern yourself with what they are sharing?
          • Certainly, if you care about them at all, you do…
        • Then as you leave that interaction you have just learned more than you did before.
      • This is not the case with our God…
        • He cannot learn because He is all knowing.
          • I like what…
        • Numbers 23:19a - “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind...“
  • We can often be found saying that God knows all, that there is nothing that He has not known, that He has seen the end as well as the beginning.
    • Think about this though in a more individual sense, as applied to the Gospel and our Redmption…
      • Before your salvation and before you knew the offense of your sin, Christ had already paid the price.
      • Before your birth, before your conception, Jesus had bled and died in your place.
      • You could go back a dozen generations before you were even considered…
        • Long before this church was built and you would find that the payment had already been made for your sins.
    • Let us step back further still…
      • Before the founding of this country, before this land was even known about on the pages of history…
        • Before the protestant reformation, before the middle ages…
      • Christ had lived, died, and rose again, for your sake.
    • We must not stop there…
      • Before the New Testament was penned, before the church was birthed, payment was made.
    • This is where it gets really good…
      • Peter tells us that God foreknew the cross before the foundation of the world.
      • Before the birth of Christ, before the written Old Testament, it had been predetermined.
        • Jesus would give His life for His Church.
      • Before the global flood, before the fall of man, even before man’s creation.
        • Christ was destined to die to pay a debt He did not owe.  
    • Before the start were flung across the sky, before the Spirit of God hovered over the waters of Creation.
      • John Gill, a Baptist pastor from the 1800’s, considered this and wrote the following…
        • “A Saviour was provided before sin was committed, and the method of man’s recovery was settled before his ruin took place; and which was done without any regard to the works and merits of men, but is wholly owing to the free and sovereign grace of God, and to his everlasting love, both to the Redeemer and the redeemed.”
      • This glorious verse should cause us to pause and consider the amazing grace of this amazing God.
        • A way was made before history knew that a way was needed.
      • What an amazing thing to consider…
        • Such a marvelous reality that on one hand makes you feel so small.
          • In the grand scheme of Creation and in the mighty plan and providence of God…
          • He sent forth His Son to redeem a people for Himself.
        • Yet on the other side it also lifts us up…
          • Christ died for you and me, long before we were even considered.
      • Oh what a Savior, Oh what a Redeemer, Oh what a God who would plan such a marvelous act.
    • Now you may be sitting there and listening to this and saying…
      • “Well it sounds good, it’s fun to consider, but what does it have to do with my daily life?”
  • So let’s consider together, what daily implications the foreknowledge of God should have in our lives…
• Starting with…
  • Comfort in our suffering.
    • Having a strong understanding of the foreknowledge of God and how He worked out our salvation long before we took our first breath should be a comfort to us as we face suffering and trials…
      • That is because we know that if God so loved us that He worked out the most important detail of our lives, the salvation of our souls, long before our birth…
        • Certainly He will also work out the suffering that we are currently facing.
        • He has not abandoned us, He has not forgotten us, He who foreknew and preplanned the salvation of our souls will see us through to the end.
    • Turn over with me to Acts 4 as we see how this played out in the lives of the first century church.
      • Acts 4:23
        • The “they” in this verse refers to Peter and John, and they had just been beaten and threatened by the chief priests.
          • They were commanded to no longer speak or teach in the Name of Jesus.
        • This was a serious threat, because it was this group that instigated the death of Jesus.
        • So what is the church to do?
          • Well thankfully they had a high view of the Sovereignty of God and understood that what was playing out before them had been predetermined from long ago. 
        • Let’s see how they responded to this threat of suffering for Christ.  
      • Acts 4:24 - “And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,”
        • Though Christ taught them to pray to God as their Father, here they needed to express from the start of their prayer…
          • That they are bowing to the One who is King and Ruler of all.
        • The Sovereign Lord, the Creator of everything, the One who directs History and has established nations…
          • That is who they were praying to.
        • They then continue and reiterate what happened to Jesus and how it was a part of His Glorious plan.
        • Jump down to verse 27 and see this with me…
      • Acts 4:27-28
        • Take note of “predestined”, this is similar but this speaks to more than just foreknowledge.
          • This is a word that means that it was decided beforehand and He will bring it to pass. 
          • We have already seen this word used in a verse today, it is found paired with foreknowledge in Romans 8.
            • Romans 8:29a - “For those whom he foreknew [the word we have been considering] he also predestined [the word we see used by the apostles in this prayer].
              • Paired together…
            • Romans 8:29 - “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.”
        • This high view of the Sovereignty of God gave these believers comfort in the midst of their suffering.
        • Which led to this final request…
      • Acts 4:29-30
        • They wanted and desired that the Word of God would continue to spread and people would continue to be saved.
        • They prayed that they would have boldness in the face of these trials.
    • Believer, please take this to heart, the foreknowledge of God means that He is not shocked by what we are walking through.
      • More than just what we are walking through, He knows the outcome on the other side.
    • Which leads to the second practical thing the foreknowledge of God offers to us…
      • Not only comfort in our suffering but also…
  • Confidence in our prayers.
    • Look what happened here in Acts 4, after they prayed…
      • Acts 4:31
        • God is a God who can and does answer prayers.
      • Not that He answers all of our prayers in the way we expect or the way we want at the time of our praying, but do not miss this…
    • Our God is Sovereign over His Creation and He uses our prayers to accomplish His purposes.
      • Which is why our Lord commanded us pray that the Fathers Will would be done and that His Kingdom would come.
      • Those things are in line with the plan and purpose of God.
    • So we find that considering the foreknowledge of God we have…
      • Comfort in our suffering…
      • Confidence in our prayers…
    • Then…
  • Contentment in our waiting.
    • Have you ever been in a situation where you just wish that God would give you the next step?
      • Where you just feel like you are in limbo, where you may be fine with whatever comes to pass but it is not just clear…
      • Maybe that is where you are right now…
    • Just waiting, perhaps you have two or more decisions laid before you and you do not know what is to come…
      • Take heart brothers and sisters for in that time our Lord is not wondering what will come next.
        • Since He foreknew and predetermined the death, burial, and resurrection, for our benefit, He also will handle what tomorrow may bring.
    • Again, this perspective relies upon a high view of the Sovereignty of God.
      • It is recognizing that our God not only preserved His Word, provided His Son, and pardoned our sin, but it is that He has also predetermined whatever may come to pass.
        • One of the things we have started doing with our children during our family worship is learning a catechism.
        • A catechism is a summary of doctrines in the form of questions and answers.
        • It’s intent is to teach new or young believers the principles of the faith.  
      • We are using the Westminster Shorter Catechism which is intended to be learned by children and recited in the home.
        • We have been doing this for about 7 weeks total, and the question we have covered this past week is this…
        • Q7 - What are the decrees of God?
          • “The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he hath foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.”
        • I share this with you because this catechism is not new, it was written in 1647.
        • It is intended to give children a foundational understanding of what it means to be a Christian.
      • One of those rock solid truths is that God, for His own glory, has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass.
      • It is the understanding that…
    • He is not subject to His Creation…
      • Christian, God is not sitting outside of this created order just hoping things will turn out alright.
      • He knows your next step, He knows what is to come…
        • We serve a God who will not be surprised by tomorrow.
      • There is contentment in our waiting because of that.
    • God’s foreknowledge provides us with…
      • Comfort in our suffering…
      • Confidence in our prayers…
      • Contentment in our waiting…
    • And…
  • Clarity in our uncertainty.
    • This may not seem to be a comfort for you but I pray that it is…
      • God holds this existence in His hand, not one electron is out of order but all things flow according to His Glorious Purpose.
      • I am incapable of working out in my mind exactly what that means to each circumstance that we may face around this room.
    • However, here is what I know, the God who worked out the salvation of my soul before my existence is still in the driver's seat. 
      • He is Good and Just, He is my Heavenly Father, and I know He cares for me. 
      • So when I am tempted to look up on the uncertain things in my life I am reminded that nothing about my life is uncertain to Him. 
      • He knows the end from the beginning, He knows what today holds, and what eternity holds and He can be trusted with it all.
    • The good news is that is not only true for me, but it is true for us all. 
      • So let us all do as the author of Hebrews encourages in Hebrews 12…
        • Hebrews 12:1b-2a - “...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”
    • So I urge you to look to Christ and find clarity in whatever you may be facing.
  • I pray this day that as we have considered the Sovereignty of God and how His foreknowledge has played out in salvation history that it has been a blessing and comfort to you.

Closing

• Here we will close, and as we do I want to point out that this message has been focused toward the believer.
  • The one who has placed their faith in Christ and been forgiven of their sins, so I want to turn now and address the unbeliever that may be listening to this…
    • I want you to know that God does not make accidents and if He has directed you here today it is for a Glorious purpose.
    • You have heard today the wonders of how He sent forth His Son to die in your place.
  • I urge you, if you have never repented (turned from) your sins and placed your faith in Jesus, that you would do so this day.
• We serve a God who holds today, tomorrow, and eternity, look to Him today.
  • Let’s pray.