Open your Bibles with me to the
book of 1 Peter. But while you're turning, let
me say thank you. Thank Brother Donnie and the congregation here
for this opportunity to come. I thought as Peter was traveling
to Cornelius' house, and Cornelius had sent for Peter, and as Brother
Donnie sent for these preachers, and he told him, he said, you
will come. You've done well. You've come.
Now we're here gathered for to hear whatsoever the Lord has
commanded thee to say. That's why we come. That's why
we come. It's good to see friends, good to make acquaintance, but
to hear the gospel. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 13. This is what we've heard this
week. If you read these 12 or 13 verses, this is what we've
heard. Wherefore, gird up your loins of your minds and be sober
in hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you
by the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashion
yourselves according to the form of lust and your own ignorance,
but as he which has called you is holy, so be you holy in all
manner of conversation. Because it is written, be ye
holy, for I am holy. And if you call on the Father,
who without respect of person, judges according to every man's
work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as
you know, that you were not redeemed with corruptible things of silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as a lamb without
blemish and without spot, who verily was ordained before the
foundation of the world, but was manifested in these last
time for you, who by him do believe in God. that raised him from
the dead and gave him glory, that your faith and hope might
be in God. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obedience to truth through the spirit until unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another fervently with
a pure heart. How do we do that? Being born
again, not a corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Let us go to the Lord
in prayer. You can open your Bibles to the
Book of John, Gospel of John. Now, when Donnie made up the
schedule, and I noticed that Bruce was first and last, I said,
you've made him into the bookends on this thing. By the time I
got here, I don't know why I think about these things, but I do.
And I told Bruce, I said, really, you're kind of like the bread
on the sandwich. And then last night, I got to thinking, that
makes me the cheese. And I hope I don't turn out to
be a big slice of stinky cheese, but maybe a nice Swiss or something
like that. But he's right. My mind goes
places no one else's does. And I probably shouldn't be left
alone to think by myself. Oh, it has been a blessing. I've
enjoyed all the messages. The Lord blesses us, doesn't
He? It's such a blessing to even know this message, but to get
to hear it like you and I do, live near enough a church, you
can go regular, have the bread of life served day after day
after day, and to hear it and know what it means, what a blessing. All right, verse 14 of John chapter
1, we're going to read through verse 17. was made flesh, John 1.14, and
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. John bare witness of Him, and
cried, saying, This was He of whom I spake. He that cometh
after me is preferred before me, for He was before me. And of His fullness have all
we received. grace for grace. For the law
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
Now Moses was a remarkable man, lived a remarkable life. When
he was born right away it was evident he was no ordinary child.
At his birth he was under sentence of death by the king in that
country, the Pharaoh. But he was left in a floating
basket And by the providence of God, the daughter of the king
who condemned him rescued him and called him her own. And he
was raised as the grandson of the king who had signed the edict
that he should be put to death. And for 40 years, he lived the
royal life in the land of Egypt, participating and enjoying all
the treasures of Egypt. the best education that Egypt
had to offer in that day. But at 40, his heart was with
his native people, the Jews, and he thought to save them.
And he tried. And just like with every man
that tries to save another, he made things worse by his efforts. And he fled that territory, fled
Egypt, and went up into the wilderness. got married and worked for 40
years for his father-in-law as a shepherd. Now, you might think
that the 40 years in Egypt and the 40 years as a shepherd were
wasted. But no, they were all providentially
ordered by God to prepare him for the work God had ordained
him in the first place. For he was going to have to deal
with the royal household of Pharaoh. He had an end. He knew what the
court was like. And he was going to have to shepherd
God's people. And so he didn't start that job without understanding
what sheep are like and what it takes to lead them. At the
age of 80 God appeared to him. spoke to him in the form of a
fire within a bush, a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
divine fire within the fleshly man, and yet lo and behold the
divine fire did not burn up the man and it was holy ground. And
Moses learned that name of God which God had never revealed
to any nation before, the name Jehovah, I Am, the self-existent
One, God above all gods. But his remarkable life and not
without its notable blemishes. Moses was timid on one hand and
brash on the other. And both of those characteristics
hindered him at different times. While he is noted for his faithfulness
as a servant in God's household, it was his disobedience as that
servant in God's household that cost him a place in the land
of rest. He was never allowed to enter
into that land which God which he had been used of God to lead
God's people to it. Now think of that. But for all
the wonderful things that one might say about Moses, John's
summary of the life and ministry of Moses is reduced to five or
six words. The law came by Moses. That's it. 120 years. And there you have
the summary of his life. Now, The Jews would have looked
upon this as high commendation, and indeed it was. We're not
going to diminish the glory of Moses. And were it not for John's
next words we would have to say, Moses is probably the greatest
man that ever lived. But John says, the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And with
those few words he relegates Moses pretty far down. we're
not going to take Moses' glory from him any more than we would
take the glory of the moon from him. But once the sun comes up
who pays attention to the moon? With this simple contrast John
has glorified the Lord Jesus Christ far above what would likely
be considered the most honorable and significant life ever lived. John might well have said this,
demand came through Moses, supply came through Jesus Christ. The
challenge came by Moses. The answer came by Jesus Christ. Death came through Moses. Life came through Jesus Christ. Condemnation and rejection came
by Moses. Justification and acceptance
came through Jesus Christ. Hell came through Moses. Heaven
came through Jesus Christ. God, the judge of all, spoke
by Moses. God, the father of his children,
spoke by Jesus Christ. Now, we do not by this think
Moses, consider him not to be great. He was. But you always,
if you want to exalt something or someone, you compare it to
something that's great and say, but this is so much greater.
And so that's what John has done here. Nobody would doubt that
Moses, what a remarkable man, but he's nothing compared to
Jesus Christ. That's why we scratch our heads
sometimes when those who claim to believe the gospel seem so
enamored of the law. It's not my place to condemn
them. In fact, I wouldn't because some
of them, particularly of our brethren from the past, were
very strong on the law. When you've seen Christ and that
glorious covenant ratified by His blood, why would we keep
looking back to those shadowy types and figures? suppose one
reason that John wrote this is because we are so prone to do
just that. We are so prone to be enamored of all those trappings
of a religion like that. Even though that form of religion
that the Jews were told to practice came from God. Now remember that
God is the one that told them to worship that way. Yet that
way is nothing compared to the full blown revelation of the
Gospel in Jesus Christ. We're not going to take from
Moses the glory due to Him, but however great that glory may
be, it's only a reflected glory. You know, if the sun went out,
you'd never see the moon, would you? Why? Because the moon has
no light of its own, and Moses had no light of his own. You
know, it says that Moses saw the glory of God, and his face
shone, but it dimmed. He had to put a veil over His
face, but only for a while, because that glory didn't come from Him.
It's like when you stick a stick in a fire, it comes out, and
there it is red, but you watch it, it'll go right out. But the
one to whom He spoke, who is the Lord Jesus Christ? That was God in the burning bush,
is our Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever you find God appearing
to man, that is the Word, and our Lord had essential glory. glory that Moses had was simply
a reflection of the glory of Christ Himself. Now several general
observations here where it says grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. He was full of grace and truth.
Let's talk a little bit about this concept of grace. Just what
is grace? Now we normally will define grace
this way, unmerited favor. And within the context of the
Gospel that's exactly what it is. But the Greek word itself
does not carry with it the sense of unmerited. The Gospel added
that to it. You say, how do you know? Well
because we read in the Scriptures that Jesus grew in wisdom and
stature and in favor. It's exactly the same word. grace
with God and man. Now, whatever grace Jesus Christ
had, I guarantee you this, it was not unmerited. It was fully
earned. God spoke from heaven. That is
a Father, so far as I know, spoke from heaven only twice. And both
times His message was, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. And so we can use this to gain
something of an understanding of what grace is. Back in 2004,
I went on a fishing trip with a bunch of men. It's the only
time I've ever taken a vacation without my wife and all, only
time I've ever done, you know, one of those manly man kind of
things for a vacation. And we went up into Canada fishing.
My son Benjamin went up a day before I did. It was a 14-hour
trip up above Winnipeg. And we drove all through the
night. And we got there, and the sun had been up an hour or
two. And anyway, we pulled in that
area where the cabins were, and here came a boat. It just docked.
I was tired. And you know, I don't know how
it is you get dirty just riding in a truck. But you do, if you
feel that way. And I drove up there, I'm thinking,
man, I want to get in the cabin, I want to go, I want to wash
up a little bit, and I want to get in the bed. And then I looked,
and that boat came up, and lo and behold, my son was in it.
I looked over there, and he turned around, our eyes met, all at
once I'm strong again. I'm not thinking about it. Now
that is grace. This is my beloved son. That
attitude you have when you see your children, or your grandchildren,
and your heart just is overwhelmed at the thoughts of them. His
stepdaughter there, the other day I was driving through Rock
Valley, and let me tell you, there's nothing exciting about driving
through Rock Valley. You know, there's just nothing there. I
mean, it's a nice little town, but you know, nobody goes to
Rock Valley to see the sights. And I'm actually heading over
to Ben's place. And I go down the road, and all
at once, there I see her. There's Elena. She's walking
down the street with one of her friends, and they're about to
turn a corner. And there I was, and I'm going, oh, there she
is. that's what grace is. And it
says that Jesus Christ is full of grace, full of grace. Now all the good that we receive
from God comes to us by grace. It comes to us because He looks
on us with favor. Now I want you to think about
that. I defined it in the way you feel when you see that beloved
child. Can you imagine that God looks
at us like that? The Lord Jesus Christ said to
His disciples, He says, the Father Himself loves you. Wow, remarkable. All that we receive from God
us by His grace." Now this is true because our nature and conduct
make it a necessity that it come that way. Now if you work, got
a job and you put in your 40 hours and you do what the boss
says it doesn't matter whether he likes you or not he owes you
your check at the end of the week. And you can go in there
and say, hey, pay up. And he may do it begrudgingly.
He may fuss and fume the whole time he's writing you the check.
But you earned it, and he had to. We didn't learn it. We couldn't
demand anything good from God. Therefore, we are utterly reliant
upon God's gracious attitude towards us. Now, we're gonna
find out why he has that gracious attitude towards us, but understand,
what we get from God comes simply because it flows from the heart
of God towards us. He looks at us, and for some
reason, that makes him happy. And out of that happiness, in
fact, the Greek word for, Grace, it's C-H-A-R-I-S, but that is
related to our word cheer. It cheers the heart of God to
see us. Think of that. And so He doles
out blessings out of that grace. Our conduct and nature make it
a necessity that it not be by earning, but by God's nature
of grace. And this must be true because
there's no other scheme by which God receives all the glory in
our blessedness. And that is a point on which
he's inflexible. I will not share my glory with another. Can you
imagine if there was a blessing that we earned? We might have
gotten a million blessings we didn't earn, but if there was
one we did earn, what one do you think we'd be talking about
in heaven? I earned this. God says, I'm not going to share.
Whenever God sings, He sings a solo. He's never sung a duet. And if you start singing, He'll
quit. That is, if you start singing a duet about what you've done,
you try to add your counterpoint to His melody, He'll say, well,
if you want to sing, go ahead. But you and I are not going to
sing this song together. It's all His glory. All His work. benefit. That's the only part we're playing
in it. Secondly, all of God's grace
in all of its forms and supplies is in Christ Jesus. It is not to be found anywhere
else. You know, people get upset if
you say that Jesus Christ is the only way. And I don't know
why they get upset. I only need one way. As long
as it's a good way, one way is enough of a way, isn't it? You
say, well, it is not right that you say I can't come my own way.
I'm not the one that said you couldn't come your own way. God
said you can't come another way. Jesus Christ himself said you
can't come another way. And if I said there was another
way, I'd be lying to you. And I'd be, well, it'd be like
telling you, well, yeah, that's a good bridge, but there's another
one over here, but it really isn't there. And you go walking
out and just fall in the river. That wouldn't be very nice now,
would it? We don't need a bunch of ways. We need one way that
works. One way that gets us there. And Jesus Christ is that way.
And all that God has for, all that God has good for anybody,
Christ Jesus and there is no way to get it other than through
Him. However good the law is there
is not a drop of God's grace to be found in it. There is some
of His grace foreshadowed in the law. That is if by the law
you include all that ceremonial worship and everything included
in that covenant that God made with the nation of Israel. We
see grace reflected in it, but you realize that you could Paul
said, be blameless concerning the righteousness which is in
the law. And you still wouldn't get anything from God because
there is nothing there in terms of grace. Some would have us
believe that there is a single covenant of grace which has been
shown in two different administrations, one called the Old Covenant,
one called the New Covenant. Bible never talks about two administrations
of grace. It talks about one administration
of grace. It calls it the New Covenant
but it is the Eternal Covenant. It is only called New because
its full revelation came after the Old Covenant was in place.
But once the New Covenant came in it was not merely an alteration
of that Old Covenant. The New Covenant made the Old
Covenant obsolete. Like our computers, you know,
they come out with a new computer and all at once, they upgrade
everything else in the world to match that computer, and your
computer, well, it don't even work anymore. First Apple telephone
I ever got worked fine when I got it, and then Apple says, you
need an upgrade, and I did the upgrade, and my phone got slower. Now
I need another upgrade. Every time they upgraded it,
the program was bigger, it got to be more than that little phone
could handle. And the new covenant came, and
when it came, the old covenant became unnecessary. Once the
reality is here, the picture is no longer necessary. When
I travel, it's nice to have a picture of my wife to look at. But you
know something? When I'm home, I don't look at
pictures of my wife. She's right there. The law is
not a matter of grace. Its general tone is, do this
and you will live. And cursed is everyone that continueth
not in every point of the law to do it. And since none of us
fall in the category of having done this, and all of us fall
in the category of being cursed. Now there is no supply of grace
in the church or her sacrament, none. There are some who think
that this grace is to be found in the church and the ceremonies
of the church, but it's not. Got nothing to offer. You can
participate in everything the church does and still be lost. In fact, if you participate in
all of those things, thinking they'll save you, you will most
certainly be lost. There is no store or repository
of grace to be found in notable Christians who have passed on. There are some who believe that
some Christians have lived such good and noble lives that they
have amassed more grace than is necessary, more than they
themselves needed to get into heaven. And we are allowed by
some means to draw upon that excess of grace to fill up what
is lacking in us. But if one so good as Moses cannot
come with grace, how shall anybody else have grace for us? No matter
how saintly anyone is, they have not enough grace for themselves,
let alone for any others. Jesus Christ, God's Son, is the
only repository of divine grace, and whoever gets God's grace
gets it from Christ. Now it says here, of His fullness,
Verse 16, have all we received, even grace for grace. There is in Christ not only a
sufficient, but an overflowing supply of grace. That's what
this word indicates, fullness. Not just fill it to the brim,
rim with brim. It is all the way to the top
and coming out and flowing over. How did it happen to be that
our Lord Jesus gained not only enough of the grace of God that
it filled him up, but overflowed? Well, in his life, he was full
of grace. The Father said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. And it was full. But then our
Lord did something more. You think on this a minute. A
man cannot be more than perfect. He cannot earn by a perfect life
more than a full supply of the grace of God for himself. But
our Lord Jesus did something more. He lived that perfect life
and then willingly and freely laid it down for God's elect.
You think of that. You think the father rejoiced
in him beforehand. Think of what the father thought
of him afterward. Oh, this is my beloved son. And
look what he did. He says, this is my beloved son.
Hear ye him. And then that beloved son gave
himself as a ransom for many. And then the father says to him,
sit here at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool
for your feet. And Jesus Christ was given so
much grace, he couldn't even hold it all. Where do you think
it went? On us. On us. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is not a tank of grace from which we go and draw off
a little bit here and there. Why, if that were the case, someday
it might run out. He is not like a well of grace
that you merely drop a bucket and get what you need, because
wells go dry. He is an artesian well that just bubbles up and
flows over. And it doesn't matter how many
times you go there for it, there's more of it. It overflows. You see the grace that God gives
you is not simply grace given to you on account of Christ.
It is the grace given to Christ flowing all over you. A veritable
Niagara. You would think the way we act
that God just kind of sprinkles a little grace here and there.
if there ever was a flood that was good, it's this one. It's
a flood of grace. There is in Christ sufficient
and overflowing supply of grace in all of its forms. Grace is
not a singular thing. The Bible talks about the manifold
grace of God. There is a grace of election.
Where did that start? God chose Christ. And for lack
of a better way to put it, He chose Him so much it overflowed
to us and we were chosen in Him. so much so that not all our rebellion
can unchoose us. There's the election, excuse
me, the grace of righteousness and justification. Oh my, what
sinners we are to think. Well sometimes we think is there
enough righteousness in Christ? Oh my. Christ is never going
to run out of that grace of righteousness. Time and time again you say,
oh, I've sinned, I've made such a, proven myself such a wicked
person, certainly God can't have me, and here it comes, more grace. You see where it says here, we
have received grace for grace? Another way to translate that
is grace upon grace. Some people think, you know,
you get saved, and I almost, I hate that term, get saved.
God saves you. There's a moment in time where
God gives life to you, and you call upon the name of the Lord,
and you are saved. And you think, well, yeah, and
then you get a supply of grace, and you've got to kind of ration
it out as you go along, make sure it lasts. No, you don't.
It is a full and flowing stream. And it put away all those sins
that were there, I mean, already committed by you when you called
on His name. And you commit more, and you
know what? There's more of this overflowing grace upon grace
upon grace that keeps giving righteousness, that keeps justifying,
that keeps putting away the sin. Grace upon grace. I may add to
the sin. Sin abounds in me. But God's grace much more abounds
through Jesus Christ. Overflowing grace. Calling, the
grace of calling. We have this idea God called
us once and that's it. When we start to stray, you want
to know what? The grace of calling just keeps
calling us back, keeps calling us back. Faith, what a grace
to believe. You ever wonder if you'll quit
believing? You ever think, man, I just seem so dead. I hear the
gospel and it doesn't do anything for me. I read the Bible, I feel
dead. I don't know if I can keep believing.
You can't, but you will. Because grace upon grace upon
grace, after grace, flows out of Jesus Christ. The grace of
perseverance. I do all this morbid math in
my head. I think I've been there in Rock
Valley 31 years. I think, man, 31 years, I'm going
to be 94 years old. I wonder if I'll live that long.
Keep doing all that stuff, and I think, well, you know, maybe
I will. Could I last that long? Can I hang on that long? Can
I persevere that long? No. I can't persevere at all.
But perseverance is a grace. We talk about the perseverance
of the saints, and I guess that's a true doctrine, but it's based
on the perseverance of God and the overflowing abundance of
His grace in Christ Jesus. Grace is present even when you
do not feel it. Some of you, I'm sure, are going
through a very difficult time, and you don't know if you're
going to make it. And you say, I don't feel strong. That don't
matter. God's grace is made perfect in
your weakness. God's grace is not necessarily,
in fact, not very often demonstrated by Him making you feel strong
to rise up and do what needs to be done. It's God working
in you to will and do of His good pleasure even though you
feel you have no strength whatsoever. And when you're done, you can't
understand how you did it. That's the grace of God. But
brethren, I assure you by the testimony of God right here in
this scripture, you will not fail because God will not fail. And His grace will just keep
coming and keep coming. and keep flowing, and it will
uphold you and sustain you until you're in His presence. And one
last thing, the grace of usefulness. Usefulness in God's kingdom.
You think I can't be useful? No, you can. But God's grace
can make you useful. And you might think, well, I'm
old now. There's nothing I can do. You
may not know what God's doing. He's doing something in your
presence. world is accomplishing something for His glory, or He'll
take you out of it. Brethren, it's grace upon grace
upon grace, and it will never run out. May the Lord bless His
Word.