If you would, turn back with
me to 1 Peter 5. We are going to look at the last
three verses. 1 Peter 5, beginning in verse 12. By Silvanus, a faithful brethren
to you, as I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting and
testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon
elected together with you, salute of you, and so doth Marcus, my
son. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of charity, Let peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. All of his elect do this to one
another. That is, we saluteth one another. That is, we welcome one another
is what it means. Notice how he says this. Elected
together with you. Christ's body is one. We are
all chosen individually, but as a whole, to serve a specific
purpose, and that purpose being ordained of God. We cannot operate
without one another, because Christ has fitted his body as
he sees fit. We are his heritage. And that
word for heritage means a die, like casting a lot or rolling
a dice. What's that saying? God is the
one who chose us, that he might shed his abundance of grace upon
all his people. But I want to talk about what
Peter says here in verse 12, the true grace of God. It's what Peter has been telling
us throughout this first epistle. that came from him written down
by Silvanus is how I take it to mean. And Silvanus is also
the one that brought it to those folks that he was speaking to
that were scattered abroad in that region. So I want to end
my series of messages, God willing, in Peter by going back and giving
an overview of 1 Peter. Because the grace of God is what
Peter has been speaking to them about in the whole epistle. What
Peter says here is that the true grace of God is what caused Silvanus
to be a faithful brother, and it is the cause of us being faithful. Peter says, testifying that this
is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. So what he has testified before
of Silvanus is the same grace that he has just testified of
to those people in this epistle that would go out to them. What
is being faithful? It is believing Jesus Christ.
And that faith comes from him, so me being faithful comes from
God. Me not being faithful comes from
me, and I have both. We all must cry as the one man
did. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. We have both because we still
have this flesh. I also, just for a minute before
I get into this, I want to mention one thing here that Peter says
about Silvanus. It says, by Silvanus, a faithful
brethren to you as I suppose. Peter is not saying this as if
he stands in doubt of Silvanus or that he is kind of guessing
he is faithful. Peter is saying, I reckon him
to be faithful because of the support he gives to Peter for
the furtherance of the gospel. The word means to take inventory
or to reckon. Peter is saying that he reckoned
Silvanus to be faithful in that because the same grace of God
got a hold of him as it has the ones that he's writing to. So
what is going to be my summation of this epistle? We can see it
in all these verses that end this. I mean, we can see it right
here in these last verses that end this, but grace. And as I've
said before, grace is an umbrella if you will. Grace is the favor
of God. And in this epistle, we see what
comes under that canopy. Not everything, this doesn't
cover everything that is of grace. Here's some of them that we read
in this epistle. Election, mercy, faith, love,
and peace. All wrapped up in one person,
Jesus Christ. So let's talk about what comes
from God's grace. So first, election. You know,
it's been said before by a lot of God's men, election is not
salvation, but unto it. But I will say this, if you are
not elected, that is, you're not chosen of God, you will never
see salvation, and you will not care to either. We read in 1
Peter 1, 2, according to the foreknowledge of God. Etlect
means chosen and foreknowledge means ordained. Ordained means
an official order or decree, if you will. So we were chosen
by God's order or decree. We are his heritage. This we
know had nothing to do with what we would do or would not do.
Because it says in Romans 9, And yes, I've been influenced
by Walter to always go to Romans 9. Romans 9, 11, 12 we read,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger. It had nothing to
do with what they did. You know, you hear a lot of people
say that God looked down in time on what somebody would do and
chose them based off of that. That's not what that says. It
had nothing to do with what they did. They did nothing bad enough
for this to happen to them, nor did they do anything good enough
for this to happen to them. This choosing to salvation is
done a certain way, and I mean, when it says election unto salvation,
when I say that, it's done a certain way. You will not be chosen of
God. You have no reason to say you've
been chosen of God. And if anyone says they are of
God, but they speak nothing about what God has said and about what
God has done, then they are not elect. because Peter tells us,
and I think Peter understands what he's talking about because
he was taught of Christ, but he tells us in verse two, elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification
of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Jesus Christ. This election to salvation is
carried out by the spirit of God when he sets us apart. But
the Spirit of God does not work alone to do something different
than the Father and the Son. The Spirit of God does the will
of the Father and the Son as well. He sets us apart unto something. What does the Comforter, the
Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of God do? John 15, 26 we read. But when the Comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he will testify of
me, Christ says. Obedience and sprinkling of the
blood of Jesus Christ. Is this some kind of water that
you get from a miter like this? No, it says blood. Blood is not
water. But the blood is sprinkled through
the preaching of the gospel. When those chosen of God who
have been set apart by the Spirit and they hear that gospel, what
do they do? They obey it. They believe it.
And let me tell you, this is grace if I've ever heard grace
at all. Because Peter goes on to say,
grace unto you and peace be multiplied. But it is a miracle that any
sinner ever hears the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And you all know the passage,
Matthew 11, verse 5. The blind receive their sight,
and the lame walk. The lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear. The dead are raised up. I think
all who would hear these things here that I've just read will
say, these are miracles, right? But it goes on. And the poor
have the gospel preached unto them. Just as much as a miracle
as those other things. So this election is unto salvation
and that salvation is done that way. Sanctification of the spirit
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Remember I said this is all wrapped up in a person. Jesus Christ
the Lord. because we need mercy or we would
not hear the gospel though it be preached to us. So mercy. Mercy because he sent the son
to do what we could not do for ourselves. And when I say we,
I mean the elect. We could not save ourselves.
Mercy because it took someone standing in our place to appease
the wrath of God. Peace for us is only obtained
through mercy. We as we are all born in Adam
are born the children of wrath even as others. We hate God even
as others. Do you think God hated his own
or had wrath toward his own? No, he changed us by what he
did. We were made the righteousness
of God in him, it says. It was His precious blood that
redeemed us, verses 18 and 19 of 1 Peter 1. Him being precious
to the Father, 1 Peter 2. When He does to us what He has
ordained, then we begin to see Him as precious as well. This
world does not. He is that stumbling stone that
man by nature says, I will not have this man reign over me.
I know this by experience, but it also tells us right here in
1 Peter 2 that by nature I hate God and will not have him reign
over me until he changes my mind. This he does by giving me life
and faith. It says we are kept by the power
of God through what? Faith. God gives us faith, and we can
begin to see what He truly did for us. His faith, Jesus Christ's
faith, is given to us, and it causes us to look to Him. But here in 1 Peter, we begin
to read of this trial of our faith. Is this so God, the God
of all grace, might be mean to us or somehow get back at us
for having wrath against Him? He has the right to do so. But
no, this is not to get back at His people. These trials are
to cause them who are the elect to look to Him and Him alone. Jesus Christ was the elect to
stand in their place, in the sinner's place. We, by these
trials and the God-given faith we have been given, see what
we are and what it took for Him to do what He did to save our
souls. We see that precious blood that
was shed and the grace He showed to lay down His life for His
sheep. But this is not all there is
here in this life, is what I mean. There is a time to come when
His grace will be revealed even further. We will see him face
to face. And this is not some ethereal
kind of thing. We will see the face of a man. One that was steadfast in doing
the will of the father. One that is merciful, compassionate
to his people, and that even today. But we will see him at
that time appointed. We will see the one who loved
us and gave himself for us. So next we have love. Jesus Christ
came down as a man and suffered in my stead. He did this as it
was the only way to save a sinner like me. He did this because
he loves me. But it was not just happenstance. This was ordained. It was the
whole purpose of God to do so. He is in absolute sovereign control
of all things, even of that. He puts those in place who have
authority over us, as we read in 1 Peter. This he does to punish
evildoers, it says. We are to obey those who have
the rule over us. But seeing his love toward us,
by his power and grace, we love one another and we submit one
to another. He loved us so that he opened
not his mouth when he was suffering in our state. When he was being
made sin for us by bearing our sins in his own body, he did
that for us in love. He and what he did returned us
to himself. He reconciled us to himself is
what the scripture said. And that word means to change
mutually so that two are in agreement. We love him and each other for
that matter because he first loved us. It is mutual. He loves us and we love him because
he reconciled us. By all that he did, this reconciliation
that he did, what did he accomplish for us? Peace. So next we have peace. The truth of the matter is, God
has always been at peace with his people, because he chose
us in his Son, knowing what the Son would do, if you will. Scripture
teaches us that Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from before
the foundation of the world. So when God chose us, it was
as good as done then. But he goes even further than
that. Even though this gracious, merciful, compassionate God is
at peace with us from the foundation of the world, he in time causes
us to be at peace with him. We lay down our arms against
God. We begin to say, God, you are
right and I am wrong. Because of the work he has done
on that tree to reconcile us to himself, he in time begins
a work to make it mutual between us. We then begin to do something
we could not do before. We sanctify the Lord in our hearts. That's what we begin to do by
his power, mercy, and grace. That is, we count him as righteous
and holy, and we hold that work tight, his work in our hearts. Knowing He is our hope, He calls
us to do this so that we might be ready to give an answer to
someone who asks us of that hope there. 1 Peter 3 15. We've read
throughout this epistle about suffering. It has a lot in there
about suffering. Suffering for doing good. In
fact, it even says we are blessed if we suffer for doing good. Christ did no evil. He always
did good, and he suffered for it. As it says in this epistle,
happy are ye if ye suffer for the name of Christ. And that
means supremely blessed. Because if you do, it means the
spirit of glory and God dwells on you. That's a comfortable
place to be, I think. Even in the midst of suffering,
that's a comfortable place to be. to know that God dwells with
me. I don't deserve it. In fact,
by my actions and my works, I deserve damnation just like everybody
else. But as I said, grace is a canopy, and grace is manifested
in these things, this favor from God in election, mercy, faith,
love, peace, and there are others. But I also said this is all wrapped
up in one person. Throughout this epistle, Peter
speaks of what God has done and what he does. He also speaks
of us doing things. But Peter always comes back to
what Christ has done. Christ is the reason for all
we think, say, or do by his grace. It is him who we look to because
we owe all to him. We see grace manifested in a
person, John 1 14. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. If I
ever take my eyes off of him and what he has done, and I begin
to think about what I do, you know the thought. How can I be
a Christian because I did that or I did not do that? We are
never a Christian, a child of God, because of what we do or
do not do. We are a Christian because of
what He has done completely and fully. Now because of that, I
might do some things or not do some things. But it is always
because of Him. He is the first cause of all
things for the believer as that what the believer does, it concerns
the glory of God. All of this is wrapped up in
Him and what He did. He gets all the glory because
He does it all. He did all for us and He does
all for us. So anytime we start looking at
ourselves and what we do as proof of our salvation, We are looking
in the wrong place and we are trying to give glory to ourselves. This is the true grace of God
wherein we stand. The true grace of God is not
he has done all he can do and now it's up to you. The true
grace of God is Jesus Christ and he has done all that is needed
for the salvation of his elect. There is no other place to stand.
For if you try to stand any other place, you will fall away. Grace is always there for his
people. There's never a time for the
elect that God's grace is not present. Because Jesus Christ
is grace personified, and he sits at the right hand of God
right now at this moment, and he also dwells in us. I had a
message with the title Grace one time and I said this about
grace. Grace is not common because God does not favor all men. He
only favors those who he has chosen in his son because his
son is full of grace and truth. There are not different kinds
of grace. There is not saving grace, dying grace, traveling
grace, formative grace, restraining grace, or overruling grace, and
so on. There is, however, and this is
not a play on words, it is simply the truth and it makes a difference
how you say it and how you think about it. There is God's grace
which saves. It is there when you die. It
is there when you travel. It is a grace that forms a new
heart in you. It is a grace that restrains.
It is a grace that overrules. And it is a grace that reveals
and so on. Let us all stand in this grace,
for this grace, which is all of God, is able to save the soul. What do we do then? Because we
stand in this grace, which is Jesus Christ our Lord, what do
we do? Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. So let us welcome one another
with a kiss of love, one to another. knowing that our election is
of Jesus Christ the Lord and is not in something we have done.
If we stand in this grace and by saying if there, I'm not suggesting
it as something we might do by our might. What I'm saying is
if God has been pleased to shed his grace on you, this grace
that is spoken of in this epistle of God's work, This grace that
is spoken of in the scripture as being more abundant than sin,
Romans 5.20 says, moreover the law entered that the offense
might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. If that is where you stand, then
peace will be with you as it says here in ending this epistle.
Jesus Christ is with you. Who will lay anything to the
charge of such one who is in Christ's hand? To that we can
all say, amen. Dear Lord God, thank you for,
first of all, dear Lord, thank you for allowing us to be back
here again, dear Lord, and gave us a safe trip to be back here
with the people you have put us with, dear Lord, people we
love, dear Lord. Thank you for all the things
that you've given us, and may it be that you will continually,
as you always do, you're faithful to do all these things, dear
Lord, to keep us in mind of you, dear Lord, because all the glory
goes to you, dear Lord. May we give you all the glory
and all these things we ask in Christ's name. Amen.