Open your Bibles, if you would,
to 1 Peter 5. And we will see here in 1 Peter
5 that Peter makes a statement about God's grace. Brother Travis
read it when he was doing the reading there. And a few weeks
back, we looked at how God's grace is reigning grace, how
his grace reigns in providence, and how his grace reigns in salvation.
and how his grace reigns over all. It's absolutely amazing. He has mercy on the just and
the unjust, doesn't he? Just by allowing rain to come
down. Just by allowing us to drink water and eat food. He
has mercy on all, but he has special mercy and special grace
on the people of his choosing. Oh my. I pray we can leave here
rejoicing about the true grace of God. The true grace of God. I'm not going to talk about false
grace. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to give any word
to false religion. We're going to look at the true
grace of God today. We're going to look at the true grace of
God today. And Peter, he's going to make
a statement here. Look at verse 12. He makes a statement here. He says, By Sivanus, a faithful
brother unto you, As I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. The true grace of God wherein you stand. And notice
those words there. This is the true grace of God
wherein you stand. What wonderful words proclaimed
here. The true grace of God wherein
we stand. We stand in that. the true grace
of God. So marvel at the fact set before
us, that the fact that no man or woman as believers can stand
upright before God in our own strength. Even as believers,
we can't do that. But we stand firm in the true
grace of God. We stand firm in the true grace
of God. Why? Because our feet are planted
on the rock. That being Christ. Our feet are
planted in him and on him. He is the rock in which we stand. And he is the only place that
we could stand firm. Because left to ourselves, we'd
be gone. But praise be to God. God set
us upon a rock, hasn't he? And that rock is Christ. That
rock is Christ. Again, notice those words. This
is the true grace of God wherein you stand. All we do is stand. We're not moving forward. We're
not moving backwards. We can all stand, can't we? As
we get older, we need things to help us stand, but we can
still stand, can't we? Just stand. Don't, like I said,
just stand there. Just stand. And then the Bible commands us
just to look. Look and live. Stand and look. My. The grace of God is a subject
which demands our most serious attention, beloved. And marvel
that God's grace is nothing less than free. It's absolutely sovereign. It's free. He freely gives it
to whomever he pleases. It's sovereign grace. It rules
and reigns. My. And he shows, by him showing
us grace and giving us grace, he shows that we have the favor
of the eternal God. Now is that because of anything
in us? God only shows favor to us in
Christ. That's all. See, again, he gets
all the glory, doesn't he? He gets all the honor. And see,
that's why men, natural men and religious men, hate the preaching
of God's grace. Because it's free, it's sovereign, and
God can do whatever he pleases. Now he's going to do whatever
he pleases no matter what, isn't he? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So
marvel at the fact that God's grace is nothing less than his
free and sovereign eternal favor shown to poor wretched sinners
in Christ. That's amazing. That's absolutely
amazing. And look at verse 6. In the context of this, the verse
we'll look at, starting at verse six and reading to the end of
the chapter, it says, humble yourselves, therefore, under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Well, you see there a statement
that God's hand is mighty. Mighty. And we are to humble ourselves
under his mighty hand. Remember, Peter's writing to
saints. When we did our study in this epistle, we found out
that Peter was writing to saints who are suffering for their faith.
They are going through it, beloved. Daily, they're being persecuted
for their faith. And so he's writing them. They've
got all this stuff going on. He says, just humble yourself
before the mighty hand of God. Just wait on God. I know you're
going through all these circumstances. I know you look around, you see
everything, he looks out of control, looks like there's all... Just
humble yourselves before the mighty hand of God. Well that's
wise for us too, isn't it? Just humble ourselves. Be under
the mighty hand of God. Why? That he may exalt you in
due time. He can take us home one day,
isn't he? So Peter's telling him, you're
going through manifold temptations and trials, but it's just for
a season. It's just for a season. My. God's gonna exalt you in due
time. He tells them here, again, this
is by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God. He's telling the
believers who are suffering for their faith to bow their knee
under the mighty hand of God. To not look on their own things,
Not even to look on their welfare. Not to look on the happinesses
of others, but to humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God. To graciously submit ourselves
to God. This is hard for us to do. It's
hard for us to do. We have to admit that as believers,
isn't it? But the whole reason we're being told this is because
it's hard for us to do. But oh, what peace comes when
we do this. It can be a storm midst around
us. I've experienced this, have you? It could be the biggest
storm in our life going around us. And we just submit ourselves
to God. And oh my, the peace that passes
all understanding comes upon us. All from God. My oh my. Would you labor graciously
for the glory of God and for the good of the church and do
humble tasks? There's folks in church who just do humble tasks
in church. For the glory of God. My oh my. They're not looking
for any recognition or any praise. I'll tell you what, when you
find out someone's looking for recognition and praise, then there's trouble
there. Then there's trouble there, even with preachers. Because we're to preach the gospel
out of the love that we have for Christ. He's given us a message
to preach and proclaim. My! So we just do things for
the glory of God. And we're going to one day be
exalted. Now look at verse 7, look at this. And I'll, this
is, I'm telling you what here. This means all. Vicki and I were talking and
she said something about, well, I gave it to the Lord, but I
guess I really didn't. Well, we're all guilty of that,
aren't we? Look at this, casting all your cares upon who? Upon
the Lord. That means the most secret, intimate
thing casted on him. everything, all things, cast
it on him. You got a sin that's haunting
you from your past, cast it on the Lord. He bought and paid
for it, didn't he? It's all gone, if you're a believer. It's paid for. It's covered in
the blood of Christ. It's glorious. Cast all your cares. Why? Now look at this. Because God
cares for us. That's a miracle. God cares for chosen sinners. See, we don't fully grasp the fact
that God's love is everlasting. as we looked at in our study
of John 17, and we found out that God loves the believer as
He loves Christ. We can't even measure that love.
We can't even fathom that love. So He tells us, because He cares
for us in a greater way than... Think of the person you cherish
the most in this world. Think of your children. Everyone
who has children just cherishes our children, our grandchildren,
right? or one another, your spouse. The way you care for them is
nothing for how God cares for his people. It's not even close. It's not even close. So he tells
us here, you have cares, you have worries, you have anxieties,
cast them on me because I care for you. Peter's telling us here,
and again, who's the true author of these words? It's God the
Holy Spirit, right? Peter's just a vessel. He's just
penning these words down as the Holy Spirit wants him to pen
these words down. And he says this, cast all your
care upon him. All, I mean everything. Don't
leave anything, nothing's too small to bring to the Lord. And sometimes we think that,
well, the Lord don't want to hear about this right now from
me. I used to think about that all the time. Oh, God doesn't
want to hear about that from me. It's just something small. All. Amen. All. All. Every single little thing. Every single little thing. Cast
all your care upon Him, and let this be the thing that sticks
in your mind, for He cares for you. He loves you with an everlasting
love because of Christ. Only because of Christ. We're
forgiven for Christ's sake, aren't we? Yeah? So whether we have worries
or cares or anxieties or concerns or fears, give them all to the
Lord. You ever notice something? You
ever stayed up at night worrying about something? And it just eats you up? Cast
it on the Lord. Cast it on Him, because He cares
for you. Our flesh, it's our biggest enemy,
beloved. It's our biggest enemy. He cares
for us. Hebrews says this, let your conversation
be without covenants and be content with such thing as you have.
Conversation there is our lifestyle. For he has said, I will never
leave thee nor forsake thee, so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper. Every believer, every single
believer could say, the Lord God is my helper. He's my helper. And I will not fear what man
shall do unto me. Hebrews 13 verses 5 and 6. The Lord Every believer can say, the Lord's
my helper. Not only is He my Savior, not only is He my God,
not only is He my Redeemer, but He's Jehovah Jireh. He's my provider. He's my helper. It just gets better and better,
doesn't it, beloved? It's wonderful. Remember, our great God is our
helper. He's our friend. He's our Father. And He cares for us. In no way similar to anyone who
cares for us on earth. So think of the person who loves
you the most or loved you the most. It doesn't even come close
to how much God loves His people. My. Make you want to shout, eh? It's wonderful. And he's loved us from the beginning.
His love just didn't start when we were born again. His love
has been set upon us from eternity, before we even were. And he chose us knowing our sinfulness. He didn't look down through time
and say, oh, well, Dan's gonna choose me, so I'm gonna pick
him, and Wayne's gonna choose me. No, no way, brother. It was
his mercy. He saw us as dead dog sinners. And he said, that's one's mine.
And that one's mine. And that one's mine. All because
it pleased him to do so. Now look at verse 8. Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion,
walking about seeking whom he may devour. Notice the words
be sober and vigilant. Several things are indicated
here. sobriety or moderation in the use of all things, along
with watchfulness over our conduct and our attitude for the glory
of God, seriousness of mind and carefulness to maintain sound
beliefs and practices personally and in the church, sincerity
in our profession, being sincere, being sincere in our profession,
in our prayers, in our worship, and trying the spirits, whether
they be of God. All this is necessary because
our enemy, the devil, seeks to devour us. You know, I remember
when I was in religion, and I thought the devil was at work in all
the bars and everything, the drug dens. You know where he does his most
business? Trying to divide the church,
setting up false religions. That's what he does. Oh yeah. So we're to be sober. We're to
be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil,
is a roaring lion. He seeks to devour. Seeks to
devour. My oh my. And then look at verse
9, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. So we are to withstand temptation and fight against
error of the spirit and flesh. We're to be firm in our faith,
grounded, again, set upon the rock, right, which is Christ.
Knowing that all, and here's something, here's something for
us to think of. Because a lot of times we think, I'm the only
one going through this, Lord. We get the Elijah syndrome, don't
we? I'm the last one left, Lord." And the Lord says to Elijah,
we saw that through the study of Elijah, right? I've got 5,000
who haven't bowed their knee to Baal. But we tend to get like
that. I'm the only one going through
this. No, look what the scripture says. Knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. We all
go through the same things. It might be different things,
health-wise and all that, right? But we all have the same flesh.
Right? We live in the same world that
constantly bombards us with different things. We are to withstand temptation
and fight against the flesh. My oh my. Then look at verses
10 and 11. But the God of all grace, who hath called us into
his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, or by Christ Jesus, after that
ye have suffered a while, maketh you perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Now again, these saints
are going through manifold trials and temptations. They are being
persecuted for their faith. And Peter writes this to them,
but the God of all grace, that's who our God is. That's one of
his titles. He's the God of all grace. You see, the false gods
and all that, you could never satisfy them. The Romans, they
always had to do something for their deities, right? To make them happy, to appease
them. We don't have to do nothing to
appease them. As a matter of fact, we can appease them. We
can't make God happy in ourselves, can we? We can't satisfy his
justice in ourselves. You see, God's the God of all
grace. He's the God of all mercy. It's
Him who has mercy upon us. It's Him who planned and purposed
our salvation. It's Him who executed our salvation. It's Him who regenerates us.
Salvation's of the Lord. He's the God of all grace. He's
the one true living God. the God of all grace, who hath
called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that she
has suffered a little while. Well, what's this life? It's
the Great Tribulation, isn't it? People talk about the Great
Tribulation. This life is the Great Tribulation
for the believer. Let me tell you that. All the
sorrow, all the pain, all the sickness, anything we go through
that way is all happening here on this earth. In glory there'd
be none of that. There'd be absolute, there's
no more suffering, there's no more crying, there's no more
sorrow, there's no more sin. No more sin! The presence of sin is gone. Can you imagine what that's going
to be like? Our dear sister, she has no presence of sin anymore. She's worshiping God in perfect,
in perfection. It's amazing. It's absolutely
amazing. And look at this, after that
she suffered for a while. After you go through the They call mild things of this
world. Because our life's like a vapor,
right? After you suffered a while, see, our life is just like that,
isn't it? Just a while. A long time for us. Just a while
in God's eyes. Make you perfect. When are we
going to be made perfect? In glory. We'll have no more
sin. Now we already, God looks at us already and doesn't see
no sin on us. But we're still fighting sin, aren't we? We're
still battling with sin every day. Person who says they don't,
they're lying. My oh my. Look at this. Make you perfect, establish you,
set us firm, strengthen you, settle you. My oh my. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever, amen. He gets all the glory. See, that's
the difference. When God saves a man or a woman,
we give all the glory to God. We give it all to Him. We're
just acted upon vessels. Now, were we made willing and
did we run to Christ? Absolutely we did. Because God
did a work in us. Again, what comes first? Faith
or regeneration? Regeneration has to come first.
The Lord said you must be born again, right? The reason we believe
is because we've been born again. Because we've been given faith
to believe on Christ. That's magnificent. Someone who
in their mind is an enemy with God, all of a sudden, after regeneration
and faith, is praising God's name. Every one of us is a miracle
of God's grace who believe. Every single one of us. Every
one of us. And we don't know. We don't know
what tomorrow holds. But He does. He may call us home before the
sun rises tomorrow. We have no idea. But we're going
to trust Him, right? Though He slay me, I'm going
to trust Him. Right? My, oh my. Oh my. And again, we all go through
similar things. We all go through similar things.
After we've suffered for a while, suffered for a little while in
this world, the God of all grace, who chose us in Christ, who redeemed
us by his mercy in sending Christ to die for us, calls us to repentance
and faith by his spirit. My oh my. And then the Holy Spirit
makes us what we ought to be. He makes us fit for heaven. He
qualifies us for heaven, right? How are we qualified for heaven? How are we qualified? In Christ.
Nowhere else. There's nowhere else we're qualified
to be fit. In my natural state, I'm not
fit for nothing. But in Christ, I'm fit and qualified for heaven.
Isn't that wonderful? That's glorious. My oh my. My oh my. Philippians says this, being
confident of this very thing that he which has begun a good
work in you will perform it. Till when? Until the day of Jesus
Christ. If he's begun a work in us, he's
going to finish it. Well, praise God. That means
I don't have to finish it. It's not up to me. Nope. And
I'm not an antinomian either. I don't believe we can go out
there and do whatever we want. Nope. But God's going to finish the
work that he started. See, the whole thing of the fact
that salvation's of the Lord shows us that we can't save ourselves. We have no ability. We have no
power. but the one who has all power,
the one who has all ability, he can save us. And he has, if
we're a believer. He has. It's wonderful. Now who's Peter writing to here?
People often take the scriptures and apply them universally. Who's
Peter writing to? Turn if you would to chapter
one of 1 Peter. Who's he writing to? This final
greeting that we're gonna look at, who's he writing to? Well,
the scriptures declare right here in chapter 1, in verses
1 and 2, look at this. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. So these are Christians who have
been scattered about in those areas. And he's writing to them. It's a universal epistle in the
sense that it's written to saints everywhere. It's applicable for
us today just as much as it was applicable for the saints of
that day. So here, they're located in these regions. They're located
in Pontius, in Galatia. Well, we're studying the book
of Galatians in Sunday school, right? That's written to all
the churches in Galatia. Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. That's a lot of folks. Now, what's
he called them? Elect. Chosen. That means chosen. Elect. According to what? According
to something we do? No. According to the foreknowledge
of God. Look at this. The Father. Through sanctification
of the Spirit. So we're made holy by the Spirit.
We're not made holy by anything we do. We can't increase our holiness. God's the one who does the work
of sanctification, and we're sanctified in Christ, we find
out in 1 Corinthians 1. Look at this. Through sanctification
of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of what? The
blood! The blood! The blood of Jesus Christ. That's
what's redeemed us. That's what's saved us. the perfect,
sin-toning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. By the blood we're saved
by the precious blood of Christ. Grace unto you in peace be multiplied. Grace always precedes peace.
Notice, you read all Paul's and Peter and them, they all say,
grace and peace. Because if you have no grace,
you have no peace with God. But we have, we've been given
grace. And now we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now let's read, let's go back
to chapter 5, and let's read verses 12 to 14. And then we're going to look
at verse 12 on its own. By Silvanus, a faithful brother
unto you, As I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting and
testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand.
So that's what we stand in. We stand in the true grace of
God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now here we go. The church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, saluted you, and so does Marcus, my son.
Where's Peter? He's in Babylon. Well, he's not
in Rome. No, it says he's in Babylon. Oh, look at that. My, oh my. I said I wasn't going
to mention nothing else. I'm not. I'm just going to stay
right on this. The church that is at Babylon, elected together. Again, elected, chosen. Together
with you. Salute with you. And so doth
Marcus, my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of love. That's charity. Love. Kiss of
love. Peace be with you, all that are
in Christ Jesus, amen. They used to greet each other
with a kiss on the cheek. Kiss of love. Like the French do,
they kiss both sides of the cheek. Kiss of love. It just shows affection. I was gonna say, you don't have
to do that for me. So. Okay, but look at this wonderful
statement here in verse 12. This is the true grace of God
wherein you stand. This grace spoken of here is
God's grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not found
anywhere else. It's not found outside of Christ.
And we as God's people, we know that this is wonderful grace.
This is matchless grace. And God's grace is manifest to
his people. in the wonderful love and kindness
and condescension of our Lord Jesus Christ. For you know that
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, he's
in glory. Angels are bowing down before him. He's rich. He's rich. Though he's rich, yet for your
sakes, he became poor. He didn't even have a place to
lay his head. He's the King of Kings and the
Lord of Lords. He don't even have a place to lay his head.
He became poor. for our sakes, that ye through
his poverty might be rich." Now, is that talking about like what
the name it and claim it folks say? No, that's talking about
all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. I'm looking at a bunch
of folks in Christ who are richer than the richest person in this
world in Christ. We are. We have a wealth that
you can't even number, beloved, in Christ. All spiritual blessings,
Paul writes in Ephesians 1, all of them are ours in Christ. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ. And we have Christ by his grace
and mercy. That's the only reason. Oh my. So marvel at the fact that God's
grace shines in all the doctrines of the everlasting covenant.
the everlasting gospel, they contain the revelation of God,
God's grace in full and complete and glorious salvation of his
people. Number one, the Father's grace
appears in the choice of a people to show forth his glory. He chose
us, even though we're sinners, he chose us. Doesn't that shine forth his
grace and his mercy? Number two, the Son's grace is
revealed in the redemption of that chosen people from sin.
Not only from sin, but from the world, from Satan, and from hell.
We are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. He willingly
came here. He gave his life at Calvary's cross. He hung there,
the perfect, spotless lamb of God, dying for the sins of his
people. And when he had finished salvation,
when it was all accomplished, when the wrath of God had been
extinguished, he said, it is finished. And he gave up the
ghost. And he gave up the ghost willingly,
didn't he? Willingly. And then, praise be to God, three
days later, he rose from the dead for our justification, to
show that God is absolutely fully satisfied with the sacrifice
of Christ. This is my beloved Son. Hear
ye Him. Oh my, what a Savior. And the
Spirit's grace is manifest, the Holy Spirit's grace is manifest
in the new birth of the people of God. My oh my, we're sanctified through
Christ. And then he teaches the chosen
people of God, the redeemed people of God, the Holy Spirit then
teaches us all through our life the wondrous truths about God,
about Christ. He won't speak of himself. Spirit,
Scripture says Spirit won't speak of it. He's going to magnify
Christ. He's going to show us the things of Christ. And he
does, doesn't he? You ever be reading your Scripture and go,
I never even saw that before. But it's that exact point in
time that that becomes revealed to you. And as Tom and I have
talked about, unless God reveals Christ to us, we don't ever know
him. So that's another thing that we can marvel at. The fact
that God has revealed himself to sinners such as we. Not only did He save us by His
grace and mercy, not only did He redeem us by His grace and
mercy, not only did He regenerate us by His grace and mercy, He's
teaching us who He is. And it's Him doing that. As I
said in Sunday School, we can't take credit for any knowledge
we have about God, and we also can't take any... Now this hits
at the pride of man. We can't even take any pride
in the knowledge that we learn as we grow about things. He's
even given us all that. He's placed us exactly where
He's wanted us to place us in this world. Glory be to God. It's all Him. It's all Him. And the Father chooses a people
by His grace, the Son ransoms the chosen people by His grace,
the Holy Spirit makes those chosen people fit to be partakers of
the inheritance of glory in Christ Jesus our Lord. The Father marks
the objects, the Son delivers them from wrath, the Spirit leads
them to glory in all the riches in Christ. In a word, God's grace is divine
favor. That's what it is. Divine favor
shown to us poor wretched sinners. That's exactly what it is. And it arises as in a fountain.
It centers in Christ. It's found nowhere else. Christ
is the reservoir of God's grace. It's not found nowhere else.
It appears in the doctrines of the gospel. It flows to sinners
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Heaven is filled with a people
who are sanctified by Christ, redeemed by His grace and His
precious blood, and born again of the Holy Spirit of God. And
then we're going to spend eternity worshiping and praising the God
who saved us. We're going to say, worthy is the Lamb, worthy
is the Lamb, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory
and honor and blessings. He gets it all, beloved. He gets
it all. My oh my. Divine favor, all by
the will and purpose of God, shown to poor, undeserving sinners,
because it pleases God to do so. And God's grace is eternal
in its existence. It's holy in its nature. It's
free in its acts, and it's glorious in its designs. It will accomplish
whatever He's purposed it to accomplish. And the Bible says of grace,
and we soon discover that the true grace of God is different
than from what man conceives. Turn, if you would, to Acts chapter
14. Acts chapter 14. It's different than what man
perceives. Here in this portion here, we
see God's true grace brings home the gospel of salvation in and
through Christ alone, with power, with conviction, and with manifestation
to the soul. And that's what it's done to
every believer. See, if my words go forth, they
can't do anything. The Holy Spirit takes the words
of the preacher, and somewhere between here and your heart,
he does the work. Isn't that amazing? Like Norm
Wells said when he was here, he was just blowing on a trumpet,
that's all. Who has believed the report? All we're doing as
gospel preachers is proclaiming the report. Christ saves sinners. He saves sinners. Look at this,
Acts chapter 14, verses 1 to 3. And it came to pass in Icaeum
that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews.
Remember, as we saw in Sunday school, all these synagogues
were, well, here they go. They're going into the synagogues
preaching the gospel, aren't they? All they had was the Old
Testament. They're going into these places preaching the gospel
of the Jews. And so spake that a great multitude,
both of Jews and also of Greeks, believed. How'd they believe? Who made them to differ? God.
God made them. He made those words effectual,
didn't he? But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles
and made their minds evil afflicted against the brethren. Long time,
therefore, abode they speaking boldly in the Lord, which gave
testimony unto the word of his grace. Testimony unto the word
of his grace. That's what they did. They bore
testimony to the grace of God. Every believer does that, don't
we? We bear testimony to the grace of God and granted signs
and wonders to be done by their hands. Oh my. So that we who are the redeemed
of the Lord never forget that though man or devils oppose the
cause of Christ, that cause cannot fail. It will never fail. The Lord always has and always
will, as he said in Acts 14.3, some who will give testimony
to the word of his grace. He always will. He always will. And there's, as Jonathan said,
prayed, they're scattered all around the world. All around
the world. We don't, we don't know who they
are. People listen to the sermons as they go out and sermon audio
and It goes all over the world, doesn't it? And what do we pray?
Lord, use it for your glory. Use it to draw on your lost sheep.
Use it to edify your people. But bring glory to you, Lord.
But bring glory to you. And God shall not fail to bring
home his redeemed. He will not. He's going to get
every single one of his sheep, every one of them. They will
be taken into his everlasting kingdom. There's nothing doubtful
about the state of the church in eternity. Nothing. It's not
left up for doubt. Every single sheep for whom Christ
died for shall be there. How do we know that? Turn to
John chapter 6. See, this is grace. This is grace. And let we who
are redeemed of the Lord rejoice, as we will be with He who has
redeemed us. We will be with Christ. We will
see Him face to face as we see one another. all according to His grace and
mercy. And this is a fact, beloved. There's no uncertainty with this. You know, things in this world
can be uncertain, right? There's no uncertainty with this.
And I'm not being presumptuous. We're going to look at what the
Lord says here. We're going to look at what the King says, what
the King of Glory says. He's pledged with His words this
truth about our eternal security. Look at this. John chapter 6,
verses 37 to 40. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. There is that little hinge word,
right? Shall. What a beautiful word. Shall. Shall. There's no
doubt. Come to me. And him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. So it doesn't matter how
dark your sin is. Right? All who come to him shall be
saved. All. It's wonderful. And him
that cometh to me, I will no wise cast out, for I came down
from heaven. Remember, he's sent. He's sent. He came down from,
he's the only one who's come down from heaven. We go up, he
come down. Then he went back up again, didn't
he? He went home. We're going home, but he went
home. After the work was done, it's finished, going home. My,
oh my. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me."
Oh, God's so full of grace. And this is the Father's will,
which has sent me. That all which he hath given me, when did he
give us to him? In eternity. All. And look at
that. That all means all there. It's
not, well, if you do this and do that. No, it means all. All. All who are born again. All who
were given to Christ. all which he hath given me, I
should lose nothing, nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me."
Now, what's God's will? That everyone would see it the
Son and believe it on them, may have everlasting life, and I
will raise him up. I will raise him up at the last
day. I will. There's no doubt there. There's
no uncertainty there, is there? That'll put a spring in your
step as a believer, won't it? God's grace is amazing grace.
This is all because he shed his blood to redeem us. What a cost! But oh, this is wonderful. This
is absolutely wonderful. God's amazing grace has saved
us, and it's God's amazing grace that keep us. And not one of
his people shall be lost when he makes up his jewels. Not one.
And we're jewels in the God's eyes. Oh, he still can't get
over that. We're jewels in the eyes of God. Turn, if you would,
to Acts chapter 18. I'm sorry, I got us going all
over the place here, but we see the true grace of God spoken
of in our text. It works faith in the hearts
of poor sinners. Do you know that? The true grace
of God works faith in the hearts of sinners. That's what it's
done for every one of us who believe. It's an operation of
God, right? The only reason we're born again
is because we had a heart operation. A nature operation, didn't we? Oh my! Look at this, Acts chapter
18, verses 24 to 28. In a certain Jew named Apollos,
born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in scriptures,
came to Ephesus. The man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, being fervent in the spirit, he taught and
taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the
baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly,
here we go, there's another one of them synagogues that we found
out about in Sunday school that were built, right, all over. And this is Ephesus, this is
a Gentile city. My oh my. Hold on, I lost my spot there.
This man was instructed by the Lord, and being fervent in the
spirit, he spake only and taught diligently the things of the
Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak
boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla had
heard, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way
of God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive
him. who, when he was come, helped them much, which had believed
through grace. Look at that. Believed through
grace. The only reason we believe is
because of grace. For he was mightily convinced
by the, for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing
by the scriptures that Jesus was Christ. Again, they didn't
have the New Testament. He's preaching from the Old Testament,
beloved. And God's true grace, God's true grace calls its objects
out of a state of nature, right? We were dead in trespasses and
sins, dead nature. We were called out of sin. We
were called out of rebellion against God. And what does it
do? What does God's true grace teach
us to do? It teaches us to pray. teaches us to pray. God's true
grace makes one obedient to the faith and leads the soul to receive
grace upon grace out of the fullness of Jesus Christ. The love of
Christ now constrains us from sin, right? True grace does that. God's true grace destroys the
love and dominion of sin. Oh, there was a time when I loved
sin. Now I hate it. Who made me hate it? God's glorious
work of regeneration. Because I didn't even know, I
didn't even think sin was sin back then. Scripture says we drank, that
we in our natural state, we drank, do you ever get a glass of water?
Just drink it right down. That's how we drank sin. Like
it was nothing. Oh my. I'll tell you, that's
true. That's true of every born again
believer. whether we were raised in a church or not. We were sinners,
dead in trespasses and sins by nature. And God's true grace, again,
destroys the love and dominion of sin. It leads us from the
law to the gospel. Who does the gospel speak of?
Oh, the gospel speaks of the perfect redeeming work of the
Lord Jesus Christ that he did all by himself. All by himself. And God's true grace brings a
sense of pardon to the soul and imparts everlasting comfort. God's true grace removes condemnation. We're no longer condemned. There's therefore now no condemnation
to those in Christ Jesus. It justifies us freely, fully,
and eternally through Christ Jesus our Lord. God's true grace
strengthens and supports us and carries the Christian through
all of their conflicts, tribulations, and trials in this life. We are
sustained by grace, beloved. God's grace. God's true grace
builds up and establishes its professor in truth, in faith,
and in love. Love for Christ, love for the
brethren, love for the gospel, mine. And God's true grace will
regulate the believer's lifestyle according to gospel precepts.
The love of Christ constrains us now from sin. We're still
sinners, but imagine what we'd be like if God didn't restrain
us, even as believers. I'll tell you, something to think
about, eh? And God's true grace flows in
abundance from God to his people through Christ. God's true grace
saves all who are the receivers of it by the grace of God alone. God's true grace raises believers
in Christ to reign in glory. God's true grace is always a
gift. It's free. It's sovereign. It's always a
gift. And it's all according to God's
free and sovereign grace. And the man or woman that possesses
the true grace of God and is living under its sacred influence
mourns over our state as sinners. Longs for perfection. Longs to
be like Christ. Longs to be in glory. Don't you
long to be in glory? Oh my. We long. We long for it. And I'll tell
you, we're not, we're not, now we're joyful now that Christ
has saved us, but imagine how we're going to feel when we get
to glory and we've got no sin. Oh man. It's going to be glorious. Oh. The man or woman that possesses
the true grace of God worships a sovereign God, Jehovah. Jehovah,
the ruler over all. We obey a reigning Redeemer.
Our Redeemer reigns, beloved. He reigns right now. He's not
trying to save anyone. He saved us from our sins. And
that which, I like what Tim James says, gospel preachers are just
proclaiming that which was already done 2,000 years ago. It's already
finished. Right? My, oh my. My. And the man or woman that
possesses the true grace of God, we mourn over our sin, don't
we? We mourn over our corruptions, don't we? Oh my. But we praise God that we're
saved from all our sins. And the man or woman that possesses
the true grace of God comes out of the world, is transformed
by the grace of God, and by the mercy of God, and finds fellowship
with people who they never knew before, and finds out how dear
their brothers and sisters in Christ are, no matter where they
are. Brothers and sisters, what we
have is very special. And it all comes about by the
grace and glory of God. Jonathan, you have the same down
at Hurricane. You have blessed fellowship. You come up here,
you have blessed fellowship anywhere we go. Isn't that wonderful?
Anywhere we go, we have blessed fellowship with our dear brothers
and sisters in Christ. That's a miracle. That's a miracle. We all come from different, think
of this, we come from different walks of life. In our natural
state, we might not have even wanted to be around one another.
Who knows, right? I had a brother in Oregon. He
told me that. He says, Wayne, he's a dear fellow, big old German
fellow. He said, Wayne, I wouldn't have wanted to even be around
you before the Lord saved me. I said, well, I probably would
have felt the same way, man. But yet he became so dear to
me. The Lord took him home, and I'm
thankful. He's rejoicing. I can't wait
to see him again. But it's all by the grace of
God. The Lord saved him out of Mormonism. Took him out of all
that. Set him upon the rock, which
is Christ. My oh my. So we come out of the world.
We're transformed. We find fellowship with brothers
and sisters in Christ. And the man or woman that possesses
the true grace of God lives in communion with their God. Feeds
on the Lord Jesus Christ. We now hunger and thirst after
righteousness, don't we? You ever notice the gospel never
gets old? We can listen to 10 different preachers preaching
the gospel, it never gets old. Just, it's wonderful. It thrills
our hearts. And whether it's a young preacher
just starting or an older preacher, or anybody in between, we get
the same blessing, don't we? That comes from God, beloved.
That comes from God. That's His work. My. I ask you who are listening or
who will listen to this message about the true grace of God,
have you been made a partaker of that grace? We who believe pray that if you
do not know, if you're not partaking of this grace, all that the Lord
would draw you, save you, show you your need for Christ, reveal
himself to you. and show you that Christ is the
only Savior of sinners. He's the only one who's made
us to differ, isn't he? Think of all the people we grew
up with. Think about all the people we've had contact, even
people we didn't even know we have contact with them every
day. People we drive by, people in
cars, we see people in stores. Think about all those people,
and the Lord's made you to differ. Praise His name. Praise His mighty
name. Oh, my. I'll tell you what. God's grace is pressed down and
overflowing, isn't it? It's overflowing. It's absolutely
amazing.