Thank you, Joy. Good evening.
Let's open tonight's service with hymn number 20 from your
Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number 20, I'm Saved by Sovereign
Grace. Let's all stand together. Long, long before the world was
made, God chose to save me by His grace and blessed me in my
covenant head with every blessing of His grace. In Christ my surety
was found, a ransom for God's chosen one. Deliverance was then
proclaimed, and God's great work of grace begun. ? In the due time my savior came
? To do his holy father's will ? A body was prepared for him
? That he might righteousness fulfill ? When Christ had righteousness
brought in ? He took my awful load of sin ? Dying for me upon
the tree ? My savior put away my sin ? Though I was born a
child of wrath ? Depraved and helpless, dead in sin ? And though
I chose the rebel's path ? Despising God and loving sin My Savior's
love could not be quenched. He sought and found me by His
grace. Awakened by His Spirit's call,
I'm saved, I'm saved by sovereign grace. Amazing free and sovereign
grace, in love Christ Jesus took my place. Chosen, redeemed, and
called by grace, to Christ alone I give all praise. My only hope,
my only plea, is that Christ lived and died for me. In Him alone I am complete. To Christ alone my praise shall
be. Please be seated. As we were singing that hymn,
I felt very grateful to be able to sing those words with some
understanding. That's a great hymn, and there's
so much truth in it, and so few that would be able to join in
that hymn. Who maketh thee to differ? Let's
open our Bibles to Zechariah chapter 12. That's the next to
the last book in your Old Testament, Zechariah just before Malachi
chapter 12. I gave Tom the title of my message
tonight and I'm sure that he considered that in choosing that
hymn that we just sang, and I'm very thankful for that. We're
going to be looking at the glorious subject of grace tonight, grace. We'll begin reading at verse
9, and the main reason I want to read verse 9 is to reinforce
the truth that All the promises of God are yea, yes, and amen,
sure, in Christ. And so when we read these Old
Testament promises and we're living in a time where everybody
thinks that national Israel is still God's God's favored people,
but those things were, Lord gave Israel one generation after his
coming and a generation is 40 years. And so our Lord began
his ministry around 30 and in 70 AD, the Romans came and flattened
Jerusalem. And as far as I can see, that
one generation was the generation that the Lord gave to those Jews
to hear the gospel. And now all the blessings of
God have come to his people in Christ. And so in verse nine,
it says, and it shall come to pass in that day, speaking of
the day of Christ, that I will seek to destroy all the nations
that come against Jerusalem. That's not that city over there
in the Middle East. That's you. That's me. That's the people of God. That's
the church. And that's our Lord's promise
to protect his people. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son." Now this is not just a mourning of sorrow,
this is a desire. And it shall be, and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn. And in that day shall there be
a great morning in Jerusalem as the morning of Hadad Rimon
in the Valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn every
family apart The family of the house of David apart, and their
wives apart, and the family of the house of Nathan apart, and
their wives apart, and the family of the house of Levi apart, and
their wives apart. The family of Shimei apart, and
their wives apart. All the families that remain,
every family apart, and every wife apart. In other words, this
desire for Christ has to be experienced individually and personally.
It's not something that we enjoy the blessing of because we've
identified ourselves with a particular group like it would have been
in the Old Testament. If you were a Jew, if you were
an Israelite, then the blessings that came on Israel were for
all the people. But here, the Lord is saying
that each individual member of God's church, apart from the
rest of the church will have to have the spirit of grace and
supplication poured out on them. In verse 13, chapter 13, verse
one, and then that day there shall be a fountain opened to
the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for
sin and for uncleanness. And we know who that fountain
is and we know when that fountain of blood was opened. Let's pray together. Our heavenly
father, thank you for your precious promises made to your son and
to those found in him. Father, we present to you our
supplication. We are in need of you to supply
us with your grace. We're in need of you to supply
us with your spirit. We're in need of you to give
to us hearing ears and seeing eyes and believing hearts. Lord, we know that each of us
apart from the other must be recipients of this spirit of
grace. Lord, how we hope and pray that
you'd be pleased this night to bless your word to our hearts,
enable us to rest our hope in Christ. For it's in his name
we pray, amen. Number 374 from the hardback
teminal, 374. Let's all stand together. Jesus calls us o'er the tumult
of our lives while restless sea. Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
saying, Christian, follow me. Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world's golden store, From each idol that would keep
us, Saint Christian, love me more. In our joys and in our
sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still he calls in cares
and pleasures, Christian, love me more than these. ? Jesus calls us by thy mercies
? ? Savior may we hear thy call ? ? Give our hearts to thy obedience
? ? Serve and love thee best of all ? Please be seated. He'll open your Bibles with me
to 1 Peter chapter five. I think I introduced the message
on in the faith from verse nine last Wednesday by saying that
that would be the last message from this epistle, but I want to try to look at these
last verses and And I hope the Lord will encourage us and teach
us and call us by his grace. We know that if he does, it'll
be by his word, don't we? And his word preached, declared. Verse 10, 1 Peter 5, but the
God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make
you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to whom be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. 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. That's the message tonight. The
true grace of God. Implying clearly that there are
other forms of what men call grace that are not true. This
is the true grace of God wherein you stand. One of the evidences
of true grace is that it provides a firm standing. The church that
is in Babylon elected together with you, saluteth you and so
doth Marcus, my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of charity Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Other than the Lord's name
itself, perhaps there is no other word more precious to the child
of God than grace. Grace. And other than the Lord's name
itself, perhaps there is no other word more abused and more perverted
among men than the word grace. The more we grow in grace, the
more precious true grace becomes to us. And the more precious
true grace becomes to us, the more intolerant we become of
any form of grace that's not true in our own lives and in the world. Why would someone who believes
true grace, true grace, ever complain about
anything? Why would they ever be unthankful? Why would they ever murmur? Yet we do. And the more we grow in grace,
the more exposed we become. Grace by definition means that
it goes to the unworthy. It goes to the undeserving. What are we deserving of? What
are we worthy of? Left to ourselves. What is it? Eternal separation from God and
anything above that is all of grace. We are left ourselves unworthy
to breathe God's air. And yet we find ourselves complaining and murmuring over our circumstances. Jacob, after he left Laban's
house with Rachel and Leah, and was coming back home and found
out that Esau was coming out to meet him. Jacob was sure that
Esau was going to kill him. And Jacob in prayer goes to the
Lord in Genesis chapter 32, verse 10, and he says to the Lord,
I am not worthy of the least of all of your mercies. and of all the truth which you
have shown unto me, thy servant. Jacob begins his prayer by confessing
his unworthiness. Lord, I'm not coming to thy presence
based on any merit or anything that I'm deserving of or anything
that I can demand of thee. I'm confessing to you that I'm
not worthy of the least of your mercies. And then in the next verse, he
says, oh Lord, please deliver me for thy mercy's sake, deliver
me. John the Baptist, and this is
recorded in all four gospels and in the book of Acts. When
John said, he that cometh after me is mightier than me, than
I, and I am not worthy, to unlatch his sandals. The lowest of servants
in the household were the ones that were at the door that met
people coming in and took off their shoes and washed their
feet. And John said, I'm not worthy to do that. I'm not worthy
to be the least of the least of the servants of God. That's
grace, isn't it? And we know that's true. In Matthew chapter 8, when that
Roman centurion came to the Lord with a servant that was dying
and pleaded with the Lord for his help. The Lord said, I'll go with you
to your home. And the centurion, a man of great
stature, a man of great importance and honor and power in that culture,
the centurion said to the Lord, oh no, Lord, I'm not worthy that
you should come under my roof. Only speak the word and my servant
shall be healed. There's grace. And that's how
we come, isn't it? That old man doesn't know anything
about grace, does he? The man of flesh, he's the one
that's complaining. He's the one that's never satisfied. He's the one that's always looking
for more. May God restrain that old man
with the spirit of grace poured out, causing us to present our
supplications for mercy and for grace as unworthy and undeserving
sinners. Oh, we see more and more of our
need for grace now than we ever did before, don't we? We see
more and more of our sin. We see more and more of our unbelief.
We knew at the beginning that we were saved only by God's free
grace. But now we know more than before
that we've grown in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we've grown in our need for grace. And so the more we grow in grace,
the more intolerant we become to anything that's not true grace. First, in our own lives. and
also in the world. Satan, by his own evil nature,
is a counterfeiter. Always has been. He hates God,
and he perverts the things of God by changing the truth of
the things of God. I googled today, How many churches in Central
Florida have the name Grace in them?
I knew there were a lot, I've seen them, I've passed by them.
And I was amazed that it was right at 100. 100 churches in Central Florida. that have the name, the word
grace in them. What is Satan doing? He's counterfeiting
the truth of God, isn't he? I wrote down the names of a few
of these, House of Grace, Grace City Church, Iglesia Living Grace,
Flowing Grace Ministries, Grace United Methodist, Living Grace
Church, Grace Fellowship, Amazing Grace World Church, and the Garden
of Grace. We can only imagine what goes
on there. Now that's just a few. That was
just the first page that showed up on my phone. And I scrolled
and scrolled and scrolled. And I went down through them
and counted them. There's a hundred of them. Satan is called the angel of
light. He's called a minister of righteousness. The Lord warns
us of many false prophets. For most of these religious organizations,
grace to them means nothing more than come like you are, live
like you want. We are one big, loving, happy
family, graciously accepting everyone. That's their definition
of grace. But what is grace? What does
God say true grace is? You see, that's what Peter says
here. That, look at our text again,
verse 12, the latter part of verse 12. This is the true grace
of God wherein you stand. I don't suppose there's another,
a verse that's more popular among the religious, other than maybe
John 3, 16, than Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. Most religious people can quote
it. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. And Trish and I were talking
to a lady just the other day. And she was saying, well, you
got to have faith. And I said, well, what is that?
And she had a real difficult time. And she said, well, I know,
I know, I know. It's all of grace. It's all of
grace. Well, you don't know that. You wouldn't be going to this
church if you believed it was all of grace. You wouldn't be
participating in an invitation that encourages people to make
a decision in order for God to be able to save them if it was
all of grace. Men make a work out of grace, out of faith. Let's turn to that passage a
moment, Ephesians 2. What I'm trying to say to you
is that there's a true grace and there's a false grace. There's
a true Christ and there's a false Christ. There's a true Jesus
and there's a false Jesus. There's a true church and there's
a false church. And Satan has counterfeited God's
truth, this is the true grace of God. What does that grace
look like? Well, look at Ephesians chapter two, and we'll begin
reading at verse one. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, how can a dead man make
a decision? You see, if we've been recipients
of the true grace of God, we cannot sing or say, I have decided
to follow Jesus. or I invited him, no, I was dead
in my trespasses and sins. And a dead man can do nothing.
He must be made alive. Faith is the result of being
made alive, not the cause of it. For by grace are you saved
through faith. And that not of your, well, let's
get to that verse. Look at verse two, wherein in
times past you walked according to the course of this world according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of the flesh and the
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others." They were just
as dead in our nature. Just as anybody else, but look
at the next two words, but God. Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have that you did
not receive? But God, who is rich in mercy. For his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace are you saved. and hath raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
It's all of grace, for by grace are you saved. Yes, through faith,
but that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of you. of works, lest any man should
boast." Yes, grace is a free gift. And they would say, but you have
to receive it. Yes, it is true. Grace must be
received through faith. But what men fail to see is that
faith is by grace too. Faith is by grace too. It is
not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. Grace acts from itself. Where does grace come from? It
comes from God. And it acts back to itself without
regard for any human merit or any human unworthiness. It's
sovereign, it's free. We add those words to grace. Why do we say free and sovereign
grace? Because we know there's a lot
of people that are talking about grace that don't have true grace. And so we have to add adjectives
to grace and make it redundant because the truth is that the
only grace there is, is free grace. And the only grace there
is, is sovereign grace. There is no other kind of grace
and anything that's not free and anything that's not sovereign
is not grace. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works, otherwise grace is not grace. Let's turn
to that passage, Romans chapter 11. Look at verse five. Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then it no more
of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. Oh, yes, we have faith. Yes, there's no saving apart
from faith. But we didn't come up with that
faith. God gave it to us. The faith came by grace. It wasn't
our contribution. You know, it's not true grace
to say that God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody
and God wants everybody to be saved and all men have a free
will and all you have to do is have faith and God will save
you. That's not true grace. But men call it grace, don't
they? They call it grace. Grace is the favor and the affection
of God, which lies completely in him without regard for anything
in the recipient. That's grace. Oh, aren't you
thankful for grace? If God regarded anything in you
before he showed you grace, would you have any hope for grace? You see, this is the grace of
God. This is the true grace of God
that gives to God all the glory. Go back with me to our text.
I love it in Genesis chapter 39 when Joseph had been sold by his brothers
into slavery and he becomes a servant of Potiphar. And the scripture
says that Joseph found grace in his sight. Potiphar had favor
toward Joseph and had affection toward Joseph. The only reason
Potiphar wouldn't have had Joseph killed after Potiphar's wife
accused him for what he was not guilty of was because Joseph
had grace in Potiphar's sight. The first time we find the word
grace is in Genesis chapter 6, and Noah found grace in the sight
of the Lord. And I'm so thankful that Noah's
character Noah's character as a man that feared God is in the
verse after that. Let me show you that. Turn back
with me to Genesis chapter 6. This is the same passage of scripture
where the Lord said that he looked down from heaven in verse 5 and
saw that the wickedness of man was great and all the earth and
that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only
evil and that continually, that wasn't just some of the people of Noah, that
was Noah included, that was all men. And the Lord had determined that
he was going to destroy the earth and then in verse 8 it says but
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And then in verse 9 it says these
are the generations of Noah for Noah was a just man and perfect
in his generation and Noah walked with God. I'm so thankful that
verse 9 is not verse 8 and verse 8 verse 9 We would be led to believe that
the reason why Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord is because
he was a just man and perfect and walked with God. No, he was
a just man and whole and perfect and walked with God because he
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. The grace was not given
to him because he merited it. And that's always the case. Abraham, in Genesis chapter 18,
when the Lord came by, Abraham went out and pleaded with the
Lord and said, if I have found grace in thy sight, oh, please
do not pass me by. If I have found grace in thy
sight. You see, it's the same thing
Jacob said when he said, I'm not worthy of the least of your
mercies or of the truth in which you've shown me, but Lord have
mercy on me. You see, we come to the Lord
in a spirit of grace. This is what we just read in
Zechariah chapter 12. In that day, the spirit of grace
and supplication would be poured out on the house of David and
on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they shall look upon him
whom they have pierced and they shall mourn after him as one
mourneth after his only son. So this is the evidence of the
spirit of grace. We're not just throwing the word
grace around because we think people should be gracious. Go back with me to our text in
1 Peter chapter five. This is the true grace of God. Lord, show the true grace of
God in my heart. Cause me to see and to remember
that I'm unworthy. I don't merit your favor. Lord,
this grace must come from you and it must be of your choosing. I've got nothing to present to
you, to persuade you. Lord, if you're gonna have grace
toward me, it'll be for Christ's sake. Look at verse 10. But the God
of all grace, all true grace comes from God. And everything
that is good that comes from God, and I stipulate good because
judgment comes from God as well, but everything that's good that
comes from God comes by grace. It's unmerited, it's unworthy.
You know, here's the good thing, brethren. Here's another evidence
of grace. That though we lose sight of
God's grace and though we complain and murmur and fear as we ought
not, the Lord uses that to remind us of our need for more grace. In other words, the younger,
or the older, I'm sorry, serves the younger. The old man drives
the new man to Christ. And so even in our even in our ungrateful spirit,
the Lord shows us more of his grace, more of his grace. The God of all grace, all grace. Election is by grace. He chose us in Christ according
to his own will and purpose before time ever began. God did not
look down through the quarters of time and see the Noah's that
were going to live upright and make a decision and choose them.
No, that doesn't even make sense. No. God chose according to his
own will and purpose. Election was by grace. Redemption
was by grace. We didn't have anything to do
with what the Lord Jesus accomplished on Calvary's cross. He laid down
his life for his sheep. He bore in his body the sins
of his people. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so redemption
is by grace. We have nothing to do with that. Our calling is by grace. Look at verse 10. But the God of all
grace who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. We're just like Paul called his
conversion. That's what we're talking about
here, the calling of God. is our conversion. It's when
God effectually called us and arrested us on our road to destruction,
knocked us off our high horse like he did Saul of Tarsus, and
called us to himself. It's an irresistible call. It's
an effectual call. It's not a call that man can
say no to. It's a work of grace in the heart
when he makes us willing in the day of his power. He brings us
to faith in Christ. That's all of grace. If the Lord
had given us a choice, we would have chosen against him always. Our sanctification is all of
grace. Even when we lose sight of grace
and even when we're not gracious and even when we even when we
complain and do what we ought not to do. The Lord in his grace
continues to pour out more grace because where sin abounds, grace
does much more bound. And so God covers up our sin
with his grace. Oh, is there a word more precious
to it? This is the true grace of God. It's a lot of, a lot
of false graces out there. It's the true grace of God. We're kept by his grace. He keeps
us from falling and presents us faultless before the throne
of God, which with much joy, our glorification will be by
grace. When the appointed time comes.
The Lord will send his angels and usher us into glory and make
that which is corruptible, incorruptible, and make that which has been
mortal, immortal, and make that which was looking at him through
a glass darkly, then face to face. That'll be all of grace. All of grace. We can't do anything
to obligate God in that. It's all of grace. For by grace
are you saved. Notice in our text, but the grace,
but the God of all grace who have called us unto his eternal
glory. And look down, look at verse 11. To him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. True grace, true grace gives
to God all the glory. Gives to God all the glory. Lord,
had you not arrested me, had you not chosen me, had you not
called me, had you not kept me. Lord, I can't take any credit
whatsoever. I didn't make a decision. I love Job 19 verse 9. Job said
this, and Job was complaining about his circumstances, but
the gospel truth of this is so wonderful. Job said, he hath
stripped me of my glory and taken my crown from off my head. Don't you love that? That's grace. He stripped me of my glory. He
took away my free will. He took away what I thought I
could do. He took the crown from off my
head. I had set myself up on the throne of God. I had made
God dependent upon me. I had thought that God needed
something from me in order for me to be saved. And let me say
this, you don't have to be, you don't have to come from a free
will works gospel to believe that. That's what we are by nature.
You know, a person by nature thinks that, you know, I've got
to do something. I've got to have some experience, or I've
got to have a feeling, or I've got to present something to God
that's going to, it's going to enable him to be able to save
me. No, that's a denial of grace. You see, this is what the natural
man thinks. Why? Because he comes into this
world believing himself to be in control, believing himself
to be God. He has stripped me of my glory
and taken the crown from off my head. In God, David said this,
in God is my salvation and my glory, and my glory. I'll not share my glory with
another. Oh, he gets all the glory. Let him be glorified. And he that that glories, glorious,
let him glory in the Lord. Let him glory. We do. We, if
we have any understanding of grace, we know that our God gets
all the glory. We We understand a little bit
of what David said in Psalm 115, when he said, not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name be glory, for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. Lord, it's not, this didn't have
anything to do with me. You get all the praise and you
get all the glory. And the true grace of God is
only found in Christ Jesus. It's only found, look at our
text. but the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus. You see, we were chosen in Christ,
by God, but in Christ. God never would be able to see
us outside of Christ. Always been viewed in Christ. We're redeemed in Christ. I was crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. We were in Christ when he lived
a perfect life of obedience. We were in Christ when he died
on Calvary's cross. We were in Christ when he rose
from the dead. We were in Christ when he ascended
into heaven so that all the blessings of God are in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus right now. So the true grace of God is only
in Christ. If it's not in Christ, it's a
false grace. It's not true grace. Look again at verse 10. But the
God of all grace who have called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while. Where do we suffer? Falling from grace, don't we?
Losing sight of grace. That don't mean falling from
grace eternally. We lose sight of God's grace. Suffering in this, this old man
is our suffering, isn't it? Oh, wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? But here's the hope. Look, after
you have suffered a while, Suffer in this world, we suffer in our
with our unbelief, we suffer in sin, we suffer in sorrow. Make you perfect, establish,
strengthen and settle you. Now that happens little by little
as we grow in grace. Every time we suffer, in sin
or in sorrow or in unbelief and God by his grace brings us back
to the throne of grace crying out for his grace, we find ourselves
a little more established, a little more perfected in Christ, a little
more sure of who he is and what he's done for us. make you perfect, establish,
strengthen you a little stronger, a little stronger until one day
all of our suffering will be over. No more sorrow, no more
tears, no more sin. And then we'll be made whole,
perfect, established, settled. And the point here is that true
grace never fails. True grace never fails. If a
man can fall from grace, he never knew anything of grace. If he
can give up on the gospel, he never knew Christ. If he can
walk away from the truth, he never knew the truth. If a man
has ever received grace, he will continue to receive grace. What started in grace will be
finished in grace. You know, there are people who
don't believe in true grace who will say, oh, once saved, always
saved. Well, that depends on who did
the saving. We believe once saved, always saved. But we don't believe
that once a man makes a decision to be saved, that he's always
going to be saved, because those kind of people walk away all
the time. I was a part of a very, very
large religious organization. Some of you were there, too.
I was there for five years. And I was responsible for processing
new members into this organization. It was a freewill works gospel
where you invited people to walk down the aisle and make a decision
and join the church. And in five years, that church
was exactly the same size it was when I left as it was when
I got there. And we had no less than 25 people
join in the church every Sunday. Every Sunday. What does that
tell you? Back door was just as big as
the front door. We had to have 25 people join
in every Sunday just to maintain the status quo. Why? Because they weren't saved
by grace, so they weren't kept. And yet that church would say,
oh, one saved always saved. Well, it depends on who did the
saving, doesn't it? Here the Lord says, can't be
moved away. Look at verse 12, by Silvanus,
and Silvanus was the, one who delivered this letter for the
Apostle Paul, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose I have
written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true
grace of God wherein ye stand. Wherein ye stand. Can't be moved
away from the gospel. The evidence of true grace is
that it continues. It continues, those that have
been saved by grace will be kept by grace and they'll remain faithful. In Acts chapter 13, verse 43,
Paul exhorts the church and says to them, continue in the grace
of God. Did we ever grow beyond our need
for grace? Is it ever? No. Look at verse 13, the church
that is in Babylon. Now, men have different opinions
as to what Peter's referring to here. Was he actually over
there around the Tigris River in Babylon when he wrote this?
Some believe that he was. See, Peter traveled around. Was
he referring to Jerusalem as Babylon or was he referring to
Rome as Babylon? I don't know. I know the scriptures
in the book of Revelation particularly, and I know if we trace Babylon
all the way through the Bible back to the Tower of Babel, it
represents the entire unbelieving world. And so wherever Peter
might have been and whoever he was referring to by Babylon here
in this verse, the church that is at Babylon
elected with you Notice, saluteth you and so doth Marcus
my son. You see, the church always exists
in Babylon. Doesn't matter if it's Jerusalem
or Rome or actual Babylon, the world is Babylon. And so the
church exists in Babylon and what the Lord I think what I'm
understanding here is that the true grace of God always demands
a separation from the false grace of God. The true grace of God,
come ye out from among them and be ye separated. If the Lord
has shown us the true grace of God, he will call us out of Babylon. We will be in the world, but
we will not be of the world. The true grace of God will cause us to be separate
from the many, many forms of false grace that there is in
this world. And the true grace of God will
cause those who have received the true grace of God to love
everyone who also has received the true grace of God. Look at
the last verse. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of charity, a kiss of love. Peace be with you all that are
in Christ Jesus. The true grace of God binds our
hearts together in Christ. and gives the peace of God. To the heart, which passive understanding. Keeps our hearts and our minds
in Christ Jesus. That's the true. Grace of God. God be pleased to. To give unto
us. The God of all grace given to
us the true grace of God. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit
would cause us to be brought by grace and would keep us by
grace. Lord, we cannot find anything
in ourselves that would that would merit your favor or be
worthy of your love. What hope we have in knowing
that all grace and the God of all grace is in thy dear son. Give us Christ. We ask it for his namesake. 235, let's stand together. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry. ? While on others thou art calling
? ? Do not pass me by ? ? Savior, Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry
? ? While on others thou art calling ? not pass me by let's
be at the throne of mercy find a sweet relief ? Kneeling there
in deep contrition ? ? Help my unbelief ? ? Savior, Savior ?
? Hear my humble cry ? ? While on others thou art calling ?
not pass me by trusting only in thy merit would I seek thy
face ? Heal my wounded, broken spirit ? ? Save me by thy grace
? ? Savior, Savior ? ? Hear my humble cry ? ? While on others
thou art calling ? not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my
comfort, more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside thee? ? Whom in heaven but thee ? ?
Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry ? ? While on others thou
art calling, do not pass me by ?