I want you to turn your Bibles
with me to 1 Peter chapter 5, if you would please. You'll find
my text beginning in verse 5. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 5. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder, yea, all of you be subject one to
another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all
grace, who hath called you unto His eternal glory by Jesus Christ,
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect establish, confirm,
strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Thy Sylvanius, 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. I want you to think with me for
just a few minutes this morning. on this subject, the true grace
of God. The true grace of God. The grace of God. We hear that
word often. Baptists use it. Catholics use
it. Mormons use it. Jehovah Witnesses
use it. Almost everybody in religion
of what kind ever it be uses this word grace. They even quote
some scripture that has this word in it. It's impossible. See if this
isn't right. It's possible, it's possible
that men may use this word and never know the true meaning of
it. It's possible that a man may use the word grace and yet
apply it to human merit. I was reading a book one time
and a man was talking about grace and he said, now God looked down
through time and he saw who would believe and he chose them to
salvation. He said, isn't that marvelous
grace? No, that's not marvelous grace. That's human merit. There is true grace. And if there's
true grace, then there must be a grace that's not true. If there's
grace that's genuine, then there must be one that's counterfeit.
A true grace as opposed to that which is not true. There's a
Jesus, and He's a true Jesus, the Son of the living God. And
there's another Jesus. There is a gospel that's a true
gospel, but there is a gospel that is another gospel that is
not the gospel of God's grace. Listen to this. There is a true
light. There is the true riches. There
is the true bread. There is the true worshiper.
There is the true vine. There's the true God. There's
true holiness. There's the true sayings of God.
as opposed to what? That which is not true. Peter
is talking about the true grace of God. Now, Satan is the chief
counterfeiter. If there's a Christ, then he
presents a false Christ. If Christ has his apostles, he
sends false apostles. If Christ has his gospel, he'll
send a false gospel. If Christ saves us by his grace,
then he's got a counterfeit. There's a large group of people,
and they seem to be growing in our day, that contend that Peter
and Paul preached two different gospels. That Peter preached
the gospel of the kingdom, and Paul preached the gospel of the
grace of God. You've heard of that. I know
you've heard of it. You know what Paul said about
a man who preached another gospel? Let him be accursed. Paul said,
if it be an angel from heaven, or Peter, or me, or any man preach
any other gospel other than that gospel of grace which I preach,
let him be accursed. Let him be accursed. How did
Paul say we're saved? By grace are you saved. Through grace, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. That's the way men are saved.
How did Peter say we're saved? In that great grace conference
there in Acts 15, he said, men and brethren, we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved
even as the Gentiles are saved. It's grace, but it's true grace. This is crucial. This is crucial. This is why I chose my text this
morning and the title, The True Grace of God. If we fail to preach
the true grace of God to this generation, this one generation
we fail to preach the true grace of God to, then that generation
has lost the knowledge of God's grace. Men aren't born knowing
the true grace of God. The true grace of God is foreign
to the natural man. He'll never know it until he's
heard it and taught of it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him, and
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually desired."
There are two things that Peter mentions here in my text that
always accompanies the grace of God. It's as natural to the
grace of God as breath is to a living man. I almost said this.
I almost said it. It's as natural as beauty is
to Shelby Court. If I'd have said that, you could
have known what I'm talking about, wouldn't you? I know what you're
talking about, boy. Well, there are some things that
accompany the grace of God that must accompany. It's natural
to the grace of God. And Peter mentions two of them
here. Let's look at them for just a few minutes. He mentions
the first one here in verse 5 and verse 6. Likewise, ye younger,
submit yourselves to the elder, yea, all of you be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility. Like a garment that
covers you, your soul. your heart, your will, your affection,
your desire, your innermost being clothed, covered with humility. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God. Clothed with humility. Now, that is a gracious command.
The law commands us to do things, but it gives no strength to fulfill
those commands. The law says, love the Lord your
God with all your heart, with all your mind, all your soul,
with all your strength. But it gives no ability. It gives
no strength to do that. If a man thinks he does that,
he deceives himself. And if a man knows he doesn't
do it, and knows he's required to do it, he'll just make excuses
for not doing it. If a man knows he cannot do it,
he'll just despair because he doesn't do it. But I tell you
that law commands, but it gives no ability. And let a man know
what the law commands. But you know something? It won't
make you humble. You can look at the commandment,
you can look at the law all day long, and no matter what it commands
you, it will not clothe you with humility. It may scare you to
death, it may torment your conscience, but it cannot give you true humility. But grace commands be clothed
with humility. And you know something? Grace
gives what it commands. The Lord Jesus stood before that
man who had a withered hand and said, stretch forth your hand. Stretch forth your hand. Isn't
that utterly ridiculous? Yeah, it's ridiculous. Until
grace enters the withered hand. And then when grace enters the
withered hand, what happens? It's stretched forth. Be clothed
with humility. That's a command of grace. Humble
yourselves under the mighty hand of God. That's the command of
grace. But what grace commands, it gives. This is God's commandment that
we should believe in the name of His only begotten Son of God
and love one another. And grace enters the heart and
begins the work. And what happens? We believe
and we love one another. Be clothed with humility. Humble
yourselves under the mighty hand of God. And when grace accompanies
this command, boy, there's humility. There's humility. It always,
it always clothes the soul with humility. True grace does. There's
one condition, John Calvin said, of growing in knowledge. And that's humility. Growing
knowledge without humility and we get proud and legal even about
grace. But let the knowledge of the
true grace of God come to our hearts and what happens? Oh,
it's just like a man breathing. It's necessary. There's humility. And the voice said, cry, and
I said, what shall I cry? All flesh is grass. And all of
the glory of man is like the flower of the grass. The grass
withers and the flower fadeth. Why? Because the Spirit of the
Lord blows on it. How many times have we quoted
that verse? How many times have I preached on that verse? And
neither I nor my listeners We're clothed with humility. We were
just as proud as we always were. And the trouble is this. Just
saying it won't do it. Just telling you flash is grass
won't do it. But let the Spirit of grace,
let the Spirit of God accompany the Word and let it come to our
heart. And what happens then? Flash
withers. Our goodliness, it fades into
nothingness. Let all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. You know why we come
here as we are this morning. And no matter what our stand
in this world is, we come here and we sit down beside of one
another and we're subject one to another. And we're quiet and
listen and love one another. You know why we do that? Grace. Grace. It's natural. You know
why we come here and sit and be still and listen while some
two-before-preacher opens the Word of God and preaches to us?
You know why we do that and listen and are subject to Him? You know
why? Grace. People profess the Lord Jesus,
don't have any use for the church, don't have any use for one another.
They won't sit and listen while a man opens the Bible and says,
Thus saith the Lord. They've got no use for that.
Let them say what they will about grace. They know nothing about
the true grace of God. There's something that always
accompanies the true grace of God. Humility. Humility. Oh, you proud group of fellows.
Somebody told me one time, you fellows are proud. No. No. Something else here Peter tells
us. True humility clothed with it. But look here in verse 10
and verse 11. There's something else. Look
at this. But the God of all grace who hath called us into his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and sell you to him
be glory and dominion for ever and ever." Here's the second
thing that Peter tells us that accompanies the true grace of
God, and that's the praise and honor and glory of our hearts
to him. He always gets the glory. He's always honored. He's always
worshiped where the true grace of God comes to the heart. God
saves us in such a way that every step of the way, He gets the
glory for it. We have been saved, we are being
saved, and we shall be saved by the free grace of God in Jesus
Christ. Elect in grace, redeem in grace,
call in grace, regenerate in grace, believe in grace, repent
in grace, worship in grace, follow in grace, hope in grace, cleave
in grace, die in grace, glorify in grace, He's the God of all
grace in every step of the way. He has taught us, it's my grace. It's my grace. And therefore
we lift our hearts to Him and say to Him be glory and honor
forever and ever. Every virtue we possess and every
victory won and every thought of holiness is His and His alone. The Lord Jesus said, without
me, you can do what? Nothing. Paul said, with Him,
I can do all things. And there's only one thing that
determines whether we'll do anything or everything, and that's grace. And that's grace. And grace teaches
us that. And when grace teaches us that
without grace we can do nothing, Then we bow our hearts in humility
and lift our faces to Him and say, O to You be glory and honor
and dominion forever and ever. Consider something else with
me. Peter mentions it here in verse 10. To the God of all grace
who hath called us, He hath called us unto His eternal glory. This
is the second time he's mentioned this thing of calling. Look back
in chapter 2 in verse 9. Look what he says about it here.
The true grace of God. The true grace of God. Look what
he says in verse 9. Chapter 2. You're a chosen generation. You're a royal priesthood. You're
a holy nation. You're peculiar people. That
you should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out
of darkness unto His marvelous light. He's called you. Where from? Darkness. Darkness. Darkness in the Scriptures
is sin. It's ignorance. It's bondage. It's misery. Peter says here,
He's called you out of your misery. Out of your fallen and miserable
state of darkness. Man, look at our natures. Isn't
that a dark pit? And yet, He's called us out of
it. We loved it. We were sitting in it, doing
the works and the deeds of darkness. And you know something? If there
in that darkness, we would have sat in despair and died. and went down to the pit of darkness
if he hadn't have called us out of it. We understand more of that now
than we ever did before he called us down. Looking back now, those
Wayne Stubbeck friends of Don and Shelby moved down from Alaska.
They bought a house not close to where we lived. And the inspector
missed some things in it, but the floor in the bathroom was
rotted. And when you walked on it, it
was just ready to fall through. And they got underneath there
to inspect it, and they found a huge cistern underneath that
rotted floor. And he said, if you guys had
fell through that floor, you'd have fell down in this cistern
and drowned. And he found another cistern. I was there the other day looking
at it. He moved some boards back under another floor. And he moved
that back. And you can't even see the bottom
of it. It's clear, cold water, and it's
so deep you can't see the bottom of it. It's as big as round as
this pool pit, and the water comes up about eight foot at
the top of it, and if you fell through that floor into that
place, you'd drown. There's no way out if nobody's
there to pull you out. I think about that now. I don't
even want to walk across that floor. We were walking across a rotted
floor, and the pit of hell, eternal misery was underneath us, and
we were so blinded, we were so in the dark, we didn't even know
it. But looking back now, boy, we
know it, don't we? Old Brother Scott used to say,
you're skating on thin ice. Yeah, men out here whistling,
skating, singing, but they're skating underneath the ice. It's
a fire. A pit of hell. And that's where
we were. In that pit of darkness. But
what did He do when we were in this pit in the darkness? He called us. He delivered us
from the power of that darkness. The bondage of that darkness.
And He translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son. The Bible says it like this.
The Old Testament said they that want In darkness they saw a great
light. Matthew, when he translated that,
he said they're not even walking anymore. They're sitting in darkness. They just give up. There they
sit in the darkness, not knowing which way to go or what to do.
They sit in darkness and they saw a great light. What is that? Well, that's Jesus
Christ, isn't it? That's Christ as He's revealed
in the Gospel. God who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, He shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the very face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And He delivered us, He called
us out of this darkness. Boy, that's not only a reason
to be clothed with humility. But that's a reason to bow and
lift our hearts to Him in praise and adoration. When I was in
darkness, You called me out. You delivered me from darkness. What kind of a call is it? It's a factual call. It's not
an irresistible call. God called you out of darkness. He didn't attempt to call you.
He didn't give you a chance to wiggle out of the darkness or
free yourself from the bondage of it. He called you. He delivered
you out of it. I've often said this, if God
dealt with every lost sinner the way He dealt with me, He'd
save everybody. Do you feel that way? If you
don't feel that way, then how do you feel? How do you think
about your calling? If you don't feel like it's God's
call that came to you in such effectual way, teaching you and
bringing you to Christ, then do you believe it was partly
up to you? That God called you in such a
general way, but no more than He calls anybody else, and the
deciding factor was found in you? Nobody can praise God for being
called to Jesus Christ except he comes to realize that it was
indeed an irresistible effectual call. Because a general call
is nothing but pride. It's nothing but flesh exalting
itself. It's not true grace. There's
no true grace, but as it's revealed, ineffectual calling. Grace teaches us to say this.
What was there in you that could marry the steam, or give the
Creator delight? T'was even so, Father, we ever
must sing, for so it seemed good in Thy sight. Why did He come
to us when we were in darkness bound by it, and call us and
deliver us into this marvelous light? It wasn't because of anything
He saw in you. It was good in His sight. That's
the true grace. I don't know of any grace apart
from that grace. Look in chapter 2 right quickly. Do I have a
time limit, Marvin? No. Okay. If you've got anything
to say, say it to the pastor. Look in chapter 2 of 1 Peter.
Look in verse 23 and verse 24. Here's something else. We see
the true grace of God in our calling. We see it in the cross. We see the true grace of God
in the cross. Verse 24, "...who his own self,
Jesus Christ our Lord, bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes we are healed." What do you see when you view the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ? You see love. I know you see
love. I see the kindness of God. I know we see that. That's the
motive. I'm not talking about the motive.
I'm talking about when you view the cross itself, what do we
see there according to Peter's text? Well, we see this. We see
the transfer of sins. Now, this has to come down to
personal, doesn't it? He loved me and gave himself
for me. When we view the cross, if we
see the true grace of God in it, I must see my sins being
transferred from me to Him. And only God can do that. All
we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid on Him
the iniquity of us all. I cannot put my sins on Him.
I can't take them from myself and put them on Him. I know that's
typified in the law, but in reality we can't do that. But God can. And He lovingly did. If He leaves
them on us and we stand responsible for them, we die. We're punished
for eternity in hell. But if He takes them from us
and puts them on the Lord Jesus Christ, then now he assumes the
responsibility for those sins. We often say, I owed a debt I
could not pay. He paid a debt he did not owe.
I know that's true in the sense that we sing it, but it's not
true in another sense. It's true that we owed a debt
we could not pay, but it's not true in this sense that he paid
a debt he did not owe. Because if our sins were actually
transferred to him, put in his body, I believe that's reality,
brother. Don't get into this business
of God constituted or God pretended or even as. No, this really happened. On the cross of Jesus Christ,
every sin of every elect soul was rounded up. And all of them
were actually put in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
to show us that He owned those sins as His own, that He stood
responsible for those sins, Peter tells us here in chapter 3, in
verse 18, that He suffered the punishment for those sins. He suffered for our sins. penalty that justice required
for those sins. Eternal fury and wrath He suffered
upon the cross outside the city of Jerusalem. Do you see that? Do you see that? Has your eyes
been opened to see the cross of Jesus Christ? How do you feel
about it? in your soul, how do you feel
about this? He bore my sin, not my goodness. If we stand before
the cross and we see one ounce of goodness in us, we've got
problems. If we see some potential that
God saw in us, we've got problems. Nothing is said of us but our
sins, not our goodness, not our righteousness, but our sins when
you see the cross. Do you see the sins? Every sin
you've committed put on Him. Do you see Him groaning? Do you
see Him bleeding? Do you see Him suffering for
your sins, the punishment of them that was owed to you? This is important. This is important. This is critical. What was the
purpose behind His suffering? Here is where the world misses
it. Let religion talk all it wants to about grace and about
the cross and about love. The reason the religious world
does not understand the cross of Jesus Christ is because it
sees no purpose behind it. A man can stand and view the
cross all day. But he'll never be filled with
humility. He'll never lift his voice in
praise and honor to God until he sees there's a purpose behind
it. It was more than just a manifestation
of love. It was more than just a manifestation
of kindness. There was a purpose behind it.
And Peter tells us here in verse 18 of chapter 3, in order, this
is the reason he suffered, in order to bring us to God. That's why He suffered. That's
the purpose of the cross. Not to give everybody a chance.
Not to help us on our way to heaven. Not in hope that somebody
would do something for His glory. But He died with a purpose. To
bring us to God. Not until we see this. Have you
come to God? Are you coming to Him? Are you
coming to Him in your heart of hearts? What do you attribute that to?
The cross? That's why He suffered. In order
to bring you to God. Somebody asked Spurgeon one time,
what did Christ intend by His death? And Spurgeon said, what's
He doing? That's it, isn't it? You can see it in yourself, can't
you? You're coming. And you're going
to keep coming until someday, literally and physically, Jesus
Christ is going to bring you into the very presence of God
and set you down there without spot or blemish or any such thing. Dressed in beauty not your own. And when He does, you're going to say to Him, To believe the Son of God was
punished for sins of those who finally die and suffer for those
sins again in eternal ruin is neither glory, it's not justice,
and it's not grace. It's not justice because justice
cannot demand payment twice. And it's not grace because sovereign
grace never tries and fails. It does. It was said of our Savior,
He shall not fail nor be discouraged. It took every ounce of strength
He had. And He had strength enough, but
none to spare. In His manhood, it touches blood,
it's sweat, it's groanings, it's death to put away our sins and
bring us to God. But bring us, He has. And He'll
continue to bring us until He sets us down before His Father
in perfection. And it's only here, it's only
here that the true grace of God is manifested. Purpose. One more thing quickly. Look
in chapter 1 in verse 9, and I'll quit with this. Be ye clothed with humility.
Give all praise and honor to God. This is true grace. For
your calling, grace. Grace. For the death of Christ,
redemption by Him. He redeems you. That's grace.
And the last thing, look here at what Peter says in chapter
1. In verse 9 and 10, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of our souls. Of which salvation the prophets
have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace,
they predicted the grace that should come unto you. Have you been called out of darkness
into His light? Does the Spirit of God give you
a view and an interest and faith in the Son of God who died upon
Calvary Street? Well, you know something? Way
back yonder in old times, men of old, riding under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, predicted this of you. They predicted this
grace would come to you. Isn't that amazing? You were
set apart for this grace. You were ordained to believe
and live forever. You. Isn't that amazing? Before
you ever had a being, before the earth ever breathed, it was
predicted and planned and purposed that this grace of God would
come. It's fixed. It's unchangeably, infallibly
fixed. Why did you come? Why are you
still coming? It's fixed. It was predicted,
infallibly predicted, that Carl Born would be called out of darkness.
Carl Born? You mean he's that particular?
You. Yes. You. According to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, brothers and sisters, I
don't know. I haven't studied the Scriptures as long as Brother
Don has, but I've studied them a few years. I don't know of
any other true grace. There's things that have been
called grace. But what I have told you this morning, this is
true grace. "'Twas not that I did choose thee, Lord, that could
not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, but thou hast chosen me. And from the sin that stained
me, you have cleansed and set me free of all thou hast ordained
me that I should live to thee.'" to a sovereign mercy called me
and taught my opening mind, my heart this world would have else
enthralled me, to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns none besides
Thee, for Your rich grace I thirst, this knowing if I love Thee. Do you love Him? I don't come up with this. Well,
I'm not for sure. I don't. You know. You love your wife? You love your husband? You know. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Amen. God bless His Word.