Turn with me to 1 Peter 5. 1
Peter 5. There's nothing that will make
the big troubles seem small like us being made small before our
big God. The bigger we can see God, see
Him as big as we can possibly see Him, the smaller we'll be
and the smaller our troubles will be. 1 Peter 5.10, But the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto His eternal
glory, by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Let's just take this one verse
and let's just break it down and just see how big God is. The verse begins here and it
says, the God of all grace, the God of all grace. Now we speak
about the grace of God and I love to hear about the grace of God
because salvation is all of the grace of God. Grace is favor. It's not merited. It's unmerited. It's earned by
the one to whom grace is given. I'll show you where we were.
Let's look at Ephesians 2.5. Here's where we were. And you
can hold your place in Ephesians. We'll come back here. Here's
where we were. Ephesians 2.5. Even when we were dead in sin,
that's where we are. That's where we start. That's
where me and you start out, dead in sin. Only a man dead in sin
thinks he's so big that he could do something to please God. Only a man that is dead thinks
he's big enough. wise enough, righteous enough,
holy enough to do anything to please God. Who are we talking
about when we talk about God? When you hear God, we're talking
about the beginning. We're talking about the one who
is the one when there was no one. We're talking about the
one who's before everything that exists The God. The God. Let me tell you who
this one is. Hold on right there. We'll come
right back there. Let me read Isaiah 40 to you. This is who
we're talking about now. This is who we're talking about.
Isaiah 40, 12. Who's measured the waters in
the hollow of his hand? Who's meted out heaven with the
span and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed
the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? Who has directed
the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counselor, taught Him? With
whom took He counsel? Who instructed Him? Who taught
Him in the path of judgment, taught Him knowledge, and showed
to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance.
Behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. Lebanon's
not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for
a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as
nothing, and are counted to Him less than nothing in vanity.
To whom then will you liken God? What likeness will you compare
unto Him? This is who we're talking about now. Only somebody dead
in sins. Back there, Ephesians 2.5. Only
somebody dead in sins would think They could instruct this God.
Only somebody dead in sins would think they could do anything
to please God. God. Or explain Him. Or walk up to Him and say, didn't
I do something wonderful? And that's where I was, that's
where you were. Who'd know? And that's where
we were. That's where, if you're sitting here right now thinking
in your heart that you can come to God and please God by something
you have done, you are dead as that floor right there. Dead. Absolutely dead. We need to find
out who God is. We need to find out who God is
and how God saved. We were dead. If we were dead,
if everybody born in this world is dead in sins, Completely totally
dead then salvation's got to be entirely of the grace of God If you went out to the cemetery
and you said I'm gonna do I'm gonna do something for that one
right there that one right there that one right there and that
one right there and Then if something's gonna be done for them, you got
to entirely do it, because they're dead. That's the case with men,
women, children, babies, old folks, young folks, all folks
walking around the top side of this earth right now thinking
that they can do something in themselves to make God show them
favor and accept them into his presence. They're dead, though
they look alive, absolutely dead. We got to be made to see we're
dead. Grace is the salvations of the grace of God Ephesians
2 5 even when we were dead in sin He's quickened us together
with Christ By grace you're saved. I love to hear the grace of God
look at Ephesians 2 8 right there for by grace are you saved through
faith and that faith is not of yourself and You didn't muster
that up either. It's the gift of God. It's not
of works, lest any man should boast. Where His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before
ordained, prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Even the good works He prepared beforehand. Everything's of grace. Look at Romans 11, 6. What does
that mean to us then? Look at Romans 11, verse 6. Romans 11, 6. And if by grace,
then it is no more of works. Do you see that? If it's by grace,
it is no more of works. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. That means you can't have one
and have the other. Salvation can't be partly by
grace and partly by works. Salvation is all of grace and
no works, or it's all works and no grace. You're either going
to have to come to God completely trusting the grace of God, or
you're going to have to come in our own works. All right,
now, we love the fact that the grace is of God. I love that.
The grace is of God. It's the grace of God. But remember
this, remember this, the true and living God, this one who's
before all things, this one who said nobody instructed him, nobody
gave him any counsel on what to do when he did anything. This
is the God of all grace. You see, grace has a fountain.
Grace has a fountain. Grace comes from somebody, and
it comes from the God of all grace. This is who we're talking
about, the beginning. In the beginning, God. We're
talking about before that beginning. We're talking about God, the
God of all grace. Everything grace is, we talk
about, we attach different names to grace to try to what grace
is, but everything that grace is, is what it is because it
comes from the God of all grace. Grace, we say, is sovereign.
That means, that's what a king is. A king is sovereign. Whatever
he says goes. Whatever he does, that's what's
going to happen. And grace is sovereign. It's of His choosing,
of His choice. Grace is sovereign because the
God of all grace is sovereign. Grace is unchangeable. The very
fact that it's grace means that it's not based on anything in
us, and the very fact that it's grace means it won't be changed
by anything in us. But grace is unchangeable because
the God from whom grace originates is unchangeable. He's unchangeable. Grace, we say, is irresistible. That means when God sends forth
His Spirit like the wind comes forth, we can't stop it. We just
can't stop it. We do a better job harnessing
the wind than we do God. God's grace is irresistible.
It's irresistible grace because the God who is the fountain of
that grace is irresistible. How arrogant and how foolish
do we think we're going to resist God? Resist God. Grace is all-sufficient. All-sufficient. All-sufficient grace. And it's all-sufficient grace
because the God from whom grace comes is all-sufficient. He's all-sufficient. So, we never
make grace into a mere system. Philosophy is a system. Philosophy
is a system. We never make grace a system.
Grace is, don't ever separate it from the God of all grace. I love this scripture. Noah found
grace. Well where did grace come from?
He found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It came from somewhere. So we start out and Peter says
the God of all grace, the origin. of all grace." So we're talking
about God now. God. Everything we're talking
about here is God. The God of all grace. Now, that's
the first thing. This fountain, this one who is
before everything that was made. Here we have Him. God. God. We worship God, the true
and living God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. One God in three distinct persons. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Now, he says this is what this
God has done. Look at 1 Peter 5.10. But the
God of all grace Who? You see, we're talking about
God. Who? What's He done? Who hath
called us unto His eternal glory. Now, God hath called us unto
His eternal glory. Now, you want us to feel real
small? You want your troubles to be small? You want your sins
to be small? You want the cares that you have
right now in this world to be small? Tell me what eternal glory
is. I bet your mind just went blank.
Your wisdom just got small, didn't it? Mine did when I thought about
that. What is eternal glory? Well, the first thing it is,
is it's eternal. It's eternal. What's that mean? What's eternity? What's eternal?
Take away time. Can you think about a time when
there was no time? What's one of the very first
things you do when you wake up in the morning? You look at a
clock. Just about the first thing you
do. Shackled right off the bat by time. Everything we do, by
time. Every movement we make, by time. Right from the moment our eyes
open. Try to think of there not being
any boundary of time. That's who God is. Eternal. What's glory? What's glory? Eternal glory. Well, it's where
Christ came from. when he came into this earth. He came from eternal glory. Glory, majesty, light. I don't
know. I haven't been there yet. I can
just see through a glass very darkly and just try to give us
something to comprehend eternal glory. It's where Christ came
from when He came into this earth. He came from eternal glory. That's where He came from. The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The glory, He came from eternal glory. It's where
Christ went after He finished the work that He came to accomplish. And He completely, thoroughly
put away the sin of His people by dying the death that all His
people owed. when he justified his people
of their sin and made it, made our sin be completely paid for
and justified his people and made his people, brought in the
righteousness his people has to be. When he had completed
this, he went to, back to eternal glory. That's where he went.
Look at John 17, 5. John 17, 5. This is what He said. He said,
Now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self. That's what eternal glory is.
It's God's own self. He said, Glorify me. Glorify
me with Your own self. with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." That's where he came from. He came from
eternal glory. He had eternal glory. And he
came from eternal glory. And when he finished the work,
he said in verse 4, I finished the work which thou gavest me
to do. And then he prayed the Father and said, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. You see, Christ was, He was in
this eternal glory and He came into this place of time and He
accomplished the work God gave Him to do. And then He went back
to eternal glory. And He's coming back. He's coming
back again. He's coming back again to do
away with time. And when He's done away with
time, you know where He's going to bring all those that He died
for? You know where He's going to
bring all those that He caused to life and faith by His word? You know where He's going to
bring us? into His eternal glory. You mean we're not going to wake
up and look at a clock first thing? Uh-uh. And I don't even,
I can't even tell you what that'll be like. I can't even, it can't
get in my puny little brain what it'd be like not to have, to
be looking at the clock and saying, well I got to, I got to hurry
up and get dressed, I got to be at school in 15 minutes. There won't be any time. This
is eternal glory. But this is who our God is, and
He's called His people unto eternal glory. Now, when did He do that? Well, He's eternal. When did
He call us into eternal glory? Well, He called us when He quickened
us together with Christ and made us alive when we were dead in
sins. He called us under this eternal
glory when He gave us life and all things that pertain to life
in Godliness by speaking this word in our hearts. And one day
we're sitting there listening to this message going, oh, when's
it going to be over? Because we were looking at the
clock. Word about time. And everything in time is more
valuable than God. Eternal glory. That's all we
can think about. Just little puny time slaves. That's all we are. That's all
we can think about. And he spoke one day and he called us by his
glory and he said, enter into this eternal glory and we beheld
him. And just for a little while,
right there, it seemed like every trouble, every care, every worry
we had was gone and would be gone forever. It was like we
came into eternal glory right then and we were there. And then
he showed us that he hadn't quite brought us there yet. We hadn't
been made perfect yet. We're still in this time, state,
in this body of death, and sin's still prevalent with us. And
we went back to fretting and worrying. And every now and then,
He makes us to see this. He's called us unto eternal glory. But what we've been trying to
understand and we've been trying to enter into, because it makes
us small, it makes us tiny, it makes our troubles go away, it
makes our sins vanish before us, when we behold how great
and how big and how magnificent God of all greats, who's before
anything, called us unto eternal glory that was before anything
and shall be when there is nothing that we call something. But all that's gone. We're going
to be with Him who has always been. Eternal glory. So when did He do it? When did
He do it? He did it. There wasn't a when. It was This is time language. He did it when he thought it. When it came into his mind. Romans 8, 29. I want you to see
this. Romans 8, 29. I don't want you to figure this
out. I don't want you to... I don't want you to... I want
this to be so incomprehensible to me and you. I want this to
be so beyond this tiny little peanut thing that we call a brain.
I want it to be lodged in the heart. I want it to come in power
in the heart to make us be lifted out of this body of death and
out of this little little place here, right into the presence
of just men made perfect, right into the presence of the eternal
glory Himself. This is where I want you to go.
This is where I want me and you to go right now. Be right there
with Him and behold, the heavens be open to us. Look at Romans
8.29. Whom he did foreknow. He did
this. This is past tense. Whom he did
foreknow. He also did, past tense, pre-destinate. That means before there was time,
there was a pre-appointed destination that he pre-appointed. This is
all in the eternal glory. He also, whom He did foreknow,
He also did predestinate, conformed to the image of His Son. Right
then, you see, why did He do that? That His Son might be the
firstborn among many brethren. You see, His Son was before any
son born on this world, when there was nothing but the eternal
glory which I had with you before, before, the Lord said. He foreknew
us in His Son, He predestinated us, conformed to the image of
His Son. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called." Right then, all this is one time when God
did this in His, putting His people in His Son, creating them
in His purpose, in His, in this, we're talking about a big, big, mind. Moreover whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. With the glory
that Christ had before the world was. That's the glory He glorified
His people with before the world was. There's nothing new under
the sun. Nothing new under the sun. Now
look, Ephesians 1.9. He did make known to us this
glory, this eternal purpose. But look at Ephesians 1.9. When
He made it known to us, it says, verse 9, He made known
unto us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself. He did that in Himself. What's
that purpose that He purposed in Himself? Look at Ephesians
3.11. According to the eternal purpose
which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. All this was done in
Christ Jesus our Lord in eternity. It's eternal purpose which He
did in Christ in eternity. And then God made time. He foreknew us. He predestinated
His people. Them He predestinated, He called.
Them He called, He justified. Them He justified, He glorified.
Where? In Christ Jesus before He made
anything. And He did it in Christ Jesus
blessing when He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Him.
All of them. Find me one that's not counted
in all spiritual blessings. They're all there. All of them. he did it all and then he made
time and he made time for this purpose Ephesians 3 10 to the
intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places
might be known might be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God and in other words all those powers and principalities
in heavenly places that you and I can't even comprehend that
we can't that was that was eternal and were there before, he made
time, and he's done everything he's done in the church, in his
people, with his people, through his son, so that those principalities,
powers, and heavenly places might know the wisdom of God. You know,
Peter told us angels desire to look into these things. The things God's made known to
us. The things God's teaching His children in this earth. Angels,
eternal angels want to look into this. You mean angels are looking at
what God's done and doing in His Son, in His church, in the
midst of His people, and they're learning about the wisdom of
God by what God is doing in us. That's right. And they desire
to look into those things. Look down at Ephesians 1.10. Look there with me. This is why
He made time. This is why He did it. This is
why He sent His Son into the earth. That in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, That means when the clocks stop, when
all the dispensations stop and are brought to the end of their
purpose. That he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him. This one in whom we've obtained
an inheritance. Look now at verse 12, that we
should be to the praise of what? Of his glory. of His glory, of
His eternal glory. In other words, we're getting
a glimpse of it now, and we're right now going, His glory is
something. His eternal glory is more than
I can enter into. It makes me feel like a little
bitty speck in the floor. Smaller than that, though. Smaller
than that in reality. Eternal glory. Eternal glory. Alright, now go back with me
to our text. How did He do all this? He's
the God of all grace and He's called us unto His eternal glory. Now how has He done that? By
Jesus Christ. Just saw in Romans 8 why He did
it. Why did He create a people through His foreknowledge and
His predestination and His calling and His justifying and His glorifying
of them in His Son before the world ever began? Why did He
do this? By Jesus Christ. He did it that His Son might
be the firstborn among many brethren. First, preeminent, before all. And it's by Him that He created
all things. By Him, all things were made. Everything that was made was
made by Him. And everything that was made
was made for Him. For the purpose of His Son coming
forth, and overruling all things in his power and grace is the
mediator from the moment time began." Why wasn't Adam and Eve
consumed in the garden? Because there was a mediator
between God and men. There was somebody representing
God's chosen people to God, and that one was Christ. Why was
it that... Who was it that gave gave that
one Moses who's such a picture of a mediator who came down from
a mountain and gave men the law of God, the word of God, who
was the one who gave that law to Moses for God so that Moses
wouldn't be consumed when he went up into the mountain? The
mediator did. The one whom Moses was a type.
Christ the Lord. And He held everything together
by the Word of His power, because God entrusted everything into
His hand. And He brought forth His children
over time. And He put together these Scriptures
over time. And He held this world in place
over time by the Word of His power. And He came forth in the
fullness of time, made of a woman. made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. And he came forth, this one,
and he came and he sat. God gave a law. You think about
this. God gave a law. Now you get some idea of just
how big this God is. And he gave a law. to sinful, fallen, dead, depraved
sinners and said, do this and you'll live. If you do this law,
you'll live. Truth, if you do it, you'll live. It does not imply in any shape,
form or fashion that they ever could. But the deadness of our sin,
the smallness and backwardness we are in sin, is that we thought
we could. We thought we could keep it.
We thought we could satisfy it. Didn't even understand what it
demanded. Didn't even understand that law
demanded death, our death. We can keep it. Kept it from
my youth up, the rich young ruler said. I've kept it. I've kept
the whole law. I've done everything in it. Lord said, let's see if
you'll lay down your life unto death, unto the death of the
cross that's required to satisfy divine justice. Let's see if
you do it. You just take a few of those. You just take that
car you got and that house you got. Just take the extra ones. Don't take the ones you're living
in or driving around. Just take the extra ones and
sell them and come and follow Me. He didn't tell him to die. He didn't tell him to lay down
his life. He didn't say go to the cross and be bit and spat
upon and cussed and mocked and bear the infinite wrath of God. He didn't tell him to do that.
He just said, go sell something that you own and follow Me. What
in the world? You are offending my dignity. Can't satisfy him. Can't satisfy
him. Never kept it. But he's the one
that this mercy is buying. He came forth and he fulfilled
it. Let's look at a few scriptures
here. Romans 3.24. I want you to see that. Romans 3.24. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is where? In Christ Jesus. That means He accomplished it.
He accomplished it. Look at Romans 5.15. Romans 5.15. Not as the offense, so also is
the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by, uh-oh, it's by one man, by one man, Jesus
Christ, that's who it's by. It's abounded unto many. How
abounded, how much abounding is this grace? It's as abounding
as Christ accomplished the work. It's as abounding and as full
and as complete as Christ accomplished the work. If there's anything
limited that Christ has not accomplished to bring his people into the
presence of God right now. You got a limited gospel. You
got a limited Christ. You got a limited God. You got
a God who's not the God. Because the God has abounded
in grace. How much has He abounded? He's
overflowed in grace. He's done everything in His Son. It's by this one. Look at Romans
521, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. It's by Him. By Him. Paul told the Corinthians, I
thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is
given you by Jesus Christ. You see, the one who gave, the
one who called in the garden, called Adam and
Eve to himself and said, I'm slaying a lamb. Watch this. I'm slaying an innocent lamb.
Now I'm going to take the skins off this lamb and I'm covering
you with the skins of this lamb. The one who did that is the one
by whom this grace comes. This one who in time was called
Jesus, but who has always been the Christ. This one who's always
been the mediator between God and His people. The one who was
burned in the bush and drew Moses to Him in such a splendor that
He said, what is this, that this bush is burned and yet it is
not consumed? Who is this? I've got to see
who this is. And that voice that came to him
and said, take off your shoes, Moses. You're on holy ground. You're coming near the holy one.
This is the one by whom grace comes to speak. Was that grace
coming to Moses? How's grace come? It comes by
Jesus Christ. He's the mediator. He's the one
who brings this Testament to his people. He's the one who
gets the glory for calling his people, who gets the glory for
sending them pastors after his own heart, who gets the glory
for calling them in grace and truth through the Spirit. He's
the one who sent the Holy Spirit into the earth and said, when
he comes, he won't speak of himself. He'll speak of me. what He's
learned from me, what He's been taught to declare of my glory,
because He's won. He is the Spirit of Christ come
forth. Now, this is what Peter says.
Let's finish this up. This is what Peter says. Now,
what is all that about? Why does he end with all that? Well, the saints that he's writing
to, they had some tough time. Their economy was bad too. But
God was about to let down the hedge from around Jerusalem,
and Rome was fixing to come into that prosperous nation that hadn't
seen battle in so long on their home soil, and they were fixing
to be wiped off the map. It ain't as bad as we think it
is yet, is it? They were about to have that
happen. All kinds of judgment come to that house, and all kinds
of trouble come to it. But this is what he's telling
them. Peter's telling them, this God who is the beginning, this
God who is the fountain of all grace, this God who is the eternal
glory, who who foreknew, and predestinated, and called, and
justified, and glorified His people in the eternal glory,
accomplished it by His eternal glory, by Jesus Christ Himself,
who has now returned unto the eternal glory, who's come to
you by the power of His Spirit and called you unto His eternal
glory, and made you to behold now that you're no longer of
this world, but you've been called right now unto the eternal glory. He says, now this God we're talking
about, after that you have suffered
a while. A while. That doesn't sound like
very long, does it? Let's put it into perspective.
Let's put it into perspective. 10 years ago, Emma wasn't born yet. 10 years from now, Should be
20. Unless. In in almost the same amount
of time that we have been here. Should be driving. Almost. In 10 years. I'll be 51. It makes it seem like a little
while. Let's put it in perspective. How old is this country? It's just been a little while
since this country was founded. It's been 2,000 years since Christ walked this
earth. 2011 years. And how many years was the world
in existence before Christ came? 5,000, 6,000 years that we know
of? Can you fathom 5,000 or 6,000
years? Can you fathom 2,000 years? I can't even put that in, I can't
even get my mind around that. Why on earth do we want to date
fossils 364 billion years? Just tell me they're 2,000 years
old. You got me. That's a long, that's more than
I can fathom. You impressed me. But now go back to that time
span of 6,000 years, 7,000, 8,000 years. Now, take your life so far. Some of you here, 10. Some of
you here, 18. Some of you here, 20, 30. Take
that time span of your life right now and put it on that time span
of those thousands of years. How long's it been since you've
been here? Been a little while, a little
while. Now take, and I know, our troubles
are big troubles. Our trials are big trials. I'm
not minimizing the pain and suffering we suffer in our trial. But you
take them just in light of this little while that we've been
here. It's been a little while, hasn't
it? A little while. Now, as small and as little as
your lifespan is on that lifespan of how long this world's been
in existence, just as small as your little dot fits into that
big ocean of time, that big ocean of time drowns into nothing in
eternity. It's nothing. It's nothing. I feel tiny. I feel little. I feel very ignorant. I feel
very foolish for thinking so big of myself. He says, in just a little while. This God, who is so infinitely
big, eternally big, gloriously big, will settle you, perfect
you, he'll establish you, he'll strengthen you, and he'll settle
you. And I can't even begin to comprehend
just how perfect and just how established and just how settled
that will be. Can you? Can you even comprehend
that? I hope that puts a little pep
in our step and gives us a little bit of courage to get up in the
morning and get out the door and get there and do the best job we can do. singing
the most glorious song we can sing thinking all the while it's all right it's all good
every bit of it amen