1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 10. I guess if I had a title, the
God of all grace would be a good one. The God of all grace. Peter here says, but. We're going
to deal with that as a conjunction, and there's many things that
went before this prayer. Prayer of Peter, he says, But
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory
by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you
perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. Now, the Apostle
Peter was a man who was acquainted with affliction. He was a man
acquainted with affliction, being one of the disciples of Jesus
Christ. He was a very bold man. When
he was a disciple, before this letter was written, he was a
bold man. Most of the time he spoke for
the whole group. even bold in that night where
our Lord Jesus Christ was in His greatest affliction in Gethsemane. When our Lord was in agony, you
remember, He said, though all men betray you, I won't. No, I'll die with you. And there is no doubt in my mind
He was sincere in what He said. He meant what he said. He was
so bold that he even drew the sword. Imagine, he was surrounded
by soldiers. He drew the sword and cut off
the high priest's servant's ear. That's boldness. That took boldness
and confidence. But the Lord, you remember, told
Peter, He said, Before the cock crow, you shall deny Me three
times. You remember when he did deny
Him and that rooster crowed, the words of Christ flooded his
soul. Affliction came. Sorrow, grief,
pain flooded his heart. And all that boldness and boasting
and strength melted and was crushed under the weight of his guilt.
And so the Scripture says he went out and wept. He wept bitterly. He wept bitterly. He wept bitterly
because of that guilt. And after his sin, what did he
do? He left. He left the faith. Christ had
died. He thought, it's over. And he
said, I go fishing. He said, I'm going back to where
I was before. He left the faith and brought
his brethren with him. Peter in great despair and sorrow
left. He left all hope of being accepted
with God. Can you imagine the sorrow? The
grief that Peter felt in this time? He was an outcast. He was no better than Judas in
his own eyes. What despair! What sorrow! You know, I bet he remembered
what the Lord said when He said, If you deny Me before men, I
will deny you before My Father. Don't you think those words pierced
his soul? He denied Christ. Three times
denied Him. But what was the result of this
great affliction? Why was Peter not given strength
to overcome his sin? Now definitely God could have
strengthened him. God could have encouraged him.
given Him the strength not to deny Him, why was He allowed
to commit such a great sin? Because God would, by the Lord
Jesus Christ, testify of this, that He is the God of all grace. God would testify to this truth,
that He is the God of all grace. Because He made a difference. He made a difference. Remember
how Jesus, after the resurrection, He comes and He stands over there
on the seaside. They don't know who it is. And
they're fishing all night and they can't catch nothing. He
said, hey, boys, put the net on the other side. He said, we're
fishermen. But look, we ain't caught nothing,
why not? Hocus pocus. You know, you fishermen are all
superstitious. They said, sure, why not throw
it on the other side? When they did and they caught
those fish, they knew this. It was Jesus. It was Jesus. And when Peter knew it was Jesus,
what did he do? He jumped in the water and fled
to Christ. You see what the affliction did?
It drove him to Christ. When Christ appeared, when Christ
was absent, so was his faith. But when Christ appeared, what
happened? His faith came back. And he jumped in the water. Oh, he left that boat. He left
those fish. He didn't even have time to bring
it in. He fled to Christ. Is this not the story of every
believer who's ever forsaken Him? This is my story. Many times,
this has been my story. We may for a while leave, but
when He comes to us, We abandon our sin and we flee to Him. This is the difference between
Judas and Peter. The difference was the pain did
not drive him from Christ, it eventually brought him to Christ. And you remember the pain of
that rebuke. Peter was not only afflicted by this, the Lord didn't
let up, did He? He said, Peter, lovest thou me
more than these? You know I love you. And do what
I've commanded you. Feed my sheep. Peter, do you
love me? Why are you asking again? Yeah. You know it. You know I love
you. And do what I've commanded you. Feed my sheep. And the third
time, knife going in deeper and deeper into his soul. You know
I love you. Then do what I've commanded you
to do. The answer grieved him. And by the grace of God, what
happened to Peter? What was his experience? He was
restored, wasn't he? Matter of fact, we have this
epistle simply based on this experience of agony and sorrow
and grief and pain and sin. Now we have Peter writing to
us of what? The God of all grace. Why? He knew the God of all grace. He experienced the God of all
grace. He experienced His grace. Peter was a man that knew the
value of suffering, the necessity of suffering, which is the purpose
of God is to manifest our weakness in His strength. It is to show
our sin and His grace to forgive. It testifies of our faith, whether
it is true or not. That's what trials do. That's
why we are permitted to do such evils, so that God might abound
in grace. and testify of His strength and
His wisdom. And so, when Peter begins this
epistle, he begins this epistle, he's writing to the elect. He's
writing to the elect, those sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ,
those called and kept saints. You can read that in the first
chapter of Peter. He deals with the election, he deals with redemption,
and he deals with the calling and keeping of the saints. In
that first five verses, And he said, you greatly rejoice
in this in verse 6 of chapter 1. He said, you greatly rejoice.
Don't you? You rejoice in those things? Yes, you do. But there's
something else. You rejoice in election. You
rejoice in redemption. You rejoice in calling and keeping.
But do you rejoice in suffering? Why? Because though now for a
season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptation. Why? So that your faith might
be tried and proven. He said, though it be tried with
fire, it might be founded to the praise and honor of glory
at its appearing. Believer, remember, we were redeemed
by the blood and born again by the Spirit of God. But Peter
tells us this, you who are born again, you will suffer. Therefore,
listen, lay aside every sin. The whole book of Peter then
from that point forth is telling you to lay aside your sin. Abstain
from fleshly lusts. Submit yourselves to God. Now
can any believer misunderstand these words? Any of that you misunderstood,
leave your sin. Live soberly, righteously, in
godly ways. Paul said, it's just your reasonable
service to do those things. Reasonable. Can any believer not understand,
is it not reasonable for us to abandon our sins and the things
of this world, seeing Christ saved us from it? If Christ saved
you from it, is it not reasonable to abandon it? That's what Peter's
talking about through the book. Believer, let all our strength,
all our diligence, use every faculty we have for the glory
and service of Christ. That's what Peter's telling us
throughout the book. Give no occasion to the flesh
to fulfill the desires thereof. Is that not written most in every
epistle? It is. Peter, who had himself
been in the furnace of affliction, having failed See, he understood
failure. His faith failed. His fidelity to the Lord failed,
being guilty of the same crime as Judas. The only difference
was what? Christ said, but I have prayed
for thee. There was no difference in the
betrayal. The sin was the same. What made
the difference? The God of all grace made the
difference. The God of all grace made the difference. He felt the pains and sorrows
of His sin with all of His heart and employs now the saints to
cast Him off. And He closes this epistle then
with this prayer. He's telling you who are elect,
you who are redeemed, you who are called, you who are kept,
put off the old man. Put off the deeds of the flesh.
Why? Because that's just Becoming. It becometh saints. Do those
things that becometh saints. And then he ends with this prayer
we have in our text. But seeing all that is necessary. Suffering is necessary. Putting
off the flesh is necessary. But I'll tell you what, if he
stopped there, we'd be in trouble because we fail miserably all
the time to do these things. So what's our hope of ever having
success? Here it is. But the God of all
grace. The God of all grace who called
you to the eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you suffered, make
you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Now I want to
take this in order. We'll take this in order as it comes. First
of all, let's see this, the God of all grace. The God of all
grace. Having set forth the truth of
the doctrine of grace that we should Never abuse this grace. Is grace given so that we might
live licentious lives? No. We've not learned grace that
way. The grace of God teaches us,
Paul said, that denying worldliness and ungodliness, we should live
soberly, righteously, and godly in this present time. That's
what grace teaches us, doesn't it? That we should never abuse
it. use it for an occasion to fulfill
the lust of the flesh. He said we should give all diligence
to live as becometh saints. As becometh saints. Yet here in the end of this epistle
he leaves nothing to the ability of the creature. He tells you not to do it and
you should give all diligence not to do it, but where does
the power come from? Where does the strength come
from to do that? Here it is, the God of all grace.
But the God of all grace keeps you. The God of all grace strengthens
you. The God of all grace makes you mature. That's the only way.
It doesn't leave it to your ability to maintain yourself or keep
yourself in the faith. But rather lead you to the source
of all mercy, the fountain of all spiritual strength. You will suffer. What will keep
you in suffering? What will keep you in the trial
of your faith and restore you when you fall? What will restore
you? When you fail, it's not a matter of if, it's just a matter
of when you fail. When we fail, what's going to restore you?
Grace. The God of all grace. Notice
He does not say the God of grace. He says, the God of all grace. All grace. Therefore, the only
cause of our salvation, the only reason we have experienced the
regeneration of the Spirit and been enlightened of our sin and
fled to Christ, the only reason that He has separated us from
the rest of Adam's fallen race is this, He is the God of all
grace. All grace. As I told you, the
only difference between Judas and Peter was what? The grace
of God. The only difference between you
and any other lost son of Adam is what? The grace of God. Only difference. Only. Who maketh
thee to differ from another? Of what do you have you didn't
receive? How'd you receive it? By grace, by the God of all grace. Has God removed the veil of your
hearts, exposed your sin? Have you seen the vileness of
your own nature? And then in an act of free grace,
has God opened your eyes to see the perfections of Christ? You
must have both. You must see from the pit from
which you were hewn and the rock on which you are founded. You
must see both. This is the work of grace in
the heart of the sinner. And so in an act of free grace,
God did what? He sent us a preacher. He sent
us a preacher and Paul said, we preach not ourselves. You don't want to hear about
me. And I'm not going to preach you. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servant. Why do
we do that? For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, what did He do? He shined in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where? In
the face of Jesus Christ. God did that. That was the act
of grace. And the God of all grace, what
did He do? He saved us. He saved us. Notice this grace which we heard
and we believed. We also have still and do continually
still experience the grace of God. Believers. Don't you feel the constant and
numerous aggravations of your sin? I know this, my soul cries yes,
I feel it daily, constantly. My sin, how it causes such sorrow. Does your sin not cause you great
sorrow? How often have we denied Christ
by our works, by our unbelief? How often have we left Him and
been ensnared by the things of time, the things of earth? Therefore, what do we need? We
need constant, perpetual, endless grace. See, grace is not a one-off. It's not a one act of God. That's why He's saying the God
of all grace, because we need a lot of grace. What? All grace. All grace. We need all grace continually
to pardon us and blot out our transgression. We need the God
of all grace to restore us when we fall, don't we? Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Do you feel it? Prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart. Seal it for
your courts above. Prone to sin. So what do we need? Constant grace. This is why this
Word is there. It's the God of all grace because
that's what we need. We need grace daily to cleanse
us and keep us. And even when we have gone so
far, doesn't He in grace seek us? and find us? Did Peter look
for Him? No, Christ came to Peter. Christ revealed Himself again
to Peter. In an act of grace, Peter did
not deserve it, he left. When we leave, how many times
have you been restored? How many times have you fallen
over and can't get up? And in kindness He comes and
sets you on your feet. Who of us have not wondered,
we would have never returned had He not restored us. We would
have never come back. And see this truth, because He
is the God of all grace, He is the God of all grace, then it
is an infinite supply of grace. Why? Because God is infinite.
He is the God of all grace. If a man lay aside, he's got
several sons, and he lay aside part of his inheritance for a
son, and he set aside a good man to make sure his son gets
all that he is given, All that that man gave his son
belongs to that son. But I'll tell you this, when
he spends it, there's nothing left. Why? It's a limited amount. You see,
God doesn't give a limited amount of grace. Why? He's the God of all grace. He is the God of all grace. God
has set aside for His children not a limited amount of grace,
but all grace. All of His grace is set aside
for His children. It is the possession, the inheritance
of all His elect. That's why He's termed the God
of all grace. Even all grace we might have
drained. If it was just grace, if it was
my grace or your grace, there's only so much you can give. But
you're not God. Neither am I. But God being God
is limitless in His grace. He said, Behold, I change not. What's the result? Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I always like to see this. The
love of God never fluctuates. However high the love of God
is, it's always that high. However deep, however wide, however
long it is, It never moves or changes. He loves you now because He has
always loved you. And He will always love you. Therefore, you have this infinite
supply of grace. Do you need grace? And see, the
grace is not a pond of grace. It's not a lake of grace. It's not even a sea of grace.
Why? Because those waters are limited. God uses His grace to
be like a fountain. You know why? The fountain continually
flows. It flows. It's constant. It's
perpetual. It's ever new. I like what the
psalmist says. He says, For with thee there
is a fountain of life. Aren't you glad it's not a pond
of life? A lake of life? Why? It's just a little limited
supply. It can dry up. It can get stagnant. We went
out to the country, and y'all talk about those stagnant waters.
You don't want to get in the stagnant water. But His supply of life is constant. That's why the blood of Christ
is described as a fountain open. A fountain open. Why? It's constant. Don't you realize that you have
been cleansed and you are right now being cleansed? And you shall
forever be cleansed of all your sin? Why? He's the God of all
grace. Right now, do you think you merit
any forgiveness? Anything? And yet you are. You're forgiven. Why? Because of the blood of Christ.
It's a fountain. It's a fountain of life. Jesus says He gives the fountain
of the water of life freely. It's a fountain of grace. Therefore,
His saints, you are chosen, redeemed, and quickened by grace. You rejoice
and give thanks to God for all His grace, which can never be
exhausted. Nor can He ever run out of patience
or kindness or love. You and I run out all the time. The more I grow, the less, the
more I see I don't have love that can endure very long. I don't have patience. I don't
have loving kindness. What makes me adore him is that
he never runs out. Never. Fountain of never-ceasing grace,
thy saint's exhaustless theme, great object of immortal praise,
essentially supreme, we bless thee for thy glorious fruits
thine incarnation gives. The righteousness which grace
imputes and faith alone receives, the fountain of never-ceasing
grace. Have you fallen? Can anyone identify with Peter? Maybe it's just me and him. I
don't know. Have you gone so far as to deny Have you been ensnared by sin
so as to abandon Christ? Listen, turn again to Him. You
know why? He's the God of all grace. He's
the God of all grace. He is sufficient to cleanse you
and restore you just as He did Peter. Second thing, effectual calling. Look back at your text, chapter
5 and verse 10. but the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ. The first streams of this fountain
of never-ceasing grace is the effectual call. This is our first
encounter with the grace of God. Now, God's grace has always been
around. You've always had the grace of God from eternity. But
you didn't experience it until what? He called you. He called
you. The God of all grace, what did
He do? He called you. This is the first work of grace
in the hearts of His elect. The term calling means spoken
to. Just like He did Lazarus. When Lazarus was in the tomb,
Lazarus was dead. Jesus called Lazarus forth. We know that that calling was
effectual because Lazarus actually got up. And so we mean effectual. What
we mean is powerful. It gets a job done. I can go
to the tomb and I can call every name out there. Nothing's going
to happen. It's not effectual. I don't have power. But Christ
had power. And that's exactly a picture
of what He's done for us. He's called us from death to
life. God is called the God of all
grace. He chose us. Christ saved us before He called
us. And then what? He called us. I talk to J.D. often about his
conversion when the Lord saved Brother J.D. Farmer. He always
asks me this question. I don't know why he keeps asking
me this question. I give him the same answer all the time. He said,
you know, I don't know why we came into that church building
that night. He said, what if I didn't come? What if I looked
at the building and turned around? J.D., there was no chance you'd
miss it? You think there was any chance
you was going to miss this calling? No. Why, He's a God of all grace. He purposed your calling. He
planned it at the appointed time He called you. And what happened?
It was effectual. Now listen, if this call this
morning to believe on Christ, if you don't believe, that's
because He's not calling you. The moment He calls you, you'll
come. And get this, you'll never stop
coming. Has He ever stopped calling you? Never stops calling. It's coming
to me. Oh, you that are weary and heavy
laden. Any believer here still not weary
and heavy laden? We are. We cumber ourselves with
the things of earth and we come to Him often fretful and fearful
and weak. You know what He calls you? He
calls us. We were dead without strength
in what we believed on Christ. We had no need of Christ. But
when He called us, we saw our need of Him. We saw how desperate
we needed righteousness and redemption, and we saw how wonderfully Christ
fulfilled it. He called us to come from the
world, from its company. He called us
from our sins. He called us from the vain wisdom
of this world, from the lust of our friends, from our family,
our friends. He called us from all that opposed
Him. He called us. He called us to
repent from our vain religion. Do you remember your calling? Do you remember how He manifest
Himself to you? Do you remember how He wasn't
real and now He's become real? Do you remember how you did not
and would not believe and now you can't help but believe? This one lady came into our church.
She was the most amazing testimony I'd ever heard. She said, I was
listening to the Gospel and before I started, I didn't believe.
And then all of a sudden, I couldn't do anything but believe. That's an effectual calling.
Do you remember that? I know some brethren who heard
the word of truth. They were called and they were
saved, believed the truth, but yet for a while they continued
on in that same religious little world that they were growing
up in, but you know what happens to those people? They can't stand
it very long. They got to get out of it. They
got to leave it. They can't deal with it anymore. Why? Because He called them from it. Those who are called to God,
what do they do? They repent and they believe. They turn.
That's what this calling does, this effectual calling. It's
a repentance, not to sin, not even to morality. We don't repent
from sin to morality. We don't repent from Arminianism
to Calvinism. When you turn from something,
you're turning to something. But when we repent, we didn't
turn to something, we turned to someone. We repented to the
person of Christ. We turned to Him. That's what it is to repent. We turn to Christ. We turn from
false religion to Christ. We turn from sin to Christ. And now we cease to look to self,
to religion, to works, to idols, and we look only to Him. That's
what effectual calling does. It causes you to look to Him
only. For what? Everything. Everything. To us who believe Christ is all.
All what? He's just all. Christ is all. But such repentance is not a
one-time thing. Do you not constantly need to
turn from yourself? How many times had you had to
turn this morning in your mind from other things in? Constant. Just as faith. We need constant
faith. We're constantly turning to Him.
It's not a one-time act. We are constantly called to cease
from sin and look to Him by faith. When He calls us, and He opens
our eyes, what do we see? We see it's done. When I look
at Christ, you know what I see? It's done. When I see Christ, I see this,
His one sacrifice for sin was forever. Forever. When I look to Christ, I see
Him seated on the throne of grace, the throne of mercy, ruling all
things after the counsel of His own will. And so by faith in Him, we know
this, it is not by mere will, but by divine calling. If you
believe right now, it's because He called you. When He calls
you, He gives you such faith as you need. As many as received
Him, to them gave He the right to become the sons of God which
were born. You were born of the will of God. You were born of
the will of God. It was an effectual... And see that the result and the
purpose of this calling was unto His eternal glory. Why did He
call you? For His own glory. There is no
reason in you. Stop looking. You'll only be
distressed trying to find a reason in yourself for this calling.
You won't find one. Simply this, He is the God of
all grace and He does it for His eternal glory. Believer,
listen, this life is short. When time shall be no more, God
will again, who called us and saved us, will call us again.
And that time it will be on eternal calling and will never leave
Him. He'll call us to Himself. This
is His promise. Now, the third thing is this,
the suffering of the saints. Look back at your text. He says,
"...who have called us unto eternal glory by Christ Jesus, that after
you have suffered a while, just as the streams of grace flowed
to us in mercy, As we have been called to faith in Christ and
repentance from dead works, the suffering apostle would not have
us ignorant of this truth, that the God of all grace, who purposed
and applied our salvation, also ordains our suffering. He is the God of all grace. He
did effectually call you. But Peter says, listen to this, after you have suffered a while.
He's not going to have you ignorant that being saved will exempt
you from suffering. It will not. Matter of fact,
it guarantees it. Being saved guarantees suffering. Matter of fact, we will not reach
glory without suffering. Isn't this what Paul said to
the churches? He said that we, through much
tribulation, should enter the Kingdom of God. What's the pathway
to the Kingdom of God? It is suffering. Suffering. The God of all grace
has ordained your salvation and calls you to suffer for and with
Christ. But here's the comfort in suffering.
That God will enable us in some measure to always look to Him
for strength to endure. He will always give you strength
to endure every trial. Every trial. Therefore, as we
are called to suffer, we must look first then at the suffering
of Christ. If the Son of God, who is holy,
righteous, undefiled, separate from sinners. If He came into
the world and suffered, do you suppose that you should somehow
escape it? Our Lord suffered. Listen to
this. The Scripture says that by His
suffering, He learned obedience. I'm not going to get into that. That's just what it says. Jesus learned obedience by the
things He suffered. I would never say that had the
Scripture not said it. Would you? Would you actually
dare to say He learned something? How do you think you learn obedience? You learn by suffering. the same
as our Lord. So if we're suffering, guess
what we're doing? We're learning obedience. We're learning obedience. In fact, suffering is like faith
is given to you. That's what Paul said in Philippians
1, 29, for it is given unto you on the behalf of Christ, not
only to believe on Him, but to suffer for His name's sake. Now, we all do not suffer in
the same manner, we do not suffer the same matter or the same measure. Some suffer more than others,
some deeper, some longer, but all suffer. Some suffering is with evil.
Some believers suffer in the depths of their own vileness,
knowing their depravity, their vile corruption, These saints
suffer in great depression and sorrow, and though outwardly
they appear as though they don't suffer. They may have a good
job, and they have a good home, and they have a good family,
and yet their suffering inside, you don't even see it. Some saints,
they suffer deeply because of God's absence. I believe that's one of the worst
sufferings, is when God hides His face. Some suffered outward afflictions
and sicknesses of the body, mental illnesses. Some are hated and
persecuted, even put to death. But this maxim is true. All saints
have to suffer. And the matter, the manner, and
the duration belong only to God. They're given to you specifically
designed for you. Do not envy someone else's self.
You probably can't bear it. You probably can't bear it. The way of the cross leads home. Only by the cross. But here's another comfort. It
is only for a while. Look at your text now. After
that you have suffered... What is it? A while. I'm glad those words are there,
aren't you? For a while. In chapter 1 and
verse 6, he says, Seize it. Seize it. Believer, fix your
eyes on Christ, for soon all your suffering will end. As God
led Israel from the bitterness of Moriah, the waters of Moriah,
He also led them to Elam. The waters of Marah, He led them
from the waters of Marah to Elam. And so will God always deliver
and refresh His saints. He will always do it. There is
an end to your suffering. There is an appointed time, an
end, when He will refresh you. He will strengthen you. I like
these verses here. David said, I had fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. And listen, he didn't see it, he just believed he'd
see it. He said, I fainted lest I believed to see the goodness
of the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Be of good
courage, for He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. Why? Your suffering is just a
while. It's just a while. Another psalm, he said, many
are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all. A while. The fourth thing is the consequences
of suffering. What is the result of suffering?
Look back at your text and see the results now of why God would
allow the God of all grace, who called you, saved you, justified
you, and now is allowing you to suffer for a while. Notice
why. Make you perfect. Establish, strengthen, and settle. Four things here. First of all,
perfect. This word means mature. Mature. This perfection is not
a perfection in the flesh like Arminians claim or religionists. They say, well, if you repent
of this sin, then that sin will become less attractive to you. You will no longer want to do
that. That's the dumbest thing I've
ever heard. It's like that sin just somehow disappears after
you repent from it. No, that which is born of flesh
is flesh. It will always be flesh. But the word perfect here means
maturity. It doesn't mean you're going
on to holiness. It means you're going on to maturity.
That's what suffering does. It causes you to grow up. The same word is used in Hebrews
5, 14, strong meat belonging to them that are perfect, mature. See then that suffering is the
means God uses for spiritual maturity. It is used of God so
that we are not tossed about by every wind of doctrine. I
tell you this, the suffering that I endure today, could I
have endured that at the beginning of my faith when I first believed?
You think it was possible? No. Why is it that these sufferings
become more difficult as we grow? Because sufferings are used of
God to cause you to be stronger. I look back at some of the sufferings
I had when I was a young believer and I kind of chuckle, say, what
in the world was I fretting about? But now I look at my sufferings,
is it possible to overcome this? Well, did you overcome all the
rest of them? Did I bring you through all the rest of them?
Yes, then you'll go overcome this one too. That's what maturity
teaches us. It teaches us to lean hard on
Christ. Unless we are led by God into
suffering, we would not mature, we would not grow. Are you still
so full of pride and self-righteousness? Do you not need to grow? Anyone
not need to grow? Second thing suffering does is
suffering establishes us. We are often in prosperity, we
lean on earthly things. Isn't that right? When everything
is going well, what are you trusting? You're trusting in the arm of
flesh. You trust in earthly judgment. You trust in human strength. But see, the blessing of suffering
removes all that. God kicks those crutches out
from underneath us and we are made to lean on Christ alone. Listen, if you're not made to
lean on Christ alone, you won't lean on Christ alone. That's
what suffering does. It establishes you. It shows
us the vanity, the weakness of our flesh, the vanity of earthly
possessions. It shows us that what sin promises,
it cannot deliver. It is then the believer is set
to lean wholly upon his God. In suffering, we are established
upon the rock of ages. And what do we find there? All
other ground is sinking sand. Is that not what you learn through
suffering? You learn that all this world cannot sustain you,
that Christ has strengthened you, establishes you in the faith. It strengthens you in suffering.
In suffering, we find our strength to be weakness. But in suffering,
we find His strength sufficient. That's what suffering teaches. And lastly, it settles us. The
more we suffer, the more sure we are of His faithfulness to
deliver us. So when we suffer, we're settled
on Him alone to deliver us. Is there anybody else to deliver
you? When you're suffering, when you come to the end of yourself,
who do you look to? Suffering takes away everything
else except Him. I believe it's in Psalm 77. I'm
going to look at this here just a second. In Psalm 77, he said,
I remembered God and I was troubled. I complained, but my spirit was
overwhelmed. Now holdest mine eyes awaking,
I am troubled that I cannot speak. Let me see. I'm sorry. I'm trying
to find the verse I'm looking for. Hold on. Oh, I'm sorry. It's verse 2.
In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord, and my sore ran into
the night and ceased not. This word could mean I laid out
my arms all night long. What? To God I laid out all night
long. My suffering ran into the night
and I could not go anywhere else but to You. That's what suffering
does. It brings us to God. So you wonder
why we suffer. Why? Peter tells you why you suffer.
Strengthen you. Establish you. Make you mature. Listen. It's only for a while. Why? Because He's the God of
all grace. He's the God of all grace. He
called you. He redeemed you for His own glory.
And now when you suffered, you suppose He'd not deliver you.
He will. And suffering has a purpose.
Remember, God desires only the good for His people. He said, I know my thoughts toward
you thoughts of peace and not of evil. Do you believe that? Do you believe that when you're
suffering? May God, the God of all grace,
give us such faith to lean on Him. Our gracious Father, I pray You'd
bless the Word, that You'd pour out Your Spirit upon us, to reveal to every heart that
You are the God of all grace. And Father, that you by Jesus
Christ have saved us and redeemed us, and in the midst of our suffering,
Father, strengthen us, encourage us, settle us to fix our eyes
upon Christ, to turn from ourself, turn from our sin, and turn only
to Him, so that we might honor Him and serve Him in this present
world. I pray you do this for the glory
of Christ.