Good evening. I invite your attention
to the book 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. Here in 1 Peter 5, I'd like to
start in verse 1. First Peter five, verse one. The elders which are among you
I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. The apostle Peter here is near
the end of his life on this earth. We just read that in 2 Peter
chapter 1. And I don't know how familiar
you are with Peter's epistles, but especially in 1 Peter, but
in both of them, he gives a lot of exhortations. An exhortation
is an address. It's an urging. It's an admonishing. And I'll tell you this. The longer
I've lived as a believer, the more I realize I need these. that there's no exhortation God
has that I do not greatly, greatly need. And there are several we're
going to look at tonight, Lord willing. And I want to point
this out, that the stage of Peter's life right here, being towards
the end, you know, we read a lot about Peter. We're going to get
quite a glimpse into the life of Peter tonight. But he's writing
here as an elder. Did you catch that he said right
there? He said, I'm writing to elders, and I'm one of them.
I'm an elder. What he's saying is he was a
mature believer who had been entrusted with God's gospel.
He'd been entrusted with declaring God's message. Now, the things
that Peter, by the grace of God, had experienced had led to this
point, had qualified him to speak the things we're going to read.
Now, Peter was often on the receiving end of exhortations and rebukes. I want to mention several. In
Galatians chapter 2, I believe they were at Antioch, Peter was
sitting down eating with some Gentiles. Well, then the Apostle
Paul came in and some other folks came in, some Jews. And you remember
what Peter did? Peter got up. He separated himself
from the Gentiles, and he went and sat down with the Jews. And
Paul said, I had to withstand him to the face. I withstood
him to the face. He called him out. What did Paul tell us in
Colossians 3, 11? He said, in Christ, there's neither
Greek nor Jew. Circumcision, uncircumcision,
there's no difference. Either Christ is all or he's
not. Christ is all. Peter had to be reminded of that.
In Matthew chapter 16, I believe this is a familiar passage, where
the Lord asked, who do men say that I am? You remember what
Peter said? He said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. And the Lord answered him. He said, Peter, you're blessed. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah.
Flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father
which is in heaven. Did you know that just a few verses after
that, the Lord looked at Peter and rebuked him and said, Get
thee behind me, Satan. A few verses later. In John chapter 13, when our
Lord stooped down, imagine this, our Lord stooped down and began
washing the feet of his disciples. And you talk about a passage
I feel like I can really relate to Peter in, it's this right
here. He gets to Peter, and Peter says, no, no, no, no. Thou shalt
never wash my feet. I get where he's coming from.
I'm telling you, I really do. Do you not think, no, I need
to wash your feet. Is that not what we think? The
Lord rebuked Peter. He said, Peter, if I wash thee
not, thou shalt have no part with me. Now, I love Peter's
response to that. He said, oh, my hands and my
head too. Wash me throughly. But he had
to be rebuked. when he told his disciples that
they would all be offended of him this night, and that they'd
all forsake him. You remember Peter, he said,
although all shall be offended, yet will not I. The Lord told him right then,
he said, before the cock crows twice, you're going to deny me
three times. Did you know right after the Lord said that, Peter
doubled down? Did you know that? Right after that, he was pleased
to take Peter, James, and John into the garden. And he said, watch. Watch with
me. You remember what happened, don't
you? They fell asleep. Not once, not twice, three times. What? Could you not watch with me for
an hour? He asked Peter that. Could you not? Then right after that, the men
came to arrest the Lord. You remember what Peter did?
He drew that sword out, didn't he?
Swung for the Malchus, the high priest's servant. Swung for his
head, got his ear. Remember what the Lord told him,
don't you? Peter, put your sword back in
the sheath. Who's the battle belong to? The
cup that my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? That's
what he told him. Peter was rebuked many times. You know, again, I love relating
to Peter, because just like him, I need to be rebuked, I need
to be exhorted, and I'm telling you, this is for me, I hope this
is for all of us, I really do. Now right here, as an aged believer,
Peter's sharing some things from what he has learned by experience,
God-given experience. And I believe this might be for
us. Now look here, verse one again.
1 Peter 5, When the elders which are among you I exhort, who am
also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and
also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Here's
the first exhortation, verse 2. Feed the flock of God which
is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but
willingly. not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but
being in samples to the flock. A fee of the flock. If you know
anything about the life of Peter, does that sound familiar? Do you recall after our Lord's
resurrection when he came to Peter and he asked Peter that grievous question? Think of all
that had happened. Do you love me? He asked him
three times, and he told him three times, feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. And that's what
he's saying right here. Feed the flock. Feed God's sheep. I imagine this must be important.
We need to be fed, don't we? Think about how how things would
be for us if we went a day without eating. I don't like to skip
a meal. Some of y'all are into fasting. I don't know how you
do it. He's our living bread. He's our
water of life. In Him, we live, move, and have
our being. Without Him, we have nothing. We have no life. He's
all our sustenance. He's all we have. Isn't He? Do we not need to be fed Him
when we come here? You know, I hope from coming
here and hearing the gospel preached time and time again, I will learn
how to be a better brother. I will learn, by God's grace,
how to be a better husband, a better father, a better friend. But there's just one thing needful.
We need Christ. Gotta be vitally joined to Him.
must be fed him. Verse four, and when the chief
shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that
fadeth not away. You know, when our Lord shall
appear, when our shepherd shall appear,
you know, he's called the chief shepherd, the great shepherd,
the good shepherd. I love that. When he shall appear, that will
be glory. That'll be glory. He is glory. Seeing him, beholding him, being
with him, that's glory. Verse five. Likewise, ye younger. We just saw his word to the elders,
now here's his word to the younger. Verse five. 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. I definitely don't feel qualified
to preach. And this verse in particular,
I really don't feel qualified to speak on this. But let me
say this. This is a trifold exhortation
right here. First, submit yourselves unto
the elder. If my elders have something to
say to me, I pray God would enable me to hear them. But do you know
who our elder brother is? Submit yourself to him. Christ
our elder brother. May God cause us to submit ourselves
to him. Be subject one to another. And Peter wrote about this in
earlier chapters about being subject to those who have authority
over you. I'm going to go to work tomorrow.
I'm subject to my boss. I'm subject to my employer. We're subject
to the laws of the land. Who's our king? Who's our husband? Our maker? Be subject to him. Be subject
to him. This is the one that really catches
my attention. Be clothed with humility. I'm going to go ahead
and tell you something. My sinful flesh does not know
the first thing about humility. I get lifted up in pride easier
than I breathe air. It's the first thing God hates,
pride. Is it so with you? When people praise us, it's like
a balloon just swells up. It's what we are in this flesh.
But I thought of what our Lord said. He said, learn of me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn
of me. I'm meek and lowly in heart. You know, and we looked
at John 3 this morning. There, towards the end of John
3, it says, He must increase, but I must decrease. Lord, put
that prayer in my heart. Teach me that. Cause me to truly
desire that. You know, Paul said in, I think
2 Corinthians 12, he said, I'm become a fool in glorying. We're
so foolish when we start to glory in anything or anyone other than
Christ. We glory in ourselves all the
time, don't we? God forbid. He said, I'm become a fool in
doing this. He said right here that God resisteth
the proud, the end of verse five, and giveth grace to the humble.
Well, who's that? Tell you who the humble are.
Those in Christ, that there's one humble man, and that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. First Peter chapter one, Peter tells us who
he's writing this epistle to. The strangers scattered abroad,
scattered throughout. Asia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, all
over this world. The strangers scattered throughout.
God's people scattered throughout the world, scattered throughout
time. Those chosen in Christ, again, Gabe did such a fine job
with this this morning, talking about the world. Well, there's
a difference in the world and the world of God's elect. God's
elect scattered throughout the world, chosen from the world. He said, you're not of the world.
I've chosen you out of it. Those the Father gave me. Those
I've given eternal life to, those I lay down my life for, my friends. God makes his people to be humble,
and I'm starting to learn this a little bit. He does this by
experience. How many times did he just bring
Peter down? You know, I was reading this
before I got up here. When the Lord called Peter, one of the
accounts is in Luke 5, You know, Peter, he was a successful fisherman.
That was his life. That was his occupation. It's
what he did. He was great at it. And he'd been toiling all
night, couldn't catch a thing. It wasn't by chance. Somebody
was headed his way. You know, the multitude was thronging
our Lord, but he was headed there for Peter and his brother and
James and John. And then this man comes up to
him, to Peter. Peter never met him. And he says,
cast your net on that side of the ship. He had something to
say about that, didn't he, Peter? I've been doing this all night. Nevertheless, if I were it, I'll
do it. We'll see about this. He was in awe. When their boat started to sink,
due to the multitude of fish that they caught in an instant,
Remember what he said? This is what we'll say if God
ever comes to us, if we ever meet the Lord, depart from me
for I'm a sinful man, oh Lord. You know what the Lord did? Brought
him down. And as a believer, he brought
him down again and again and again. But you know where Peter
is now? He's exalted with Christ. God resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. Verse six, humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time. If you want to be exalted in
the end, need God to humble us now. This right here means, humble
yourselves, it means to submit oneself in a lowly spirit to
the power and will of God. That is the most unlike me thing
there is. That is so contrary to my flesh. Humble myself to the spirit and
the power, the will of God? I can't do that. I cannot do
that. But he can. He can do that for
me. He can work that in us. And let
me just say this, you know this, but if you or I are humble, you
know, that'd be such a God-honoring thing for someone to say to us
and mean it. You have a humble spirit about you. That would
be to the praise of His glory. You know that? Because the thing
is, we don't do that of our own. If a man or woman is truly humble,
God has to work that in us. He has to. Verse six again, humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may
exalt you in due time. Verse seven, casting all your
care upon him for he careth for you. I believe Gabe quoted this
Wednesday. You know, that's a precious verse, isn't it? That's an exhortation. We gotta be reminded to do this.
There was an article in the bulletin, I believe it was last week, where
it said, mentioned the song we sing sometimes, take your burden
to the Lord and leave it there. And the writer said, you know,
I usually don't have a problem taking my burden to the Lord.
The problem is I don't leave it there. Gotta leave it there. Selfishly, when Gabe asked me
to bring the message, I began looking for passages that were a comfort to me because
it's just, you know, we've had a rough go here the last several
months and year, just a lot of very trying things that have
just tugged at our heartstrings. I'm really bad about casting
all my care upon my Lord. Any of you have the same problem? If you're in Christ, if your
hope is in Christ and Christ alone, He careth for you. Cast your care on Him, all of
it, all the time. It's like having to be reminded
to be thankful, isn't it? You don't have to be reminded
to eat or go to bed. Cast all your care on Him. Lord,
teach me to do this. Remind me. And again, this isn't
a broad statement to everybody. This is for God's people. In
2 Peter 1 we read, He was writing to those who have obtained like
precious faith, the common faith of God's elect we heard about
today. We've been given that faith. God cares for us. He always
has, He always will. That's good news. Verse 8, be
sober, be vigilant. Another exhortation, be sober
means to be calm and collected in spirit. I'll go ahead and
tell you this. I'm really bad at that, too. That's against
my flesh. That's against my sin nature. I told Gabe with the things we
went through, I thought I was a calm person. And then I realized
I am not. I pray the Lord would teach me
to be, cause me to be, grow in grace. Be sober. Seek the Lord. Again, when we're
down in the dumps, how often do we just murmur and complain
rather than seek the Lord? You know, seeking the Lord isn't
a passive thing. It's an active thing. It's like we'll tell our kids to look
for something. I couldn't find it. Well, you're
not looking. Walk around. Move some stuff. Look. Seek the
Lord. Wait on Him. Call on Him. Be
sober. Be vigilant. That means be watchful,
be cautious, and give strict attention to what? To what? Verse eight. Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. People think they
can just choose to resist the devil. I pray God has taught us better. That's foolish. We can't resist
him. Of our own? You know, some family
member said years ago, the devil's not welcome in my house. That's
not resisting the devil. In fact, based on what I know,
she believes the devil reigns in her house. Sad to say, but
I pray God would have mercy. We're so good at deceiving ourselves,
because by nature, the truth is not in us. What does God say
about the devil right here? He's a roaring lion. You wanna
go up to battle against a roaring lion? I don't. I'm no match for
him. Verse nine right here. Whom resist
steadfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are
accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. I don't
have the ability to resist him. I'm no match for him. But Christ
is. Something that my pastor for
most of my life, Don Fortner, would often say is, he'd say,
the devil is God's devil. And he's got him on a leash.
I love thinking about the adversary in such a way. What in the world
can he do? Nothing that God don't let him.
And yet, we're still no match for him. Was Job a match for him? And
yet, who sent him to afflict Job? God did. God did, and God
was with him the whole time. How do we resist him? Says whom resists steadfast?
In the faith. What's that mean, by looking
to Christ? Look to Christ? You ever get tired of hearing
that? I don't. But oh, I start looking every which way, mainly
back Worst place I could look, right
here, within. No hope in there. God forbid
we look to our humility. God forbid we look to our resisting,
our faith. That's where we really go wrong,
isn't it? Looking to our faith. I love sports, but man, they all get
up and talk about how thankful they are for their faith. God forbid we look to our anything
other than our Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Now this is the
part I've been wanting to get to, verse 10. But the God of all grace. The God of all grace, that's
the title of my message. Who is our God? The God of all
grace. That's an amazing name, isn't
it? I thought about this. How does
God refer to himself in the scriptures? The God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob? Who else was he? The God of Moses? You know, Moses killed a man.
Who else was he? The God of David? Killed a man. The God of Noah? You read about
some sin there, don't you? The God of Peter? That's the God of all grace.
And those men needed grace, didn't they? So do we. They didn't need
it any more than I do. Now, the fact that God is the
God of all grace does not mean that he extends his grace to
all. I'll be very brief on this. We heard it so well this morning. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. It's
a gift. It's not a gift that we decide
to receive. It's a gift that God freely gives of his own accord,
of his own will and purpose. And it's a gift that we can't
not receive. God's grace is effectual. I mentioned
when the Lord called Peter. The Lord came to call Peter and
Andrew and James and John. And he said, follow me. You know
how many of those four men refused to follow him? You know who didn't
follow him that day? A man who was very close by,
Zebedee. You know why he didn't follow
him? Because the Lord didn't call him. God's call and God's
grace are effectual. God calls, you follow. Matthew,
Levi's sitting there at their receipt of custom. I think he
was an accountant, kind of like myself. Just living the life,
and then here comes the Lord, follow me. Here we go. Where are we gonna sleep? What
are we gonna eat? What are we gonna put on? Well,
they had Christ, I'd say everything was all right. Don't you? Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. And I love this. God's grace
cannot be earned and it cannot be lost. If God's grace could
be lost, Let me back up. If God's grace could be earned,
Peter never would have had it. And if God's grace could be lost,
Peter would have lost it. Me too. You too. Some of my favorite verses in
the scripture, Ephesians 2, 8, 9. For by grace are you saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of
God. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. We're his workmanship. He saves us, we don't save ourselves,
we don't make what he did effectual, we don't take it and finish it. He started it, he finished it,
he'll keep us, and he gets all the glory in this, all of it,
all of it. Verse 10 again, but the God of
all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ
Jesus. You know, that's, the fact that
our God has called us unto his eternal glory, that's a precious
promise. That's a precious promise. What
awaits us? You know what, he said in the
world, you're gonna have tribulation. We're gonna read a little bit
about sufferings. But what's coming after that? Glory. He said in verse one, he said,
I'm a partaker of the glory. The glory that shall be revealed.
But right now, verse 10 goes on to say, God of all grace hath called
us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have
suffered a while. God has purposed for us to suffer
a while. And I want to mention some things
here, again, about Peter's life in particular. He suffered much
heartache, much fear, and much humiliation. But it was all, every bit of
it was for his good. Again, I'm gonna mention a few
things. When the Lord took him up on the Mount of Transfiguration,
you know, he started off well. He said, Lord, it's good for
us to be here, only for him to be struck down in utter fear.
Fell down and he was too scared to look up. You know, the problem is he started
looking around Gloria and Moses and Elijah, didn't he? And he
was told to behold the Son. He saw no man save Jesus only.
Moses and Elijah had to back out of the picture here, so he
could only see Christ, because we must see Christ. He's the only one worthy of praise,
honor, and glory. We can't build tabernacles for
everybody here. Christ alone is worthy. You remember when the Lord enabled
Peter to walk on water? But then he began to sink. Is
it because the Lord wasn't able to let Peter walk? He started
coming towards the Lord on the water. But then he looked around
and he saw the waves boisterous and it was windy and scary and
then he started to sink. What happened? He stopped looking
to Christ. Did the Lord just let him drown? This is the God of all grace.
He put a cry in Peter, didn't he? Lord, save me. And you know
what the Lord did as soon as Peter cried that? He stretched
forth his arm and he got him. Saved him. Whenever the Lord looked upon
Peter after he denied him three times, now, mind you, even after
the Lord told him you're going to deny me three times, Peter
was just adamant that he wouldn't. I'll die with you. Well, then
he denied him three times, cowered into a little girl, and the Lord
looked at him. Do you think it was a look of,
I told you so, Peter. I have no doubt when our Lord
looked at him, it was a look of grace. a look of love, a look of mercy. Do you? Again, who was this? This wasn't just any man. This
was God. This was the God of all grace. I want to show you one other
text here. Turn to Luke 22 with me. Luke 22. Luke 22, verse 31. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
this is Peter, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat. If resisting the devil was left
up to Peter, the devil would have had him. I don't think it's
a coincidence Peter's the one that wrote about resisting the
devil because of this text right here. Satan hath desired to have you
that he may sift you as wheat. Look at the next verse. But I
have prayed for thee. that thy faith fail not. Praise God. And when thou art
converted, strengthen thy brethren. You know, the only reason our
faith does not fail, because it's the faith of Christ. It's
the faith of the operation of God. It's the faith that God
gives us. God works in us. God keeps in us. God strengthens. It's his faith. And our Lord
ever lives to intercede for us, to pray for us. He prayed, you
know, people say the only difference in Judas and Peter is Christ
prayed for Peter. Christ prayed for Peter. Had
He not, Peter, he'd have had no hope. The only thing special about
Peter is that he was a chosen vessel unto Christ. He was a
recipient of God's grace. After denying the Lord three
times, and our Lord was crucified, and Peter was ashamed, you know
what he did? He quit the ministry. He said,
I've got to go fishing. I go fishing. He just took the
other disciples right alongside with him. I've not studied it enough to
know how much time went on here, but I bet that was a painful
time for him. I bet he wasn't able to enjoy fishing like he
used to, if I had to guess. He suffered a while, until, this
blessed my heart, in John 21, when our Lord came and he sat
there, had a fire going, when Peter realized it was the
Lord, you know what he did? He jumped in that water and swam
to him as fast as he could. There was a mutual love there.
Does that not bless your heart? That was the God of all grace
sitting there, waiting for him. Did he reprimand him when he
got there? No, he asked him, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? You go feed my
sheep. We go feed my sheep. Whenever
our Lord, when he arose, when Mary went to the tomb and our
Lord wasn't there, and the angel told her that he had risen, the
angel said, you go tell the disciples. And Peter, well, he was a disciple,
I know. You go tell Peter. Peter suffered
a while. You can turn back to our text.
But though Peter suffered a while, God made him perfect. God established him, strengthened
him, and settled him. And you know what? He's going
to do that for us, too. We're in Christ. Christ is all to us. It'll be our end, too. The God
of all grace loved Peter, and because of that, Peter loved
him, too. I love, in John chapter six,
when our Lord said, doth this offend you? Will you
go away also? Peter said, Lord, to whom shall
we go? Where are we gonna go? You have
the words of eternal life. We believe we're sure thou art
the Christ. But I tell you this, Peter didn't
keep himself. He tells us that we're kept by
the power of God. No other way. No other way to
be kept. No other way to be saved than by God, by God's grace.
All right, let's wrap this up here in 1 Peter 5 verse 11. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. That was Peter's conclusion.
That's my conclusion too. There's no other conclusion.
To him be the glory. Verse 12. By Sylvanus, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose I've written briefly, exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye
stand. I love reading that. Our God
is the God of all grace, and this is the true grace of God
wherein we stand. Peter's standing in the grace
of God right now. We're gonna stand in the grace
of God forever. Forever. You know who the grace of God
is, don't you? Christ. We stand in Him. We live in Him. Thank God for Christ. Verse 13. Now, Bob, you pointed
this out in the men's meeting years ago, probably three, four,
five years ago. The church that is at Babylon
elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus my Son,
you know Babylon, we're warned against Babylon. Babylon is called
the great whore. And yet, I gotta be quick. If this doesn't confirm that
our God is the God of all grace, I don't know what does. God was
pleased to have a church. God was pleased to have people
in Babylon. It's the God of all grace, isn't
it? Verse 14. Greet ye one another, With a
kiss of charity, peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus.
Amen. Because our hope is in the God
of all grace, the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, as we heard this
morning, we have peace. And that peace is that grace,
Christ. Thank God for Christ. And God
bless His word to our hearts.