in about somewhere between 30
and 45 minutes. Last week, we looked primarily
at what Peter had to say specifically to the elders slash pastors slash
overseers. And now we're going to look at
what he has to say by way of exhortation. to some others. He says, young men in the same
way be submissive to those who are older. Now, humans are not real big on submission,
but the young men he's speaking of here would be at an age when
they're least prone to submission. And that would be late teens,
early twenties, somewhere in there. And there's something
about When we reach our early adulthood, we think somehow or
another we've come to understand everything. I remember a quote
by Mark Twain. He said, I left home at 16, and
I thought my dad was the dumbest man I ever knew. I came home
five years later. It's amazing what that man learned
in those five years. It is wise for the young to listen
to those that are older. Education's one thing, and it's
a good thing. I haven't a word to say against
education. But education and experience
are two different things. My dad told me, and this was
probably either just before we had our first child or afterward,
but we were talking about raising kids, And he says, really, when
you raise kids, the most you can hope for is that they'll
make the mistake only once. You see, because when they get
out on their own, they're going to try their own way. But you
hope the instruction has been good enough, they'll go, oh,
that's what they meant. Trouble is, we generally try
it a whole lot of times before we finally realize, you know,
mom and dad were right. Well, this is true even within
the church. Those who are young should listen
to those that are old. This submission here does not
mean you owe absolute obedience to them, but you always owe respect. And if they say something, you
should give it careful consideration. Because somehow or another, they
managed a good many more years in this life, getting along,
They probably picked up a few pointers along the way. He said, all of you clothe yourselves
with humility toward one another. Now, the reason we don't like
to submit is because humility is not a common trait among humans. We all are rather obsessed with
ourselves. Now, humility is not the same
thing as thinking poorly of yourself. You know, they try, well, humility
is the opposite of pride, but they think of pride as thinking
that you're the best thing going, you know? And therefore, humility
must be like that guy who's always going around saying, oh, I'm
just nothing, you know, and what a humble guy. No, he could be
every bit as proud as the one who goes around thumping his
chest saying, look at all the great things I've done. Because
pride is about drawing attention to yourself. It's about making
the things of you to be the important things. You know what humility
is? Humble people don't think badly
of themselves because they don't waste much time thinking about
themselves at all. Our Lord was called meek and
lowly of heart. Do you find him going around
with a hangdog expression and talking himself down? Do you
hear our Lord showing any lack of confidence in the message
he was preaching? Do you see him back up when it's
time to give a strong word of rebuke? It was actually because
of his meekness, his humility, that he was able to issue such
strong and powerful rebukes because he did not make it about him. It was the message. Now, admittedly,
the message was about him, but what I'm saying is he did not
make it a matter of the defense of his pride. Rather, for him,
it was the defense of his father's word. So this is something, it says,
all of us are to clothe ourselves with humility towards one another. You see, ministry is not supposed
to be confined to the guy that stands behind the pulpit. We
are to encourage one another. And, you know, we come together
like this once, twice a week, and we hear the gospel preached,
and that's encouraging to us. But that's not where the ministry
of the church stops. We should, as much as is possible
and helpful, associate with one another outside the confines
of a church building. And when we hear of the troubles
that each of us may be going through, give a phone call, stop
by, just a word of encouragement. Even offer to pray with them.
Help them out. These things we do, and we do
them because we are all together in one body. We are all together
the same. Yes, God gives levels of grace
or different kinds of grace. in order to enable people to
do certain things that others may not be able to do. But no
one has a right to any pride over what God has enabled him
to do. If God were to remove the grace, we would just be, like Paul says,
a sounding gong and a tinkling cymbal. That's all there'd be
there, just a noisemaker. And so we are willing in humility
to help others, to act as servants to one another, and we are in
humility willing to listen to others if they have a word of
correction for us. And it says, be humble because
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. The proud,
the Lord will leave him to his pride. Either that or he will
crush him. He did that to Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar, great empire builder, out walking on the walls
of Babylon and he scanned it. And you can imagine, we may have
done the same thing on our small empires, but he looked over at
that great city and he said, boy, look what I have built. And the Lord said, I'll show
you what you are. And for seven years, that man lived like an
ox. He ate grass. Now I've seen some mentally ill
people. I've never seen anybody like that. And after seven years, as quickly
as he had descended into being like one of the beasts of the
field, the Lord restored his sanity to him. And he said, I
extol the most high God. And here's how he described that
God, who does as he wills in the armies of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. No one can stay his hand or even
has the right to question him about what he does. And then
he added this, and he who is proud, he is able to abase. When I told my father that I
wanted to enter into ministry, he says, do you have any idea
what you are getting into? I didn't. And I don't know that
anybody does until they get into it. And while my father was thinking
in terms of the struggles of the ministry and the fact that
within the ministry, your heart is connected with those that
you minister to and their troubles are your troubles and there's
so many disappointments to deal with and things like that. But I'll tell you what I found
to be the most difficult part of the ministry. And that is
that if God is going to send a man out to minister him, he's
going to prove to that man that he's nothing. He will strip him of any sense
of good or ability in himself. I stand amazed that any good
whatsoever has come from my time here. On the one hand, I might
think, well, I wish a whole lot more people would have been saved
over these years. Well, I thought it was going
to be this. And I thought, now I look back and say, boy, it's
amazing that the Lord has kept us together. It's amazing that
the Lord has called out a few, that he's blessed us with People
who have professed faith, well that first generation, half of
them when we started the church, half of them didn't profess to
believe, the Lord saved them. And then he started saving their
children and now their grandchildren. That's amazing. That's amazing
to think that happened with a church like ours. Where we have nothing
to offer people other than a message. We've got no gimmicks. We've
got no, you know, flashy things to excite the youth. And yet, here we have, actually we've
got four generations of believers represented in this congregation.
That's something. And we know that it didn't come
about because of us. I know it didn't come about by
any cleverness I have. His word has done the work as
he empowered it. God opposes the proud. He may
oppose them in judgment. He might oppose them in grace
like he did the Apostle Paul. He humbled Paul. and then gave
him the grace that he gives to the humble. So he goes on to
say, humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that
he may lift you up in due time. So whatever God sends your way,
instead of bucking against it, accept it. Accept it. Accept it as from the Lord. Because he says, humble yourself
therefore under God's mighty hand. Now, I can say this and
I don't have the least doubt about it. Whatever is happening
to you right now, it's the Lord doing it. Now, he may have agents
performing it, but he's the one that willed it. Not a leaf can blow around unless
the Lord gives it permission. The devil can't touch you unless
the Lord gives him permission. Nothing, if you're, well, in
his sovereignty, that's true, but particularly in his special
care for his people, no one can touch you unless God gives permission. So when you suffer, understand
you're suffering under God's mighty hand. Now, if he said
you're suffering under God's hand, That may say to us, well, I guess then it must be that
it's gonna be good for me. But he put that word mighty in
there, and I think for two reasons. Number one, you can resist it
all you want, but you're not gonna overcome that mighty hand. You're not going to be able to
stop him from accomplishing whatever he intends to accomplish by the
trouble he sends your way. And if you resist it, all you're
doing, you're going to wear yourself out because you're fighting against
God and he always wins. And so you wear yourself out
trying to fight against God and it just lengthens the trial. Submit. under God's mighty hand
and submit knowing this because it's a mighty hand that is at
present putting you down, that same hand is able to lift you
up when he's done. And he will because it says humble
yourselves, submit therefore under God's mighty hand that
he may lift you up in due time. in the right time, in the time
that will be good for you and will most glorify Him. And then he says, verse 7, cast
all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. And the word
translated anxiety and the word translated cares in the Greek
is actually the same word. One's a noun, the other's a verb.
That's the only difference. But those things which burden
you, which cause you anxiety, which press you down under God's
mighty hand, what does he say to do with that? Cast your anxiety
on him. You say, I'm under God's mighty
hand. He is pushing me, stressing me. And I'm worried about how things
are gonna pan out. Peter says, take that anxiety,
throw it on him. You know, many times that's exactly
the reason the trial was sent your way. Because you've been
trusting yourself, and so he reveals your weakness to him. so that you'll call upon His
name. And remember, everything I have, He gave me. Everything
I am is by His grace. You've heard me tell this illustration,
but I'll repeat it because it's so good. Fellow was hiking along
the road, had a big backpack on. Fellow drives by and he pulls
over and says, you want a ride? Guy said, oh yeah, that'd be
nice. And as he approaches, you know,
to pick up truck. So the guy says, well, just throw
your pack there in the back. Oh, no, I couldn't do that. He
says, what do you mean? You can't do that. Well, you're,
you, you've been so nice to offer me a ride. I couldn't put this
other burden on you. And the man looked at him. He
says, son, whether you wear that pack or put it in the back, It's
the truck that's going to be carrying it. So you may as well
put it in the back. And see, that's what we do. The
Lord, as it were, gives us a ride, but we think that we have to
hold on to the pack as though by us bearing it, the weight
is not upon God. Either way, God's bearing it.
May as well leave it all together to Him. And because we are told
to do this, that means we can do it safely. How do we cast our anxieties
on him? Well, when things trouble us,
when issues come up in our lives, if we know from his word or from
experience things we can do to help resolve the problem, we
should do them. But often we are confronted with
things we don't know what to do about them. Or we only know a little bit
maybe of what's to be done. What do you do then in order
to get rid of the anxiety of the outcome of the trouble? Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, one
of my favorite portions of scripture. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart. and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge
Him and He will direct your path. That doesn't mean He's going
to whisper in your ear what to do. Doesn't mean you'll get a
letter in the mail postmarked Heaven with point-by-point instructions
what to do. What it means is you do the best
you can with what you have trusting the Lord And he will see to it
that you follow the path that's best for you. And if you do that, trusting
him, then anxiety will go away. Because you're trusting that
whatever God determines the outcome to be, that's the best outcome. Be self-controlled and alert.
Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour. We do have an enemy. He's fierce. He's stronger than we are. And
he hates the Lord Jesus Christ with all his mind, all his soul,
all of his being. But having been Thumped so many
times by the Lord Jesus. He doesn't attack him directly.
He comes after Christ's people. And he's seeking whom he may
devour. And so he said, pay attention. Verse nine, resist him standing
firm in the faith. And that's how you resist the
devil. Because it's your faith he's coming after. Now, people
think, oh, resist the devil. When he sends a temptation to
this or that, you know, you've got to say no. You know, I'm
not saying the devil never attempts or tempts a person to sin, but
I found this. I don't need his help when it
comes to that. All of the sin is already here.
I already have all the tendencies to virtually every sin that can
be named by men. I don't need the devil's help
and temptation. I'm perfectly capable of tempting
myself. But he'll come after your faith.
And one of the ways he does it is this. When you fall, rather notably,
to one of those sins that you've struggled so hard to get rid
of, he says, aha. Look at you, and you say you're
a Christian. I don't think a child of God
would act like that. What's he doing? Here's what
he'll say, and then he'll go, you need to go out and do this,
that, or the other. You need to go out and work your
way back into the favor of God. And if he can convince you of
that, Paul says, you've fallen from grace. Now, we all have gone through
the process, who've gone through that process, and sometimes we'll
listen to this devilish voice and we start this, okay, I gotta
start having devotions every day. I need to read my Bible
two chapters a day. Do this, do that. I did lots
of things like that. I made promises to God when I was nine, And the Beatles
just came to the United States. And of course, they were immediately
denounced by the conservative fundamentalists that I was being
raised in. So I promised God I'd never sing Beatles songs
again. I thought he'd really like that. I've broken that promise
a lot of times. Oh, we think that there's something
we can do to curry God's favor. And the devil, that's what he
works with. Because that's not faith. That's works. A fellow
wrote this phrase, and I don't know anything else about the
man who wrote it, but this statement was very, very good. There's
nothing you can do to make God love you more. And there's nothing
you can do to make God love you less. Now, you consider that. Because that's true. Because
God's love for his people doesn't come from what they are or what
they do. It's just love that flows freely
from his heart to his chosen. That's all. You say, well, if
people believe that, they're just going to be careless in
how they live. Well, most people go around telling everybody that
God loves them. That doesn't seem to change him. And if, really, if a person is
convinced of the love of God toward them, that in itself will
restrain them. We love him because he first
loved us, and everybody he loves loves him back. And you know
that love is the most powerful motivation to do right by someone
else. Verse 10, and the God of all
grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ after you have
suffered a little while will himself restore you and make
you strong, firm, and steadfast. To him be the power and glory
forever and ever. It is God who called us to his
eternal glory in Christ. And it is God who has called
us to this suffering. It is recorded. We must go through
a lot of suffering to enter the kingdom of God. It's not that
our suffering earns us the kingdom of God. It's just the path there
is filled with suffering. It's filled with suffering because
we're walking through the kingdom of the world, on our way to the
kingdom of heaven. Someone once said, we are not
citizens of earth, and this is about believers, we are not citizens
of earth trying to find a way into heaven. We are citizens
of heaven trying to make our way through this world. And it's not easy. But He who
called you to glory after you suffered a while, He'll restore
you and make you strong. You say, I feel so weak. That's
because you are. Without His grace, you're weak.
And God's going to show you that. He'll make you strong at the
appropriate time, firm and steadfast. And then Peter says this, to
Him be all the glory forever and ever. He praised God for
the fact that God calls us to eternal glory, calls us to suffering,
allows us to fall, and then restores us at His appointed time. Now, with the help of Silas,
whom I regard as a faithful brother, maybe Silas did the writing,
maybe they actually worked together on what ought to be in this book,
I don't know. He says, I've written to you
briefly encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of
God. Now, as soon as he said true
grace, that lets us know there's such thing as false grace. There's
such a thing as something that's called grace, but it is not grace. There are those who would tell
you, oh, I believe in salvation by grace. But then if you lay claim to
God's salvation simply by calling on the name of the Lord and you
tell them God has saved me, we'll say, well, I don't know. I don't see any
difference in you. I don't see you acting this way and that."
Or they'll immediately tell you, well, now you need to do this,
that, and the other, as though that salvation you gained by
grace alone is suddenly now kept by diligent works. Or they add what we have called
butchegadas. for as long as I've been here.
Well, salvation's by grace, but you gotta, and then they'll add
something after that. Well, every but you gotta is
a fall from grace. People think, you know, they'll
say, oh, so-and-so has fallen from grace, and they mean by
that that they fell into some sin or something. You know what
Paul was talking about when he said you have fallen from grace?
There was a group in Galatia who was claiming that by the
act of circumcision, well, some were claiming you must be circumcised
in order to be saved, and others were just saying, well, it will
advance you in the kingdom of God. It's, you know, it's not
a requirement, it makes things better. Paul says, if ye be circumcised
from God, Christ is of no profit to you, you have fallen from
grace. How do they fall from grace?
By trying to do something good to earn the blessings of God.
A fall from grace is not a fall into sin. Everybody who has grace
falls into sin and falls into it a lot, but they don't fall
out of grace. But that person who claims that his salvation
is entirely by the gracious attitude and gracious works of the living
God. And then he adds some works to
that, thinking he can enhance it or make things better. Such
a one has fallen from grace. Where has he fallen to? Works. Outwardly speaking, he may even
be acting better than he was before. But he has fallen. from that
high and holy position of a sinner saved by grace down to a position
of a sinner thinking he can do something good enough to please
God. And he has taken himself outside, outside
the perimeter of God's grace. He's out there in works land. The true grace of God. What is
it? Well, he's been describing it throughout
this book. The true grace of God involves such things, such
doctrines, as election. The very first verse, Peter,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect. Now there's the
true grace of God. You take election out, it's not
the true grace of God anymore. you have in the true grace of
God for as much as you were not redeemed by silver and gold from
your vain life that you had before, meaning the life under the old
covenant, and all that silver and gold involved in the worship
of God under the old covenant. He says you weren't redeemed
by that, you were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. Think of that. Now there's grace
in that, What do I have to do with the blood of Christ? It
wasn't my blood. I didn't shed it. I didn't bring
it before the Lord. And I'm certainly not the Lord
who accepted it. My redemption has absolutely nothing to do
with me. That's the true grace of God. My redemption is founded
entirely upon, as I've heard Brother Jim Byrd say, founded
on the doing and the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus
Christ said, it is finished, the redemption price for my soul
had been paid, and I don't owe a penny. That blood was sufficient to
satisfy the wrath of God. That blood, so to speak, continually
intercedes. Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour
effectual prayers. They strongly plead for me. Forgive him, oh forgive, they
cry. nor let that ransomed sinner
die. Now that's the true grace of
God, redemption by the blood. Here's the true grace of God.
These are things Peter said, that Christ suffered the righteous
one in place of the unrighteous one. He did not suffer the righteous
one in place of those who are trying to do their best. But
just falling a little short, you know. There are only two categories
when it comes to righteousness. Righteous and unrighteous. In the test of righteousness,
it is a pass-fail system. That's all it is. And pass doesn't
mean you got a 99%. This is a very strict test. Cursed
is everyone who does not continue in every point of the law to
do it. And if you are under the law, you are under a curse because
I know of a certainty you have not continued in every point
of the law to do it. None of us is righteous. We are
the unrighteous. But Jesus Christ the spotless
Lamb of God, who did nothing other than righteousness, freely and willingly took upon
himself the sin of his people, called it his own sin, owned it as his own, even though
he didn't do it, bore it before the Father, and bore within himself All that a holy and just God
can do in response to sin. Those are powerful words and
I don't even profess to fully understand them. I mean, I know
the intellectual aspect of it, but the inner end of what it
must be that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered. Crucifixion's bad enough,
but lots of people have been crucified. No one suffered like
the Lord Jesus Christ. The scriptures say, through the
prophet Jeremiah, speaking for the Lord Jesus Christ, said,
look on me and see if there's any suffering like my suffering,
which the Lord has inflicted on me in the day of his wrath. You say, oh, hell, those Roman
soldiers, look at what they did to him and what the Jews got.
They were the ones making Christ suffer. No. The Lord. Why? Why did God pour His wrath out
on Christ? Because God says, I will by no
means clear the guilty, and when our Lord Jesus Christ was hanging
there on the cross, our sins were laid upon Him, therefore
He became guilty in the sight of God, and God will not even
clear His only begotten Son if He comes before Him in sin. How do you think it's gonna be
with us if we come before him and sin? If he wouldn't just
let things go for the sake of Jesus Christ, he's not gonna
let things go for us. And he suffered, not a light
version of the judgment, but the fullness of whatever it is
that those in hell suffer and can never suffer it enough to
put away their sin. And yet in the space of a few
hours, he suffered all of that for an innumerable host of people. That's the true grace of God.
Anything that doesn't have that in it, it's not the true grace.
The true grace of God. is also that grace which Paul
says, the grace that brings salvation and teaches us that denying all
ungodliness, we should live our lives soberly and decently and
godly in this world. The true grace of God teaches
us that there's nothing about us which could earn our salvation,
but that same grace that abases us and causes us to call upon
the name of the Lord, calls on us to leave that life of sin from
which we've been saved. Now it calls us and teaches us
that we should, and I'm sure every believer tries. And none
of us do it perfectly. But it would not be grace on
the part of God to save us from our sins and then not tell us,
stop doing that. Stop acting as you previously
did because not only was it going to send your soul to hell, it's
very destructive to your life as well. And it doesn't bring
honor to the father. This is the true grace of God. That God chose his people, that
Christ redeemed them by his blood and everyone he's redeemed, he's
going to collect. Redemption involves two things.
It means paying the price and then taking possession of what's
been purchased, what's been redeemed. And then thirdly, the true grace
of God always affects the way we think and that affects the
way we act. There are things that a believer
may have once done and never suffered the least pains of conscience. conscience about it, and yet the Lord saves him. It
may not come immediately, but sooner or later you thought,
you know, that's not according to God. That's not right. Throughout your lives, you who
believe, you'll hear many preachers You
may move and need to find another church, or you young people,
you're gonna outlast me. And you'll need to call another
person here. Look for someone whose mouth
pours out the true grace of God. That grace that sets you free.
And don't wait, don't sit still for a second under a message
that brings you into the bondage of the law. True, unfettered, abounding grace. Without that,
there's not one reason in all the world for us to come together. If salvation is not by grace, we may as well sell this building
to somebody who can make good use of it. If salvation is by
grace, we may as well forget about pursuing God because we're
not going to be able to earn his blessing. Take out grace
and you have no gospel. This is the true grace of God.