Thank you. 1 Peter 5. Patrick, thank the Lord, first
thing, for allowing us to be here. That's a good statement. We have no right to anything.
It's all mercy and grace. I hope that we might truly feel
that way, that God allows us to be here. I told you about
my old dog that was outside all the time, and every now and then
I would allow him to come in the house. And he acted like
it was the greatest thing in the world. He'd just lie there,
so content, and think, I'll just stay right here, just lie right
here. First Peter 5. These are closing
exhortations. We're closing out this study
of First Peter. I don't know where we will go
from here. I don't feel any leadership yet. I'm open to any requests. But Peter writes this beginning
with the elders, verse one, the elders, which are among you,
I exhort. Elder is a teacher, a preacher, and that's me he's
talking to. I exhort, who am also an elder
and a witness of the sufferings of Christ. You cannot be a preacher
or a teacher unless you have seen and witnessed Christ and
Him crucified. If you do, if you have, You will
preach Him, won't you? And also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Already we have been somewhat
glorified, haven't we? We've seen something of His glory. A little bit, but what we have
seen is glorious. A partaker of the glory and the
glory that shall be revealed. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. Oh, the glory that shall be revealed
in the revelation of the sons of God in that day will just
be glorious. He says to the elders and all
the churches, remember he's writing a general letter to all believers
everywhere, to churches, feed, first thing, feed the flock of
God which is among you. A shepherd, a pastor is a name,
a bishop is a name. I don't know why they made a
fancy title out of bishop, capital B. It's not supposed to be. It
just means shepherd. And a shepherd is one who does
basically two things. He feeds and he leads. He watches over. But the first
job of the shepherd is to feed the sheep, to feed the sheep.
Remember when, and Peter says this from experience, the Lord
told him, remember at the fire that night when he was sitting
with the Lord around the fire and the first thing the Lord
said was, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? meaning more
than all these things, these boats and the world and so forth.
He said, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said, then
feed my lambs. Lambs first, didn't he? Feed
my lamb, make it simple. And then he went on to tell him
two more times, feed my sheep. That's the job of the pastor.
feed the flock of God, which is, among you, taking the oversight
thereof. That's the rule. That's to rule
over. And nobody applies for this job,
or if they know anything about it, wants this job. Nobody in their right mind would
want to lead anybody. But he says, take it, do it.
Read on, verse 2. Not by constraint, that is force,
but willingly. Willingly. It was Jeremiah that
said, I have not shunned from being a pastor. But Jeremiah
didn't want to at first. The Lord said, called him and
he says, I'm just a child. I can't speak. He was 24 years
old. And he said, I can't speak. I'm
just a child. Moses said the same thing. Don't
send me. Send Aaron. He can speak well.
And the Lord said, I've made man's mouth. I'll go with you.
And Jeremiah said, okay. Isaiah chapter 6, remember, he
said, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm undone. And then the Lord said, whom
shall we send? After he put that coal from the altar on Isaiah's
lips, he said, your iniquity is purged. After he saw the Lord
high and lifted up and heard the gospel, then the Lord said,
whom shall I send? And Isaiah said, I'll go. And
he was ready and willing. Willingly. Not for filthy lucre. Money. Why is money called filthy
lucre? You know what all is done for
the sake of money? Everything under the sun is filthy. You know where all money has
been? Actual money and filthy. Filthy lucre. Don't do it for
filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Verse 3. Neither is being
lords over God's heritage. There's one Lord and one Master.
This is not my church, this is God's church. It's not my flock,
it's His flock. Not Lord's. And this is God's
heritage. But being examples to the flock. Again, who would want this? Paul told young Timothy, who
was meek and mild and shy and apparently was reluctant to preach
and teach and go out and be a pastor. He was the first pastor. And
apparently he was so shy, he was reluctant, as all men should
be, knowing themselves, knowing the weight, something of the
weight of this. He told young Timothy to do this,
do this, don't shun from this. He said, let no man despise your
youth. Timothy, I don't know how old he was, at least 30.
And he said, be an example. And I sent this to several preachers. I sent it to Kevin Thacker recently.
He's a young man. I sent these verses to him. Be
an example of the believer. In word, that is speech. In conversation, that's conduct.
In charity, in love. In spirit, attitude. heart in
faith, strong, faithful, fearless, like David, in purity. Until
I come, give attendance to read, reading, exhortation, doctrine,
neglect not the gift that is in thee. Do it willingly. So Simon Peter is exhorting every
preacher, and that includes me. Be an example. Verse four, he
says, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive
a crown of glory that pays none away. A reward for being such
a good servant. Oh no, no, no, no. Although,
Although the Lord will say to every one of his people, I have
done anything in his name to the least of these. Remember
he said if you've done it to the least of these, you've done
it to me. He said he that gives a glass of water, a cup of water
in a disciple's name will receive a disciple's, a prophet's reward,
isn't it? It's all unto the Lord. It's
all well-pleasing to the Lord. And the Lord's going to say to
every single faithful servant and steward of whatever God's
given you to do, He's going to say, well done, thou good and
faithful servant. And we're all going to say, well
done. We're all going to say, even
if we've done all that's required of us, we're still unprofitable
servants. Don't we? All of us. Every one
of us. But this crown of glory is not,
you know, do you want a little crown to wear you? Come on. Do you want any accolades or
any praise? We don't do what we do for praise. We do it to the praise of His
glory. The crown that every believer
receives is salvation. We all receive the same thing.
And I remind you, nowhere in the Scripture is reward plural.
Nowhere. It's always singular. There are
no rewards in heaven. There's one reward. And God is
the first one that said that. He said it to Abraham. He said,
I am your reward. You get to be. I'm allowing you
to be with me. That's your reward. And it's
worth it all. Worth all, whatever it is. We
do. Fate is not awake. Peter talked
about that in the first chapter. It's an inheritance, incorruptible.
Fate is not awake. Verse 5, likewise ye younger
submit yourselves unto the elder. That can be younger in the faith
too. Submit yourselves unto the elder. Remember when Paul said
that in Ephesians, and I recommended a message by my pastor on that,
submission, the key to happiness. Remember that? Submitting yourselves. Ephesians 5.21, submitting yourselves
one to another in the fear of the Lord. And he went on, wives,
husbands, the church, servants, and so forth. Submit, submit,
submit. Subjects, under the authority
of our Lord, who puts over us those who rule. And we need it. We need it. Submit unto the elders. Yea, verse 5, all of you be subject
one to another. There it is. Be clothed with
humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the
humble. 99.999% of our problems is self. Pride. You get offended, you
get upset. Our murmuring and complaining
is because we feel whatever something's done to us, pride. Pride. And God is determined to bring
down pride. He will bring down pride. If
it's in His people, we will have to learn a painful lesson. Go
to James chapter 4. James deals with this. And we've
been through James two or three times. So don't ask me to go
through it again. But then again, we might. Go
ahead and ask me. But James 4, he begins, I say,
where are these troubles, these fighting inward and outward between
ourselves and within ourselves, where does it come from? Pride. Right, that's what he is. Verse
6, he said, But God giveth grace, and giveth more grace, but he
resisteth the proud, and giveth grace unto the humble. So submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. What's he got
to do with it? That's, he's behind it. He's
behind all strife, and division, and all turmoil. He's behind
you getting so upset at your brother. He's behind it. He's
determined to separate you and your brother and sister. That's
what he is, a divider. If he can get you offended by
a brother or sister and split the church or whatever, he'll
do it. That's what he wants more than anything else. Resist him. Peter's going to talk about that.
Resist the devil. He will flee from you. Verse
8, draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands,
you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Be afflicted and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to
mourning, your joy to heaven. Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord. He shall lift you up. Speak not
evil one of another." And on and on he goes. So, go back to 1 Peter. So he
says, God resisteth the proud, giveth
grace to the humble. Old Nebuchadnezzar found that
out, didn't he? The last verse, and I think it's Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar got
lifted up. Look what all I've done. The
Lord, you know, drove him out and made him like a beast. In
the very last verse, he said, he said, My understanding came
to me. He said, I blessed and praised
the Most High. And he went on to say, He that
walketh in pride, he's able to abase. It's going to happen. Nebuchadnezzar said. It's going
to happen. And if God in mercy and grace
to us, if we're His people, He'll humble us. By chastening, by
conviction and so forth. So he says, humble yourselves.
Humble yourselves, verse 6, under the mighty hand of God. Take
the lowest seat. Don't think too highly of yourself.
Paul says it over and over again. Esteem your brother better than
yourself. That way he won't be offended.
That he may exalt you in due time. You know who's going to
be in his heaven? You know who's going to be with the Lord? Those
that think they don't belong there. That's only people going
to be with them. Like old Mephibosheth. The only
ones that are going to be there are the ones that think, I was
the enemy of the king. If he hadn't fetched me, I wouldn't
be here. I don't belong here with all his sons, but I sure
am grateful to be here. I've got no complaints. I'm just
happy to sit at this blessed table and be called one of the
King's sons. That's who's going to be there.
Nobody else. Nobody else. He's going to exalt
those, those that humble themselves. Verse 7, don't you love this?
Casting all your care. upon him, for he careth for you. That deserves a whole message,
doesn't it? All your care, what do you care about? Who do you
care about? Your family, your spouse, you
have children, you have parents, you have unsaved family that
you really care about, people you care about. Do you care about
this church? Do you care about your brother and sister? Cast,
roll all of your care on the Lord. Cast your burden on the
Lord. You have a burden for, you know
why? He can, He can, He can take it. You've got big shoulders. He
tells us to do that. Don't, you don't, don't bear
the burden. Cast it on there. Cast all your
care, for He careth for you. Now there's two things saying
that. He careth, He really does love and care for you as His
heart. That's why Christ came into this
world. cares more for you than you care
for your own. He really does. And He has been
taking care of you from the beginning, though you didn't know it. Gomer,
there was a long time there that you didn't know it, and you thought
other people were taking care of you. No, it was the Lord doing
it all along. Why? Because He cares for you. He cares so much that He went
through every single thing that we've gone through. Would you
go through sorrow and pain and suffering if you didn't have
to? No way. He went through it all. Why? Because He careth for you. Touched
through the field of an iron firmament. He careth. What a
verse. What a Lord. Verse 8. Be sober. And he looked at that
and he began that way, that it be sober. And in chapter 4 he
said it again, be sober. Don't be inebriated with, don't
be intoxicated with anything or anyone. Again, Satan uses
these things and even people in the world to put us out of our right minds
and be intoxicated with and taken up with. You know, wine's a mocker,
the scripture said. It'll make you act and talk and
make you feel stronger than you are, wiser than you are, prettier
than you are. And on and on it goes. It's a
mocker. It's not real. And this pride that we have, So don't be intoxicated with
anything or anyone in this world. That's what Satan uses to take
our minds off of the one thing. Did you read that article by
my father last week on walk with God and not the world? Did you
read that? I hope every pastor of every church puts that in
his book. Because he said, my pastor said it, and I've seen
it by experience, and it's in the Word. The two most dangerous
things in the world to believers are the things of this world
and the people of this world. And the God of this world is
behind it all. That's what he is. And he will
pull you away. with things and people, even
family. Our Lord said so. So be sober. Be vigilant. Watchful. Vigilant. Always on the lookout. Unto prayer. Remember, we looked at that.
Watch. Be sober. We spent a whole message on that.
Be sober. Watch. Unto prayer. Prayer. Because
without Him, we can do nothing. We can't. We can't watch for
a minute. We'll fall asleep like the disciples in the garden.
He said, watch, watch now. And he walked away and came back
30 minutes later never to sleep. And he did it three times. He
said, couldn't you watch one hour? He said, oh, rise and watch,
pray that you don't enter into temptation. We're going to be
tempted. We're all going to be tempted in all points. There's no avoiding temptation. You must. We must be. Faith will
be tried. It says pray that you don't enter
into it. Fall to it. You're going to be
tempted. You can't help but be. The flesh
is tempted. Pray that you don't fall to it. Go in it. Stay away from them, they stew
it. Right. Again, cast all your temptations
on the Lord. Cast all your care on Him. Be
sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, has a roaring
lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I've said it before, and it's
true, that I don't believe Satan himself personally does all that,
you know, happens to us. He's one person. He's not omnipresent
like the Spirit of our God who dwells in all these people. He's
not. He's one person. But there are many demons and
devils out there, a third of the heavenly hosts. fail, right? Demons and devil. And he's a
master. He's at the art of deception
and enticements and allurements and snares and traps and pits
and all that. He's a master. He just had to
set a trap and leave. Okay? Or send one of his underlings. Or he knows, you know, what your
easy pickings for. That's why our Lord said, pray
this. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. What's that? The evil one. That's
Satan. That's what our Lord said. Pray
this every time you pray. Deliver us from us. Pray for
your brethren. The evil one. As he seeks whom
he may devour. And he does it by these things
that devour us, that drowned us. Well, verse 9, whom resists. Well, how do we resist him? He's
a strong adversary. Whom resists steadfast in the
faith. How do we resist him? Can we just say, get behind me,
Satan, like our Lord did? Oh, no. You can't do that. You know, in Jude, the book of
Jude, he talks about false prophets. who speak evil of dignities,
meaning speak highly and mightily of principalities and powers
like the devil, these false prophets, these fakes and these ponies
that talk about how they have power over the devil and so forth,
and they say, just step on ahead of the devil. They're under His
dominion. They're doing His bidding. They're
under His control. They are the ministers of righteousness
in sheep's clothing. They are His ministers. And Jude said, God's people,
even Archangel Michael wouldn't contend with the devil. Do you
know how powerful Michael is? He said Michael wouldn't contend
with the devil over Moses' body, remember? But he said, here's
how he resisted him. He said, the Lord rebuketh thee,
say. The Lord rebuketh thee. And how
much less powerful. We have no power at all. And
for us to resist him in our own strength, So what do we say? Lord, help. Lord, he's tempting
me. Lord, help me. Help me. Resist in the faith. Lord, you
said you would help me. You said you would be my shield.
You said you would be my buckler. You said you were always with
me. Lord, help me. I'm no match for him. Oh, thou
who's a stronger than he, Keep him from that. That's the faith. Our faith is not in ourselves.
Our faith is not in our faith. Our faith is in Christ, right?
He's our captain. He's our Lord. He's our master.
He's our strength. So we call upon Him. Resist steadfast
in the faith. Look at verse 9. Knowing this,
that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. The same afflictions, all of
these trials, all these troubles, all this strife, all these temptations,
all this, you know, self, and all of these things that would
take us away from the Lord, all of the brethren everywhere experiences. It's of the Lord. All the brethren
do. experiences affliction. The Lord
sends them. When Paul and Barnabas went out
in all the churches preaching, it says they went out confirming
the soul of the saints and telling them, commending them unto the
Lord. Remember that message? Commending them unto the Lord.
And they said, for we must, through much tribulation, enter the kingdom
of heaven. They're all going to go through
these things. It's a trial of our faith. And
these afflictions, these trials, these tribulations, even these
temptations, the Lord allows them, allows us to go through
them, to accomplish something. They're accomplished, it says,
in your brethren that are in the world. Accomplish. What does
it accomplish? Well, it humbles us. It shows
us our weakness. It shows us our sinfulness, doesn't
it? These things. It shows us our inability, doesn't
it? What does it cause us to do? Call on the Lord. You know
what? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be what? Saved. We wouldn't call if we
didn't have trouble. We would not call if we didn't
have trouble. We would not call if we didn't have trouble. If
everything's in the world, not a problem. Oh, they get in a
little trouble, and they call, and when the trouble is over,
they quit calling. The Lord, God's people go through trial
after trial, affliction after affliction, and it accomplishes
their faith. Faith. That's how Peter started
this whole thing, didn't he? The trial of your faith, more
precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire,
it's going to be found in the end under praise, his praise,
honor, his honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom have we not seen you like? And though you rejoice with joy
unspeakable, but though now, if need be, you're going through
heaviness, through manifold temptation, it's going to end soon. But just
be thankful. Be thankful for temptations.
It accomplishes something. His glory, His power, His Word. David said, It's good for me
that I've been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes. God's
Word is more real to us, isn't it? God speaks to us. And all
your brethren in the world go through the same thing. Now,
verse 10. And we have devoted a message to this one verse.
It's just not today. The God of all grace. The God of all grace. He's a
gracious God and He has all grace and we need grace. Every grace.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. We need all grace. He's the God of all grace. And
He giveth and giveth and giveth more grace. And James said, He
upbraideth not. Any man lack wisdom, let him
ask. The Lord upbraideth not. Meaning,
what did you do with the grace I gave you yesterday? Did you
waste it? Do I have to give you more? Yes,
Lord, I blew it. Here's more. All you've got to
say is, I'm sorry. More great. Who hath called us,
whom He did foreknow, He did predestinate, whom He predestinated,
He called by the Gospel. Chosen. Those that are with Him
are called, chosen, faithful to Him. called us unto his eternal
glory. Remember, Christ said, I will
that they be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. Does that interest you? Well,
I'll tell you how you can know you're going to be there to all
his glory. Have you beheld it now? A little
bit. Is he glorious to you? Is this
gospel glorious to you now? Well, then just wait. You just
wait. The half has not been done. His eternal glory by Jesus Christ. You see, He did it all, didn't
He? Christ did it all. given to Christ by the Father
to accomplish our salvation, to come here and bring all the
children back to glory. Christ did it all. Purged our
sins by Himself. And He's going to present us
to the Father faultless, unblameable, unreprovable in God's eye. Christ
did it all. And He's going to say, behold,
I and the children which thou hast given me, they're all here.
I've kept every one of them. You're talking about somebody
He's going to say, well done to. That's his son, his son. Now after verse 10, after you've
suffered a while, a while, a while, not long, it's just a little
while, and he that cometh shall come, make you perfect. He said, I thought we were already
perfect in Christ. Well, there's a new man. Yes, he's holy right
now. But this is talking about growth.
This is talking about maturity. Perfect. Paul said, I'm not already
perfect, but this is what I'm pressing towards. Didn't he?
And he sent pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the same.
That is, to make you believe Christ perfectly. Look to him
perfectly. and look like him, and establish
you. After you've suffered a while,
make you perfect and establish you. That means grounded and
settled. Remember our Lord said, in your
patience possess your soul. Get a hold of yourself. Just
rest. Just believe. Don't be so fearful. Don't be so troubled. Why are you worried? Fear not,
he kept saying. Fear not. Fear not. Fear not.
Be stable. Why? Because we're on a rock.
Not shifting sands. We're on Christ the rock, the
unmovable rock. Just settle down, okay? You don't have to swim. Just
rest. Establish. Strengthen. Strengthen. Strengthen your faith.
You know, when we're weak, that's when we're strong. You know that?
So He sends these trials that we feel weak when we endure them,
and yet makes us look to Him who's our strength. And settled
you. Are you settled in your heart
and your mind about these things? Has the truth settled in your
heart and mind? Is it settled with you that God is God, and you're a sinner,
and Christ is the only Savior, and since you believe on Him,
He says, you're mine, you're mine, and I will by no means
cast you out. I'm coming back for you. It has
nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with
Him. That ought to just settle the shit. Just settle it in your
mind. You say, but I'm a sinner. Well, good. That settles it. You're one of
His. Because that's who He came to
save. Okay? Be settled. To Him be glory and dominion. Peter can't end the letter without
saying Amen. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. And he's writing this along
with John Mark and Silas and others. They were all fellow
prisoners and companions like Paul. Silas, a faithful brother
unto you, as I suppose. You know, what I'm preaching
to you, right now, Gabe is preaching to his people, Marvin's preaching
up there, and David Pledger's preaching in Houston, David Edmondson's
preaching in Madisonville, and on and on it goes, right? Donnie
Bell's preaching in Crossfield, and on and on it goes. Same thing.
Exact same one. Same message. To the people they're
called to. So he says, Silas, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose I've written briefly. And he brought this letter, apparently. Exhorting and testifying, verse
12. Exhorting you and testifying
that now this is the true grace of God wherein we stand. This
is the gospel of the grace of God wherein you stand. Right? This is it. The gospel
of Christ our Lord. And then he ends by saying the
church at Babylon, that's us, we live in Babylon. You know,
we live right in the middle of Babylon. Satan's seat. That's what he calls it. Elected
together. He began with election to Israel. Elected together with you, saluteth
you, as does every church everywhere that hears of central grace.
Tell so and so hello. Tell them hello. And Marcus,
my son, he calls John Marcus his son. Paul called him his
son. Barnabas called him his son. Peter calls him his son.
It's like we call Cody Henson, right? Greet one another with
a kiss. of love. You know, if you love
somebody, you'll greet them, won't you? And you'll pretty
much have to, however much you love them, you'll hug them. You
can't help yourself. That's love. Peace be with all of you that
are in Christ Jesus. Peace of God. Peace that Christ
has made. Peace with God. Peace, oh let
there be peace among ourselves. And only one word to say it all
now. Amen. So be it.