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 ensembles to the flock. And when the chief shepherds
shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth
not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Ye, all of you, be subject one
to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the
proud, giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be diligent, Because
your adversary, the devil, has a roaring lion walking about
seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren
that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever. Amen. By Silvanus, a faithful
brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting
and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you
stand. The church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doeth Marcus, my
son, greeting one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with
you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. I want us to look together
here at verse 10. 1 Peter 5.10. But the God of all grace, you know He starts talking about
the God of all grace after He said that you have an adversary, a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And then he says, but the God
of all grace, the God of all grace who has
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after that you
have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle you. You know there is such a little
need of people in the world today because People's rich and increased
with goods and have need of nothing. We are materialistic society and people just don't have a
need. They just don't have a need.
If people had a need, this building wouldn't hold them. If people
that had a need of Christ, had a need of salvation, had a need
of grace, this building couldn't hold them. But beloved, I'll tell you something.
I need grace. Oh, how I need grace. I need
grace because of who I am. What I am. What I feel. What I think. What I do. All make me to know how necessary,
how necessary grace is for me. How desperately, desperately
I need grace. And we need grace. Not only do
we need grace, but we need a God of grace. A God of grace. We need a God who is more than
full of wise sayings. A God who is just benevolent
and has a wonderful plan for your life. We need something
more than that. How I need and how you need a
God who is more than one who tells me how to find myself,
to make peace with myself, to get in touch with myself, to
work into a flame, that little spark of divinity that's in me,
so I can become one with the universe and one with Him. And this idea, I need a God more
than just says smile, I love you. I need a God who says more than
I've got a wonderful plan for your life. I need a God who just don't give
me a shove in the right direction. And tells me to start running
and hope I make it by the end of the journey. And Satan don't
catch me before I get there. Beloved, what we need, brethren,
we need a God who lives, who lives, who is full of love, pity,
mercy, patience, long-suffering, a God who knows us inside and
out, from top to bottom, who is strong because we're weak,
who is forgiving because we're sinful. We need a God who is willing
for we're unwilling. We need a God who is able because
we have no ability. We need a God that who in spite
of us and for 10,000 reasons could have sent us all to hell
but he didn't. But in spite of us, gives us
grace. Sheds grace on us. Pours it upon
us. Gives us grace for grace. Oh, I need a God like that. And there is a God like that.
There's a God like this who lives. Who is able to do what He's promised. Who is willing. Who is strong. Who knows us. One that not only is full of
love, but is love Himself. He calls Himself the Father of
mercies. And here He calls Himself the
God of all grace. And that's how the Apostle describes
him here, the God of all. You know you got this adversary
that's after you. Got this adversary that's after
you. We have a hard time being humble. God gives grace to the
humble. But oh my, here the Apostle says,
but the God of all grace. After you suffered a while. After
you suffered a while. make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. And I wish, I hope by God's grace,
I can convey from my heart to your heart that it's God's grace
every day, every minute, every second, in everything, everything. I mean you know we say I need
thee every hour, I need thee all every second. I need you. I need you, I need you. I need
grace. Oh I've got to have grace. Because
of who I am and what I am. But look at this God of all grace.
The first thing I want to say about the God of all grace, look
what it says. Who hath called us. called us
unto His eternal glory. It's just not a calling, but
it's a calling unto eternal glory itself. A calling unto eternal
glory. You see, God deals with us as
His children, as His elect. Look what He says down here in
verse 13. the churches that is at Babylon elected together with
you in other words he said everybody in that church is elect elected
together with you electing grace and our God who calls us he deals
with us as sons as his children for whom he did foreknow them
he also did predestinate And them he did predestinate, them
he also called. Them he also justified. Them he also glorified. Well
what in the world shall we say to these things? If God be for
us, who can be against us? It is God that justifies who
is going to lay anything to the charge of God's elect. So I tell you what, He's the
God of all grace. And I tell you He's the God who
called us unto eternal glory. And our calling unto this eternal
glory in Christ brings with it this God of grace and the one
who gives us this grace and calls us by his eternal glory. It gives
us some things with Christ. Gives us some things in Christ.
And you know this. Look in 2 Timothy. I've quoted
this so many times. But I want you to look at this.
Just go back over and right past Hebrews there's Titus and then
there's 2 Timothy. And I want you to see this. God's
grace in Christ, and it is our calling in Christ, gives us some
things and brings us some things. And look what he says here. In verse 9, I've quoted this so
many times. He's talking about the power
of God who hath saved us. You notice that says has saved
us. Not going to save us. Hath saved
us. Now that verse was in there before
God ever saved me. But as far as God was concerned,
He hath saved us. When did He save us? In Christ,
before the world ever began. And that's what it says right
here. And then He called us. Saved us. And why did He call
us? Because He saved us. With a holy calling. And listen
to this, was it according to our works what we did? How good
we were? No, not according to our works.
Well how did he do it? Why did he do it? According to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
even before the world began. Let me tell you the first thing
that God does. The first thing that God does.
The first thing in the world that He does in His calling of
us, He regenerates us. He gives us a new birth. He makes
us partakers of the divine nature. And why does He do that? Because
He has saved us. He has redeemed us. He bought
us with His own precious blood. You know He said, we're born. not of the will of flesh, not
of the will of man, not of blood, but of God. And so He comes and
He regenerates us. He sends the Spirit of God into
our hearts. And He come to us and He put
this nature in us and He called us to Himself. I know some preachers,
I know some preachers that all they talk about is justification
and righteousness and they deal with it just as a legal act that
God did. And they say they only have one
nature. Now if you only have one nature,
there's only one nature you're born with. And that's a sinful
nature. So if God leaves you in that
sinful nature and He says like Nicodemus, Nicodemus you must
be born again. How in the world is that going
to happen? He said, by the water and the
Word, by the Spirit and the Word. And I tell you when God comes
and regenerates us and puts His Spirit in us and puts Christ
in us, which is the hope of glory, when He does that, that He gives
us a nature that seeks after Him the rest of our life. We
never saw him until he saw us. We never called on him until
he called us We never looked at him until he brought us to
himself And we sung that song last week. Oh Lord. I would have
never chosen thee had thou not chosen me We didn't even know
God from ago. I Until God came and regenerated
us and gave us His Spirit and changed our nature, and changed
our idea, and changed us inside, in our hearts, in our minds,
in our understandings, and brought us till we fell ourselves, fell
ourselves on Christ. Just fell on Him. And let me
ask you this, if He didn't give us this new nature, how in the
world do we understand the Bible? How in the world do you understand
it? What nature do we call on God
with? What understanding do we call
on Christ with? And I'll tell you what, then
not only does He regenerate us, but let me tell you this. In
regeneration, we become sons of God. We become children of
God with His nature. With His nature. Christ then
used the hope of glory. And then the second thing is,
is that He adopts us. Now why does He adopt us? You
know, we're sons of God by adoption. Why does He adopt us? And He
does this by grace. Why does He adopt us? Well, He
only had one son. One son. The begotten Son of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that Son was heir of everything. Is that not right? God made Him
heir of everything. Gave Him all power, all authority
in heaven and earth. Everything belongs to Christ. Well, in order for us to become,
because we've got His nature, well how in the world are we
going to inherit anything? We've got no rights. Well, so God adopts
us into His family. And calls us sons of God and
makes us join heirs with Christ. What Christ gets, we get. What He inherits, we inherit.
Ain't that right? That's why He adopts us. And I tell you what, after He
adopts us, you know what He does for us? Then he justifies this. What does justification mean?
It means that God in heaven itself, because of what his blessed son
did, and then he gave us the faith to trust his son and believe
his son, God himself says, I declare them righteous. He said, I'm
not going to condemn them. My spirit ain't going to condemn
them. Sin's not going to condemn them.
Justice's not going to condemn them. Law's not going to condemn
them. In fact, there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ. God says, I'm going to clear
them in such a way that I myself cannot find a fault in them.
And you know what he said? He said, not only is there no
fault in them, but I'm going to present them blameless, without
fault, and holy, without blemish. That's a pretty good shape to
be in, ain't it? And then not only does he do
these things, But then He sanctifies us. I want you to look in 1 Corinthians
6.9. Then He sanctifies us. Now this business of sanctification
is not something that we do or have to do. It is not something
we do or have to do. If God saved us and then we had
to sanctify ourselves, Who's going to be the arbiter of sanctification? Who's going to tell you how sanctified
you are? Who's going to tell you what
you've got to do to be sanctified? Somebody's going to have to come
up with a list and say, now this is what you've got to do in order
to be sanctified. You've got to quit this, you've
got to do that, you've got to do this other thing. Now wouldn't
it be awful if somebody set up a list and said, now this is
what it takes for you to, here's you, you've been saved by grace,
but you've got to start this step here, step 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, and then by the time you get to the end of your life
you'll be holy and hopefully God will justify you and accept
you into his presence. Wouldn't that be an awful way
to live? So who's going to be the one to tell you when you're
sanctified? You know who it is most of the time? It's the preacher. Because he's good, he's living
a good holy life himself. So he's going to tell you how
to live your good holy life. I'm grateful to him that way.
Look what he said here in 1 Corinthians 6 and verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God. People without the righteousness
of Christ, they're not going to do it. Be not deceived about
this either. Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, that's men that has got no backbone, goes along to
get along. That's what that means. Nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God." Now listen to this, but such were some of you. But you're washed, you're sanctified,
you are justified. Oh my, three things, washed,
Justified and sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of God. Something has already been done. You know when Simon Peter and
our Lord was getting ready to wash the disciples feet, the
apostles feet. Simon Peter, you know, he said,
oh no, no, no, no, you're not going to wash my feet. He said,
if I don't wash you, you don't have no part with me. He said,
oh Lord, start at the top and don't stop until you get to the
bottom. He said, you're clean, but not ever wet. And I tell you what, Christ,
as He washed those disciples' feet, He washes our feet every
time we come in here. Cleanse us from all the things
we would throw through this world. Now let me tell you this, not
only is He the God of reflecting grace and redeeming grace and
justifying grace and regenerating grace, but He's the God of effectual
grace. Look back over here in our text. But the God of all grace, who hath called us, You know,
the grace of God, when He calls us, He deals with us as we are. As we are. Huh? Dead, far off from God, lost
sheep, lost sinners. But here's what I, this is what's
so wonderful about preaching the gospel. Is God goes after
His sheep through the preaching of the gospel. You know, He deals with them.
It's like this. When Ezekiel, God took Ezekiel
down to the valley of dry bones. And He sent him down that valley.
And He said, there are very many and very dry. And then He looked
at him and asked him a question. Son of man, can these bones live?
Can these bones live? Not unless you do something with
them, they're not going to do it. And He said, Lord, thou knowest.
Down north, that's the first thing he said. Can dry bones
live? Oh Lord, you're the only one
who knows whether they can or not. He said, I'll tell you what
I want to do. Stand on your feet and start
preaching to them. And every time a preacher preaches,
he's preaching to men that are dead. until God gives them life. And he said, oh my goodness,
preach to a bunch of dead bones? We do it every time. You know,
there's people that if God don't give them life, they're not going
to have it. And then he said, preach to them. Bone come to
bone. Bone that stood up, they're still
skeletons, still bones. And he said, now, speak to the
wind. And oh my, and he preached to
them and then the flesh came upon them. And they're still
just lifeless standing there. And he says now, speak, say wind
come and blow on them and the Spirit of God come and blow on
them and every one of them come alive. How's that happen? God Lazarus! Oh, Lord, don't open that grave. Don't take that stone away. Oh,
Lord, don't do that. Why not? He's been dead four
days and if you take that off there, we're going to smell him.
He's going to stink. He's corrupt. He smells awful. They took it away. Lazarus! That man that was dead four days
and corrupt and stinking, Walked out of there with great clothes
on. Oh my. You know how we know our
election? By our calling. By our calling. And there's several, several
calls to men in the scriptures. There's a call of nature. What
is that? The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament shows his handiwork.
And then conscience. Conscience. There's a call of
conscience. I'll tell you what a conscience will do. People
say, well my conscience is clear. I wouldn't trust my conscience
no farther than 9th spin. I don't trust my conscience.
I don't pay any attention to my conscience. I'll tell you
why. Because your conscience will do one of two things. It
will accuse you. and say what you did was wrong
or else it will excuse you and say what you did was okay and
ninety nine out of a hundred times your conscience will excuse
you. Is that not right? You'll do
something and you'll say well that wasn't that bad and the
next thing you know that's why your conscience will excuse you. Very rarely does it accuse a
person. And when God calls a person, He purifies that conscience.
Did you know that? He purifies the conscience. He purifies it. How in the world
can a man's conscience bother him if he ain't got no sin? How
can he feel guilty if he ain't got no sin? How can his conscience
trouble him if the Spirit of God is in him? And he ain't got
nothing to do, no one to condemn him. Huh? And then there's the call
of judgment. You know what the call of judgment
is? God said, I'm going to send you clean as the teeth. In other
words, He said, I'm going to starve you to death. And then
you know what else I'm going to do? He said, I'm going to
cause this rain in town and your gardens out here and your crops
are going to wither up and die. And he said, when you work, he
said, I'm going to put a hole in the bottom of your pocket,
and every time you put money in it, it's going to fall out.
You'll never be able to have enough. Everything you do is
just going to wither away. And he says, and you know what?
After I've done all that, there's one thing you've got to do. You've
got to prepare to meet your God. It's your God. And I'll tell
you something, this pandemic, whatever they want to call it,
it's not, I don't believe it's brought one person to Christ.
You know, if people, if people, because they're staying home,
I mean, you know, they're listening to lots of sermons and things
like that, but listen, there's only one thing that'll bring
a person to Christ. That's the spirit of God in Christ
by the gospel brings a person to Christ. The death of Christ
is all it's ever saved a man. A tornado ain't caused nobody
to be saved. Burning down a house has caused
nobody to be saved. I'm telling you, God don't use
things like that to say, you know where his greatest judgment
was? It was upon his son when he made him to be sinned and
my judgment was finished and full and complete when Christ
died for my sin on the cross. And God can do with this world
what He wants to. He can kill them by the millions
or He can kill them by the ten thousand. He's God. But I know
one thing, His judgment's not on me and not on anybody for
whom Christ died. Is that right? If that was, we
couldn't face death. It'd scare us to death. But I
tell you what, you know what it is? It's a wonderful, wonderful
place and way for God to take us home. Huh? And then there's
the call of preaching. And there's two kinds of call
of preaching. There's the general call. Everybody
in this building hears my voice. Hears the same words. And then
there's the effectual call. Zacchaeus come down. Alright,
I'm coming. And then look with us, not only
is He electing grace, effectual grace, but look what He says
here. He's the grace God of enabling grace. Look what He says here.
God of all grace who hath called us after His eternal glory by
Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. After that
you suffered a while. Oh my. After that you have. You know, how in the world can
some people, how do we often wonder, how did we get through
that? How did we get through that? Some of you have lost your
children, lost your husbands, lost your wives. You've got sickness
in your family that you don't know how in the world to deal
with. Come close to death a time or
two yourself. Or how in the world did you get
through it? How did you get through it? God, by His grace, causes you
to stand. And when you can't do nothing
but stand, that's all you do. You can't go forward, you can't
go back, you just stand. You just keep on standing? Huh?
Oh my! And then he says to suffer. Let
me tell you something. You know the only reason we're
not Pharisees in Lysittias is the grace of God. The grace of
God. But then you know after this
after that you, this is what he says, after you suffered.
After you suffered. You know, it's not a question
whether or not you'll suffer. It's a matter of when and how
much you're going to suffer. It's not a matter of when you're
going to do it. It's a matter of how long and
how much. Oh my! God said He chose us in
the furnace of affliction. I want you to look over in Romans
8.16 with me. Now this is one of my favorite
verses when things were going on in my life, and I'm sure it was
to you. Romans 8.16. Quite a sense here. Romans 8. Excuse me, Romans 18,
I'm sorry, I got 16 down here, but it's verse 18. He said, For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Whatever you're
going through right now, he said, don't even compare it. to what
you've got in Christ. You know, it's suffering. People suffer in different ways.
People suffer in their bodies. Some people suffer in their souls.
Their soul gets so heavy. Heavy, heavy, heavy. Have you
ever had a heavy soul? It just feels like your soul
is so heavy. Feel like life is so heavy. And
then there's people that every once in a while seems like a
great cloud to them all the time. Every once in a while just a
little light will come through. And then there's people who suffer
in their minds. They suffer with depression and
anxiety and fear. We as God's people are not immune
to any of these things. We're really not. You know, do
God's people have heart attacks? Do God's people have diabetes? So what makes people think that
they don't have mental problems and depressions and things like
that? But the only difference is they
got God. God. And I tell you, this is the thing.
Paul says, you know, God called him and he told him all the things
he must suffer for Christ. And he said when he was getting
ready to go up to Jerusalem, he told him every bad thing that
was going to happen to him up in Jerusalem. You know what he
says? The will of the Lord be done. The will of the Lord be
done. And then look what else he said
he was going to do for you. He's going to make you, He's
going to establish you. He's going to make you steadfast.
Serve for a while, He's going to establish you. Establish you,
strengthen you. Oh my, be steadfast? Establish
and strengthen you? Oh, that means to be made steadfast. And that's why Paul said, be
steadfast in the faith. Be steadfast in the faith. Don't
let nobody come and make you go this way, that way, another
way. Be steadfast in the word. Whatever God's word says. You
know, churches have constitutions and bylaws and all that stuff.
And yet they'll get up and say, listen, we believe that the Word
of God is all we need for our faith, what we're to believe,
and for how we're to live and our practice in this world. And
then they write up a constitution that tells them how they can
deal with everybody in the church, how they can deal with the preacher,
who can be put on probation and all this rigmarole. They get
up and they tell you everything that they got the power to do
because of that constitution. Get that thing and just rip it
in two. If you say you believe God's Word, just throw it away.
Oh my, that's a... Some folks tried
to talk us into that and I said, oh no, we're not going that route.
If God can't teach us and God can't keep us, the Constitution
ain't going to do it. And what's a bylaw? You can get by with that law
and you can't get by with this. Oh, get around that law. That's
what we're talking about, how foolish it is. How foolish it
is. Be steadfast in the word. Be
steadfast in your conversation, in your lifestyle, in your honesty,
in your integrity. And then Peter says, you're not
the only one suffering the being tried, so are your brethren in
the world. and oh my and then look what
he says not only that but he says you know grace enables us
to be subjection look what he said here in verse 5 we'd be
under subjection likewise you younger submit yourselves unto
the elder unto the elder all the men in here that are elder
younger submit yourself to him and all of you be subject one
to another Don't try to outdo one another. Don't try to be
more than somebody else. Don't try to outdain something
somebody else. And listen, and be clothed. That word clothed
means it's a slave's girdle. Be clothed with humility. God resists the proud, giveth
grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.
Our Master was under subjection to His Father. He was under subjection
to men when they come to get Him and take Him to the cross.
They led Him. He subjected Himself to men. Subjected Himself to men. And
then look what else it says there in verse 10. Oh, this is such
a blessing. This verse of scripture has helped
me over the years like I couldn't tell you. Back years and years
ago when I had really, really some hard, hard times. He says,
the God of grace after you suffered a while make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. That's a mouthful, ain't it?
I'm going to establish you. I'm going to establish you. He
has picked me up out of a horrible pit and established my goods. And then He goes settle you down.
You go come to the place where you go just be settled down.
You're settled in the faith. You're settled in grace. You're
settled in what you believe. You're settled down. You're not
up and down and worried and fretting. You just settle down. Like that
song. We read this song this morning.
Be still my soul. Be still my soul. And then He
said it's going to make you perfect. Now what does that mean? That
means that you're made mature. You're grown up son. You're not
a baby. You're stable. You're genuine.
You're sincere. You're mature. And then let me
close with this right here. Look what he says down there
in verse 12. And how can we, you know, we
must have the true grace of God and the God of true grace. How
can we know it's all of grace? Because it attributes absolutely
nothing to man whatsoever. Nothing. Nothing. And that's
what he says down here in verse 12. By Silvanus, that Silvanus
is Silas, the one that was with Paul. A faithful brother unto
you As I suppose, I have written briefly exhorting and testifying
that what I've taught you and what I'm preaching to you and
what you understand is this is the true grace of God wherein
you stand. How do you know you got grace?
Because you want it all the time. You can't live without it. You
desire it. You seek by all means to honor
God. You know that you absolutely
have nothing to do with your salvation. And we got to have the true grace
of God in every aspect of our lives. Are you up? You need the
grace of God. Are you down? You need the grace
of God. Are you sad? You need the grace
of God. Are you glad? You need the grace
of God. Are you broke? You need the grace
of God. You got some money in your pocket?
You need the grace of God. In sickness and in health. It's
kind of like a marriage. Huh? In sickness and in health,
in poverty and in wealth, until death do us part. The difference
is death won't part us from Christ. But we as a marriage vow between
us and Christ. And I tell you, beloved, we will
never act or react as we should apart from the grace of God. Many think they only need grace
for trials and for trouble. We got to have grace for sunshine
too. We got to have grace when we're
prosperous. We got to have grace when we're
full of joy. Need grace to live. And He'll give us grace when
it comes time to die. We need grace for our happiness,
not just our sorrows. We need grace. And He's the God of all grace. What a blessed, blessed God we
have. Amen. Oh, Father, Father, Father, Father,
thank you, thank you, thank you, bless you, praise you, honor
you, glorify you. Oh, Lord, oh, Lord, that's all
I can say, oh, Lord, thank you, bless you, praise you. Oh, for
grace, oh, for grace, thank you for it. Oh, bless you, be your
name through the grace that you give us in Christ. Thank you,
Lord. Thank you lord. Let's stand together. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound, that saved a wretch like me. was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see. There's grace that my fears relieved. Oh, how precious did that grace. Oh, how it appeared. Oh, bless his name. Yes, bless
his name. and snares. has brought me safe thus far
and grace will lead me home. I love this. Ten thousand years. Bright shining as the sun, we've
no less days to sing God's praise than when we'd just begun. Oh, what a blessing, God.