Turn, if you would, to 1 Peter.
1 Peter. The name of the message is the
God of all grace. 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter
5. Who is the one who has saved
us, beloved? Christ. Christ is the one who
saved us. Who will keep us? Christ. Christ is the one who
will keep us. Who is the one who will one day
take us home? Christ. Who is Christ? He's God. He's our Redeemer. He's our Savior. Do you know the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit are all the God of grace? The three in one
are one in will, one in perfection, one in desire, one in love. And I ask you this, do you have
concerns today? Do you have concerns in your life?
Did you come here with some concerns that are going on in your life?
Scripture says, cast all your care upon Christ. Cast those cares, beloved. Let
us cast our cares upon Christ. Do you have worries? Do you have
worries? Do you have a worry? You know, some preachers in religion,
they act like they never have worries. I have worries. I get worried. I know I'm not
supposed to, but I still do, because I'm a sinner saved by
the grace of God. Well, again, let us cast all
our care upon Him who cares for us, because He cares for us,
doesn't He? I was talking to a brother this week, and I said,
never think something's too small to take to Christ. No matter
how tiny it is in your life, take it to Him. If it's a burden,
if it's a worry, if it's a care, if it's a concern, take it to
him who cares for you. You ever have fears? You ever
fear? Well, we looked at that message
last week, fear not, right? That was a wonderful time in
scripture when God tells us not to fear, but we still have fears,
don't we? We still have fears. Cast all
your care upon him, for he cares for you. You ever get anxious? Yeah, we all get anxious. If
we say we don't, we're lying, aren't we? Cast all your cares
upon him, for he cares for you. Are you struggling with sin in
your life? Cast all your care upon him for he cares for you.
Are you struggling with someone at work? Maybe someone you work
with? Cast all your cares upon him
for he cares for you. Are you feeling stressed out
in life? Cast all your care upon him for he cares for you. Do
you have cares which you're carrying around inside and no one else
knows about them except for you and God? Cast all your cares upon him,
for he cares for you. Are you tossed into and fro by
the storms of life? Are you enduring a fiery trial
at this time in your life? Are you dealing with health or
financial crisis at this time? Do you turn the news on and does
it make you get anxious? We talked about that, right?
Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you. He cares for us, beloved. Christ
cares for his people. He loves his people with an everlasting
love. And then as one preacher said,
and I say it along with him, may God give us the grace to
do that, right? May God give us the grace just to cast all
our cares upon him. It's not easy, is it? It's not
easy. That's why he says, come unto
me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. See, we become heavy laden. Like you said, Dave, it's like
people putting bags of rocks on us. We're running a race,
and it's like somebody says, here, here's a bag of rocks for
you. When you're running in a race, right, when a runner's running
in a race, he just has a shirt on, a little number, and shorts,
usually, and running shoes, right? But you know, carriers can be
like someone putting a bag of rocks on top of you when you're
running a race. And now you've got a knapsack of rocks you're
carrying. and worry and anxiety, all these things just come up
and they just weigh us down, don't they? Cast all your care
upon Him. I have to do that. Cast my care
upon Christ, because He cares for me. That's wonderful. So let's read 1 Peter chapter
5 verses 8 to 14. 8 to 14. Scripture declares, be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Now we have an enemy. Scripture declares it here. But
Christ crushed him at the cross, didn't he? He bruised Christ's heel, that's
his humanity. But Christ crushed him at the
cross, beloved. But he's still our enemy. He's
far more crafty than we are. He's had 6,000 years to study
man. He knows how to trip man up,
doesn't he? But you know who our worst enemy is? My flesh. That's who our worst enemy is,
isn't it? We have three enemies, right? The world, the flesh,
and the devil. And the flesh is the worst one of the bunch.
My oh my. It says here, he goes on to exhort
us to resist steadfast in the faith. That's Christ, right? Our faith has one object, that's
Christ. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. So, I'll tell you
what, if we all sat down and we started talking about the
things we struggle with, we would quickly find out we all struggle
with the same things. Now, there might be something
you're strong in, Brother Dave, and there might be something
Travis is strong in that I'm weak in. And vice versa. But we all have the same kind
of struggles. All of us. Every one of us. It
says, look at this, look at verse 10. But the God of all grace,
who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered for a little while. Now what's that mean?
That's this life. Do you know the only suffering
we go through is in this life. There'll be no tears in heaven.
God will wipe away our tears, right? There'll be no tears in
heaven. Think of that. The saints are in glory right
now. They are just rejoicing, seeing the King. They got no
more tears. They're not even concerned about
us, beloved. Because they're looking to Christ.
They're rejoicing. They're rejoicing. My oh my,
the God of all grace. What has he done? He's called
us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. See, salvation's
in Christ and Christ alone. It's in him, in him alone. I
don't know who God's people are, so I preach the gospel to everybody,
right? And God does the saving. But I'll tell you what, I'm going
to tell you about this wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. After
that, you suffered a little while. Again, the only suffering that
we have is in this world. Make you perfect. Establish you,
strengthen you, settle you. And when we get to heaven, we're
perfect in heaven. There'll be no sin. There'll
be no struggle with sin. There'll be no presence of sin. We won't be battling the flesh.
We will be beholding the very one who we are told right now
to cast ourselves upon because he cares for us. We're going
to see him. Our faith will become sight.
Remember last week I said we hope in someone we'd never seen.
But by God given faith, we believe, right? We believe. But when we get the glory, we're
going to see him just like we see each other. Isn't that going
to be incredible? No wonder the saints say, worthy
is the lamb who was slain, to receive glory and honor and power
and blessing. No wonder, because he's the one
who's redeemed us with his precious, precious blood. And then it says
here, he sums it up in verse 11, to him be glory, dominion
forever and ever, amen. And then he goes on to say, His
final greeting to the suffering saints, he's writing to them,
he says, 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. If you're a born-again,
blood-washed believer, you stand in the true grace of God. The
true grace of God. The church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, salutes you. And so doth Marcus, my son,
greet you one another with a kiss of charity, that's love. Peace
be with you, all that are in Christ Jesus, amen. Now take
note of verses eight and nine. Peter brings forth that we have
an adversary, the devil, and he goes about as a roaring lion,
walking about, seeking whom he may devour. Do you know if he
could, he'd destroy us? But we're kept by the power of
God, aren't we? We're kept by the power of God. It's amazing. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith, that's trusting and resting in Christ, knowing that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. Know it were to be sober and vigilant We have to
live soberly or practice sobriety or moderation, moderation, just
live in moderation. And be watchful over our conduct
and attitudes for the glory of Christ. We don't do it to get
crowns and rewards, we don't do that. We do it because we
love Christ. We do it because we love him,
because he loved us before we first loved him. He loved us
from eternity and we had no idea. And the love of Christ constrains
us from sin, right? As Paul wrote. Do you know we're
restrained? Could you imagine if God didn't
even restrain we who are believers from sin? How bad we would be? But we're even restrained as
believers. The world is restrained too. This world could be a lot
more wicked if God didn't restrain it. I'll tell you. My oh my. So we're to have seriousness
of mind, carefulness to maintain sound beliefs and practices personally
and in the church. So we're to look to Christ. He's our all in all, Paul wrote.
He's the only one we look to. I told the Sunday school class
this morning, I was talking to someone this week, and somebody
told them that because they didn't believe in their view of the
end times, eschatology, that they weren't saved. When I talked
to this young man, I said, well, do you believe in Christ? Is
he your savior? Is he your king? And he said,
yeah. And I said, it doesn't matter what you believe about
the end times. Do you believe on Christ? Is he your savior? People have had differing opinions
on eschatology, on the end times, for years. For years. The main thing is, does he believe
that Christ is the savior of sinners? Because he's the God
of all grace. He's full of grace and truth.
And so him and I were talking and we kept talking and he kept
professing Christ and I kept rejoicing inside. And by the time we left, I think
it shook him up pretty good that the guy said that, too. Differing
views of eschatology has nothing to do with our salvation
at all. We are saved by Christ, through
Christ, by faith in Christ, God-given faith in Christ, and he is the
object of our salvation. The question comes, are you born
again? Christ said you must be born
again, right? Are you born again? A born-again believer will trust
Christ because they'll be given God-given faith to believe on
him. Folks always ask me, well, what's your opinion of eschatology? And I just say, I believe in
the present reign of Christ. He's reigning right now, isn't
he? Is he not? Is he not on the throne right
now? Is he not king right now? He's ruler over everything, isn't
he? John 17 says he's got all power over all things, living,
living, and even over the dead, doesn't he? Because he's going
to say, he's going to call them dead up one day, isn't he? He's got all
power, beloved. He's king right now. My oh my,
I don't get caught up in all that stuff. It's just, it's just
not, it's just not worth debating. And debating, really, when you
stop and think about that too, people get debating about this
and they get debating about that. What think ye of Christ? Is that
not the most important question? What think ye of Christ? My. My, so we're to have seriousness
of mind. We're to focus upon Christ and Him alone. We're to
acknowledge that we have an enemy who roams about. He's like a
hungry lion seeking to seize upon whomever he will. Remember
the Lord said to Peter, He said, Satan's desire to sift you. But
what did our King say? I prayed for you. I prayed for you. Oh my. What would it mean to you as
a believer. What would it mean to you right
now to know that when Christ was here on this earth, he prayed
for you? What would that mean to you?
Turn to John chapter 17. I'll tell you what. That's a great blessing. Our
Lord here is talking to the Father. He's praying to the Father. This
is a great high priestly prayer. Verse 2 it says in John 17, as
thou has given him power over all flesh. That's living and
dead, beloved. That he should give eternal life
to as many as thou has given him. Now look down here. Look down here in in verse 18. He's speaking about the apostles
here, and he says, Thou hast sent me into the world, even
so have I sent them into the world. And for their sakes I
sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the
truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which
shall believe on me through their word. Who are they? Who are the ones who are going to believe on the
words of the apostles? That's you and I. In verse 20, Christ is praying
for all his elect of all the ages. So as a believer, I can look
at that and say in verse 20, Christ is praying for me. And
so for you, if you're a believer. Now that's comforting, isn't
it? That is so comforting to know. And he says this, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word, that's the gospel, that they may be
one as thou, Father art in me, and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us, and that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me. That's talking about the unity between the Father
and the Son. And true believers have that unity, that unity through
Christ. That's what we have, we're united
through Christ. which is absolutely wonderful. In the glory which thou gavest
me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as we are one.
He's the head, we're the body. I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that
thou has sent me, and has loved them. Look at this. As thou has
loved me. You know what he's saying there?
And we can bring this home to every believer. Every born-again,
blood-washed believer, Christ is here saying, I have loved
you. Look at this, I'll read that
again. They may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved
them as thou hast loved me. Now we know Christ loved us from
eternity, but what does it say in there? That same love that
the Father has for Christ, He has for you and I, beloved, who
are in Christ. So if we get anxious, if we get
worried, Castor cares upon him, right? How much does he care
about us? Oh my. The Father cares about
us as much as he loves Christ. That's an unfathomable love,
isn't it? That's a love that can't even be measured. You can't
plumb the depths of that love, can you? No. It's wonderful, isn't it? It's
absolutely wonderful. So we look to Christ. We have
an enemy he roams about seeking to devour, but we just look to
Christ. We trust Christ and rest in him.
You know, the scripture says that no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage
of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of
me. Whose righteousness are we clothed in? Christ's, his God's,
saith the Lord. Nothing that is formed against
thee shall prosper. How many times have people come
against us, we don't even know, and we don't even know, and the
Lord's protected us. It's absolutely incredible. Absolutely
amazing. Then in the New Testament, in
1 Corinthians 10, 13, the scriptures proclaim that the Lord always
gives his people strength, and there's no temptation that we
go through, which is not common to man, so any temptation that
we go through, It's common to all men. We think, oh, I'm the
only one going through this. No, you're not. I'm not. We're
not. Someone else has went through
it before. Oh, my. Common to men. It says, there
hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to men. But
God is faithful. God's faithful, beloved. He's
faithful. My oh my, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you're able, but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to
bear it. How many times? Countless times
it's happened to me as a believer. I'm sure to you as a believer
too. Countless times. So don't lose sight of the precious
promises of God too. Remember how all the promises
of God for the believer are yea and amen in Christ, right? Paul
penned that in 1 Corinthians. All those promises are ours.
Listen to this promise in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 32 verses 38 to 40. He says this, and they shall
be my people. God says they shall be my people.
Not maybe, they shall be. When the Lord entered into my
life, I had no care for him. I was dead in trespasses and
sins. I was living a life that would have destroyed me. And God, I found out that I was
one of his people, and I didn't even know it. And here's a promise
of God, though. And they shall be my people,
and I will be their God. Why do you believe right now?
Because you're one of his people. And he's your God, isn't he?
He's our God. Well, that's a promise. And I'll
give them one heart and one way. There's only one way to get to
glory. That's through Jesus Christ our
Lord, right? You must be born again, one heart, one faith,
In one way, that they may fear me forever. And that fear is
not a slavish fear. That's a reverent fear. It's
not a fear that, oh, he's gonna beat me. It's not like that at
all. It's a love. It's a reverent fear. Forever,
for the good of them and of their children after me. And I will
make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn
away from them. how God has proven that to us
as believers. Even when we're not faithful,
he's never turned away from us, has he? Never. I'll not turn away from them
to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts that
they shall not depart from me. Look at that. He saves us because
we're his. We didn't know it. He saves us.
We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We're given faith
to believe. We're kept. We're kept by the
power of God. My oh my. And he says, they won't
depart from me. You're mine. Isn't that wonderful? That's absolutely wonderful. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. He said, you haven't chosen me,
but I've chosen you. My oh my, it's absolutely amazing.
And we don't know who God's elect are, right? So we say, the gospel
goes out, we say, come, flee to Christ. He's the only hope
of sinners. There's no other hope. I'll tell you that. There's
no other hope but Christ. No other hope. No other way to
be saved. Someone says, well, my sin's so great. That's what
qualifies you to come to Christ, is your sin. Right? It shouldn't be a hindrance.
Christ came to what? Save sinners. Well, I'm sure
thankful that's in the scriptures. I'm sure thankful that He sought
that which was lost, because I never would have sought Him. Would you? Oh, the grace of God. He's the
God of all grace, isn't He? Isn't He the God of all grace?
He doesn't give us what we deserve. He's the God of all grace. My
oh my. And look at this. Look at verses
10 and 11 in 1 Peter chapter 5. What a title here. What a title
of our God. But the God of all grace, all
grace. All grace comes from him to us
through Christ Jesus our Lord. All grace. The God of all grace
who had called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After
that, he suffered for a little while. So we're, and why does
the scripture say for a little while? Because our life is like
a vapor. And we live in a cold area, right?
We breathe it. In the cold, that little vapor
comes out of our mouth. And then it's gone, right? That's
what that means. That's how our life is like. There, poof, gone. Just the vapor. Just the vapor. That's what our life is. So he
says, you're going to suffer for a little while. Oh, my. make you perfect. When he takes us home, we'll
be made perfect. But right now, he establishes
us, doesn't he? And he strengthens us. And he settles us, too, doesn't
he? He settles us down. Because I'll
tell you what, when I'm anxious, when I'm fearful, when I start
to worry, when I sit down and start thinking of Christ, all
that stuff just fades away. And I'll tell you what, you don't
have to be just sitting down at home. You can be doing that
work. I used to work on the construction site, and I had my headphones
on. I'd be going to town, listening to sermons, but talking to my
king, too, at the same time. We can talk to him anytime, can't
we? I told you guys when I was religious,
oh, this is terrible, but it's an illustration. I would say
to Vicki when I was in religion, I'd say, well, I'm going to pray
now. And I'd walk down there, I'd
shut the door, get on my knees, start praying. Oh, I thought
I was so full of self-righteousness. I'll tell you what. Then when
God saved me by his mercy and his grace, I found that I can
pray to my king anytime. I don't have to announce that
I'm going to pray or going to read my Bible. I don't have to
show anybody that. I want to do that. Do you want
to do that? No, you can pray to God anytime, right? Anytime. And it could be as short a prayer
as, God be merciful to me, the sinner. It could be as short
a prayer as, help me, Lord, because I'm overwhelmed by this situation
that's come up in my life. Help me. And sometimes we don't even have
to say anything, we'll just be weeping before the Lord, and
the Holy Spirit's taking that and petitioning the Lord with
it. And the scripture says that.
We'll be moaning and groaning and crying from our hearts. Can't even not, you ever been
so, like that before the Lord? Crying, begging Him, and you
can't even say any words. He knows what you're feeling. He's right there. He says, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. Never. Never at all. No wonder
Peter wrote then, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.
Amen. He's the God of all grace. He's the God of all comfort.
He's the God of my salvation. He's my Redeemer. He's my Savior. He's my God. He's the Holy One
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 10 again, but the
God of all grace who hath called us, look at that. Who's called
us? Who's called us to Christ? Did we call ourselves? No, God's
called us. I wasn't looking for God when
he saved me at all. He put someone in my life who
started telling me about Christ And this is a Christ I didn't
even know about. Oh, my. I thought I had a Christ,
but it was a false Christ. I told you that when he showed
me, why do you go to the priest, Wayne? Why do you go to the priest
at that Catholic church? Why do you go to the priest? And
I said, I don't know, because that's what you're supposed to
do. He says, that's just tradition, Wayne. He said, do you know what
the scripture says? And I, I, I, I've never read
the Bible, but you know, every man's a liar.
Oh yeah. I know what the scripture said. What's it say? I don't know. And he said, there's
one God in one mediator between God and man. the man Christ Jesus
who gave himself a ransom for all. And I'll tell you what,
I've told you this before, the foundation started cracking.
All that refuge of lies I trusted in, because I was trusting in
the church, not in Christ. I was trusting something my mom
and dad did for me when I was a little baby when they baptized
me. That had nothing to do with salvation. Nothing at all. But the God of all grace called me, just like he called
you, beloved. You remember when he called you?
If you can't pinpoint a date, don't worry about that. Spurgeon
and a whole bunch of others, I can't pinpoint an exact date.
Spurgeon and a bunch of preachers got together one time and they
said, can we all pinpoint the very day we were saved? And most
of them said, no, I can't pinpoint. I just know I believe now. I'm
born again and I believe. So don't be, don't feel bad if
you can't pinpoint a day. Do you believe now? Are you trusting
Christ right now? What think ye of Christ? Is he
your Savior? Is he your Redeemer? Only you can answer that. Only
you can answer that. So what a great title here. The
God of all grace. All grace, not just a little
bit, all grace. has called us into his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus. Now that's, that salvation is
in and through Christ and him alone. There's no other way to
be saved except in Christ. No other way. That's right here
too, isn't it? Very clear. After you suffered
a little while, again. Oh my. Now, you know the life of faith
is one of continual warfare? It really is. You ever notice you got a civil
war within you? Tommy Bell and I talked about this a lot. You
got a civil war in you. The flesh wants to do one thing
and the spirit wants to do the other. And sometimes the spirit,
sometimes the spirit is the one that comes out top and sometimes
the flesh is the one that comes out top, isn't it? But our desire
is to do the things of Christ. Now we don't condone ourselves
when we do the works of the flesh, do we? We feel awful, don't we?
And we repent now before Christ. Even though we're saved, we still
say, Lord, forgive me, don't we? Right? Even though we know we're saved
and we're washed in the blood, we still confess our sin to him.
So what comfort is brought here that the God of all grace has
forgiven us of all our sins, all of them. Everyone. What comfort we can find in that.
It's He who's called us. It's His work. Salvation's of
the Lord. It's not our work, it's His work. And God's people are tried people,
aren't we? We're tried people. We go through
things. You know, I remember someone
saying, well, once you're saved, you don't have any trouble at
all. That's funny. That's funny. Now I know what
sin is. I was ignorant before. Now I
know what my sin is. My oh my. Brother, I used to
know, he'd say, we should put people through boot camp after
the Lord saves them. He used to be in the forces and
he said, just to warn them what's coming. No. We still wouldn't expect
the things that come, do we? But you know, has God not proven
that He's the God of all grace? That no matter what comes our
way, He always takes care of us? He always gets us through
those things? Every single time? Has He ever
failed us? Never has He. Has He ever left
us? Never. Never. Now we may wander
from Him, right? Now, whether we wander or whether
it's even the coldness of our heart, right? See, that's where it brings every,
that's where it gets all of us, isn't it? Sometimes we can be
real cold in the heart. We, see, we. But then when we get in the word,
and we hear the gospel preached, what's it do? It warms our hearts,
doesn't it? When you start fellowshipping
with fellow believers and talk to them about Christ, do you
ever get that burning within you? How your hearts burn within
you? Oh, it's wonderful. Just look
to Christ. He's the God of all grace. And
he says, I'll establish you, strengthen you, settle you. And
Peter writes, to whom be the glory and dominion forever and
ever, amen. Endless volumes could be written
just on this verse. The God of all comfort. Endless
volumes could be written on that one title. The God of all grace. We can't exhaust that title,
can we? All grace. Grace to cover all my sins. Grace to satisfy the law of God
in my room and place through Christ. Grace, so that the justice
of God has no more claim upon me through Christ. Grace, for
the scriptures say there's therefore now no condemnation to those
in Christ Jesus. Grace, grace, wondrous grace. God's grace is incredible. And
we see here that our God's called the God of all grace. It's he
who's redeemed us. It's he who's purchased us with
his precious blood. You know this is the only place
in scripture where this title is used. It's not used anywhere
else. The God of all grace. And the
very saints that Peter's writing to, well let's look at the very
first of this book. 1st Peter chapter 1. Who is he
writing to? He makes it very clear who he's
writing to. And these saints, beloved, these
saints are suffering, suffering for their faith in Christ. They
are suffering. They are going through all kinds
of trials and tribulations. And he writes them. Peter, an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout
Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification
of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of
Christ. Grace be to you, and peace be multiplied. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." That lively hope,
there's a living hope. Our Savior's not dead and hanging
on a cross, is he? He's alive. He's alive. He's in glory right now seated
at the right hand of the Father. We have a living hope, beloved. And His name is Jesus Christ
our Lord. To inherit, now look at this. Now we can get an inheritance
and we can spend it, we can spoil it, we can do all kinds of things
with it on this earth, right? Look at this, to an inheritance,
incorruptible and undefiled. That means we can't mess it up. Isn't that wonderful? We can't
mess it up, beloved. Incorruptible and undefiled and
that faith is not a way reserved in heaven for you. It's reserved.
That inheritance is reserved. Do you know who it's in? Christ.
That's why it's reserved. It's in Him. Look at this too. Who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. I've said this many times. I'm
going to say it again. If salvation was based upon us, we'd lose
it, as Spurgeon said, a thousand times a day. Look at this beautiful word.
Kept. kept, who are kept by the power of God. Not by our power,
but by God's power. Through faith in the salvation.
Who's our faith in? Christ. He's our salvation. Ready to be revealed in the last
time. Now here's how we know that they're going through things.
Look at this. Wherefore you greatly rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be, you in heaviness through manifold temptations.
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than
of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, and that's
just the fire of trials, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom, having not
seen, ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory, receiving
the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." What
a great God. So these saints that he's writing
this to, they are going through heavy trials and temptations.
They are being persecuted for their faith, beloved, in Christ. And they are suffering. They
are suffering. But our great God has established
them. My oh my. Again, this is the
only place where this title is found. It's used by the Apostle
Peter. So let us seek to learn what Peter's put this title in
here for. Why the Holy Spirit has had him
put this here. And remember, the one who's writing
this is the one who denied Christ three times. And he's saying, our God's the
God of all grace. He experienced that, didn't he?
He experienced. He denied the Lord three times.
And the Lord said, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you love
me? Do you notice he didn't condemn
him? Peter, do you love me? My, oh my. So he knows. He's experienced that God is
the God of all grace. He's experienced that love and
forgiveness through Christ Jesus our Lord. And he's here admonishing
the church that they have an adversary that's seeking to destroy
them, seeking to destroy them. And though they suffered much,
it's the Lord who sustained them, it's the Lord who's kept them,
just as He's done for every one of His sheep. He's done it for
us, and He'll continue to do it for us until He takes us home,
beloved, to glory. And note that God of all grace,
which again speaks of God as the source of all spiritual comfort,
For every occasion, his grace is sufficient for anything we
go through in this life. Anything. There's nothing in
our lives that come up that his grace is not sufficient for.
It's amazing. And he's the God of all grace.
Again, which speaks of the source of all spiritual comfort for
every occasion. And he's the one who's called us unto his
eternal glory in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. Note the
word establish and strengthen, settle. Now we think of those
words in light of that passage I read in Jeremiah 32, where
God will not let us depart from him. He says, you're mine, I'm
not going to let you depart from me. That's amazing. You know,
established there means to stand, to set fast, to fix firmly. That's what God's done for us. He settled us. He makes us to
stand. Why don't we leave the gospel
like other people do? Exactly, brother. He's got us. We stand firmed and fixed. Now
our faith goes like this, doesn't it? All over the board, right? But God has us in his grip. in his grip. He set us fast. He's fixed us firmly. And who
are we in? We're in his son, aren't we?
We're in Christ Jesus. We're in God incarnate in the
flesh, the one who bled and died to redeem our eternal souls.
My, he's the God of all grace. Strengthen there means to strengthen
us. It's used to say that those who are without strength will
be strengthened. Well, that's us, isn't it? We're without strength. We're without strength. Again,
it means to settle us. And then settle means to lay
the foundation, to make stable. This is all done by God. So why
aren't we like going all over the place? Because he's set us
firmly and fixed. And he establishes us. Isn't
that incredible? Oh my. Things happen in this
world, we hear about all this stuff. Why don't we lose our
minds? Because he's settled us. He has
us fixed. Right? And we know he's in absolute
control. We know that for a fact. What
else have we tasted? We ourselves, personally, every
believer, we have tasted that the Lord is gracious. And we're
tasting it still, aren't we? When you get up in the morning,
you make a coffee, thank God for that coffee, because that
came from somebody's field, who knows where, it was trucked to
the grocery store, you grabbed it, and there it is right on
your table. God's so gracious to us, isn't
He? He's so merciful to us. See, we just take things for
granted, don't we? But He's so gracious to us. And He's manifest His goodness
and His grace to us, hasn't He? He really has. Now let's read
verses 12 to 14, closing this chapter. We see Peter's final
greeting to the suffering saints. Again, he's writing to these
saints who are suffering for their faith. And he says, he's
written this by Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, I suppose I
have written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the
true grace of God wherein you stand. Who did they stand in? They stood in Christ, didn't
they? They stood in Christ. Silvanus is the same as Silas,
so that's Silas who's actually writing this. He's often mentioned
by Paul in the Acts of the Apostles as a companion of Paul. And it's
thought by several commentators that Peter met him in his travels
and he was converted and sent this letter by him.
And note his character here is brought forth as he's called
a faithful brother, not only to Peter and Paul, but to those
to whom the letter is written. He is a faithful minister of
the gospel, beloved. He's a faithful minister of the
gospel. A note Peter brings forth that
there's only one true grace, one true gospel, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's in and through Christ
alone. He's the God of all grace. There's one faith, right? And
that faith has one object, that's Christ. One spirit, who we're
born again by, the Holy Spirit of God. One God, one Father. My, one God. Father, Son, and
the Holy Spirit. And remember this, that by the
date of Peter's writings, other views of Jesus had developed.
And Peter here asserts that there's one true grace. See, the Judaizers
had crept in. The Gnostics had crept in. John even wrote that even now
there's Antichrist among us. And we know by our studies before
that Antichrist is anything against Christ. Anything that would replace
Christ or add to the finished work of Christ by something you
have to do. That's just a false religion. So he brings forth this one true
gospel. This has been the theme which
Peter has emphasized often in this epistle. Let's look quickly
at chapter 1 verses 10 and verse 13 as well. He says this, of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesize
of the grace that should come unto you, verse 10, chapter 1,
and verse 13. Wherefore, gird up the loins
of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
See, Christ must reveal himself to us, or we never know him,
do we? We never know him. And then God's people have tasted
the graciousness of the Lord. Look at 1 Peter 2 verse 3. It says, if so be you have tasted
that the Lord is gracious. Have you tasted that the Lord
is gracious? Rejoice, beloved. He's so gracious, isn't he? He
forgave me all my sins. Past, present, and future. That's
wonderful. That's wonderful news. And in
1st Peter chapter 3 verse 7 it says, likewise ye husbands dwell
with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife as
unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace
of life. Let your prayers be not hindered. The grace of life.
And in 1st Peter chapter 4 verse 10, as every man hath received a
gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards
of the manifold grace of God. It's all singular. It's all singular. And then 1 Peter 5, verse 5,
likewise you younger, submit yourselves unto the elder, yea,
all of ye be subject one to another and be clothed with humility,
for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Now
we're about low, aren't we, when the Lord saves us. We still got
pride in us, don't we? I got enough pride in me to burn
this whole town down. I'll tell you that. And I'm a
saved man. My oh my. We all struggle with
the flesh, don't we? Every one of us. Every one of
us. God gives grace to the humble
though. And we humble ourselves before God, don't we? We lay
down, you know when we come to Christ, we lay down our arms.
Right before him, don't we? Well, Scott used to say that,
and that's so true. We just lay down our arms, and we take sides
with God against ourselves. We do. I'm the one. I'm the sinner who has tasted
that the Lord is gracious. Are you? Isn't it wonderful?
It's wonderful. It's absolutely amazing, isn't
it? Let's read verse 10 again. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us, unto his glory, his eternal glory, by Christ
Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you, the God of all grace. And in our
verse here, in verse 12 again, by Savanus, a faithful brother
unto you, I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying
that there is the true grace of God wherein you stand. God's
people, again, we've tasted that the Lord is gracious. And how
have we? In and through Christ alone, right? That's the only
way. The only way we can taste the Lord is gracious is through
Christ. There's no other way. No other way. Look at verse 13 and 14. The
church that is at Babylon elect together with you, saluteth you,
and so doth Marcus my son greet ye one another with a kiss of
charity, a kiss of love. Peace be with you, all that are
in Christ Jesus, amen. So Peter here sends a greeting
to the suffering saints from the church which is at Babylon,
and from John Mark, who's Marcus, to let us note this nugget of
truth which is tucked into this verse too. Peter brings forth
that the suffering saints that they are elected are chosen by
God. Now that's not a thing to run away from. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And you know,
it's God's grace that we're saved, because if God hadn't chosen
us, we'd never be saved. Never. It's God's grace. It's God's
mercy that's been shown to us. And like I said, I don't know
who God's elect are, so I preach the gospel to everyone. Everyone. I know God chooses people. He
chose Israel, didn't he? No one gets mad about that. He
chose angels. Some angels fall and some angels
didn't. No one gets mad about that. He chose to save six people in
an ark. No one gets mad about that. But
when you say God elects people, he chooses a people, well he's
done it all through the Bible, beloved. He's a chosen God, isn't he? And I personally, and I know
you who believe, marvel that we're one of his elect. We marvel at that. This is wonderful. Because I never would have chose
Christ. But praise be to God he chose
me. And I'm going to preach Christ and him crucified to the whole
world. And leave it all in God's hands to bring in whomever he
will. And that's why we're here, right? We've talked about that.
The purpose of this church is the furtherance of the gospel.
That's why we're, we are so blessed to have each other. Do you know
how blessed we are to have each other? To be able to come together
and to rejoice with one another, as Christ being our savior, what
a blessing. And then here we are, we have
the privilege that the gospel goes out on sermon aria all over
the world. It's absolutely amazing. Absolutely
incredible. And you know what? God's going
to get his sheep. He said my word won't return
unto me void. It won't. You know why? Because God's sheep
are going to hear the gospel. They're going to hear it. And
they will be saved. Right? They shall be my people.
Right? Remember we looked at that or read that in Jeremiah?
They shall be. It's not they might be. They
shall be. Praise God it says they shall
be, right? Who went out looking for the lost sheep? Did the lost
sheep say, shepherd, I need to be found? He didn't say nothing,
right? The sheep was lost. Caught up
in some place, off, and who came out and sought that little lost
sheep? Who left the 99 behind and went for one sheep? The shepherd
did, didn't he? And that's what he did for you
and I. He left the glories and splendors
of heaven to save all those lost sheep of whom were a number. My, oh, my. No wonder he says,
peace be with you that are in Christ Jesus. Peace be with you. Oh, what peace we have in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to his name.