Back to 1 Peter chapter 5. I'm going to start reading again
in verse 1. I'm going to read down to verse
11. It says, "...the elders which are
among you I exhort who also who am also an elder, and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. 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 examples to the flock."
Brother, I tell you what, that is something that needs to be
preached a lot. in churches today. It needs to
be heard by many preachers today. I know that that exhortation
is necessarily to the pastors and to the teachers. And they
need to hear that. That they are to feed the flock
of God. What's being fed to the flock
of God nowadays is not the food that God intended. It's not what
God wants fed to His sheep. Neither is being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. Matter of fact,
that word oversight, that word pastor, it means to be an example. To be an example. And when the
chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory
that fadeth not away. Likewise, in the same manner,
just as Peter is exhorting the elders to submit to the flock
by being servicing with the Word of God to the flock, feeding
the flock, how do we serve one another? We serve one another
together by coming here and fellowshipping in the doctrine of Jesus Christ,
by encouraging each other in the doctrine of Christ. We talked
about that last week. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves
unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. We talked about that
last week, right? Humble yourselves, therefore,
under 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 vigilant, because your adversary the devil as a roaring
lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. And today we're going
to talk about this verse here. But the God of all grace, who
had called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a little while, a while, Make You perfect,
establish, strengthen, settle You. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Lord, we ask that You would
be with us this morning, that You might help me to minister
the Word, that You might speak to Your people and by Your Spirit
teach us all today through this Word. Father, we pray that You
would exalt Your Son, Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, that those that
are listening Watching Lord, that they too would be blessed
and that you would minister to them. And Lord, we just pray
that we'd be honoring and glorifying to you in all that we do and
say, for it's in Christ's name that we pray. Well, brethren, if you remember,
we started looking at these verses last week, and I began last week
and basically just got an introduction to really what I was wanting
to get to in verse 10, but By way of capitulation, let me just
kind of remind you guys, in case you have forgotten, surely you
haven't, but in case you have, if you remember, last week we
went back into Luke and we looked at the account where Peter was
told by the Lord Jesus that he was going to be sifted by Satan
and that he would deny him three times before the cock crows And
Peter, of course, as proud as the person he was, he's like,
no, that's not gonna happen. I'm gonna follow you all the
way to death. And the Lord said, you know, that Satan had desired
to sift you, but whenever you have been turned or whenever
you have repented, whenever you have come back, then strengthen
the brethren, feed the flock. And so we've seen this, This
experience that Peter had, this humbling experience that Peter
had, that as zealous as he was for Christ, as dedicated as he
was to the Lord to follow Him and His right hand man and everything,
that still that the Lord had to send him through sifting by
Satan so that he might be humbled. And we talked about that last
week, the importance of humility. that God uses the sifting of
Satan in our lives, the humbling effects that we get by being
brought down through affliction, through hardships, through trials,
through instances of our lives that just really show us how
feeble we are, how frail we are, how sinful we are, and how God
uses that to strengthen us. And matter of fact, I ended up
going back and naming the title of last week's message, Strengthening
Through Sifting. And we saw how Peter, after he
had been sifted by Satan and had gone through that humbling
experience of seeing, here I was, zealous for the Lord, and I'm
the one that ended up denying him three times within just a
short amount of time with cursings. That's horrible, you know? Well,
if Peter can do that, I'm sure we all can do that. And we do
do that, right? We all do that. And so we saw
how through that, though, the Lord taught Peter something.
And if you remember at the end of that story, whenever the Lord
resurrected from the grave and he came back and met with the
disciples and they were there eating around the campfire, eating
together, and he talked to Peter and he said, you know, do you
love me? And Peter kept saying, you know that I love you. You
know that I love you. feed my sheep, feed my sheep." What was
he saying? He's telling what he told him before he was even
sifted. He said, strengthen your brethren,
feed the sheep. And so now Peter is doing that
very thing. And after that, we see Peter
did that. He was the one who stood up on
the day of Pentecost and he preached that marvelous sermon about what
Christ had done. And 3,000 souls were saved, not
because Peter preached or because because the Spirit of God had
opened up the hearts and the minds of the elect people that
were there and they were converted by the preaching of the gospel.
But Peter preached that and we've seen that he began to feed the
sheep. And here he's writing to the sheep of God scattered
all over the place. And to us today as this has been
preserved for us on down because we are people of light precious
faith. We are people who are of the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. As we see in his second letter,
he said, those who have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. These letters were written to
feed the sheep of God. And any pastor who is a pastor
of the biblical sense should be a pastor who feeds the flock
of God. And of course, the question that
arose last week as we began to look at these verses is, well,
what is it that we are to feed the flock with that is going
to be of any good to them? What do we feed the flock with?
Well, as we see here, Peter, as he's going down through here,
says, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight. And then he goes down a little
bit further and he says, He says, resist the devil. He
said, be careful. The devil is out there like a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. But he says, but
you resist him steadfast in the faith. So when we feed the flock
to strengthen them, that's one of the reasons why we eat, right,
is to nourish us so that we'll be strengthened, so that we are
rejuvenated, so that we maintain our our life, you know, and I'm
not saying that if you read your Bible more it's going to maintain
your life more, but it is going to help you. Whenever you feed
on God's Word and everything, it's going to keep you nourished
in God's Word. It's going to keep your mind
thinking upon the things of God as the Spirit of God keeps you
and holds you in those thoughts and on those things about Christ.
He says here that we are to resist Him in the faith, with the faith.
So the things that we arm each other, what we feed each other,
what we nourish ourselves on is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the faith of Jesus Christ, what He has done on our behalf. His faithfulness in coming and
living perfectly to the law and keeping the law on our behalf.
Him dying in our place and being the substitute for our sin debt
that we owe, for all the things that He did in His righteous
works, that is what we feed the flock with. A lot of churches,
they like to feed off of all kinds of other things, but we
are to feed the flock, and that's where we are going to receive
our nourishment, so to speak, is by hearing the gospel of Jesus
Christ. We often say it around here,
and it's been said before by other men, is that, do Christians
need to keep hearing the gospel? Is it the gospel something that
you tell people that don't know Jesus? That's what the gospel's
for. Whenever we get in here, we want
to hear other things, you know? Tell us how to live, and tell
us how to do this, and tell us how to do that. No, the gospel
is only for the children of God. The gospel isn't for the reprobate.
The reprobate was never intended to believe the gospel to begin
with. But the gospel is the good news to them that believe. It's
the power of God unto salvation to them that believe. Those who
have been given that precious faith that only comes to those
who are born of God. The gospel is for them. It's
to tell them the good news. That's what the gospel means.
The gospel means good news. It's a declaration of good news
And that good news is only to the ones to whom the good news
is for. OK? If I came to my kids today
and said, hey, good news. We're getting a new house. We're
getting to move to a new house. Well, that would be good news
to us. But if I went to, you know, one of y'all's friends
that you play video games with and said, hey, good news. We're
getting a new house. Just news to them because it
don't pertain to them. But to us it's good news. Why?
Because the news is about us. The news is for us. And the news
is affecting us. The gospel is a message for the
elect of God because it is affecting the elect of God. The gospel
is something that actually is news about them. What Christ
did for them. And so whenever we preach the
gospel, we are preaching to the people for whom that message
is intended to. Just like this, these messages
were written to specific people, but God has preserved them for
us today, but it's not for everyone today. It's still for a specific
group of people, the people of God. Okay? So when Peter is writing
these things to feed the flock, how do we feed the flock? Well,
we feed the flock with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We speak about
the faith of Jesus Christ. And that's not our faith being
exercised. That's the faith of Jesus Christ
being enacted as the one who came as the substitute. The one
coming on our behalf. The one who came and brought
forth a righteousness that was then that righteousness that
he had there in all his obedience and his death that righteousness
is imputed unto all of his elect throughout all time. They have
been given the elect of God before the foundation of the world,
but it was all based upon what Jesus would come and do at that
specific point in history when he came. What he did was laid
to all the Old Testament people's accounts It's laid to all the
New Testament people's accounts, whether they be Old Testament
or New Testament, all of them are saved the exact same way
they are saved because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That being imputed to their account,
them not having anything to do with it. That's what we feed
each other, submitting one another, servicing one another. How do
we serve one another? Is it also caring for each other?
Yes. for my brethren in the church? Absolutely. Do we pray for them?
Do we check in on them when they're sick? Do we help them if they
need help? Yes, we do all those things.
But primarily serving one another is serving them in the encouragement
of the Word of God. Encouraging them in the Gospel. Encouraging them in what Christ
has done on their behalf. Now, the reason I say all that
is because Peter is dealing with a specific purpose in these letters. And the specific purpose in all
these letters that he's writing here is the fact that there are
people that are coming up who are false teachers, who are preaching
a false gospel. They are preaching anti-Christ
things. They are scoffers. They are heresy
preachers. And so Peter is strengthening
the brethren, feeding the flock with good food because a lot
of bad food is being given to them through other means. And
so Peter is dealing with these things and he's saying, listen,
whenever somebody comes, just like Paul when he dealt with
the Galatians remember whenever we went through Galatians and
we seen that the Judaizers had come in and began to preach that
Oh, yeah, you're saved by grace But you also have to keep the
law of Moses and to continue to keep the commandments of God
To stay saved and then they even went so far to say well, yeah,
you've got to do it to get saved Okay, that was what like Peter
is dealing with false Accused our false brethren coming in
and bringing these things in Well, whenever you start to hear
that preaching, you've got to keep the law. You've got to keep
the law. If you're not keeping the law, if you claim to be a
Christian and you're believing in Christ, yeah, you can leave
on Him as your Savior, but if you don't claim Him as your Lord,
where you're obeying His every command, then you're not really
saved. You just have a lit profession
and all these things. Whenever people start saying
those types of things, and say we have to keep the law to be
righteous before God, to stay righteous before God, then that
is the devil, as we've seen last week, coming in as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. The devil is coming in and taking
those false accusations because we know the Bible exhorts us
to keep the commands of Christ. The Bible exhorts us to be obedient. The Bible exhorts us to walk
in a manner that is in keeping with the Word of God. It exhorts
us to do those things. But whenever Satan comes in,
he takes that truth and then he turns it in such a way where
he says, look, you're not doing enough. You're not doing enough.
You've got to do this. You've got to do this. You've got to
keep doing that. And so what does the flesh begin to do? It
begins to crank up its self-righteous desires and self-righteous works
and thinks that it can please God by, well, let me get to work.
I need to start doing religious things. If I start doing religious
things, then Jesus will be happy with me again. And see, this
is where Satan attacks, gets our eyes off of the gospel, which
is how we obey Christ. How do we obey Christ? According
to Christ? By looking to Him and believing.
We obey Christ by believing on Him. We believe by faith, looking
to Christ as our perfect obedience. Looking to Christ as the one
who has taken all of our sin and therefore there is now no
condemnation in Christ Jesus. We look to Christ. And so we
feed each other. We sustain each other. We encourage each other. We build
each other up. in the gospel. Why? Because the
world, the religious systems in the world, and Satan, who
is the god of this world, so to speak, he's not over God and
he's not actually a god, but he is a ruler over this world,
as the Bible says, under God's control, of course. He is seeking God's people to
devour them by filling their mind with false teaching, false
thinking, and especially the false belief that their righteousness
can be accepted by God. Your righteousness will never
be accepted by God. And so, we saw last week that
God takes us then through times of sifting to bring us down.
Whenever we become puffed up, we think, hey, we're doing alright.
We're doing pretty good. What does the Lord do? He chastens
us. He knocks us down. Just as soon
as, you know, we get to both, we was talking about it and watching
sports and stuff, you know, yesterday. Anytime anybody starts getting
out there and they start boasting and they start boasting and every
time it always seems that what happens? They ended up getting
knocked out. You know, I was watching some
reels of boxing matches and how guys come in and before the fights
they get all up in the guy's face and they're making all these
claims and doing all this stuff and then when they get in the
ring they're doing all this, you know, flashy stuff, showing
off and the other guy's just calm and collected and then whenever
they go to get their instructions they're right in their face and
doing all these things and then when they come out they may come
out with their hands down taunting the other guy with their face
and stuff like that. Those are the guys that end up
getting knocked out, you know. As I said last week, pride comes
before a fall. See, the Lord teaches us through
that sifting of Satan. He teaches us through those hardships
and trials. But he says here in verse nine,
he says, Whom resisteth steadfast in the face, knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. There's nothing new under the
sun. Everything that is going on in
your life going on in other people's lives. Listen, you're not unique
in the fact that you have not experienced something that somebody
else has not experienced. Somebody said, oh, you've not
experienced it. You just don't know what I've
gone through. Oh, yeah. Everybody knows. Everybody has
been tempted to sin. Everybody has the same temptations. Everybody has the same hardships.
We all go through the same thing. Have I been picked on? I've been
picked on. Have I been ridiculed? I've been ridiculed. Have I been
called bad names? I've been called bad names. Have I been excluded,
left out? I've been excluded, left out.
Have I been betrayed by a friend? I've been betrayed by a friend.
Have I been hated? Yes. Have I been falsely accused?
A whole lot. Have I been lied to? I've been
lied to. Everybody has gone through the
same thing. And that's what the Lord is saying. He said, listen,
all of this is happening. It's not just you, but it's the
Lord's way of keeping us humbled before Him. But whenever those
temptations come, whenever those trials come, whenever the hardships
come, whenever the testing and the sifting comes, He says, resist Steadfast in
the faith. What are we to do when those
trials come? He didn't say, I'm going to remove
them. He said, during the trials, through
the trials, in the midst of the trials, he said, resist steadfast
in the faith. Resist Satan's call to turn. Turn away from God. Get mad at
God. Give up on God. But even more
than that, brethren, because a true child of God wouldn't
do that, more than that, what Satan tries to do is said, you're
not living up to your standard. You better get to work and do
all those religious things so God will be happy with you. And
so, like I said, what do we do? We begin thinking that if we
keep all these things, and so now we're not trusting that the
Lord is enough. We think that now what we are
doing is going to make up for what the Lord is unhappy with
us about. But the Lord wants us to remember one thing. What Christ has done. And so
that's why it goes to verse 10. Resist the devil. Be sober, he
says. Be vigilant. He says, don't get
your mind messed up. Whenever someone's not sober,
we talked about it last week, whenever someone's drunk, what
happens? They're not thinking right. They're not thinking right. For one, their head is all, you
know, cloudy. They can't make a correct reaction.
Their reactions are slow. Their reactions may be way off.
You know, I've seen guys that's been drunk and they go to reach
for something and they miss it completely. They try to get up
and walk and they can't walk a straight line. If they can
even get up. Most of them wet themselves.
I mean, they lose all function. Why? Their mind is not sober.
But the Bible says be sober. Have your mind right. Keep thinking
right thoughts because there's going to be these thoughts that
are going to be coming that Satan's going to try to bring into your
mind. And it says, be vigilant, meaning be watchful of these
things. You know, I can tell you kids whenever we're watching
these shows and you always hear me bringing up, well, that's
satanic. Well, that's demonic. Well, that's part of this Satan
system. Well, that's part of that witchcraft
system. Pointing out these things. What does that mean? That's being
vigilant. Recognizing, hey, that's the ploys of Satan to slowly
and try to easily manipulate your mind. We see those things,
we recognize them for what they are, right? And so we are to
be vigilant. Whenever Satan is attacking and
we hear somebody preaching, you've got to keep the law, you've got
to keep the law, you've got to keep the law. Whenever we hear somebody
preaching that you're not good enough, or you can lose your
salvation, or you can, you know, whenever we start hearing the
things that come away from the Gospel, we need to be sober,
we need to be vigilant, Watchful of these things. And whenever
those things come, be steadfast in the faith. Resist the devil
by the Word of God. Resist the devil by what the
Gospel tells us. And so Peter, in verse 10, says
this, But the God of all grace, who hath
called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye
have suffered, not before, to keep you from suffering, but
after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. See, that's the purpose that
God brings you through those things, is so that you might
be perfect or mature, established, unmovable, strengthened, not
weak, but strong, and settle you, keep you settled where,
hey, I'm settled in this situation. I, you know, I'm not double-minded.
The Bible says a double-minded way is unstable, or a double-minded
man is unstable in all of these ways. If you're double-minded,
if you're always, well, I think it's this, well, I think it's
this. And brethren, listen, I'm telling you, I'm just as guilty
as anybody else, especially when it comes to law and grace. Well,
I've got to keep the law, I've got to keep the law, I've got
to keep up an appearance of this and all this kind of stuff. And
then I turn around and say, well, no, it's only by the grace of
God, it's by Christ alone. You know, I'm no longer under
the law and all like that. And then I turn away from that
and come back. Well, I've got to keep doing this and I've got
to keep doing this. I'm unstable in all my ways. I'm unsettled.
And what does that do? It keeps me tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine. But if we keep our minds steadfast
in the faith of Jesus Christ and what He has done, what He
has accomplished and what the record says about us, then we won't be tossed to and
fro with every wind and dark. See, I've mentioned it to you
guys before. I don't have to go out here and study what the Mormons
believe, or study what the Jehovah Witnesses believe. I don't have
to study what the Catholics believe. I don't have to study what the
Hoonka Boonka tribe over in Africa believes. I don't have to study
about what Hinduism and Buddhism and Mohammed and all those Muslims
and all that stuff. I don't have to go and study
all of their religions so that I might be able to know what's
the truth and to teach them the truth. No, all I need to know
is what the truth says. Because whenever I see those
things, if it doesn't align with the truth, then I know that's
not true. And so the way that we are settled and the way that
we are strengthened and the way that we are established and mature
in the faith is by knowing what this says. Whenever we know what
Then whenever all those other things that come to shake our
understanding and faith comes, we'll know that's not right.
That's not right. That don't make sense. No, the
Word of God says this. We resist steadfast in the faith,
not with faith, although faith is involved because we're trusting
in what God says, but he's saying to resist in the faith, meaning
that we are resisting in the doctrine of Christ. What has
Christ taught us? That's what we resist with. Whenever
they come and say this, this and this, and we say, well, that's
not what Christ said. That's not what the word of God
says. I don't care what John Hill says. I don't care what,
A.W. Pink says, I don't care what,
you know, Billy Graham says. I don't care what anybody says. What does this say? That's what
I'm concerned with. And so he has the purpose of
bringing us through the sifting so that we might, with the Word
of God, learn. Whenever I'm put through a trial,
but I find something in the Word of God that strengthens me, that
stables me, that settles me. Guess what? The next time that
trial comes, I'll remember that. I know that. And now I'm established. But who does it come from? Where
does it come from? Look at verse 10. But the God of all grace. The God of all grace. And that
phrase, actually last week, is what really pulled me to look
at these verses is, you know, we preach grace here all the
time, right? Matter of fact, our church, we have called it
Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. We talk about grace, grace all
the time, right? We talk about distinguishing
grace, not just grace. Everybody talks about grace,
but we are specific about what the Bible teaches about grace.
Grace is something that is sovereign, that God is sovereign. And we look at this verse and
we say, the God of all grace. And I got to thinking about that
all grace. And how does that pertain? If God has pointed us
to resist the fiery darts of the devil with the faith, which
comes from the word of God, and the word of God is written to
reveal God, And here it's saying, God is the God of all grace.
Well, what is the God of all grace? How does that pertain
to me resisting the devil, me resisting the fiery darts, me
setting my mind and being settled and established and unwavering
and looking unto Jesus and feeding the flock? I mean, what has all
that got to do with the God of all grace? Why did the Holy Spirit
say, but the God of all grace? Why didn't He just say, but God,
who had called us? But Jesus, who came? Why didn't He just say Jehovah
or Yahweh or the great I Am? Why did He say, but the God of
all grace, who had called us unto His eternal glory? Well,
there's some things we can learn from that, brethren, I think.
Think about that, all grace. What kind of other grace is there? He's the God of all grace. That
means that if there is any grace to be known, it comes from God. God is the originator of grace. Grace comes from God. Grace is
not something that comes from man. Grace only comes from God. And He's the God of all grace. Let's think about some things
And I wrote a bunch of things down, and we're going to look
at some verses that deal with that. But think about this. Let's
just start at the very beginning. One thing that God is the God
of grace in is the electing grace of God. The very fact that God,
by grace, has chosen us, has chosen His people to be saved,
to be His. Look in Ephesians chapter 1. It's just in verse one, starting
in verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will
of God to the saints, which are in Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus, grace be to you and peace from where? From God, our Father, and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace comes from Him, right? But let's look on. It says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
Him in love. This is by His grace. Grace be to you. What grace? The grace that God has blessed
you with all spiritual blessings, that He has chosen you before
the foundation of the world to be His people. We see His electing
grace. We see His loving grace. Look
at 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16. 1 John 3 and verse 16. It's
funny. that John wrote the Gospel of
John, and now he's writing this Epistle of John. And in John
3.16, the verse is about God's love. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And in
1 John 3.16, he writes about God's love when he says, Hereby
proceed we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. Hereby
proceed we the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We see God's electing grace. We see God's loving grace. God
loves us. Now there's more verses in this
but for time's sake I'm not going to go. I just wanted to read
a few. Romans 8 38 is another one here we can look at. Romans
8 It says, for I am persuaded. Actually, let me back up to verse
33. It says, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? Now
remember some of these things because they're going to have
to do with some of the other words that we're going to look at. Who is
he that condemneth? Is it Christ died, yea, rather,
that is risen again? Who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us? Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Those are all trials and siftings,
right? Those are all temptations, and
they're all hardships and afflictions that we go through. Is that going
to separate us from the love of God? Does God not love us
because we're experiencing all those things? Absolutely not.
It says, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the
day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things, all what things? Tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. We are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Our God is the God of all grace.
What kind of grace? Electing grace, loving grace. He has loved us. What other kind
of grace has God given to us and shown us? the grace of imputed
righteousness. He has elected us, He has loved
us, and He has imputed Christ's righteousness to us. We are made
the righteousness of God in Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want
to read verse 21. It says, For He hath made Him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. We are made righteousness by
the death of Jesus Christ, not by our actions, not by our obedience,
not by our religiosity. We are made righteousness not
by working the works of God, not by doing the works of God,
not by obeying the commands of God, We are not made righteous
or kept righteous by those things. That right there, the Bible says
that. That we are made the righteousness of God. How? By the One who has
made sin for us. In Him. We are righteousness
in Him. The God of all grace has given
us righteousness. Who doesn't have righteousness?
That's grace. To have something, to get something
that we don't deserve. Something that's not ours. Election. We don't deserve it, but God's
given it to us. It wasn't ours, but it is ours
now. Why? Because God gave it to us.
Love. He didn't owe us love. Matter
of fact, the Bible teaches that God doesn't love everybody. He
only loves His elect. And those who are in that elect.
Christ Jesus. He loves us. He has given us
righteousness, who are His people. and His people alone. And it
didn't come on our works, it came on Christ's back, by His
blood. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1, verse 30. It says, But of Him, God, are
ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom and righteousness. There it is. Christ has made
unto us righteousness. In God's eyes, our righteousness
comes from Christ. However righteous Christ is,
that's how righteous Mike Smith is. If I be His, I'm as righteous
as He is. If you be His, you're as righteous
as Jesus Christ is in God's accounting. God's side. In the judgment seat
of God, God deems you whenever He's looking at all the evidence
before Him. He does not see anything on your
record even though your record is completely chock full of sin
against Him. He doesn't see that because Christ
has taken that away and placed His righteousness in front of
the judge. So to speak. He says, But of Him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. Those words we want to look at
here shortly. But remember those. So we have
this, Christ is our righteousness. Listen, I can never become more
righteous than I am right now. I can never become more righteous
than I am right now. I either have it all or not. In Colossians, in Colossians,
and I don't want to botch this, but in Colossians, In Colossians, we read that we
are complete in Him. We are complete in Christ Jesus. If I'm complete, does that mean
that there's anything left? If I had this cup right here,
and this cup, because that word complete, one of the words that
it means is full, complete. If I had this cup and I fill
it up, and you've all seen it, When you fill something up, it
kind of crimes over just a little bit because of water tension.
It'll kind of go above the edge, come from the edge and come above.
If I have that as full as I can be, can I get any more in it?
Can't get any more in, it's full. There ain't no more. And whenever
I pour this out to the point where it becomes so dry that
there's nothing in there, everything that was in there
is out, right? It's completely gone. completely gone. Well, the Bible says that we
are complete in Him. That means everything. Everything
that we have need of in God's view, that God requires, that
God demands, that the law of God demands, that the wrath of
God demands, everything that God requires, the Bible says
we are complete in Christ Jesus. So there's no more for me to
fill up. There's no more for me. I can't do anything because
Christ did everything for me. To the fullest extent, to the
greatest quantity, to the highest measure, to the widest amount,
Christ did it for us. And so I can't do anymore because
there isn't no more room. If the cup is full, I can't put
any more in there. So what do I do? I just sit there
and I say, praise God, it's full. I didn't have to do nothing.
Someone already did it for me. I often hear you kids whenever
you're talking to the Dairy Queen, whenever you go in to work at
night, somebody fills everything up for you. So in the morning
when you get there, everything's ready for you to go to work.
Sometimes you come in and somebody didn't do it. refill everything,
stock everything, all like that, and what do you do? You come
in? Why? Why do you do it? Why do
you do it? I gotta do extra work. You gotta
do work, right? Somebody didn't fill up the ice
cream filler or whatever it is you guys fill up. You come in,
what is it? Now I gotta do it. It's more,
it's, it's, now you have to labor, and you have to do something,
right? But if you come in and everything is clean, everything
is full, everything is ready to go, how do you feel? You're happy. Well, what do you
do when you get there? Do you fill it up again? Do you add more on top of it? Do you clean it again? Why? Someone already did it for
you. So what do you do? You just sit
there and say, I'm glad they did that. I'm thankful for that.
That's kind of what we're talking about here. The God of all grace
has said you are complete in Him. That's what grace is. You
getting something that you don't deserve that is not yours but
was given to you on your behalf. God has given us everything that
He demands in Christ. What about acceptance? The grace
of acceptance. We are accepted of God. God is
a holy God and we are sinful people. How can we be accepted
of God? You know, most of the teaching
that you hear in churches today, in modern churches today, is
you have to accept God. How blasphemous is that? As if
God is something that is even to be quibbled over, that can
we accept Him or not accept Him? I thought He was God. Is He not
God? If he's God, then who are we to say, well, well, I'm going
to put my judgment on God and whether or not I want him or
not want him. The gospel is not whether you
accept Jesus or not accept Jesus. Whether you think he's all right
or not all right, whether you want him or not want him, whether
you let him in your heart or you don't let him into your heart.
That is not the gospel. The gospel isn't preaching, will
you let Jesus into your heart? Will you accept Jesus as your
Lord and Savior? No, the gospel is, guess what?
You didn't even know who Jesus was in spiritual terms. You didn't even know Jesus. You
didn't even want Jesus. You would never have come and
believed on Jesus had not Jesus first. Love Jesus. changed your
heart, changed your mind, gave you spiritual understanding to
even desire Him, to come to Him, to want Him. It isn't about Jesus,
are you accepting Jesus? It's about does God accept you? Has God accepted you? Because you're a sinner and God
will not accept sinners. He hates sinners. He hates all
workers of iniquity, the scripture says. So how can He accept you? Because you're a sinner, right? Again, Ephesians chapter 1, we
find it again, verse 6, "...to the praise of the glory of His
grace wherein..." Wherein what? His grace. Wherein what? His grace. "...He hath made us
accepted in the Beloved." God has made us accepted, but it's
not based upon our works. It's not based upon our righteousness.
It's not based upon our actions. dedicated we are, how much obeying
we do, it's based upon the fact that we are in Christ Jesus. And who put us there? Well, we
just read a while ago. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus. So the grace of being put in,
which is also election by the way, union, we call it eternal,
vital union. We were put in Christ Jesus for
the foundation of the world. We were elected. We were We were
given electing grace, we were given loving grace, we were given
imputed righteousness, and God, because of Christ's righteousness,
because we are in Christ Jesus, has made us accepted to Him.
We are acceptable to God because we are no longer viewed, no longer,
I say no longer, we was actually never viewed, but we are not
viewed as sinners, but we are viewed as saints. We are not
viewed as sinners in God's eyes. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not sin. If God has not imputed sin to
me and has imputed righteousness to me, then I am not a sinner
in the eyes of God. I am a sinner by nature in Adam,
a whole lot of a sinner. I actually am a sinner. I still
do sin. I will continue to sin until
this body is laid down. But before God, before the throne
of the sovereign king of all things, I am sinless. I've been made accepted as holy. I've been made accepted as righteous. I've been made accepted as obedient,
as faithful, as loving, as perfect. without spot, but it's because
I'm in Him. I'm in Christ. That's why God
looks at me that way. The grace of acceptance. We've
been accepted in the Beloved. We didn't deserve that because
we are sinful. But God doesn't see that because
we are accepted in Christ. We get the grace of justification.
Again, back to 1 Corinthians in chapter 30. We just read it.
Who has made unto us justification. 1 Corinthians. chapter 1 and verse 30, But of
him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto his wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification, we are justified freely by his
grace. That redemption We've been redeemed
from the curse of the law. We've been redeemed from sin.
We've been redeemed back. That means God has brought us
back. We were gods and we were lost in sin and trespasses, and
God redeemed us from that, brought us back, came and got us. A good
story in the Scriptures for you to go look at is the story of
Gomer. and how she, how the prophet loved her and yet
she kept going out and was a prostitute and kept going out to other men
and he would always go get her. He even went and bought her.
She was on the auction bottle being sold as a slave and he
went and bought his own wife and brought her back. It's a
picture of us. We are sinners and we are always
by this nature, are wanting to follow after our sin, after our
sin, after our sin. But God loves us and He won't
let us go and He keeps going and getting us. He keeps going
and getting us. He keeps going and getting us. Why? Because
He loves us. He has redeemed us. He purchased
us and He's bringing us back to Him. Christ has redeemed us
and has brought us back to God. Therefore we have Reconciliation. The grace of reconciliation.
We have the grace of holiness. The Bible says, Be ye holy, for
I am holy. Does that mean start getting
after those commandments of God so you can be holy? No. Be ye
holy, for I am holy. How are we to set our mind? How
are we to account ourselves? Holy as He is holy. Why? Because
we are in Christ Jesus. The Bible says, Without holiness,
no man can see God. Now let's just pretend that all
the other verses in the Bible aren't there, and that's the
only verse that we have in the Scripture. Without holiness,
no man, no woman, no child will ever see God. Do you measure
up? No. There's none holy. Nobody's holy. If I start today,
and if I could, and it's just an if, and it's not even a true
if, it's an impossibility, But let's just play pretend and say
I could keep all the laws of God perfectly from today forward. Does that mean I'm holy? No,
it's not. I'm not holy. There's only one
who is holy, and that's God. So if I'm to be holy, and without
which I will not see God, if I'm to be holy, Somebody has to be holy in my
place. I have to have holy stamped in my column of what I owe. He owes holiness, boom, paid
in full. Who paid in full my holiness?
Jesus Christ did, by grace. He give me holiness by His grace.
I have His holiness. He has made unto us sanctification. He has set us apart as holy for
Him. Can't get any holier. I cannot
get any holier than what Christ has made me holy. Christ has
made me holy, not in my Adam man, but Christ has made me holy
in Him. What about the grace of forgiveness? We need forgiveness. We aren't
owed forgiveness. We don't deserve forgiveness. We have all sinned,
come short of God's glory, but we are given forgiveness. The
Bible says there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. Those are all legal things that
we need, right? Those are the legal things that
we need, but what about some experiential things? Forgiveness,
I guess, would be experiential. What about a clear conscience?
How many of us in here have, whenever Satan comes, what is
he doing? He's coming and attacking our conscience, saying, you're
not doing enough. You need to get busy. You're
a sinner. How can God accept you? How can you be accepted
of God? You're not holy. You might think
you're obeying, but you're not. Or you obey on the outside, but
I know what you think. I know what goes on in your mind.
I know what you look at when no one else is looking. I know
what you think about when no one's thinking. I know what you
do when no one else is around. I know. You know what you do. What does he do? He attacks our
consciousness. And listen, false teachers do
that whenever they teach false things about the Gospel. It attacks
our consciousness. But praise the Lord, God gives
us the grace of a clear conscience. The blood of Christ sprinkled
upon the hearts. Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 19, it says, having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, what's in view here? He's
talking about the holy of holies. And remember, whenever the tabernacle
was built, was given to Moses and laid out the design, the
dimensions and how it was to be constructed, God told him,
he said, you need to construct this exactly the way I tell you
and don't deviate it one bit. Don't make one change to how
I told you to build this thing. And so Moses built that thing.
Everything had a purpose and reason because it all has a picture
of Christ. And so he told him to build that. And the Bible
tells us that that tabernacle that was pitched in earth is
a picture or an example of the heavenly tabernacle. And so that's
one of the reasons why it has to be exactly the way, because
it's to be a type or a symbol of that which is above. But it
says here, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.
The only one that can enter into the holiest of the holies, and
he did that once a year, was the high priest. And that was
after he did all the purging, all the cleansing, he did all
the things, put on the right clothes, did all the right things
that God had said before he went into the holy of holies. He was
the only one and he could not come in there unless he came
with blood. He had to come with the blood
of the sacrifice because if he went in there and he went in
there unclean, if he went in there not doing it the way God
told him to do it, if he went in there without blood, he would
die. That's why they tied a rope around those priest's feet and
they walked in in case somehow the priest did something wrong
and they died, nobody else could go in there. and they would have
to pull them out with a rope because they couldn't go in or
they would die. That's how God, how serious God
was about not diminishing what Christ has done. That's why I
warn you guys about false gospels that are out there. That's why
I warn you to listen to God's word and not the things of men
that's outside there. Not that there aren't good preachers
out there that we can listen to be edified by. You know, I'm
hoping people are finding me edifying. I'm hoping what I'm
preaching and teaching is the truth and that that truth is
then by the Spirit of God edifying and building up those of the
faith. Okay? I'm not saying that that's not
it, but what I'm saying is I'm giving you these things and feeding
you these things so that you can be built up in the faith
so that when these times of testing, when Satan comes and preaching
those things, you can stay steadfast in the faith. and resist, be
established, not moved. But he says here, having therefore,
brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of holies. We don't
have any boldness to come before God's throne because we are not
holy. But he says here, by a new and
living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that
is his flesh, the way that we can come in now, God has consecrated
us. He has set apart a way for us
to come. See, we couldn't come before.
We could never come apart from Christ, but He has set away,
He has set aside, consecrated a way for us, and that's through
the flesh of Jesus Christ, by His death. By Jesus dying has
provided a way for us to come into the Holy of Holies and commune
with God, to bring our request to God, to come before the throne
of God and to make our request in Thanksgiving known. That's
why Jesus, whenever He died, the veil of that temple that
separated the holiest of holies from the rest of the thing, it
ripped in two. It started from the top and went
down to the bottom. Why? Because God was showing that
there is now no veil here, that through Christ we all have access
to God for His people. Verse 21, and having a high priest
over the house of God, verse 22, here it is, let us draw near
with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled
from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Why do we keep preaching the Gospel and I keep pointing you
to the God of all grace? Because the God of all grace
has taken the blood of Jesus and sprinkled our hearts with
the Gospel to give us a clear conscience that we are not seen
as sinners in His eyes, as we are not transgressors in His
eyes anymore. I keep saying anymore. It's always been that way. But
in our experience, there was a time where we thought, I'm
a sinner against God. I need Christ. And so in our experience, we
were transgressors. But now I realize, hey, I'm not
a transgressor in God's eyes. I'm a saint. I'm a holy. But
in God's sight, it's been like that from the very beginning.
He's always looked at it that way. He's consecrated that, that we
might be able to draw near. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. There's that word again, without,
if we're not wavering, that means we're established, right? We're
settled. We're not moved to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
That we might hold fast the perfection of our faith without wavering,
for He is faithful at promise. The God of all grace has given
us a clear conscience that we're not guilty. He's given us the
grace of perfection before Him. There in Hebrews chapter 10,
look at verse 14. He says, for by one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Not are being sanctified, but
are sanctified. There's this notion in modern
theology, in modern preaching today, that we are being sanctified
more and more every day. And they take that word sanctified
and then they make it to mean be more holy. To be sanctified
or being sanctified means to become more holy. And so they
think that we are becoming more and more and more and more and
holy. That we are sinning less and less and less and less and
less. But the Bible here says that sanctification is a one-time
thing and it was done and over with. And it was in Christ Jesus. It was in Christ Jesus. It was
by Christ Jesus. And our perfection has already
been given to us. As I said a while ago, I can't
become more holier than I already am. Why? Because I'm perfect
in God's eyes. Because Christ is perfect. But I could go on and on. What
about pardoning grace? Do you need pardon from your
sins? Well, we have pardoning grace in Christ. How about restoring
grace? Have you sinned against God?
Have you ran away from God for some time and you, you know,
just kind of reveled in your sin a little bit? You're distant
from God, maybe? haven't been reading the Word,
haven't been studying the Scriptures, haven't been coming to church,
you haven't been doing all these things, you've just kind of been
in your own little funk and just decide, hey, I'm just going to
get away from all of it for a while. You need restoring grace? Well,
listen, the God of all grace can restore us from our constant
falling. He holds us up. Do we need strength?
Well, He tells us. The God of all grace can strengthen
you. Do we need reviving grace? Are we dead, so to speak, towards
spiritual things, just blah, going through life? Well, we
can be restored. Not only restored, but revived. We can be revived. Jesus says, when He said this
to Paul, He said, My grace is sufficient for thee. Whatever
the issue is, whatever the trial is, whatever the problem is,
whatever anything is, God's grace is sufficient for you. Why? Because
He is the God of all grace. And so everything that you have
need of, whether it be legal in the sense of the courtroom
before God for acceptance and salvation, Christ is everything
for you. And the grace that is in Christ
Jesus is sufficient for everything that you are required for in
those legal things. but everything experientially
in this time as you experience not only your salvation, but
that spiritual warfare of your flesh still wanting to sin and
still trying to sin and doing all this stuff with the spirit
that's in you saying, I hate that sin, I want to be like Christ,
I want to do what's right, I want to live in an upright way, I
want to do these things, but yet I keep finding that in my
flesh I cannot do those things and here I am, a wretched man
that I am. We find that in the experiential
things, restoring, strengthening, reviving, clear conscience, all
those things, that His grace is also sufficient for those
things. He's given us everything that we need. So why do we preach
God's grace? Why do we feed the flock? Why
did Jesus tell Peter, feed the flock, strengthen the brethren? Why is He telling me today to
you and for me to tell you today, look to Jesus and the Gospel
Because that's where all grace is, because the God of all grace
has provided everything that you have need of by His grace. He's provided everything that
you need if you're a child of grace. He says, But the God of all grace,
who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a little while, or suffer a while, make
you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Now, I just kind
of want to put a nail in this, because we're done. I want to
put a nail in this to show you that all this that I'm talking
about is so that you might be sober, be vigilant, because the
adversary, the devil, walketh about seeking whom he may devour,
and the way you resist this, the way that you overcome this
is by the gospel. It isn't by you standing strong,
it isn't by name it and claim it, it isn't by you being something
in and of yourself who has authority over demons. You resist this
by having a right understanding of the gospel. See, nobody can
tell you that you're unworthy because you continue to sin,
because Christ has taken your sin. If you know the gospel,
then you know the wiles of the devil can't get to you because
everything he's going to come to tell you is going to be that
you're no good. And you say, well, all you got
to do is say, tell me something I don't know. I already know
that. I know I'm no good. But Jesus is. But to show that
this is exactly what we're talking about, look if you would with
me over to Revelation. Revelation chapter 12. We'll
end with this. Look at verse 10. In fact, I'm going to go back
up and I'm going to read in verse 7. Now, I know there's a lot
of interpretation of Revelation and what all this stuff means.
Some may say, well, that's talking about something way in the future
or anything like that. I believe that what this is talking
about is stuff that's going on right now. Stuff that's going
on right now. I believe that this is symbolism.
It has to do with the Lord's church, the elect of God. I believe that this has to do
with spiritual things. But anyway, with that being said,
it says, if there was a war in heaven amongst God's people,
the church, there was a war in heaven. Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. and prevailed not, neither was
their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan which
deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation and strength and
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ For the accuser
of the brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night." Now remember last week I told you Satan's
called the accuser of the brethren. What does he do? He comes and
he accuses us before God, they're sinners. You're a holy God. You
said you will not pardon iniquity and they're full of iniquity.
How are you doing this? Why are you doing this? You are
unholy to accept these people. He's accusing the brethren. But
He's also an accuser to us. He's coming before us. And He
said, that's a holy God. And look at you. You're a sinful
person. He's never going to love you. He's never going to accept
you. You're never going to get to heaven. You're not good enough. You better
start being more religious. You better start being more religious.
He's the accuser to the brethren and of the brethren. So He comes
between God and man. And He accuses man to God and
accuses God to man. But we find in the Bible, the
Bible says that there is only one mediator between God and
man. See, Satan's up there mediating your salvation or your condemnation
to God. He may be coming and accusing,
but he is not the mediator. There is only one mediator between
God and man, and that's the man Jesus Christ, and he is mediating
to God on their behalf, they are perfect and holy and righteous,
here's my blood, I have paid their Christ in full. Therefore
God has accepted us because Jesus is our advocate, but he's also
the one pointing to us and saying, God loves you. God has accepted
you. You are forgiven. You are whole. You are righteous. You are perfect.
You are holy because you are in me. I've done all that for
you. I've done all that God requires
for you. So that when we look to God, we look through Christ.
Whenever God looks at us, we look through Christ. Christ is
the center of it all. And here we see that in the midst
of heaven, above everything, a loud voice saying in heaven,
now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the
power of His Christ. Because the accuser of the brethren
is cast down. He can no longer accuse us, brethren.
because Christ has overcome him. And it says in verse 11, listen,
and they, the brethren, those who were being accused, overcame
him. But how did they overcome him?
By being more religious so that he can't say nothing about them
anymore? That's what people want you to think. They want you to
think, how do we overcome Satan and the guilt that he throws
on us because of our sin? By being more righteous. will be more holy and he doesn't
have nothing to say about you. No, how did they overcome him?
Look, read it with me. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. How did they overcome? By looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of their faith. By looking
unto the gospel, what Christ has done on their behalf. not
by looking at their righteousness, not by looking at their ability,
but by looking to Christ. How did they overcome Satan and
his fiery darts? By the blood of the Lamb. Brethren,
I just encourage you that whenever preachers, teachers, moms and
dads, brothers and sisters, Satan and the darkest of hours, or
even the brightest of hours, I don't know, whenever that comes
and they start to tell you You need to start ramping up
that righteousness or you're not going to be happy to God. Overcome them by the blood of
the Lamb, by the word of your testimony. That's what it said
there. It said, come in full assurance
of faith. Faith reaches out and says, I
know what it looks like. I know who I am. But by faith,
Jesus said, I'm not that. By faith I see God promised that
He would take away all my iniquity and remember my sins no more
and forgive me. And as far as the East is from
the West, He'll remove my sins. And if He said He would do that,
and He said that I'm justified and righteous and holy, then
I believe Him. I don't believe Satan. I don't
believe preacher Joe Blow, whoever he is. I don't believe that.
I believe what God says. So may God give us, once again,
grace to even believe those things. Amen? Anybody have any questions,
comments? Read verse 11, 1 Peter, chapter
5. Come on, y'all. Come on, y'all. The last word to say is, to Him
be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen. glory and dominion, the God of
all grace. Father, we're so grateful today
for your grace. We're humbled by all that you
are and all that you've done on behalf of your people. We
thank you for Christ Jesus. Father, we're so thankful for
the mercy, grace, salvation, the adoption, the removal of
sin, cleaning of the conscience, all the things that we spoke
about today. And may you keep those in memory in our minds,
Lord, as we come through those times that you allow the sifting
to take place whenever Satan comes as a roaring lion, may
we be overcome by the blood of the Lamb. I pray today, Lord,
that your word today has been a comfort to the people. I pray,
Lord, that it's been an encouragement to them and that they are established
in the faith. And by the Holy Spirit, they've
been taught of God today to trust and look to Christ alone. And
that the works of religion will never make them acceptable to
you, but only through your son. And may they find rest in trusting
in him alone for their righteousness. We thank you again for this day
and the time that we have together to worship. I just pray that
you'll Be with us as we leave today and if you want to keep
us until we meet again.