I invite you this morning to
turn back with me now to the book of 1 Peter chapter 5. Peter's prayer concerning these
verses down here in verses 10 and 11 kind of sum up what I
want to talk to you about this morning. He said, but the God
of all grace who hath called us unto His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered for a while, make
you perfect, that is, mature. He is going to bring you into maturity. There are little babies in Christ,
and there are young men and women in Christ, and there are elders
in Christ, fathers and mothers. He's going to make you mature. And He's going to establish you. You're going to know what you
believe. You won't have to fumble around and get that card out
that you wrote down one time because so many people were asking
you what you couldn't tell them. And so you wrote it down on a
card. You won't have to go get it and pull it out. You'll be
able to tell them. He's going to establish you.
He is going to strengthen you. He strengthens us in the Gospel. We grow in grace and knowledge
of Him. We are not strong in ourselves,
but we are strong in faith. Abraham being strong in faith. Being strong in faith. He is going to strengthen us
and He is going to settle us. We are going to settle down.
Settle down. To Him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. The story of every believer is
the story of grace. Just get Him quiet. Sit down
with Him and say, tell me your story. When he does, it's a story
of grace. Every time. I don't care who
it is. I don't care how young they are. I don't care how old
they are. Male or female, doesn't make any difference. Educated,
uneducated, their story is a story of grace. He does not talk about
his great accomplishment and hard work. He confesses. His confession is not one of
sacrifice and good intentions. I told the Lord, if He'd do this,
I'd do that. That's not the story of grace. But it's of the full, free, and
sovereign grace of God in Christ. Now, where do we start with this
story? Well, grace, strictly speaking,
is only found in God. You won't find grace. Grace is
in Him. That's His attribute. That's
His character. That's who God is. God is gracious,
and He's the only one who is. God is love. God is merciful. And God is gracious. Strictly
speaking, grace is only found in God. He said He is the God,
listen, of all grace. Isn't that what that says? All
grace. And if you read carefully Paul's
salutation to the churches in nearly every epistle he wrote,
he said, Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father. Isn't that where it comes from?
Yes it is. and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is the God of all grace. He alone is gracious. And because
it's found in a sovereign, it must of necessity then be sovereign
grace. You see that? God is not only
gracious, but God is a sovereign. Now, that means that that grace
is sovereign grace. It's His. It's His. It's His to give, It's His to
withhold. It's His. It's not yours. It's nothing that you deserve.
If you deserve it, it's not grace. If you can win it, it's not grace. If it's your right to have it,
it's not grace. Then it becomes a work. And if
it's a work, then it's no longer a grace. Otherwise, work is no
more work. But if it be of grace, then it's
no more worse. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. God said, I will be gracious
to whom I will be gracious. That's what He told Moses. Moses
said, show me your glory. He said, all right. Here's my
glory. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. I'll be merciful to whom I will
be merciful, and whom I will I'll harden. The God of all grace is the sovereign
God of glory, and that's the source of grace. And this grace
is dispensed to men in the person of Jesus Christ. Why? Because that's what's according
to the good pleasure of His will. That's God's will. That's God's
eternal purpose, is to save a people, to manifest the glory of His
grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what's going on. It's dispensed to men in the
person of Jesus Christ. Let me read you something over
here in 2 Timothy 1, verse 9. Back in verse 8, the last part
of it, he said, Be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God who hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and has brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. This grace
that God has purposed to dispense to men, He's purposed to dispense
through His Son, through His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And because that's the purpose
of God, He calls Him to appear in this world as a man. This
is the God-man. It means that the sovereign God
of all grace has purposed to bless the people He chose in
Christ before the world began and purposed all these gracious
blessings in Him. And there is not even the slightest,
not even the most minute gift or blessing outside of Christ.
Outside of Christ, our God is a consuming fire. Men and women
are not in a vacuum. Men and women are under the wrath
of God. He that believeth not the wrath
of God abideth on Him. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. And then in John 3.18, he that
believeth on him is not condemned. He is not condemned. But he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. He is the conduit
through which all the blessings of God's sovereign grace come
to men. Listen to this. John said, the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace. Full of grace and truth. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now let's take another
step. The objects of God's sovereign,
eternal grace in Christ Jesus, the objects of it are vile, wretched
sinners. Vile, wretched sinners. Our Lord said to those proud,
self-righteous Pharisees, the whole need not a physician. Folks out here running up and
down the road in perfect health, water skiing and doing all that. You won't see them at the doctor.
Why would they go to a doctor? They're not sick. Why would you
go to a doctor? Sick folks go to the doctor.
And that's what he told them. The whole have no need of a physician
but they that are sick. Now he said, you go learn what
this means. You go home and study on that.
Think about that. Weigh that over. Compare that. Apply that to your religion. Apply that to your hope. You're going to learn what this
means. I have mercy and not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the
righteous, but sinners. Sinners to repentance. Bow, wretched,
rebel. And then turn with me to this
one, 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 15. We're talking now about the objects,
God's purpose. The God of all grace has a purpose. And He's going to manifest the
glory of that grace through the person of His Son upon a people
He chose in Him before the foundation of the world. And when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, just as He said He would,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law. And the objects for which He
sent Him into the world are vile, wretched sinners. I Timothy 1,
verse 15, this is a faithful saying. and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief." Isn't that what Paul said? Listen to this, Romans 5, verse
6. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Do you ever think about yourself
that way? Ungodly. Do you know what that means? There is nothing in you that
even remotely resembles God. That is what that means. Ungodly. And then look at verse 8 there
in Romans chapter 5. God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To manifest the glory of God,
God sent His wonderful, marvelous grace in Christ to sinners. Hell-deserving, ill-deserving
sinners. These are not just men who couldn't
purchase salvation. These are just not men in a bad
way and can't get to salvation. These are men who deserved hell
and got the opposite. Got the opposite. And still, still, they are not moved. They are
not stirred. It said, He came into the world,
and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. And
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as
many as received Him to them, gave He the power, that is, the
right and the privilege. The power, that is, the ability. The ability. The power, that
is, the willingness to become sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name, which were born. They were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. By an act of God's sovereign
grace, His Spirit comes into a man. and creates Him anew. Why? To magnify the glory of
His grace. That's why. This fallen, ruined,
depraved world does not know the living God, and they cannot,
by the wisdom of man, find out God. Listen to this. He tells us this over in 1 Corinthians
1. He said, after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. I'm not talking about what pleases
me and I'm not talking about what pleases you or what pleases
the ecclesiastical powers. I'm talking about what pleased
God. It pleased God through the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. Please God! Please God! And it's through the preaching
of the gospel and the presence and power of the Holy Ghost that
chosen sinners are brought to a saving knowledge of God in
Christ. That's how they get there. And that grace which came down
to men and was manifested in Jesus Christ is made the saving
experience of grace in the hearts of chosen sinners. That's their
experience. Their experience is not warm
honey poured down the back or this vision that they grew up
with about kneeling down at some old brush arbor meeting up in
the woods and out there in the firelight listening to the evangelist
or down there at the tent meeting or whatever else it was or by
some calamity that came into their lives and all this Tommy
Rock. It's through the preaching of
the gospel, through the preaching of the gospel, that these things
come. And this saving experience of
grace is in the hearts of chosen sinners. He said, I hath not
seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
that is, mankind, the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him, but God hath revealed them unto us. By His Spirit. By His Spirit. Now you take time
to read the rest of I Corinthians chapter 2, and you'll find out
that that Spirit of the Living God attended the preaching of
the Gospel. And the reason natural man won't
be saved is because he won't receive those things of the Spirit
of God. It is this revelation of Christ
in us that manifests all those who were chosen in Christ and
redeemed by Christ. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4, Knowing,
brethren, beloved, your election of God. Do you remember reading
that? For our gospel came unto you,
not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost.
Our gospel came unto you. Where did it come from? God sent
it. God said it. How come you to hear it? Because
it came in power. Now watch this. This is how God's
elect are made known. I'm just telling you what the
Scripture says. Verse 6, you become followers of us and the
Lord. You bow down and submit yourself. You recognize these men. You
recognize this message as God's means. to impart grace into your
soul. And you become followers of us
and the Lord. You recognize that we were of
the Lord. Verse 7, you were examples to
all that believe. You were the perfect example
of a believer. All believers are. Verse 8, from
you sounded out the Gospel. You supported and become a part
of the gospel ministry, recognizing it to be the means of God. Verse
9, you turn to God from your idols. You turn from those things
of religion. You turn from those things of
the world. And you serve the living and true God. And then
verse 10, you patiently wait for His Son from heaven. You wait on Him. Wait on Him. And then to sum it all up, he
says in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, when they received the Word of God
which they heard of Him, they received it not as the Word of
men, but as it is in truth the Word of God, which affectionately
worketh also in you that believe. The believer's story is a story
of grace. And the grace of God in Christ
revealed in the heart always brings the rebel into submission. You read those words. And Peter
knew what he was talking about because he was a rebel. The Lord said, oh, you're going
to forsake me. Well, they might, but I ain't.
Yeah, you're the one. You will. Fact is, Before the
cock crows, you're going to deny me three times. You are. One time he looked at him and
said, Get thee behind me, Satan, didn't he? He was a rebel. I'm
telling you, Peter was a rebel. Even after the Lord saved him
down there at Galatia, he was sitting down there and those
Jews came in from Jerusalem, those elders from that church
at Jerusalem. And here's old Peter over here
eating pork chops with the Gentiles. And these elders come in from
Jerusalem, and old Peter, he just kind of slides over. He
gets over here with the Jews. And he takes that pork chop and
throws it under the table. He didn't want nobody to see
him eating pork. That's right. He was a rebel. A rebel. He knew something about that.
And in this verse, And he's talking about those men and women under
severe trials and under a load that they just don't think they
can carry another inch. He said, submit, submit yourselves
under the mighty hand of God. Submit. Nobody's going to be
saved until they submit. Preacher, you don't know what
I'm going through." No, but I know what he went through, and I'm
telling you this, you're going to submit. Submit. And I'm not talking about something
in time, a one-time act, but I'm talking about a principle
of grace began in the hearts of conquered sinners who've experienced
the saving grace of Christ. They submit. They submit to His
men, they submit to His message, they submit to His means. They
submit to His commandments. He that believeth in is baptized. Well, I don't know if I want
to be baptized or not. Is that right? You don't know anything at all
about submission. But I tell you, if you ever experience
the grace of God in your heart, You won't get in that pool. I
ain't going to have to beg you. I'm not going to have a special
day for baptism. You'll be up there asking me,
when can I be baptized? That family we love so much from
up in Missouri. Old Joe called me after I brought
that message on baptism. He called me and he said, I don't
even know if this is the right thing to ask. He said, I don't
know if I'm in or out of church authority or what I'm asking,
but he said, I want to be baptized. He said, if I come down, would
you baptize me? I said, I'd be happy to be my
honor to baptize you. This sovereign effect shall reign
in grace, brings the rebels into submission. The difference between
a sinner being saved by the working of God in him and that man with
nothing but a hollow profession of faith is the power of God
that brings him into submission. Submission, that's the difference.
Anybody can profess faith. But I tell you, only by the grace
of God will a man submit. Submit. God's grace comes in
power. It makes the unwilling sinner
willing. It makes the proud rebel submissive. And it takes the stud out of
his walk. I'll never forget it, that Bible
conference up in Ashland years ago. Old Kent Clark stood up, and
he was going through some hard times. And he said, I'm going
to tell you something. He said, God's going to teach us. He said,
you're going to lose that strut before you get to glory. You might strut around for a
little while down here, but you're going to lose it before you get
to glory. You're going to learn something
about submission. Submission. And I tell you this,
if the only thing that's changed in your life is your doctrine,
you've never yet experienced the grace of God in Christ. God's
grace takes the chief of sinners and it makes Him an heir of God. He said, I'm going to give you
the right, the privilege, the willingness, and the ability
to become, not to be called the sons of God, but to become the
sons of God. God's grace takes the most wicked
of men and He makes them sons of God. They believe God. They submit to God. They worship
God. And they rejoice in God their
Savior. For the life of me, I cannot
imagine Mephibosheth. You know who Mephibosheth was?
That was one of Saul's relatives. And David now took the throne,
and his men went out and killed all these men who were a threat
to the kingdom, all but Mephibosheth. Because David and Jonathan, they
made a pact. They made a covenant. And Jonathan
said, you've got to promise me that you're going to show mercy
and grace. And now here's old Mephibosheth, and they drag him
in. He's lame, can't walk. And they come carrying him into
the king's room, and he thinks, this is it for me. They're going
to just take my head. That's the end of me. And they
bring him in. And David said, set him over
there at my table. Set him over at my table. He's going to eat with me from
now on. from now on. And I just can't
imagine Mephibosheth sitting at the table of the king with
a proud look. Can you? I believe he gives thanks every
time he put a bite in his mouth. I can't imagine that filthy leper
cleansed by the Word of our Lord. He said, I will. Be thou clean. Huh? I can't imagine that filthy
leper now as clean as the driven snow strutting down past the
leper colony. Can you? Boy, I'm glad I'm not like them.
I don't think that's what come out of his lips. I think every
time he's seen a leper, his eyes teared up, his heart swelled up, and thanksgiving
to God. I can't imagine that young whore,
taken in the very act, forgiven as though she'd never committed
a single fault. Woman, where art thou, thine
accuser? She said, there aren't any, Lord. He said, neither do I. I can't imagine that old whore,
forgiven of God, acting the part of a proud Pharisee. Can you?
I can't even imagine that. The objects of God's sovereign
electing grace are sinners who by the experience of grace are
made to know what they are. Oh, Paul said, oh wretched man
that I am. Not that I used to be. That I
am. Is there ever a day in your life
that you don't know that? Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Unto me, Paul said, who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given. Has God ever convinced you of
who you are? Has He ever, in the experience
of grace, allowed you to eat with the pigs, like the prodigal? Chew on the empty husks? Wallow in the mud? To see yourself where you are
and who you are? Listen to this, Titus chapter
3 verse 3. He said, For we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, throwing divers lust and pleasures,
serving those things, living in malice, and hateful in hating
one another. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. That being justified by His grace,
We should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. All right, preachers, where are
you going with all this? Here's where I'm going. That
man or woman who has been and is now being saved by the grace
of God knows something about the love of God in Christ. He
knows by his experience of grace that God careth for him. He knows that because of where
he found him. And then he found him and he
opened his mind and heart to understand that not only the
reason he found him is because he chose him in Christ before
the world began. He arranged his providence around
him, special providence. You're looking at a man who should
have been dead a thousand times. Ignorant rebel. Got on a motorcycle
one time. Run that thing as fast as it
would go and it still wasn't going fast enough and I laid
down on the seat. Stuck my feet out straight out
in the country. Couldn't see anything. Didn't
even have a helmet on. Run that thing for everything
it got. I think it was doing about 135 or something. And then set up on it and it
was still doing about 95 and almost took me off the back of
the seat when the wind hit me. Couldn't tell you how many car
wrecks that close, that close being killed. Well, how come
you ain't dead? The grace of God. He arranges
His providence. Went out to California as a hippie. Went out to Los Angeles. Had
my little bell bottoms on I sold some of them little colored things
down there on the bottom of them and got an old Volkswagen van
and went out to Los Angeles. Little drug addict rebel. Walked
around out there in the city where they shoot people for no
reason whatsoever just because you're on their sidewalk. Walked
all over that town. All hours of the night and day.
Walked all over and nobody ever did anything to me. God arranges His providence around
His own, and He lets them know that. He lets them know that. He lets them know that He loves
them when there is nothing in them worth loving to manifest
the glory of His love. And He is gracious to them. Why? There is nothing in them to deserve
grace. Well, grace is undeserved. And
He manifests the glory of that in the salvation of chosen sinners. That's where I'm going with this.
God cares for him and He knows that it was God's love for him
that brought Christ into the world. He is representative and
substitute. And he knows that it was God's
love for him that brought about his humility and his suffering
and death. And he knows that it was God's
love for him that seated for him a sovereign mediator at the
right hand of God. And there's nothing in the experience
of grace to make any sinner believe anything other than that the
living God cares for him. I wish I knew this hymn well
enough to sing it. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me. You know who wrote that? A believer. A believer wrote that who was
at his wits' end. He doesn't tell you the circumstances,
but the circumstances of life had brought him to the point
where he wanted to kill himself. And he went out on that big bridge
over the River Thames over there. And he was ready to throw himself
over that rail, and he sat out there, and he got to thinking
about the love of God for him. The love of God in Christ for
him. And rather than throw himself
over that rail, he come home and penned this hymn. Can you find any reason not to
cast all your cares on Him? Huh? Listen to this and I'll
close. Humble yourselves therefore. That's what that therefore means.
Read the first part. Read the first four chapters.
Then when you come to this, you'll see that therefore. Based on
these things. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God that He may exalt you in due time, casting all
your cares upon Him, for He careth for you. Years ago, there was a hitchhiker. And it was raining. It was pouring
down the rain, cold. And he was standing out there. Home on leave from the Navy. Had that big sea bag up on his
shoulder. He was hitchhiking. Rain was
pouring down off his nose. Cold wind blowing. And this fella
pulled off the road and gave him a ride. And he come over
and he got in the car and the guy looked through that rain
to be sure nobody was coming. He pulled back out on the highway.
When he got out on the highway and got back up to speed, he
looked over and there's this guy still got that big seed bag
up over his shoulder and he's all humped up in the seat like
this. And he said, friend, just throw your bag there in the back.
Oh no, he said, I can't do that. He said, you're nice enough to
pick me up. I'll carry my own bag. He's carrying you in the
bag. You won't carry it? Go ahead.
But he's carrying you in the bag. And that's what he's telling
us here in this verse. Cast all your cares on Him. Why would I do that? Because
He carries for me. He, He who is everything. He who is the God of all grace.
He cares for me. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast unmeasured, boundless, free. rolling as a mighty ocean in
its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward,
To my glorious rest above. On the last verse. Oh, the deep,
deep love of Jesus. Love of every love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven sweet of rest. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus,
It is a heaven of heavens to me, and it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to Thee. You're dismissed.