Good morning, everybody. If you
want to turn to your text this morning, it's one verse. It's
1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 10. 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 10. I encourage you when we read
this the first time to soak in every word. to just hang on every
word that's in this verse, because it's all very rich. Verse 10
of 1 Peter chapter 5 says, But the God of all grace, who hath
called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye
have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen,
settle you. Now this verse of scripture begins
in a wonderful and a beautiful place. It actually begins where
preaching must begin, with the person and the character of God. We've heard our pastor say this
several times over the years, but preaching does not begin with the depravity
of man and the needs of man and What's going on with man? It
begins with the person of God. And if you seek Christ for who
He is, if He reveals Himself to you, who you are becomes intuitive.
And down the dust. And here, here's the description
of Him. Here's how He's revealed in this
verse of Scripture. He is the God of all, A-double-L,
all grace. Now, I love that. I love that
name. I love thinking about Him in that respect. The God of all
grace. And I want to talk about that,
and I want to talk about it at length, but before we do that, I want to
bring something to your attention. There are only four times in
the Scripture, only four, and I would have thought it would
have been much more, only four times in the Scripture that this
phrase, the God of all, followed by a descriptive phrase, it's
only used four times in the entire Scripture. The God of all. Four
times in the order in which the Scripture, where it comes, it's
very, very interesting. So you don't have to turn to
these, but I'm going to read you all these different scriptures
where he's referred to as the God of all something. And I want
you to listen to this. The first one is found in Jeremiah
31 verse 1. It says this, at the same time,
saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel,
and they shall be my people. Now think about this for a second.
The very first time in scripture, where he is referred to as the
God of all. He is referred to as the God
of all a particular people. This is the God of absolute sovereign
election. What does that mean? What does
that mean that he is the God of sovereign election? What is
sovereign election? It's very simple, folks. It's God being
God. It means that before time began, God, you start there,
God chose. He made a decision. He made a
choice. He chose who He would save. He purposed their salvation. He purposed to be both merciful
and gracious to them. And because He chose and because
He purposed it, both merciful and gracious to them, He must
be. There's no doubt about it. Now,
how does the world view this? Even if they would go to the
Bible and read this and at least acknowledge that the Bible does
teach that God chose. The man didn't choose, that God
chose. How do they view this? They view it as a cold and an
arbitrary process. As the Lord stood and said, I
will take you and you and you and not you, not you. Just almost
at random, cold and arbitrary. But what does this say? It says
He is the God of all the families. of Israel. You see, he's a family
man. This is a God who has a family. And the patriarch of his family,
the one who sits at the head of the table, is his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And make no mistake, folks, this
is where all God's love, all God's favor, everything the Lord
could ever desire is found right there in his son. He is the patriarch
of that family. And that son has a bride. That
is his elect people. These are a people that share
an eternal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. They've never been
separated with Him. They have always been there in union with
Him. And here's the beautiful part, because of that union,
because that union is so strong, the Father loves them, the bride,
the family, the chosen, with the same love with which He loves
His Son. Who's God gonna choose? He's
gonna choose His family. And that's who God chose, His
family, those who have been eternally united to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I think if we're going to talk about the election of God,
the choosing of God, we must talk about this, am I one of
them? Because this verse of scripture
is talking to a particular people. It's not talking to everybody.
It's talking to the family. So am I a part of the family?
That's the question. If you are, you have to be able
to answer to the family name. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Can I answer to that name? Can
you answer to that name? What does that mean? It means
God is righteous, God is holy, and God is absolutely just. And
He cannot accept sin, not in any way, shape, or form. When
He sees sin, all He can do is punish it. All He can do is pour
out His wrath upon it. God is righteous, and I'm a sinner. This is it. This is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness, my
only righteousness before God. The only way I can stand before
God is if Jesus Christ is my righteousness before God. That
His shed blood put away my sin, that enmity that existed between
me and my God, that reason that there was no peace, He put that
away. He lived a perfect life. He obeyed
God's law perfectly. He is my righteousness before
God. He is my law keeping before God. Make no mistake, folks,
His faith, there's only one perfect faith. His faith, His trust in
His Father. He said, even if He slays me,
I'll kill Him. His faith is my faith. That's what it means if
He's the Lord our righteousness. Now, can you answer that name?
Because if you can answer that name, you're part of the family.
You're part of these chosen people. Now, I want to give you the second
time this phrase, the God of all, is used. Very interesting.
Jeremiah 32 verse 27, he says, Behold, I am the Lord, listen
to this, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for
me? Now, allow me first to answer the question. Is there anything
too hard for me? The answer is no. He is absolutely
omnipotent. He is all-powerful. There is
nothing too hard for the Lord. He speaks it. He wills it. It
comes to pass. As simple as that. But think about this for a second.
The first time this phrase is used, the God of all, the families
of Israel, speaking of Him being the God, the Savior of a particular
people, right? Now He says this, yes, I'm the
God of a particular people in a loving and saving way, but
I'm also the God of all flesh. I am the sovereign, I am the
ruler, I am the king of everybody. Those who love me and seek my
face, they are doing exactly what I'm having them do. They
are doing my will. Those who hate me and kick against
me and rebel against me, they are doing exactly what I've caused
them to do. I'm the one who's in control.
He rules in the armies of heaven and amongst the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay his hand. Nobody can stop him and
no one has the right to say unto him, what are you doing? That's
this God, the absolute sovereign. He's the God of the families
of Israel in a loving, in a particular, in a saving way. Make no mistake,
folks, He's king over every single man on this earth. Now, here's
the third way it's used. I want to say this. Clare and
I did not talk before the service. We didn't talk about any scriptures.
He did not know what I was going to preach. But I want you to listen to this.
This is the third time in scripture that it's used. 2 Corinthians
1, verse 3. Blessed be the God, even the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the
God of all comfort. That's the third time it's used.
Now, comfort is relative, isn't it? What is comforting to one
person may not be comforting to the rest. But to the family,
we speak to the family this morning. To the family, there's only one
thing that is comforting to them. And I want to take it a little
bit further. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. What comforts the family? Isaiah chapter 40 verse 1. Comfort ye, comfort ye, who? My people, the family, sayeth
your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her. There are three things listened
to here, and I want you to listen to it very carefully. That her
warfare is accomplished. That her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now, this is the only thing
that gives the family any comfort, and my warfare has been accomplished.
My sins, my enemies, those sins that condemn me before the law
of God, that enmity that existed between me and my God, they don't
exist anymore, folks, because the Lord Jesus Christ bore them
in his body, and he went to a cross, and he bled and died, and those
enemies are defeated enemies. They are put down, and there
is no more. There is peace between me and my God because the Lord
Jesus Christ made my peace with God. There is no separation between
me and my God. My warfare is accomplished, my
iniquity, my self-righteousness, which is probably even worse.
He bore that, too, in his body on the tree. It's gone. It doesn't
exist anymore. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. We talked about it earlier. God
is just. The soul that sinneth must die. I have to be punished
for my sin. I was. Every member of the family
was in that union with the Lord Jesus Christ when he hung on
that cross and he was made our sin and the wrath of God came
down upon him. That's when I was punished and
there is no double jeopardy with God. Sin cannot be in two places. He will not punish two men for
the same sin. Justice has already been meted
out. There's no more justice. Now it's just peace and mercy
and grace. And folks, to the family, This
is the only thing that gives us comfort, that there's nothing
left to do. There's no warfare to fight anymore.
It's already been done. Now finally, the last time it's
used is back in our text. Turn back there. He's referred to in our text
as the God of all grace. What is that? What is the grace
of God? I've heard this definition before
and it's fine. There's nothing wrong with it. I'm not down on
it at all. It says this, it's the Lord giving to you what you
have not earned and what you do not deserve. That's fine. There's nothing wrong with that.
We'll say this, you could misconstrue that to think, well, what I was
doing is I was trying to earn the favor of God and I was doing
my best, but I fell a little short, right? I didn't miss,
I missed the mark. I was trying to get there. I
was trying to earn his favor. But I missed the mark, but he was
gracious anyways. You know, he gave me what I didn't
deserve. And that couldn't be further from the truth. Folks,
this is the grace of God. It is his capacity to be kind,
to give, to provide for, not someone who has just missed the
mark, but someone who has warred against his grace, that has rebelled
against his character. that did everything they possibly
could to not have His grace shown to them. His capacity to do that,
to provide for, to be kind to, that type of person. That's the
grace of God. Now we could talk about this a lot, but I want
to give you some examples. What does that look like for a man to be saved by
grace? I want to point something out
here. In the beginning of your text, there's a three-letter
word it begins with. B-U-T, but. And what that means
is in spite of. And when you look at illustrations
of grace in the Scripture where you see that word, you see some
very clear, beautiful illustrations. And I want you to turn to the
first one. It's Genesis chapter 6. You're very familiar with
this. What does it look like when a
man is saved by the free grace of God? It looks something like
this. Genesis 6 verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it
repented the Lord that he made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom
I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast,
and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air, for it repenteth
me that I have made them. I want to stop there for just
one second. What God saw Thousands of years
ago, or however long this took place, what he saw in men that
very day is the exact same thing he sees now. That every imagination
of the thoughts of our heart, how we are born in this world,
that natural being, is only evil continually. And I thought, Todd
talked about this the other night, and he did a great job of explaining
this. That doesn't mean that we act out on every evil impulse
we have. The Lord gives plenty of restraining grace in this
life. We would, like Todd said, we'd tear each other apart if
that was the case. What it means is, everything that comes out
of me, it's bad. It always has a wicked motive.
It always has a wicked intent behind it. It's always self-serving.
It's trying to glorify self. And if you're trying to glorify
self, you're warring against God. The bedrock of that heart, of
that nature, is a hatred for God as He is. And what's interesting
about that is, a man may never know exactly who God is. He may
never read the Bible. He may never hear the gospel
preached. But if he did, if he did, he would hate that God he
heard from. That's this heart. That's what
we're talking about here. This is how bad men are. Now
look at this, look at verse 8. Here's that three-letter word,
but. In spite of, but, Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Here's my question, why? Why
did Noah find grace? Thousands of people on the face
of the earth, why Noah and his family? Why did Noah find grace?
It was because he was better. was because he had done something
and the Lord found some favor with him. Well, there's this
aspect of Noah I like. I'm going to choose him. No, folks, he was
just like everybody else. If anything, he was worse because
it makes the glory of God greater when he saves the most wretched
of sinners. He was just as bad as everyone else, but Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why? Because he was part of the
family. Because before time began, God purposed to be gracious to
Noah. And before time began, Jesus Christ agreed to be Noah's
surety before God. And because he was the lamb slain
before the foundation of the earth, Noah had no sin. And God
was gracious to him because he would. It says Noah found grace. When did he find it? Was he looking
for it? He wasn't seeking God. He wasn't seeking his face. He
had no interest in God. He was doing what everyone else
on the face of the earth was doing at the time. He was warring
and rebelling against God. But God came to him where he
was at. in that rebellion and he showed grace to Noah. That's salvation by grace. And
that's the only way God saves. I'll give you another one. Turn
to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. Speaking to the church in Ephesus,
Paul says, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. So in Genesis 6 we see one half of the problem. That
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart is only evil and that continually.
Here's the other problem. Dead. Total inability. God has demands. He demands love,
love for His Son, love for His people. He demands faith, faith
in His Son. He demands repentance, that you
change your mind. But here's the problem. We're dead. We're
born in this world dead in trespasses and sins. That's what Paul is
saying here. Here's where he found you. You were dead. You hath
He quickened who were, where? Dead. Now here's a very simple
illustration, folks, that blows salvation by works in any way,
shape, or form out of the water. I challenge you to do this. Walk
into a morgue. Hold up a $100 bill and just
say, if anybody in here can wiggle their toes, you get the money. I guarantee you're going to walk
back out of there with your money. Now, you laugh because that's funny,
right? It's absurd. It's absolutely absurd. And that's
how absurd salvation by works is. Do this. God will show you
favor. He can't. He's dead. Just repent. He can't. He's dead. He can't.
Just do a good work. Do this. He can't. He's dead.
He's dead. He's evil and he's dead. God
has to come to him and do something for him. Verse 2, the problem
worsens. Wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh the children
of disobedience. This is how bad it was, you devil
worshipers. Verse four, or verse three, among whom also we all
had our conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. You were doing
whatever you wanted to do, fulfilling the lust of your flesh, just
following along, not seeking God. You were just like everybody
else. Verse four, here's that three-letter
word again. But God, even though you were
that bad, but God, who is rich in mercy. I never get tired,
and I never worry about asking the Lord to show mercy too often.
It's for this reason. Because He delights to show it.
Two reasons, really. Number one, I need it. I'm gonna
break down the door to get it. I must have His mercy. I'm gonna
make Him weary of this. Number one, I need it. But number
two, this, He delights to show it. He loves to do this. This
is a God who delights in mercy. And he performs it in a manner
to where it's at no expense to his justice. But God, who is rich in mercy,
and here's the reason for his great love, wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, not when we turned things
around. He didn't love us because we
had changed what we were doing, changed our mind, changed our
works, or anything like that. He loved us before the foundations
of the world. Even when we are dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, and He is the procurer of mercy."
God delights to show mercy. It is because of His love that
that mercy had to be procured. And Jesus Christ is the procurer,
the creator of that mercy. Folks, this is what it means
for a sinner to be saved by grace. You were dead. You were devil
worshipers. You were doing whatever it is you wanted to do, but God
came to you, and He showed mercy for Christ's sake. Now back in our text, I want
you to pick up in verse 8. Peter says, Be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour. Now that's an interesting thought
right there. There is an entity known as Satan, known as the
devil. Here's his purpose, here's what he wants to do, he wants
to consume you. This is God's devil, he's doing exactly what
the Lord purposed him to do, but this is what he wants to
do, he wants to consume you. Verse 9, Whom resist, steadfast in
the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. Now question, why
do I resist? Why does someone resist? You
resist when someone is trying to impose their will on you.
That's when you resist. So here's my question. What is
the will of the devil? What is the will of Satan? Is
it this? Is he down in the streets getting
men to shoot at each other and get in the bar fights and go
to houses of prostitution and things like that? Is that his
area of operation? I sin just fine on my own. Absolutely
no temptation needed. So what is his area of operation?
What is he trying to do? What is his will? Let me read
this to you. 2 Corinthians 11.3, But I fear, lest by any means
the serpent beguile thee through his subtlety, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity or the singularity that is in
Christ. Now what is his will? What is
the will of the devil? It's simply this. It's to make
you think that there is something you need to do to be saved. to distract from the singularity,
the onlyness of Jesus Christ in salvation. Now, folks, in
a world that, as best I can tell, is doing their best to overcomplicate
issues to make men sound smarter than they actually are, the gospel
remains incredibly simple. There is one God, and there is
one mediator, one go-between between God and man, and that
is Jesus Christ. He is the only man who can waltz into the presence
of God and find favor. God being happy with him, being
completely and utterly pleased with him, He is the only one.
If you try it on your own, you will be killed immediately. And
the only way I can get to the Father and I can have that same
peace and that same favor is if He brings me to His Father
in Himself. That's the only way. The singularity
of Christ. Folks, there's one atonement
for sin. There's only one offering. One sacrifice that God would
accept. He's not going to accept how bad I feel. He's not going
to accept how much I'm trying to turn things around. He doesn't
accept those things. There was one offering for sin
that God would accept. It was the offering of His Son.
He must have died for you. There is one righteousness. That's
it. There's only one man who has kept God's law at all. It
is Jesus Christ and He must be my righteousness. He is everything
in salvation. Now, here's my point. My point
to all this. I bring you this scripture to
show this. How much of salvation is actually by grace? How much
of it? Peter here says, be sober, be
vigilant, and resist, right? Resist being beguiled. But here's
the problem. If I can be, I will. If I can be duped into thinking
there's something I need to do to earn the favor of God, I will.
If my resistance, my vigilance, and my sobriety It's something
I must muster that I'm going to fall away because there's
no strength in me and no myself. But how does he pick up in verse
10? But the God of all grace. You see, my perseverance, my
sobriety, my vigilance, all the way to the end is all the work
of the Lord. It's all of grace. From the choosing,
He's the God of all the families of Israel. From the justifying
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the calling, and the perseverance
all the way to the very end, it is all of this God of absolute
grace. Now you're there in your text.
Let's read it again. I want to pull out another point
here. Peter says, but the God of all grace who hath called
us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. What is the call
of the Gospel? What does that sound like and
what does that look like? Everyone who God has chosen, He's going
to call, irresistibly and invincibly. What does that sound like? What
does that call sound like? It sounds like this, Isaiah 55,
1, He begins by saying this, ho. And what that means is, let
me have your attention. Now let me have your attention
now, because you're going to hear a scripture you've heard several, several times
over the years, but listen to me again. Listen to this scripture
one more time. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, everyone who has a
need, a need of mercy, a need of grace, a need for God to do
something for you, everyone who has a need, everyone that thirsteth,
come. come ye to the waters, come to
the living waters, come to Christ. And he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and
without price. If you have a need for God to
do something for you, to save you, come. Don't hold off, don't
try to get better, don't do anything, come. Just as you are, come.
And there's only one possible way you will be excluded. Only
one possible way. If you bring something with you
to try to buy it. some work, some thought, some
intention, whatever it may be about you, if you walk up to
that table and say, you should show me mercy because I, and
you slide something across that table, you immediately exclude
yourself. Because what you are trying to
buy is priceless. And you can't afford it. But if you come with
nothing, absolutely nothing, you will get everything for free. Now, what does it look like when
a man is called of God? What does that look like? I'm
going to give you three things and three examples of each. Now say this, this is the first
thing. The man who is truly called of God finds his rightful place
with God. Now here's the illustration.
You remember Zacchaeus? Tiny little man, he was a publican,
chief publican, very rich, and he knew the Lord was going to
pass by and he had some interest in seeing Him. And I want to
point this out, folks, that that is by grace. The fact that he
even wanted to lay eyes on the Lord and he had any interest
whatsoever is by grace, because a natural man has no interest.
And he climbed up in a tree. He got himself nice and high
so he got a good view. And the Lord walked up to him,
and you remember what he said? Zacchaeus, come down. Now, let
me give you an illustration of man's religion. Zacchaeus, the
Lord. This is man's religion. The will
of man, the will of God. Now, you've heard this before.
This is the call of false religion. God loves everybody. Loves all
men. Jesus Christ shed his blood for
all men universally. But here's what you have to do,
right? God wants this, right? He wants to save everybody. But
you have to let him. You have to allow him to be your
personal savior. And if you allow him to, then he can do what he
wants to do. But your will trumps God's will. Now when a man is
called of God, this is the very first thing that happens. The
call is come down. My will doesn't trump his. My
will is not on par with his, and we're going to rustle about
it. He takes his rightful place at the feet of a sovereign God,
knowing that that God can save him, or he can damn him, and
he is right, just, and fair, whatever it is he does. That's
the first thing that happens when a man is called of God.
He takes his rightful place with God. He knows where he stands
now, not up here. He's down at the bottom, begging for mercy.
Second thing, the cold leaves something behind. Bartimaeus. Blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside begging. When he
heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he said, Jesus, thou son of David,
have mercy on me. The crowd said, shut up. And
he said, no, I'm going to keep at this. He's got what I need. And
he cried some more, and the Lord stopped. He said, come on. Bid him to come. Remember what
he did next? He got up, and he was wearing a beggar's cloak,
a robe. Now, I don't want to be disrespectful
to beggars in any way. Not disrespectful in any way. But if you've been
around them, that robe was disgusting, it was filthy, and it stunk.
And here's the thing, he was blind. He couldn't see it. He couldn't
see the filth of his own garment. But when he was called, when
he was called and the Lord said, come to me, what did he do? He
didn't fold it up and sit it down like he was going to come
back to it. He cast off that robe, never to come back to it
again. Now, that is your robe of self-righteousness.
This is what the man who is called of God does. He gets rid of it.
He sees it for what it actually is. It's a filthy garment. And
he came to Christ naked and exposed, just as he was, and he relied
on Him to cover him. And that's how we come. We leave
something behind. Any thoughts of a salvation based
on what I do, any thoughts of earning favor with what I've
got, see, it's all just sin. Even my best work, folks, it's
so intermingled with self-glorification. It's just nothing. Just cast
it off. I want God to see that. I want to be clothed with the
very righteousness of Jesus Christ. But a man that's called God leaves
something behind. I love hearing preachers say this, and I like
to say it. It will never be your sin that
will separate you from Christ. I want you to think about that
for a second. It will never be your sin. This man came to save
sinners. The only thing that will separate
you is that filthy robe of righteousness. And finally this. The man whose
call of God always responds. Remember Lazarus. How dead was
Lazarus? Three days he was rotting, right?
And the Lord came to him where he was at. You see how everything
continues here? Every time the Lord comes to
the man where he's at. Lazarus is dead. He's rotting in that
grave. There's a separation between him and Lazarus. There's a stone
in front of the door. The Lord Jesus Christ said, roll
that stone away. That's symbolic. It's talking
about him removing our sin. There's a separation between
me and my God. He removed the stone. He said this, Lazarus,
dead man, come forth. What happened? A dead man stumbled out of a
tomb fully alive. Now this is what a man who is
called of God does. He obeys the command. Because with that
command comes life. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. When He says, Ho! Everyone that thirsteth, everyone
that has a need, come. When He makes that effectual
to His people, life. A new man, a new heart. A heart
that is full of faith. And He came out of that grave,
stumbling around, and He came to Christ. And that's what the
man who's called unto God does. He stumbles, he's covered in
grave clothes, but he stumbles out of the grave alive, and he
cleaves to the Lord Jesus Christ. He obeys the command. That's
what the called of God do. Now go back to your text. I want
to read it again. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, settle you. I spoke earlier the Lord has
a family. And there's many things that are promised to this family.
The most encouraging is this, is salvation. If you're part
of the family, there is absolutely no chance that you will die spiritually. There's absolutely no chance
that you will be separated from your God. But this is also promised
to the family, suffering. Suffering while we are here.
I'm gonna read you a scripture here. John 16, 33 said, these
things, this is the Lord speaking, these things have I spoken unto
you, that in me you might have peace. In the world you shall
have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."
There's going to be suffering in this life, but it's suffering
for a purpose. Now, here's what I want to do
for just a few minutes. I'm sure there's someone here who is hurting
this morning. I'm sure there's someone here who's in a very
fiery trial right now, and I just want to give you the word of
God and show you some of the things he says and pray a little
bit to give you some comfort this morning while you're here.
And the first thing I'm going to draw your attention to is
two words in our text. What it says is, after you have
suffered a while. And that phrase, a while, do
you know what that means? That means few or small. The days
of your suffering are finite. They are not forever. It says
you're going to suffer a while, a little while. And in the broad
scheme of eternity, it's going to be very, very small. Now, I want everybody to remember
something for a second. Whether you were born this very
day, or whether this day you are 100 years old, this life
is a vapor. We are just not here very long. And there's going to be joy while
we're here, and there's going to be suffering while we're here. But folks, it's over like
that. Just like that. But at the end,
at the end of this valley of the shadow of death, we're going
to be with our Savior. We're going to open our eyes,
and we're going to be with Him. And in His kingdom, He will tolerate
absolutely no pain, no tears, no suffering. We won't even know
what it's like to be sinners anymore. We won't even have to
suffer with that anymore. It's just going to be complete
and utter joy beholding His face, worshiping Him, and enjoying
the safety and security of knowing nothing can ever touch you. And
everything will always be fine. That's what you have in store
for you. So I encourage you this morning, hold on. Hold on, because
it's all just for a little while. Now the second thing is this.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. I want you to see this. 2 Corinthians 5 and look at verse
18, "...and all things are of God."
What all things? All things. Particularly the
Scriptures talking about salvation. Make no mistake, all things are
of God. That fiery trial you're in the
midst of right now, make no mistake, He put you there. He brought
it. It's going to last exactly as
long as He's purposed for it to. But all things are of God. This is His purpose. Now go on
reading. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to
Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry
of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now I want
you to consider this for a second. You that are part of the family,
You that can answer this name, the Lord our righteousness, to
reconcile you back to Himself, what did it cost Him? We talked about it before, where
is all God's love? Where is all His favor? Where
is all His joy? It was in His only begotten Son,
Jesus Christ. But to have you, to reconcile
you back to Himself, what did He have to do? He had to slay
His only begotten Son. He had to kill this one where
all His joy and all His hope and all His comfort was found.
In this man, Jesus Christ, to have you, He had to kill His
only begotten Son. I want you to consider that for
a minute. That was the sacrifice that the Father made. Now think
about this. If He was willing to give up
what was most precious to Him, to slay what was most precious
to Him, to have you, right now in that fiery trial, do you think
for a second that He's going to leave you to twist in the
wind and not be with you the entire time? No, absolutely not. In that furnace, just like Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego, He's right there with you. He's using it
for His purposes, and we're going to see what those purposes are
right now. Go back to your text. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. Four words are used there. The
first one is perfect, or perfect. It means to make it the way it
should be. Now this is talking about spiritual
maturity, and a lot of times in the scripture when it talks
about the maturity of the believer, it talks about him being able to
digest and understand and rejoice in the meatier aspects of the
gospel. You can drink the milk, but you
also enjoy the meat. That's not what this is talking about here.
This is the maturity this is talking about. And be ye kind
to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. Make it the way
it should be. When am I going to learn to be
kind? First I'm going to learn this, when I see how the Lord
was kind to me. What is grace? The Lord providing for a man,
showing favor to a man, providing everything to a man, when that
man has done nothing but rebel against him. That's the kindness
of God to me. When am I going to learn to be
kind? When I see how the Lord was kind to me. Also this though, this is
when I'm going to learn to be kind. When I kindle a fire at
my own feet, when I make a mess of things, it's all in my own
hand, I ask the Lord, Lord deliver me. And He's faithful to do it.
That's when I'm going to learn how to be kind. This, tender
hearted, tender hearted. When am I going to be able to
empathize with my brother, especially his faults? It's very simple,
when I go through the exact same thing, that's when I'll empathize.
Forgiving one another, when am I going to learn to forgive?
Very simple, when I see how I was forgiven. Freely, for nothing,
for Christ's sake, long before I even had a knowledge that I
needed it. That's when I'm going to learn
how to forgive, right there. Next word is this, establish.
It means to turn resolutely in a certain direction. Now here's
the illustration I'm going to give you. I want to start off
by saying this, that tribulation, trial, suffering, it doesn't
create faith. Faith is the gift of God, it's
born of regeneration, but it does expose it and also redirects
it. I want you to think about this for a second. The disciples
are in a boat, right? Out in the middle of the sea.
And the wings kicking up and everything, and the Lord comes
walking on the sea, and he's walking by, they're terrified,
they think it's a spirit, and he says, calm down, it's me.
It's me. And Peter says, Lord, if it's you, If it's you, bid
me to come walk on the water to you. He says, come. Come on
out. And as long as Peter is looking at the Lord and his focus
is on him, he walks on that water just fine. Right? Like it's nothing. He walks on that water. As long
as his eyes are on Christ, he walks just fine. But then, he
starts looking at the waves. He starts getting distracted
by the sound of the wind. And he starts looking at his own
feet. Right? And what happens then? He starts to sink. But in that sinking, in that
immediate suffering, in that distress, he calls out with one
of the shortest, most precious prayers anyone's ever prayed,
Lord save me. Where do you think he's looking when he prays that
prayer? Right back in the face of the
Lord. When he's walking fine, right, he gets distracted, he
starts looking around, everything's good, right? But then the Lord
causes him to sink, puts him in the fire, puts him in the
distress. Where does the focus or where does the gaze refocus
to? right back on Christ. He uses these things, these sufferings,
constantly turning us, shepherding us, pointing us back to Him every
single time. Next word is strengthen. It simply
means what it means. It means to make strong. Now,
when Paul had the thorn in the flesh, we don't know what that
was, the thorn in the flesh, he asked the Lord three times,
they would depart from him. What was the Lord's response? He says,
my grace is sufficient for thee. For my strength is made perfect
in weakness. When is the believer at their
most strong? It's when they're at their weakest.
The strongest man on the face of the earth is not just the
man who's clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ for everything in
salvation. It's the man who's clinging to Christ for everything
in his salvation and he's lying on his bed, sick, relying on
the Lord for his next breath of air. And the man who's hungry
and is relying on the Lord for his next bite of food. A man
who's got bills piling up, he's relying on Christ for everything
in his salvation, but he's also relying for the next dollar that's
going to come in his bank account. In that weakness, that constant
weakness, then that's when we're at our strongest because we're
completely and utterly dependent on the Lord to provide for us
in everything. The last word is settle. It means being grounded
to a firm foundation. If you had to take all these
words and the meaning of all of them and bring them all together
and use one word to describe it all, that's what it would
be, settle. Why all this suffering? Why all this pain while we're
here? For this reason, to bring us to Christ, to ground us and
settle us to Him and keep us coming back. That's the purpose
of it. Now in closing, I want to look
at one thing. I'm going to read you this real quick. It's 2 Corinthians
4 verse 17. This is how the scriptures describe
our suffering. For our light affliction, which
is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory." Now, I wouldn't take away anything
that anybody's going through, but I want you to understand
what the scripture says about our afflictions. It says they're light. Once again,
this is relative, comparative language. Is this cup of water
heavy or is it light? Compared to a feather, it's heavy.
Compared to a 50-pound dumbbell, it's light. What is the comparison
here? Our afflictions, our sufferings,
what is it compared to where the scripture says they're light?
It's compared to the sufferings and afflictions of the Lord Jesus
Christ when He suffered on the cross. I want to take a few minutes
and just examine what He suffered through. Turn to Isaiah chapter
53. Isaiah chapter 53, and look at
verse 4, says, Surely he hath borne our
griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. What griefs and sorrows of ours
did he bear? It was our sin. I want you to
consider this for a minute. I'm going to talk about things
that clearly I have no understanding of, but my sin, your sin, it
doesn't bother us all that much, right? I wish it did more, but
it just doesn't. We're born this way. This was a holy man, absolutely
holy man, purity in its finest form, and he was made the sins
of his people. Second Corinthians 521 says,
he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be
made the very righteousness of God in him. He was made sinless
purity was made all that hatred and all that wickedness. And
he suffered in that. And because of that, because he was made
our sin, the Father forsook him. Now he always had this loving
perfect relationship with his Father. There was this constant
communion at all times. And we can't enter into that.
I don't know what that's really like. But there was a constant communion
and all of a sudden it was cut off. Now imagine the person you
love most in this life. Right? The person you trust the
most, you think, they'll always have my back. Imagine that person
immediately, for a reason, turning their back on you and forsaking
you. He was forsaken by his father and before he had his father's
smile and always his happiness and things like that. But now,
it was just wrath. The full wrath of God, which
was the equivalent of an eternity in hell. for everyone for whom
He died, times ten thousands, times ten thousands, and thousands
and thousands, over what was roughly an eight-hour period,
was poured down upon Him. And that's how He suffered. And
we're talking about things we don't really understand, but
that's His suffering. That's why our afflictions are
called the light affliction, because this was His suffering. Now,
my question is, how real is that? How real was this transfer of
sin? Look here in verse 7. It says,
He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet he opened not his mouth.
He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before
her shears is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth.
Here's how real this transfer was. He never said to his father,
listen, I'm just a substitute. I'm just taking their place.
You know, this isn't really my sin. I'm not really guilty. You know,
this is a very honorable thing I'm doing here. This is, no.
He never opened his mouth. He never tried to justify himself.
That's for one reason, folks. And it almost feels blasphemous
to say this, but it's for this reason, because he was guilty.
This is how real that transfer was. Our sin, the sins of the
family, they really are gone because it was lifted off of
us and it was put in the Lord Jesus Christ and he really became
guilty. So much so that God, who is absolutely just, he's
not going to punish an innocent man, he poured down all his wrath
upon him. Now what is the effects of this?
Look at verse 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions. And He was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes
we, what is that word? Are presently healed. There is nothing left to do. Now you say, are you sure? Are
you sure that God is satisfied with the work of Jesus Christ
alone? Are you sure? Because I'm going
to walk out of this place just trusting Christ and that's it.
Are you absolutely sure? Please look at verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. It says it right there in this
book that is the very revelation of God. Can I trust the Lord
Jesus Christ? with every aspect of my salvation
is God absolutely satisfied with what he did alone. It says it
right here. He suffered perfectly and acceptably
with God. And because of his suffering,
he is to us, to the family, the God of all grace. That's where I'm going to leave
you this morning.