I really don't want to, we're
not going to get in even to the context of this verse, but we're
studying tonight, our study tonight is the attribute of God's grace. And that's what Peter tells us
here in verse 10 of 1 Peter chapter 5. But the God of all grace,
who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and sell you. The God of all grace. Wherever you find grace, however
it manifests itself, it's God's grace. If it's grace, it's God's
grace. No matter if it's in election,
if it's in redemption, if it's in calling, regeneration, glorification,
wherever you find grace, it has only one source, one author,
and that's God. He's the God of all grace. We said last Sunday evening as
we were preaching from Titus 2 about the grace of God that
brings salvation, and we said that one of the definitions of
grace is simply favor. the free favor, unmerited favor
of God. It can't be earned. It can't
be purchased. It can't be bought. It's God's
free favor. By grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. But it's
not just a definition that we're looking for. If you ask almost
any religious person, do they believe in the grace of God?
They'll say yes. And if you give them the definition
of unmerited favor, the free favor of God, they'll say yes,
I believe in the grace of God. So we have to get beyond just
the definition of a word and go into the scriptures to define
what grace is. And there's where we really see
who believes in the grace of God and who doesn't. I was listening
to R.C. Sproul a few days ago, and he
was talking about he teaches maybe a seminar class or something.
But anyway, he said that their course was on depravity, man's
depravity. And he asked the first, at the
beginning of the course, he asked all of his students, he says,
do you believe in the depravity of man, the total depravity of
man? Everybody raised their hands. And he said, okay, we'll see
when the course is over. The last lesson in that course,
weeks later, he asked who believes in the depravity of man now.
There's two people raised their hands. So we might say that we
believe in depravity, but when we begin to get into the scriptures
to see what it is, and we may say we believe God's grace, we
believe the definition of it, But let's go and look in the
Bible, let's look in the Scriptures, and then let's see if we really
believe in the grace of God that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's
go first of all to this then. Let's consider this about grace. And let's look over in Romans
chapter 5. You won't have to hold 1 Peter. I just wanted to
begin there. But look over in Romans chapter
5 in verse 20 and 21. The first thing I think that
we need to establish the Scripture teaches about grace is that it's
sovereign grace. It's sovereign grace. And we
say that because the Scripture basically calls it that. Two
Scriptures. Look here in verse 20 of Romans
chapter 5, in verse 21. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense, Adam's offense, might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness into eternal
life by Jesus Christ. Now, he says here that grace
reigns. In Hebrews 4, verse 16, you can
mark this, but don't turn there, it's a very familiar scripture,
where the Apostle said, Let us come boldly to the throne of
grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the
time of need. Now, here's two words. Grace, reigns, and the
throne of grace. Now, we don't just brush those
words off, do we? They mean something. The Holy
Spirit put them here and they mean something. When you think
of a throne, what do you think of? You think of a seat of power,
don't you? Authority. Majesty. The Lord said His throne. He
saith upon the throne of His holiness. He reigns King forever. He is the supreme ruler. So when
we read here that there is a throne of grace, that means that grace
is almighty. Grace is powerful. Heaven is
my throne. And when we think of reign, that
grace might reign through righteousness, the word reign means to be possessed
of and to exercise sovereign power and authority. to be possessed of and to exercise
sovereign authority. Now, when you think of the power
of God, that's one thing. That's an amazing thing. But
think of reigning grace. It's grace that saves us. It's
grace that keeps us. It's grace that will take us
to heaven. So it's a wonderful thing just to begin to say grace
is sovereign. It's almighty. It reigns. It
subdues. It conquers. He says you're as
sin hath reigned unto death. Sin reigns in its realm. Sin reigns unto death. You know
something? You and I cannot stop the reign
of sin. When something reigns, that means
in whatever realm it reigns in, it's supreme. Wouldn't it be
wonderful when you were conceived in your mother's womb, if somewhere
or another somebody Put the dividing line right there and say, sin,
you'll come no further. You're not going to enter this
fetus. Wouldn't that be wonderful? But
you know something? It's never happened. Nobody's
never stopped the rain of sin. When it entered in Adam, it passed
upon all man, and it's still passing today. Why? Because it
rains. Sin rains unto death. And you're
not going to die, aren't you? You know anybody that's 150 years
old? Why? Sin has reigned. And it's killing
people. Even so might grace reign. Just as sin is a sovereign and
it reigns, grace is a sovereign. Even so might grace reign. Listen to this. He was filled with the Holy Ghost,
but he was a sinner. He said, Lord Jesus, I have need
of you. Yeah, he was a sinner. The only person that was born
without sin was Jesus Christ. It reigns everywhere else. It
reigns in us. And it'll kill us, won't it?
It'll kill us. But listen to this. Grace cannot act. Grace can act. This is what we mean, then, when
we say grace reigns. Grace can act when it pleases. You say, now Bruce, how can you
say that? Because grace reigns. Grace can act upon whom it pleases
and how it pleases. A sovereign doesn't respond,
does he? A sovereign initiates. If you see a mighty king sitting
upon his throne, he's not sitting there waiting for somebody to
do something so he can respond. He's a sovereign. He takes the
initiative. So the first thing you and I
see here about grace is that it's sovereign. Sovereignty doesn't
have to wait on certain conditions to be fulfilled before it acts. It has the power to secure the
fulfillment of all that is required. One of the things that you'll
hear from free will so often. Now, if you're not willing, you've
got to be willing. You've got to be willing. What
if grace waited? What if grace just sat back and
waited until you and I became willing to be saved by Christ?
You know what would happen? Grace would wait, and grace would
wait, and we would die, and grace would be waiting. You know grace
doesn't have to wait. Grace takes the initiative. Grace
is powerful. Grace is sovereign. So what happens?
Thy people shall be willing. When? In the day of thy power. So there's why grace is so important. It's sovereign grace. It's reigning
grace. That's the first thing that you
and I must think about. Reigning grace. Secondly is this. And all of these things just
go together. See if this doesn't perfectly fit in with the grace
that reigns. Grace is free. It's free. Can you imagine finding a mighty
king and trying to bind his hands. Can you imagine doing that? Can
you imagine you being a pauper, a peasant, and taking a little
rope and trying to get to the king and say, I'm going to tie
you up? If he's a sovereign, he's free, ain't he? He's free.
So grace is free. It's free to act towards and
upon whom it pleases. Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will? with my own. Matthew chapter
20 and verse 15. It's uncaused in its recipient. Its cause lies wholly in its
giver. Grace doesn't look upon Gali
and say, I see something in Gal that has attracted me. So I'm
going to act towards her. She has such a good disposition.
She's such a kind old soul. I see something in her. That's
not grace is it? Grace is unmerited. We don't bind grace. We don't
obligate grace. It's free. It's free. Its cause
lies wholly in God the Giver. Let me quote this verse to you
again. We quote this, but we don't emphasize it. Ephesians
2.8.9, For by grace are you saved, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, not of merit, not anything you do, lest any man should boast. If a person is saved, it's the
gift of God's grace. And if it's a gift of God's grace,
then God's not obligated to give it, is he not? If it's a gift,
you're not obligated, are you? It must be free. If God gives
grace, it can't be because He's obligated. If He's obligated,
it's not grace. It's not that He refuses any
that comes to Him. It's not that at all. If a man
wants to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, come on His terms, then
come. He'll receive you. All that the
Father gives to me shall come to me, him that comes to me,
I will in no wise cast him out. He ever lives to save those who
come to God by him. He'll save everybody that comes
to God by him. But what we're saying here, those
who come to God on his terms are those that he's chosen to
bestow grace upon. That's why they come. That's
why they come. being justified freely by His
grace. So when we talk about grace,
it's sovereign grace, it's almighty, it reigns. When we talk about
grace, it's free. God bestows it upon whom He's
pleased to bestow it. You can't earn it, you can't
merit it. God's not obligated. It's not some debt that He owes
you. Have you ever heard anybody say,
God owes you one called You ever heard that? Well, how does that
line up with what you and I have already begun to study? See,
we can say, I believe that grace is unmerited favor. Then we turn
right around and say, God owes everybody a call. Well, if it's
free, if it's free with God to bestow it upon whom He's pleased,
He's not obligated to give us one call, then, is He? He's not
obligated to deal with us at all because it's grace. It's
free grace. This is the very next logical
conclusion. We've got sovereign grace that
reigns. We've got free grace. Shall I not do with my own what
I will? And then, thirdly, we've got what we call distinguishing
grace or discriminating grace. I want you to turn your Bibles
over to Exodus chapter 11. Exodus chapter 11. Discriminating grace. Discriminate
simply means to separate or to select from others, to make a
distinction, to make a difference. The Lord put a difference between
Egypt and Israel. Grace discriminates. Grace selects. Look here in chapter 11 of Exodus,
and look in verse 6. This is where the children of
Israel were ready to flee out of Egypt, and the death of the
firstborn was about to take place. In verse 6 of Exodus chapter
11, this is the Lord speaking to Moses. And there shall be
a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there
was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against
any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue
against man or beast, that they may know how that the Lord doth
put a difference between Egypt and Israel." Now that's grace. Now that's grace. Why would God
put a difference between Egypt and Israel? They were all born
in sin. Israel was the smallest of all
the nations. They were a stiff-necked and
rebellious people, were they not? Israel was just as bad as
Egypt. But he said, I put a difference
between Egypt and Israel. What made that difference? Why
did God bring judgment on Egypt and deliver the Jews? Grace. I put a difference. I distinguished
between Israel And we find this all the way through the scriptures.
Noah and his family were saved, and the old world was destroyed.
And you remember why Noah and his family were saved? Noah found
grace. Remember that? That's what we
call distinguishing grace. Why wasn't the world saved? Why
was just Noah and his family? Grace distinguishes. Grace puts
a difference between one person and another person. God called
Abraham out of heathen idolatry, and he left the heathen there
to perish. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. That's distinguishing grace.
Peter and Judas both failed. Both of them basically denied
the Lord. Judas died and went to his own place. Peter was recovered. God put a difference between
those two men. The Lord saved the publicans and sinners, and
He said to the Pharisees, leave them alone. Leave them alone. Grace distinguishes. Now here's
something, here's something the world, I guess, despises more
than anything, when you start saying that grace is discriminatory. It reaches one and passes by
another. It delivers one, and lets another
go his own sinful way. That's what grace does. And who
is it? Who is it that makes you differ
from everybody else? Why are you here tonight, worshiping
the Lord, got a desire of Him, have a good hope in Christ, and
you know several people that cannot profess that good hope?
You're different than they are. The distinction has been made,
but who's made it? God did it. Grace. So grace does
indeed distinguish. Now, fourthly, first we find
out that grace is sovereign, it reigns, it's free, it's discriminating
grace, it sets upon one and passes by another. Fourthly, when was
this distinction made? We say grace distinguishes. When
did grace distinguish? Look over in 2 Timothy 1 and
verse 9. Let's begin reading in verse
8. 2 Timothy 1 verse 9. Are you still believing, Grace? Look here in verse 8. Paul was
writing to this young preacher, Timothy, and he said, Be not
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner,
but be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God, who hath saved us, and called us with that holy
calling, not according to our works, not by works, by grace
are you saved, not by works, but according to his on purpose,
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began." When did grace distinguish between one man and another man?
Before they had a being. You remember when Jacob and Esau
was in their mother's womb, and Romans chapter 9 says, before
they were ever born? They never done any good or any
evil that the purpose of God according to election might span.
He said, the elder shall serve the younger. Jacob have I loved. Jacob have I chosen. But Esau
have I passed by. Now why did he choose Jacob? It wasn't because he was good.
It wasn't because he had potential to do good. Why did he pass by
Esau? It wasn't because Esau was bad.
The children neither having done good or evil. So God doesn't
discriminate. He doesn't choose a person. He
never chose a person to salvation because He said that person is
good. Neither did He pass by that person
because He said that person is bad. It had nothing to do with
a person's worth at all. Then what did it have to do with?
Grace. Grace said, I choose Jacob, and
I leave Esau to himself. Grace says, I'll choose Peter
to salvation, I'll leave Judas to his miserable self. And that's
what's happening today, is it not? Go back before the foundation
of the world, and you had a host of people that no man could number,
out of every kindred, tribe, and people and tongue, whose
names were put in the Book of Life. Grace wrote their names
there before the world was. What about everybody else? They
were left to themselves, more or less, to do as their own wicked
hearts pleased, no matter how God spoke to them, no matter
the temporal blessings He gave to them. So there is a distinction
to be made in man, and grace made it. To the elect and the
nonelect, grace makes the distinction. I think if I had to choose one
doctrine that shows the freeness of God's grace, that He's not
obligated to any man to give man grace, if I had to choose
one doctrine to prove that, it would be election. It would be
election. Because he did it before anybody
was ever born. He was not influenced in any
way. It was pure, free, sovereign
grace that made that distinction. Now, you didn't know that, did
you? I didn't know that. I didn't know that until the
Lord saved me. And that's our very next point. When is this
distinction made known? What causes it to be made manifest?
If the Lord made the distinction way back there in eternity, there
is going to come a time when that distinction is made known.
You are going to see a difference in you and the next person. If you are one of God's elect,
you are going to see a difference. I want you to turn over here
and look at this, back over to your left, in Galatians chapter
1. How do you know that God has He set His grace upon a person.
How can you tell that? Do you say, well, that young
man, he's got such a nice character about him. He's so friendly and
helpful. Is that the way you tell? That lady there, she's so wholesome. She's so nice and friendly. Moral. Is that the way you tell? You
can't tell that way either, can you? You know, sometimes it's
right the opposite. Sometimes before it's manifested,
before it's manifested that God has chose that person to salvation
by His grace, I tell you, sometimes the elect are the most immoral.
They're the most hateful. Look here at Paul, what he said
about himself in Galatians chapter 1. Look here in verse 13. of my conversation, my lifestyle
in time past in the Jews' religion. How that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God and wasted it. Man, he wasn't a fine fellow,
was he? I profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers, those stupid, silly traditions he yelled to.
But look in verse 15. but when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace."
There it is, grace. We are elected by grace, and
there comes a time when grace makes that election manifest.
What does it do? It calls us. And what happens
when grace calls us? Verse 16, "...to reveal His Son
in me." That's what grace calls us, and
it says, I've set you apart. I've set you apart. I'm going
to reveal Christ to your heart. And that's when you'll see the
distinction made known. That's when it will be made known.
When a person comes up and says, oh, I'm a poor sinner, and God
has revealed His Son to my heart. I know the Savior. That's when
you'll see. That's manifested. That's manifested. God's made a distinction. When
did He make it? Way back there on eternity. When
did He manifest it to you? When grace called you. When grace
came to you and called you. So it's not that God owes us
a call, is it? When Paul said, He called me
by His grace, that means I didn't deserve it. He wasn't obligated. It is grace that lays hold upon
a person and reveals the Lord Jesus Christ to his heart. One man said this, he said, Grace
cannot act in calling if there is something in us that is deserved. Grace cannot act if there is
something in us that is deserved. That would be contrary to the
definition, wouldn't it, of unmerited favor. He also said this, Grace
cannot act in calling us where there is ability on our part. When grace comes to us and finds
us, do we have any ability? We were dead in sin, were we
not? When grace found us, what merit did we have? What ability
did we have? We were ignorant. We were in
love with our sins, dead in sins, and He came to us. And when He
came and called us by His grace, He gave us the ability to believe. He gave us grace to repent. He broke our hearts and says,
God saves those that be of a broken heart and contrast spirit. When
He comes to call us, He doesn't call us because there's merit
there or ability there. What ability we need, He gives
it to us. He gives it to us. So it's grace
that brings all that's required, no matter what that is. Grace
doesn't wait for us to do anything. God begins the work. Faithful
is He who has begun a good work in you. That's where the work
begins. The first thing we do, if he
leaves it up to us, is become self-righteous. Ain't that the
truth? He leaves it up to us, we'll do something, we'll depend
upon whatever we do. So he has to strip it all away,
and then give us repentance, give us a broken heart, and give
us a heart to believe. Then he saves us. Now turn to
another scripture. I want to turn to one more scripture.
A couple of more scriptures and we'll quit. Look in Acts chapter
20. Look in Acts chapter 20. Look in verse 32. So we started
back in eternity, didn't we? We've looked at grace, that it's
sovereign. Grace that it's free, has no obligations. God's not
paying density owed. We saw it discriminating, distinguishing
grace, gliding upon one, passing by another. We saw when it was
distinguished way back there in eternity before the world
was. We saw when it was manifested. And you know when He saves us,
He doesn't put us on probation. He doesn't say, I hope you can
make it. The same grace that saves us builds us up. It makes us strong. It keeps
us. He doesn't save us by grace,
then go off and hope he can keep us in our works. It just don't
happen that way. It's grace from first to last.
Look what Paul said in Acts 20. And look here in verse 32. Acts
20 verse 32. Now brethren, I commend you to
God and to the Word of His grace, His grace, the God of all grace.
What can it do? It is able to build you up. Build you up. Make you strong
in the faith. Make you strong against the temptation. Make you strong in the grace
that is in Christ Jesus. Build you up. And look at this,
and give you an inheritance, an eternal inheritance that fades
not away, among all of them that are sanctified." See what grace
does? It does not just save us. It
does not just regenerate us. It keeps us. It builds us up.
And finally, it takes us to heaven and gives us an eternal inheritance
that is reserved there in heaven for us. What if one person fell
away from grace? What if just one person fell
away from grace? Then we are going to have to tear some of
these Bible verses out, aren't we not? If one person obtained
grace, if one person was elected by grace, called by grace, and
then fell away from that grace, what are we going to do about
sovereign grace? What happened to reigning grace? What happened
to free grace? Why did God remove grace that
He gave to them? Well, they just didn't do good
enough. You mean He gave it to them because they married it
to start with? If He gives it to them without merit, He won't
take it away because of demerit, will He? So once you obtain grace
in his sight, once you know he saved you, I tell you grace begun
is heaven won. That's what Paul said. That's
what Paul said. Bruce, what about the devils?
Don't you believe in devils? I sure do believe in devils.
I believe they tempt our minds, they frustrate us, they suggest
wicked things to us, they buffet us. What about this world? I believe in this world too,
man. I tell you what, if it turns you upside down like it does
me, it's a bad place to live in. What about this old flesh? It's weak as it can be. Tempted
always. Doubted and fearful. Don't you
believe these things will finally pull you away and carry you away
or get the best of you, get you down and you can't get up? No,
I don't. Why don't you believe that? Because
the Scripture doesn't teach that. The Scripture teaches grace.
Grace. Remember when Paul had the thorn
in the flesh? And he said, it's getting me down, Lord, please
remove it. And the Lord said, no, I'm not removing it. I'll
do something better. I'll do something better. I'll
give you grace to bear it. My grace is sufficient for thee. Ain't that what he said? He wasn't
just telling Paul that, brothers and sisters. He was telling you
and I that when we get in our severe trials, when we're going
through the fire, when we're wading through the deep rivers,
and it seems like they're going to carry us down over the cliffs. My grace is sufficient for... Samantha, honey, you're trusting
in His grace? His grace will be sufficient for that. No matter
what you go through, if you're trusting in His grace, His grace
will keep you. Devils, this life and the world
will all overcome you. My grace is sufficient for Peter
said, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved. You mean, Peter, we aren't saved
yet? Yeah, we've already been saved. But we're being saved.
And we shall be saved. All of grace. All of grace. Now,
do you believe in grace? Are you still believing in this
kind of grace? I bet you you go out there and talk to a lot
of people that say they believe in grace. And you set them down and teach
this lesson to them. They'll say, no, I don't think I believe
in that kind of grace. What kind do you believe in? I've got it
up here. I've got it up here. I want to get mine out of here,
don't you? Let me quote a few. Let me quote some things that
I've got. I don't even know whose this
is. I've had this for years. I don't know who wrote this.
But just listen to about three or four quotes and then we'll
close. This one man said, there being
no cause in the creature, in us, why grace should be shown,
the creature must be brought off from trying to give cause
to God for His grace. Did you get that? Since the cause
is not in us, for God given us grace to begin with, stop looking
for a cause in yourself. Stop trying to find a cause to
take to God. Why he should be gracious. The
cause is in him. Has he shown you grace? Has he
been gracious to you? Be thankful. Bless him for it. Praise him for it. But stop trying
to earn it. Stop trying to look for a cause
in yourself. It's not there, Shannon. It's
not there. Never has been. Never will be. There was an old
preacher, many years ago, was dying. One of his dear old friends
went to him. Faithful man, faithful old preacher
died after years in the ministry. And his dear friend got up in
his ear and said, Dear brother, you're going to receive your
reward. And the old man opened his eyes and said, Dear brother,
I'm going to receive mercy. I'm going to receive mercy. That's
the way it is with grace. I don't care how faithful. God
helped us all to be faithful. But our faithfulness is not the
cause of God's grace. This one fellow said this, the
discovery by the creature, by us, by believers, the discovery
by the creature that he is truly the object of divine grace works
in him the utmost humility. You can't be proud of grace.
For the receiver of grace is brought to know his own absolute
unworthiness and his complete inability to obtain worthiness,
yet he finds himself blessed on an altogether different principle
outside himself. And that is the grace of God.
And the last quote is this, Therefore flesh has no place in God's plan
of grace. And this is the great reason
why grace is aided by the proud, natural mind of man. But for this very reason the
true believer rejoices, for he knows that in himself, that is,
in his flesh, dwells no good thing. Yet he finds that God
is glad to bless him just as he is." Ain't that wonderful? Right where you sat tonight.
right where you find yourself tonight. Because it's grace,
God is able to bless you right where He finds you. Ain't that
wonderful? He's not waiting for preparation.
He's not sitting up there waiting for some conditions to be fulfilled.
That would just frustrate us today. Come boldly to the throne
of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the
time God's grace. Any questions?