The title of my message today
is The Good News. The Good News. And my text will
be taken from the book of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 10 and
11. The Good News. Now, the Apostle
Peter closes his first general epistle. And the reason it's
called a general epistle is because it's addressed to all believers.
not just a certain church like the church at Ephesus or Galatia
or Corinth, but this general epistle, 1 Peter is addressed
to all believers. And he begins this first chapter
with some good counsel, this fifth chapter with some good
counsel. He tells us in verse six, humble yourselves under
the mighty hand of God and he'll exalt you in due time. This is
to all believers, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.
For God resisted the proud and he gives grace to the humble.
My friends, pride and faith are incompatible. Pride and grace
cannot exist together in the same heart. The wise man Solomon
writing in Proverbs chapter six says this, there's six things,
there's six things that the Lord God hates. And you know what
the first thing is? It's a proud look. Six things
doth the Lord God hate. A proud look, and the rest of
them, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, an evil
heart that devises wicked imaginations, feet that are swift to run to
mischief, a false witness, and he that soweth discord among
the brethren. But the chief thing the Lord
God doth hate is a proud look, a proud heart. Humble yourselves,
that's good counsel, unto the mighty hand of God, and He'll
exalt you in due time. But let me ask you this. What
do we have to be proud of? Whatever we have, God gave us.
The Scripture said, Who maketh thee to differ? What do you have
you didn't receive? A man can receive nothing except
it be given him from above. So really, we have nothing of
which to be proud. If we're going to glory in anything,
let us glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then
verse 7, Peter says, cast all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. All your care. That's all of
it. All fretting and fears. and all cares and concerns, and
all family matters and future decisions, all worry and anxiety,
just cast it on Him. And here's the reason, because
He cares for you. And that care is a twofold meaning.
He cares for you, that means He loves you. When we say we
care for somebody, that's we love them. But also it means
this, He takes care of you. Cast all your cares, frets and
fears and worry and anxiety, cast them on Him. He cares for
you. He loves you. And He also provides
for you. Paul wrote in Philippians 4,
My God shall supply all your needs according to His richness
in glory through Christ Jesus. As a little child, trust and
depend upon a loving parent. Let us trust our Father and depend
upon Him. Humble yourself. Cast all your
care upon Him. And then in verse 8, be sober. Be serious. My friends, life
and death and eternity is not a game. I've never understood
why many believers feel like they have to be funny all the
time. They have to say something silly or something funny or something
foolish and entertain people. Peter tells us here to be serious,
be serious, be dedicated to one thing, knowing God. In fact,
Paul summed it up with three desires. He was serious about
this and so dedicated and so separated to the gospel, he said,
I have a threefold desire. One is to win Christ. and be
found in him. Not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. I want to win Christ and be found in him. And his
second desire is this, I want to know him. Paul knew the Lord. He wanted to know him better.
He wanted to know the power of his resurrected life. I want
to know Christ and the power of his life, the power of his
spirit, walking with him like Enoch of old. And the third thing,
he says, I want to attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Humble yourself. Cast your care upon him. And
let's get serious about this matter of our relationship with
God. And then he said, Be vigilant. Vigilant. What does the word
vigilant mean? It means watchful. Be alert. Be dedicated. We have enemies.
That's right. We have enemies. He says in that
next verse, the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. And Paul said in Ephesians, our
enemies are not just flesh and blood. Our enemies are principalities
and powers and rulers of the darkness and spiritual wickedness
in high places. Believers have enemies. We have
trials, we have troubles, We have tribulations. We have afflictions
that are common to all believers. They're common to and experienced
by all of God's people. So humble yourself under the
mighty hand of God. In due time, he'll exalt you.
And just cast your care upon him. And be sober and serious
and dedicated and vigilant and watchful. Watchful. And then, here's the good news.
Here's why I want to camp for a little while. This is where
I've been, this is what I've been coming to in this introduction. I want to camp here for a little
while and think about these next two verses. But the God of all
grace, the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ, after you have suffered a while, a
while, make you perfect and establish you and strengthen you and settle
you. To Him be the glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. Let's look at those verses. The God of all grace. Who is
our God? He's the God of all grace. Our God's holy. That's His chief
attribute. If you were to ask me to give
one word To define God or to sum up the attributes of God,
I'd say holy. God is holy. Holy and reverent
is his name. And then secondly, our God's
just. The scripture says just and righteous are his precepts. Verity and truth is the scepter
of his kingdom. Our God's holy and our God is
just and righteous And our God is truth. He cannot lie. God's not a man that He should
lie. But He's also the God of grace. The God of all grace. It's like God is gracious. God
is love. There is no love except in God.
He is love. God is love. And God is grace. And He's the God of all grace.
All grace. All grace shown. all grace experienced,
all grace given, all grace in this life, all grace in eternal
glory, God is the God of all grace. I know His throne is a
throne of majesty. Talked about the seraphims about
the throne of God and they covered their faces and covered their
feet and with the other wings they did fly and cried, holy,
holy, holy. God's throne is a throne of majesty
This is a throne of justice. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? He always will. It's right because he does it.
But he calls his throne, thank God, a throne of grace. A throne of grace. It says in
Hebrews 4, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find help in time of need. Our
God is the God of all grace, grace. When God's wrath was unleashed
against this world in the days of Noah, the scripture says,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That's the first
time the word grace appears in the Bible. And when God's wrath
and anger was against the whole world and the evil of men's heart
dominated and controlled. And God said, I'll destroy the
world. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And when
Moses asked the Lord to show, he said, show me. Moses said,
Lord, show me your glory. Show me your chief glory. That's
what I want to see. I want to see your greatest glory.
Now, Moses had seen miracle after miracle and judgment after judgment
and power and the dividing of the sea and the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah and all these things. They'd seen these things.
But he said, I want to see your glory, your glory. And God spoke
to him. And God said, Moses, the Lord
replied, in answer to this question, show me your glory. He said,
Moses, I'll make my goodness pass before you. That's my glory,
my goodness. And I'll proclaim the name of
the Lord before thee, and I'll be gracious. I'll be gracious
to whom I will be gracious, and I'll show mercy to whom I'll
show mercy." That's His name. That's His name. I proclaim the
name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious, the God of
all grace. Well, what is grace? What is
grace? We talk a lot about grace, but
what is it? Well, the standard definition of grace is unmerited
favor, and that's a good one. It's God giving us freely what
we don't deserve. That's grace. Romans 3 says,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but
we are justified freely, freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2 says, For by grace,
God's grace, are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
So grace is God forgiving the unfaithful, no strings attached. Grace is God receiving the wayward
son, the prodigal, no strings attached. Grace is God forgetting
the offense, no strings attached. Grace is God canceling the death. It's pain. It's pain. No strings attached. Grace is
God forgiving all our sins, putting them away, separating them from
us as far as the east is from the west. No strings attached. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Our Lord
said, when they had nothing to pay, He frankly and freely forgave
them both. The God of all grace. That's
what grace is. Now let me ask you three questions.
I want you to think for a moment now. I want you to think. Now
this, I've laid this truth down. Salvation is the gift of God. No question about that. Eternal
life is the gift of God. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God. is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Free gift. He freely, frankly
forgave them both. Secondly, salvation is based
wholly, completely on the merits of our Savior. It's unmerited
favor. We don't merit it, we don't earn
it, we don't deserve it. It's free. Salvation by grace,
free. Thirdly, salvation's all of work,
all of grace, not of works. There's no works included or
involved, it's all of grace. Now, that being so, here's my
three questions. Number one, question number one,
if salvation is the gift of God and salvation's all of grace,
not of works, is there anybody listening to my voice who is
ineligible for salvation? Is there anybody? If it's a free
gift, if it's all of grace, Is anybody ineligible? I'll tell
you who is. Only those who are unwilling
to receive it as a gift. Only those who are unwilling
to be saved by grace. That's what Christ said to the
Pharisees, these religious men. He said, you search the Scriptures.
You search the Scriptures. In them you think you have life,
but they are they which testify of me, and you will not come
to me that you might have life. That's what stands between many
people in Christ. They will not come to Him. They will not receive it as a
gift, receive it by grace. They want to contribute something
to it. So I'm telling you, if salvation's a gift, all of grace,
there's nobody, nobody ineligible except those who are unwilling
to receive it as a gift. Second question, if salvation's
a gift and all of grace, Is any person out there listening to
my voice, any person, too great a sinner to be saved? I've heard
folks say, well, salvation is not for me. You don't know how
wicked I have been. You don't know what I've done.
You don't know what a terrible person I am and what a terrible
road I've walked and how I've mistreated people. Listen, my
friend, Saul of Tarsus killed Christians. He murdered the people
of God. There's nobody ever lived with
a more wicked heart than Saul of Tarsus. The woman at the well
was married five times. How many times have you been
married? She's been married five times and was living with a man who
wasn't her husband. I could go on and on and on through
the Scripture, but let me tell you this. If salvation is all
of grace, there's nobody to greater sinner to be saved. In fact,
the greater the sinner, the greater the glory to God's grace and
God's goodness. Is anything too hard for God?
Scripture says He's able to save to the uttermost them that come
to God by Him. I don't care who you are or what
you've done or how you've lived. My God and His grace is sufficient
to redeem you. That's right. And let not conscience,
let not your conscience make you linger, nor a fitness fondly
dream. Don't just fondly dream of being
fit to come to Christ. There's nobody fit to come to
Him. He came to save sinners, not righteous foes. He came to
seek and save the lost. All the fitness He requires is
for you to feel your need of Him. It's by grace. It's a gift. And you'll receive
it that way or you won't receive it at all. And third question
is this, if salvation is a gift and all of grace, listen now,
If it's a gift, if it's all of grace, can any future failure
on my part, or any future fall on my part, rob me of that which
God's already given me, the gift of life? He gave me life, is
He going to take it back? He gave me His grace, is He going
to take it back? If God's grace depends on in
any way upon anything that I do in the past, present, or future,
it's not grace. It's not a gift. If it depends
upon anything that I do or don't do, then it's not grace. I tell
you, all of the people of God, they delight in God's law, and
His commandments are not grievous. The only thing they grieve about
is when they break one of His laws, or when they sin, or when
they fail to do His will. But not one of us, not one of
us are without sin. We don't live a day without sin.
We have sin, we have failures, we have flesh. Our prayers every
day always include what our Lord taught us to pray. And forgive
us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. You'll never
close a prayer in honesty without saying, Lord, forgive me. of
my sins." That's right. So I'm telling you this, if it's
by grace, if it's a gift of God's salvation, then there's nobody
ineligible except that person who won't receive it as a gift.
And there's no one too wicked. My Lord is able to save the most
wicked people in this world if they believe Him, if they believe
Him. And if He saves you, He gives you the gift of life, you're
alive, you live, you're God's son, you're His child. The God
of all grace, what hath he done? He has called us. You see that
word? He hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle Paul talked about
this calling and Peter talked about it at Pentecost. At Pentecost,
Peter said this in Acts 2.39, he said, the promise is to you
and your children And to all that are far off, even as many
as the Lord our God shall call. The God of all grace has called
us unto his eternal glory. God's choosing and God's calling
are inseparable. They always go together. You
read 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26, which says, You see, you're calling,
brethren, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise are
called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world,
the things that are not, the things that are based, to bring
to naught the things that are, God's calling and God's choosing
go together, always together. When it pleased God, Paul said,
this is what Paul said, when it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, God separated me from my mother's
womb, He chose me, He elected me, chose me to salvation, and
He called me by His grace. and He revealed His Son in me.
He chose me, He called me, and He revealed His Son to me. And
Peter said in II Peter 1 verse 10, Wherefore the rather brethren,
make your calling and election sure. They go together. Whom
the Lord foreknew, He predestinated to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Whom He predestinated, He called. And whom He called,
He glorified. That's right. They go together.
They go together. And here in II Thessalonians
2, listen to the apostle Paul. I'm bound to give thanks always
to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. He called you. I thank God for
you. God chose you to salvation from
the beginning, and He called you by our gospel. And II Timothy
1 says, God has saved us and God has called us with a holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to His own
purpose and grace, which is given us in Christ before the world
began. God calls me. He calls them by
the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit and belief of the
truth. They'll hear a preacher. They'll
hear the gospel. He said, in whom you trusted
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
Now, Moses was out there on the hillside, and that bush, that
burning bush, that got his attention, attracted Moses. But God called
him. God's the one that called him.
Philip was sent to the eunuch, and the eunuch sat and listened
to Philip preach the gospel. but it's God who called him.
Paul preached to Lydia, but who opened her heart? God opened
her heart. Oh, my friends, the God of all
grace hath called us. Called us to what? To eternal
glory. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. Now listen to me as I wind this
message down. What is this glory? Who is this
God? He's the God of all grace. What
is this grace? It's the free gift of God. It's
the free gift of God. It's unmerited favor. Now, He
has called us to eternal glory. Now, I'm going to show you what
this glory is. I'm going to show you from the
prayer of our Lord in John 17. These are the words of Christ
speaking to His Father in John 17. He says, Father, the glory
which You gave Me, I've given them, that they may be one as
we are one, even in us. It's the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." God Almighty has called us to what
kind of glory? The very glory of Jesus Christ. The glory that's His is ours.
Secondly, verse 23, listen, "'I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be made perfect in one. This eternal glory is not only
the glory of Christ, but it's perfection. We're going to be
perfect in mind, in soul, in body, perfect, that they may
be perfect in one. I'll be satisfied, David said,
when I awake with His likeness. And then thirdly, he says, Father,
this is verse 23, Father, You have loved them as you love me. You have loved them as you love
me." What is this glory that He's called us unto? It's the
very glory of Christ. It's the very sonship of Christ. We're sons of God. We're heirs
with Christ. We're joint heirs with Jesus
Christ. That's the glory. Perfection,
eternal glory, eternal glory, never ends, never ends. 1 Corinthians 15, Paul said,
Behold, I show you a mystery. We're not all asleep, but we'll
be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, by the trumpet of sound, the
dead in Christ shall be raised perfect, incorruptible. And we'll
all be changed. And this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal, immortality, So when this corruption
shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put
on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying, Death
is swallowed up in victory. Thanks be unto God, who giveth
us the victory, and called us to eternal glory through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, the glory you gave me,
I've given them, and the perfection that can only be attached to
His name will be ours. And the love, that eternal love
of the Father for the Son is the same love He has for us.
What a prospect. What a prospect. The God of all
grace who has called us unto eternal glory. Now, if you want
this tape, this message is called, The Good News. And it's good
news, the good news. You write for it, send $2, and
we'll mail it to you. And until next time we meet,
may the Lord bless you, everyone.