Title: The True Grace of God

Text: I Peter 5:12-14

FCF: We often struggle enduring through suffering blamelessly.

Prop: Because God does all to complete our salvation, we must stand firm in faith and obedience.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to I Peter 5.

Today we will finish up our study on the book of I Peter. Since taking the call to shepherd you, this will be our eleventh New Testament book we have studied together. I have found it to be one of the most personally challenging books that I have every studied and I hope that you too have been pressed by Peter.

Peter was a man of passion. A man who was quick to do and speak and slow to think. His faith often wavered and gave out. He even denied Christ 3 times.

The Peter presented to us in the gospels, is not the same Peter who wrote here. Not to say that it is a different man altogether as some suggest – but to simply say that the ongoing work of God in Peter’s heart is evident.

The man who drew a sword and cut off someone’s ear to protect Jesus – now says to submit to every human authority and joyfully suffer for the name of Christ.

The man who started sinking because he took his eyes off of Jesus - now says to cast every care on Him who cares for you.

The man who denied Christ – now says to stand firm and hold fast in faith.

And the man who once rebuked Jesus for saying He would die – now finds great hope in the death and resurrection of His Lord.

God changes all His dear children to look more and more like His only Son. And I hope that Peter’s words have done just that for you also.

Peter finishes his letter in summary and exhortation. Two final commands for His audience before he sends it.

I am in I Peter 5. I’ll start reading in verse 12. I am reading from the NET which you can follow on page 1367 in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer.

Transition:

With only three verses to consider, we won’t spend a large amount of time this morning unpacking the text. But the implication of all of Peter’s letter, I hope, will be felt deeply within your soul. And that you will feel the need to obey and keep on obeying his final two commands.

I.) Because God does all to complete our salvation, we must stand firm in our faith. (12)

a. [Slide 2] 12 – Through Silvanus, whom I know to be a faithful brother,

i. The identity of Silvanus is clouded in some uncertainty.

ii. But even more mysterious is his actual role in this letter being written.

iii. This expression “through Silvanus” most often means delivered by. In the early church several church fathers used this expression more clearly to talk about someone who delivered a letter.

iv. However, because many see Silvanus as the Latin name for Silas, and because several expressions in I Peter seem to have Pauline flavors to them, and because Silas was with Paul on several missionary journeys – it is thought that Silas helped Peter to write his letter.

v. But if this is the Silas that went with Paul and was certainly well known throughout the church, the comment that he is a faithful brother seems unnecessary. Certainly the church in modern Turkey would have known who Silas was?

vi. Regardless of who this man was or how he helped Peter with this particular letter, we do know that Peter trusted this man because he was a faithful brother in Christ.

b. [Slide 3] I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you

i. This is a chance for us to go back and look at what is encouraging about this letter?

ii. To a group of people who are being insulted, ostracized, marginalized and criminalized by the society around them, what has Peter said that is encouraging?

iii. Grab your bible and scan the text with me as we walk through each chapter.

1. Chapter 1

a. They are chosen by God to be who they are. Not according to their own works but according to the foreordaining of God. God picked them according to the counsel of His own will.

b. He is also preserving them and will deliver them to an imperishable inheritance. So that even though they suffer trials now, their preservation through them will actively prove their faith to be real.

c. This salvation they have in Christ has been prophesied by the prophets.

d. This salvation was ordained in Christ before time began.

e. And this salvation leads to their own purification to obey truth and stop sinning.

f. In other words – the vast majority of chapter 1 is encouragement.

2. Chapter 2

a. They, in Christ, have become living temples, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. This is their new identity and it has a purpose.

b. This is really the one big encouraging item in chapter 2. The rest is mostly exhortation or something we’ll talk about in a few minutes.

3. Chapter 3

a. Although there are encouraging statements in Chapter 3, most of it has to do with the item we will discuss in a moment.

4. Chapter 4

a. Three times in chapter 4 Peter reminds his audience that Jesus is ready to judge, that the culmination of all things in near, that God’s judgment begins with those He loves.

b. To suffering servants this would be a great encouragement to them knowing that there is an end in sight. That God’s Kingdom is coming, indeed it is here now. And one day it will be here fully.

5. Chapter 5

a. Chapter 5, like chapter 1 is full of encouraging concepts.

b. First the idea of a humble, caring, loving, listening body of people known as the church. With leaders who are there because they want to serve the people and lovingly lead them. Not for gain of any kind, but because God has called them to it.

c. With a church body acting in humility, not because they are earning anything by it but because that is who God made them to be.

d. With promises from God that He will exalt the humble and oppose the proud. And the greatest illustration is how He exalted Christ the humble and so His bride also and how He opposes our fierce enemy, the Devil.

e. Peter puts all the credit back on the Sovereign God for the preservation of His people, that after suffering for a time – as a God full of grace – He will save His people to the uttermost, forevermore.

6. To a people suffering for being who they are, not having chosen this fate but being chosen in Christ – such promises would be a great encouragement.

c. [Slide 4] And testify that this is the true grace of God.

i. We have come to understand God’s grace more fully together over the last 6 years. God’s grace is His divine enabling, empowering, impassioning, to love and do all that He has called His people to do.

ii. God’s grace is the reason that though still sinners we can and do have victory over sin and victory in obedience.

iii. God’s grace enables His people to be joined together with Christ in faith.

iv. God’s grace is the life-blood, the fuel, the heart of all that is being His people.

v. And so whatever “this” is in this text, Peter is saying it is the true grace of God.

vi. But to what does the word “this” refer?

vii. Although there are several options the most compelling is the letter itself.

viii. And because he is referring to all that he has written, we must, like we did for the encouragement, go back through the chapters of I Peter to discover where Peter talks about the grace of God.

1. Chapter 1

a. Such trials show the proven character of your faith which is more valuable than gold tested by fire and bringing praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Grace is brought to us at Christ’s revelation.

2. Chapter 2

a. Chapter 2 opens with our absolute dependance on sustenance from God Himself.

b. He continues by saying that to suffer for doing good is a grace from God

c. He concludes with the greatest display of God’s grace in the suffering and death of Christ to save us from our sin.

d. Through His suffering He has turned us back to God.

3. Chapter 3

a. In Chapter 3 Peter says that if we suffer for doing good we are blessed or favored of God.

b. He says that Christ suffered once for sins so that He could raise up His people from death and put down angels and authorities and powers.

4. Chapter 4

a. He says to arm ourselves with the same attitude of the suffering Christ and then says that if we suffer in the flesh we have finished with sin or that we have been freed from the slavery of sin.

b. He says in suffering we are suffering because we don’t wish to continue in sin.

c. But through this we prove ourselves to be living.

d. He says that in suffering we use God’s grace to minister to one another

e. He says to rejoice that we suffer with Christ.

f. If we are insulted for Christ’s name we are blessed.

g. If you suffer as a Christian glorify God for this

h. The righteous will be brought through judgment first with God safeguarding the souls of those who are truly His.

5. Chapter 5

a. God will preserve those who are His and establish them though they are attacked by Satan.

b. He will help to prove their faith.

ix. All of this shows that the true grace of God is Him using all things, even suffering and pursuit by our enemy, and in God’s judgment – ALL THINGS work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

x. The true grace of God is that God will hold forever those He loves.

xi. The true grace of God is that even amid suffering God is working in grace to preserve, protect, purify, and prove His people.

xii. And so, since they are encouraged and taught about the nature of God’s grace… what must they then do?

d. [Slide 5] Stand fast in it.

i. We must ask what is “it”?

ii. Is it the true grace of God?

iii. Is it the encouragement that Peter gave?

iv. Friends, it is still referring to all that He has written. Both the encouraging truths and the exact nature of the true grace of God.

v. That the truth of God’s choosing them, making them what they are, supporting them, working things out for their good, even in their suffering, all of this is something that must be stood fast in.

vi. Doctrine, good and solid doctrine, knowing what is true and standing firm in it is Peter’s point.

vii. If you are suffering, particularly if you are suffering for Christ’s name, not only is it in keeping with these truths, but it even affirms that you are God’s child and will inherit the glory of Christ in the final day.

viii. Remember what Thomas Watson said, “Christianity is not the removal of suffering, but the addition of grace to endure suffering triumphantly.”

ix. Stand in the truth of God’s work.

e. [Slide 6] Passage Truth: So, Peter summarizes all that he has written, pointing out the encouragement and testimony of God’s sole work in choosing, sustaining, preserving, protecting, and perfecting their status as His children. Such truth is encouraging and illuminating, especially when they are pressed on all sides.

f. [Slide 7] Passage Application: And Peter makes it clear – that such truth is not only encouraging, but indeed it is foundational. It is the bedrock on which they must rest. To cling to God casting all their cares on Him. He alone has done this and He alone can keep them. So, they must stand firm in this faith. For standing firm in this faith is the evidence that God has done this for them.

g. [Slide 8] Broader Biblical Truth: From all of scripture we are reminded over and over again about the sole act of God to save someone. In theological terms it is known as “monergism.” It is the fact that God alone acts to save, keep, protect, preserve, test, purify, and perfect His people. No power of hell, no force of man’s will, no scheme of man, and no self-righteousness can ever do one thing to impact God’s work in saving His people. It is not by our merit that we are justified – but rather by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And because God’ makes us who we are without us – He can keep us who we are without us too. He will sustain us. He will protect us. He will preserve us.

h. [Slide 9] Broader Biblical Application: But just because God does something alone, doesn’t mean that we have no responsibility to act. So, CBC, when presented with such rich truth of God’s monergistic work, we have no other option than to grab on tight and hold to it for dear life. When everything around us crumbles. When doubt surrounds. When hope is strained. We hold fast to the truth that the God who was able to raise us to life, gave us faith in His Son, and is actively growing us, that same God is able and willing to keep us through the storm. Cast all your cares on Him. For He cares for you. Indeed, the very evidence that God is our God and has done all for us is that we cling to that hope and endure.

Transition:

[Slide 10(blank)] So we must ground ourselves in this truth. We must hold tightly to what God does to complete us in Christ. Even though that should be enough. Even though we should trust His promises. What else does Peter tell us to do? Where else shall we turn to for aid?

II.) Because God does all to complete our salvation, we must love one another. (13-14)

a. [Slide 11] 13 – The church in Babylon

i. The actual Greek expression here is, the woman in Babylon.

ii. Although there is much to be said here, realistically Peter uses coded language to hide that he is writing from the local church in Rome.

iii. What does the church in Rome have in common with these folks in modern Turkey?

b. [Slide 12] Chosen together with you,

i. They have the same Father, Lord, Elector, and Savior.

ii. They too were chosen together with the church there.

iii. They too are inheritors of the matchless grace of God.

iv. They too were given their identity by God and God alone.

c. [Slide 13] Greets you, and so does Mark, my son.

i. And all of them greet the church there with warm affection.

ii. Mark too, the spiritual son of Peter greets them.

iii. This is the same John Mark who abandoned Paul and Barnabas but later in II Timothy Paul desired him to come to Rome and help, since he was of great use to Paul.

d. [Slide 14] 14 – Greet one another with a loving kiss.

i. Certainly, this is challenging for us.

ii. Our culture does not put greeting and giving kisses necessarily together.

iii. Perhaps a culturally appropriate interpretation would be Greet one another with a loving embrace. Or, perhaps a loving handshake.

iv. This amounts to a second command in this passage. The first was to stand firm in their faith.

v. This second command is of action. That we are to warmly, kindly, affectionately greet one another as a loving family.

vi. The level to which God’s people are to see one another goes beyond even blood relations. We are bound not by blood, but by destiny. By calling. By identity. And by purpose.

vii. We, collectively, not you individually, but we collectively are the bride of Christ.

viii. Peter commands a deep familial love to be present in the assembly.

ix. This, as we’ve seen in other passages of scripture, is a proof of true faith. God’s people love one another.

x. And he hopes, for their sake, for something else.

e. [Slide 15] Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

i. Based on all that Peter has said, we know that peace here cannot and does not mean earthly peace.

ii. Peter’s wish for them is NOT referring to their own personal suffering at the hands of their pagan society.

iii. Such a wish would be to cut off the grace of God from them. Such a desire would be to pluck them prematurely out of the refining fire. Such a hope would be to remove the assurance of their faith proven by trial.

iv. No, this wish for peace from Peter is that his audience would know true spiritual peace.

v. But he clarifies that only those who are truly in Christ can know peace.

vi. Peace with God and peace in their souls. Though trials swirl around them – they have cast all their cares on a God who cares for them.

vii. To stand firm in God’s sovereign role in choosing, sustaining, purifying, proving, and perfecting them and to love one another intensely, faithfully, sacrificially, and selflessly is to obtain in this life – peace - and to gain hope for the next life of knowing true peace.

f. [Slide 16] Passage Truth: So Peter, for the last time in this letter reminds them of the greatness of their God who, without any credit to them, took them out of darkness and brought them into His light. Such a God not only has saved them from spiritual death, but will keep them in spiritual life as they walk the difficult road ahead – constantly sustained by His grace.

g. [Slide 17] Passage Application: In response to this, they must love one another. They have this common destiny together. They have this common trial together. They must find peace by trusting God and by loving each other deeply. Indeed, as we’ve said many times, their love for one another is evidence that God has done this for them.

h. [Slide 18] Broader Biblical Truth: Why is it so important for God to have done all in our salvation? Why must we eliminate any human part? It seems like a simple thing to ask with an obvious answer, but for Peter’s audience – if they truly chose this path for themselves. If they, of their own volition, chose to be this person… and then suffered for it. Would they not be wracked with guilt over having chosen poorly, since they now suffer for their choice? Or worse, would they not conclude that since they chose this life for themselves, that they could simply un-choose it to spare themselves pain? My friends, the fact that God did all is a great line in the sand for these people. You don’t have to feel guilt or regret over being a follower of Christ and suffering for it. After all, God made you who you are. But if God made you who you are – if He was able to do that – is He not also able to sustain, protect, purify and perfect you? Even through suffering? The doctrine of monergism is not a high and lofty academic only doctrine. No. It cuts to the bone. It comes close to the pain. If God alone saves us… then in our suffering… God alone can save us from that too.

i. [Slide 19] Broader Biblical Application: So, what do we do with this? Well, my friends – if God has done this – all by Himself. Then we are a people whom He has given a common destiny. A common life. A common burden. A common husband. A common calling. We are…. Together… wholly bound to Christ. What does that mean for us? I have more in common with you who are united to Christ by true faith than I have in common with my unsaved family. And even my saved family- I am united to them deeper than mere blood can go. Do you understand what this means? We are one in the Lord. One. We. Must. Love one another. This is the only path to peace and indeed if we love one another – is it not a great proof of God having made us His people?

Conclusion:

[Slide 20(end)] So, what is the main point, the primary theme that we can take away from I Peter?

True faith endures suffering blamelessly.

This theme encapsulates both the encouragement that Peter wishes to give them and the testimony of God’s true grace to them.

True faith, faith that is grounded in the absolute sovereignty and mongergistic work of God to save His people. Faith that is grounded in the work and person of Jesus Christ, faith that holds on to the promises of God that He will provide, protect, sustain, purify, and perfect His people – This faith – True Faith - is enough to stand on through every storm.

We do not need to resort to rebellion, we do not need to resort to retaliation, we do not need to go back to our sins, we do not need to love the world, we do not need acceptance, we do not need comfort, we don’t need the world to change, and we don’t need to change the world.

All we need is Christ. All we need is our God and His promises. So much so, that though we suffer insult, ridicule or even pain, torture and death for His name – we do not need anything but Him. Putting all our eggs in His basket, casting all our cares on Him means that we hope in nothing save what He has promised to give us. We seek His Kingdom and righteousness first.

For on this foundation we can stand and blamelessly endure suffering. And the eyes of the pagans, the enemy, and all who inflict such great tribulation on us, will see the same meekness that Christ showed as he went like a lamb to the slaughter. And many will scoff… but some will believe. And in the day when the Lord descends, the day the Son finally comes to judge the living and the dead, all the dead will be forced, for the glory of God the Father, to kneel before Him confessing that He. IS. Lord. And the vindication of His people shall be given and His justice shall reign.

My friends. Stand fast in Him. Stand fast in His grace.

Yet knowing our weakness. Knowing we would find great difficulty standing firm in a God we cannot see. Knowing that we are still sinners yet declared righteous. He gave us each other also.

That even while standing firm in the great promises of our God we may yet turn to each other and hold each other up. We may yet close ranks around those who are wounded and hurting. We may follow those who are strong in faith. We may lean on those who encourage. We may be carried by those who show mercy. We may be pruned by those who teach in word and deed.

In short – the narrow way is long and difficult. God alone should be enough. But He has given us the church, His bride, to love, help, teach, give to, support, guide, care for, serve, and protect each other.

In the days ahead… I’m not trying to alarm you and I don’t want to be too pessimistic, but the days of Christian virtue and morality being appreciated in this culture are coming to a close. What is true of this nation is the same truth of every nation before it. Men love their sin and want to keep it, even if it means their own condemnation. And when we make it clear to the waking world that the reason we cling to this morality is because we serve our King, and not for any other reason - well it won’t be long before He will not be permitted either.

In short – being a Christian will cost us something very soon. Our lives certainly… but there are a great many things more precious than our lives that will be threatened. They will come for our homes, our property, our children… they will take everything from those who have the audacity to call them sinners… and no matter how lovingly we tell them they are sinners… no matter how many times we say, “I was like you once”… it will not matter.

I don’t know when it will be. I do think it will be in my lifetime and certainly in my children’s. But soon… we will suffer as our forefather’s suffered. We will be put into the fire of God’s judgment. We will suffer much for the name of Christ.

How do you expect to stand Christian? Will you depend on the strength of your arms, your weapons, your wealth or your wit? And who will stand with you? Will you bind yourself to unbelievers who happen to share your values for this reason or another? Will you yoke yourself to those who worship idols and practice the paganism that is morality without Christ?

My friends. Stand firm in the testimony of the true grace of God. And love one another. This is true peace. This is the only path to knowing peace.

The world may crumble around us and we may lose all we cherish in this life… but if it doesn’t profit a man to gain the whole world but lose His soul… can you tell me what profit it is to lose the whole world but gain the Kingdom of God?

Very soon we will be tested in this. Are you ready to see if you have true faith? True faith endures suffering blamelessly remember. Are you ready to stand firm and love one another?