The God of All Grace — 1 Peter 5

0:00 And let's give word thanks to God. Father, we thank you so much for your holy word that is inspired, that is inerrant, that is authoritative, and that is sufficient. Thank you for your word. Now bless our Lord as we consider what you have left here for us. We pray this in Christ's name.

0:19 Amen. Amen. Well, you ever ask yourself the question, why do we do what we do in church? And, why are we functioning the way we function? Well, let's try to answer some of this quickly.

0:32 Alright? For example, someone said, why do we have elders? Well, you just saw an address to the elders of the church. Right? But you might ask yourself your question, well, why don't we have foot washing, for example?

0:44 In John chapter 13, John, Jesus did a foot washing. Right? But what we do is we look at the Bible and we look at Acts when the church was getting started, and we don't see any example in the book of Acts of of them having a church service where they did foot washing. And then we go into the epistles that teaches the Christian life, and you never see anywhere in there is when you do foot washing, this is how you do it. Now, was at a camp in Tennessee that they did that, and praise the Lord that it was at night, otherwise I wouldn't have let them do it.

1:17 Right? And so they couldn't see my feet. I don't have very pleasant looking feet. Right? And so I I...

1:25 So because we don't see it repeated in the bible, we we realized, okay, so then it wasn't part of the... What the church practiced in the earlier days, and it wasn't left for us to to continue our practice. Now, is a Bible College in Indiana that does it, and that's why I did not go to that Bible College, and I went to another one. Alright. So so when we're looking at the scriptures, we look at, well, what does the Bible teach that the local church should be doing and how should it function?

1:53 Well, you look at Acts, and you see that Paul established elders after they started new works. And then we look at Acts chapter 20, and Paul called for the elders of the church at Ephesus to come and meet with them, and he gave them instructions. In Mexico, they have started over 40 churches up there, but they tell me that they don't consider it a local church until they name elders in that local church. Otherwise, they said it's just a mission, an outreach, and it's not a local church till the elders are named and prayed for. Right?

2:28 And so, we see then that as a normal pattern, the the Bible says that there should be elders in a local church, and that's why, we have elders in this local church, just in case you were wondering. Right? So it's a it's a it's a biblical thing. This is what God left for us, and you're gonna notice the instructions. I was almost hoping that when it came to this chapter, it wasn't gonna be my turn because I had to talk about some of the responsibilities that I have, and I would have rather someone else do it, but let's look at it anyway.

3:04 You're going notice what I'm going to do... What I'm going to attempt to do, we're going to look at the instruction to the elders of the local church, the instruction to the younger men, and of course, I'm going to include women in this. Anyone who's younger, do you consider yourself younger? Then you fit into that category. Then he addresses all of us.

3:23 So we're going look at instruction to the elders, instruction to the younger men, and then the instruction to all of us, and what we all have in common. Alright. So let's start out with, the instruction to the local elders. And so let's just see what it says. I exhort the elders among you, so he is addressing the elders of the local church, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ.

3:49 So Paul... I'm sorry. Peter, even though he was an apostle, he also considers... Considered himself an elder. I I guess because he was with them as he is...

4:03 They established churches. He was with the elders. They were connected. They were working together. And so somehow he connects himself with being an elder as well.

4:13 Maybe at this time when he wrote this, some some believed that he was in Rome being part of an elder in a local church there, and maybe that's why he addressed it that way. But anyway, he he considers himself or calls himself an elder as well. Let's go to verse two because I'm gonna come back to verse one in a little while. Verse two, shepherd the flock of God among you. It's interesting that he says that because Jesus told them as he, reestablishing back into the work, back into the ministry, he said this to him several times, shepherd the flock.

5:02 And, the other ones, try not to go there right now. Just just just look at the exhortation. If you don't think it's happening, come and tell me. I'm praying about it that the Lord would help me, and the rest of the elders here, that we would indeed be shepherding the flock that is amongst us. And so care for it.

5:23 That's what he's saying. Care for the flock. And notice the second instruction is not under compulsion. In other words, you shouldn't say, alright, I'm a local elder. I guess I need to do this.

5:34 And that's something that the elders need to constantly be checking their attitude to make sure they have the right spirit, the right character. You're not going at it because you have to, but because you want to. Of course, it's not always easy to to do it because sometimes you get tired and you really don't want to, but you know that it's your commitment before the Lord. Then he says voluntarily. Voluntarily.

6:03 Again, if you're gonna be a local... An elder of a local church, it's a good thing, the bible says, if you desire to be one, it's gotta be voluntary. Nobody can make or twist your arm. Come on, do it because no one else is gonna do it if you don't do it. I think it has to be more of, I I feel that God wants me to do this, and I'm gonna do it even though sometimes I'm tired, and and I don't feel like I'm fulfilling the role like I should.

6:26 Nonetheless, I need to voluntarily do it according to the will of God. So God calls you to do it, and it needs to be done voluntarily according to how God is leading the local leaders in the local church to take care of it. And then the next instruction, not for sordid gain. You you don't become an elder of a local church because you might get some money out of it or you might gain something from it. Now there is instruction in in the first Peter...

6:59 I mean, I'm sorry, first Timothy that some elders could be paid. He's not saying that you can't pay a local worker. Alright? But what he's saying is that shouldn't be your motivation. That shouldn't be why you do it.

7:14 And I think we would all agree with that, that we don't want that to be the motivation of anybody who's serving in a local church. But with eagerness eagerness. So you can see in this whole instruction to the elders, it's about your attitude, that you want to do it voluntarily, eagerly doing it, not because you're going to gain some time, but because you want to care for the local body, because you feel God called you according to his will to do it. He also says, not lording it over the people. We obviously do not have this employee employer relationship.

7:51 That's not what it is. It's not like, you better do it or I'm going to fire you, or you better do it or I'm going to give you a pay cut. We all do this because we love the Lord. We come together and we serve the Lord together, and it's not the elder's job to boss you and tell you what to do. I cannot make you love the Lord nor serve him.

8:10 We can only encourage you to do so. Right? Amen. Would you all agree with that? Right.

8:34 I have failed many times. The Lord is the witness. I've gone before him in full repentance and say, Lord, help me to be the example. I'm not always... I've failed you in so many ways, and and I wanna just admit to you that I haven't always been.

8:50 But we try, with the Lord's help, to be the example. And so there you go. There's a list of all the things in case you're desiring to be an elder, and it's a good thing if you are. It just kind of gives you some instruction. This should be your attitude.

9:06 This should be the way you've shepherd the local assembly. Okay. Then he goes on. Notice then, what he says in verse four. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive an unfading crown of glory.

9:24 I guess most commentators would agree that there seems to be a special reward for the elders because they voluntarily gave up so much of their time to shepherd the flock, to pray for it, to to to exhort, to help, to be there, to counsel whatever is needed. Because many times, I wanted to quit because it's like, oh, I'm tired and we have to meet, and it's gonna be a two, three hour meeting, and then another one next week, and another meeting, and let's pray, and and how can we fix this issue? So I remember one time, I was asked to be an elder in Houston, and so I called a dear friend of mine that I respected a lot. He was one of my instructors at Emmaus Bible College. And I said, well, they've asked me to be an elder.

10:08 What do you think? He goes, look, your attitude's right. Everything's good. The only thing that I'm scared of is all of the potshots and all of the insults you're going to take as an elder. That's what concerns me.

10:19 When that happens, you're going to get discouraged and want to quit. I thought it was unfortunate that that was the only thing telling me, that's what keeps me from saying, Yeah, go for it. So if you think you can handle that, then go for it. Of course, I don't have a very clear head, so I went for it. Praise God.

10:44 But when you serve the Lord in any capacity, whatever you do, there's always gonna be an amount of suffering. Period. A sacrifice. You don't have to be an elder. If you teach Sunday school, if if serve at a nursing home, if you go out and evangelize, there's always a sacrifice involved.

11:03 If you work with the young people, whatever it is, you have to sacrifice and spend time and pray and work at it. It's never easy. A mission group. Right? It's it's always work.

11:15 And so it's not just inclusive of the elders. Whatever you're doing, it's it's involving a lot of work, and we do it for the Lord because we love him. Right? Amen. Okay.

11:26 So then he he says something that we think is pretty common sense. Younger men, likewise, be subject to the elders. And one thing that's common, and all of you who are older can agree, and you know, when you were younger, you spoke against the elders because you thought you knew more. Right? Who didn't do that?

11:46 Right? I I know I did. The elders, if if, you know, they're kinda outdated, and and they don't really know how to connect. And, you know, I said all that kind of stuff. Now they're saying it about me.

11:56 Right? And so it goes around, doesn't it? That's right. Just like what you said about your dad, ah, he's so dumb, he doesn't understand. Now you say, oh, dad, you're so wise, you know?

12:07 And so, younger men, younger men, watch out, watch out with that pride, with that think you know more. Younger women too, anybody who's young. Having an arrogant spirit. So that's the instruction for them. That was quick and easy.

12:21 Let's go. And then next. Next. Notice the verse. Verse five.

12:33 Everybody. Everybody. All of you. What's the instruction? Listen.

12:37 Clothe yourself with humility towards one another. Wow. Wow. This is a virtue that the Christians brought to light. As some commentator said, culture of the time was just so arrogant.

12:56 The Romans were so arrogant and just lording it over the the people that were under their their command. And when Christianity came along and they were humble, they were looking down on each other, but they respected one another regardless of of their education, regardless of their economic situation. It didn't matter. It didn't matter if you have no education or or our education. As brothers and sisters in Christ, we treat each other the same.

13:27 Right? I remember again, when we were in Houston, we had this brother that was saved, and he couldn't read. He actually learned he still can't read very good, but he actually learned to read whatever he could read by by just trying to read the Bible, and he would get the Bible in disc and CD, and and he would listen to it. And this man memorized virtually most of the New Testament just by hearing the word of God even though he couldn't read. You know that right now?

13:57 Even though he's that way, because he was born in poverty in South America, you know that even right now, he's an elder in a local church? See? Because you don't have to be educated or have certain status to serve the Lord. God uses this humble broken man in such a beautiful way. What is he saying?

14:20 Let's treat each other with respect, be humble towards one another, never be arrogant towards one another, think you know more than the other person. That's not a Christian virtue. Right? And how beautiful it is when when all of us, including myself, display that type of an attitude. So all of you, be humble towards one another.

14:40 Why? Because God doesn't like arrogance. It's obvious. For God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And so we see what's important to God, that we not be arrogant, that we don't have pride.

14:54 Of course, that's our number one problem. Isn't that true? We all struggle with pride. We've all looked down on people. We've all had time where we think we know more or we're better.

15:05 At least I have. As the Lord works on my life, he's teaching me to be humble. Just in case we didn't get it, verse six he says again, humble yourself, therefore. Be humble. Be humble.

15:19 My goodness, if we can just exercise this, just think about how wonderful a blessing this would be for anybody who comes in and finds a group of humble people who just love the Lord. Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you at the proper time. And so God knows when to exalt you. God sees where you're at, and he knows when he's gonna give you that promotion or or open up more ministry for you, whatever it is you're desiring. Our our job is to to be humble and to wait on God.

15:59 At the right time, he's going to exalt us. So all of us are are exalted then to be humble, to be humble. Secondly, all of us are are to realize that God resists the proud. Alright? The next thing he exalts...

16:44 Who here has not been anxious? Right? Alright. Never. I think we all have.

16:52 And so so what is the the the scripture saying? Yeah. You have to learn by faith to trust god to the point where you say, lord, I'm anxious, but here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna cast this worry, whatever it is, I'm gonna cast it at you because I know one thing, and that's this, that you care for me. Amen?

17:13 And that's what the text says. Why? Because he cares for you. Because he cares for you. Now, here's the thing.

17:23 In the Greek, the idea is affectionate care. Affectionate care. In other words, when God sees and he knows what he's allowing in your life, and you get real anxious about the situation, whatever it may be, you come and you bring it to him, and God says, oh, that's... I'm so glad you brought it to me because I care for you with great affection. That's what he's saying right there.

17:49 And so all of us then are to be humble towards one another and and wait on God, humbly wait on him. He's gonna exalt us at the right time, and we are all to to not be anxious, cast all our anxiety upon him, whatever it may it may be, because I need to realize and be aware of the fact that he affectionately cares for me. Right? Now, how many of us have said, God, I I I thought you love me. If you do love me, then why are you allowing this?

18:19 You remember the whole the whole theme of first Peter is suffering and responding correctly to suffering. And so, God, even though I don't understand it, it doesn't make sense to me, but I'm anxious about it. I'm suffering. What... Whatever it may be, I cast it at your feet because I know that you affectionately care for me, that it matters to you, and that you're there for me.

18:47 And so then he goes on in the in the exhortation with this in verse eight. Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. What he's saying is don't be don't be just always goofing around, but realize that we're in a serious spiritual battle. What what does he mean by that? Then he goes on and says, because you're adversary.

19:11 You're adversary. This is something we all have in common. We all have in common is that the devil is trying to destroy us. You ever thought of that? That sometimes your discouragement in Christ, sometimes, your your anger and all that is Satan inciting us, trying to get us to the point where we get discouraged because remember, what is the theme of the book?

19:35 Suffering and responding correctly to suffering. That's why he says, even Jesus suffered even though he did nothing wrong. What did he do? He commended himself to God. Right?

19:48 He commended himself to God. And he goes, remember, Satan, all he wants to do is make you stumble. That's all he wants to do. And if he can accomplish that, then he's happy. So we need to be aware of that reality that we're in a spiritual battle.

20:04 We're constantly fighting the devil. Right? And so notice what he says then. He's he's he's like a lion roaring around, trying to devour someone. So sometimes, he's like a snake.

20:18 Sneaky. Tricky. Right? Deceiving. Sometimes, comes out like an angel of light.

20:26 In fact, he's so deceitful that you think he's an angel. But right here, the Bible says in this case, he's your adversary, he's your enemy, and he's trying to destroy you. He's like a lion looking for something to devour. That's a pretty nasty description of the devil, isn't it? So you need to be aware of that reality.

20:58 Resist them. Now hold your hand there and go to James chapter four real quick. Go to James chapter four and notice what it says here. And look at verse seven. Look at how I'm gonna connect these two verses.

21:18 Submit therefore to God, James four seven, it's right before Peter, right there. James four seven. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and what is he gonna do? What is he gonna do? Say it.

21:34 He's gonna flee from you. He's gonna flee from you. And so, again, the devil knows if you're resisting him or not. Ain't that amazing? Because he won't flee if you don't resist.

21:50 But if you resist, he'll flee. He's gonna say, man, this guy, this woman, this this person is is submitted to God. This person realizes that God cares for them. They're they're laying down their anxiety to him, So I'm going to flee because I'm not getting anywhere with them. Wow.

22:13 Go back to first Peter five. But you resist them. You resist them Firm in your faith. Look at that. Now, notice that he's connecting a lot of the suffering of the Christian with the devil.

22:33 Alright? So the devil was inciting his people to bring trials and tribulation and suffering upon the the people of God. Notice what he says, knowing that the same experience of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are who are in all the world. Now, one thing when we suffer, when we go through some problem, it could be cancer, it could be divorce, whatever it may be, right, the first thing that we think is, I'm the only one. Right?

23:05 Am I correct? No one understands me. I'm the only one. It's what I call the Elijah syndrome. When Elijah was being chased by that woman, by by Jezebel, right, that's why women shouldn't chase men, by the way.

23:19 No, just just... I was free. Alright. When Elijah was being chased by by her and threatened, what did he say? Oh, Lord, take my life.

23:29 And and and and then God says to Elijah, wait a minute, Elijah. Why are you so discouraged? Why? What are you doing? Don't you know that I have 7,000?

23:38 You thought you were the only one, didn't you, Elijah? Well, guess what? There's another 7,000 that haven't bowed to the knee to bow, to to the devil. You're not the only one. And he encouraged them, and he lifted them up.

23:53 Now, the worst thing we can do when we're under trial and tribulation and suffering is to be alone, be isolated. Amen. That's the worst thing we can do. And so what were they doing? He's saying, look, you're not the only one.

24:07 Christians throughout all the world are suffering. Now, it's not just suffering by being thrown in jail. Sometimes you're suffering because your friends rejected you and laugh at you. Sometimes your relatives curse you and laugh at you because you're a Christian. That's hard to take.

24:26 I I had uncles call me Jesus freaking and say all kinds of stuff to me, cousins. I had an aunt chase me out of the house because I was a Christian. So so you don't just suffer a beating and get thrown in jail. You get suffered because of your faith, because of your testimony. You get laughed at.

24:45 So it's not just the people in China and Korea who are being beat, are suffering. You suffer too in many ways. Right? And the devil was inciting the people to to to to cause the Christians to suffer. As I said, resist them.

25:01 Resist the temptation from the devil to deny the faith because you're suffering or to be mad at God or to be mad at God. Are you mad at God? I've been mad at God before because I didn't like what he was allowing in my life. And so Satan says, yeah, be mad at him. It's his fault.

25:19 That's exactly what he wants. But Christians throughout all the world are suffering not just us. I don't know, but that comforts me. Does that comfort you? It does me.

25:42 You're gonna suffer for a little while. Not just you, but every Christian throughout all the world. So there's no one that's gonna escape. So quit trying to escape. You're not gonna escape.

25:52 Right? So it's... So here's the way it works. God brings a trial into your life to grow your... In character.

25:59 Right? To bring maturity to your life. Satan then says, oh, I wanna use that trial, and I'm gonna try to tempt them to get mad at God because of what God is allowing. And that's what you have to resist. That is what he's talking about here.

26:15 Resist the devil. Firm in the faith. And so that's what we need to do. So we're gonna suffer for a little while. Listen, go home and understand that reality.

26:25 Christian life includes suffering. Not just blessings, even though I'm always saying to everybody, I'm blessed. Yeah, but I suffer too. I'm still blessed even though I'm suffering. Okay.

26:41 So verse 10. And after you have suffered for a little while, notice notice this is one of the beautiful names of God that we don't use enough. We always say God is love, God is love, but look at it, the God of all grace. Wow. Isn't that beautiful?

26:57 The God of all grace. One of God's excellent name. McDonnell put it this way, I I had to quote this, it was so beautiful. His dealing with us are not based on what we deserve, but on his thoughts of love to us. No matter how fierce our testing, we can always be thankful that we are not in hell where we ought to be.

27:21 End quote. I thought that was a fantastic way of looking at it. The God of all grace. We are saved by grace, we are kept by grace, and we are given grace as we need, as we're going through that suffering or the trial, whatever you're going through. We're giving all the grace that we need.

27:40 Grace upon grace. What a beautiful way to look at God, the God of all grace. Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes I don't have much organization in my life. I kind of just do things to do them. I get it done.

27:56 I'm not very organized. I'm not administrative in skills or gift. If you know me well, you know that. Right? Okay.

28:05 But God has a purpose in everything he does. Notice then verse 10. After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ... Alright? So God then is gonna allow trials and suffering on this earth.

28:26 He's so full of grace, he's gonna give you all the grace that you need. My grace is sufficient for you as you go through life. But remember, he called you to his eternal glory in Christ. Ultimately, he's gonna take you to glory. But meanwhile, he himself...

28:45 Notice, God is doing it. God is doing it. He himself is going to perfect, confirm, strengthen, establish you. So in everything that God is allowing in our life, his purpose is to mature us, to grow our character, to grow us as believers. So it's his job in our daily experiences to perfect us, to confirm us, to strengthen us, to establish us in faith.

29:15 So that's what he's up to. That's his purpose. That's his goal, To have Christians come out of the furnace firm in their faith, perfected, mature, strengthened in their faith, well established in their faith. We can come to the conclusion and say, as Job said, though he slays me, yeah, though he slays me, right, yet I will praise him. Lacey puts it this way.

29:46 The inevitable suffering of the Christian life always yields the same blessed results in the character of the believers. It will refine faith, adjust the character, establish, strengthen, and settle the people of God. Wow. So that's God's goal. To work on our person, to work on our character, to whatever he allows because we know that he's sovereignly in control.

30:12 Listen, the devil is not in control. It's God who's in control, and he knows what he allows. Alright. Now look at this verse 12. Write numb...

31:04 Alright? For example, this is a true grace of God, that he has chosen you, he set you apart, he cleansed you by the blood of Christ, chapter one. That's the grace of God that did that. That he has a place in heaven for us, chapter one. That we are that we are to go through many trials, and God gives us the grace to go through them.

31:27 That we have been born again through the word of God by grace. That's all in chapter one. Does the grace of God stand firm in it? In chapter two, we are all priests now in Christ, We come and we worship him directly by grace, that we are all aliens and strangers. In other words, we're in a world that hates Jesus, that hates God, and we're never going to really fit in.

31:55 You're always going to feel like a stranger or like an alien. This is the grace of God. Stand in it. That we will suffer unjustly. Stand firm in the grace of God.

32:09 This is part of it. That we will partake of the glory that is to come. Stand firm in that truth. We will all partake in it. Chapter five and verse one, therefore, I exhort you, I exhort the elders among you as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ.

32:28 So Peter is saying, I witnessed his suffering. I saw what he suffered, but now he's in glory. Notice, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed. And so this is part of the grace of God and God's plan that we're gonna partake in the glory that is to come. And right now, while we're waiting for that to be true, God has given us the grace that we need to endure, his life.

32:59 And the purpose, by grace, is that he produces the Christian character in us while we are here. This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. Wow. And so what an encouraging chapter.

33:17 Wouldn't you agree? What wonderful way to end the book. And of course, remember the theme is suffering. You saw it. Every chapter has that in it.

33:31 Right? So here's my my question to you. As we looked at first Peter, have you changed your mind as to suffering? Instead of being mad at God or just frustrated, have you realized that it's part of God's plan? Have you realized that?

33:51 That we're gonna go through trials, that we're gonna go through suffering. He was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Christ, when he was on earth, suffered. And so God, what he wants... What he wanted to accomplish through Peter writing this book was that we take the proper attitude towards all that comes at us through life.

34:14 Right? All the disappointments, all the insults, all the sickness that we deal with, all the relational issues, all the pain that is involved in that, all of the rejection, all of the insults, everything that comes in life. I don't know what you've gone through. What what... Maybe somebody violated you or something.

34:36 But life is painful. And Peter's trying to show us to have the right attitude towards what happens in life. And God appreciates it when when we respond correctly to the trials of life. Jesus responded correctly to it. Father, I commend my soul to you, chapter two.

35:00 And so what he's saying is here, realize this, that the Christian life includes, necessarily includes, because that's part of God's plan, suffering. God uses it to grow us in faith. It's it's part of the Christian walk. Satan then tries to come in and take advantage and destroy us because of what we go through and fill us with anger and bitterness towards God. And I know many many Christians that are angry at God and mad at him right now because they haven't learned the lesson of first Peter to respond correctly to life's trials.

35:40 Right? And so I myself have not responded correctly many times to what God has allowed in my life. And I'm learning, by his grace, to understand that he's developing my person, my character. He's working on my life because he's got that plan. What was that plan?

36:02 You remember? To perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. And my prayer is that I would allow him, this God of grace, full of grace, who's working in my life, to do that, to mature me, to confirm me, to establish me in my faith. Well, I hope you have enjoyed, first Peter. I have.

36:26 I've learned so much through it, and may his name be glorified. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for first Peter. Thank you for this final chapter, and we thank you for several things.

36:42 First of all, it says that you care for us, that you affectionately care for us, that it matters, you know what's going on in our life, and it matters to you. And that's such a comfort. We thank you that you're the God of all grace, and you give us the grace, my grace is sufficient, to be able to make it through this trial, however difficult it may be. And we thank you finally because you're producing the character of Christ in us. You're growing us.

37:12 You're establishing us. You're making us strong in faith, and we thank you for that. And at the end of the day, we're gonna part... Be partakers with Christ in glory. Wow.

37:28 Thank you, Lord. Now send us home with joy and peace. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.