Putting the context into our scripture, begin with verse number 7 once again. upon the Lord, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would give to us A point or two out of your word that we can feast on and carry home. Something that we can dine on in the days to come. Prepare our hearts for that day when the last breath is taken and we enter your presence. May we already be expert in giving glory to our Heavenly Father. Bless our thoughts this evening. Glorify yourself before us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. There are a lot of people who like to read the Bible as if it's some sort of collection of mystical, allegorical statements. To them, very little of the Bible is black and white. To them, just about every other statement must mean something other than what it clearly says to the regular mind. The word Israel, for example, doesn't mean Israel. It's talking about the church. Salvation means earthly prosperity. Eternal life means dying peacefully. And hell means dying in pain and fear. And on and on and on, we have all sorts of allegories and pictures that people come up with. I'm not one of those people. I believe that the Bible should be taken exactly as it is spoken or written. It means what it says. And unless the Lord clearly says, this is an allegory, this is a parable, or a simile as we saw last Sunday, then we take it to mean exactly what is being said. If I was one of those people who are always looking for the mystical, the esoteric meanings that are hidden in the Bible, I might use the book of 1 Peter from beginning to end as an illustration of the Christian life. Let me show you what I mean. How does the book begin? It begins before history began. It begins in eternity past. It begins before the foundation of the earth. All you saints are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, chapter one and verse number two. From there it moves to salvation and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Again, verse number two. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled reserved in heaven for you. Verse number four. And we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. the completion of that salvation. Chapter one and verse number five. So we begin where the Christian life begins with salvation. In fact, it begins long before that in the choice of God. But here we are now in the middle of a world living in rebellion against our God and our savior. So there are multiplied enemies around us. bringing down on us all kinds of trials and problems, temptations towards sin, drawing our attention away from the Savior. We are children of God, but we have such a horizontal view of life because we're in this thing. We're in the midst of this life. We need the exhortation of chapter 1 and verse number 15. Be holy in all manner of conversation, because our earthly lives are short. For all flesh is as grass, and the glory of man is as the flower of grass. Chapter 1 and verse number 24. Christians are God's chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people on this earth. Chapter 2, what's that, verse number 9? That we should show forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. So we've been saved from Eternity essentially. Let me rephrase that. The Lord began our salvation way back then. Now we are new creatures in Christ living in this world as the Lord's representatives. That we should show forth the praises of him who has called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. In that chapter we're told to honor all men. We are to live in such a way that the love of the brethren is seen in us. We are to fear God and honor the King, chapter two and verse number 17. Then we move into chapter three, where we have instructions for servants and different groups of people. This is how you are supposed to live this life that the Lord has started in you. And in the process, he reminds us of our evangelical responsibilities. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Chapter 3 and verse number 15. Of course, in carrying out our Christian duties, we will face rejection and opposition, persecution, but rejoice in as much as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings. Chapter four, verse number 14. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Chapter five, verses six and seven. Do you see a progress here? Do you see a development? Throughout this book, we see a panorama, if you like, a chronology of the Christian life. And now we're just about done with the book. And what do we find at just about the end of the book? We find a culmination. As Peter brings this letter to a conclusion, he takes us to the proper conclusion of our lives. We have progression from election to ultimate salvation with service and suffering for 70 years or so. And for what purpose? What is it all about? Why have we been saved? What should be our attitude? What should be our purpose? Toward the end of Peter's epistle, he reminds us, to God be glory and dominion forever and ever. Chapter 5 and verse number 11. Generally speaking, we live our days plodding along, putting one foot in front of another, one foot in front of another, going down the road. We face challenges. We have our various kinds of care. We sometimes cast those cares upon the Lord, but usually we pick them up and throw them over our shoulder and carry them on our backs. Sure there are joys, and we sincerely enjoy those joys, but we usually think about ourselves and our loved ones, we usually think of things around us before we think about the Lord. Every Sunday we go to church and we come on Wednesday night and we're exhorted to worship the Lord and be thankful for the Lord's blessings. But in the rest of the week, the rest of the hours, we're consumed by the usual stuff. And often it's stuff that the lost person's consumed with as well. Not nearly as much as we should. We should live rejoicing in the midst of all our day-to-day activities. And as we approach the end of our 70 years, our 80 years, When we realize that we are very near to those pearly gates that we just sang about, then there's a little more incentive to raise our voices in praise to God for all that he's carried us through in these 50 years of our salvation. Here, Peter reminds us, ultimately, our lives are about the Lord. This morning, I was reminded of Psalm 150. I was already thinking about this particular chain of thought. Turn to the last Psalm. I might be able to say that the Psalms are developed in much of the same way. We have David struggling through life, other psalmists struggling and rejoicing in the Lord. But from about Psalm 40 on, there's a crescendo. There's a rising closer and closer to the Lord. And then we come to the last psalm. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Don't stop. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and the harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Where does the psalm end, or the book of Psalms end? Right up there in heaven. Right up there before the throne of God. Praise ye the Lord. And Peter essentially does the same thing. Praise ye the Lord. Like Psalm 150, Peter's epistle could end with verse number 11. Could stop right there. We've even got an amen. Right there, we could stop. The remaining three verses are but a spirit-inspired postscript. I'm not saying it's not important, but it is a postscript, and it has been given to us by the Holy Spirit, so we're not gonna skip over it, and we're not gonna look at it tonight. Verse 11 is the apex of Peter's epistle, and it culminates, again, in heaven. In the throne room of God, the end of all things, as is the beginning of all things, the Lord. The Lord. The end of our lives, the end of our salvation, is our presence with the Savior in glory. Despite all that life throws at us, despite our periodic grief and depression and despair, when all of life's work is ended and we cross the swelling tide, our hearts will be filled with this sort of conclusion. Praise be the Lord. Praise the Lord. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. What does Peter mean when he says, the God of all grace? In the midst of all the world's trials, there is a but God. While life goes up and down, bringing both laughter and grief, there is a but the God of all grace is there. Isn't Peter telling us that the source of true grace, the foundation of all grace is the Lord? While sinners may at times be gracious, what we are doing is sharing the grace that the Lord has given to us. And the crown of grace is the salvation of the sinful soul. And this book, from its second verse on, describes the various aspects of that divine grace. I noticed that one of my reference books, written by A.T. Robertson, points to this grace, and he uses the word variegated. That's a word my wife uses to talk about her plants from time to time. Variegated. God's grace is variegated. It's filled with a wonderful variety. A variety of shapes and sizes and colors and textures. God's grace comes to us in so many ways, day after day after day, that we lose our taste for it. or our eyes grow dim and we can't see it as we should. It is so overwhelmingly abundant that God's grace envelops the word all. He is the God of all grace. Of course, in the minds of the unbelieving and the unregenerated, there are other gods. Peter says, I'm talking about the God of all grace. With the help of Eastern religions, we have millions of gods in this world. Millions of them, other than our god. Ours is the only one known primarily for his grace. No one else, no other god is truly gracious. There are gods of wrath, there are gods of unconcern, there are helpful gods, there are hurtful gods, but only the triune God of the Christian is first and foremost a God of grace, particularly a God of all grace. By the way, Peter throws in there the definite article Jehovah the God of all grace, not just God of grace. He uses the definite article, the God of all grace. And the Christian knows that he has been called by that gracious God to the Lord's eternal glory. The magnificence of grace is seen in the depths to which he has gone to find us and lift us up and bring us to his bosom. There is the grace of God. He didn't simply invite us, saying, you know, it would be beneficial to you if you would repent and trust the Savior. That's not what we're talking about here. He effectually called us. He said, you come here and we came. That's the way God works. He regenerated our hearts. He gave us a yearning to be with him. It's a complete package, I'll admit to that. But it was all of grace and it was all of God. He called us unto His eternal glory. Come into this eternal glory. He brought us by way of this call to His eternal glory. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified. He's done it all, and it's all of grace. But never let it be forgotten that this was accomplished by Christ Jesus. the Son of God. Can we speak of Him? Can we speak of salvation too frequently? Can we overdo it? We can't. How did God bring wretched sinners like us into His eternal glory? By way of the sacrifice of His only begotten Son. whom He sent into the world for this purpose. That included His incarnation, His birth into this world. It involved the things that He suffered while He was here in the flesh. And of course, there was the crucifixion. Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. Chapter 3 in verse number 8. But let us not forget there was more to salvation than that momentous sacrifice. By His grace, we who are sinners have been wrapped in the righteousness of Christ. We are or we have been brought into Christ. We who were in the pride of Satan have been brought into the family of God, the family of the Lord Jesus. And if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5.17. But if we are not in Christ, we are still lion cubs in the pride of Satan. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Romans chapter 8 verse number 1. But if we are not in Christ, there remains eternal damnation upon us. To be in Christ is everything. Now let's assume that you are in Christ. With that assumption, then the next point shouldn't be as bad as it sounds, although it sounds bad. The God of all grace has ordained that while we are in this world, we shall face trials and problems with all of the cares that they produce. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make ye perfect, establish, strengthen, settle ye. Second Timothy 3.12, yea, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Don't be angry with your Savior if you go through life struggling with disease and pain. Don't be surprised if your family hates you and turns against you because of your faith in the Lord. You may be forced to live in poverty all your life. But all your life is a little while compared to eternity. Second Corinthians 417, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And a part of that weight upon us, that weight of eternal glory, will be our, will be your perfection, establishment, strengthening, Settlement. The four things Peter mentions will come when the Lord says it is time for us to enter his eternal glory. I debated with myself, do any of these four come during this life? Well, maybe just hints of it here and there, but the ultimate end has to be Later on, we shall be made complete. That is perfect. Would you like to know what perfect means? Go ask somebody else. I don't know. The Lord's definition of perfect in this case is probably beyond anything that we might imagine. He shall make you perfect. Whatever else it is, it will involve our completion or the completion of our establishment, our settling, our formation upon the rock. We will be established, strengthened, and settled for eternity in the completion of God's will for our souls. I probably should have done this earlier, but go back to the word that begins verse number 10. That little negative conjunction, but don't let the diseases and the distortions and the distractions of your earthly Christian life overly disturb you. No matter what Satan has thrown at you, no matter what the world has thrown at you, no matter what you found in your own heart, but there is the God of grace. If you fall, get back up. If you sin, repent. Seek the Lord's face again. If you stray off the tracks, if you fall off the wagon, be sure the Lord still knows that you are his. He knows all of them for whom Christ has died. And even if we experience some of the perfection and the establishment and the strength and the settlement, To some degree in this world, you can be assured that they are just the tip of the iceberg, and there is so much more that we shall receive. So hang in there. Keep on keeping on. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. You will notice that the words to him are not in italics. Linguistically, they could have been not written by Peter and implied. But like that definite article that I mentioned earlier, he said, to him be glory. Let there be no doubt about it. To him be glory and dominion. It's as though Peter was underlining it. To Him be glory and dominion. Let no other be glorified for these things. There's no one else worthy of glory for these things. Don't try to claim any of God's glory for yourself. You had no part in your salvation. None whatsoever. And it wasn't by your strength or wisdom that you were able to pass through all the minefields in this life. The hand of God was there. The angel of the Lord was protecting. It's all been of the grace of God. Don't give that person who led you to the Lord any more praise than he deserves. He was only doing his duty. Ascribe to God the glory due unto His name forever and ever. He will be glorified. We need to learn to do it now. He will be glorified by angels, by believers, by other believers. Even the wicked in the lake of fire, or at least prior to, will have to bow their knee and glorify God. And while you're at it, make sure that you ascribe to the Lord his dominion over all things. The Greek word is used 12 times in the New Testament. Twice as often as it's translated dominion, it is translated power or strength. Peter could have said, recognize and honor your Savior's glory and strength, power, dominion. I We'll say with kindness, with a little bit of joy, and maybe another emotion or two, I'm looking forward to that day when those who have hated the doctrine of the sovereignty of God stand before the Lord. For those who have criticized me and others like me, They're going to stand before the Lord at some point. I don't believe that everyone has to believe exactly like I do about election and about the extent of the atonement before they can be saved. I didn't believe those things when I was saved. No one is saved by their theology. They're saved by grace through faith, repenting before God and trusting the Savior. But I'm going to enjoy that day. When those who have criticized us for our theology stand before God and have to admit, you have all dominion, strength, and power. It's all yours. That you did it all. That I contributed nothing. To God be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Written on the divine calendar is a day when the devil that deceived the world was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. Satan's forever and ever will be exactly as long as God's forever and ever of glory and dominion. God will be the adversary of the saints. God will be the father of the unbeliever. He will be incarcerated in the lake of fire, never to foul the glory of God again. God will be sin and the curse, while the righteousness and glory of God will fill all things. In his second epistle, Peter adds a single extra word, which carries a considerable amount of weight. After saying, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Peter concludes his second letter by saying, to him be glory both now and forever, amen. In the first chapter, he says, dominion, glory, forever and ever. In the second letter he says, now and forever and ever. There's a day coming when heaven will be filled with the sound of praise to God through Christ Jesus. Every knee shall bow, ours and others. But he deserves praise now. He deserves our praise now. We are now in a condition of eternal life. He deserves our praise now. We hold in our hands promises of hope and mansions and future glory. Praise Him now. 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, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. And all of God's people then said, Amen.