Let's begin with verse number seven once again. Our text is verse 12. Casting all your care upon him, 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 God, 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. Amen. By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. The church that is at Babylon, elect together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Heavenly Father, we pray that you'd bring out from this text something that we can feast on and that will feast on us, digging its way into our hearts. We pray for the glory of our Redeemer. We thank you for that which you have prepared for us, to which Peter has referred several times throughout this book. Touch our hearts, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The other apostle, Paul, tells us in Ephesians that God has given to his people, God has given to his churches, a number of different kinds of ministers. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Why? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now, without getting into them to any great degree, the ministries of each of these classes of ministers was slightly different. For example, the evangelist has a different ministry than the pastor. And even though there is some obvious overlap, The evangelist, the preacher of the gospel, is concerned about the birth of new lambs, while the pastor is more concerned with the feeding of those new lambs. And I'm not saying that we need to separate them to any great degree, but there is a separation there nevertheless. Peter, earlier in chapter 5, says, you church elders, feed the flock of God which is among you. And then he adds, I'm preaching to myself in this because I too am an elder. Now, just a few verses later, Peter's coming to the end of the book, toward the end of his letter, and he makes a summarizing statement. I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand." In essence, he says, I have had this as my purpose in writing to you. I wanted to urge some important instructions on you. but also I wanted to tell you that your choice to stand on the grace of God was the right thing to do. Like your local pastor, I've intended with this letter to feed you and to encourage you in your faith. I've enjoyed preaching through First Peter for several reasons. Not the least of them is that Peter has given me the means of carrying out my responsibility as a pastor. And there have been several important scriptures which have said, preach the gospel. And I have acted as an evangelist preaching the gospel from these verses here. Not only have I been able to testify this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand, but I've also been given a little ammunition to encourage you to serve God a bit better. So I can exhort you without being offensive because there it is. It's not my idea. This is what the Holy Spirit gave to Peter and I'm just obligated to share these things with you. I've been able to fire these spiritual bullets without the gun blowing up in my hand, shall we say. As Peter offers a summary of this epistle, I will try to summarize his summary. How's that? First, he says that he has written a brief letter, epistle. Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever considered what it was like to write a letter 2,000 years ago? I have no doubt whatsoever that some of you people in your early 20s and younger have never written a letter to anyone, never stuck a stamp on an envelope and put it in a mailbox. You've grown up with emails. You've grown up with texts, other kinds of social media. On the other hand, those of us over the 40th birthday. I guess I'm over the 40th birthday. Over the years, I've used the U.S. Postal System many, many times to share greetings or information with other people, other family members, friends that have moved away, that sort of thing. And people my age, quite often, have not considered very much what it was to incorporate the U.S. postal system. That system has been around since Benjamin Franklin. He was the postmaster of the United States before the Continental Congress came along. And then the Continental Congress appointed him to be the first Postmaster General of the United States. And then when the country was formed, another man took that job over. So there's Benjamin Franklin there in the very beginning. Most Americans have never given much thought to what it took to move a letter or a package from one place to another, especially 250 years ago, but even today. It just goes. That's just the way it is. Believe me, it is no small feat to send a letter from here to Kentucky. But Peter and Paul didn't have that kind of mail system that they could lean on. It was really something for them to write and send a letter. And then there is the fact I Googled it, that only 10% of the people in the world in Peter's day and Paul's day knew how to read or write. 10%. Just think about it. That man who was raised as a fisherman, that he could write a letter like this may have been totally dependent upon Silvanus. He was a fisherman. Did he know how to read and write? I'm not saying that he didn't, but I can't say that he did either. He was a fisherman. When this letter was finished, it had to be carried by some private person, probably with the sole intention of delivering it to its intended destination. It wasn't added to a big bag of 500 letters that were going from Babylon to Jerusalem. Asia Minor. This was one letter. It was probably given to one man and he was to carry it to the first church and then it was to be passed on to other churches there. It cost considerably more than $1.40 to send this international letter. It cost a great deal of expense and time. It was a privilege to get letters from apostles like this. You can be sure that under the direction of the Holy Spirit, those saints cherished and preserved all of those letters, ensuring that we would have them today. It was something to get a letter from the apostle Peter. And here Peter says, I have written briefly by Silvanus, five chapters. His counterpart, Paul, spoke of writing briefly in Ephesians chapter three. I wrote after in a few words, but I point out that Hebrews says the same thing. The writer to Hebrews, perhaps it was the apostle Paul, said once again, I have written a letter unto you in few words. But Hebrews' few words were entirely different than Peter's few words in 1 Peter with five chapters or 2 Peter with three chapters. Few words is one of those, in this particular case, open to interpretation. It may only take a few minutes to read from 1 Peter 1-1 to 1 Peter 5-14. We can do it in half an hour. It took a lot longer to write it. It took hours to write it. and to make sure that it was legible. That even adds another three more hours if I was involved in it. It took a long time. It was special to put these words on papyrus. Peter says, I have written briefly exhorting you brethren. Since we're coming to a conclusion, and since Peter is summarizing, I went back through this letter and I collected those exhortations that he has written. Do we need to be reminded of our Christian responsibilities? Apparently, Peter thought so. And the truth is, we need to be reminded over and over and over and over again, referring to the same sort of thing that we need. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, he says. Be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as he which hath called you is holy, be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye holy, for I am holy. And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear." These are exhortations we need to hear. There are exhortations in chapter 2. Wherefore, laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings, do this as newborn babes. Desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby, if so you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. Have your conversation honest among the Gentiles. Do we need to hear that? We need to hear that. Have your conversation honest among the Gentiles and submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether it be unto the king and supreme or unto governors. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. These are exhortations we need to hear. Oh, we don't have to honor the king because we don't have one. Come on now. Let's be honest. And then after that, there are exhortations to specific groups of people, to the servants, and to the wives, and to the husbands. I won't read those. Chapter 3 says, finally, be all of one mind. Be united. Have compassion one of another. Love as brethren. Be pitiful. Be courteous. Be courteous. Is that an exhortation we need to hear? not rendering evil for evil, railing for railing, but contrary-wise, give a blessing away, knowing that ye are there unto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, do good, let him seek peace, and ensue it. Exhortations we need to hear. Skipping over some more, we come to chapter four. For as much then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. Be like Christ. And above all things, have fervent charity among yourselves. For charity covereth the multitude of sins. Use hospitality. one to another without grudging. As every man hath received the gift, so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In other words, be evangelists. And if any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. If any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth. And then we're not done. Then we come to chapter four, verse 13. But rejoice, rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad with exceeding joy. And if ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. that none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a bitty busybody in other men's matters. If any man suffers a Christian, let him not be ashamed. If any man suffers a Christian, let him glorify God on his behalf. Do we need to hear that? After his exhortations to the elders in chapter five, Peter says, likewise ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, be clothed with humility. Remember God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him, 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. I exhort you to be steadfast, resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. And then at the very end of this chapter, he says, greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. We will come back to this in a later lesson. Which of these exhortations are no longer applicable? Kiss the brethren. Are there any of these exhortations which we should skip over or ignore? Do we by nature rejoice on or rejoice in our sufferings? We have to be reminded to smile when we suffer. Are there any of us as humble as the Lord would like us to be? Any of us as humble as we ought to be? No. How many of our cares do we keep to ourselves rather than casting upon him? We need to be reminded to cast our cares upon the one who cares for us. I would venture to guess there's not a single one of Peter's exhortations in which we are very proficient. We need these exhortations. We need to be reminded of these things. We need this book. We need these exhortations and that is why they were written and that is why we study them. Peter's second purpose in writing this epistle was to testify. There are seven different words in the Greek Bible which are translated by the word testify in our English Bible. They're all slightly different, but essentially they mean to bear witness to something. One of them is related to the word martyr, which of course means to bear witness even unto death. But the word that Peter uses here is unique to this verse, this testify in verse number 12. Only place we find it in the Bible. It essentially means, I have written to confirm and substantiate those things which you have been previously taught. This isn't testifying of something new, but rather it's the emphasizing of something that you already know. This is the testimony of a corroborating witness, not the primary witness. We have to remember that those saints in Peter's day were being tested more like today's saints in Iran. or Indonesia, or East Africa. They're more like those people than they are like us. In our country, when someone professes Christ, most of society collectively sighs and shrugs their shoulders. Most of our society says, oh, here's another one of those fools who has believed on Jesus. At least, if he's like most Christians, we won't have to worry about him too much. The people whom Peter was writing, the people in Asia Minor, like those in Israel in that day, in Rome in that day, in North Africa, those people were paying the price for publicly professing the Lord Jesus. Some, like the Apostle Paul, were being stoned for testifying of their faith in Christ. In fact, this letter is going back to Lystra, where that event, that attempted murder on Paul took place. In some places, Christians were being crucified in exactly the same way that Jesus was crucified. Rejection and persecution were real to these people, and as close to them as their neighbor's house or the marketplace where they buy their groceries. You and I basically know nothing of the difficulties that the Christian faith brought to this kind of people, these people. We don't experience these things to the same degree. Peter, in this letter, was confirming that they had not made a mistake. Their suffering may be painful, but it will be worth it all when we see Jesus, as the hymn says. He was telling them to continue in the service of the Lord, because it's the right thing to do, even if it intensifies people's wrath against you. You have not made a mistake. I testify to you that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand. It is the true grace of God. What is that, Peter? What are you saying? He testified in his initial greeting that the Apostle Paul's doctrine of election was according to the foreknowledge of God, and it's biblical. I agree with that, Peter says. And he corroborated what they had learned about Jesus' resurrection, and what the hope of the resurrection brought to them personally. There is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. and you are graciously kept by the power of God. There's no way that God is going to lose you in all of this chaos. There's no way that God is going to forget the promises that he has given to you. So don't let your trials in this life take the true grace of God away from you. Stand! For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, you were bought with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. Peter said, it is true what you have been told. You have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. It is the truth, Christ, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth, also suffered for us, whose own selves bear our sins in his own body on the tree. The Savior did go out calling and searching and finding his chosen sheep where they had gone astray. I affirm, says Peter, Christ also hath once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. The God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered for a little while, we'll make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. I affirm these things. I testify to these things. He says, I commend you for standing in these truths and I encourage you to continue. We often sing the hymn, Standing on the Promises. Standing on the promises of Christ my King. Through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout and sing. Standing on the promises of God. That's page 180 in your hymnal. And if you turn there, which I don't want you to do, If you turned there later on, you'd see at the top where the editors always place a scripture reference. And you'll find on page 180, 2 Corinthians 7.1, not 1 Peter 5.12. 2 Corinthians 7, 1 says, having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness. It's a good hymn. It's a great hymn. It's appropriate. But it refers to something different than what Peter is speaking of. He was confirming that all those saints, he was confirming those saints in all the things that they had been taught, not just God's promises. He confirms them in the exhortations and the theology. He was affirming what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, 1, but with a lot more. There, Paul says, moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, wherein also ye have received, excuse me, wherein also ye have received and wherein ye stand, using the same words that Peter has right here. Not only do we stand upon the doctrine of Christ's atonement and the deity of the Holy Spirit and the reality of eternal punishment, on and on, in addition to standing on doctrines like election and eternal security and the return of Christ, I'm going to emphasize what the Bible says here. we willingly stand in the truths of the word of God. This is the true grace wherein ye stand. You may think I'm foolish here, and perhaps I am, but isn't there a difference between standing on something and standing in something? We can stand on icy pavement, with our feet shod with leather and rubber and other stuff and not actually touch the ice. But when we're standing in icy water, it may be high enough to get into our shoes and then down between our toes and get on top of the soles of our shoes and get into the soles that we are, freezing us. These people to whom Peter was writing were committed to the truths that they had been given. These doctrines were laid upon them, and they were in them. Peter's letter was intended to confirm and encourage them in their fight for those truths. They weren't tin soldiers. They were guerrilla warriors. They weren't plastic G.I. Joes. They were spiritual army rangers. They weren't content with just preaching or praying for their missionaries. They considered themselves to be missionaries. They weren't theologians, but practical, down-to-business Christians, children of God. They were where the rubber meets the road, so to speak. They not only had Bible doctrines seeping into their shoes. There was blood dripping down into those shoes from the wounds that they were receiving in their service for the Lord. They need encouragement. Some of them needed more than others. Some of them needed a little push to live as Christ expected them to live. Or they needed to know that they were not alone. You're not the only soldier in this fight. They needed to realize that their battle was a part of a much larger war. And Peter in Babylon, Paul wherever he was, were at the same time in the same army in different places. You're not alone. They were probably encouraged by Peter's epistle. That was what it was for, one of his intentions in writing. And the Holy Spirit made sure that this letter was preserved for our encouragement in the same war that's still going on. Like those people, we need to be spurred on. We need to be exhorted and fortified with the testimony of other brethren and with the testimony of the Word of God itself. I'm not comparing myself with Peter, but several weeks ago, I texted the interim pastor of that church in Brandon, Manitoba, just encouraging him in the fight. He replied with thank you, and I thought that was sufficient. But apparently it meant something to him because on Thursday, his son, The host, my host from a year ago, called me and we talked for 15 or 20 minutes on the phone. Every once in a while, I get a text or a phone call from brethren I know telling me that they're in prayer for our church. It is uplifting. And I do the same, texting others, telling them that I am praying for them. And this, on a much higher level, because this is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this is what Peter is doing for those saints in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Bithynia, and Asia. In the Lord's grace, we are receiving the blessings that Peter was trying to share with those folk, as Paul puts it in Ephesians. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord. and in the power of his might. We're in the last days. We see the tribulation coming. We need to be redeeming the time. The days are evil. They're becoming more and more evil. Watch ye. Stand fast in the faith. Quench you like men. Be strong. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.