1 Peter 5:8-11 "Faith under Fire"

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Explore the profound message of faith under fire as we delve into 1 Peter 5:8-11. We unpack the strategies of Satan, the purpose of suffering, and the unshakeable, sovereign grace of God. Discover how to arm yourself with awareness and engage with resistance to stand firm amidst life's trials.

Faith Under Fire: Satan, Suffering, and the Sovereign Grace of God
Satan (1 Peter 5:8-9)
Suffering (1 Peter 5:10)
Sovereign Grace of God (1 Peter 5:10)
Worship the True Lion King (1 Peter 5:11)

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ABOUT JAMES AND LESSONS FOR LIFE

Are you longing to find answers to the deeper issues of life? Join Dr. James Long, Jr., a pastor, counselor, and university professor with over 30 years of experience. Hear James as he tackles some of life’s biggest questions and helps us find God’s solutions to life’s struggles. Learn the power of living by God’s grace and for His glory. Experience the joy of forgiveness and freedom found in Jesus Christ alone. If you are in search of freedom, you will love being part of this conversation. Subscribe, and enjoy the show!

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Transcript

James: 0:26

we are ending the series from First Peter today. It's been a lot of weeks and we've had a lot of I've found great enjoyment. I loved this book. So that is a been a huge opportunity to be able to go through this book and be able to see what God has for us. A phrase that keeps going through my mind as I go through this book is the, well, two, three words, encouragement, discouragement, and courage. Those three words seem to go through my mind as I've thought about this book. So what does it mean to encourage someone? What does it mean to fill them? You know, when we talk about encouragement, we talk about consolation, we talk about hope, we talk about giving comfort. It's reminding, in Christianity, it's reminding this person of God's faithfulness and his work in their lives. And so that is one of those key things that we want to try to do when we encourage somebody. And discouragement is completely the opposite. It's to cause them to lack confidence, to lack hope, and to hinder their faith and promise. And what is the root word in both those words? Courage. I'm sorry. Encouragement and discouragement. The root word is courage and I, I really do think that Peter is trying to encourage these believers that are gonna be suffering significant persecution. They're suffering at now, and it's gonna get even worse. He's trying to. Encourage them, not discourage them. The world is discouraging them. Satan and the world is discouraging them, but he wants to encourage them by giving them courage and, and courage is often associated with faith and trust in God. And that's exactly what he does. He's this inner strength given to us by God to overcome fears, overcome doubts, overcome discouragement, to take even risks to face adversity. And to deal with the dangers in our lives. We do it often for the sake of righteousness and because of the love of God. In Joshua chapter one, verse nine Joshua hears from God have I not commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you. Wherever you go. So as we come to the end of this book, now, if you remember I preached, I had the privilege of preaching the first sermon in this book, and I did the first two verses of the book, and then we did the last two verses of the book. So we won't be doing chapter verse last three verses of the book. So we won't be doing 12, 13, and 14 a today. We're gonna end with. Verses eight through 11, I want you to think about living in an unsteady world. That's what the series has been about. Now, we in the West have been very fortunate. We've been very fortunate that we have a lot of the freedoms and a lot of opportunities that believers around this world do not have. But the world that we are living in right now has become more and more unsteady. The things that we believe to be true are now being attacked in this world and you are being attacked. I've often said that if you turn on a TV program, when was the last time you saw someone that looked like you, that believed like you on a TV show? It doesn't happen. You know, there are very few believers that sit in a church, that read the Bible, that pray, that love God, and love others that are valued in Hollywood. It's just not there. It's not valued in the books. You are not valued well, that's been there for decades. That's been there for a while, but now it's actually you are being viewed as worse today. You're being attacked, you're being persecuted, and that persecution is just gonna ramp up. It's gonna get worse. So it is a warning that it's coming from Peter from 2000 years ago. I'm telling you. That's going to happen to us as well. It's going to continue to get worse. And what this counsel that Peter is giving his people is I want you to have courage in the midst of the struggles that are happening. I don't want you to be discouraged by what is happening. I want you to be in courage. So keep that in mind as we go through this. Now, I, I called his faith under fire. And that it's pretty clear that these Christians are under a great level of fire, and the outline today is pretty simple. It looks a lot worse on the paper, but it's just three points. Satan. Suffering and the sovereignty of God. Satan's suffering and the sovereignty of God. Well look here with me cuz I hope that as we look through this we're gonna see how Satan's strategies and I hope that we're gonna see the purpose of suffering cuz there is a purpose behind the suffering. And I hope we're gonna see that we have an unin, shakable, and immovable. Sovereign grace of God that undergirds us in the midst of the struggles and the trials that we go through. And I want you to be able to arm yourself. I want you to be able to see that God has not given you lacking defenses, but incredible defenses to be able to deal with the struggles that are here. Well, he starts this passage by talking about our main enemy, Satan. It's interesting that he jumps right here. If you look at the passage, he says, be sober-minded. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil. P prs around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Now Peter, you just told us to be casting our anxietys upon you because you care. Casting our anxiety about God. I'm of kind God because he cares for us. And now you're gonna tell us about the devil that's attacking us. Yes, he is. And he says, I want you to know that the God who is sovereign and God is in control, that God has allowed for this devil, this Satan to be around. Don't. Panic, God is still in control. He wants to give you a level of awareness. He wants you to know how Satan tends to attack. And in fact, there's not much about Satan himself outside of what Satan does in scripture. Over and over again, we see what Satan does. In Ephesians chapter six, why don't you hold your finger there and turn with me to Ephesians chapter six. In Ephesians chapter six, it tells us about the attacks that we are going through in this world. In Ephesians chapter six, this is written by the Apostle Paul. Just a couple of books several books back to your left, and it says this in Ephesians chapter six, verse 10. Finally be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against authorities, against cosmic powers over the present darkness against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the. Full armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand firm, therefore, and fasten on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shoes fit for your feet. Having put on the readiness, giving under the gospel of grace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take up the helmet of salvation. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit for all people in prayer and supplication. We have a great enemy and we are going through a spiritual battle. Go back to first Peter, see that a passage in Ephesians tells us that we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but we're fighting against spiritual forces, angelic forces demonic forces that are there. And if you saw it, oftentimes it kept saying, stand firm. Stand firm. Stand. Firm and it talked about the word in prayer. Those are gonna be so significant in the work that we do. God has told you that Satan is going to tempt you, but God has provided you a way of escape. One Corinthians 10 13. Satan tries to take advantage of people, but he will flee if he is resisted. Scripture tells us he is. Demonic. He is deceptive. He works covertly and what he does, he doesn't announce what he's about to do to defeat us. If he did, we would know and we would be prepared. He works in secret. He works in stealth. He wants us to believe wrongly. So that we feel badly and we act sinfully. That is how he acts. He works. It's a slow, insidious, kind of like a lobster in a pot, doesn't recognize that he is now going to be food. In a moment. That is exactly how Satan works in our lives. He wants to destroy you because he hates Christ and you are connected to Christ. In fact, he hates all of humanity, whether you're in Christ or not. He hates all of humanity. He wants to take all of humanity, as many of humanity as he can. To eternity in hell with him. He knows what his destiny is, but he wants to, he doesn't wanna be there alone. He wants to take as many people as he can with him. And what he does is he wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your relationships. He wants to create resentment towards others, and he wants to create resentment towards God and you will turn your back on God, and he loves that. When he does that, the devil is your chief enemy. There's the world system that is out there that is anti-God. There's a flesh that is in you that is anti-God, but the chief enemy externally. Is Satan. He's talked about in Isaiah chapter 14, and he's talked about as a fallen angel, and his name means false witness, malicious accuser In the New Testament, he's viewed as a wicked person. He is directly opposed to God. Now, I will tell you this, there are some people that believe that Satan is equal to God. He is not. There is no equal to God. Satan is a creative being. He's not all present. He's not all powerful. He's not. All knowing, but he is more powerful, more wi well, well, more knowledgeable than you. Maybe not. More wise, the devil is our worst enemy. He's tireless In his efforts, the Bible tells us that he is a liar. He is a deceiver. He is a murderer. He wants to kill you. He wants to destroy you. You know what happens in our world today? Some of us just don't even think about Satan. Theologians talk about that, and they say that we underestimate the Satan's powers. When you think of Satan, you probably think of the guy with the pitchfork and the red suit. You know the little things up there. That's what you probably think of. That's not Satan. It's a caricature. He is a mortal enemy of yours. So some of us here in this world underestimate Satan. Some of us in the world overestimate him. We blame him for everything. You've got a demon of this, you've got a demon of this, you've got a demon of that. And then we see him constantly doing everything and all the problems are his fault. We don't take personal responsibility, and going to either one of those extremes is a significant problem. But what is Peter telling us here? Peter tells us that we have an adversary. He is your enemy. He hates you. He has an attack plan. It's interesting, he talks about he uses a lion. Now, I just said that Satan works through stealth and he wants to be silent. He wants to be silent. He wants to creep up on you. He wants that boiling water effect with the lobster. But here he is roaring. Why is he roaring? I think he's roaring because he wants to induce some level of fear. Intimidation. He wants to terrify you. He wants you to panic. He wants you to see him as big, and God is small, and as he roars in front of you, maybe you can run in panic. Don't panic. God is sovereign. God is gracious. God is with you. It says here, not only that he roars, but he seeks. He's studying you. He knows your weaknesses. He knows your temptation. He knows where you will fail. He will not put the temptation in front of me that I don't struggle with. He will put the temptation in front of me that I do struggle with, and he will do that with you as well. He knows you. He studies you. That's why you need to know yourself and know your weaknesses, and know your struggles and run to Christ. So that he can rescue you. He roars. He seeks. He devours. The Bible tells us that he's a murderer. He wants to steal, he wants to kill, and he wants to destroy. And why is Peter using this imagery now? We don't believe that the significant persecutions of lion's, dens, and fi people being burned by fire have come to this time, but maybe it's happening in other areas. And Peter has heard about that, where people are thrown into the lion's dens and Peter is using the imagery of a lion, a physical lion tearing apart your body. But that's nothing in comparison to the spiritual lion who wants to tear apart your spiritual life. He's talking to persecuted people. You know, we sit in some level of safety and security. None of us probably are worried about somebody coming in here and taking over this church or killing us Today. We live in safety and security. You walk through your lives and you don't ever worry about those things, and it's the part of the privileges of living in the West. But I will tell you that in the last a hundred plus years, more people have been martyred for the faith than in the 1900 years combined. People are dying and being persecuted for their faith. Today believers and brothers and sisters in Christ around this world are suffering under this vicious ravenous lion. So how do they stand? Firm. Do not panic. God is sovereignly in control. I want you to take comfort in that. Satan wants to induce fear in you. He wants you to be fearful and he wants to intimidate you. He wants to terrify you. He wants to slander you. He wants to accuse you. He wants to divide this church. He wants to divide families. He wants to divide this church. He wants to divide culture because he's a def. Divisive person because if he can divide, he can devour because what does a, what does a lion do? A lion is interesting because a lion seeks, then what they do is they study their prey. Then what they do is they want to create a separation, the weaker from the group, and then when they get the weaker one from the group, they pounce on them. This is exactly what Satan wants to do. Satan hates Christ, and if you are in Christ, he hates you. He hates the nation of Israel. He hates the word of God and he hates you. You've got an enemy. Satan has been there from the very beginning. In Genesis chapter three, we see him in the Garden of Guest Summit. I'm Garden of Eden. Garden of Eden, what does he do? He distracts Eve. He wants to get her to doubt the word of God. He wants her to be deceived. He wants her to not believe that he can trust, that she can trust in God's word, in God's character. And then what he does is see her fall to defeat. It's there. He distracts her. He deceives her. He doubt CREs, doubt. She's defeated. And then when she falls to defeat, he discourages her and he disgraces her because he wants to destroy her. And what does she do? She takes this and she goes to her husband who is with her, and he ate, and all of the sin. And all the misery has come from the fact that in Adam, all of us are born in Adam. All of us are born in that fallenness and that brokenness, and Satan wants to keep you there in Adam, under sin, under condemnation, under guilt, away from God. Now, Satan has three specific strategies I want you to think about. One is temptation. I've already said that he knows your weakness. He is not gonna put the thing that you're strongest with in front of you. He's going to put the thing that you're tempted by. Now, he did that with Eve, even the Garden of Eden, and he did that with Jesus. But Jesus has no weaknesses. Jesus has no doubts, but he still did the same thing. He attacked. He wanted Jesus to believe that he could not trust in God the father. And as Eve is here in this luscious garden with all the food in the world, and with her partner Adam, she falls to sin because she doubts the holiness of God. Doubts the word of God and doubts the authority of God. But Jesus here completely alone, completely in a wilderness, nothing to eat. Barrenness around him. But what does he do? He says, I don't eat food. I eat. What the very word of God man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by the bread of God, so he will tempt you. Number one. Second he wants to do is accuse you. In Revelation 1210, it says that he is the accuser of the brethren. He wants to do nothing more than to tear us apart, tear this community apart, tear you apart. He wants to attack you. He wants you to believe that God doesn't love you. He wants you to believe that God can't forgive you. And what he does is that when you fall to sin, he whispers in your ear about all of the disgrace and discouragement. You're not really a believer. You're not really loved. You don't think you really have changed? Are you kidding me? And so what he does is he fills you and he accuses you. Now he may accuse you publicly in front of others or he may accuse you with the inner voice. Either way, he is bringing accusation and he wants you to not hear that there is therefore no condemnation for those in Christ. He does not want you to hear that. Nothing will ever separate you from the love of God. He does not want you to hear that the deaths have been canceled. He does not want you to hear that. He wants you to be accused. He tempts you. Number one, he accuses you, number two, and number three, he deceives. He is a deceiver. He masked himself as a angel of light. Sad to say he is preaching through pulpits this morning around this country and around this world. The leader that stands up in front of them says, thus says the Lord. But it is not God's word. It is Satan's word that is being communicated to a congregation of people. I pray that you don't hear that at all from the pulpit here at the Chapel, but what he wants to do is transform God's truth into a lie. Because if he gets you to believe the lie, remember, think wrongly, feel wrong, feel badly. Act sinfully. He also, and I don't have that on the outline, he also makes direct attacks against people. And he's going to do that verbally with these people. But then eventually he will do that physically as well. So how do we engage this guy this demon, this evil entity, this mighty force that is against us? Well, the Bible tells us how we respond, and Peter gives us some examples right here. One Peter five, nine. He says, resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world world. So how are we to respond? How we respond to his Satan's attacks, how we'd respond to the sufferings, how we respond to the persecutions. Peter has already begun to tell us. Now let's back up to verse eight, cuz I think he, I skipped over four words. If you saw the four words there. He says the four words here in verse eight, be so reminded. Be watchful. So first he tells you need to be clearheaded, be sober-minded. The word sober-minded is used six times in the New Testament. P Peter uses it three times, and he's using it multiple times, three times in five chapters. Because he wants you to hear this, you need to know. He uses it in chapter one, verse 13. He uses it in chapter four, verse seven. And again, here he's repeating it because you need to be sober-minded. And then what it means is that you have to have no other influence in your life. Nothing that's hindering your clear thinking. It's that you need to be in total possession of your faculties. You need to be realistic and fully aware. Nothing should be dulling your spiritual senses. It means to see things clearly. It means to be alert, awake. See, the battle often begins in our minds because if he can attack our minds, he can attack us. So clear headedness is so important. We must be thinking clearly and thinking rightly. Don't be distracted. Engage your mind. You ever find yourself sitting in church and you know, it's like I'm falling asleep. Yeah, that's your flesh attacking. You engage your mind when you're sitting at home trying to do a Bible study and you find yourself falling asleep. You can turn on the TV and you're wide awake, but you start reading the word and you fall asleep. That is the physical attack that your flesh is doing, and Satan is looking to encourage that as well. So how do we be clearheaded? We need to become students of the word. We need to be faithful in prayer. We need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. In First Thessalonians five it says, so then let us not sleep, but let us keep awake and be sober. First Thessalonians five, six and verse eight of chapter five of First Thessalonians. It says, but since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet. For the hope of salvation, or in second Timothy chapter four, verse five, it says, as for you always be sober-minded, enduring suffering. Do the work of an evangelist fulfill your ministry. I was thinking about that verse in verse first Alians five, six. It says, let us not asleep. And I was thinking about this next word, be vigilant. Verse eight. It says this. It says, be sober-minded and be watchful. I call it vigilant and what it means to be watchful. It means to be awake. It means to be active. You must be alert, you must be observing, you must be waiting. Your s, spiritual and mental senses must be high. You must be on the loop. Lookout. I wonder if Peter, as he's writing this, is thinking back to the night at the Garden of Gethsemane. At the night of the Garden of Gethsemane, what was it? Jesus says, Peter, James, John, be watchful. Be prayerful. Earlier in the day, God, Jesus had told Peter, Satan is looking to sift you like wheat. I'm praying for you. And Peter says, I got this. I'm good. Peter didn't take Jesus' counsel seriously. He believed in his own power. He was not clear-minded and he was not vigilant. He wants his pe, his readers. He wants you to learn from his mistakes. So clear-minded. I want you to not only be clear-minded, I want you to be vigilant, and not only that, I want you to be defiant. He says here in verse nine, he says, resist him. We must be resolute. This resistance is not passive. You're not sitting back on your hands. It must be an act of participation. It is done by the power of the spirit, by applying the word and by going against him, resisting him. Not saying, I'm gonna bind you, Satan. I, they used to you ever hear that bind? I'm gonna bind Satan. I can't even bind my own life. I'm gonna bind this powerful force in the universe. One of the most powerful forces. It's not gonna happen, but I can in the power of the greatest force in the universe, stand against him. In James chapter four, verse seven, it says, submit yourselves, therefore to God. See, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will do what? Flee. He will flee from you. In second Corinthians, the battle begins in your mind. He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not flesh and divine flesh, but are divine power. To destroy strongholds, we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion that raised against the knowledge of God. We take every thought captive to obey Christ. Or in Ephesians as we just read, take on the helmet of salvation. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. I need you to be clearheaded. I need you to be vigilant. I need you to be defiant. I need you to be unwavering. He says here, resist him firm in your faith. My translation says, firm in your my, your faith. Now, that could be your own personal faith and my faith in God. I believe that he's saying per. Firm in the faith. The ultimate faith. What? Faith? The faith of the gospel. You need to be unwavering. Unwavering in that you must realize that we will not defeat Satan in our own strength if you believe that you are wrong. See, Christ is the victor. Christ is the one that overcomes. We must stand firm in Christ and when we withstand our enemy in Christ, we will have a dependent faith on him. And see that faith needs to be firm. Affirm faith. We need to stand firm in the gospel. The good news that Jesus Christ came here from heaven to rescue. You stand firm in the good news of the word stand firm in the firm promises that God has given you. Stand firm in who God is and see when you could stand firm in that and make that unwavering in your life. That is a huge foundation. Of hope and peace. We must know what God is doing currently. We must know what God is doing in the future. We must know God in Jude chapter three. We'll get to that book several months down the road, but it says We need to contend earnestly for the faith once we're all delivered to all the saints. You need to know the gospel and stand firm in it. Be unwavering in that. Last thing I want. I think Peter's telling us that we need to be connected. We need to be connected. He doesn't say this, but I'm making this assumption. When you see this in verse nine, it says, resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. That there are other brothers and sisters in Christ that are going through the struggles that you're going through. One of Satan's beliefs and tax is that you're all alone and it's a lie. There are other believers that are struggling, other believers that are gonna be tempted and accused other believers that are being attacked. You're not alone. And so what he's saying here is this, I need you to be in community. Coming to this church week after week is essential for your spiritual health and vitality. It's essential for your maturity, whether it's this church or any other church. That is word centered, Christ-centered, cross centered, spirit enabled God glorifying church. You need to be in it so that you can be fed. And so that you've been fed and connected, and so that God can use your spiritual gifts to help other believers who are in need, and they can help you and you can help them. And it can be an amazing thing to fight the enemies that are there. So engage. Be clear-minded, be vigilant, be defiant, be unwavering. Be connected. Let's look at suffering. Verse 10. We've talked a lot about suffering this book. I'm not gonna spend a whole lot of time in this except to give you just a couple of things that I think are really helpful. It says in verse 10, and after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who's called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, strengthen. I am confirmed, strengthen, and establish you. I, I want you to know that as you're going through the sufferings that you're going through, and many of us are going through sufferings right now, I want you to know first that God never leaves you. I like this. Pastor shared this this principle that, you know, God doesn't leave you. Whether you're Joseph and you're in a pit and your brothers are up there and saying that they wanna kill you, or you're in a prison and you seem like you feel like a completely alone, you're never alone. Or whether you're job who's going. Through great trials and his body is being ripped apart and he's lost almost everything. You're not alone or whether you're Jesus in a wilderness, you're never alone. God promises that I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. So one of the key things that you need to keep in your mind as you go through the trials and the difficulties in your life that God never leaves you, as I've shared with you our family verse Isaiah 41 10, fear not for I am. What with you. With you. Not only does God never leave you in your trials, that's so important. Second, God limits your suffering. He says that you are gonna suffer for a what? Little while now for some of us. We'll sit there and I know in my family, our family has struggled with a lot of health issues and my daughter has struggled for 17 years. Um, And it doesn't feel like it's being limited. She's having a challenging time right now, but in comparison to eternity, it's limited. So if we struggle for all of our lives, 60, 70, 80, 90, a hundred years of suffering, It is nothing in comparison to eternity. So he limits the suffering. He limits the intensity. He limits the duration. He limits the frequency. At worst, you'll suffer this side of heaven if you are in Christ. And after that, it's bliss. It's beautiful. It's wonderful. In first Peter one, it says In this, you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials. And Peter says here, if you suffer, you'll suffer for a little while. He says, early in first Peter one, he says, the grass is, the flesh is like grass, and the glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever. I want you to focus on what endures, not the temporary struggles. I want you to see an enduring savior, an enduring word, the hope of the future. So I need you to hear that God never leaves you. Second, I need you to hear that God limits your suffering. Third, I need you to hear that God loves you before, during, and after your suffering. One of the tactics of Satan is to get you to believe that if you're going through the suffering, it is because God doesn't love you, lie. If you're in Christ, God's love is there. Even if you're not in Christ. God has a love, a cre, a father, not a fatherly love, but a creator, love for all of humanity. But he has a fatherly love for those that are in his son, a special love. And as, as you go through these struggles, I want you to remind yourself that in Romans five he says, but God showed his love to us while we were still sinners. Christ died for us. When Romans eight, love this pa, this chapter, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who will ever be against us? He didn't spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also graciously give us all things? Who will ever bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies, who's to condemn Christ. Jesus is one who died more than that. He was raised and is at the right hand and is interceding for us. Who will ever separate you from the love of God, shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword as it is written for your sake. We are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all of these things. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Oh Lord, wow. Amen. God leaves never leaves you. God limits your suffering. God loves you before. End during and through the trial and God purpose is that you learn more about him as you go through the trials. God wants you to know him. In Proverbs nine, it tells us in verse 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the holy one is insight or in, in Philippians three, Paul said this, that I may know him. And the power of his resurrection and that I may share in his sufferings. See, it's knowing God even through the sufferings, and Peter will say in the next book that we will go through, but Growing grace. And the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So it's in and through the trials God desires that we understand more of Him and that we, as we talked about earlier, he wants you to be firm in your faith. We need to know the gospel. We need to know God. We need to know the truth. He wants you to understand more of his character and more of his conduct. Because if you can understand more of him, he can be grounding you as you go through these trials. Satan suffering and then the sovereignty of God. In verse 10, he talks about this. He says, after you slept a little while, the God of what all grace. I want you to think about some aspects of God's grace and Peter's just gonna throw. Point, after point, after point because he wants you to see God as big and your struggles as small. He starts with sovereign grace. He says he's the God of all grace. Peter focuses on the grace of God and he wants you to know that God is a completely and totally in control of everything. That's why we call it sovereign grace. He begins by saying that he's the God of all grace. Paul called him the God of all comfort. In second, Corinthians, he has now called the God of all grace, and Peter is so saturated with grace. He talked about grace In chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, chapter four, chapter five, every chapter, he kept going back to the grace of God. He wants you to be girded up by the fact that God is the God of old grace. And what does it mean? It means that. All that he possesses, he is granted to you to get through, through the struggles that you're going through. This grace is undeserved. It's not that I deserve this grace. He has granted it to you and to me as a gift. He gives us everything you will ever need. In Hebrews chapter four, it says, let us then. Draw near to the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Whatever the struggle is, God has the answer because he is the answer for you. This grace is completely undeserved, but I want you to take com in the fact that the infinite fountain of God's grace is poured out in your life through the satanic struggles that you may deal with and the sufferings that you go through because his sovereign grace is there. But he doesn't just stop with the sovereign grace. He doesn't say that he's just a God of all grace. He says that God of all grace has done what he has called you. He wants you to remind yourself of your salvation, this saving grace of God he has called you. Now when we talk about calling in our country, we usually talk about calling by name and it's trying to draw people's attention. That's not what biblical calling is. Calling is to apprehend you and to draw you into a relationship with him. He is calling you in an affectual way to drive you out of death to life. What he wants you to do is to move from the death to life, from darkness to light. He wants to transform you and change you, and that calling is inward work of sinners, hearing gospel and heating gospel, and being drawn to him. He wants to encourage you to trust in the saving grace that God has given you. Christ died for you. He. Lived for you. He died for you, the righteous for the unrighteous, and he did that to do something. To bring you to glory. That's the third thing he wants us to do. Not only the sovereign grace of God, not only the saving grace of God, but he wants you to know the securing grace of God. He says, I am in Christ, and he says, I called you to the eternal glory in Christ, eternal glory. In Christ, this glorious end. The struggles that you're going through, even the beatings and the difficulties that you're going through is nothing in comparison to eternal glory, the eternal versus the temporal, the suffering, and versus the glory. God wants to grant you eternal glory. The sufferings you're going through are temporary. The glory is eternal, and he's promised that you are in Christ. All of Christ's perfect work, his perfect character, his substitutionary death, his worth, his work are applied to you every day. He says, I want to take you to amazing glory. Now, he's not making us God, we're not becoming part of the Trinity, but what he is doing is this. He's causing us to be an outs shining of his glory. You becoming an outshining of the glory of God, and we get to see the face of God in the person of Christ. Romans tells us that we will be glorified. Many passages tell us we will be glorified. This broken body will be glorified. And so will yours if you were in Christ. The last thing he points us to is the sustaining grace says that you have sufficient grace, all grace, saving grace. He called you, he called you in Christ, the securing grace. You've got eternity that awaits you, and now he's giving you sustaining grace. And he, he pours these synonyms down on us. He is, he's saying this. He's not done. He's told us about God and who he is, and he wants you to have stability, and he wants you to have strength in the midst of the struggles that you go through. Now, commentators say that these four words are so closely aligned that some of them think that all, you don't really have to separate'em. I I wanna try to separate'em for a moment and then bring'em together. I heard one pastor preach and he talked about a mosaic. I like this idea. Little broken pieces of glass put together in this beautiful mosaic. I think that's exactly what God is doing through Peter here and he says four things I need you to hear. He says that he wants to restore you. Restore means to set a broken bone or to mend a net to make you whole. He what? If you're damaged. Today I'm looking out at people that are probably damaged, damaged in certain ways, broken in certain ways, God. Is the one who can restore you and make you whole again. He desires that whatever you're lacking, he can supply. He wants to fill you with purpose. He wants to give you purpose in life. He wants to complete you some movie has you complete me baloney. God wants to complete you. No, he wants to transform you. He wants to make you what you are called to be and what he is purposed for you to be. He wants to restore you, but second, he wants to confirm you. What does that mean? Confirm means to set fasts. It means to firmly fix. It means to make you steadfast. He wants to ground you. He wants to give you a new resolve. He wants to support you so that you will not topple. He wants to restore you. He wants to confirm you. He wants to strengthen you. Strengthen you means to make you sturdy. He wants to import his strength into your life. He wants to infuse you with the holy, pure spirit, resurrection power of God. When you are weak, what happens? God is strong in you. How many times have you told yourself that I can't do something? Over and over again in Christ, you can do all things. Restore, confirm, strengthen, and then finally establish you. He wants to lay a foundation. God wants to give you a firm foundation. He wants to settle you. He wants you to plant you on in immovable foundation that you will not be swept away. What precious promises that we have that Satan is against us. But guess what? I wanted you to be clear handed. I want you to be vigilant. I want you to be defiant, unwavering. I want to give you gospel and I wanna give you a community so that you'll be connected. And then I want you to know this, that I won't leave you. I love you. I will limit your suffering, and I want you to learn more about me. And then God says, I want you to know my sufficient grace. I want you to know my saving grace. I want you to know my securing grace, and I want you to know my sustaining grace that you were restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established. Hallelujah. What a savior. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. What a savior. Hallelujah. What a savior. Well, that's where Peter goes. He goes to doxology. When he sits there and thinks about all of the struggles and all the difficulties, he goes to verse 11. He says to him, be dominion forever and ever. Amen. Who is it to? It's to God, the triune God, father, son, and spirit. What's dominion? Rule and authority. All of over things. Don't panic because God is what in control. He is sovereign. He says dominion forever and ever and ever. It doesn't end. And then Peter just ends his doxology with one word. What was the one word? Amen. What does amen mean? So be so be it. This is is song Before the Throne of God Above, and it says, when tit Satan temps us to despair and tells us all the guilt within upward. I look and see him there who made an end to all my sin because the sinless savior died. My sinful soul is what count free, but God, the just is satisfied to look on him. To pardon me. Let's pray. Peter was pouring it on and Lord, I, I pray that I didn't pour it on too much either. I pray that as we were speaking, I pray that people would hear you speak. I pray that as they go through faith issues that are under fire today and as they see Satan and. Suffering. I pray that more importantly, they would see the sovereign grace of God in their lives. You, God, father, son, and spirit. I pray that we would take comfort in knowing that you never leave us and that you limit our suffering. I pray that we would take comfort in the fact that you love us. I pray that you would take comfort. We would take comfort in knowing that we need to learn more of you. So help us learn of your, your sovereign grace. We have grace that is greater than all the struggles that we have. Father, I pray that you would remind us of saving grace, your precious son, the blood that was poured out for us, the victorious rising from the dead, the ascension into heaven. I pray that you would remind us of securing grace that that we're suffering for a little while here, but there's eternal glory that awaits us. I pray that you would remind us of sustaining grace, that you restore us, make us whole. You're confirming us, making us sturdy. You're strengthening us, and you're establishing us. You're putting on us on Firm Foundation as Peter worshiped you. I pray that we will worship you. Glory. Hallelujah. Glory, hallelujah. In Jesus' name, amen