SPEAKER_00: Please take your Bibles if you have them and turn to the book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: As we continue that theme.
SPEAKER_00: Standing in the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: If you are visiting with us, we've been working our way over the last year or so through the New Testament book of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And we are wrapping it up this morning with the last four verses.
SPEAKER_00: I debated, including these four verses with the previous text, but I decided, no, there's truth here that needs to be dealt with by itself.
SPEAKER_00: And so I'd like to do that with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter chapter 5, beginning in verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: Peter wrote, By Sylvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in it.
SPEAKER_00: She, that is the church, who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, as so does Mark my son.
SPEAKER_00: Greet one another with the kiss of love, peace to all of you who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Few years ago, an internet poll asked the question What gives you joy, peace, and hope for a better tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: What gives you joy, peace, and hope for a better tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Here are some of the most interesting answers given in response to that poll question.
SPEAKER_00: What gives me hope for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: By not thinking about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: It's not here yet.
SPEAKER_00: Be here totally for today, be happy, live each day as if there were no tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: And then every day is full of peace, joy, and hope because that is what you choose.
SPEAKER_00: Second answer.
SPEAKER_00: My family gives me hope and joy and peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because I know that they were always there for me, just like my dogs.
SPEAKER_00: I resonate with this one.
SPEAKER_00: One person said, Well, books bring me joy and peace.
SPEAKER_00: They calm me down and help me relax by giving me a sense of tranquility.
SPEAKER_00: As for hope for a better tomorrow, I haven't the foggiest.
SPEAKER_00: Then another person said, the prospect of coffee and waffles in the morning gives me hope for a better tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Then someone said, What gives me hope and joy and peace for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: My goddess.
SPEAKER_00: The changing seasons, nature, myself and my family, the wheels of life, karma.
SPEAKER_00: Someone else said, My hopes are based on evidence that what I want is possible.
SPEAKER_00: And another person, I have no expectation out of life.
SPEAKER_00: I live life to the fullest every chance I get, so if something catastrophic occurs in my life, I deal with it the best way I can, and I don't leave it to chance.
SPEAKER_00: Now those are all subjective answers dependent on each individual's experiencing a favorable set of circumstances in life, according to their own desires and perceptions and feelings.
SPEAKER_00: But ask yourself that question right now.
SPEAKER_00: What gives you, sitting here right this minute, what gives you hope, joy, and peace for a better tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Just think about that for just a second.
SPEAKER_00: What gives you hope, peace, and joy for a better tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: My fear is that we have answered that question not much differently than the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_00: My fear is that we have Christianized versions of pagan answers.
SPEAKER_00: And so we've put out there family and friends, maybe the economy, technology.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the next generation gives me hope for a better tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you may have true, deeply held opinions and answers to that question that do indeed give you hope for tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: But let's be real, some of you feel pretty hopeless.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing peace and hope and joy on the horizon seems like a dream of a far-off tale of a Hollywood movie.
SPEAKER_00: Our lives are so focused on the present that circumstances of life tend to just walk up and take our joy, our peace and our hope.
SPEAKER_00: We live, we live with unnamed thieves standing outside the doors of our souls, just waiting to abscond with the last vestige of our hope.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of fighting them off, we just hand them the keys.
SPEAKER_00: Say, here you go.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you are grasping desperately for what still remains of peace and hope and joy.
SPEAKER_00: While cancer slowly invades a loved one's body, or disease ravages minds and bodies, or age takes its toll, or death rips a loved one away, or you've lost your job, or your friend has deserted you and stabbed you in the back.
SPEAKER_00: We cling, oh so desperately, to some microscopic thread of hope.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, hear me, please, very clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Anything in this world that brings you any measure of hope, joy, or peace will not last.
SPEAKER_00: It will go away.
SPEAKER_00: There is only one source of peace, only one place of hope, and only one anchor of joy that will last.
SPEAKER_00: Almost 1600 years ago, the North African church leader Augustine wrote of God, You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.
SPEAKER_00: We need that truth, my friends.
SPEAKER_00: You need it, I need it, and Peter's first readers needed it.
SPEAKER_00: Having been forced out of Palestine by persecution, they were exiles, refugees, if you will, enduring unjust treatment because they followed Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The circumstances of their lives threatened to steal away their confidence and their faith, to rest their peace and joy found in following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Peter wrote to them with strength, giving them encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: He exhorted them through a letter, reminding them again and again and again of what is true and what is right.
SPEAKER_00: This is probably the same Silas that Paul took with him on his missionary journeys in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: And the letter came with greetings from John Mark and the church in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Babylon here is a term most likely applied to the city of Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Do you remember that ancient city of Babylon?
SPEAKER_00: The ancient king Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, crushing the resistance and destroying Jerusalem and Solomon's beautiful temple.
SPEAKER_00: Nebuchadnezzar carried off people as prisoners of war, carting them off to his capital city.
SPEAKER_00: And there Israel lived for 70 years in exile.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the following centuries, Babylon became a picture not only of the enemy of God, but of the place of exile.
SPEAKER_00: This is Peter's way of telling his readers, I get it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm in exile too.
SPEAKER_00: I'm experiencing what you're living.
SPEAKER_00: I understand.
SPEAKER_00: And so from the place of exile, Peter could write, This is the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand in it.
SPEAKER_00: To people desperately needing some encouragement for tomorrow, Peter gives them one key word.
SPEAKER_00: Stand.
SPEAKER_00: We bought our son Joshua a plastic bat and ball and kids' tea to use outside.
SPEAKER_00: He enjoyed using a soft ball inside, and so we decided to purchase something that he could play with outside that is hard and real.
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, he doesn't have a real baseball yet.
SPEAKER_00: He enjoys it for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_00: And occasionally he will say to me, Help me.
SPEAKER_00: Now usually he just whacks away one-handed.
SPEAKER_00: Not always hitting the ball, but mostly hitting the T and knocking it halfway across the lawn.
SPEAKER_00: But when he asks for help, I show him how to hold the bat, telling him to watch the ball.
SPEAKER_00: And then I help him swing.
SPEAKER_00: But before that, I point to a spot in the ground by the T and I tell him, come and stand here.
SPEAKER_00: Stand right there.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't understand the details of baseball.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't understand what is required to successfully hit the ball.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't know that it all begins with standing in the proper place.
SPEAKER_00: Paul did something similar with the Ephesian Christians.
SPEAKER_00: He wrote in Ephesians chapter 6, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit later he says, and having done all, stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: And then a little bit later, stand, therefore.
SPEAKER_00: The armor of God becomes effective and useful when God's people stand.
SPEAKER_00: How are we to stand?
SPEAKER_00: Firmly.
SPEAKER_00: Don't shift.
SPEAKER_00: Don't lose your balance.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fall.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firmly.
SPEAKER_00: In the days when I was young and nimble, I loved shifting rocks.
SPEAKER_00: So when I would go backpacking in the mountains with my dad, I loved finding giant boulders that would shift underfoot.
SPEAKER_00: Fishing on a moving rock was especially fun.
SPEAKER_00: It was cheap excitement.
SPEAKER_00: And yes, it's somewhat surprising that I'm still alive.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you'll be glad to know I don't so much enjoy shifting rocks anymore.
SPEAKER_00: Rocks or boulders that are not set firmly in place are distracting.
SPEAKER_00: If you're focused on trying to maintain your balance on the rock that you're standing on, you can't adequately focus on fishing or on climbing or anything else.
SPEAKER_00: At best, your attention is divided.
SPEAKER_00: Or worse, you may not be paying enough attention and put yourself in a place of serious injury.
SPEAKER_00: Peter knows that we cannot live as followers of Jesus Christ if our feet are not firmly planted.
SPEAKER_00: Back in verse 9, he told us as followers of Jesus to resist the devil by being firm in our faith.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot remain firm in the uncertainties of life and in the trials of faith if we are not standing firm.
SPEAKER_00: Why do students tend to get thrown for a loop the first time they encounter a serious challenge to their faith?
SPEAKER_00: It's because they're not firm in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: Why do so many people who have grown up in the church fall on their faces when catastrophe strikes them?
SPEAKER_00: Because they're not firm in their faith.
SPEAKER_00: The ability to stand firm comes with maturity in the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Peter would say at the end of his second letter, take care that you are not carried away by the error of lawless people and lose your stability.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Grow, become mature so that you can stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: Trials will come.
SPEAKER_00: The unexpected will arrive in your life unexpectedly.
SPEAKER_00: The big bad wolf will come and he will huff and he will puff and he will blow your house down.
SPEAKER_00: The roaring lion seeks to devour you.
SPEAKER_00: And even the Lord Himself will test you in order to purify your faith to prove it genuine.
SPEAKER_00: It may be an attack of a physical nature, like Job experienced.
SPEAKER_00: It may be of an emotional nature, like Elijah and David experienced.
SPEAKER_00: It may be an intellectual challenge that Paul warned the Colossians about.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it made Paul rejoice to know that the Colossian church had a firm faith, a faith that was rooted and built up in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter wants us to have that same thing to encourage us to be firm in our faith because firmness is vital for our spiritual survival against a great and powerful enemy.
SPEAKER_00: We are to stand firm in the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: What is that true grace?
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think Peter refers here to the content of his letter.
SPEAKER_00: What he has written in this entire letter expresses the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are to stand firmly in the truths of this letter that we have heard, that we have learned.
SPEAKER_00: So let's be reminded of that.
SPEAKER_00: Not from Peter, but from Paul.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would, I'd like to look at Romans chapter 5 for a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: The first two verses of Romans chapter 5 are very similar to how Peter ends his letter.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul wrote, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we sang of that a little bit ago in the last song we sung, since that is true, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: There are two verses here, two sentences in our English language that are full of verbs.
SPEAKER_00: Look carefully at those two verses and notice all of the verbs.
SPEAKER_00: We have been justified.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace.
SPEAKER_00: We have obtained access.
SPEAKER_00: We stand.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice.
SPEAKER_00: There's action there, all because of the reality of one event.
SPEAKER_00: We have been justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Paul directed this toward the local church in Rome, the Babylon, to which Peter referred.
SPEAKER_00: And the context of his statement goes all the way back, actually, to chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And in chapter 3, you might know of the most familiar verse in verse 23.
SPEAKER_00: For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: That verse presents a problem and a solution.
SPEAKER_00: The problem stated very clearly in verse 23 of chapter 3 is that all have sinned and fallen short of participating in God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin keeps us from God.
SPEAKER_00: But God provided a solution.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 24 of chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: And are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Being justified means we are guilty as charged.
SPEAKER_00: We have been measured by God's standard and have been found guilty of not measuring up.
SPEAKER_00: We are sinners.
SPEAKER_00: And that is our problem.
SPEAKER_00: The solution, entirely by God's grace, is acquittal.
SPEAKER_00: In our guilt, we are declared righteous by the divine judge.
SPEAKER_00: And he can do that because he himself paid the price for our guilt.
SPEAKER_00: So how do we receive that payment applied to our account of guilt?
SPEAKER_00: We receive it by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It is only by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in what we do.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in trying to be good.
SPEAKER_00: It's not in trying to follow what God says.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by following the Ten Commandments.
SPEAKER_00: It's not by who we are that we receive this acquittal.
SPEAKER_00: Those actions are all insufficient.
SPEAKER_00: It is only by faith in Christ that we are justified.
SPEAKER_00: And then when we place our faith in Christ's payment for our sin, believing that God raised him up from the dead, God's righteousness will be counted to us, and we will no longer be seen as guilty, but as justified.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see here three benefits of justification that are noted in these two verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first blessing is found at the end of verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: It says, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace.
SPEAKER_00: I won't take you through that this morning for time's sake, but when we do a little digging in the book of Romans, we find that this particular word is used to translate or in place of the Hebrew word shalom.
SPEAKER_00: Shalom is a very broad Hebrew term that can simply mean peace in a very generic sense.
SPEAKER_00: But it can also be much more detailed than that.
SPEAKER_00: In general, it refers to wholeness and well-being.
SPEAKER_00: A sense of everything's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Everything's going to be okay.
SPEAKER_00: Not because of circumstances, but because of the sovereignty of God.
SPEAKER_00: The peace spoken of here is not some feeling that is based on my situation in life.
SPEAKER_00: This peace is the result of a state of affairs.
SPEAKER_00: Because the war between God and me as a sinner is done.
SPEAKER_00: It's over.
SPEAKER_00: God is no longer filled with holy wrath against our sin.
SPEAKER_00: We're no longer enemies of the Holy One.
SPEAKER_00: We are now at peace with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's the end of hostility between the sovereign God and his rebellious creatures who refuse to obey him.
SPEAKER_00: And it's ended because we are justified.
SPEAKER_00: We have peace.
SPEAKER_00: With God.
SPEAKER_00: And that new, friendly, loving relationship with a Father who is our Creator cannot be broken.
SPEAKER_00: It is secure.
SPEAKER_00: It is the anchor of our souls.
SPEAKER_00: But as you well know, it is very possible to be at peace with God and to know that peace and to understand that peace and to be living in that peace and yet not experience the peace of God in one's life.
SPEAKER_00: See, to be at peace with God is to be different than to have the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Will prepositions make a difference?
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to have a right relationship with God and still be knocked to the ground by the circumstances of life.
SPEAKER_00: It is possible to be justified in a right standing with God and have your knees just swiped out from underneath of you and crashed to the ground.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have lived that.
SPEAKER_00: You've been there.
SPEAKER_00: He himself is still our peace.
SPEAKER_00: And then we need to cry out to him for the peace that passes understanding that comes from him to endure the trials and the pains of life.
SPEAKER_00: And it is then, beloved, that we can stand.
SPEAKER_00: The second blessing of justification is found in verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: And it is standing in grace.
SPEAKER_00: Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the similarity to what Peter said?
SPEAKER_00: This is the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand in it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, This is the grace of God in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: Now it's important to notice two words here.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 2, through Him.
SPEAKER_00: Through Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's a repeated emphasis in this context that is attached to the blessings that we have.
SPEAKER_00: They come through Christ because of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, these same two words, through Him, are repeated five more times in the next three chapters of Romans.
SPEAKER_00: If you have been convicted of your sin and have come to faith and trust in Jesus' death and resurrection and payment for your sin and trusting yourself to him as the faithful creator, then these blessings are yours in a very real sense.
SPEAKER_00: But if you are not in Christ, if you have not placed your faith in him and are merely hearing these things sort of at a distance, they don't apply to you.
SPEAKER_00: These blessings are not yours, but they can be.
SPEAKER_00: The opportunity is there.
SPEAKER_00: The verse tells us through him we have obtained access by faith.
SPEAKER_00: The road is narrow and the gate is small, but the way to be to Christ can be accessed by faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting in him alone, and these blessings can be yours, so don't let another moment go by without trusting in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as we go on in the sentence, we should be stopped short by what is written.
SPEAKER_00: We've been told that we have peace with God, and through Jesus we have obtained some kind of access.
SPEAKER_00: Now we expect in this context the access to be to God.
SPEAKER_00: We expect to have access now to God.
SPEAKER_00: And that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: We've sung this morning about the veil in the temple being torn in two as Jesus died on the cross, signifying that access to God is now directly possible, and that is a place in which we now stand.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we would normally expect is to have access to God, but that's not what it says.
SPEAKER_00: It says we have access to this grace.
SPEAKER_00: And that grace is something in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: So what is this grace?
SPEAKER_00: We often refer to grace as the undeserved favor of God, and that's a fine definition.
SPEAKER_00: But here we seem to have a link to something else.
SPEAKER_00: As if the author has already spoken about this grace, that we should already know it and understand it.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if we look back at chapter 3 and verse 24 again, we see the words that we are justified by his grace as a gift.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking of that same justification, in chapter 4, verse 16, we see that it is received by faith.
SPEAKER_00: In order to have that gracious gift of justification, it has to be received by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Through faith, we can now have God's righteousness wrapped around us as a robe, acquitting us of our guilt so that we are in a right standing before Him.
SPEAKER_00: Through faith we can now access that grace and stand there.
SPEAKER_00: And that's astounding.
SPEAKER_00: It's astounding.
SPEAKER_00: If we understand God, it is just incredible.
SPEAKER_00: In Revelation chapter six, we read of a future point of time.
SPEAKER_00: Says then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, so he left no one out.
SPEAKER_00: They hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_00: For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?
SPEAKER_00: Who can stand?
SPEAKER_00: Two things about those verses that are important.
SPEAKER_00: First is the wrath of God against all sinful humanity, and the second is the implication that it is impossible, impossible to stand before that God in his wrath.
SPEAKER_00: The first three chapters of the book of Romans tell us that we are in the place of those people calling on the rocks and the mountains to fall on them because we ourselves are before the wrath of a holy God.
SPEAKER_00: That means something has to change for us to be able to stand.
SPEAKER_00: Our sin must be acquitted.
SPEAKER_00: The means of standing before God is having that wrath removed.
SPEAKER_00: And the only way of having that wrath removed is if Jesus satisfies the Father's wrath against my sin, so that I can receive the gift of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And it is in that grace that I can now stand before him clothed in his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist sang of that in Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4.
SPEAKER_00: If you, O Lord, should mark, should count my iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
SPEAKER_00: Answer nobody.
SPEAKER_00: But, oh, what a wonderful word in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: But with you there is forgiveness that you might be feared.
SPEAKER_00: We can only stand before Him if we are righteous, if we are forgiven and acquitted, because it is then that we have peace with God, accessing the grace of forgiveness by faith alone.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not all.
SPEAKER_00: The third blessing that we see here is the confidence in a certain future.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: By this time we ought to be rejoicing.
SPEAKER_00: We ought to be shouting out the hallelujahs because we are counted righteous.
SPEAKER_00: We are justified, acquitted before the King of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: We have access to his grace standing before him, not as enemies, but as friends and brothers and sons and daughters of the living God.
SPEAKER_00: The word rejoice here has the basic meaning of boasting.
SPEAKER_00: It carries the idea of excitement and exaltation and boasting about what has happened.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, exalt might be an even better translation.
SPEAKER_00: We exalt in hope of God's promised future.
SPEAKER_00: By faith we are justified, acquitted, and forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: We have access by faith into God's grace, and we stand there, not crushed like enemies, but loved as children.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, we now exult in the certainty of participating in the glory of God in the future.
SPEAKER_00: And we look to that future joyfully and with great confidence in our God.
SPEAKER_00: And that certain belief about participating in God's glory helps us have hope for tomorrow and the day after that.
SPEAKER_00: It enables us to overcome the frustrations, the sorrows, the pains, and the trials of this life, not because they become minimized, but because we know that what we experience in this life is not real life.
SPEAKER_00: It is only preparation for living fully in the glory of the one who gave himself for us, that he might purchase us and purify us for himself.
SPEAKER_00: The future in front of us is one in which we share in the glory of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: With that kind of future in front of us, we can declare with the songwriter from the depths of our souls, it is well.
SPEAKER_00: It is well with my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Not because everything is right in my world, because it's not.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about your world, but it's not right in my world.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not because of that.
SPEAKER_00: It's because everything is right with my God.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, we stand in grace.
SPEAKER_00: As it were in the very presence of God, with the veil torn open, accessing him personally, no longer enemies.
SPEAKER_00: We stand with Jesus as beloved children through his sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: And that standing is firm because we have confidence in Christ and confidence in our future, a glorious future with Christ Jesus our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Now it may seem as though I've preached on Romans instead of 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: Now I get to preach on 1 Peter.
SPEAKER_00: The reason is that they say the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Peter wants us to face the uncertainties of life with a firm, steady grip on the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Standing firm in the true grace of God brings confidence and hope in all situations of life.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Peter began in chapter 1, verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ, for sprinkling with his blood, may grace and peace be multiplied to you.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: Standing firm in the true grace of God brings confidence and hope in the midst of our exile.
SPEAKER_00: All that Paul wrote to the Romans is echoed by Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't use Peter's theological terms, but he expressed the realities of the grace in which we stand.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Peter speaks of that grace in every single chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me, chapter 1, verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13.
SPEAKER_00: For this is a gracious thing.
SPEAKER_00: That is, this is a thing of God's grace.
SPEAKER_00: When mindful of God you endure sorrows while suffering justly.
SPEAKER_00: Again in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: What credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure?
SPEAKER_00: But if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure, this is a thing of grace.
SPEAKER_00: A gracious thing.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, husbands live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life.
SPEAKER_00: As each of you has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.
SPEAKER_00: Chapter five, verse five.
SPEAKER_00: Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.
SPEAKER_00: The same God who has called you to his eternal glory, found in Christ, he himself will restore you.
SPEAKER_00: He will confirm you.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because of his grace that justifies you.
SPEAKER_00: The grace that caused you to be born again to a living hope.
SPEAKER_00: This is the true grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in it.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters in Christ, you live in a world that is constantly shifting.
SPEAKER_00: You can take a step and feel firm, and the very next one, your world will be shaken.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in a shifting, shaking world.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm in Christ in a world that is seeking to knock you off your feet.
SPEAKER_00: How do you stand firm?
SPEAKER_00: You do it through the work of Christ your Savior by standing firm in his grace that has been given to you.
SPEAKER_00: And may he do that in all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord Jesus, what a challenge.
SPEAKER_00: We confess to you that we are unable to stand in our own strength.
SPEAKER_00: But you even thought of that.
SPEAKER_00: Because you have given us the grace to stand.
SPEAKER_00: By your Spirit, fill us and enable us, empower us, and strengthen us even now to stand firm in the grace that has been given to us.
SPEAKER_00: Cause us to stand firm until you come.
SPEAKER_00: And may that be soon.
SPEAKER_00: So that we might stand in your glory because of your grace.