The scripture reading this evening is 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 10 through 11. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. Last week we looked at these two verses in a broader context. We were looking at our victory over Satan and Christ. We said that Satan is a real threat to us and that we need to be aware of that threat in our daily lives. that behind all of the sufferings and the persecutions that the church faces is her archenemy, who is Satan. And in particular, he is presented to us as the accuser, the anti-justifier. He is the one who would stand in heaven and would proclaim to God all the reasons why we should not be justified, how even if we have been justified and belong to him, as we see this scene even unfolding very clearly in Job, why we will fail him. He tries to convince us of that very fact that we continue to sin again and again, and even commit the same sins again and again, that we constantly fail God, that we do not deserve His grace and mercy. And if He can convince us that somehow we really are, in fact, outside of God's grace, He would do that. And yet, in that same heavenly courtroom stands Jesus, our true defender. And every accusation that our enemy makes against us is silenced by Jesus' pierced hands and sides and feet. Tonight, I want to narrow our focus a little bit and look at verses 10 and 11 in particular And here, Peter is not merely concluding the statements that he's been making in the several previous verses. He's actually concluding the body, the main body of this epistle. And in doing so, he gives us this marvelous gospel statement. He is telling us that God himself will glorify us. And he uses this emphatic language that he himself will complete, found, strengthen and confirm us. Our entire salvation process from predestination to glorification is initiated and is accomplished by God. And it is accomplished by him himself. Yes, we have the demands upon us that we must believe in him. We must place our faith in him. We must repent of our sins. But even these we know from scripture are graces given to us by God himself. And so we can say that all of our salvation, every aspect of our salvation is initiated and it is accomplished by him. And tonight the focus is on the fact that he himself will glorify us. Peter here draws our attention to this pattern that he has been mentioning, highlighting throughout his epistle, this first epistle. It is language and a theme that he has been using over and over again, this theme from suffering to glory. If we were to provide first Peter with a subtitle, if such things were to be done, then my nomination for the subtitle of this epistle would be from suffering to glory, because this has been a theme throughout. Early as chapter one, Peter has said that the Spirit of Christ, who is prophesying through the Old Testament prophets, predicted the sufferings of Christ and his subsequent glories. And in doing so, he set the tone for the whole epistle. And we are told that these sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories of Christ were the grace that was to be revealed to us. Peter says a few verses later that Jesus is the pure, spotless Lamb who was perfectly righteous, who had committed no sin, neither was deceit found in His mouth, and yet He suffered, yet He was slain. And yet He is also the One that God raised from the dead. And He is the One who is even now in heaven itself, from sufferings to glory. Peter tells us that we ourselves have been called to unjust suffering. Even as we do good things, even as we strive to live righteously and consistently with the calling that we have in Christ, we will suffer unjustly. We have been called to suffering unjustly because Christ also suffered for us. He tells us later that even if we should suffer for righteousness sake, we are blessed. And he says the reason for this is that Christ also suffered even to the point of being put to death in the flesh. But then he reminds us that Christ who was put to death in the flesh was made alive by the Spirit and was glorified when he entered into heaven and took a seat at the right hand of God. And he is saying that so will we who suffer in Christ and suffer in the same way that Christ did, will be glorified in Christ and in the same way. And indeed, even now, in principle, we know of that glorification. Peter says that we are to arm ourselves with the same way of thinking as Christ in his suffering. that though we will be judged in the flesh the way humans are, we will live by the Spirit the way God does. Again, this movement from suffering to glory, again and again. He tells us that we are not to be surprised at our sufferings because in them we actually share in Christ's sufferings. And then he tells us we will be glad and we will rejoice when the glory of Christ is revealed. And what he is implying there is, yes, you participate and you share in Christ's sufferings now, but the Christ who already has been glorified will reveal that glory. And on that day, you too will be glorified and share in that glory. He tells us that as we suffer as Christians, we are to glorify God in that name, and that we are to entrust our souls to a faithful creator. While we suffer, even as we do good, having that hope within us that our sufferings will last a while, but then will come glory. Peter describes himself as one who is a witness of Christ's sufferings, and yet at the same time a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, this pattern again and again and again, suffering to glory. And that brings us up to tonight, that this evening he is writing to us that after we have suffered a little while, God Himself, who already has called us to His eternal glory, and Christ will glorify us. And so we have this pattern and yes, we see it in these small individual episodes in our lives as we go through various trials and various sufferings, maybe even various persecutions. We see this pattern worked out again and again in our lives so that we know that from one trial, God has brought us through that and he has established us in that trial and after that trial. And so we see this again and again, this is the way that he works in our lives. Yes, we are called to suffering, but he's also called us to glory and establishing us and strengthening us. And yet there's a very real sense in which it's not. Peter is not simply focusing on these smaller issues in our lives, these smaller times of trial and temptation, though they are real. And though they are weighty at times. What he wants us to focus on is the overarching theme of our lives united to Christ. That even though we are in the world, we will suffer because we are in a world that has fallen. Every day we suffer the consequences of sin, however great or however small. Every day we're confronted with the reality of the remaining sin in ourselves. And yet there is one day when all of that will give way to glory, when our suffering will end, and when we will be in glory with our Savior. from suffering to glory. And that is the main theme of this epistle and is that which Peter is trying to convince us that our sufferings will indeed one day give way to glory. And more than that, specifically here tonight, he is telling us that he himself will do it. After all, he does say that God is the God of all grace. We know in the Old Testament that this idea of grace was known as favor, this divine favor that was freely given to his people. In the New Testament, we find grace used interchangeably with the terminology free gift. This is what Paul does in Romans 5 and 6. He freely interchanges these two terms, grace and free gift. We know that these things are not deserved. They are given to us freely. They are not earned. But this favor and these three gifts are given to us freely. As soon as we are told that we are saved by grace, we know that the grounds for our salvation have been completely removed from all of our efforts. And on the other hand, they have been completely found in Christ. In Christ alone. and in Christ completed efforts on our behalf. Jesus earned our salvation for us. It is given to us freely and it is given to us as a gift. And so there is no room for striving anymore. There is no more attempting to earn his favor. We do not even need to plead and beg and grovel that He would just give us one small taste of His favor. We humble ourselves before Him, not so that we can earn His favor, but because He's already freely showered us abundantly with His favor. This is who He is. This is what He does. He showers us freely with His grace. He does this because this is what pleases Him to do. He takes great pleasure in showering us with His grace. And it is absolutely free. And all we must do is drink it in Rejoice in it. Rest in it. Stand in awe at it. Worship him for it. How does this affect our understanding of our trials? If he is the God of all grace, how do we understand our trials? If He is the one who relates to us through grace, what do we make of our trials? And I think often what we do is we see our trials as being outside the scope of God's grace. We know what James says, that every good and perfect gift is from the Father of lights. And we say, well, this doesn't seem good to me. These trials are hard. How does this fit within what Peter seems to be saying here, that our entire lives in Christ are determined by God's grace? Our prayers reflect this attitude in this understanding that somehow these trials exist and come to us outside of God's grace, outside of his strength. We pray that as we go through these trials that God would, in his grace, deliver us from these trials as if they were not themselves, an actual expression, though it may not feel like it or seem like it, an expression of his grace to us. When we are told that every good and perfect gift is from above, from the Father of lights, what we are not told is that they will always seem good to us. And I think the greatest evidence that our suffering itself, the things that cause our suffering, the trials that we go through are actually an expression of his grace to us is because of what Peter has already told us. We're sharing in Christ's sufferings when we suffer. To share in Christ at all is an expression of his grace. And to partake in his sufferings, then, is an expression of his grace. Not only that, but our understanding of our sanctification is that this is a work of God's grace in our lives. Peter has already told us that the trials we go through, first of all, we should not be surprised by them as if something strange were happening to us. But more than that, these trials come at us in order to refine our faith. They come at us in order to sanctify us, to make us more and more like Christ. And so we know then that these trials that come our way because they are under God's control. are there for our sanctification and are an expression and outworking of His work of grace in our lives to make us more and more like Christ who suffered unjustly in this world. And yet responded to that same suffering perfectly. And while we would say, on the other hand, that our trials and our sufferings are not outside the scope of God's grace, that in fact they are one of the manifestations of God's varied grace in our lives to make us more and more like Christ as we partake and share in the sufferings of our Savior. At the same time, he gives us the grace to endure those things that he brings into our lives. The God of all grace has saved us by that grace, and he continually gives us the grace we need to endure our trials. And it is true that often he brings us to the point in our trials where we come to the end of ourselves and where we know that we in ourselves and in our own strength and in our own wisdom cannot go on. We are brought to this place where we know that we have nothing left to contribute as we go through these trials, and all we can do is rest in Him, and rest in His strength, and rest in His power, and in His wisdom, and in His love. These trials come to the point of being too weighty, as if we will collapse under their weight. And I know that many of us and I know that probably all of us have been brought to that point in our lives through some specific trial and maybe even several where we know we've been forced to turn our eyes from ourselves and to put them upon Him and to rest in Him for His strength and His wisdom. God supplies our strength. God sustains us. Whatever it is that he has brought into our lives, he gives us the grace to strengthen and to sustain us. He gives us the grace that we need to endure these trials and these sufferings. And after time, what we see is a history being developed in our own lives of times that we knew were trials, of times of suffering and times of heartache. When we've looked back and we've said, we know in our own strength, we could not go on one more step. And yet he was there and he was faithful. And so after time, we see this again and again and again. And it's his proof to us that he will always be there and he will never leave us and forsake us, that he will always give us the grace that we need. sufficient grace to endure whatever it is that we are going through. Some of us have experienced great trial and tragedy in our lives, and we know that his grace was sufficient. And some of us have never approached that. And we have found his grace to be sufficient. And it always will be. This is what it means that He is the God of all grace. His entire relationship to us is defined by grace. From beginning to end, He showers us freely and willingly with His grace. We have free access before His throne because of His grace. We are sons and daughters of Him because of His grace. We are sanctified because of His grace, and we will in fact be glorified because of His grace. Why then do we still try to earn that which is freely given to us in Christ? Why do we still approach Him in prayer as if He hasn't already freely given us everything in Christ? Why do we still plague our consciences with sins that He has already freely forgiven in Christ? Why do we still act like His slaves? when we are his sons and daughters in Christ. He is the God of all grace, and he takes pleasure in showering us freely with his grace. As if that were not enough to encourage us and comfort us and build up our faith and our hope, Peter tells us also that He Himself has called us to His eternal glory in Christ. He has called you to His eternal glory in Christ. It is something that He has already done. It is not something that we are waiting around for Him to do. It is not something that we need to try to convince Him to do. There are no performance pressures here. We do not need to get Him to notice us, to shower us with His grace and to call us to His eternal glory in Christ. It is something that He has already done. He has already done it in eternity past. It is an aspect of His eternal will. He says in Isaiah 46, he says this all over the place. It says it a lot in Isaiah, this type of thing, but I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it. And so when he says that he has called us to his eternal glory in Christ, he's telling us that he has purposed to do this from before the foundation of the world and he will do it. He himself will do it. Some would say that God chose us and that God called us from before the foundation of the world because as he looked into history, he saw something worthwhile in us or that as he looked into history, he saw that we would choose him. And what we know, we know this in our hearts is that is absolutely not true. We know it is quite the opposite, because we know that God called us despite our sinfulness and our rebellion against him, because that is what he sees when he looks into history from eternity past. Not our goodness, not our choosing him out of some definition of free will, but what he sees when he looks at us outside of Christ his rebellion and sinfulness. But what God did see as the grounds upon which he calls us to his eternal glory in Christ is not us, but it is Christ living perfectly for his people. It is Christ dying for his people, and it is Christ rising again from the dead for his people. That is the historical grounds upon which God calls us to His eternal glory. It is Christ and it is His blood and it is His righteousness. Let me ask you, which one is more comforting to you? Which one brings you more peace and which one brings you more assurance? Is it God calling you because of something that you did or because, on the other hand, of the perfect work and death and obedience of Christ? Is it a gospel that brings your focus back on yourself and upon your works and upon your faith, which you know so often wavers and is so imperfect? Or is it the gospel that focuses your attention on Christ and on His perfection, and His perfection for you and in your place? Which one comforts you more? Peter tells us that He has called us to His eternal glory in Christ. In chapter 2, Peter told us that we were called to unjust suffering in Christ. As Christ suffered unjustly, we have been called to the same But that's only the first part of that movement that we said is pervasive in first Peter, that from suffering to glory. So in chapter two, he tells us the first part of that. You've been called to suffer unjustly in Christ. Now he's telling us that you are also called to his eternal glory in Christ. Everything, your entire life as a Christian is what you have been called to in Christ, the sufferings and the glory, both. that entire movement from suffering to glory. You may be suffering in Christ, you may be called to suffer in Christ because Christ also suffered for you as your example. But now Peter tells us that we've been called to his eternal glory in Christ. It is in Christ, and that is what makes this calling sure. It is in Christ who, though he suffered unjustly in the flesh, was also glorified by the Spirit. It is in Christ who has run before us into the heavenly places, where even now he is that builder and architect of that city which has foundations, which is our hope, which is our destination. He is even now setting the table before us in the presence of our enemies, so that one day we would dine with Him, and we would sit at His table. Though we suffer now at the hands of our enemies and at our chief enemy, then we will sit with Him at His table, and we will dine with Him, and recline with Him, and fellowship with Him at that great wedding feast. God himself will glorify us because he is the one who has called us to his eternal glory in Christ from before the foundation of the world. He has sent Christ to make that effectual. And He has sent the Spirit into our lives and into our hearts to work that faith and that repentance in us. That we would partake of the blessings, the sufferings even, of Christ but His glory as well. So it is no wonder that after reflecting upon these things that Peter moves into a doxology. He concludes this section and of course this epistle with doxology, with praise. How can we not rejoice over this wonderful knowledge that our salvation has everything to do with God from beginning to end and throughout. and much more in the knowledge that it is his pleasure to save us. And while this doxology certainly is an emotive response to what he has been reflecting upon, what he has been trying to convince us to reflect upon and to have our hope in, it is also a very fitting doxology in light of everything that he has said, even up to this point. His is the dominion forever. He is sovereign over all things. Nothing happens outside of his will in his dominion. Even Satan, who may be the most cunning and crafty of all the beasts that were ever made, is under his dominion and is under his sovereign rule. All of our sufferings, all of our enemies, all of our trials are under God's absolute sovereign rule. what seems difficult to us and what often legitimately is difficult for us is not outside the scope of his power and his rule and his authority. His sovereign power is absolute. And so, yes, our sufferings are under his dominion. And he is working all things together for our good. But this also means if our sufferings are under his sovereign authority. So is our glorification under His sovereign authority. He's absolutely sovereign over these things as well. To Him be dominion forever and ever. So yes, He is sovereign now. And yes, He is sovereign for all of eternity. Yes, He is sovereign now in our sufferings and over our sufferings. And He is sovereign then over our glorification. And this gives us hope. And this gives us assurance. Because we know that it is God who has absolute authority to make everything that He has ordained to happen come to pass. And He has called us to that eternal glory. Is He not able to do so? Is He not able to make His own will come to pass? We have hope. that God will in fact glorify us because he's absolutely sovereign over our glorification. So as Peter comes to the end of this main body of his epistle, he reminds us that great theme that he's been emphasizing all throughout, and that is from sufferings now to subsequent glories, eternal glories. Do you not have a great hope God himself will see us through our sufferings. He will see us to those subsequent glories. It is all dependent upon him. He is the God of all grace. He has called us in that grace to his eternal glory in Christ, whose dominion is forever and ever. Everything is dependent upon him in Christ so that all of our hope is outside of ourselves and praise God for that. All of our hope is outside of ourselves. All of our hope is in our gracious, omnipotent God who never changes. And so then let us take our eyes off of ourselves. Let us take our eyes off of our sufferings and our trials. Let us set them upon our great God. Let us be at peace and let us rest knowing that it is His delight to save us. It is His delight to glorify us. It pleases Him to glorify us. So let our hearts be comforted by the warmth of that favor and grace. He who called you is faithful. He will surely do it. Let us pray.