In the sermon 'The True Grace of God in Which You Stand,' based on 1 Peter 5:12-14, Jason Dohm discusses the centrality of God's grace as the foundation for a believer's life. He highlights that Peter's letter is built on the gospel's foundation, emphasizing the true grace of God that believers stand on. Suffering for the gospel is a significant theme, with Peter urging believers to understand their trials as necessary for spiritual growth. Dohm points out that Peter contrasts God's care for His people with the adversary's attempt to devour them, encouraging believers to be vigilant. The sermon also explores the relational 'gospel web,' a network of individuals and churches working together for gospel advancement. Peter's emphasis on humility, submission, and love among believers is highlighted, with the 'kiss of love' as a symbol of mutual affection. Dohm reflects on Peter's transformation from an impetuous disciple to a spiritual father, offering encouragement for believers' sanctification journeys. The sermon concludes with a call to stand firm in the gospel truth, recognizing it as the only unshakable ground.

The sermon text this morning is 1st Peter 5, 12 through 14, but we're going to read the whole chapter. So please join me in reading 1st Peter 5. The elders who are among you, I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.

Likewise, you younger people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Resist him steadfast in the faith knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

She who is in Babylon elect together with you, greet you, and so does Mark my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Father, now as we enter this time of being fed, Lord, by the preaching of your word, I pray, oh God, that you would open our ears and our hearts to receive it with joy.

Lord, you brought us to the end of this book. Lord, help us to consider what you've taught us today. Help us to consider what you still are teaching us through the words of your servant, Peter. This man that you transformed by the power of your spirit, by the power of your gospel, I pray that you would do the same in our own lives. God, I pray that you would be with Jason now as he comes and preaches, that you would bless him with wisdom and with your spirit, Father.

In Jesus' name, Amen. Father, I pray that you would help me in the preaching. I pray that you would help them in listening. These two things would work together for the building up of your people, the encouragement of your people. Lord, we acknowledge our need for your Spirit in both of these activities.

If you don't come, all is lost. Help us Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. The sermon title is lifted right from the text, the true grace of God in which you stand. The letter is winding down fast now. We're right here at the end of the letter.

Two weeks ago, Peter was teaching about a God who loves, a God who helps his people if they'll only humble themselves under his mighty hand, that he stands ready to have them cast all their care upon him because he cares for his people. That's a beautiful truth. Last week we got the other side of the coin though because there's not just one truth that God cares for his people and he loves his people. There is a companion truth on the other side of the coin that there's an adversary that hates the people of God and that wants to devour the Lord's people. So you have these companion truths on both sides of the coin.

One, that the Lord loves and sustains his people. The other, that the people of God have not only a friend, but an adversary, a mighty adversary, who is like a lion and wants to devour. Now we come to the close of the letter. And Peter gets right to the point of what he's been trying to communicate in a wonderful summary statement. That this is the true grace of God in which you stand.

This is what the letter has been about. The true grace of God that forms the ground, the solid ground that the people of God can stand on. Peter is saying, I've been declaring to you the truth about Jesus Christ. And as believers, you have embraced that truth and you're on the right track. This is ground that you can stand on.

So he's actually commending believers who have embraced the gospel, received the truth about Jesus Christ that they are indeed on the right track and they need to stay there, right on those two rails. This is the true grace of God in which you stand. Friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, the truth about Jesus is ground we can stand on. The truth about Jesus is ground that we must stand on. It's the only ground that won't shift under your feet.

If what the Bible says about Jesus is not true, we're to be pitied above all men. And suffering for this gospel is nonsense. Now Peter has spent the whole letter talking about suffering for this gospel. But if the truth about Jesus Christ isn't really truth at all, then all this talk about suffering for this gospel is utter nonsense and we're just a people to be pitied and patted on the head for wasting our lives. Peter has written to exhort and to testify.

It says this explicitly in these last few verses. And he has set himself up as one who has the credentials to exhort the people of God and to bring a true testimony to the people of God. In chapter 1 verse 1, the very first verse of this letter, Peter introduces himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ, as a sent one, one who was sent by Jesus Christ to declare truth. So he's put himself forward from the very first verse of the whole letter as an authority on all the things that pertain to Jesus Christ and as one who is able to give this testimony and to exhort the Lord's people. In chapter 5, verse 1, this final chapter, he says that he is a witness to the sufferings of Christ.

Peter is not just one passing along the tail. Peter is an eyewitness of the sermons and the healings and those who were raised from the dead and Jesus being raised from the dead. Peter is an eyewitness of the sufferings of Christ. So he has already put himself forward repeatedly as one who has the credentials to exhort the people of God, to encourage the people of God towards things that are right, and to bring a testimony of truth. Peter wants us to have confidence that he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.

This is what Jim Elliott said, the martyr. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep. You cannot keep the things of this life. You cannot keep your passing pleasures. They are passing pleasures.

You can't keep the gold that glitters. So you're not a fool to give up those things that are passing away so very fast. The Bible says that life is a vapor. It's going to be over in what will seem like a moment of time. So you're not a fool to give up all those things that are passing away to gain that which you can never lose.

Those things don't begin just in eternity, just in heaven, there to be had now, so that Paul, who's been stoned and shipwrecked and beaten and starved, can talk about the joys of this life in the very next breath. So our rewards, brothers and sisters in Christ, are not just waiting for us. They get much more immense. They get much more intense on the other side of death. But they're not all waiting for them.

Though you might be stoned, though you might be beaten, though you might be starved, there's many joys to be had in Christ in this life. And so the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth that will sustain you through everything. Did you get that? The truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news about Jesus, what Peter has been testifying throughout this entire letter is the truth that will sustain you through everything in life, through all the joys, that's the easy part, but through All the tribulations and the sorrows and the trials that life can throw at you. Everything that life can throw at you, the truth of the gospel can sustain you through.

And not have you just survive it by the skin of your teeth, but have you flourishing, have you full of joy right in the middle of the trials of life. This is a glorious gospel. So he's testifying that believers are in the truth. And the truth is all these things pertaining to the life and death of Jesus Christ. And He is exhorting us to stand in that truth.

In fact, in several of the translations they structure the sentence differently so that it's, this is the true grace of God, period. Stand firm in it. That's what some of the other good translations say. So it's even more explicit that this is an exhortation from our author Peter to stand firm in the truth. This is what the letter has been about, the true grace of God in which you stand.

Jesus Christ is the personification, is the word made flesh, is God incarnate, that is the fullest representation of the grace of God. If you ever wanted to know what the grace of God looks like, look to Jesus Christ. He's what the grace of God looks like. He came to lay his life down to purchase people. Now, Peter introduces us to three characters for the first time.

We've not seen them anywhere in the letter, but we get introduced to these three characters now. Sylvanus, she who is in Babylon, and Mark. So we'll begin with Sylvanus. Sylvanus is the Latin form of this name. Silas is the Aramaic form of the same name.

So these are the same person. These names indicate the same person in the New Testament. Sometimes this man is called Sylvanus like here. Sometimes he's called Silas like other places. So Peter says by Sylvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him.

He says, as I consider him, not because he has the doubt in it that he's a faithful brother, but because he's an apostle of Jesus Christ and you should take his word for it. Sylvanus is a faithful brother. We're first introduced to Sylvanus or Silas in the New Testament in Acts 15. And he appears a lot in Acts 15 and I want to look at that. So turn in your Bibles to Acts 15.

Acts 15 is the Jerusalem council. So the Judaizers who say that you must be circumcised to be saved have come to Antioch. That's created a stir. Paul and Barnabas withstood these Judaizers to their face and didn't give them ground for one hour, Paul says. And so, the church at Antioch sends Paul and Barnabas to go to Jerusalem to sort this out once and for all.

And that is what Acts 15 is about, the dealing with this matter among the apostles and the elders and the brethren at the church in Jerusalem. So the first verse in Acts 15 that I'd like for you to look at is verse 22. Then it pleased the apostles and elders with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, namely Judas, who was also named Bar-Sabas, and Silas, leading men among the brethren. So here's the first occurrence of this man. We get the Aramaic form of his name here, Silas.

He was a leading man in Jerusalem, and he's one of two men that are singled out by the apostles and elders of the Church of Jerusalem to deliver this all-important letter to the Church in Antioch. So Barnabas and Paul are going to go back to Antioch. They're going to be accompanied by two of the leading men of the Church in Jerusalem, Silas and Judas, who are going to go with the letter. So here we have Silas connected with Peter in Jerusalem. You get that?

Peter is an apostle and an elder we know in the church in Jerusalem. And Silas is a leading man in that church. And now Silas is being deployed to carry the letter to Antioch. Now look at verse 27. Skip to verse 27.

This is part of the letter. So this is in the contents of the letter that's being sent and carried by Silas. Acts 15, 27, we have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who will also report the same things by word of mouth. So Silas and Judas are not not just couriers they're leading men in the church who are going to not just deliver the letter but also testify to the truth of the letter and drive the point home with their words. And the letter says exactly that.

They're going to personally articulate what the apostles and elders want told to this church and they're going to drive the point home of the letter. Now look at verses 32 through 34. This is how it actually plays out. Now Judas and Silas themselves being prophets also, exhorted and strengthened the brethren with many words. And after they had stayed there for a time, they were sent back with greetings from the brethren to the apostles.

However, it seemed good to Silas to remain there. So they're not just couriers, Judas and Silas. They're supposed to verbally drive the point home. We see here that that's exactly what they did. They exhorted the brethren with many words.

They encouraged them. They articulated the contents of the letter and drove the point home. And then when it's time to go home, Silas thinks it would be better to stay there in Antioch, which is what he does. Now let's read the end of the chapter beginning in verse 36. Acts 15 verse 36, then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, let us now go back and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.

Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark, But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia and Had not gone with them to the work Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another and so Barnabas took mark and sailed to Cyprus but Paul chose Silas and Departed being commended by the brethren to the grace of God. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the churches." So here in this last section of Acts 15, we see a couple of things. One, that Mark is introduced. Now Mark is going to be another character that Peter talks about here at the very end of this letter. So we see not only Silas in Acts 15, but we also see Mark in Acts 15.

And we see that Silas is now with Paul when there's this fracture between Paul and Barnabas. Barnabas takes John Mark and goes one way and Paul takes Silas and goes another way. And then in Acts chapter 16 and Acts chapter 17 and Acts Chapter 18 for the next three chapters, we see that Paul and Silas, or Silvanus, are together laboring in different churches and preaching together. So Silvanus is Silas and Silas is Silvanus, interchangeable, it's the same man. We meet him first in Jerusalem where he's a prominent man in the church in Jerusalem, and he's with Peter.

And then he travels to Antioch. He stays in Antioch after delivering the letter and he enters into a partnership with Paul and actually in those next three chapters, Acts 16, Acts 17, and Acts 18, We see Timothy is brought into the picture as well. So you see these three together a lot. Paul, Silas, Timothy. Paul, Silas, Timothy.

In fact, if you look at the introduction to 1 Thessalonians and 2 Thessalonians, you'll see those are the three people who are bringing the greetings in that letter, Paul, Silas, and Timothy. Now, Mark. In verse 13, we're back now in 1 Peter chapter 5. In verse 13, Paul says that Mark sends greetings. So Mark is with Peter.

Did I say Paul? Mark is with Peter as Peter is writing this letter. And Mark is sending his greetings to the people that Peter is communicating with through this letter. We cannot know 100% for certain, but we have a very educated guess that this is the same mark. In other words, it fits.

When you look at the different data points, you get them to match up nicely for this to be John Mark, but it doesn't say that he's John Mark, so you cannot know for 100% certain. So I'm engaging in a level of speculation here, but I think it's safe to call it a very educated guess that this is the Mark and that the Mark is the gospel writer, the author of the Gospel of Mark. There's strong early tradition that Peter wasn't a main source for Mark's Gospel. In other words, if you look at the Church Fathers, they're affirming that Mark gets the contents for his gospel from Peter. So it makes a lot of sense here that Peter is sending a greetings from Mark here at the end of 1 Peter.

If so, this Mark, this Gospel writer, is introduced as Peter's spiritual son. He says at the end of 13, and so does Mark my son, Mark my son in the faith, my spiritual son. So as Paul would consider Timothy, his son, not his physical son, but his son in the faith, his spiritual son, Peter I believe here is introducing Mark as his spiritual son, as his son in the faith, and then he becomes the Gospel writer of the Gospel of Mark. Mark, John Mark, is first introduced in the New Testament in Acts 12 verse 12. And this is the text, Acts 12 is where James has been martyred, Peter has been imprisoned, and it's looking like Peter is going to be martyred too.

But God supernaturally intervenes and supernaturally releases Peter from prison. Peter finally comes to his senses and realize that it hasn't been a dream after all, but that he's really out. He's really been released from prison. And he goes and in Acts 12, verse 12 we see that he comes to the house of Mary, Peter does, the mother of John whose surname was Mark, which is where the church has gathered. So the church is scared to death that Peter is going to be martyred just like James just has been.

And they've gathered together to pray that God would help. And so Peter, when he gets released, he shows up at this house where the church is praying. And it's Mary's house, and Mary is the mother of John Mark. This is the first time we encounter any mention of John Mark in the New Testament is Acts 12 verse 12. Then in Acts 12 verse 25, just a couple of verses later, we see this, Acts 12 verse 25, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry and they also took with them John whose surname was Mark.

So we just saw this in Acts 15. Men going from Jerusalem to Antioch. In Acts 15 it was who? It was Judas and Silas or Judas and Silvanus. In Acts 12 though we would have already seen the exact same thing.

Paul and Barnabas coming to Jerusalem, they fulfill their work there, and they go back to Antioch with men from Jerusalem. But in Acts 12, it's John Mark. So Mark has a connection with Peter in Jerusalem and also with Paul in Antioch. So Mark is just like Silas in the book of Acts. Starts in Jerusalem, having a connection with Peter, and then when Paul and Barnabas come to Jerusalem, leave with Paul and Barnabas to go to Antioch.

So they have a connection not just with Peter who mentions them in this letter, but also with Paul and his work among the Gentiles beginning in Antioch. By the way, the fracture between Paul and Barnabas over Mark, and Mark's having left the work at some point, ends this way in 2 Timothy 4 verse 11. 2 Timothy is widely regarded as the last book that Paul wrote. So this is late in the ministry of Paul, 2 Timothy. And Paul writes this in 2 Timothy 4 verse 11.

Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful for me in ministry. So in Acts 15 you have conflict between Paul and Barnabas and a parting of ways but in Paul's last letter he's actually sending for Mark. He didn't want to work with Mark in Acts 15 but he's useful to him in ministry in the last letter that he writes. So this ends well. So we have Sylvanus or Silas, and we have Mark both having a connection with Peter in Jerusalem and with Paul and Barnabas in Antioch.

And then we have she who is in Babylon. Now there are two questions to be answered here. Is she an individual, a woman, a person, or is Peter speaking metaphorically? And is Babylon literal Babylon where the Jews have gone into captivity to, or again, is he speaking metaphorically? Now again, I'm engaging in speculation here, so I'm going to give you what I consider to be an educated guess, but I don't insist on it because you can't prove it from scripture.

I believe that both, that the she is metaphorical and that Babylon is metaphorical. And there are many people who are way smarter than me that disagree with both of those things. So I'm holding it very lightly. But that's what I think looking at it. First of all, let's look at she.

Is it a woman and individual or is it used metaphorically? The King James translators were so confident that it was being metaphorically that instead of rendering it she who is in Babylon, they render it the church that is in Babylon. The Greek word there is not church. So they have just understood it this way, that it's being used metaphorically. So if you have a King James Bible, it's going to say, the church that is in Babylon sends greetings.

I think thinking of it metaphorically makes a lot of sense with the phrase that follows, which is elect together with you. The church that is in Babylon are those, plural, who are elect together with you. So he's writing to groups and I believe he's writing sending greetings from a group, from a church in a city. This would be very consistent with some other places that we see in the New Testament. Probably the best example is 2 John.

In 2 John, the first verse and the last verse of that short letter says something like this, the elect lady and her children. The elect lady and her children. Again, that could be one person, one woman, but that would sort of be a strange way to say that. It's more likely that it's a greeting being brought from churches and because the church is the bride of Christ that it's being used metaphorically in a way that would be consistent with the thought of a bride. But again, I don't insist on it.

Now is Babylon Babylon or is Babylon a term used metaphorically? Well, Matthew Poole and Matthew Henry And John Calvin and John Gill all think that it's probably the real Babylon. And so I tremble to differ from these four giants, but I do. I differ from them. They think it's the real Babylon.

And they give a good reason. And the reason that they give is that Babylon was the place of captivity and not everyone came back from captivity. Many returned to the promised land but not all returned from the promised land. And so continuing in time, even after the return from captivity, there continues to be a significant Jewish population around, in and around the Babylon of that day. And so Matthew Poole, and Matthew Henry, and John Calvin, and John Gill all think that Peter, because he was entrusted with the gospel to the Jews, it makes sense that he would be in and writing to Babylon because there continued to be a significant Jewish population there.

That makes sense. I actually though have taken the letter to be written not just to Jews, but when we look at the very beginning of the letter, I think the right translation is to the strangers who are scattered in this region because that's what Christians are. We're strangers. We don't belong here. We're a pilgrim people.

We're a stranger people. Our citizenship is in heaven. So I believe he's using it metaphorically here. And we see Babylon as a city used metaphorically in Revelation 14, 16, 17, and 18. So there are four chapters in Revelation where Babylon is used metaphorically.

How so? Well Jerusalem is often used metaphorically in the New Testament and particularly in Revelation as home base for the people of God. The capital for the people of God. So much so that the holy city is Jerusalem. And they're not talking about ground on the earth.

We're talking about home base for the people of God. So Jerusalem is used metaphorically as the capital for the people of God. And I believe Babylon is used in that same way. It's the center for pagan idolatry. It's the center for the enemies of God, which during the time when Peter was writing this letter would have been Rome.

So I believe to make a short story long, unfortunately, I believe that Peter is actually in Rome writing this letter and is using the word Babylon metaphorically because Rome absolutely in that day was the center for the enemies of God for pagan idolatry. All right, what do we have here? A lot of speculation by me about what these things are, but they're in the text, and so I feel like it's good to address them and to give educated guesses as far as you can and substantiate them as best you can. But come up out of the speculation. What do we really have here?

Okay, regardless of whether I was right or wrong about the speculation, here's what we have. A gospel web. A gospel web. Not a spider web, but a relational web. We have a network of men and women laboring together for the glory of God and the advancement of the Gospel.

So no matter who you peg these names to, what you have is people laboring together for the glory of God and the advancement of the gospel. You have Peter and Paul and Silas and Timothy and John Mark and churches in this place and churches in that place and they are not isolated towers. Never have anything to do with one another. They're places where some of us go to some of you and are there for a while laboring for the advancement of the gospel and the glory of God. And then some of you come and invest in us.

And people from here go to Malawi. And people from Malawi go to here. And people from Pensacola, Florida come to us and impart the gifts that God has placed there. People from here go down to Pensacola, Florida, and on and on and on. God has intended for there to be a mighty gospel web, not a spider web, but a network where the people of God labor together for his glory and for the advancement of the Gospel.

That makes me think, us too! Us too! We want to be part of the Gospel Web. We want to be part of the Gospel Web. We want to be part of developing the Gospel Web where we link up as closely, as tightly as we can with true brothers and sisters who God has gifted.

We can benefit from them. God has put gifts here and they can benefit from us. And we're not to be a tower where we just do our thing in our own little community, unaffected by the people of God outside of us. We're not going to leave them unaffected by us either, because we need each other in the church. We're Baptists and a distinctive of Baptists is that they believe in autonomous local churches And I say a hearty amen to that.

I think decisions for a local church should be made within that local church. And there shouldn't be government outside of a local church that imposes itself on a local fellowship. I don't believe that's what the New Testament teaches, but that does not make us isolated towers. No. And in fact, our confession, which is a Baptist confession that calls for autonomous local churches, Talks about the beauty and the necessity of working together among churches.

And I believe that's what we're seeing here at the end of 1 Peter. Finally, having conveyed greetings from Mark and from she who is in Babylon, whoever that is, however that works. Peter instructs how we ought to greet one another. So, greetings have been sent and now he gives instructions about how we ought to greet one another. We ought to greet one another with a kiss of love.

This is what Peter says. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Now, There have been so many places where what I'm getting ready to say has been true in this letter. Paul and Peter have the same theology. They teach the same things.

They have the same heart. Paul closes four of his letters, four of his letters with these words, greet one another with a holy kiss. Peter and Paul have the same theology, they're teaching the same things, they have the same heart, and they're exhorting the people of God to the same kind of relationships, relationships of love, relationships of warmth and affection. So Peter closes his letter with these words, greet one another with a kiss of love. And Paul closes four of his letters by saying, greet one another with a holy kiss.

So lest you think wrongly about the kiss of love, it's the holy kiss. It's a holy kiss. Those four letters, by the way, if you want to look it up, just go right to the end of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians. Paul ends those letters that way. So Peter is commending to us the agape kiss.

That's the word, the agape kiss, the kiss of love. Our interactions, our coming together and parting are to be characterized by mutual affection. We are not a business where we come and transact and leave as if we had just bought gas. No, a thousand times no. Our interactions are interactions of love.

And people casually observing from the outside should get it. Okay? If they're watching from across the parking lot when we break up today and they can't hear a word that we're saying, they should come away with a sense that we're people who love each other because of the warmth of our interactions. You don't have to be told. You can look, not hearing a word from across the parking lot, because you can tell just looking.

You can see the warmth of interactions. You can see when there is mutual affection. Now, Peter has been exhorting us to love in every single chapter. Listen to this. Chapter 1 verse 22.

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, insincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart. That's chapter 1. Listen to chapter 2 verse 17. Love the brotherhood. That's chapter 2.

Listen to chapter 3 verse 8. Love as brothers. Told us how to love in chapter 3 verse 8. How about chapter 4? Chapter 4 verse 8.

And above all things have fervent love for one another. For love will cover a multitude of sins. And now in chapter 5, it's greet one another with a kiss of love. So here's what we have in the letter. Chapter 1, love each other.

Chapter 2, love each other. Chapter 3, love each other. Chapter 4, love each other. Chapter 5, and let your interactions reflect love. So the people across the parking lot see that you have a warmth and mutual affection in your relationships.

Our mutual affection should be obvious in our interactions. And now his final words, peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Those who are in Christ Jesus have peace. He is exhorting us to abide in the peace that is in Christ Jesus. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 4 Verse 7, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus for both Paul and Peter is the fountain of peace. Being in Christ, abiding in Christ, is the fountain of peace.

It means that the war with God that the natural man always engages in is over. And there's peace. And God and his fury against sin are forever relieved and you're adopted and you're at peace with a terrifying God. You're adopted. You're a son or a daughter of the terrifying God that used to be your mortal enemy.

Let's conclude 1 Peter with a summary of the book. We're concluding, I'm going to try to wrap up 22 sermons in 10 minutes or less. Wish me luck. 22 sermons, this is the end of the 22nd sermon, not including a couple of the detours that we took. There have been 22 sermons actually on 1 Peter texts.

So I'd like to make five parting comments from the book of 1 Peter. We'll hopefully faithfully summarize what Peter has been laboring to teach us. Number one, Peter builds this letter on the foundation of the gospel. Peter builds this letter on the foundation of the gospel. If we were to go back to chapter 1 and look at the first five verses of the whole letter, we'd find a clear articulation of the gospel, of salvation by grace alone through faith alone.

Such a clear articulation and a heaping up of the blessings that flow from salvation by grace alone through faith alone. So He starts there, clear articulation of the gospel, and then pile up the blessings that flow from embracing the gospel. He speaks of election, and he speaks of the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ in verse 2, chapter 1 verse 2. He speaks of the abundant mercy of a God who has begotten us again through Jesus Christ in verse 3. He has made us born again out of His abundant mercy.

That's part of what he's saying in these first five verses. He says that the power of God, that he speaks of the power of God that displays itself by keeping the elect through saving faith. So not only does he save the elect, he keeps them by his own power and brings them all the way to the finish line. We find that in verse 5. In short, we have a living hope.

That's verse 3. It's a living hope. It's not a dead hope. It's not wishful thinking. It is ground that you can build your life on.

It is the gospel. Peter starts there. He doesn't want to go anywhere until the gospel has been firmly established. And the blessings that flow from the gospel have been piled up so that you can see them and say, wow. Number two, Peter is making a people ready to suffer.

After he establishes the gospel, he gets to what pervades the entire letter, which is suffering. And he's making a people ready to suffer. Which people? Well, there are these five regions that he calls out in the first verses, but really he's an inspired author and he's making generation after generation after generation after generation of the Lord's people ready to suffer. Because those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

So God has inspired Peter to write a letter that will make us ready to suffer. But Peter doesn't just want us to suffer. He wants us to understand our suffering. He wants us to understand the resources that are available to the people of God, the resources that God lavishes on His people that will sustain them abundantly through suffering so that you don't have to just survive it by the skin of your teeth, but you can flourish in the middle of all your trials, in the middle of all your sufferings. That's why Peter did the heaping up in the first five verses.

And then we see the shift. So verses one through five, he piles up the blessings that flow from the gospel. And then in verse six we read this, in this you greatly rejoice. In this heap of blessings you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials." So he heaps up the blessings and then he says, okay, let's talk about this little pile of troubles. This little pile of sufferings.

Because next to the blessings that flow from the gospel, it just looks like this little thing. He says, this is just a little while. We need to talk about it. I need to make you ready for it. But in comparison to the heap, it's nothing.

It only lasts for a little while and it's necessary. You need these trials. You need these sufferings. Peter so firmly establishes that in the letter. How much we need these sufferings to grow up, to be conformed into the beautiful image of Christ.

Listen, if you just want to be left alone and keep looking like you, then desire a life with no suffering. But if you are a little tired of looking like you and understand the gap between your image and this beautiful image of Jesus Christ, then you need the sufferings. And not only will you not despise them, you'll welcome them. Because it means you stand a chance of growing. Listen to what Paul, here's another overlap between Paul's teachings and theology and Peter's.

Listen to what Paul writes in Romans 8 verse 18. Romans 8 verse 18, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The heap is not worthy to be compared with these dinky sufferings. Or 2 Corinthians 4, 17. In 2 Corinthians 4, 17, Paul writes for our light affliction, which is, but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Now listen, if I wrote that, you might skim over the top of it and wonder if I knew what I was talking about. But Paul is the man who has been stoned and left for dead. The man who has been shipwrecked. The man who has been repeatedly beaten. And this man says, for our light affliction.

Because Paul, like Peter, is able to look at the heap of blessings that flow from the gospel and say, this is just present, this is light. Our light affliction which is but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Number three, Paul warns us that not all suffering is created equal. Excuse me, Peter. Keep saying Paul.

Number three, Peter warns us that not all suffering is created equal. So you have this theme that is pervasive in the letter and it's suffering. But Peter keeps saying that not all suffering is created equal because he doesn't want us to think wrongly. He allocates a portion of chapters 2 and 3 and 4 to say the same thing, that there is suffering for righteousness and there's suffering for being an idiot and they shouldn't be confused. Okay, so he took time to say that in three separate places.

Chapter 2 he says it, Chapter 3 he says it, Chapter 4 he says it. What does he say? It's good to suffer for righteousness. It's good to suffer for Jesus' name. But it's not good to suffer for being an idiot.

For your own faults and for your own sins. And don't confuse the two. Don't you dare suffer for being an idiot, for being a sinful man or woman, and then act like you're a martyr for the Gospel. Not all suffering is created equal. These things are not to be confused.

Sometimes you suffer because you're Christ-like and that's good and you ought to glory in that suffering for looking like Jesus Christ. Sometimes you suffer because you look nothing like Jesus Christ. And how you relate with other people, how you speak, and how you conduct yourself, and you're just beaten for your faults. And there's no glory in that. Number four.

Number four. This is it. This is the big one. Peter gives us the big picture and then he shows us how the little pictures fit into the big picture. Peter has done that for us and this is a gift.

If Peter gives us one gift on a silver platter it's this. He paints the big picture. He shows us what life is about and then he shows how the component parts of life fit into the big picture. And he did this in that section that we memorized, chapter 2 verses 4 through 10, where he says this is what God is doing. People of God, this is what your God is doing.

Chapter 2 verses 4 through 10. God has given a living stone, a chief cornerstone, a stone of such beauty and size and scope that you can build an entire temple on it. It'll bear the weight of an entire temple. And then others come to this living stone, and they become living stones. And out of them, God is building up a spiritual house.

He's building a spiritual temple so that spiritual sacrifices will be offered to him so that these spiritual stones that have come to the chief cornerstone and derive their life from the chief cornerstone will proclaim the praises of him who brought them out of darkness into his marvelous light. That They'll live to the glory of their God. That gaining life through this chief cornerstone will cause them to just think nothing of investing the rest of their lives so that this glorious God will receive what to do him. They'll pour out their lives so that he will be glorified. And suffering is a little picture that fits into this.

We've not just been told to suck it up and grin and bear it. We've been shown what God is doing. He has glorified a chief cornerstone that will bear the weight of the entire structure. And then he's taking these other living stones and he's building a spiritual house so that spiritual sacrifices will be offered so that God will be glorified. And suffering is just a picture.

It's just a little piece that fits into that. And Peter says Christ is the model. Look how he suffered. Look where it led. And Peter said that a bunch of times in his letter.

People of God do this like Christ did. People of God do that like Christ did. People of God do this like Christ did. People of God do that like Christ did. People of God do this like Christ did.

Peter keeps lifting up Jesus Christ as the example, as the model. And certainly suffering is the linchpin of that. It's the hinge on which everything revolves. The greatest victories come through sufferings. How do we know that?

Because the greatest victory was won at the cross. Jesus Christ's greatest victory was obtained through suffering. This is what God is doing in the world. Our daily conduct is also a little picture that fits into this big picture. It's meant to be that our daily conduct would be such that God would get glory from onlookers.

In other words, there are always onlookers to the people of God. People always want to know whether this is real or false. And so they look at the lives of the people of God. And so it matters how Christian citizens relate to their governors. And it matters how Christian slaves relate to their masters.

And it matters how Christian wives relate to their husbands. And it matters how people in a local church relate to their elders. They are to offer submission. Why? Because the authorities are worthy of submission?

No. Sometimes they are, and sometimes they aren't. But in either case, the onlookers will glorify God if they see that we're willing to take up our cross and follow our Lord. That's why it matters. Because the onlookers need to see that we are a transformed people so that God will be glorified.

This is the big picture. This is how our conduct and how we relate to our mayor relates to the big picture of a holy temple being built up. Onlookers need to see that we are a transformed people. Number five, finally, lastly, If you were only familiar with the gospel Peter, this Peter would be unrecognizable. If You were only familiar with the gospel Peter, the Peter that appears in the gospels.

The impetuous Peter. The prideful Peter. The sometimes violent Peter. The fantastic victory followed by horrendous defeat Peter. If that was the only Peter that you are familiar with, this Peter, first Peter, Peter, would be unrecognizable to you.

This letter should be such an encouragement to every soul that is discouraged with their sanctification. Be of good cheer, brothers and sisters. God is able to finish every work that he starts. So he can take a volcano Like Peter, like Peter of the Gospels, and turn him into a careful, tender spiritual father, like we see in 1 Peter. If you are in Christ, In spite of all your weaknesses and all your sins, God is able to finish all the works that he's begun.

Be encouraged. Come to 1 Peter and see what a careful, tender, spiritual father we have and know that God is able to work in your life and give you progress. Not because you're smart and steadfast, but because He's a faithful God who loves His people. We can cast our care upon Him because He cares for us. Let's pray.

Father, I thank you for this precious letter. I pray that you would continue to press the truths of 1 Peter on our hearts. Let us feed. Let us feed at this feast for many weeks and months to come. We thank you for the beauty of your word.

We pray that you would help us to grow. In Jesus' name, Amen.