Stand Firm in the True Grace of God

11.08.20//Centralia FBC//Pastor Chris Baker

Good morning, church! Please turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter 5. This will be our last sermon from 1 Peter and I hope you’ve gained as much from our time in this letter as I have.

Next week, we’ll transition into something new and I’m really excited about it. Typically, we practice consecutive exposition here. That means we work our way through books of the Bible just as we have with 1 Peter for the last 5 months or so.

Occasionally, though, we’ll take a step back and look at what the Bible has to say about specific issues. Earlier this year we refreshed our view of the mission and vision of a local church.

For the next four weeks we’re going to look at the truths that bring us together as a local church. What does it mean to be a part of the FBC Family? Why do we make such a big deal out of membership? Well, the short answer is because we believe the Bible does, but all too often in church we assume truths rather than teach truths. So, we’re going to spend some time looking at the Biblical basis for the idea of church membership, our membership covenant specifically, our statement of faith, and our purpose as a local church. I’m excited about it and I hope that you are, too.

But, I’m even more excited about Peter’s words for us this morning. Take a look with me if you will at 1 Peter 5:12-14. This is the Word of the Lord:

Read

12 Through Silvanus, a faithful brother (as I consider him), I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it! 13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son. 14 Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ.

Pray

I’m a sucker for great movie speeches. Motivational speeches in particular. And the cheesier they are, the more I like them. Call it a side-effect of my day job, maybe.

Fight and you may die. Run, and you’ll live...at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days, from this day to that, for one chance – just one chance – to come

1 back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they’ll never take our freedom! - William Wallace (Braveheart)

If we don't come together, right now, on this hallowed ground, we too will be destroyed, just like they were. I don't care if you like each other or not. But you will respect each other. And maybe,I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men. - Herman Boone (Remember the Titans)

This day does not belong to one man, but to all. Let us together rebuild this world, that we may share in the days of peace. - Aragon (Lord of the Rings: Return of the King)

It doesn’t matter how corny they are. When I hear those speeches I get fired up. But they don’t hold a candle to these two simple sentences:

I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!

This is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it. Peter doesn’t leave any room for us to doubt his purpose for writing. One of my least favorite parts of high school and college was reading some obscure literary work and sitting in class guessing at the author’s intent for writing. We know what the author said, but what did he or she really mean?

Those things drove me nuts. Peter is much more up front. He gives us a thesis statement right here at the end of the book. Why is he writing? To encourage and to testify. To encourage the churches in Asia Minor, to testify to the true grace of God, and to challenge them to stand firm in it.

That’s our outline for today. Peter’s purpose is to encourage and testify. His challenge is to stand firm.

Stand firm in the true grace of God. I saw on a commercial this week that you can spend $40 and a televangelist will send you a little magic 8-ball looking device where you press a button and it’ll play a recording of the televangelist saying some vague, flowery encouragement. No gospel, just vague flowery encouragement.

Church, if you find yourself in need of encouragement or motivation just write the last part of 1 Peter 5:12 down somewhere in every room of your house and you’ll find encouragement everywhere you go.

I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you and to testify that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it!

We’re going to look at Peter’s encouragement, Peter’s testimony, and Peter’s exhortation in just a minute. Peter’s encouragement, His testimony, and His exhortation.

2 But first, let me make just a couple of quick points about this passage. There are some things in these closing verses that aren’t the main point, but they’re still helpful.

A Faithful Brother

Peter says that it’s through Silvanus, a faithful brother he has written. Well, you ask, did Peter write it or did Silvanus? Yes.

It appears Silvanus served as Peter’s amanuensis, or secretary for lack of a better word. Peter dictated the words and Silvanus wrote them down. Peter may have even taken the pen at this point and written these last few words in his own handwriting so that the folks who knew him could testify to its authenticity.

Paul was in the practice of doing just that. 2 Thessalonians 3:

17 I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand, which is an authenticating mark in every letter; this is how I write.

But, there’s a principle at work here more important than who is holding the pen. We need to be reminded here that Peter wasn’t going about his work of encouragement and testimony alone.

He calls Silvanus a faithful brother. We don’t know with certainty who this man is, but most scholars believe the Silvanus of 1 Peter and the Silas of Acts 15-18 to be the same person. He’s also mentioned in 2 Corinthians 1 and both letters to the Thessalonians.

Silas is a shortened form of Silvanus. Silvanus means ‘of the woods’ or ‘of the forest.’ (https:// biblehub.com/topical/s/silvanus.htm)

Peter’s Greek name was Petros— a stone. Some people think the Bible is hard to understand, but here we’ve been studying a letter written by Rocky and Woody about how to live a life that testifies to God’s true grace, if that doesn’t resonate here in Missouri I don’t know what does.

Peter didn’t go about his work alone. He surrounded himself with other faithful believers with the purpose of going about God’s business. He also mentions Mark down in verse 14. And look at the affection he shows him. My son, Mark. Greet one another with a holy kiss. The Bible calls us constantly to run toward one another as we run toward Christ. I won’t spend too much time here because we’ll see this a lot over the next few weeks. For now, I’ll simply as, church, who has been your faithful brother or sister this week?

Who have you prayed with? Who have you stood shoulder-to-shoulder with and done the work of the gospel ministry? We’re in a time where we can’t do some of the things we used to do and we’re missing some folks still due to the COVID pandemic. Have you checked on any of those people this week? 3 Jesus Himself didn’t even go about this life alone. If Peter needed faithful brothers around, so do we. I encourage you to find them this week. Find them in Sunday School, or in one of our small group studies, find them in your neighborhood. Did you know we have a strategic evangelism plan for your neighborhood? It’s you. We have folks living in every corner of this town. And no larger than our town is, you’re going to have a church member living pretty close. If you team up and begin to pray for your little chunk of our city, pretty soon you’ll see change.

Find a faithful brother.

We have a faithful brother and a chosen sister in this passage:

A Chosen Sister

13 She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings

I’d love to tell you who ‘she’ is here, but the truth simply is that we don't know. Most scholars seem to agree that Babylon was early Christian code for Rome. We seem to see that in the book of Revelation as well.

In authoritarian states like the Roman empire, you can’t speak openly against the government, so you’d use a code like this. That means the most probable interpretation is that the group of Christians in Rome sent their greetings through Peter.

Others argue for a literal interpretation of Babylon here and that the ‘she’ was probably Peter’s wife. (https://wacriswell.com/sermons/1960/the-power-of-satan/)

More important, though, than identity here is the phrase ‘chosen together with you.’ Whether this was another congregation or another person, it’s a great reminder that while God has many people in many places in many congregations, all who hold to the true faith are here for the same reason.

Thinking about the implications of this passage over the past several days has convicted me that we need to pray more for the churches and the Christians around us. We’re not the only church in town. We would have some significant disagreements on theological issues with several of our sister churches here in Centralia, but they hold to the core tenets of salvation by grace alone through faith alone on the basis of Christ alone to the glory of God alone as taught with final and decisive authority by Scripture alone.

We should want the churches around us that hold to that standard to thrive! In fact, we should want more churches in our town! I acknowledge that on the surface that sounds insane. But, hear me out. There are 4,000 people in town and another couple of thousand in the outlying areas of Centralia depending on where you get your metrics from.

4 When we surveyed local churches, we found that all the churches we talked to combined for an average attendance of less than 2200. That means if all the churches around us, healthy and unhealthy, double in size today that we still wouldn’t reach all of Centralia with the gospel. We need more churches. It’s one of my hopes that sometime down the road God will raise up people from our church to plant a new church in our town as it continues to grow.

But today, we can pray for the churches around us because they are chosen together alongside us for the same purpose.

We should have faithful brothers and chosen sisters alongside us doing the work of standing firm in the true grace of God. That’s what Peter calls us to in the main portion of this text.

Let’s look at it now. He states his purpose for writing is first to encourage.

Peter’s Encouragement

I have written to you briefly in order to encourage you

If nothing else, I hope our study of 1 Peter has been an encouragement for you. He wrote this letter to God’s people during a confusing time in their lives. They knew deep down they were blessed, but the circumstances of their lives were extremely harsh.

Listen to how he began the letter: (1 Peter 1:1-2)

To those chosen, living as exiles dispersed abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, chosen 2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient and to be sprinkled with the blood of Jesus Christ.

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.

What a word for difficult days! I know some people find comfort in motivational posters with neat pictures and definitions of words like ambition, or change, or success.

But if you're here and you belong to Jesus Christ this is one of the most motivational statements in Scripture.

No matter where you sit in life today, whether the last month has been the most difficult of your life or the most comfortable:

5 In the strongest way possible, Peter has told us: The Lord God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, is behind all of this. God has planned for us to be known as his "elect exiles." And he has done all of this through the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus.

(Helm, David R.. 1 and 2 Peter and Jude: Sharing Christ's Sufferings (Preaching the Word) (Kindle Locations 348-357). Crossway. Kindle Edition.)

Peter writes to a suffering audience. But they're not a lonely audience. Sure, they might be alone. But the entire Trinity is at work in their lives no matter their circumstances.

Sure, they're exiles. Sure, they're refugees dispersed all over the known world.

But the entire Trinity is at work in their lives and has been since before the foundation of the world.

Do you see it?

They've been chosen according to the foreknowledge of the Father, they're being sanctified by the Spirit, and they've been covered by the blood sacrifice of the Son.

None of us would have planned the last 6 months the way they went down. Some of you wouldn't have planned the last 2 years of your life to go down the way they did. And I know a lot of you suffer greatly every day.

I hope you find comfort and hope in these verses knowing that God chose you, God has placed you in these circumstances temporarily, and He hasn't left you alone in them. He's going to sustain you through it until the day you're no longer in exile.

So take heart. Be encouraged. Christians are those who are chosen by God and called to live in this world.

That’s Peter’s encouragement and we’ve seen it reflected all over these 5 chapters. Now let’s see his testimony:

Peter’s Testimony

He said he has written to testify that this is the true grace of God.

That’s the burden of his letter, really the burden of the whole Bible. Isn’t it? The true grace of God, both the exhortation to obedience and the promise of divine assistance, all of it together communicates the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ to us. That’s the freight carried by the Scriptures. This is saying to us,

6 in days when we feel our own resources running thin, this is where the resources of God are to be found— right here.

(https://www.fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/peace-to-all-of-you/)

If we think of this letter as a melody, grace is one of its repeated notes.

1 Peter 1:10

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who prophesied about the grace that would come to you, searched and carefully investigated.

1 Peter 1:13

Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be sober-minded and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 3:7

Husbands, in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker partner, showing them honor as coheirs of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.

1 Peter 4:10

Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

1 Peter 5:5

In the same way, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

1 Peter 5:10

The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, strengthen, and support you after you have suffered a little while.

Grace is the most astounding truth in all of the world.

7 Grace, as Pastor John Piper said, is both pardon so we can survive and power so we can stand. Grace is both the desire of God's heart to treat us better than we deserve and God’s acting on that desire to save us.

(https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/what-is-grace)

And salvation from our own wickedness is something that every human being desperately needs.

God is good. That’s both great news and an insurmountable problem for humanity. God has all the power, all the authority, He is good, and He created the world and put humanity in it as a testimony to His glory.

But, humanity rebelled. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and all their descendants—including you and I— have followed suit. We’ve done evil in God’s sight and because He’s so good, He must punish evil.

Instead of pouring out his wrath on man, though, God instead broke into human history in the person of Jesus Christ who was fully God and fully man. He did not rebel. He was perfectly obedient. He is the rightful ruler of the world, but the world did not receive Him as such. Instead, it rejected and murdered Him. But, He didn’t earn that death. The Bible tells us He died as a substitute sacrifice for everyone everywhere who will ever call on His name for salvation. The Bible calls on all people to repent of their sins and place their only hope in life and death in Jesus Christ. Do that, and you will be saved.

That is grace. Not something we earn, something God gives. Jerry Bridges wrote it well:

Grace stands in direct opposition to any supposed worthiness on our part. To say it another way: Grace and works are mutually exclusive.

As Paul said in Romans 11:6, “Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.”

Our relationship with God is based on either works or grace. There is never a works-plus-grace relationship with Him. Furthermore, grace does not first rescue us from the penalty of our sins, furnish us with some new spiritual abilities, and then leave us on our own to grow in spiritual maturity. You are saved by grace and you walk daily in grace. Paul said,

“I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. ” (Philippians 1:6).

(Jerry Bridges,Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love)

One of my favorite illustrations of grace comes from a sermon preached by W.A. Criswell in 1987: 8 He said there were two young men serving the army (in World War II). They were in uniform, and when you’re in uniform and when you are fighting in combat; whether you came from a rich home or whether you came from a poor home; you look exactly alike. One of these young men came from a most affluent family, and the other one was homeless, he was an orphan. And those two young men became steadfast friends as they marched and fought together in the army. They were fighting in the midst of a furious battle. And when the battle was raging, the affluent son took out of his pocket a sealed letter with an address on the front. It was his father’s name and address. He took that sealed letter and laid it in the hands of his friend, and said to him, “If I don’t come back, if I don’t outlive this battle, promise me that you, if you live, that you will deliver this letter to this address and to this man.” The other young man faithfully promised; and after the battle was fought, the affluent young man didn’t come back, he didn’t survive. And when the war was over, his friend took that sealed letter, made his way to the city, made his way to the address, and before a palatial home knocked at the door.

The husband and father and owner of the house came and opened the door, and saw standing there this young soldier. He placed that letter in the hands of his friend’s father. And the father opened it, and read it: “Dear Father, if I don’t come back, I’m asking that you receive this man, my friend, as your own; that he be your boy and your son.” The father flung wide the door, and said to the lad, “For my son’s sake, for my boy’s sake, come in, come in.”

That, church, is grace. And it’s what Peter calls us to stand firm in. Let’s look at Peter’s exhortation from the end of verse 12:

Peter’s Exhortation

Stand firm in it!

We sang this line together earlier: grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.

That was a declaration that we are going to stand firm in it! Peter used a military term here. It meant to hold a critical position on a battlefield while under attack.

During the first Battle of Bull Run during the Civil War, confederate forces were being swept off the battlefield by the charging union army. In a desperate attempt to rally his forces, it’s said that General Barnard Bee pointed to Thomas J. Jackson’s newly arrived brigade as an anchor. He shouted to his men:

“There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” The army rallied around Jackson and his troops and survived the battle.

(https://www.nps.gov/mana/learn/historyculture/first-manassas.htm)

9 Stand firm in the true grace of God when you’re under attack. Remember, Peter has just pointed out that Satan would very much like to destroy you. But, he’s not in control. God is. So, stand firm.

Suffering, submission, trials, pain, all those have been themes of Peter’s letter. But, he doesn’t end there. He ends with grace. He ends on a high note. You’re going to make it! Stand firm! Not because you’re strong, but because He is.

Stand firm because the Holy Spirit guides you. Stand firm because God loves you so much He sent His only son so that you may have eternal life. Stand firm because He has promised to finish the good work He started in you. Stand firm because whatever tomorrow brings, it is filtered through the hand of a good God who loves you.

A fifth century missionary who we only know by the name St. Patrick understood what it meant to stand firm. He was familiar with suffering, but also familiar with grace. We’ll close our time with one of his prayer that have been preserved over the centuries:

I arise today through God’s strength to pilot me: God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to guide me, God’s eye to look before me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s hand to guard me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to protect me, God’s host to save me from snares of devils, from temptations of vices, from everyone who will wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in multitude. https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/668-saint-patrick-prayer

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