The God of All Grace — Bob Hoekstra

Well, we're going to start our study in 1 Peter, chapter 5. Let's pray together, shall we? Lord, we give you thanks for your great, great goodness, your kindness, your mercy, your love, your truth, your great salvation that we have in Christ.

And Lord, what a position to be in, grace upon grace, goodness after goodness. And we just want to acknowledge, as we go in your word, that you are the author of our salvation. You are our all in all.

You are our life. And we are so delighted to be in Christ Jesus. Lord, as we open your word, too, we want to humble ourselves before you, Lord. Bow down before you. Confess our great, great need for you.

Lord, where would we be without you? How could we ever proceed without you? And we thank you that you give grace to the humble. And we need your grace this day for life, for service, for worship, for true fellowship.

And Lord, we need your Holy Spirit right now to be poured out upon our hearts and minds, giving us insight into things above. And Lord, we give you thanks in advance for what you're going to provide for us through your word.

The God of All Grace in 1 Peter 5

In Jesus' name, amen. Our study is entitled The God of All Grace. And of course, that title comes right out of our scripture, 1 Peter 5 .10. The God of all grace. If we know the Lord or been in any way acquainted with his people in the word of God, we know that grace is related to God.

But it's good to consider in the scriptures that God is the God of all grace, all kinds of grace, all measures of grace. Let's read 1 Peter 5, verses 10 and 11, our scripture for this study. 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. The first issue in these two brief but very powerful verses is a declaration of who God is. Most important statements in all of the scripture actually fall into that category.

Everything God has to say is important. Everything is valuable for life and godliness in our walk and our learning how to relate to him. But there's nothing more important in the word of God than hearing who God is.

I mean, he is the foundation of all reality. He was here before anything else ever existed. And he is the rock of our salvation. He is the king of glory. And here's a great declaration of who God is. He's the God of all grace.

All true grace sources in God himself. Grace, the undeserved work and provisions of the Lord God Almighty for sinful humanity to learn of here on earth below and then to come into his kingdom through that, fellowship and serve him on our way to heaven above.

Our God is the God of all grace. God's grace, it's designed for every issue of life. All kinds of grace we need for all kinds of living that we're called to and all necessary measures. We don't even know how much we understate the presence and need of the grace of God in our lives.

But by his grace, we carry on each day. By his grace, we grow. By his grace, we're fruitful and effective. And we need different kinds of grace poured out for different kinds of opportunities, challenges, impossibilities.

Grace in Initial Salvation

And at times, we need measures of grace beyond what we even can conceive. But God is the God of all that grace. He is the God of all grace. Now, anyone who truly knows the Lord is familiar with the grace of God because that's how you enter into a living relationship with the Lord God Almighty.

Maybe one of the most famous passages on grace in the Bible, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Heaven will forever ring with boasting voices. But the big difference between that and what happens on earth is we'll be boasting in a different object. On earth, people boast about themselves and people and things they like.

In heaven, all boasting will be about the Lord. And it's anchored in his grace. For by grace, you have been saved. No doubt, most of us here in this worship time have been saved. It was by grace. You can't earn it.

You can't deserve it. You can't do as many good things as you can possibly think of to try to counterbalance the wrong. The wages of sin is death. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone needs grace.

By grace, you've been saved through faith. How do you access grace and not turn it into a religious work or performance? Oh, that's so simply declared in the Word. You trust God to apply his grace to your life.

By grace, you've been saved through faith. Romans tells us that faith and grace go together. It's not of works. Trusting God is not a work. Trusting God is actually depending on the work of another. And that other pours out his grace at the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Undeserved by us, cannot be substituted by anything else. By grace, you have been saved through faith. That's our very introduction to grace and to God. And that's how we know that Christians are familiar with grace.

If that doesn't make any sense to you, if that reasoning together with God was baffling, well, that's just a reminder that you haven't started out with the Lord yet. Because it's by grace that you're saved.

The first step of salvation, the first walk and breath in the kingdom of heaven for us is when we throw ourselves upon the grace of God. And this is grace for what you could call initial salvation. But the wonderful thing is that that's just openers.

That's just introduction. That's just getting started. That's just meeting the Lord. He wants us acquainted with that grace the rest of our lives. Have you made this mistake? Started out by grace and now you're trying to proceed by human effort and resolve and promises and vows and pledges.

Renewed and repeated because of many failures. Well, that's not God's way. And I encourage you to search the scriptures on this theme of grace. The Lord grabbed my heart with it about 35 years ago, fairly early in Christian walk and pastoring.

Grace for Christian Growth and Service

And what a jolt it was to me in that season, day after day, week after week, to find grace permeating the scriptures, not just sprinkled on in three or four places. One good reminder of that is that we not only need grace for forgiveness and initial salvation, but we need grace to strengthen us for growth and service.

Remember that great statement in 2 Timothy 2, verse one, you therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now this verse clearly is not about getting saved. It's actually written from apostle Paul to pastor Timothy.

He wasn't suggesting the pastor finally get saved. Obviously Timothy knew the Lord, but he knew what Timothy needed for walk and work and service and that is more grace. The grace that initially saves our soul and washes away our sins.

That grace is described as able to do all kinds of other things as well. And this is one of the great things, strengthen us. The Christian life takes strength. If you don't know that yet, it's probably an indicator you are very recently saved.

If you don't know the Christian life takes strength and I might add strength that you find out you don't have. Oh, wait a minute, I appreciate all that God did for me to bring me into the kingdom of heaven.

And I've been trying to do all I can to serve and please and bless him thereafter. Listen, shift it back just a little. Think of all he did to bring you into the kingdom of heaven. Now think of all he wants to do to develop our hearts and lives and move us on in his will in the kingdom of heaven.

Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Even strength for Christian living and growth and service comes from heaven above. It comes from the throne of grace. The God who rules this universe rules from a throne that he calls in his word in Hebrews, the throne of grace.

And we come there boldly to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He's the God of all grace, all kinds of grace. Grace we've experienced, grace we will need to experience. Grace that perhaps we haven't even imagined yet.

And you know how generally our focus is sort of like, what do I have to do today? And that's the way it is in the world. And it's just hard to comprehend to imagine a kingdom that is not hinging upon our capacity to function and perform, but God's willingness to pour out heavenly, enabling, transforming resource from heaven above.

He is the God of all grace. Yeah, but you don't know what I'm going through. No, but I know this. There's grace to deal with it. So what do you do? Well, better be seeking every day the God who is the source of all of that grace.

The Call to Eternal Glory Through Christ

So a declaration of who God is begins these verses. And then the next statement is the destination he has called us to eternally. The God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus.

The God of all grace, he's called us to come join him now and forever, called us to eternal glory. Makes me think of Matthew 4 .19, one of the many places where Jesus gave the invitation. And you remember the invitation, how personal it was, how relational it was.

He didn't say here are 101 things you gotta perfect before I can have anything to do with you. He just said to broken, guilty sinners like us, he just said, come, follow me. An invitation to a person, you know, come meet me, come partake of what I alone can give you.

This sets the Lord Jesus Christ, his salvation, his kingdom and life in Christ apart from everything else that's on the earth, whether it is secular or religious. All of it falls into one category. What man thinks he can do on his own because you know how the saying goes, you can do it, you know you can, you've got it in you.

What's the problem with that kind of statement? It's untrue, that's the problem with it. God is the one who has it all together. He's the one who can put things together and then hold things together.

No one else can do that. He is the fountain of every blessing. And he called us to his eternal glory. He called us by Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus went out saying, come follow me. And in him there is forgiveness, there is newness of life.

Come, follow me, come walk with me through life. Let me be your Lord and savior. Let me wash away your sins, give you a new life and then direct and guard and guide that life the rest of the way on earth, all the way into eternal glory.

A good question would be always when someone hears that is have you answered the call? And in most gatherings like this, where we come together to worship the true and living God and studying his word, we're doing this because we know the Lord.

We're coming to enjoy his reality together and give him the honor that he is due and minister one to another and receive his word. But have you answered the call? If you haven't, life is still a vain thing.

In fact, without the Lord, it's a tragedy. It's a pointless exercise in futility, but that can all change. That doesn't have to lead to despair and annihilation. That's just to put us on our knees before the cross of Jesus Christ.

Answer his call. Yes, Lord. I want to follow you as my Lord and Savior. Forgive me a sinner. And that call is to his eternal glory. John 17, 24. This call is to his eternal glory. Father, I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world, near the end of the Lord Jesus' ministry upon earth, approaching the cross, then death and burial and resurrection and ascension.

He's praying to the Father that we might be with him and share in his glory forever, be blessed by his majesty and his wonder forever and ever. That's the ultimate end of grace, the purpose, the destination of the message of grace, to prepare people for everlasting glory above.

What a good God. All that is good resides in him. He is love. His love wants people to come on in and know and enjoy these blessings related to the glory of God. So the God of all grace, he's called us eternally to be with himself.

Suffering on the Pilgrimage to Glory

But along the way, the word makes it very clear what our pilgrimage has verified and illustrated. There will be suffering along the way. And that's the next statement in these two verses. The sufferings we experience along the way from here to glory.

See that? After you have suffered a while. Some translations say a little. Though when you're suffering, that while seems like a lifetime. That little, it seems so enormous. You can't even describe it, it's so big.

Well, the Lord knows that. No one suffered like the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. The world, the devil against him, the religious establishment against him. Hell itself wanting to destroy him.

The Lord Jesus Christ knows what sufferings are and God just in his omniscience, he knows it all, he understands. This planet is a place of suffering. You cannot live on a planet that is in enmity with God.

Where people start out rebels against God. They want to build their own little kingdom where they're in charge and they get all of the glory. And then everybody is vying for that position and getting in each other's way, you know?

And it's a planet of wars from people to people to people groups to other people groups to philosophies and perspectives. Not to mention the war that rages just in the mind of everyone on this planet.

There's a lot of suffering after you have suffered a while. First Peter is quite a book about suffering. And it's evident there that some of the suffering we go through, we directly instigated ourselves, you know?

We suffer from being rebellious or foolish or careless or ignoring God and his ways. But there's a bigger theme in First Peter about suffering than that. That kind of suffering can diminish as we come to know the Lord and grow in his wisdom and grace and let him take charge of our lives.

That kind of suffering where we've just played the fool and tasted the consequences, that can diminish, thank the Lord. But there's another kind of suffering that is going to be here throughout our pilgrimage.

And in a sense, the more godly we walk, the more the measures of that kind of suffering. Suffering for righteousness sake. It was the kind of suffering that Jesus underwent. He never suffered for doing wrong.

He never did wrong. He did suffer for our wrongs. And he also suffered for righteousness sake. He suffered because he did right. And after you have suffered a while is the picture in view here in this amazing verse.

The God of all grace, who's called us to enter into the glorious things of himself and his kingdom, he has something he wants to do in our lives, but it's described here as happening after you have suffered a while.

How is it that suffering could facilitate, could help prepare the way for the Lord to do a work of grace in our lives in an ongoing manner? Well, think of James 4 .6. God is opposed to the proud. Opposed to the proud.

Not just won't accept the proud or is disinterested in the proud or anything like that. But opposed to the proud. He knows that pride is an abomination. That pride is an intrusion into the arena of the glory of God.

He knows that pride is destructive. So he opposes those who take a prideful posture, position or path. He just opposes, why? To convince us. This is not the way to go. No. This is not God's way. There's trouble ahead.

Pride goes before what? A fall. Pride goes before destruction. God is a giver and a builder. He doesn't want our lives destroyed. So he just opposes that. Makes that path harder and harder to proceed in.

Why? To humble us. To humble us. To cause us to stop and say, I've been serving myself by my own means for my own glory and my own will and purposes. And I see that is dishonoring to God and destructive in my life.

Lord, I renounce that. I bow before you to confess my great need. God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Grace isn't something you learn. It's something you admit you desperately need.

God gives grace to the humble. Few things are as humbling as suffering. Most of us gathered right now have probably suffered considerably in our lives. Looking around, it'd be astounding to imagine that there's anyone here who has not suffered deeply and painfully and repetitively.

I know I would certainly put myself in that list. Suffering is not a strange thing. Suffering is normal in a fallen world. But suffering can do a great work in our life. It reminds us of our desperate need for God.

It gets us into painful, uncomfortable situations where we cry out from the depths of our being in a way that we never prayed before, no doubt. What does that lead to? The grace of God outpoured. God gives grace to the humble.

Say, well, I need a lot of grace and it's not happening. Just bow before the Lord. Humble yourself before the Lord. How do you do that? Just agree with everything you read that God says about you. That'll take care of it.

That'll handle it right there. Just let God describe you in and of your own flesh, yourself apart from Christ. Just whatever he says, just amen, Lord, that's me. Therefore, I'm needy. And God gives a lot of aids along the way, assistance in this humbling process.

We get a lot of opportunity to humble ourselves before the Lord. Anytime in the Word, just things to say, oh yeah, that's me, amen, I need you, Lord. And then you look at your own pilgrimage and it's got pitfalls and problems and shortcomings and failures.

It's humbling. It's humbling. But it's good to be humbled because God gives grace to the humble and we desperately need grace in our lives. God's the only one who is the source and it can only become ours as it's given to us.

Transferred from the one who has it to the ones who need it but don't deserve it. God has it, we need it, but don't deserve it. He gives grace to the humble. And then this leads to the just very encouraging work he wants to do.

Perfecting, Establishing, Strengthening, and Settling

The next statement in these verses, the related benefits he brings. The God of all grace, he's called us to his eternal glory but along the way there are sufferings. But after you have suffered a while, here's what he wants to do.

He wants to perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. Oh, we need these things. We need to be perfected, established, strengthened, and settled. We need such desperately to be perfected, to be completed more and more to what we are called to be in Christ.

To be more fully equipped, this term means, prepared for service. It's a word that was used to describe mending something that was torn or restoring something that was broken or damaged. Hey, wait a minute, that's me.

That's me. And that's you. And what a great work God wants to do by his grace. He wants to perfect us, to perfect us. He also wants to establish us. Could be translated, ground us securely. To bring a consistency into our lives.

A steadfastness that validates and verifies that we are a child of God and we're looking to him to work in our lives. He also wants to strengthen us. To strengthen us. To endue us with his power and might for the battle that is in this life.

Then he wants to settle us. To settle us. To stabilize us. To take away the fickle and wishy-washy aspects of our thinking, our walking and our talking. These are things God wants to do. And by the way, these are not four projects where to put on a refrigerator with a magnet.

Okay. I need to be perfected, established, strengthened and settled. I'll make this month the project of perfecting myself. There's a problem with that. What is it? The word myself. I'll perfect myself.

No, wrong perfecter. Good idea, good goal. I need to be perfected. Problem, wrong perfecter. You're not gonna get help in the world because it'll be self-help. It's an anomaly to me. It's just astounding to me that the church would become the purveyors of self-help programs.

The terms oppose each other. Self and help. No, wait a minute. Self is not our helper. Self is our destroyer. You know, the self-life. What people can manage on their own or even what Christians can try to do without leaning on Christ, that's called the flesh.

This is not something we can do. Look at the very verse. Now may the God of all grace perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. That's the very structure of the sentence. Just set aside a couple of the other issues mentioned there, the eternal glory and the suffering.

Just the subject and what the subject wants to do. May the God of all grace perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you. Don't send a man to do God's job. And I use that generically. And if it's missed, don't send a woman to do God's job.

Only God can do these things. But this is what he specializes in. If you've known the Lord very long, though the devil may remind you of your failures in your conscience, be convicted with indulgence or disobedience, just look at the big picture.

Is it not astounding what God can do to change a life? I but need a contrast in my mind from early days as a worldling, and then flash decades to here now with Bible open teaching the word of God. Wait a minute, how did this happen?

By the grace of God, by the God of all grace. No other explanation for it. It's too far out to believe. Come on, tell me a real story. That's what my friends would have said when I was 20. Bob, your daddy was a preacher.

Your grandfather was a preacher. You had a great grandfather who was a preacher. Are you gonna be a preacher? And everybody would roar. I didn't know whether to kind of take a cocky stance of I've got my own path or fall down in humiliation.

They got a great kick out of that. And looking back, it was a joke. There are no indicators. You can't hitchhike into the kingdom of heaven on the coattails of beloved friends or family. We have to meet the Lord individually.

God changes lives. He's done that in your life. Yeah, the enemy may try to obscure it with his accusations and condemnations, but if you've known the Lord and ever sought him at all along the way, he has been faithful.

These related benefits that he brings, we desperately need these four things. We cannot find fullness of life without these four realities, but we cannot produce these on our own, and we do not deserve the grace that's needed to see it accomplished, but it's totally available after you have suffered a while.

Look at that phrase, after you have suffered a while. Some of us, many of us, may have had a recent season of suffering or that season isn't quite over. Listen, that's the very framework in which God does his mighty works of grace according to this verse.

May the God of all grace, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. If we're willing to be humbled by the impossibilities of life, God is more than willing to pour out the grace that our hearts desperately need.

God's Glory and Dominion in the Believer's Life

Then the last thing mentioned in these verses, the glory that results from all of this. Verse 11, to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever, amen. Amen means so be it, or one might say right on.

Or when we say it, really we're saying, Lord, may what we heard and read be so in my life. And what is it here? Glory going to God. You know, these things that he develops in our lives, these related benefits, perfecting, establishing, strengthening, and settling, this is his work in us by his grace, especially unfolded as we are humbled and recognizing our desperate need.

Faith is not, you know, puffing yourself up. I can do this Christian thing. I can do this Christian thing. That's just a balloon of the flesh. The truth is God can do these things in me. I desperately need them.

I'm going to be seeking and trusting him to work this way. And then he comes through, he's faithful, he's able. No wonder it closes this thought with, to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

This only makes sense. He's the one that's doing this. It's by his grace. It maybe even took some suffering for us to get to the place to cry out, Lord, help. But he does help all who call upon him. So it's only right if he's the one doing these things in our lives, he's the one who should be getting the glory and the honor and have the dominion, you know, the acknowledgement that, Lord, you're in charge.

And that's the way I want to think and live in line with your word. These works of God in our lives as we humbly cry out and depend upon him are a demonstration of his character and his work. So may all glory go to him as he's doing it in our lives and forever after in heaven above.

Depending on God Rather Than Self

Just a thought or two in reflection on these two great verses. Do notice from the very verse itself, these are matters God wants to do and that we need God alone to do. What do you do in a position like that?

When what you need can only be done by God? You know what you do? You seek God. You seek the Lord. You confess the truth to him. That's what faith is about. Faith is not some power in itself that you just flip on, you know, and you faith a situation and, you know, zap, there it goes.

Faith is a dependency in relationship upon the living God. And by the way, these verses cry out again like the entire Bible does that life is about a relationship with the Lord. But these are not religious regulations.

This is a declaration of who God is and what he is ready to do. How do we connect with that? We trust in the Lord who is declared as the God of all grace and is even willing to use the sufferings of our life to prepare our heart in humility, to lean on him, to look to him, to count on him, to call upon his name, to perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.

Ephesians 2 .10, we are his workmanship. We're not a self-help product. We are his workmanship. And then again, just a reminder of the particular seasons when this comes forth in fruitfulness in our lives after we have suffered a while.

No one enjoys suffering. And the Lord does not allow or lead us in the path of suffering carelessly or casually. It's from the heart of a loving God who wants to work deeply in our lives. Stirring compassion for others, yes, you really grow in such compassion for the suffering when you are a sufferer.

But this is about our personal relationship with God. Think of the things that we may be suffering through right now or recently. You know what that says? Taken in light of God's Word and responded to Him according to His Word, being humbled by it and crying out to Him to work in our lives, that means we could all be facing a season of some tremendous spiritual fruit.

Well, let's pray to the Lord about that, shall we? Lord, we are so thankful that we know the God of all grace. And Lord, we're learning day by day, year by year. We need that grace more desperately than we ever imagined at the first.

And Lord, we pray for one another and the sufferings that are going on even now. May we bow before You in acknowledgement of need, be humbled by these agonies and just lean on You, cry out to You, count on You, hope in You.

Lord, do Your work, transforming our lives into the image of Your Son, our Lord and Savior. And we thank You that it's gonna be by Your grace and for the glory of Your grace, in Jesus' name, amen.