2010-11-14: The True Grace of God

Sermon: The True Grace of God
Speaker: Pastor Val Watkins
Duration: 27:24
Size: 12.5 MB

New Life In The Same Old Place
“The True Grace of God”
1 Peter 5:8-14

I. Which Grace?

Grace should neither be a license to sin, nor a foundation for trying to establish our own right-standing before God, based on our good works.

Peter has not only given us a kind of purpose statement or summary statement for the whole letter, but he tells us that what is contained in this letter is, in fact, “the true grace of God”.

II. The Passage: “Standing Firm in the Faith” (5:8-11)

Let’s use three key phrases from verses 8-11 as a means of rewinding back to the beginning of the book, and then forward to pick up one of three main themes.

A. “Be Sober-Minded”: True Grace Results in Living in God’s Holiness (5:8-9a)

Don’t fall into that stupor of living for what will not last and for what ultimately doesn’t matter.

If you have received the true grace of God, are you striving by that grace to live a new life that is all

B. “The Same Kinds of Sufferings”: True Grace Reveals God’s Purpose in Our Suffering (5:9b)

I think our tendency is to believe that the grace of God somehow frees us from pain and suffering in this life.

This kind of purposeful suffering was not only being used by God to test and refine their faith.

The true grace of God reminded them that this path of suffering was taking them exactly where God wanted them to go.

C. “His Eternal Glory in Christ”: True Grace [Continually] Redirects Us to God’s Salvation in Christ (5:10-11)

The only reason Peter can exhort his readers the way he does is because of the radical reality of what Jesus has done.

It was the radical reality of what Jesus had done and would do in accomplishing true salvation that Peter uses to comfort and motivate his readers.

III. Peter’s Closing Remarks (5:12-14)

First, as tensions outside the church translated to tensions inside the church, Peter reminds them of the custom of greeting one another with a kiss that expresses God’s love.

Second, he asks that, in the midst of all the chaos they were enduring, that God’s perfect peace would be theirs.

IV. Your New Life in the Same Old Place

As we leave this book, our prayer should be that God would never let it leave our hearts and minds.

You have been chosen by God in grace, and because of that, you are now an alien in this world system that has turned away from God.