True Grace at Work

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time, 7 casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.

8 Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.

9 Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.

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. 11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.

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. 11 To him be dominion forever. Amen.

Introduction: Peter crucified upside down according to church tradition..the way up is down. Glory comes thru suffering. Our life here, in terms of actual outside circumstances, will never be our best life now. It is certainly true that because of our faith in Christ we can have abundant life here, but our best life is yet to come. Sufferings, sickness, misunderstandings, emotional pain and the like are going to be a part of our human experience. The question is not will it take place but how will we respond when it does?

True grace at work in our lives operatively as Christians means that God is sustaining us through our sufferings. We are not just saved by grace, we are sustained by grace thru the power of God. True grace at work is seen in the power to live for Christ in the midst of suffering and trouble. gives the believer some exhortations concerning faithfulness in times of suffering and how God’s grace - the true Grace of God works in us to sustain us.

I. Submit to God (v.6-7)

The submission or humility this passage is calling for reaches back to verse 5. The bible speaks clearly there and states, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” Our relationships inside the church and outside of the church in the world require humility. Without it, it is like trying to run a car engine with no oil. It just blows up. It is pride, not humility that causes us to be offended and to cause offense. Clearly, throughout scripture it is clear that God resists the proud.

Pain Has a Purpose

Verse 6 contains an imperative, a command that is in the passive voice in the greek. Essentially this means that the subject is being acted upon..in this case, literally what is being said is, “Be humbled” or “suffer yourselves to be humbled.” The believers to whom Peter is writing were enduring great persecution and suffering. Peter doesn’t tell them that if they just had more faith their problems and persecution would go away. He doesn’t chastise them and tell them they just aren’t praying hard enough. The bible commands them to submit…to allow God’s purpose in suffering to humble them. The way up is down..we will not enter into heaven floating on beds of ease Peter is saying..Glory is coming, but first suffering.

This goes against the grain of how we are wired to think. When we are suffering or persecuted, we want to rise up. We are taught by our culture and by our sinful human nature to assert ourselves, to aggressively pursue our right. To be tough with circumstances and with people…no one is going to push me around.

, “ 16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

, “ 16 Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day. 17 For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. 18 So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

In the midst of suffering we need to remember:

God Desires for Us To Trust Him

“casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.”

“casting all your cares on him, because he cares about you.”

Three types of people here this morning:

Three types of people here this morning:

Those who are having trials.

Those who are just getting over trials.

Those who are getting ready to experience trials.

, “Man that is born of woman is of few days and fill of trouble.”

“Casting” is the proper term here and it is meant to convey the means whereby as believers we are to humble ourselves. There is a direct connection and relationship in these verses…as we will see with verse 8 as well. But we humble ourselves by submitting to God’s purpose and then casting our worries or anxieties on God. When we are overrun by worries and anxiety we are not living humbly, but rather pridefully because we are saying that the only god we trust is self. Casting these anxieties and worries onto the Lord reveals trust in God and an acknowledgement of his purposes and power.

, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.”

We can trust God with it all. He is able to comfort us in our afflictions. He is able to remove the trouble as well, but even when his plan does not include the removal of our problem, he provides the peace and strength to endure.

and he will sustain you;

he will never allow the righteous to be shaken. We can trust God with it all. He is able to comfort us in our afflictions. He is able to remove the trouble as well, but even when his plan does not include the removal of our problem, he provides the peace and strength to endure.

Jesus said in , “Therefore I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Consider the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? 27 Can any of you add one moment to his life span by worrying? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these. 30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t he do much more for you—you of little faith? 31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God,o and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. 34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

II. Resist the Enemy (v.8-9)

II. Focus on God’s Principles (v.8-9)

Verse 8 begins with, “Be sober minded, be alert.” The Christian must not walk passively through life. We must be vigilant because we have a real adversary.. an enemy who desires to destroy our faith. The word “devil” literally means an accuser or a slanderer.

The Enemies Tactics

“Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.”

The enemy does persecute us. Physical persecution is clearly what is in view here. The text is not referring to political situations, job situations or financial situations. The forces of Satan are warring against us, as they were against the Christians in the 1st century when these words were written. Christians were enduring great suffering and persecution. The goal of the enemy was to cause Christians to depart from the faith. The word

The word picture used by the bible describes our enemy as a “roaring lion” - the fear that is induced by the roar of a lion is real…I can only imagine what it must be like in the jungle to hear the roar of a lion. This is exactly one of the enemies tactics - to induce fear in the hearts of God’s people. Intimidation thru suffering. Devour carries the idea of victory.

By way of further application - the rest of scripture is clear that this enemy works without and within us..in the sense that because we live in a fallen world and we also still possess a sinful nature within. The flesh wars against the spirit…and we give in to often to fleshly desires or emotion. This is a tactic of the enemy as well. This can cause problems in our relationships, even between brothers and sisters within the church.

Vance Havner states that one of the lies the enemy whispered in his ear was that “if you stay child-like and humble you are going to get run over by a steamroller.”

Vance Havner states that one of the lies the enemy whispered in his ear was that “if you stay child-like and humble you are going to get run over by a steamroller.”

, “What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?”

In our Christian fellowship, what can be more depressing than to find a professed Christian defending his or her supposed rights and bitterly resisting any attempt to violate them? Such a Christian has never accepted the way of the Cross. The sweet graces of meekness and humility are unknown to that person. Every day he or she grows harder and more acrimonious, trying to defend reputation, right, ministry, against imagined foes.

“In our Christian fellowship, what can be more depressing than to find a professed Christian defending his or her supposed rights and bitterly resisting any attempt to violate them? Such a Christian has never accepted the way of the Cross. The sweet graces of meekness and humility are unknown to that person. Every day he or she grows harder and more acrimonious, trying to defend reputation, right, ministry, against imagined foes.Is there a cure for this? Yes! The cure is to die to self and rise with Christ into newness of life!” - AW Tozer

Is there a cure for this? Yes! The cure is to die to self and rise with Christ into newness of life!

The Necessity of Active Faith

“Resist him” - this verb in the greek is in the active and imperative form..it is an action word - not passive. We must resist the enemy - or stand against and be in active opposition to him. This active opposition is accomplished by faith - we cannot defeat the enemy on our own.

, “Submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

“if he is consciously resisted, in submission to God, the devil cannot fight back and must flee the attack that is our resistance to him. How do believers know that he is present? Wherever envy and selfish ambition are present in the conflicts and quarrels of the body of Christ, the devil is there.” - Kurt Richardson (New American Commentary, James)

Encouraged by Fellow Believers

if he is consciously resisted, in submission to God, the devil cannot fight back and must flee the attack that is our resistance to him. How do believers know that he is present? Wherever envy and selfish ambition are present in the conflicts and quarrels of the body of Christ, the devil is there.

“knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.”

The tendency is for us to believe that we are “Lone Rangers” - that no one cares and no one understands.

III. Remember God’s Providence

“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 for a little while.”

The bible here in is not promising some kind of earthly reward (i.e vengeance on enemies, job promotion, financial security, physical healing, etc.) for faithfulness. The bible has the end in mind here. That God’s promise is final vindication in eternity. Verse 6 is helpful to remember - the proper time for reward or exaltation is God’s time - not ours. In the end, God is going to make all things right - all things new and complete.

True grace at work in our lives is seen in being faithful to Jesus Christ and living in community with God’s people even in the midst of suffering. The enemy wants to distort the gospel by frightening God’s people and luring them away from the faith.

, “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.”

Suffering is real, but God’s grace is stronger. Suffering is temporary, glory is eternal. This glory eternally is possible because of Gods’ grace. The promises of verse 10:

Restoration

Establishment

Strength

Support

Conclusion:

True grace at work in our lives is seen in being faithful to Jesus Christ and living in community with God’s people even in the midst of suffering. The enemy wants to distort the gospel by frightening God’s people and luring them away from the faith.