Published: August 30, 2026 | Speaker: Mark Freitag | Series: 1 Peter - Part 49 | Scripture: 1 Peter 5:10-11
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beginning a conclusion to his letter. This these two verses in chapter 5 do summarize the letter and its intent. In the words of one of the commentators
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with the assurance that the outcome of our life rests more on God's power and grace than on our labors.
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God in verse 10 stands over against that adversary we met last time in verse 8. The God of all grace stands against that adversary, the devil in verse 8. The God
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of all grace, the one who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, stands against, your adversary, the devil, who roams
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around seeking whom he may devour. God is the source of all grace and mercy. And there's is divine comfort in these
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words, even for us who do not deserve Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, "Blessed be the God and father of our
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Lord Jesus Christ, the father of mercies and the God of all comfort." It's the God of all grace.
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And the grace to me means that God is the possessor and the giver of all grace. that that there is something
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more than just an abstract term, the grace of God. There's there's a power here. There's an activity here.
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And when I think of the God of all grace, what came to my mind was that scene that Corey Tenboom writes in her book, The Hiding Place.
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Corey and her sister were imprisoned in one of the notorious concentration camps, Ravensbrook, during World War II, and they were imprisoned for hiding the
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Jews from the Nazis. But it's that poignant scene where a dying Betsy whispers to her sister Corey,
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"There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still." It it conveyed to Corey and her time of
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need as she watched her sister die from the cruelty of her capttors. It conveys hope and ita conveys the promise of
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God's presence to enable them to persevere until the end even in the darkest circumstances. darkest circumstances. And that's where these people are.
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They're in the midst of social and this is how Nenty Wright he puts these swwords together social suspicion social shame slander stigma.
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And so if I might take Bets's phrase in this context, this context, there is no suffering so great that God's grace is not greater still.
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And look at what that grace has already done. He has called you to his eternal glory in Christ. Calling in the Bible is God's effective
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work by which he draws people into a saving relationship with himself. So it's the grace that calls.
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And the theologians go back and forth on these things. the one who called you in Christ to his eternal glory. Does the in Christ
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go with the glory or does it go with the calling? Well, in Christ may go with the glory because only those in Christ are going to glory. And the in Christ may be
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going with the call because God's saving call is only effectual in and through Christ.
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In either case, we get this knowledge that we cling to. In the words of the apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5,
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Thessalonians 5, faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass. See is a bedrock on which we stand. It's the calling of
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God to the glory eternal. That state is being accomplished by the suffering that was accomplished by the
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sufferings and resurrection of Christ. Again in chapter one, Peter tells us the the the salvation,
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the the thing that we have and we hold and we look forward to. The the prophets made careful searches and inquiries seeking to know the sufferings of Christ
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and the glories to follow. Always the suffering first and then the glories. But but here it is. Peter is saying, I'm I've presented this before you
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and you've been called to that eternal glory in Christ. It it means a new realm, a a new state of being be eternal. And and we go back again to chapter one and he talks about the all
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flesh is like grass. The grass is withering. We we're in that grass withering stage of of our lives. Now he says it now for a little while in
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again in chapter one a little while you have been distressed by various trials but the end stage is fully secured and insured. He's
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already told us in chapter one, an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.
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These things he doesn't want us to forget the the foundation of his letter. And now he's saying yes, you can stand firm in these things.
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Again the apostle Paul echoes these things or you know just these are the teachings of the church and those whom he predestined he also called and those
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he called he also justified and those he justified he also glorified. Thi this is the work of God. This is what he's doing. This is redemptive history.
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And so Peter says after you've suffered a little while the entire interval between now and when the glory commences that great getting up morning
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and we know that the references in of suffering in Peter are are general they they vary to their extent their severity and and even the kind of suffering
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they're varying from place to place year to year to year generation to generation. And yet the message is the same to us.
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Again, Paul, we do not lose heart. For momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not
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at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
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eternal. Yes, Peter deals with the esqueatological looking at the end, but as one scholar put it, he puts all of today's realities in their perspective
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of eternity. of eternity. And as we try to process this, the temporal to the eternal, the eternal, that word we just cannot fully grasp.
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Don't miss this. Peter writes Peter writes for a little while and then the God of all grace who called you to his eternal
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glory in Christ will himself. God himself will. He says I I I guess my thought was if you get
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nothing else remember those three words. God himself will. He is the one who initiated our salvation. He's the one who secured our salvation by raising
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Jesus Christ from the dead. He is the one who will complete what he has
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Our calling to glory is not in doubt. It's not to be questioned as if we have to wait and see if it's going to be sure. There are a lot of exhortations in Peter
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as the rest of scriptures. Exhortations to vigilance, endurance, resistance, as we've already seen in chapter 5. But they're not intended to cause believers
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to wonder whether they will actually receive what has been promised. But on the other hand, it's not the old tired phrase that is wrong. Let go and
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let God. let God. God uses exhortations to provoke faithfulness to to stir up into us a desire to
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endure. But he does provide the strength to carry out the exhortations. And that's where I think Peter is resting here in these verses.
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But be careful because grace does not cancel exhortations. cancel exhortations. The exhortations are the means God uses to secure his promises.
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But some of you may be wondering, I read it the verse 10 from the New American Standard. Let me read it again. After you have suffered a for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to
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his eternal glory in Christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. establish you. Is be Peter speaking only of the
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eternal? Is he viewing life only from that escatological perspective? escatological perspective? Does he not relate these word? After a little while when you've suffered, then
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God will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Is he only saying, "Yeah, all of this will be realized in the great buy and buy at
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that great getting up morning." And I don't know about you, but my first thought was the equipping, the strengthening, the establishing. I need
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right now. I need in daily life. I need it as I go through. The the verbs are future. But the participle that is here, the one
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that says who called you is past. And I don't know why the American new American standard doesn't take it. I'm going to read it from literally in the
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order I see from the Greek. And I think it makes more sense to me that there's there's not, well, someday he's going to do that thing, but what do I do now?
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Listen to this. It could be translated, moreover, the God of all grace, the one who called you into his eternal glory in Christ after
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you have suffered for a little while, there's the comma, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
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I don't think we're talking about Peter's wish. I don't think he's wishing that God would do these things. I think he's assuring us that God will do these
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things. And because he cannot deny who he is, he is already doing these things for us. You see it in chapter 1 verse 5. You who
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are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. But you are protected by the power of God.
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Paul says the same thing in Philippians 1, does he not? For I'm confident of this very thing, that God, who began a good work in you, will bring it to
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completion at the day of Jesus Christ. But he's begun that work and he's continuing that work. God himself will do these things.
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As the commentator Jer Karen Job wrote, resources for living today are found in the knowledge of the ultimate end. That's the motivation. That's what we
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look forward to. But you have been caused, Peter has already said, you have been caused to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus
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Christ from the dead. And you are participating in that living hope already now.
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rejection or maybe the scorn you've probably been told ah your religion is just a crutch. They can be endured because God will one
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day put all things right. And this gives us courage and confidence to live today through the little while of suffering.
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Peter uses four verbs here. And I know we have to be, we've been exhorted, be careful with word studies because you can get in trouble. And words can mean more things in different places and
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different contexts. And there are commentators I read who kind of just dismissed this. Well, these are four terms and all they mean is God
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will give us the strength to endure. But to me, it's a it's a little silly. It's like a a Dr. Seuss rhyme
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where you know, oh, say can you say God could strength in all of four ways.
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The words can mean anything. You just have to pray. But before I go on, because I'd think that the words don't mean nothing or
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Peter wouldn't have used them. But before I say that, let me say this. There are four verbs. And and this is this is biblical arithmetic.
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Four verbs equal four promises. But four equals four equals one because it's four verbs, four promises,
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and one complete act for God. And all of these things are giving us a complete picture of what God is doing
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for us. Especially, I mean, the first word he uses, he could have just done that one because I think it it's, as I understand it, complete in itself. God.
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And I'm going to use the phrase because I think it's, you know, it it's implied in the words reading between the lines. God himself will perfect. God himself
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will establish. will establish. And so the first one, God will make us perfect. It's an intensive word, but it can mean three kind of different
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things. But the other night in in Thursday night class, we we looked at the briefly in the first three chapters of Genesis and and those three things, those three
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concepts. In Genesis 1, it's the creation. It's the beginning of redemptive history. In chapter 2, it's covenant. It's the beginning of
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God's covenant with man. In chapter three, it's a beginning of restoration. And all three of those things are wrapped up in this verb that he uses for
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perfect because the the word is coming from a word that you would recognize as artisan. God is a maker preparing and creating
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giving the initial order and shape of something. That's God the maker. And then it could be completing, making perfect, giving further order to what is
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lacking. The the the word means to fit. We we have two or three of these outdoor outfitters in Traveler's Rest. They
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prepare give you all that you need to be outdoors. Well, God is giving you, he is the master outfitter because he is giving you everything you need for life. and
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And thirdly, and I think this is the one that impacted me most often, it means restoring. Not only to put in order, but to make things right,
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putting right what is wrong. When when believers
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suffer because they worship the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, that ain't right. That's not the world that God created. God will make that right. While
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let me just tell you where the word appeared to me to make the most sense. Ephesians chapter 4. When Jesus is pictured as giving gifts to the
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church, he said, "And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to
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the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith." That's that word. He created saints. He's completing saints and
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making them perfect, supplying what they need, outfitting them, equipping them for their ministry, but he's also restoring what they ought to be as individuals and what the church ought to
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be. Because as Paul goes on, he says, no longer being tossed around by every wave of doctrine. That ain't right. Sorry,
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that's not right. And and when they're deceived, we talk about the deceivers, the rebellious, those empty talkers in the church. That's not right. God's going to put
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those things right.
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But Peter goes on, God himself will establish us. He's going to make us strong by giving us a firmed fixed foundation. He's going to make our faith become sight.
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become sight. Our faith is on a rock solid footing. Is it not? Because that rock is Christ. But he's putting us on that footing so we'll be unyielding in the face of suffering.
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And where is that word used? In Luke 22, Peter thought he had it right. Peter on that night that Jesus was
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betrayed when when Judas went out and and he talked about the betrayer. Peter was one of No, no, not me, Lord. And what does Christ say to him? Simon,
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Simon, behold Son, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And you, when you have turned
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again, strengthen your brothers. There's that word, establish your brothers. And and and
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peak ahead to the next book that was referenced already this morning. Second Peter. What does he say to the pe his readers? You have been established in
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the truth which is present with you. The means used to effect this confirmation this establishing is the ministry of the word.
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Peter remembered Peter remembered what Christ the order that he gave him. Strengthen your brothers. He established them by preaching teaching the word.
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And we sang that a few Saturdays ago on that beautiful day. How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord is laid for your
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faith in his excellent word. That's God establishing us because he gave us his word. And not only does he perfect us and God
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himself will establish us, God himself will strengthen us. This is the only place in scripture in the New Testament anyway that this word is used. And I
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just I just take it as a statement that you can take to the bank. It's a divine promise. God himself will strengthen you. So where you're weak, God will
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strengthen you. Where where you fearful, God will strengthen you. Where do you need him most, he will strengthen you.
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And finally, God himself will settle us. It has the idea of being grounded, grounded in love, grounded in faith. It takes us back to that image of the
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living stones being laid on that foundation, that solid rock, and being built into the house of God. You're settled. You're grounded.
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Or as Paul says to the Colossians, can you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast?
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I don't think Peter could help but rejoicing in all these things. And he does. He breaks out in a doxology. And you know what a doxology is? It's a it means an opinion or glory in words
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and expressions. and expressions. And and and Peter, I think the exclamation as he reviews what God himself will do, perfect, establish,
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firm us, empower us, strengthen us. He just couldn't help in his review saying,
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What did Peter glory in? He gloried in God's dominion, his power. And if I think about what it would might have been like,
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I I finished that book of Tom Hollands a couple of months ago, the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome. And it covers about a
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hundred years where where where Rome had established itself as the kingdom. And it established itself by its road
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system, its gardens. It it had a heated swimming pool and it it was a place of beauty and they had renovated the whole
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thing and there was a there was a power that they claimed for themselves.
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But that power was an ironfisted annihilation power. annihilation power. If anyone or anything did not acknowledge allegiance to Rome or at any time put what they thought his
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glory is imperiled, they dealt with that with a swift squash. And Christianity was beginning to be
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seen as a threat to the peace of Rome. But God's eternal glory constitutes his eternal dominion.
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eternal dominion. No power in the universe, no kingdom or king, no Caesar or Roman city can overcome God's eternal and sovereign
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power and purposes. Period. End of sentence. And so Peter's praise is is a confession, but it's also an
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There are words used in scripture for power. The power of God is is seen in the word dunamis. You know, we get our word dynamite, but in it's long after that
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word was used, but you you get this idea that's an inherent power. When you see that explosive, there's inherent power.
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Another word is used is inner GA, which means an operative power, power that's working or exusia, which is a power of
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authority. But this word that Peter uses here this it it's defined as force or strength or might or dominion
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and dominion is strength in action. Dominion is a manifested power. And that's when I think when Peter looks back at the power of grace manifested in
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the lives of believers and in the churches, that's why he can praise and say to him be dominion forever and ever.
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But again, it it it's all of a work. He he's looking back. The word is used in verse six if you remember bring yourself humble yourselves under
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the mighty hand of God. It's used in verse 7 where he he says he cares for you. He he's looking at the
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manifestation of God's power in history that delivers him people from oppression and persecution. and and is he's he's not praying he's not praying that it
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will happen again as our again our English Bible I don't like to him be dominion that seems like a pleading uh Peter is saying
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it's in the indicative tense it it it means the statement is true dominion belongs to him forever and ever that's different because Peter is acknow
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I've seen it. I've felt it. I've lived it. I've touched it. And now I'm establishing you in it.
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And God can accomplish all that he wishes to do because his dominion is forever and ever. And so Peter lets us envision this power
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of grace in action ma manifested in individual lives in the life of the church where we acknowledge God's mighty hand
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and we realize he cares for us and it becomes an announcement to our hearts
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in Christ you will triumph. And he adds the amen. Yes, it's
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Yes, it's verity. It's truth. And it is a solemn seal that I think that Peter stamps on the body of this letter.
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But it can be sterile. Don't let it be sterile. It It's not merely intellectual ascent. To God be the power and the glory.
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But it's an exalted God praising conviction of faith. And I think it also expresses Peter's longing. And I would suggest this ought
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to be our longing and our anticipation and our rejoicing. longing for the day when God's dominion is manifested to all, the living and the
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dead, and anticipating the day when suffering is passed and joy and peace and glory will reign forever. Let us
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pray. And in our praying, I'm going to ask you to stand. And I know that we do not appreciate scripted prayers.
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But this prayer and the doxology, the benediction to follow is authorized by the Holy Spirit. Paul in Ephesians chapter 3. Listen to the prayer for you.
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For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the
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inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the
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saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the
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fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works
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within us. To him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.