Peter's Words of Greeting

Introduction to Peter's Greeting and its Significance

0:03 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, February 8, 1998, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:15 Now may I invite you to turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1, 1 Peter chapter 1.

0:26 I will read the first two verses, the introduction to this letter that we identify as 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied. Well, let us again ask the help of the Spirit of God as we seek to understand this portion of God's holy word. Let us pray. Our Father, we pray in the language of the Apostle that you would give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of yourself. We pray with the psalmist, open our eyes, undress our eyes, that we may behold wondrous things out of your law.

1:41 May it not be said of us as, Was said of so many in the generation of our Lord Jesus, that seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear. O God, give us those blessed eyes that see, those blessed ears that hear. May the appeal of our Lord Jesus find fulfillment in us. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

2:08 O Lord, with Samuel we cry, Speak, Lord. For your servants hear, in Jesus' name. Amen. Now there are many things that we can call amazing and wonderful about the influence of the grace and power of God through the gospel.

2:34 And one of those amazing things about the grace and power of God through the gospel is the way in which God can take things that have been twisted and made grotesque and ugly through the influence of sin and once again make them straight and winsome and beautiful. Many of your lives are a monument to that very fundamental fact. But furthermore, there is another way in which the grace and power of God operates through the gospel that is equally amazing, and that is it can take the things that in common grace are pleasant and attractive, and so overlay them with the dynamics and the realities of God's saving grace that they become an even more beautiful and wonderful thing to the eyes of all who behold them. And the opening words of 1 Peter constitute a vivid example of this second display of the grace of God. In the first century world, it was a commonly accepted practice to write a journal letter with a respectful introduction. And that introduction would generally be comprised of three distinct units of thought.

3:57 The writer would identify himself, so you knew who the letter was coming from. He would then identify the reader, and then would bring a word of greeting, expressing in some way a disposition of goodwill. Well, that was a practice in God's common grace that made life, in the first century, a little more pleasant. When you opened a letter, you didn't get smacked with some weighty news.

4:24 You didn't get confronted with some searching and demanding questions. You could expect that the person would identify himself. He would so identify you that you know you were the right person reading the letter, and you would know that the letter was written in a basic disposition of goodwill. Well, God, by his grace and power, does not set aside that which was in place in his common grace in the first century Greco-Roman world.

4:54 And when we open up our New Testaments, we find, in particular here in 1 Peter, that though Peter is under that unique influence of the Holy Spirit that we heard about in the previous hour, that constituted his written words the very out-breathing of God himself,

5:16 he does not set aside that which was in place in his common grace, but he overlays it with the beauty and the wonder of the revelation of his grace in the person and work of the Lord Jesus. And in, then, the use of this common framework of introduction, rather than setting it aside, it becomes the very crucible within which Peter is able to introduce the most profound realities of the Christian faith, and also to give a preview to his readers then and to us now of some of the major themes that will be developed in the body of the letter. Now, in our opening studies of this introduction to the letter, we noted the identity of the writer, very simply stated, Peter, Jesus Christ's apostle. It is Peter, the rock, the man made what he now was by the grace and power of Christ. The rugged Galilean fisherman, Simon, son of Jonah, now writes as Peter, but not Peter, brother to my fellow believers, though he was that, nor Peter, fellow elder to the overseers in the churches, to which he writes, though he was that.

Identity of the Writer and Readers

6:41 But he writes as Peter, Jesus Christ's apostle. Jesus Christ's uniquely chosen, authorized messenger to bring the very words of God to those to whom he writes. Then we looked at the identity of the readers, or the recipients of the letter, and as we sought to open up the way in which Peter describes these recipients of the letter, we noted he first of all highlights their reception. He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He says, He is writing to those whom he describes as elect sojourners of the dispersion.

7:19 They are God's chosen ones who have been constituted resident aliens in this world, who are part of God's dispersed ones who will be gathered home to himself at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Then he identifies them in terms of their geographical location. They are to be found in these four rooms. The Roman provinces, though five nouns are used, we had occasion to note that one of them refers to one place, and the names are split, most likely because this would be the root that would be followed by the bearer of the letter, but they are found in these four Roman provinces north of the Taurus mountains in what we now would identify geographically as the country of Turkey. And then we considered, thirdly, their foundational spiritual...

8:11 If we ask the question, how have they become elect sojourners of the dispersion, presently dwelling in these Roman provinces, Peter answers with these three prepositional phrases. They are what they are according to the sovereign loving choice and purpose of God the Father. They are what they are according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. They are what they are.

8:41 They are what they are because of the mighty sanctifying influence of God the Holy Spirit in sanctification of the Spirit. And they are what they are because of the subduing and cleansing ministry of God the Son unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. And we must never regard these words as mere filler to ease into the real stuff of the letter. Peter wants these people to know who they are.

9:11 Because in the framework of God's dealings with his people, it is when they know what they are that they are positioned to begin to be what they ought to be and to do what they ought to do. And again and again through the New Testament, the appeals to be and to do are rooted in what is and in what the people of God are. And so he wants these believers scattered through these four provinces. He wants them to know who they are.

The Substance of the Apostle's Desire: Grace

9:41 He wants them to understand who they are and why they have become what they are by the grace of God. Now then we come to the greeting itself. We have looked at the identity of the writer, Peter, an apostle, the identity of those to whom he writes, 1b through the end of verse 2. Now we come in the third place to the greeting itself.

10:10 And the greeting is brief. Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Now in taking up these brief words of formal greeting, we are confronting words that in this specific form and in several slightly different forms are found approximately twenty times in the epistles of the New Testament. The minute you begin to read the epistles, that is the book of Romans, all the way through to the book of the Revelation, it was an epistle sent to seven churches, you will find either in the introduction of those epistles or the introduction and the conclusion words of this precise nature or very similar to this. So that approximately twenty times if you read through the epistles, you are going to confront words such as these, grace to you and peace, or grace and peace to you, grace, mercy and peace. Words of a similar nature some twenty times in the epistles of the New Testament. And why do I state that fact?

11:18 For the simple reason that to understand and to grasp their meaning here is to have a key to unlock their meaning wherever we encounter these apostolic introductory words that we don't pass over them. You see, any serious student of the Bible who says, well over the next six months I'm going to read through all of this. I'm going to read through all of this. And you'll see that if you read through the letters sent to the various churches and individuals in the New Testament at least twenty times you would confront these words.

11:49 God is saying, I want you to understand my disposition towards you and so you could not read long before, oh there it is again. And finish one, oh there it is again. And God then would have us to lay hold of these words which He has deemed important enough to set before us so many times. And as I attempt to open them up in your hearing, consider with me first of all the substance of the Apostle's strong desire for his readers.

12:19 Now why I've used the term strong desires I hope will become evident later on in the unfolding of the message, but we're going to consider first of all the substance of the Apostle's strong desire for his readers. And obviously it's bound up in these two words, grace to you and peace be multiplied.

12:42 Grace. Isn't it interesting that the first word of direct address in Peter's epistle is the word grace. Up till now he has written something about his own identity, Peter, an Apostle of Jesus Christ. But that says nothing directly to his readers.

13:02 Now he says, I'm writing to the elect who are, that says something about his readers. They are elect sojourners of the dispersion. They are living in these provinces. They are what they are according to the foreknowledge of God, sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood.

13:23 But he has not yet said anything directly to them. And the first word any believer would have heard sitting in a congregation when this letter were read in his hearing, the first word anyone would confront to his reading the letter that is a word of direct address to him is the word grace. The word grace. And the word grace used here in this greeting became the common word incorporated into the uniquely Christian greetings of the Apostolic letters.

13:58 There was an ordinary greeting used among Greek speakers at that time, and it is found in the epistle. It is found in our Bibles. If you look at James 1 and verse 1, that ordinary Greek greeting, Kyrene, is used. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus to the twelve tribes which are of the dispersion, here it is, greeting.

14:20 That was the common Greek word of expressing goodwill on the front of a letter. That's what you might say when you met someone on the street. Instead of saying, hi, how you doing? Or as an Australian would say, good-bye, mate.

14:34 You'd say, Kyrene. You would say, greeting. And though it is found here in James 1.1, it's found in the letter that went out from the council at Jerusalem, Acts 15.23.

14:46 And in 23.26, it is found in a secular letter. In 2 John 10 and 11, it's evident that it was still used among people. And John says, you are not to give greeting, that's our word, Kyrene, to someone who is a known heretic.

15:01 You are not to express. That's even the minimal expression of goodwill toward him when he is known to be a heretic. You are to treat him with civility, but you are not to use words that would express goodwill toward him in his parading and in his pandering of heretical teaching. But it was not long before the ordinary Kyrene became the charis, became the grace as the essential part.

15:33 Of the greeting in the Christian community. Well, then you ask, what does that word mean? What would it have conveyed to Peter's readers the first time they read it? What would it have conveyed when it was read in their hearing and they heard it?

15:50 Well, the word grace, charis, in the New Testament is used in a vast variety of ways. And you can take a concordance, you don't need to know a word of Greek, and just look up the word grace. And see all of the ways in which it is used. And it would not be unto edification to go into an extensive categorized word study.

16:10 Suffice it to say that when the word was incorporated into these greetings that are found throughout the epistles of the New Testament. It is clear that the use of the word grace has gathered to itself that dominant emphasis that comes with the coming of the Lord Jesus. And the manifestation. Of the mercy and saving power of God in our Lord Jesus Christ.

16:40 Most of the commentators and linguistic students are agreed that its central significance is that which points to the love of God. Spontaneous, beautiful, unearned. That love at work in Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinful men. That's James Denny's rather.

17:04 Seventh the definition another more briefly grace signifies God's love in action through Jesus Christ on the behalf of sinners grace is God's love in action through Jesus Christ on the behalf of sinners now these attempts to define grace in this way draw their major lines from such passages as Titus 2.0. Titus 2.0.

17:34 And verse 11 for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared and that phrase the grace of God has appeared is pointing to the coming of our Lord Jesus and all that God has made manifested in the person and work of his son grace has appeared that is the disposition that was in God's heart has come to expression in the. The coming of his son the Lord Jesus and not only in the coming of his son but in the salvation which he procured and applied in the previous hour one of the text I had planned to use was quoted Ephesians 2 verse 5 and verse 8 for by grace you have been saved their grace stands for everything that goes into our salvation in Jesus Christ for by grace you have been saved.

18:34 That is God's love in action through Jesus Christ on the behalf of sinners and so in seeking to get a concept of grace that will help us when we come to a text such as this grace to you and peace be multiplied what am I to think about when I encounter the word grace in these apostolic greetings we're to think of grace as the undeserved favor of God as it exists. In his heart together with all the specific gifts which that favor has procured for sinners through Jesus Christ from God's perspective grace is always sovereign and unconditional he exercises grace taking no account of anything in the creature that would draw forth from God's perspective grace is sovereign and unconditional from that.

19:34 In man's perspective grace is undeserved and unsought it comes to the ill deserving to those who deserve just the opposite and it is that grace that becomes central in these apostolic greetings and at times the signing off of the letter is on that grace note as well so that these believers hearing that word would think far beyond the common Greek. I rain greetings. With a disposition of some generic goodwill it is now a greeting suffused and overlaid with all of the glory and wonder of God's free gratuitous salvation in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the word peace grace to you and peace as we look at the substance of the apostles strong desire for his.

The Substance of the Apostle's Desire: Peace

20:35 Readers he desires for them not only grace but peace and here most of the commentators are quick to point out the fact that whereas the spirit of God took the rather bland Greek greeting Kyrene and substituted it with Paris God takes the ordinary Hebrew greeting shallow peace prosperity wholeness and God does not replace it with another word but it is suffused. With a disposition of some generic goodwill it is now a greeting suffused and overlaid with all of the glory and wonder of God's free gratuitous salvation in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. With a disposition of some generic goodwill it is now a greeting suffused and overlaid with all of the glory and wonder of God's free gratuitous salvation in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. With all of the blessed realities that it can only have as it stands next to and flows out of the grace of God for it is never peace and grace but always grace and peace. Now the common Hebrew shallow conveyed the idea of wholeness or prosperity the desire that the one to whom it was spoken might enjoy the blessings of God promise in the covenant.

21:36 In this sense it is obviously used in the Aaronic blessing in Deuteronomy chapter 6 and I would ask you to turn to that for just a moment Deuteronomy chapter 6 sorry not Deuteronomy Numbers chapter 6 Numbers chapter 6 and verse 23 speak unto Aaron and his son saying on this wise you shall bless the children of Israel you shall say to them the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make his face to shine upon you. And be gracious unto you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace and give you peace so shall they put my name upon the children of Israel and I will bless them part of this official pronouncement of blessing by the priest was that of conferring upon the covenant community God's presence God's uplifted countenance.

22:45 God's peace God's own peace that is the promised blessings of his covenantal commitment to his people and now when the apostles pick up this greeting and then use it as well in their farewell there is certainly the idea of wholeness and wellness and prosperity but now it is dipped and soaked in all the realities that have come to us. In the manifestation of the grace of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus when the prophets saw the coming of Messiah this theme of his peace work his making of peace was one of the dominant themes you remember the familiar text often brought to mind that the Christmas season Isaiah 9 in verse 6 she shall bring forth the son the prophet had said in chapter 7 and now in chapter 9 this one.

23:45 Shall be called mighty God everlasting father prince of peace and so when the apostle is opening up themes of the work of Christ both with reference to man's relationship to God and man's relationship to his fellow man in Ephesians chapter 2 he says of Christ for he is our peace and in effecting that peace he says he's broken down that wall that God himself had established. Between Jew and Gentile he is now reconciled both and made of the two one new humanity in Christ and then he says he is reconciled us to himself so the peace was not only the ending of that hostility at the horizontal level but at the vertical level so that it doesn't surprise us when we read through the epistles explaining the significance of the work of Christ that the note of peace comes through again and again.

24:45 And that convenient little term phrase it comes in terms of the peace we have with God and the peace of God that which is objective based upon the work of Christ and is vertical in its significance and then that which is personal and subjective the work of God in us Romans 5 1 being therefore justified by faith we have what peace with God God has no controversy with us in terms of the law which we broke. God can be just and righteous and holy and still declare ungodly sinners righteous in his son we have peace with God but Philippians 4 7 speaks of the peace of God that passes understanding guarding our hearts the cessation of tumult and of internal disruption internal peace the fruit of the spirit is peace. Again.

25:46 Expansive themes we can only point in the direction of them hoping that as you meditate upon them and as you pick up these themes your own mind will be expanded as you read through the scriptures but put yourself now in the place of those elect sojourners of the dispersion there in those provinces up there in what is now turf a letter is to be written that clearly lays out Peter's awareness of their circumstances. He won't be long into the opening paragraph when he speaks of the necessity of their present trials that produce heaviness he will then speak of servants having to be obedient to unrighteous and cruel masters wives who have to live with unconverted husbands people that are being spoken evil about for their well doing he's fully conscious of their trials and their concerns and yet he confronts them in his first words directly.

26:45 To them grace to you and peace be multiplied Hebert one of the finest commentators on this epistle beautifully summarizes the use of these two words and writes grace and peace aptly summarize the basic Christian message grace is the free and unmerited favor of God bestowed upon guilty man in and through Jesus Christ. Always named first in such a pistol or a greetings it bears witness to man's need for being a morally endowed who has never seen needs no grace a being morally endowed who has never seen needs no grace it involves God's provision for the believers sinful past and includes enabling grace for daily Christian living peace is the result of receiving the grace of God. It denotes the state. well-being that flows from the experience of being reconciled and forgiven so those are the basic

The Measure of the Apostle's Desire: Multiplied

27:56 commodities that peter strongly desires that his readers will know and experience will understand and appreciate grace to you and peace be multiplied but now notice secondly having looked at the substance of the apostle's strong desire the measure of the apostle's strong desire for his readers the measure of his strong desire our text says grace to you and peace be multiplied in almost all of the other greetings of this nature in the new testament there is no the words simply read grace to you and peace or grace mercy and peace there is a no verb. It's sort of like when we'll say to someone who says, well, I'm going to do this and this, and we say, more power to you. We don't use a verb. More power to you. No

28:53 verb. But what do we mean? May more power be given to you. We assume that. But we say more power to you. And you understand what someone means when they say that to you? You understand it when you say it to them. So that when these greetings go out with no verbs, grace to you and peace, grace and peace to you, grace, mercy, and peace with no verb, it was clearly understood. But here in Peter, 1 Peter, and again in 2 Peter, and only in Jude do we find this phrase, be multiplied. Jude uses some different words in his greeting, but he has this verb, be multiplied. And I've called it the measure of the apostles' strong desire for his readers. The verb is in a form which expresses a strong wish or desire, and therefore I've used that word in our heading. What do you desire for us,

29:53 Peter, as you're writing us a letter, entering into your Christ-given task of strengthening your brethren? Can you give us in a nutshell what it is you desire for us? He said, yes, I can. Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

30:09 Grace to you and peace be multiplied. And he uses, I say, a form of the verb. You academy students, it's an aorist optative. It is his strong wish, and an aggressive aorist. This is what I wish for you now and on into all of the trials that you will face. And he says, I wish for you that it be multiplied. Now the verb multiply is one that points to great and unusual increase. It's used by Paul in 2 Corinthians 9, 10. The multiplication that comes when you sow seed. You put two seeds in the ground, get a couple of plants, and out of those you get hundreds of seeds. It's used of the tremendous increase of the church in the book of Acts. That's its most frequent use. Acts 6, 1. When the number of the disciples was not merely

30:58 increased, but multiplied. In other words, it's the word you would use if you were trying to describe not incremental or small increase. Increase by addition of two or three integers. But if you were going to describe exponential increase, two becomes four and four is sixteen. And sixteen is thirty-two, and thirty-two is sixty-four. This is the word you would use. So when Peter sits down to write, and thinks of these believers. Remember he is not some neophyte who doesn't understand the struggles and trials of Christianity. Whoever shines on God by listening to his words will become verdadero, or quiero oror. That's his czę baked into CD of Christianism. And he jeans out and there he falls. Christian experience, he's writing shortly before his martyrdom. He writes as one who

31:45 himself knew what it was to suffer for Christ. He writes as one who knew something of his own heart in his own spiritual pilgrimage. And as he sensitively surveys in his mind all of the things that he's going to address in this letter to these tested, tried, and suffering and distressed saints, this is what his heart is full of sanctified wish in their direction. Grace to you and peace, not merely be given or be given in some measure, but grace to you and peace be multiplied. And this is why in the epistle, this note of grace, he picks up again and again because he's confident that no matter how much he gives, the measure that God gives will exhaust the grace of God against the backdrop of their need. In chapter 4 in verse 10, he calls it the manifold, the many-sided grace of God. Chapter 4 in verse 10, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. In chapter 5 in verse 10, he describes God as the God of all grace.

33:04 What is the measure? The measure of God's grace. The measure of God's grace is God himself. God himself. In the infinitude of his being, we are to understand the measure of his grace. Like a majestic symphony that may introduce one of its moving themes in an overture and then picks it up along the way and then concludes with a grand climax in which those notes that were introduced are sounded and sent. This is how God ends his letter. Look at verse 12 of chapter 5.

33:43 By Sylvainus our faithful brother as I account him, I've written unto you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast therein. And what are his last words? Peace be unto you all that are in Christ. He begins with the words, grace to you and peace be multiplied. How does he end? He says, everything that I've said points you to the true grace of God. Stand in it and all is well. And what comes in between? The unfolding of what that salvation has provided in that opening paragraph that has few parallels in scripture.

34:25 This eulogy of the glorious salvation that is ours in Christ. But then he begins in verse 11 to call them to a life of holiness. He goes on to address specific categories of responsibility and relationship in society, in the family, in the church, and all of that against the backdrop of growing suffering. And he says in chapter 4, the worst is yet to come. Don't think it's strange. Well, Peter, what is it that will keep the people of God in all of this?

34:54 He says, I'm telling you on the front end and the back end, grace to you and peace be multiplied. Stand in the grace of God. Peace be unto all that are in Christ. So these are not just little Christian bitty words thrown out for filler. They embody the stuff of which stable believers are made, even against the backdrop of tremendous opposition and tremendous suffering.

35:24 Grace. The freedom. The freedom. The free, unmerited favor of God coming out of his heart through Christ on behalf of sinners and all that God has procured for us in Christ. Peace. That stream that flows out of grace. That sense that no matter what swirls around me, if I can look up into the face of the God who made me and know that every controversy has been righteously resolved.

35:56 He says, I'm telling you on the front end and the back end, grace to you and peace be multiplied. Don't think it's strange. Well, Peter, what is it that will keep the people of God in all of this? Peace. Well, that's just pointing the finger in the direction of the heart of our text with respect to the substance of what Peter desires for his readers, grace and peace. The measure in which he desires it for them that it be multiplied. Now, let me underscore three very basic principles by way of application.

Application: The Divine Order of Grace and Peace

36:54 First of all, note with me the divine order. The divine order of multiplied grace and peace in our text and in every combination of these words, however it appears in the New Testament. Peace never precedes grace. Never. It is always grace and peace. There may be the added word mercy as you find in Paul's letter to Timothy. There may be a different approach as you find in Jude, but never will you find peace.

37:30 Peace coming in any other place but subsequent to grace. Oh, you say, Pastor, that's quite obvious. Why labor the obvious? Well, if God's made it obvious, maybe he's saying something to us. You see, there are many who desire peace who have neither any concept of grace nor any desire for grace. They're weary of what their sins have brought upon them.

37:57 There is no peace that's my God to the wicked. They know the tumult of an accuser. in conscience, though they may try to drown it with music, with drugs, with relationships, in the quiet hours lying on a bed, conscious in a way that they wish they could somehow obliterate from their awareness, I am not cosmic junk. I'm a creature made by God. And I will one day stand before God. And when that thought comes in, unaccompanied by anything to dull its implications, there can be no peace. God says, there is no peace. Set my God to the wicked. You know you have a controversy with God that's unresolved. And you know if

38:42 that heart within your breath stopped beating, you would immediately confront the reality of that controversy. No peace. And there are some who say, I'd do anything to get peace. And they do. Our public television stations are glutted with the gurus of internal peace as well. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry giving his idea of how to find peace. New Age stuff of all stripes. Our bookshelves in our bookstores are filled with it.

39:16 Why? People want peace. They can't live in this state of tumult and disruption. But you see, peace is never known when it's divorced from grace.

39:28 And grace can never be known until you own your condition that demands grace. You see, grace has no meaning where you have a worthy object. To him who works, the reward is not reckoned of grace, but of debt. If what you are and what you can do can earn the favor of God, you're out of the orbit of grace.

39:49 Grace only has meaning in the context of ill-deservedness. Grace only has meaning in the setting of unworthiness and hell-deservingness. And this is the great rub. And this is the great rub.

40:04 And this is the great rub. And this is the great shame when the gospel of our Lord Jesus is somehow stripped of the vigorous concepts of the objective reality of the anger and wrath of God against sin. And somehow Jesus and the cross and peace are in this mix of convoluted New Age self-help, self-realization. No, no, friends.

40:24 The grace of the gospel comes and confronts you with the reality of your hell-deservingness. That you're vile. You're vile. You're bound in your sins.

40:37 You are guilty before the court of heaven. But God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The grace of God has appeared, Paul says, in Titus chapter 2. And in the person of the Lord Jesus, God says, you are not cosmic junk.

41:01 You, as my image bearers and as those who've broken my law, I take you seriously enough. I take you seriously enough to send my Son into your condition to take the likeness of sinful flesh and in that life to render perfect obedience to my law and as the substitute of sinners to go to a Roman cross and there not only to be impaled and spat upon and mocked and jeered but there to bear the unleashed fury of my own righteous wrath. This is grace. And that grace alone leads me to sin.

41:38 And that grace alone leads me to true peace. And if you're sitting here this morning, perhaps coming into this assembly saying, well, maybe those people will somehow point a way where I can somehow find a way to cope and get rid of all the tumult and the disruption. My friend, you'll never know true peace until you bask in the wonder of God's grace. And you'll never know His grace until you own what you are as a sinner.

42:08 You can't be tricked. Into the peace of God. You can't be seduced into it by hiding the sharp angles of what you are as a sinner and the sooner you own what you are, the closer you are to the realization of the glory and the wonder of God's grace.

42:31 So you see, grace precedes peace. And unless you're prepared to own what you are that makes you one who desperately needs grace, you'll never know. So peace, or some will own, yes, I need grace, but I'm going to do something to earn the favor and the kindness of God. And so they set out, as Paul says, to work out a righteousness of their own.

42:57 Those to whom he refers in that later chapter in Romans, Romans 10, they didn't say God's not holy. God's law doesn't amount to a hill of beans. We're just cosmic dust. We're not accountable to anything but our urges, our genes.

43:09 No, they believed that God was in heaven and they were accountable. They were accountable to him. Their problem was they sought to resolve this issue of their accountability by what they could do.

43:22 And Paul said, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And why does the human heart have such an aversion to grace?

43:34 Well, there are many reasons. Here's one of the fundamental ones. If all of my acceptance with God is rooted in his free, unmerited favor, it is all, if all of his own kindness and all of his own doing, then what does that draw forth from the heart of everyone who believingly appropriates that grace? A sense of utter resignation and obligation to the God who extends grace to us.

44:04 In that, what we sing, Oh, to grace, how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. You see, there is no power to constrain loyalty like grace. And that's why the human heart has an aversion to grace. Because the human heart, in its essence, is at enmity with God.

44:24 It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And it resists most pointedly that thing that will secure its subjection most completely. Have you got that? It resists most pointedly that which will secure its obedience most comprehensively and fully.

44:46 And that's why some of you, you resist the grace of God. Because you instinctively know if you throw yourself upon a Savior and upon a salvation in Him that is wholly undeserved, then you must say, Here, Lord, I give myself away. This is all that I can do. And you don't want that.

45:10 You're determined. I'm going to run my own life. I'm going to do my own thing. And my young friend, listen to me, God has no teenage, and you have no promise you'll live to see tomorrow.

45:26 Don't make light of these realities. And to some of you reared in Christian homes who are not openly defiant of God's truth, and thank God there are many of you in that category, could it be that this is the rub? This is what keeps you packed. You see what grace does for mom and dad.

45:46 You've seen what grace is doing in others. And you see these people are living a meticulous life, seeking to please God, to please God in every detail. They speak an irritated word, and they're asking your forgiveness. You see them concerned that right down to a dime they'll be honest.

46:05 And you know that what is motivating them is they're not piling up brownie points to get to heaven. They tell you all the time, I live this way because I love God and I love Christ. And I love God and I love Christ because of what He's done in me. And you know, if you throw yourself into the ocean of His love, you're going to live like, mom and dad do.

46:25 And right now, the thought of anyone calling the shots right down to what music you'll listen to, what you'll watch on the TV, what friends you'll choose, you claim don't want that kind of control. Well, my friend,

46:44 it's grace or going on in your unforgiven, rebellious state and perish. There's no middle ground. It is grace to you and peace. It is grace to you and peace.

46:59 And until you're humbled as a hell-deserving sinner and come empty-handed as a sinner receiving at the hand of grace all that God has procured for sinners,

Application: The Distinct Objects of Grace and Peace

47:11 you will never know His peace. A second observation from our text is this. Having looked at the divine order of multiplied grace and peace, note the distinct objects of this multiplied grace and peace. Who are they?

47:27 Grace to you. Peter can't even wait and put grace and peace to you. Yes, the peace is toward them, but he no sooner says, God, it's grace, but he says it's to you. Who are the to you's?

47:42 Those that we've been describing in the previous part of the greeting. When Peter says grace to you, is he just going around like they did in the hippie days? Someone's mind half blown unpopped and somebody playing the latest, Bobby Dylan song and just say, peace, bro, peace, peace. Is that what Peter's doing?

48:04 Just waving the wand of goodwill? Peace, peace? No, no. When he says peace to you, he's saying peace to you who are elect sojourners of the dispersion.

48:17 Peace to you who have become what you are according to the foreknowledge of God the Father in sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace to you. That's both exclusive and inclusive. It's exclusive of all others.

48:37 Notice how he closes the epistle. Someone missed it on the front end. He said, I want to get you on the back end. Notice how he closes the epistle.

48:45 Peace be unto you all that are in Christ.

48:54 How could he be more plain? Peace unto you all. Inclusive, but exclusive to you who are in Christ. If you're not in union with Christ, you have not come under those influences that have brought you into the obedience of faith and the sprinkling of His blood into the orbit of the transforming power of the Spirit which manifests the free, loving, sovereign choice of God the Father.

49:24 This text has nothing to say to you except all of this can be yours if you get into Christ. The distinct objects of this multitude of grace and peace are those whom Peter has already described as he describes the recipients of the letter. Those whom he describes at the end of the letter as in Christ.

49:50 And my friend, you see, there is no middle ground. You're either in Christ or out of Christ.

49:57 Why do you keep pressing? My friend, that's reality. Every one of you here is either a male or a female. We don't have any its.

50:05 There's no such thing as personhood. God didn't make innocuous persons. He made them male and female. And ever since, every one of us made male or female.

50:14 There's no its. All of the feminist screeching notwithstanding, there is no innocuous personhood. You is a male or you is a female. You are in Christ or you're out of Christ.

50:27 There's no middle place. And if you're out of Christ, then this expression of apostolic desire and wish for grace to you and peace, my friend, that's children's bread. You have no right to it. But I say it with great joy.

50:43 You do have a right to go to Christ and to say, O Lord Jesus, I want to be in you. And you invite me to yourself. You have a right based on the Word of God to go to Christ and say, O Lord Jesus, I am not in you. I am yet in Adam and in my sin and in condemnation.

Application: The All-Sufficiency of Multiplied Grace and Peace

51:04 But, O Lord Jesus, I want to be in you and in your salvation and to know your grace. And therefore, your peace. And then, in closing, I want you to note the all-sufficiency of this multiplied grace and peace. As Peter sits down, no doubt has in his mind the framework of the concerns he's going to address.

51:27 We must never think that because someone was under the influence of the Spirit and inspiration, they were in a trance and they just sort of wrote like some kind of a holy seance. No, no. God used all of their faculties of thought, in some cases of research. You remember?

51:41 Luke's statement. Others have put down a record. I've carefully sought everything out and I'm going to set it out in order. So Peter has in his mind and heart his pastoral burdens.

51:53 Perhaps he even has an outline of how he proposes to unfold that pastoral concern. But right at the outset, he wants them to know this. Whatever duties I lay upon you as an apostle, whatever trials and testings I'm going to tell you, who will yet face you, this I want you to know. There is nothing you will face in the directives of this letter, but that there is grace sufficient for all of your need and there is peace to be known in the pursuit of the will of God.

52:29 I close with a quote from Dr. Edmund Clowney, who has written a very helpful commentary on 1 Peter. And he concludes his treatment of this greeting with these words. Peter's brief, greeting, grace and peace be yours in abundance, gives in miniature the whole message of his letter.

52:49 He writes to those who already feel the scorn and malice of an unbelieving world. Writing from Rome, under the emperor Nero, Peter knows that these Christians will experience worse and worse. Can he really pronounce peace in abundance to those who are only beginning to discover the suffering to which Christians are called? Peter writes for that very purpose.

53:13 Once he had fought to defend the shalom, the peace of the Messiah. Under the olive trees of Gethsemane, he drew his sword and resisted those who came to arrest Christ. But Jesus told him to sheath his weapon after one misdirected stroke. Peter wanted to fight because he feared the death of Messiah would end all hope of victory, all hope of Messiah's rule of peace.

53:40 But the death of Jesus had done the opposite. It had accomplished the salvation of God's anointed. Now Peter, the apostle of the risen Lord, can pronounce peace. The peace that comes not by the sword, but by the cross.

53:53 His letter expands on the blessing that is distilled in his greeting. And he himself tells us that by the way he ends the letter. He said, everything I've said to you, this is the true grace of God. Stand in it.

54:06 Peace be unto all that are in Christ Jesus. And so to you, God's people, whatever we may face in the present moment in seeking to do the will of God out of the indebtedness to grace. God says, grace to us and peace be multiplied. May God grant that our own ongoing experience will be a constant validation that Peter was not wishing in a way that we could call just hopefulness.

54:42 And one wrestles when coming to grips with these things. Are they official apostolic pronouncements? Are they expressions of desire? It's hard to know that this much is clear.

54:54 As Peter anticipates all that he will lay before them and all that he knows of their present trials and pressures, he gives as his greeting, grace to you and peace. Not in little itsy bitsy measures, but in exponential measures. Grace. And peace be multiplied.

Prayer and Benediction

55:15 Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You that Your grace has appeared in the Lord Jesus. And we thank You that that grace that has appeared in Him has brought with it so many rich and so many glorious endowments. We thank You for the forgiveness of sins.

55:44 We thank You for the gift of the Spirit. We thank You for the promise of Your presence and the support of that presence. We thank You for Your ongoing purposes with respect to Your own. And we pray that You would write upon our hearts these very simple words of apostolic greeting that we may in a sense recognize that each day we awake to the new day and its responsibilities.

56:12 Your benediction and Your extension of grace and peace precede us into the day, follow us through the day, and are with us when we pillow our heads at night. We ask You, O God, to write these words upon our hearts. Use them to make some who do not know Your peace because they've resisted the overtures of Your grace. O Lord, track them down with these words until they too are in Christ and know the blessedness of this reality.

56:44 Hear then our prayers and dismiss us with Your blessing we plead, in Jesus' name. Amen.