Satisfaction, Part 2

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. What if you could have deep satisfaction in your heart, even in the hardest circumstances?

What if our joy did not hinge on having what we want and being rid of what we don't want in our lives? 1 Peter 5, 10-11 reminds us of the truths that, when we fully embrace them, will bring that kind of joy and satisfaction—the kind that we find only in the person of Jesus. Let's listen in. This is part two of a sermon first preached on March 19, 2023. First of all, understand this. The consumer is the adversary, the devil, Satan, right? He's a fallen angel. Understand something, please. He is not co-equal with God.

You with me on this? That is absolute false theology. He is not the opposite of God. He is a created being, and He will be judged for eternity.

So don't think in your mind that there's this yin-yang thing going on, right? God is the one who is sovereign and will have dominion forever and ever. He is the one who seeks to devour, and He seeks to devour us for His own gratification.

He is the ultimate self-centered being, the father of lies. And Peter uses the analogy of a roaring lion. If you go out into the wilderness and you encounter a lion, the first thing you need to do is discover if that lion is hungry. Because if the lion is hungry, you're in trouble. If the lion is not hungry, if it just engorged itself on another animal, then you're okay.

Why? Because that lion is satisfied. If you're satisfied in Christ, you're not looking elsewhere for that satisfaction, and you're not going to be consumed by the roaring lion who seeks to devour you. And the way He devours us is by turning us into obsessive consumers.

I must have this more than God. That's how He devours us. In contrast to that, we have the Creator, the benevolent, sovereign Creator, the one who spoke and everything came into existence, that Creator. He is the Creator who is unfailingly good. He is the Creator who has lavished His grace upon us. He is the Creator who, through His grace, if you are in Christ, He is crafting you into a masterpiece to reflect the image of His Son, Jesus, that Creator.

Get the contrast there. One is the consumer and the other is the benevolent, sovereign Creator. Are we driven simply by our appetites? Or are we in pursuit of the one who is our highest good and our deepest satisfaction? You can't be doing both at the same time. That's why John says, 1 John 3.6, whoever abides in him does not sin. He's introducing us to two mutually exclusive practices. You cannot be abiding in Christ and practicing sin at the same time.

It's an amazing contrast, isn't it? These are crucial contrasts that we must be aware of and remember as we study this text. Consider now what the God of all grace has done. Verse 10, after a little while and after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. Three things I want to talk about that the God of all grace has done. First of all, He has called you to His eternal glory. He has called you to His eternal glory. The God of all grace is the one who is unfailingly good.

I love Dwight's prayer this morning, so, so good. There is never, listen, there is never a time where God is not good. We sabotage our walk with God when we judge the goodness of God by our circumstances.

God is God and He is good, period. And this God of all grace, what did He do in His grace? I was a branch severed from the tree. The only thing I could do was die in His grace. He reached down and picked me up and grafted me back into the tree so that I can draw life from Him.

I didn't pick myself up, I couldn't. He did. That God, that God of all grace. And in my surrendered trust, trust, I will receive that exaltation that comes only in Christ. That's what He's saying in the text here. After you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ.

And that's the second thing. He's called you to His eternal glory, number two, in Christ. He's placed you in Christ.

You've been grafted back into the tree. You belong to Him. You are now vitally connected to Him, drawing life to Him. This is the gospel, that Christ took the necessary blow of God's holy wrath in your place so that when you surrender yourself to Him in trust, His righteousness pours into your life. And you become justified before Him, and He reconciles you to Himself.

That's grace. That's what it means to be in Christ. In Christ, you have His righteousness and God's acceptance.

You are secure and satisfied and free. That's what God has done. Thirdly, the God of all grace has promised future grace. He has promised future grace. The God of all grace who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ will, and here's the promise, He will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. He has promised that. Count on it.

This is a secure future. He will do this, and all of these verbs in here, look at them again. He will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. All of them are future active indicative. Indicative meaning this is true.

Future active. This is the future grace that God has promised, and we can count on that because of the grace that He has lavished on us in the past. We all know what Romans 8 tells us. We are called in Christ, and this is what Peter says here. We are called, those he called, ultimately he also, what?

Glorified. And you think about that for a moment. This, this gives us a tiny glimpse into the infinite, transcendent mind of God. Now I know I stand before you here this morning, Rich Powell in the flesh, right? Flesh and bone standing before you.

Don't need a chair, okay? Do you want to know how God sees me? I am glorified in Christ. That's mind-blowing. I like what David Helms says of these four verbs.

He says there's a forceful flurry of verbs here. This is the future grace that God has promised us. We can count on this, and he provides us a glorious portrait of what I am now in Christ in view of God, from God's eyes. This is who I am. I've been glorified, and yet here I am still on this earth walking around in flesh and bone, still struggling with the flesh.

But here's your glorious portrait. First of all, you are restored. You're restored because every one of us is born broken with the problem of self-preeminence. But the fact that I am restored and you will be restored means that we will be with him.

Two things. We will be with him, and we will be like him. Isn't that a beautiful promise? That's the work that God is doing in us right now. He's molding us into the image of Christ. But when I see Jesus face to face, not only will I be with him, I will be like him. That restored image, the perfect reflection of Christ, Christ who perfectly walked with the Father and pleased his Father and was satisfied in his Father. I will be just like him.

And if it's fully satisfied, it means you're not looking elsewhere for that satisfaction. Jesus wasn't. That's why he could live with abandon.

And he did, didn't he? Wholeness. The idea here is complete wholeness, wholeness of soul and body. It's a beautiful portrait.

The second part of the portrait is the next three. Confirm, strengthen, and establish you. I think I get the sense that Peter was kind of using those synonymously, but you will be strong. You will be restored in Christ, but you will be strong, firm, and steadfast. In other words, you will be solid and immovable masterpiece of firm.

You will be in a firm and fixed position. We're so glad you've joined us for Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. You can hear this message and others anytime by visiting our website, www.delightingrace.com. You can also check out Pastor Rich's book, Seven Words That Can Change Your Life, where he unpacks from God's word the very purpose for which you were designed. Seven Words That Can Change Your Life is available wherever books are sold. As always, tune in to Delight in Grace weekdays at 10 a.m.