George Müller preached this sermon at Bethesda Chapel, Great George Street, Bristol, England, on Sunday evening, March 28, 1897.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. (1 Peter 5:10, NIV)
Friends, tonight let’s meditate on the title given to our precious heavenly Father. He is called “the God of all grace.” He is God Almighty. He is the God of power, the God of justice, the God of holiness, the God of wisdom, the God of infinite compassion. He bears a variety of precious names because they reflect His attributes, and prove, all of them, His character.
Now, in this passage, He is called the God of all grace. That is a very precious title given to Him for our comfort. We are sinners. We fail in a variety of ways, and we have failed in numberless ways before this. We therefore need One who is not merely Almighty, not merely righteous, not merely infinitely holy, not merely infinitely wise, but who is also full of pity and compassion towards poor sinners, such as I am, and as you are. And therefore this word, that He is the God of all grace, suits us admirably. We need such a God. He is the God of all grace, and were He not, oh, what would become of us? But because He is the God of all grace, there is hope for the oldest, the greatest, the vilest sinner among us. None need to despair, since “He is the God of all grace.” That is, the grace that is found in God is without limit, and it can be applied to every one of our various failures and shortcomings, of whatever character they may be.
There is even the possibility that the greatest thief, the greatest robber, the vilest person that ever lived under heaven, can receive forgiveness for his crimes. There is grace found in God, since He is the God of all grace, that whatever amount of grace is needed, it is to be had from Him. It is to be found in God. The greatest sins can be forgiven. Look at Manasseh’s case, and see what God did for him. He was swimming, as it were, in the blood of the individuals whom he had murdered; and his idolatry went beyond everything that had ever been seen. But after he was taken prisoner, and he humbled himself before God—really and truly humbled himself before God!—see how merciful and good God was to him. It was all forgiven! There is an instance of the God of all grace!
Look at the great persecutor Saul, who delighted in having the believers in Christ beaten in every synagogue; who delighted in having them cast into prison, again and again and again; who delighted in tormenting them till they blasphemed the worthy, precious name of the Lord Jesus; who delighted in having believers in Christ put to death. Yet this great persecutor—in his day, we have reason to believe, the greatest of persecutors—was forgiven. “I was shown mercy, ” he says in (1 Timothy 1:13, NIV). Why? Because God was the God of all grace. That was the reason, not because he deserved it, not because he had become a better man now. No! While he was on the very way to Damascus, to do to the believers in Christ there what he had been doing to the believers in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus met him and changed his heart, making him one of the holiest men that ever lived on earth (as a mere human being, I mean) and this because God is the God of all grace. How this suits sinners, as we are, in all our variety of failures and shortcomings—even in the case of the converted.
Though they hate sin and love holiness, yet how many are their failures, how many their shortcomings, how many their words which are contrary to the will of God! Though they do not live in intentional sin, and though they do not go on in an evil, wicked course, yet their failures and shortcomings—in action, word, thought, feeling, desire, purpose and inclination—are many! Oh, how many are our failures and shortcomings! But our Friend and Helper in heaven, our Father through Christ Jesus, is “the God of all grace.”
O, that precious title! And I advise my beloved Christian friends to study this title yet more and more; to think about it, and to pray over this name given here to our heavenly Father, that more and more they may be comforted by the God of grace, who has “called you to his eternal glory in Christ.” That is the promise we have! The weakest, the helpless, the least instructed of the children of God have this reality before them—to share the eternal glory of God! What a wonderful thing is this! And all the glory which the Father will give to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Mediator, the weakest, the helpless of God’s children shall share with Christ, because they are members of His body, of which He is the Head, because they belong to Him. And that is the reason why they shall share it with Him. We are called to this eternal glory of God the Father, to this eternal glory of God the Son. As an assurance of this promise, we have received a guarantee, the Spirit of God! And just as surely as we share in this life of the Spirit, so surely shall we share in the eternal glory of the Father and the Son. How bright, how blessed, how glorious our future is!
And how do we come to all this? What is our title to all this? It is stated that He “called [us] to his eternal glory in Christ”—because we belong to Christ. No goodness, no merit, no worthiness is found in us; it’s not because we are better than other people, not because we pray more than others; it’s not because we work a great deal for God. That is not the reason. It’s because we are in Christ Jesus, members of His body. The righteousness of Christ is given to us. He, in our place, fulfilled the whole law, the law which we had broken times without number. And thus it comes that we are justified before God—that is, justly accounted for and reckoned, reckoned just, though we are unjust and unrighteous in ourselves.
This perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ unto death, the death on the Cross, is put on us, is assigned to us; and therefore, we are called to His eternal glory through Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered in our place as our Substitute, as our Mediator, and He bore all the punishment which we deserve on account of our numberless sins. And thus God, though just and holy and righteous, can in Christ Jesus give to us this wonderful blessing—to share His own eternal glory, and to share the eternal glory of the Lord Jesus Christ! Oh, the wonderful, wondrous promises which we have! If we truly realized this, we would sing and rejoice all day long, no matter the circumstance, no matter the trial. But because we understand it so little, we gloss over much of what is declared in the Word of God about these things, and are so short of happiness because of our lack! Now, let’s consider these things more often, so our hearts may overflow with joy. This is so important because the joy of the Lord is the spiritual strength of the believer while we are this side of eternity.
He has “called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while”—more exactly, consider the words, “after [we] have suffered a little while.” It is only a little while, in comparison with eternity! Suppose it were to last twenty, fifty, or even eighty years, and even if it were longer than that, yet, in comparison with eternity, it is a short time! For a little while only! Oh, how short it will be, in comparison with eternity! We must never lose sight of the fact that eternity is a period without end. A thousand years are as one day! A thousand years, a little time, a very little time! And ten hundred million years, a little time. Eternity will only begin when a thousand million years have gone by! Only the beginning of eternity! And fifty years or five hundred million years, how little, how short a period it is in comparison with eternity.
So after this life, suffering a little while, what’s next? He “will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” It is a positive statement! It is not merely a wish, not merely the apostle Peter’s desire, nor merely a prayer. But He will make you perfect! When you look at your spiritual conflicts now, remember they will not always remain. We shall have the victory, completely, through our Lord Jesus Christ. No more temptations! No more hesitation whether we shall do a thing, or not do it—all this will be completely done away. The will of God will be declared to us, and instantly, without a second’s hesitation, without a moment of pondering whether we shall do it or not, the heart will say, “Your will, heavenly Father, is my perfect delight; I will rejoice in glorifying You by doing whatever Your will is for me to do.” This is the future we are moving forward to! Perfect conformity to the mind of Christ! Perfect, united, eternal obedience to our heavenly Father! Hereafter, when we are in glory, when He makes His will known, we will respond instantly! That is what it means to be made perfect—and that is the promise we have been given.
He will make you perfect—in holiness and in understanding. There will be no remaining ignorance found in us, for in that day we shall know fully, even as we are fully known (see 1 Corinthians 13:12). We will completely know God. We will completely know the Lord Jesus. We will completely know everything that is in line with—or is contrary to—the will of God! What a bright, blessed, and glorious hope—that every bit of ignorance now found in us will be completely done away with! We are not yet perfect in knowledge, or even grace. Far from it! We are weak and helpless, even though we believe in the Lord Jesus. And though we hate sin and love holiness, we are far from perfection. But one day we will be made prefect! This is our bright, shining promise: He will “restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”
Firm and steadfast. He will give us a character where there will be no double-mindedness, truly sincere, loving the ways of God. We will be one-minded, united with the will of God. This is the bright promise before us. Then we will be strengthened—made completely firm and steadfast according to God’s will. We won’t be double-minded—we will have one mind, and only one mind, to glorify God; one purpose, and only one purpose, to live for God, to labor for God; and everything contrary to the mind of God will be entirely removed from us. What a glorious promise! Just as the Lord Jesus Christ was while on earth, so hereafter will be the poor, the weakest, of the children of God; so united in mind will we be, as the Lord Jesus Christ was, for glorifying God while on earth. That is the glorious hope set before us.
Another Bible translation says we shall be settled (KJV). That means, we will be brought to a complete and firm foundation, entirely unshakeable. Yes, the promise will be ours! There will be no more wavering or uncertainty, but one purpose alone through all eternity: to glorify God, to do His will, to serve Him completely, and to have no will apart from His. Yes, what a glorious and bright promise for us who are weak, who are helpless, who often stumble—we won’t remain like that! But how often have we condemned ourselves since coming to Christ because we are not yet perfected like Him? That we don’t always want to obey His will? And when we do come to that place of obedience, we hesitate whether we should obey or not. That shouldn’t be in us! This reveals to us that we are not united in heart with God, that the corrupt nature is still found in us, that the devil still has a measure of power over us, and that we are not yet perfect in holiness.
But all this will be completely changed. There will be one aim and one goal in eternity: to live for and glorify God! There will be no hint of hesitation at any time! Again, the moment God’s will is presented to us, our instant response will be “yes, Lord!” and we will obey and glorify Him! Oh, how glorious this promise is!
Are there any unbelievers here tonight? If so, I say to you, my dear friend, that in whatever ways you are seeking after happiness, you will never have it—and can never have it—except in Jesus. The apostles of Christ, holy men as they were, only received their holiness through Christ. They didn’t obtain it through their own efforts. It was as poor, guilty, hell-deserving sinners that they accepted what God still gives to the sinner in Christ Jesus today. We have to acknowledge before God that we are sinners, and, if we do not see it, to ask God to show it to us. Once you do, confess before God in prayer that you are a sinner and, having done so, put your trust solely in Christ Jesus for salvation. This alone will bring you the blessing of true happiness. Any who are not yet believers in Christ, if you really and truly desire to be happy, this is the only way. If you desire to go to heaven, this is the only way to get there.
Friends, what a comfort to know that our Father is truly the God of all grace! His grace is abundant, and we can look to Him for all we need to overcome our sins and shortcomings in this life. One day, all our sufferings will be over. One day, we will be perfected in Christ. One day, we will love His will and His ways. One day, we will be with Him in glory forever. May the Lord grant that someone here tonight is benefited through all I have said, for the glory of Christ. Amen.
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George Müller
