God is the Answer (Part 1)

God Is the Answer in the Midst of Trials

And away we go. Mike Abendroth here, No Compromise Radio Ministry, quoting Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners. What in the world? Well, I'm glad you tuned in. Our slogan for a long time has been always biblical, always provocative, always in that order.

I don't know if that's the scoop anymore. You've probably heard me with my machinations about changing the name and the look and everything else. And we'll see what happens. I'm tending toward, well, it doesn't have to be daily radio because I'm not on the radio every day anymore.

And so, I mean, how many people actually listen every day? Probably a few. If my mom's alive, she would. My kids do. I make them. Just kidding. I think my children basically said, Dad, we'll listen to all those shows after you're gone so that we can just kind of get to remember you that way.

But right now we live with, or before they moved out of the house, we live with No Compromise Radio Ministry. I still don't have a very strong voice. Lungs aren't too bad. I rode the bicycle the other day.

The fastest that I've ridden since two years ago, COVID pneumonia, that was 20 miles at 17 .2 miles per hour, which is pretty good. I'm 63 years old. I'm typically around 16 miles an hour or something like that.

But 17 .2 is good. I was preaching on Sunday, a jet tour of Romans, and Charlie, our crack sound guy, he noticed my voice was giving out, so he kept turning up my volume. So sometimes I need that. And we might need that today.

I'm not sure. I was saying to myself this week, self, I said to myself, I'm going to do one more sermon that's something that I've done in the past, maybe done some work on. I'll do some more work on it to freshen it up some.

But before I get back into Luke, I'll do that. Well, the passage I picked was from 1 Peter chapter 5, casting all your cares upon him because he, what, cares for you. And I thought that would be an important message from the scriptures, from God himself to our congregation.

We've had a death in the church this summer. Joe Stancliff was his name. And Joe and Misa came from oneness Pentecostalism. By the way, did I ever have him on? Maybe I had him on. I can't remember anymore.

I'm like, Paul, you can't remember who you baptized. That happened to me once. I asked about a 22-year-old young person. I said to him, are you ever going to get baptized? And he goes, it's a joke, right?

I said, no, are you going to get baptized or what? He said, you baptized me. I said, when? He said, oh, I don't know, four years ago or something. Anyway, Joe started listening to No Compromise Radio, I think when we were on the radio here locally in Worcester, 760 AM.

And he didn't believe in the Trinity, but he liked the show. And so he would listen. And then he became a Calvinistic Unitarian. And he said, could I attend the church with my wife, Misa, and my daughter, and I won't cause any problems.

I won't talk about the Trinity, but I just would like to come. Okay, sure. Well, anyway, Joe got saved. Joe, of course, loves the Trinity. He's worshiping the triune God even now face to face. And he loved it anytime I talked about Trinitarian theology, baptizing in the singular name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost.

I was reading some old creeds, so I'm thinking Holy Ghost. Anyway, Joe died, and I thought, well, what would be a comforting message to Misa, the family, other people in the church that are going through troubles and struggles?

And, of course, you know, the Tuesday guy, Pastor Steve, his wife has cancer, and she goes in every three months for test. What would be good for them to hear and others? And I thought, well, it's just such a great passage.

And of course, one of the things you have to do as a Bible teacher, preacher, a homeschool mom when you teach the Bible, Sunday school teacher, home group leader, you're working on a passage. And the sooner in the week that you say, oh, I'm encouraged by that.

I'm convicted by that. I'm having to deal with the Lord about these issues in the passage. The sooner you do that, where it preaches to you first, before you're preaching it to the people, that's better, right?

It's not good if it's Sunday morning, you're walking up to the pulpit, and you're thinking, hmm, I'm preaching husbands love your wives, Christ love the church, and I haven't even thought about my lack of love toward my wife, et cetera.

I mean, it's bad on Sunday morning. It's not quite as bad, but still bad if it's Saturday night. It's bad, but not quite as bad if it's on Friday, and we can just keep working our way backward, backwards, if you're in UK.

Anyway, all that to say, isn't it like the Lord? People say it's just like the Lord for us to pick a passage thinking it's for someone else, then I have to live it myself, and then I'm the one that needed it.

Besides my lack of voice, I have these weird rashes on both arms, I've got these weird earlobe cysts on both sides, I have kind of a blood disorder, and so there's a systemic problem. It's not systemic racism, but it's systemic blood problem.

And so I went and got a biopsy, et cetera, and then the doctor calls you and tells you what it is and all that. So anyway, all that to say, this is such a great passage, and it's ministered to me, so I want it to minister to you.

Isn't that the way it really should go? This is how the Lord has encouraged me, or convicted me, or helped me, and then you want to help someone else. And that's one of the great things about even when you read the Bible, you think, oh, I just read the Bible, and I learned this, and then you want to tell the family.

I have to keep pushing the cough button, you can't tell that, but I'm just going to have to struggle through with the voice. I haven't talked much all day. I guess I made a phone call, that was about it.

I've been just trying to study this passage, so it is what it is. If you, dear listener, are going through some kind of trial, health trial, problem trial, are most trials problems, problem child trial, finances, health, relationships, I almost sound like this could be some, I don't know, Chip Ingram message or something, right?

They just always preach on those things and fill up churches, but they're still important to talk about. This is a good passage for you. So, if you have a Bible, it is 1 Peter 5, verses 6 through 11, is what we are going to be talking about on No Compromise Radio Ministry.

You can probably get the sermon version of this in a week or two, or maybe you already heard it, I'm not sure. But lots of times I just say to myself, well, I'm just going to work on a sermon, and then I'll sit and talk about it because it's just in my mind, it's in my DNA, it's in my blood.

Everything's in my blood now that's not supposed to be, and everything that's supposed to be isn't there. Which is, by the way, why I got so sick when I got COVID and had to go to the hospital because I already have a compromising pre-existing condition.

I think I entitled this sermon, so maybe we'll have to call this show the same thing, God is the answer. Whatever the question is when it comes to the trial, why am I going through the trial? God's the answer.

How long is this trial going to last? God is the answer. Why is the severity of the trial so steep? God's the answer. Whatever questions you might have in the middle of it all, how long is it going to last?

How long is it going to affect me? Is it going to kill me? All these things, God is really the answer to all our questions. And of course, in 1 Peter, there's a bunch of suffering people, and they aren't necessarily going through trials of suffering that are health-related, aside from getting killed, and I'm not making fun of that, making fun of the way I said it.

It's persecution. And maybe some listened in countries that are getting persecuted, but for most of us who listen here in the Estados Unidos, I just started, by the way, on my Duolingo, I've been doing modern Hebrew the last 299 days.

And I thought, you know what? If you're going to spend five minutes a day on Hebrew, you might as well do other languages. So now I do four languages. I do Greek, modern Greek, and some of that I kind of know because of Koine Biblical Greek.

And then I do Latin, Latin. I don't know any Latin, except I see words and I go, oh, there, I get that because I know a lot of our words are Latin-based. And then I thought I might as well do Spanish too.

A lot of Spanish-speaking people. Problem is in certain languages you put, like if you say white rice, some languages you say rice white, and some you say white rice, and some you say the rice of white, or I get them all mixed up.

So if I start speaking in tongues, you'll know what's going on. Jesus said that in this world, we're going to have tribulation. Did he not? John chapter 16. Paul said he's troubled on every side. Second Corinthians chapter four.

And of course, in our lives, we are going to face trials. Sometimes it's because of our own stupidity and sin. Sometimes it's because of the fallen world. Sometimes it's because of other people's sin.

But trials are a way of life. And if you're not in a trial now, praise the Lord, you can rejoice with other folks who are rejoicing and weep with those who weep, but sooner or later, then you'll go through the trial, right?

And short of the Lord's return, we'll all have to face that ultimate trial, and that is death. For some, it'll be an accident. Some it'll be a prolonged death. We don't know what's going to happen, but we do know that we'll go through trials.

And the other thing too, that makes us vulnerable to trials, is they're not just our trials alone, right? We have many of us, spouses. I mean, I'm talking about plural us, spouses. We don't have spouses.

This is not some kind of Southern Utah show. We have a spouse. We have children. We have grandchildren. We have friends. We have relatives. We have people at church that we love. And so you're more susceptible to having to go through trials via other people because you love them and they love you.

If you want to try to get rid of trials, monasteries won't do, moving to Amish country won't do. Wherever you are, there's going to be trials. And First Peter's good because it's the most severe trial that is suffering and persecution unto death and running for your lives, running from your homes.

And so this is how you respond to trials in First Peter than all the lesser trials. If that's the greatest trial, here's how you're supposed to get through it. How do you get through lesser trials? It's with the same, not formula, but with the same person.

And that is the person of the Son, the Lord Jesus. One of the things about this passage that some people forget is instead of just saying to ourselves, what's it tell me to do? It tells me to be humble.

It tells me to cast my cares. It tells me to resist. It tells me to be sober. It tells me to... I can't remember what the other one says. My Bible's open to Romans, not First Peter. All right. We're going to just find out.

That's okay. I'm not so prideful as to say, Spencer, go ahead and take care of that. Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing the same kinds of suffering are experienced by others, et cetera. We don't just look at those, although they're there, and that's important for us because that's our response.

But what you see in this passage is particularly God-centered. There's a God-centered way to look at trials and issues in life. That's why I said God is the answer. We've got the mighty hand of God in verse 6.

Verse 7, he cares for you. Then in verse 10, he's the God of all grace. And this God restores, confirms, strengthens, and establishes. And he is powerful, almighty. He has dominion in verse 11. Therefore, when you look at this passage, I want you to start thinking about a God-centered way to think of trials, a God-centered attitude.

I want you to think, hmm, what's important for me as I go through these trials? The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah aptly said, thus says the Lord, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might.

Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord, Jeremiah 9.

Here's what we're supposed to boast about, that we know God. And of course, ultimately, it's because he first knew us. We know that, of course, but still that we get to know God. The way to live is making sure we understand God is the answer.

The way to die is to making sure God is the answer. It was John Knox, that great Scottish reformer. He had difficulty speaking on his deathbed, as many do. And he had a house servant that asked him about his faith.

And do you still believe in a law-free gospel that you preached your whole life? And if you do, just try to raise your hand a little bit. And he raises his hands three times. That's the important thing, thinking about who God is.

Do you still believe in this gospel, the good news of the risen Savior, Jesus Christ? Was it not J. Gresham Machen, that lion of the Christian faith, who is dying of pneumonia in North Dakota, after ministering to a small church?

I think he's 55 years old only. And then he dictates a telegram to his friend and professor at Westminster Seminary, John Murray. And here's how the telegram ends. I'm so thankful for the act of obedience of Christ.

No hope without it. The answer for the trial is God. God is the answer. And by the way, as we're working through this passage here pretty soon, what if God wasn't the answer? Well, let's just keep talking.

What if God didn't exist? What if God doesn't exist? Would that change the way you think about trials? Well, if you're an unbeliever, the answer is no. But if you're a believer, you think, that's impactful.

To me, that squares everything up. It sizes things up. Because I say to myself, I'm a Christian, and I know God. He knows me. And I ought to respond to the test results in a way that believes and trusts and understands that, in fact, God is the answer.

And so, today, as we look at 1 Peter chapter 5, I want you to realize, while the Bible gives these commands, humble yourselves, it's littered with, cluttered with, peppered with. Litter might be bad because litter is bad, but do you know what I'm saying?

Mighty hand of God. He cares for you, and he's the God of all grace. And so, over and over this week, as I've had my own trial, I've thought to myself, and I'm trying to preach to myself, God's powerful.

He could have kept me from the trial. He could keep me in the trial. He can get me out of the trial. He could orchestrate all kinds of things about the trial. He's powerful enough to work in me, some good benefits out of this trial.

I've also thought that he cares for me. I care for my children, and I care for my grandson and other people. And if I have a two-year-old that's sick, what do I do? It seems like there's just an extra amount of care that we make sure we take care of our little ones and make sure everything's cared for in every way we can.

And if they need the humidifier at four in the morning, you go down to CVS 24-hour day one, and you get the humidifier, and you go to the ends of the earth to get them the right medicine, and you have to go down into downtown Boston for the treatment.

You care for them. How much more the Lord for his people? And then the God of all grace. And by the way, even when we respond wrongly in trials, I'm not advocating that. I don't want you to do that. I don't want to do that.

But even when we do, guess what? God's a God of all grace. If he's given you the greatest gift, the Lord Jesus, won't he give you every other gift? And with his grace, won't he give you patience, understanding, wisdom, all kinds of things.

And so, the key for this passage for today on No Compromise Radio Ministry, I want you to read this passage understanding that your triune God is powerful, he cares, and he's gracious. Now, I'm not giving you any responses yet of even what to do.

I just want you to know, right, this is back to Jeremiah 9, that you know him, and you know him as many things, right? God is one, and therefore everything in God is God. And for our minds, though, since we are so finite and fallen, we've got to think of God with attributes, even though he's one, he is.

Even his name is, you know, from a verb, which is odd compared to most people. My name is Mike, it's more of a noun. Anyway, okay. Powerful, caring, gracious. You get cancer. God's powerful, he's caring, he's gracious.

Your child's in an accident and they need surgery. He's powerful, he's caring, he's gracious. You lose money in an investment. He's powerful, he's caring, he's gracious. You're going through difficulty with your spouse.

He's powerful, he's caring, he's gracious. You've sinned. He's powerful, he's caring, he's gracious. Do you get where I'm coming from? I knew you would. This is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. We're going through 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 11 in this great book that Peter writes by the power of the inspiration, by the powerful inspiration of the Spirit of God.

How do you endure suffering? How do you endure persecution? How do you remain faithful in those difficult times? You know, we have a hard time of obeying, even if we don't get enough sleep or if we're sick.

But here in this great book that extols Christ dying as a substitute for sinners, Christ suffering as an example for his disciples, that his resurrection, he triumphs over his enemies. We have tucked away in chapter 5, some of the most wonderful verses in all the Bible.

And it is, how do we respond when our life is falling apart around us? And we want to just maybe blame God. We want to say, God, why? We are drowning ourselves in grief. To be bereaved means to be ripped.

We're so needy of comfort. There's death around us, cancer around us, trials around us, broken relationships, real sorrow, real pain, real grief. What's going on? In this passage, you're going to see the right way to respond since God is powerful, he cares, and he's gracious.

What is the response to the Christian, for the Christian who's going through a very deep, dark valley, even unto death? And you think, hmm, God's mighty, he's caring, he's gracious. Power, care, grace.

Hmm. How many times am I going to say that today? Hmm. I sound like he does that, I think, too. Hmm. Well, we're in trials. There's a response to who God is. And you're going to see in this passage, super simple.

Since God's mighty, be humble, humble yourselves. Since God cares, cast, cast all your cares on him. And since God's gracious, submit, slash resist. We'll talk about how this applies to both Satan and suffering.

The right focus in trials and the right response is found in 1 Peter 5, 6 through 11. By the way, maybe you don't want to listen to the rest of this show, because maybe the Lord's going to make you try to live this like he's made me live this.

You know what I wish? I don't wish this. But this is just hypothetical because the Lord does it the way he wants to, and it's not my way. It's kind of like, well, I'm working on self-righteousness and killing it, and I just have a hard lesson in life to learn, and now it's over with.

It's like, oh, you're not, you know, you get totally humbled by something and you're like, okay, I've learned my lesson, Lord, but then you have to do it again. Right? It's like, oh, wait a second. I already had prostate cancer.

I thought that taught me what I needed to learn. Why am I in the hospital dying from COVID? And now why is my blood bad? Breaking bad. I think I maybe started watching Breaking Bad and then it had something bad in it.

I just had to break from Breaking Bad. No, that is, you're like, I just would like to watch something just mentally, just whatever. And then you're like, why'd they put that in there? That's it. That's over.

You have to move on. The right focus in trials is a God-centered focus because God is the answer. And so what Peter says in chapter 5, verse 6 is simple. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time, he may exalt you.

Since God is mighty, humble yourselves. Now he's been talking about humility. He talked about humility to the young men who need to be subject to elders in verse 5. He talked about how everyone needs to be humble toward one another.

He says later on in verse 5, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another, put on the apron of a slave, in other words, for God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So Paul, excuse me, Peter is saying with a command, basically this, accept your circumstances, yield to your circumstances.

God is in charge, God is powerful, and he's put you there. Now it doesn't mean if you're in a pinch, you can't try to get out of it. But most of the time when people are in pinches, they try to get themselves out of it and they can't, just because they're supposed to be in that trial.

Allow yourselves to be humbled, submit yourself to the humbling process of God. This is like Psalm 46, see striving and know that I am God. I would run the universe differently, God. No, don't do that, don't say that.

I'm going to just have my own self-reliance. It's just basically pride. I don't need to do that. You know, I'm now a huge Jonathan Edwards fan, but when he died unexpectedly from that smallpox vaccination, his wife wrote these words.

What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths. The Lord has done it, but my God lives and he has my heart. We are all given to God.

That's exactly what 1 Peter 5 verse 6 is talking about. We are dependent upon the Lord. And when we suffer, it's designed to work in us so that we see our weakness and our insufficiency. And we turn to the Lord and we voluntarily accept our circumstances because God is in charge and he could deliver us easily.

And he could keep us from all the evil things, but God's in control and God is providentially working everything for our good, and for his glory. And it says there in verse 6, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.

Now we see that Old Testament picture of God rescuing Israel out of Egypt, and he has the power to deliver. That's the key. God has the power to deliver you. There's not talking about a real hand. He doesn't have a hand.

I mean, the Lord Jesus has a hand. That's it. Spirit doesn't have a hand. The father doesn't have a hand. It's just language. So, what do hands do? They rescue. Arms are strong. You watch those fathers that rescue their kids from harm.

And they're usually in a parody of toxic masculinity, but you see these dads rescuing their kids falling off a bike or something like that over and over on video or on Instagram. God's hand is powerful and he can do whatever he wants.

And right now, he's going to exalt you at the proper time. So, just accept your circumstances and accept the trial and rest in that and stop trying to control everything. It is the Lord whose hand, his mighty hand and outstretched arm brings Israel out of Egypt, Deuteronomy chapter 5.

I stretch out my hand and strike Egypt in Exodus chapter 3. One author said, such an attitude and persistent activity of submission should be inspired by an awareness of God's sovereignty and providential control.

All things are under his mighty hand and by confidence in his loving care of his suffering people and his unfailing promise. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. If you want to pray for me regarding health things, that would be great.

It is good to be back here in Massachusetts on the radio again, here on podcasting, Spotify, K-A-J-V, K-A-G-V, K-J-V, 1110 AM, Alaska's Gospel Voice, and also in Wyoming, K-F-G-R of all places.

Thanks, Brian. Well, anyway, this is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio. You can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com. And you can also look forward to discovering Colossians from S. Lewis Johnson, adapted by Mike Abendroth on Amazon super soon.

By the time you hear this, it might already be out. Go to amazon .com and type in discovering Colossians, S. Lewis Johnson.