God is the Answer...[1 Peter 5:6-11]

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What do you do when you receive bad news? How do you respond when you get news that really challenges everything you think of?
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Someone calls you and says, sorry, there's no longer a position for you at the job. Yet you have a little one at home and a wife at home and a mortgage.
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The doctor says, I'm sorry, the baby has died. You have a miscarriage. What do you do when you get a notification that your spouse has passed?
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The test comes back, medical test, and it's not positive news. It's negative news. What do you do?
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We all live in a fallen world. We all live in a world with trials all around us.
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So we want to make sure we can respond rightly and well. And I just want you to know, ultimately, the answer to all these questions is found in the
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God who made you, the God who has redeemed you, and the God who preserves you.
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If you'll take your Bibles and turn to 1 Peter chapter 5 for our passage today, Lord willing, we'll be in Luke next week.
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I want to address this issue about trials, how inevitable they are, inescapable, and how we can please the
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Lord in the midst of trials, working through very difficult issues in a godly way so that we might honor the
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Lord who sought us and bought us with his redeeming love. Jesus warned his disciples.
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He said you'll have tribulation in this world, John 16. Paul said he's troubled on every side with trials.
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They're just a way of life. But the key, the ultimate key, is making sure you remember who
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God is. I thought I was going to prepare this message this week for you, because this has been a very difficult year for Bethlehem Bible Church, with spouses dying, and daughters with heart problems, and layoffs, and all kinds of other issues.
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But then, of course, what the Lord so often does, does he not, if you've taught the Bible at all, you begin thinking,
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I'm going to teach this for other people. I want to encourage them and fortify their faith in the
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Lord. And then all of a sudden, you have to go through a trial too, so then you have to live it before you preach it.
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How fair is that? And so this message has ministered to me all week, because it's the eternal
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Word of God. This message, I'm positive, not because it has anything to do with me, but because of the text and the
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Spirit of God, it will minister to you. It will serve a template, as a template for you, when the phone rings, and it's bad news.
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When the test comes back, and it's bad news. When something's going on in your life, and there's bad news, and you say, what's the ultimate solution?
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Oh, certainly there could be medical things done, and other things, but the ultimate solution is remembering who the
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Lord is. There's an Old Testament prophet who said, Thus says the
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Lord, let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the
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Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things.
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God is the answer, is the title of the message today, and it really answers every single question.
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Lord, what about this? Why? How can I honor you in this trial? Our passage today is 1st
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Peter chapter 5, verses 6 through 11. Now, when you first read this, you're probably going to think, oh, there's some responses there for me in the midst of suffering and trials.
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Now, those are true, but I want, as I read this, I want you to take a look and be observant to see if you can see anything about God in this.
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God tells us what to do, that certainly, but as I read it, I want you to focus in on, and see, and be aware of the fact that it's not just telling us what to do, although that's fine,
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God can do that anytime he wants. But there's a nature and the character of God in the midst of all this, and that's the key to this passage.
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1st Peter 5, verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
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Be sober -minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
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Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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And after you have suffered 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.
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To him be the dominion forever and ever. Did you notice?
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Did you see the mighty hand of God? Did you see he cares for you? Did you see he's the
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God of all grace? And that's going to be the key for our message today, understanding who God is and responding to him rightly when we're in a trial.
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Now the book of 1st Peter is a book about suffering. It's not necessarily suffering with health conditions, unless you think rightly so, that the church is being so persecuted by Satan and his minions that they're getting persecuted unto death.
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And they're a suffering church, and they're scattered, and they're on the run. They're elect exiles, chapter 1 says.
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And Peter wants to make sure that they stand firm in the faith. Peter, learning about the
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Lord Jesus day by day for those three years, wants to now make sure that you understand the proper role of suffering.
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And unlike people on TV, and unlike many of us, even if we think wrongly, the key is not glory first, and then the cross.
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It's suffering first, and then the cross. It was that way for Jesus, and it is for us.
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There's the cross before the crown. Now if you go back to chapter 1, it makes sense to watch
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Peter praise God, especially after Peter so often had foot -in -the -mouth -itis.
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I think that's what it's called technically. I started working on Latin on my Duolingo, and so I might have to throw a
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Latin word out here or there. Peter, who would say to Jesus, let's not, let's not, you're not going to die now.
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And Jesus has to say, get behind me, Satan. Peter, who denies Jesus how many times?
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Certainly more than once. And now Peter, on this side of the resurrection, and now the
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Spirit empowered and illuminating him to write, inspiring him rather, it says in verse 3, it all starts off with praise, in the midst of all the suffering, in the midst of the persecution, in the midst of exile, all across these places, in chapter 1, verse 1, he says, blessed be the
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God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he's caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
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They don't have much on earth now. They're scattered. They're persecuted. To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
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Kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
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In this, you suffering Christians rejoice. Now for a little while, if necessary, and it is because that's
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God's plan, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes through it, is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
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Though you have not seen him, just like us, you love him. Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
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And Peter just marches through chapter one about who Jesus is. Chapter two, how he's a the suffering servant and a great example in suffering.
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Chapter three, husbands and wives and how they deal with one another. Chapter four, don't be surprised when you're in a trial.
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Jesus suffered, we suffer. And we come to the end of the book and tucked here in verses six through eleven.
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I hope this passage will be like a pillow for your weary head that you can just rest your soul.
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The other day I saw online somebody tested, I think, ten different pillows. Which one was the best?
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This is the best one right here. Maybe you like my pillow. Maybe you like our pillow. Maybe you like all these other brands.
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This is the best pillow. You will find yourself running back to this passage a lot because it's so God -centered, so helpful, and because we all go through trials.
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Very, very simple outline today. Since God is mighty, be humbled.
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Since God cares, cast. And since God is gracious, suffer well.
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Three God -centered ways to respond to any trial, including up to death.
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Since God is mighty, be humble. Since God cares, cast. And since God is gracious, submit to the suffering in that trial.
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How should you respond to any trial? Dear Christian, here it comes. Number one. Since God is mighty, humble yourselves.
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This is the right response in a trial. Verse six. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so at the proper time
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He may exalt you. God is in control. God is sovereign.
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He's providentially orchestrated everything, and He wants you to just humble yourself in the trial.
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Instead of fighting against the trial, instead of kicking against the goads and bucking God's system, which would be fruitless, thinking somehow maybe functionally
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God's fallen from His throne, it's an acceptance. It doesn't mean you can't find cures.
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It doesn't mean you can't try to do things to get a new job. It doesn't mean that. It means while you're in the trial and you're suffering through it, you have to cease striving and know
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He's God. Psalm 46. You're in the fiery trial, and you know this is
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God's will, because God has a sovereign will, and whatever happens is God's will. He's sovereign over everything, including the trial.
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And so what Peter is saying is, instead of saying with a self -reliant, defiant heart, God, I would run this universe differently.
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I wouldn't have that health problem. I wouldn't have that job layoff. I wouldn't have this, that, or the other. I would do it differently. That's pride, and the opposite of pride is
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I'm just going to humble myself. I'm just going to accept this as God's will. I don't have to figure it all out.
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I don't need to know why. You can tell, at least with first Peter, the recipients, they're going through all this.
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They're trusting in Jesus. He's the God -man. They've entrusted their souls to a faithful creator who's doing what's right, and they're getting persecuted for it.
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And so Peter says, humble yourselves. When Jonathan Edwards, the great theologian in Princeton, died unexpectedly, he thought he would have a smallpox vaccination and lead the congregation in that, and many others.
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He died from that, and here's what his wife wrote. Tell me you think this is kicking against God's goads or humbling herself under the mighty hand of God.
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She wrote, what shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud.
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Oh, that we may kiss the rod and lay our hands on our mouths.
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The Lord has done it, but my God lives, and he has my heart. What a sweet godly response.
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And it's interesting because he could deliver you. What's the text going to say? Under the mighty hand of God.
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When you see mighty hand of God, I don't want you to think of five fingers in a hand. God doesn't have a hand.
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God is spirit. Jesus, of course, incarnate had hands, but here we're thinking about God. He's invisible.
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He has no body. How could he have a hand? This is just language for us to recognize, this anthropomorphic language, language that we'd use of humans.
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Can you think of a time in the Old Testament where Israel was in a bind, and by the mighty hand of God he rescues them?
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Of course, they're in Egypt, and they're slaves, and over and over the text says in Exodus that he rescued them.
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He delivered them with the mighty hand. This is the hand of deliverance. The same God that puts you in the circumstance of difficulty can rescue you.
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He's in charge. He understands. He's powerful to deliver his people. He's powerful to judge their enemies.
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This is the providential control of God. And this is what helps us submit to God's plan because he's powerful enough to sustain us through.
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He's powerful enough. He could have kept us out of it. He's powerful enough. He put us in it, and he can get us out of it.
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And we humbly accept our circumstances. For we know that for those who love God, all things work together for what?
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Good. For those who are called according to his purpose. This is how James could say, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
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This is how Paul could write in Romans. Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.
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And by the way, if God has a mighty hand to rescue, you should be thinking, that means he's not aloof.
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That means he's not far off. That means he's not in some other zip code doing something else. He's present.
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He's there. I'm the Lord. I'm with you always, even to the end, Jesus says.
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The power of God. Mary knew it. He has done mighty deeds with his arm. I love
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Isaiah 40. Behold, the Lord comes with might and his arm rules for him. His reward is with him.
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He will tend his flock like a shepherd. When you see a trial come into your life,
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I want you to filter it through or look through like the screen door of. Yes, but it's mighty hand of God.
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He's put me here. He can keep me here and he can take me out anytime he'd like. I'm not under God's thumb.
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I'm under his mighty providential hand and I don't want to kick against the goads and I don't want to pridefully ask
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God, what are you doing being impatient with him? God's sovereign.
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He does whatever he pleases. He's in the heavens. And by the way, it won't last forever.
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Do you see in verse six that he may exalt you at the proper. Now, there's a little lie in evangelicalism.
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Here's the lie that God won't give you more than you can handle. I think that's a lie.
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Maybe I shouldn't say lie, but I just kind of went into radio mode for a second. Of course, no temptation is overtaking you that is such as common to man as God is faithful.
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He won't give you more to it for a temptation so that you'll sin. But sometimes he gives you more than you can handle because you can't handle everything and and he shows us.
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Yes, in fact, we can't. Our shoulders aren't big enough. And we're under his watchful care, his mighty hand.
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But still the trials are real. The test results are real. The death in the family is real.
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And God sometimes severely test us. He does know our limits.
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That's certainly true. And he gets our attention this way. And here's something that we can have a great promise with.
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He may exalt you at the proper. I love the passages in the
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Psalms. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Just wait for the Lord. Rest in the
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Lord and wait patiently for him. And now, Lord, what do I do but wait? Yet those who wait for the
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Lord will gain new strength. They'll mount up with wings like eagles. We think waiting is
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I'm at Hannaford and I'm waiting in front of someone. I went yesterday.
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I figured if Kim's coming back to town, I better stock up on the fridge and clean everything and all that.
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And there was a nice lady in front of me. And I already thought I might not get along with her because she's got about 90 things of cat food.
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But I thought, I'm a Christian man anyway. And then she gets all the stuff done. The person said, would you like help with the cart to unload the stuff, the carriage outside?
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And she's walking away and the checker saying, sorry, it didn't go through. I'm like, they're going to have to re -ring all this stuff up.
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I mean, that's what I'm thinking about. Lord, I'm going to count it all joy or something that's stupid.
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These people were on the run. They're getting persecuted, suffering, dying, and they're waiting on the
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Lord. You know, the element of wait that I don't have in my own mind at Hannaford is the
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Hebrew word for wait. And that is eagerly anticipate. I'm anticipating
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God's going to do something. You know, that's what waiting means. Waiting on the Lord. It doesn't mean let go and let
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God. I'm not going to do anything. And I'm just going to float down the river on the inner tube. It's with that anticipation.
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I know He's going to do something. He's faithful to me. He's never let me down. Great is thy faithfulness.
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And I'm submissive to His will. I'm not going to buck the system as it were.
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And I know God's powerful and He's going to exalt me at the right time. I'm anticipating that. He's promised it.
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And when you have hope, that goes a long way. Pastor Steve gave me a quote from Spurgeon yesterday.
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We are too prone to engrave our trials in marble and write our blessings in sand.
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Charles Spurgeon. It's the other way around. He will exalt you one day. Now, certainly that trial you have could go all the way till you go to glory.
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That's true. But it still doesn't last forever. If you're in a trial right now,
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God is going to keep you there and work on you until He's done working on you.
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And then He'll exalt you. Spurgeon also said, had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you find yourself?
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Laid off, sick child, all the other things in life that you can think of as trials.
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Had any other condition been better for you than the one in which you find yourself? Divine love would have placed you there.
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Now, that's easier said than done, but it's true. What about you?
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Are you going through a trial? What's your response been? Well, sometimes our responses aren't good.
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But then we say, Lord, grant me repentance because I want to start thinking rightly. I want to humble myself in this trial.
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You know, my wife and I want children. We can't have them now. You know, I'm single and I want to have a wife or a husband right now, and I just can't find that godly person.
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God has a mighty hand. He's there presently. You humble Himself to your plan, and at the right time,
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He's going to exalt you. He's mighty enough to sustain you.
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He's mighty enough to get you in the trial, through the trial, and out of the trial. Yes, but I don't understand.
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All you need to know here, in this passage particularly, is God is powerful. And in chapter 4, 3, 2, 1, here's who
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Jesus is, and how He's redeemed you. He's reconciled you to the Father. He loves you.
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We read in Revelation chapter 1 today, He loves us. Remember William Cooper?
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God moves in a mysterious way. His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm.
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Deep in unfathomable minds of never -failing skill, He treasures up His bright designs and works
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His sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, take courage. The clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessings on your head.
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Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace. Behind a frowning providence,
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He hides a smiling one that just shall live by faith.
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His timing is. But that's not all. Verse 7 goes on to talk about God cares for us.
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How do you respond to a trial rightly? One, since God is humble, excuse me, since God is mighty, we humble ourselves.
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Since God is caring, we cast. We cast our cares. One of the things
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I'm wanting you to see, and I'll just make it explicit now, is that we never should take the law of God, a command of God, an imperative of God, and detach it from the person of God.
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I've got all these commandments I have to keep, and all these laws I have to do, and all these rules, and just like rules abstractly.
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No, no. They're tied in to who God is. And so when God the Father gives you a rule or a command, be humbled.
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He's doing it because He'll get exalted and it's good for you. The law and the lawgiver always go together.
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And here He wants us to cast our cares on Him because He cares. Isn't this wonderful?
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Verse 7, casting just a few of your anxieties on Him. I'm sorry, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.
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Here's some different translations, looser translations. Give all your worries to Him because He cares for you.
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Give all your worries and cares to God for He cares about what happens to you. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon Him for you are
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His personal concern. I mean, we used to be enemies and now what the
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Lord Jesus has done is made us friends. And not only friends, adopted as sons and daughters into the kingdom.
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And now we say the Lord's shoulders are big enough as it were, I'm just going to give Him all my troubles, all my worries, all my cares.
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It's technically tied in with the verse before it. Humble yourselves by casting.
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Pride says I keep all my things to myself. I'm just that kind of person. I'm autonomous. I'm self -dependent.
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I don't need all those things. The real way to humble yourself is to cast and not say
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I'll do it my way. The word cast means when you take a garment and you throw it over an animal so Jesus can ride it.
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Dear Christian, you were never meant to carry your worries. You can't do it.
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I can't do it. Casting all your cares because the
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Father cares for you. You've trusted the Father with your eternal soul. Can't you trust
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Him with the cares? Psalm 68, blessed be the Lord who daily bears our burden, the
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God who is our salvation. I know it is improper from this pulpit to quote movies and movie themes.
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Some churches, that's their whole summer. This week is the biblical themes in Barbie and next week it's the biblical themes in Indiana Jones.
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When we do that here, it's time to get a match out for this building. Biblical themes in Barbie.
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I mean, I just look at those people that do that and think, you know, that's a wolf who does that. But I will quote a movie.
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I won't tell you what movie it is because I just don't want to, but you know what it is. You can't handle the truth.
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You are all pagans. You watch it all the time. Netflix. You can't handle the anxiety.
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You can't handle the worry and neither can I. By the way, when we think we can,
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I'll tell you what happens. Tension headaches, insomnia, ulcers, restricting saliva, tooth decay, fatigue, difficult concentrating, irritableness, muscle tension, etc.
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You can't handle it. We're not made to do it. We're supposed to cast our cares. Proverbs 12, 25, anxiety in the heart of a man weighs it down, but a good word makes it clad.
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Here's your good word. Cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares for you. All your anxiety.
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Not a little bit. All of it. Jesus himself was in the stern asleep on the cushion and they woke him and said to him, teacher, don't you care that we're perishing?
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And being aroused, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still. The wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
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Why are you so timid? How is it that you have? No. Big burdens you cast.
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Little burdens you cast. The word cares simply means something that's divided and so you think two things about it.
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You've got a concern and it divides you, so instead of trusting the Lord of their hearts and not leaning on our own understanding, it's making us think about these other things and we're kind of all tabbing back and forth.
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Interestingly, the word for worry in English comes from the word to strangle. To strangle, because what does worry do?
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It strangles you. Remember the old Presbyterian pastor, J. Adams, some of you know him. He would always get up and preach without a tie.
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In my circles, you preach with a tie because then you're godly. And he said, why do women live to be 80 on average and men 70?
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Answer, slow strangulation. Ties. You know what
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I'm talking about. It's three in the morning and it's like you're strangling yourself with worries. They just compound themselves.
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And Peter wants to remind you that in the midst of all your worries, God exists. God cares.
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As worry chokes out the life of faith, thinking about who God is helps us.
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There's a lady named Elisha Hoffman. She wrote a song called, I Must Tell Jesus. I must tell
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Jesus all my trials. I cannot bear these burdens alone. In my distress,
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He kindly will help me. He ever loves and cares for his own. I must tell Jesus. I must tell
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Jesus. I cannot bear my burdens alone. I must tell Jesus. I must tell
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Jesus. Jesus can help me. Jesus alone. Someone said, worry is like a rocking chair.
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It will give you something to do, but you don't get anywhere. Another man said, worry is an indication that we think
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God cannot look after us. Someone wrote, worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow.
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It only saps today of its strength. And with conviction, this man said, worry is practical atheism and an affront to God.
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To be direct, worry is sin. Anxiety is sin. Be anxious for nothing.
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So when I am anxious in worry, and I do become anxious in worry, I have to say, Lord, that's sinful, because I'm trying to carry the burden and I'm supposed to cast it on you.
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Would you please forgive me? And what does the Lord do? Of course I forgive you, because if you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive.
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Literally, He cares for you means it matters to Him about you. The God of the universe cares about you and me.
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How could that be? I mean, there are millions of people, billions of people. When I used to go to football games, when
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Nebraska used to be good, there'd be like 75 ,000 people at Memorial Stadium. And I look around, I'm thinking, God knows every one of these people's thoughts.
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He knows every one of these people. Not in a saving sense, but He knows them. But how could
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He do that? He knows all His people and He knows His flock.
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And the sheep hear His voice. And if He's given us His Son, will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
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Don't be anxious for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor your body as what you shall put on.
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Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, they don't sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your
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Heavenly Father feeds them. Bethlehem Bible Church, are you not worth much more than they? Which one of you can be anxious, being anxious, can add a single cubit to his lifespan?
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And why are you anxious about clothing? Observe the lilies of the field, they do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you,
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Jesus said, even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe themselves like one of these. Do not be anxious then.
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What should we eat? What do we drink? How should we clothe ourselves? What about the test results? What about this issue?
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What about that issue? What about my job? And we go on and on. Verse 32 of Matthew 6, for all these things that Gentiles eagerly seek, for your
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Heavenly Father knows that you need these things. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
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Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
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The just shall live by worry. May it never be, the just shall live by faith.
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Your confidence, dear Christian, my confidence should be in the fact that Jesus actually does care. He genuinely cares for his people.
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He's not remote. He's not unattached. So if you're holding on to a care, why don't you cast it even right now?
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Say, Lord, please forgive me for holding on to this. I just laid at your feet. Say, well, you know what?
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If I thought Jesus was more compassionate, maybe I'd laid at his feet. Soon afterwards,
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Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd went with him. As he drew near to the gate of the town, behold, a man who had died was being carried out, the only son of his mother.
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She was a widow. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, do not weep.
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Then he came up and touched the beer, like the casket thing, and the bear stood still.
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And he said, young man, I say to you, arise. And the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother.
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I read that, and I think, God cares. While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler's house someone who said, your daughter's dead.
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Why trouble the teacher any further? But overhearing that they said this, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not fear, only believe.
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He allowed no one to follow except Peter, James, and John. They came to the house of the ruler, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping, wailing loudly.
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And when he entered, he said to them, why are you making such a commotion? The child's not dead, but sleeping. And they laughed at him.
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But he put them all outside and took the child's father and mother, and those were with him and went in where the child was, taking her by the hand and said, little girl,
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I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl got up and began walking, for she was twelve years old.
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And they were immediately overcome with amazement, and he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat.
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Isn't the Lord Jesus compassionate? You see it in Scriptures. You've seen it in your own life. And if He's that compassionate, and you give the cares to Him, He'll take them.
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We're supposed to cast our cares on Him. Come to me, all who weary and heavy laden.
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Jesus said with compassion and caring, I'll give you rest. I'm gentle and lowly in heart.
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My yoke is easy, my burden is light. He cares for you. We're in a situation, and we think, you know what,
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I'm going to humble myself. God has me here for a reason. Mighty hand of God, I'll be exalted at another time. And also,
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I'm not going to just hoard up all my worries. I'm going to have to say, Lord, forgive me, and I'm going to give you those worries.
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Lastly, not only is God mighty, so humble yourselves. Not only is God caring, so cast your troubles on Him.
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But since God is gracious, suffer well. Let me read this to you, and I want you to be thinking about persecution, and how
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Satan hates what Jesus loves. Jesus dies for the church, builds the church. Satan is trying to attack the church, persecute the church.
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And what's going on here is Peter is certainly recognizing that what's behind the persecution of the church is
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Satan. Most likely using people, of course, but Satan is causing the church to suffer.
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He wants to stomp it out. And so they're getting persecution, they're getting persecuted rather.
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And it says here, verse 8, be sober minded, be watchful.
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Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kind of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
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After you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, the mighty hand of God, the
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God who cares, and now the God of all grace, who has called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will
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Himself with grace restore, with Himself with grace confirm, with grace strengthen, and with grace establish you.
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Satan can do a lot of things. We can't necessarily tell if it's Satan or not, if it's a fallen world or not, if it's us getting ourselves into trouble or not, but you can see the effects.
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Could you not see the effects of Satan's persecution when it comes to Job? Job losing his ten children,
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Job losing his riches, Job having all the blisters and sores all over his body, that was all due to Satan.
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Certainly, Satan can only do what God has let him do, but he still can do things. Satan is alive, he's real.
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And since he's alive and he's real, don't sleep on the job. That's what it says in the Greek.
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Be sober -minded, be watchful. Walk circumspectly, don't walk around like there's no such thing as Satan, don't walk around like everything's
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Satan, you know, I've got sinus problems, that must be Satan. We have to kind of walk the fine line, we have to be sober and think rightly, we have to be watchful to think about these things properly.
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Satan exists. But our advocate exists too, when Satan goes and says, can you believe
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Abendroth is suffering wrongly? Can you believe Abendroth is having anxiety over things?
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Can you believe that he's not humbling himself under your mighty hand, God? Then we have an advocate with the
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Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, right? We have to think through these things as we walk in this life.
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I'm not going to go crazy casting out demons, sending them to Fitchburg or anywhere else. How many from Fitchburg again?
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We always have a few, sorry. Okay, Gardner, Farther. Soberness includes not blaming everything on the devil, but soberness includes there is a devil who's doing things behind the scenes, and in this context, persecuting the church, it's not the
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Holy Spirit persecuting the church, it's Satan. So Peter just wants them to make sure that they're paying attention.
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I'm sure resonating in Peter's ear was Jesus, when Jesus said, just be on the alert and pray.
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Watch, and they fall asleep. He knows how important it is. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light, and his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
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You have to be careful. And maybe this is the most important thing that I can say for us today regarding this passage.
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The word devil, Satan, it means slander, slander.
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Now we're not suffering for the cause of righteousness here in America yet,
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I'm sure it's coming. But we have to remember to think soberly and righteously and watchfully, so that we don't fall prey to Satan's slanders.
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If God really loved you, he wouldn't put you in that situation. How can God be good and let that happen to your child?
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How can God be, and the answers go along and along and along they go, it means slander,
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Satan. So we have to walk carefully so we're not blaming God. May we never blame God for anything.
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God never has to be asked for forgiveness. I mean, he never has to ask for forgiveness.
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And to get our attention, you think of something strong and powerful, you better run from it.
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He calls the adversary, verse 8, like a lion. Powerful, strong.
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This is not some kind of tiny little animal, this is a lion. And it's interesting because the word there, prowling, means walking back and forth, like a teacher would, peripatetically walking back and forth.
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You see him at the zoo, and the animal in the zoo just walks back and forth.
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It's like it's looking for that little spot to kind of get out and get you. In the old days, you could get up pretty close to fences of zoos, but not any longer.
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Kim, I remember her telling me the story, her brother had his pacifier and was taunting one of the monkeys in the zoo in California.
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And if I remember the story right, the monkey grabbed the pacifier, put it in his mouth, and started sucking real hard.
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And Steve Duncan, Kim's brother, kept shouting, monkeys got my fire, monkeys got my fire, monkeys got my fire.
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The word roaring is the word for roar. It's an onomatopoetic word, it means it sounds like it's roaring.
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It's loud. We have to think rightly. Should we think rightly about God?
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And what does that say? It's so interesting that it says that God's a God of grace.
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Oh, once in a while I've not thought rightly, and I have kind of blamed God, and I've asked him why, like he owes me an explanation.
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And I as a Christian even do that, and I want you to know God is a God of grace. Doesn't it say that in verse 10?
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And after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace who's called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
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What a name of God, the God of all grace. Psalm 86, God you are merciful and gracious.
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Micah 7, who's a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious acts? All grace to save, all grace to sanctify, all grace to glorify.
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Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12, my grace is sufficient for you, Jesus said to Paul, for power is perfected in weakness.
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Trials put us in our place, and the God of grace sustains us. Did not
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Jonathan Newton, who wrote Amazing Grace, say, tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will what?
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He'll lead me home. He's got me all the way to the end. If I could lose my salvation, I would, but he's got me.
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Dear Christians, suffering is not going to last forever. And the suffering you have on earth compared to heaven, listen to what 2
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Corinthians says, for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison.
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While we look not at the things that are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
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I look at this and I think, this is the way to suffer well. This is how
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Jesus suffered well, and he was ultimately, of course, exalted. And grace, do you see those four little great things that grace does there?
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First of all, to make sure it restores, that means your joints are out of whack, and you go to the chiropractor and they manipulate your neck and they crack it and put it back into place.
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That's what this is used of, spiritually. To confirm, that means so you can put your feet on a rock.
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And we're weak and we don't respond rightly to trials, but God puts our feet on a rock by confirming this.
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Strengthening, giving us grace to strengthen so we can do it. And then establishment, it's got the word like with the roots, roots that go deep.
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Grace, grace, marvelous grace. And then he ends it like he started it in verse 6, talking about the mighty power of God.
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God is mighty, be humble. God is caring, cast. God is gracious, suffer well. Now to Him be the dominion forever and ever.
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Amen. He's got the power. This is like Jude, the doxology.
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Glory, majesty, dominion, authority before all time, now and forever. So dear
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Christian, you're going through a trial. God's the answer.
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God is the one that you need to be thinking about. And for all week long I've been thinking to myself, God is mighty.
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When we were young parents, we'd teach our children all kinds of songs. And it's funny how even kids' songs now minister to me.
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What a mighty God we serve. What a mighty God we serve. Angels bow before Him.
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Heaven and earth adore Him. What a mighty God we serve. God is mighty. He can do whatever
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He wants. So I'll be humbled. God cares. The Lord Jesus cares for me.
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I mean if there's one person in the universe that you would want to care for you, who would it be? That person would be the
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Lord Jesus, and He does. And also I know He's a God of grace.
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If you're not going through a trial, maybe you can encourage people that are, and point them back to who God is.
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If you're an unbeliever here, I want you to know there's no sin that you've ever done that's so bad that God's grace in Christ can't forgive you.
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Because Jesus Christ comes to save sinners. A woman with a sinful past in John 7,
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Jesus saves. Thief on the cross who's essentially a murderer and an insurrectionist, Jesus saves.
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A Samaritan woman caught in adultery after adultery after adultery, Jesus saves. Paul persecuting the church, imprisoning
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Christians and killing them, Jesus saves. Sounds like He's a savior of sinners, and you need to trust in Him today, dear unbeliever.
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Even the best Christians fail. Even the strongest
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Christians are weak at times. It doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It means you're struggling.
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And there was a theologian, and I have a systematic theology, it's about that big, maybe 800 pages, by a man named
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Robert Dabney, Presbyterian. He was a minister, a chaplain, and he was chief of staff to General Stonewall Jackson.
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He was a seminary professor. I mean, if anybody's going to walk through life humbling himself into the mighty hand of God, casting his cares on Him because He cares for you, and suffering properly because the
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God is the God of all grace, wouldn't it be Dabney? He started to get older, and he was worried about his death, that what if he won't die honorably?
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What if he won't die in Christ Jesus? What if he won't hold on to the faith when he's old and sick and tired?
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Will he make it to the end? His friend wrote this.
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Dear friend, let me advise you now as you have often advised me.
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If you were about to cross a deep chasm and there were a bridge over it, would you stand there looking in at yourself, wondering if you trusted enough in bridges to be able to cross?
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Or would you not rather go and examine the beams and the timbers of the bridge, and the quality of its construction, and determine whether the bridge was trustworthy, and then pass over it in confidence?
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Dear friend, our faith is in Christ. Spend yourself focusing on Him and His sufficiency, rather than on yourself.
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Now with me please, Father in heaven, I thank you for these dear people. In your providence, what some would call a frowning providence, our church has gone through a lot lately, but you've been faithful.
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And already out of some of the very difficult circumstances, I've heard testimonies about how these ones who have kissed the rod give public testimony about your goodness and kindness, even though they're suffering.
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Would you strengthen them? Would you confirm them? Would you restore them because you're a God of all grace?
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And Father, if anyone's here holding on to worry, holding on to anxiety, would you help them to cast?
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I think about the Lord Jesus, who humbled Himself to the point of death. He became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross by humbling
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Himself to God's plan. Thank you for such a great Savior that we have. Would you work in our lives so that heaven will sound even more glorious as we say,