I want you to turn with me this
morning to Acts chapter 12 for my text. Mitch, if I get a little long
in preaching, I'll understand if you and Avery have to leave.
I used to be in that volleyball with my daughter, and you don't
want to forfeit a game. Let's read in the last few verses
of chapter 11, in verse 27 and read the 12th chapter of the
book of Acts. Acts chapter 11, verse 27. And
in these days came prophets from Jerusalem unto Antioch. There
stood up one of them named Agabus and signified by the Spirit that
there should be a great druth throughout all the world which
came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar, great famine. Then the
disciples, every man according to his ability, determined to
send relief unto the brethren which dwelt in Judea, which also
they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas
and Saul. Now about that time, Herod the
king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church. And he killed James, the brother
of John, with a sword. And because he saw that it pleased
the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were
the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him,
he put him in prison. and delivered him to four quarterians
of soldiers, 16 soldiers, to keep him, intending after Easter
to bring him forth to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in
prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God
for him. And when Herod would have brought
him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains, and the keepers before the door kept
the prison. And behold, the angel of the
Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison, and he
smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise
up quickly. And his chains fell off from
his hand. And the angel said unto him,
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he said unto him, Cast thy
garment about thee, and follow me. And he went out and followed
him, and wished not that it was true which was done by the angel,
but thought he saw a vision. When they were past the first
and second ward, they came into the iron gate that leadeth into
the city, which opened to them of his own accord. And they went
out and passed on through one street, and forthwith the angel
departed from him. And when Peter was come to himself,
he said, now I know of a surety that the Lord has sent his angel
to have delivered me out of the hand of Herod and from the expectation
of the people of the Jews. And when he had considered the
thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose
surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to
hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter's voice,
she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter
stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou
art mad. But she constantly affirmed that
it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking,
and when they had opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. But he beckoned unto them with
a hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought
him out of the prison. And he said, go show these things
unto James and to the brethren. And he departed and went unto
another place. And as soon as it was day, there
was no small stir among the soldiers what was become of Peter. And
when Herod had sought for him and found him not, he examined
the keepers and commanded that they should be put to death.
and he went down from Judea to Caesarea and their abode. And
Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, but they
came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus the king's
chamberlain their friend, desired peace, because their country
was nourished by the king's country. And upon a set day Herod arrayed
in royal apparel, set upon his throne, and made an oration of
speech unto them. And the people gave a shout,
saying, It is the voice of a God, and not of a man. And immediately
the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory.
And he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. But the word
of the Lord grew and multiplied." Now, we can stop there. I want
to look at this whole passage with you this morning. This is
probably, no doubt, the first and the greatest trial the church
had ever faced up until this time because everything now seemingly
had turned against them. They'd had trials before. The
false religion had turned on them and persecuted them. But
now there was a great drought, a great famine that had come
throughout the land and the poor saints at Jerusalem were suffering
from that. And then the government turns
on. Herod turns on him and kills James. We don't know if he stabbed
him in the heart, if he decapitated him, but he killed the apostle
James. And he saw that it pleased the
Jews. False religion now had openly turned on him. They put
Peter in prison, and the night before Herod was to bring him
forth and kill him, this great miracle took place. But one of
the things here that caught my attention when I read this was
that Peter was sleeping between these two soldiers. And I thought,
that's an amazing thing for this man to be sleeping between these
two soldiers the night before they bring him before Herod probably
to kill him. Now that's amazing when you consider
this, you consider the predicament this man was in. I'm sure he
knew that the church was praying for him, but he had no idea if
the Lord was gonna deliver him or not, humanly speaking, he
was a dead man. And yet he was sleeping. And
I think this word here that the Holy Spirit uses, he was sleeping,
it has the meaning of a deep sleep. It's that sleep they put
you into when they do surgery on you and you're at the point
of death. You can't feel anything or know anything. That probably
would explain why the angel came in and lit up the whole room,
but it didn't wake Peter up. Smote him on his side, but it
still didn't wake him up. He was in this deep, deep sleep. And you consider this man also,
he had something about him that he was intimidated by people.
You remember when he denied the Lord Jesus three times and cursed
and swore, I don't know the man? A little maid made him do that,
because he was so intimidated by man. He had the fear of man
in his heart, and if the Lord didn't give him grace to dispel
that fear, he always yielded to it. I don't know the man,
I'm telling you, I don't know him. Galatians chapter two, he
denied the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace that he preached
and he loved. He denied that gospel because
he feared what man would even say to him. But now he's here
and he's sleeping between these soldiers and he's bound with
a chain. All these other soldiers in prison
watching to make sure he doesn't escape. The next day he's gonna
come and probably lose his life and yet he's sleeping. Isn't that amazing? And my subject
this morning is this, just a question. What keeps you up at night? What keeps you awake at night? Now sometimes it's good to stay
awake. I remember we read about the Lord Jesus Christ praying
all night. Now that's good to stay up and
pray, isn't it? The church here was awake probably
somewhat early in the morning, and they still were awake all
night praying and seeking the Lord. David stayed awake sometime
all night and prevented the morning just meditating on the Lord and
meditating in his word. Sometimes it's good to stay awake. That's good. But if the things
that's keeping you awake should not keep you awake, then let's
find out what it is. and see if all of us can leave
here today, and if something is keeping us awake that shouldn't
keep us awake, maybe we can solve that by seeing why Peter could
lay and sleep under these circumstances that he felt himself under. What would a man have to know
and to believe that could sleep under these circumstances? I
don't know about you, brothers and sisters. I'd have probably
laid there with tears running down my eyes. I'd have probably
been sobbing. The soldiers would have been
punching me. Would you please shut up and quit sobbing? We've
got to get some rest." That would have been me, but it wasn't Peter. What did this man believe? What
did he know that gave him the grace just to lay down and rest
and sleep under these circumstances? Well, let's ask Peter, okay?
Let's go to Peter and see what this man believed and what he
knew that enabled him to lay down and rest, okay? And that's all I wanna do, go
to his testimony this morning and see what he says. Okay, first
of all then I want you to turn to first Peter chapter 3 and
Look in verse 21 first Peter chapter 3 I Don't want you to
look in verse 21 What did Peter know and believe That enabled him to lay down
and sleep under these circumstances I want you to look in verse 21
and verse 22 of 1 Peter chapter 3. Peter was talking about water
baptism. The lack figure were to even
water baptism doeth now save us, not the putting away of the
filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards
God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now look here what Peter
knew concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. He has gone unto heaven,
And he is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and
powers being made subject unto him. Now, Herod was a king and he
was a very cruel man. And he'd already killed James
and he determined to kill Peter. What was it that enabled Peter
to lay down without fearing this king? It was because he knew
that he had a king in heaven that ruled over all authorities
and power, and therefore, Herod could not touch Peter except
the Lord give him permission. Brothers and sisters, one of
the most confident things I have found out in the last few years
is Washington, D.C. don't rule in this nation. And
that's very confident right now, is it not? I don't mean to get
on politics, I never bring politics into the pulpit, but it's not
about politics, is it? This is the most corrupt, lawless,
God-hating, church-hating administration that I've ever witnessed in my
life. And the end of it is this, to shut down believers if they
can. The end of this administration
is to trample out the knowledge of God, the knowledge of Jesus
Christ, and the knowledge of the gospel if they can. And how
can you and I put all of this out of our minds and lay down
at night and rest? It's knowing that Jesus Christ
rules the White House. He rules the state house in Montana. And he rules your house. That's
why Peter couldn't lay down and sleep. I imagine those soldiers
taunted him, don't you? Boy, tomorrow, buddy, they're
gonna cut your head off. Why don't you just recant? Why
don't you deny this Jesus of Nazareth that you've been preaching?
And go to Herod and fall down before him and call him Lord
and maybe he'll have some mercy upon you. You poor wretch you. Little did they know that Peter
would be delivered and they would be the ones that died the next
day. Who would have ever thought that this mighty king, who exalted
himself as God, would be dead the next day and eaten with worms? Our Lord is so sovereign, he
is such a sovereign king and ruler over all things, it's no
problem with him to dispose of his enemies. And that's comforting
to me. Is it to you? It is. And so whatever happens this
election in the White House, it really makes no difference,
does it? Makes no difference whatsoever. Because Jesus Christ,
the Lord, is on the right hand of God, and everything is subject
unto him. Remember mighty King Nebuchadnezzar?
He was the mightiest man in this world when he reigned over Babylon. And all the known world built
that huge idol and commanded everybody to fall down and worship
that idol. And there was three Jews there
that said, we don't know if the Lord's gonna deliver us today
or not. But there's one thing for sure, we won't bow to your
idols. And the Lord that we serve is
able to deliver us if he's pleased to, if he's willing to. And boy,
Nebuchadnezzar, he got in a rage. He stood up and started pointing
to those men and said, I'm gonna give you one more chance. When
you hear the music, if you don't bow, I'm gonna throw you in my
fire furnace. And boy, the rage on his face,
his face was twisted and he raised his voice and everybody trembled,
but those three men, And they did not tremble because they
knew who they served. The Lord that we serve is able
to deliver us from you. You're a king, Nebuchadnezzar.
You got a king reigns over you. And boy, they threw him in the fiery
furnace. You knew how that ended. But a few days after that, the
Lord appeared to this king, Nebuchadnezzar, sent him out into the field to
eat grass like an oxen. His hair grew out and his fingernails
grew out like eagle's claws until he knew that the Most High rules
in the kingdom of men and sets over it whomsoever he pleased.
And that old king said, I praise and exalt him. He lives forever
and he does according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of this earth and nobody can stay
his hand. What about King Herod? No worms
gonna eat him tomorrow. puny little man, can any man
stay his hand, no. Don't that give you rest? Won't
that enable you to lay down tonight and say, I'm not gonna be concerned
about these political leaders. Let them do what they will. The
Lord reigns over them. My Lord and my Savior is their
Lord and he's their King. So Peter just laid down and slept. went into this deep sleep. There's
the first thing. Brothers and sisters, if you've
been watching the news, and it's got you so upset with what's
going on in our political world, then remember, your Lord is in
heaven. And all these political figures
can't move a muscle. They can't pass a law. They can't
enforce what they pass unless the Lord gives them permission
to do it. Something else that enabled Peter
to sleep between these two soldiers, and we find it in 1 Peter 2.
I want you to look here at this, 1 Peter 2. There's some things,
there's one thing here that's kept me up. and it's probably
kept you up too. Guilt ever keep you up worrying
about your sins? Have you ever laid thinking,
man, what did I do today? Man, what did I say today? Look
at my awful, awful motives today. I have sinned against my God.
And you're like David, have watered your pillow with your tear. Ever
have your sins to keep you up at night? Peter must not have been worried
about his sins because he was fast asleep. How could he sleep
mowing himself to be a sinner? A man has to be either ignorant
of his sins and ignorant of the holy God that he's facing, or
he knows that his sins have been taken care of. One of those two
things. Lost men sin as they will and
lay down at night and give no thought of it, go right to sleep.
But they're ignorant. But Bud Peter wasn't ignorant,
was he? He knew that he was a sinner. And he knew that God was holy.
And he knew that maybe tomorrow I'm going out to face that holy
God. And yet he was asleep. Peter, what about your sin? Aren't
you concerned? Aren't you worried? Aren't you
anxious about your sins against God? Well, he tells us about
that, doesn't he? I want you to look in 1 Peter
2 and look here in verse 21. Look in verse 21. Chapter 2 verse Peter even here
to you were you called because Christ also suffered for us Leaving
us in an example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin
neither was any gall found in his mouth? Who when he was reviled
reviled not again when he suffered he threatened not but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously Now look at this who his own
self bear our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being
dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose stripes
we are healed. Peter said he, the Lord Jesus,
bear our sins and his own body were on the tree. Now this is amazing to me. We
call this substitution, don't we? He bare our sins. Now, I want you to think, I know
I'm preaching to the choir this morning, I know that, but I want
to remind you of something, because we forget this. We get overwhelmed
with the knowledge of our sins and our guilt, and it gets us
down. I want you to remember this. 2,000 years ago, on the
cross of Calvary, God did something that you cannot do and I cannot
do. He rounded up all of the sins
of His elect people and put them in the body of His Son. Jesus bore our sins in His own
body. Now brothers and sisters, I believe
in the transfer of sin. I have dear friends that don't
believe that. I had a dear friend that said, it's impossible to
transfer sins. It's impossible with man. But
all we, like sheep, have gone astray, and God hath put on Him
the iniquity of us all. He searched every crack and every
crevice, and got all the sins of all His elect, and took them
all with one bundle, and laid them on His Son. We find that
in pictures in the Old Testament. Remember the day of atonement
when the high priest would put his head on the hands of the
scapegoat? And he had confessed on that
goat all the sins of the children of Israel, putting them upon
the head of that goat. Now that did not literally happen. We know that. It's impossible
for a mere man like Aaron to transfer sins to a goat, and
how would the goat bear them anyway? The blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sin, but that was a picture of what was
to be done in reality upon the cross of Calvary. On the cross
of Calvary, God did take our sins, and He put them in the
body of His Son. Now, where are those sins? They're
no more on you, Mitch. Where are they? They're on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now He bears them. And if He
bears them, that means you don't bear them anymore. But when God
put them on Him, now He becomes responsible. Jesus, what are
you gonna do with those sins that's on you? How are you gonna
handle that? How are you gonna answer to God?
How's the justice of God gonna deal with you? They're your sins
now. And bud, we know how the justice
of God dealt with him, don't we? It made him cry out, my God,
my God. Oh, it made him cry out. What
man had did to him? They pierced my hands and my
feet. What devils had did to him? They compassed him about
like the bulls of Bashan. The whole universe came in upon
him. The justice of God, the vengeance
of God. God was angry with him. Why? He was suffering for our sins.
Ain't that what Peter tells us in chapter three in verse 18?
Look at this. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God,
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. My goodness. Is guilt keeping
you up? Then look away from your guilt.
Look outside of yourself to where the Lord Jesus Christ took your
sins and He suffered for your sins. He paid the full price
for your guilt. There is no more sin. I'm not
sorry to tell you that. You say, Bruce, but I feel it.
I'm telling you your feelings will deceive you. But Bruce,
they grieve me, I weep over them, I confess them. Yet, in all the
time that you're doing that, you must know and believe that
your sins have been suffered for. Your sins have been put
away. So if it's guilt that's keeping
you up, didn't keep Peter up. Look outside of yourself. 2,000 years ago on the cross
of Calvary, Jesus Christ took your sins and he suffered for
your sins and he put your sins away. Brother Henry Mahan used to make
a statement like this and he made it all. It was a simple
statement when he made it. He said, if Jesus Christ paid
my debt, then I don't owe it anymore. That's a simple statement,
profound statement, is it not? You are bought with a price,
and that price atoned for your sins. Keep that in mind tonight
when you pillow your head. You'll never face God, dear child
of God, in your sins. They're gone. They're atoned
for. The price is paid. I love that, don't you? Chris came up to me last night
after the service, and I made a statement about particular
redemption, and he said, I believe that. But he said, there's a
word that I like better. And he said, that's personal.
I like that too, Chris. That's personal. Christ burnt
our sins in his own body, and Peter included all the elect,
all the church. But Paul got more personal, didn't
he? Christ loved me. And he gave
himself for me. And therefore I can lay down
of the night and rest. The thing that always, all through
my teenage years, the thing that kept me from rejoicing to know
that I was gonna meet God is this one thing. I cannot meet
him in my sins. That kept me awake. I'd give
him all kinds of promises. Lord, if you don't kill me tonight,
I promise you tomorrow I'll do better. Always promising him
and always breaking my promises. until I found out that God had
punished my sins. And they were no more. And then
I could lay down and sleep. I could lay down and rest. Your
sin's bothering you? Guilt keeping you awake? And
Peter said, I know this, and I believe this, that my Lord
was punished for my sins and paid my debt. Thirdly, Peter knew this. Turn
to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. This man was facing
death the next day, and I'm sure he believed this with all his
heart. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
already caused this man to confront the reality of death. I want
you to look in 2 Peter 1 and look in verse 14. This is what
the Lord had told Peter. knowing this shortly, that I
must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
has showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that
ye may be able after my death, my deceased, to have these things
always in remembrance. Boy, you remember when the Lord
told Peter, when you were a young man, you girded yourself, And
you went pretty much where you wanted to go. But it ain't gonna
be long, Peter, you're an old man. And they gonna lead you
someplace you really wouldn't wanna go. They gonna kill you. They gonna kill you. And Peter
had come to terms with dying. He wasn't ignorant about death.
He knew that God had appointed a day in which he would die,
and he comes to terms with that. Now it wasn't terms like hospice
get people to come to terms with. And I love that organization.
They were so good to my dad and so good to my wife, but what
they kept telling my dad about death was when he got afraid
of dying, death is a reality. Everybody's gonna die, so just
don't worry about it. You better worry about it if
you're out of Christ. If you're dead in your sins, you better
worry about it. You're ready to face God in your sins and
you're not able to do that. Peter wasn't ignorant about being
a sinner and knowing that he's gonna face God. But this is the
thing, the Lord taught him, Peter, you're going to die, but he taught
him this. Jesus Christ died in your stead
and raising again has given you a good hope of life eternal. Death is no more to the believer.
It will not sting you. It will not hurt you. It's just
your gateway into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Peter come to terms with that. He believed what Paul said when
Paul said, I will never, when the Lord said, I will never leave
you or forsake you. And I've got a desire to depart
and to be with Christ, which is far better. How could a guy
say that? He'd been given a good hope through
grace, hasn't he? Been given a good hope through
grace. I want you to turn over to the
book of Psalms with me right quick. Hold second verse Peter
there just a minute, but turn over to the book of Psalms right
quickly and look at verse chapter 39 and look in verse four. I have talked to people, even
Christians sometimes, and they were afraid to go to the doctor
to be examined. They were having some kind of
pains in their chest or some kind of medical problem, and
they would not go to the doctor. They were afraid to find out
what was going on with them. And what it was, they were afraid
of dying. A believer has no reason and no
cause to stay awake and worry about dying. Look how David said
it here in verse four. Lord, make me to know my end. Make me to know it. Make me to
know the measure of my day, what it is, that I may know how frail
I am. We're dying creatures, aren't
we? Lord, teach me that I'm a dying creature. and show me that I
got a good hope in you through your grace. Look what he said.
Behold, thou hast made my days as a handbreadth, mine ages as
nothing before thee. Verily every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Surely every man walks in a vain
show. Surely they are disquieted in
vain. He heapeth up wretches and knoweth who shall gather
them. And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in you. Oh, a good hope in Christ. It's
good to face death, the reality of it. It's an awful thing to
die, isn't it? I was reading, you've probably
heard of Christian Hitchinson, I think is his name. Chris Hitchinson,
I think was his name, that atheist of our day that just died a couple
years ago. And they started the rumor that he came to himself
and was really afraid of dying. And his wife put out an article,
said that didn't happen. Said he died in great peace with
his family around him. He wasn't worried about anything.
Ungodly atheist. Man, I don't wanna die like that,
do you? I'm a sinner, and we're going
out to face a holy God, and I want a good hope. And a good hope,
brothers and sisters, is this, that Jesus Christ has died in
our stead. He suffered the pains of death,
went to the grave, but He arose. He's entered heaven for us as
our forerunner. He didn't go to heaven for himself
and his glorified humanity. He entered there on our behalf
to assure us entering there. That's our hope. And I want to
face that. And when we face dying, the reality
of it, and where our hope is, we can be like Peter. We can
lay down and rest. And the fear of dying and death
won't keep us up at night. Something else. Look right quickly
at something else with me. Look at 1 Peter chapter five.
Here's something else that Peter did. 1 Peter chapter five. And
look here in verse five. If these things that we've been
talking about are true, and I'm sure they are, don't they lead us to humble
ourselves before God and be honest with Him and trust Him with all our concerns. Look here how Peter said it in
1 Peter chapter 5 and look in verse 5. This is an amazing statement. Likewise, you younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another. Be clothed with humility, for
God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves,
therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you
in due season, casting all your care upon him, for he careth
for you. All your cares, cast them upon
Him. All your anxiety, cast them upon
Him, because He cares for you. That's one of the most amazing
statements I ever read in the Bible. He cares for you. I was talking with my son the
other night. I have two sons and a daughter, and the Lord's
not saved any of them. Not been pleased to save any
of them, but sometimes I talk to them and it's amazing the
things that they honestly tell me. One of my sons loves to,
he loves to think about creation and he called me one day and
he was thinking about that verse. where David said, when I consider
the stars, the moon, all of the things that you've made, I say,
what is man that you're mindful of him? And my son said, Dad,
when I think of what God has created, I just feel as if I'm
nothing. I'm just nothing. And you know what I told him? Son, I feel the same way. And
I told him this, I said, I'm a trinity of evil. I am one third vile flesh, I
am one third beast, and one third devil. and to think that the eternal
triune God that needs nothing or nobody could care for me and
would care for me is the most amazing thought that has ever
entered this poor mind. Aren't you amazed with that?
Oh, we're amazed with that. And doesn't
that, doesn't that, just thinking about this verse, doesn't that
cause us and motivate us, if He cares so about us, to cast
all of our cares upon Him? And don't you think He has wide
enough shoulders to carry everything that concerns us? I mean everything. and Cindy have devotions every
morning, we have devotions, and then she prays and I pray. And
sometimes I sit there and I'm amazed how she prays. She's like
a little kid, every little thing that concerns her. And I'm sitting
waiting until she's finished and she goes on and on and all
these details, things that concern her, things that burdens her,
and she's casting them upon him. And that's what we're supposed
to do. Had a friend of mine one time, he had a huge family, and
he said, he said, we want to get a dog for the family, and
we've been praying about it. I said, you're praying about
getting a dog? He said, brother, we pray about everything. We
cast all our care up on the Lord. Do you do that? You think he
cares that much for you? To listen to you, all your concerns,
all the things that make you anxious, and keeps you up at
night, I was reading a story about a man sitting on a bus
and some lady got on the bus and he said, you want my seat?
And she said, no, I'll stand. But she was carrying this heavy
suitcase. And he said, block after block.
And finally, she had to switch it and put it in this hand. She
had to switch it back and put it in that hand. And he said,
finally, I said to her, lady, if you'll sit down in that suitcase,
this bus will carry it and you too. We carry all our carriers. We carry them, don't we? Why
do we do that? Take them to our God and cast
them all upon Him, for He cares for you. That amazes me, and I tell you
how we know that God cares for us. He didn't leave us to ourselves. What if He left you to yourself?
Oh, we talked last night about what messes we make as believers. We do more than make a mess if
God left us to ourselves. He not only took care of our
sins through His dear Son on Calvary's tree, but He came after
us. He wouldn't let us go. You read
it this morning in 15th chapter of Luke. He found us, He fetched
us, and now He guides us. He keeps us. He teaches us. He
disciplines us. He raises us up as His children. He puts us through these trials
to be gracious characters, to make us trust Him more. He wings
us from this world. He does all of these things because
He cares for us. If he's leaving it to yourself
to go on and believe whatever you want to believe and live
however you want to live, okay, you don't have any evidence that
he cares for you. We have parents that you hear
talking all the time. They just let their kids go and
do what they want to do. They won't raise them. They won't
teach them. They won't guide them. They won't
teach them good character and how to live in this world and
be good citizens. They won't teach them the gospel.
And yet the parent will come up and say, I love my kids with
all my heart. Well, here's some surprising
news. No, you don't. No, you don't. You leave a child
to himself and you hate the child. If you love the child, you would
guide the child. You would keep the child. You'd
watch over the child. You'd make the child be responsible. But you don't do it because you
don't care. But God cares. Oh, Peter could say the Lord
cares for me. He must because he didn't leave
me in my ignorance, didn't leave me in my sins. And look how he's
guided me. Look at these trials that he's bringing on me to form
my character and wean me from this world and bring me to trust
him more. He must really care about me to spend all of this
time leading me and keeping me and watching over me. He cares
for you. And since he does, brothers and
sisters, just turn around and cast everything right back on
him. Set the suitcase down in his lap and he'll carry it. What's keeping you up at night?
If it's something good, okay, that's wonderful. But if it's
these things that we've been talking about, then come to the
understanding that Peter had and live in Peter's faith. And
then you can lay down and rest as Peter did.