Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. You all know the story, the parable
of the sower that sowed seed. Our Lord gave this parable of
the sower that sowed seed. And it was concerning preaching
and hearing the gospel. But in that parable, he mentioned
thorny ground. You remember that thorny ground?
which he said represented the cares of this world, the cares
of life. Choke us, stick us, prick us. And. Him mentioning that is so
true, it is so, so true, the cares that this life has, they
are so full and relentless, just so full and so relentless. Our lives are so careful. That's how the scripture words
it sometimes, careful, full of care, just so full of care. Sometimes it can be pretty overwhelming. Sometimes it can be. And the
relief from it for a child of God is in hearing this right
here. First Peter five verse seven
says. Casting all your care upon him. For he careth for you. Now that's special. That's sweet. That's relieving. Casting all your care upon him. For he careth for you. Sometimes
it is very relieving to be reminded of the fact that we can even
do that. We forget that we can do that. We forget to do that. And just having that called to
our remembrance. Just in that, it's immediately
relieving. I want us to be reminded of that
this morning. I want us to be truly reminded
of that. That verse will be our text,
but I read the whole chapter and I want us to see this verse
in light of the whole chapter. All right, so let's begin reading
1 Peter 5, verse 1. It says, Peter writes, The elders
which are among you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness
of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory
that shall be revealed. Verse two, he said, feed the
flock of God. That is the calling of a pastor.
That is the calling of a preacher. That is the task at hand. That's
the commission that has been given. Feed the flock of God. I love that Peter is the one
who is saying this because Peter is the one that the Lord looked
right in the eye and said to him, do you love me? You know, it just killed Peter
when he said that. It just killed him. Three times
he said, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, I do. He said, I
do. The Lord said, then feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. That is your business. That is your calling. feed my
sheep." Now what do pastors and preachers, and I'm talking about
God's true pastors and God's true preachers, what do they
feed God's flock with? Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The apostle Paul said, I have
determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. When a sheep goes into a place
and hears Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that sheep is being
fed. And if it's not Jesus Christ
in him crucified, the sheep is not being fed. It's just husk. It's just, Paul said, we preach
Christ crucified. So that's what God's sheep truly
feed on. That's all they feed on. Just
like that elder, I've told you that story of the elder who told
that young man after he preached in the elder's words, a very
poor sermon. That young man came up and did
what no young preacher ought to do. He said, what'd you think
of my message? And the elder said, it wasn't good. He said
it was a very poor sermon. And the young man said, why did
you think my sermon was poor? The elder said, your sermon was
poor because Christ wasn't in it. And the young man said, well,
Christ wasn't in the text. And the elder said, son, Christ
is in every text of scripture. Every portion of scripture has
a road that leads to Jesus Christ and him crucified. And our business
is to find that road and get on it. And that's so. Peter said, this is our business. This is our exhortation. Verse
two, he said, feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking
the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not
for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords
over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock, And when
the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of
glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. That's true eternally
and temporally. temporarily. God resists those
who are puffed up with self-righteous pride before the judgment throne
of God saying, look at what I've done for you, look at everything
that I've done, look at everything that I am, look at what I've
been. He resists before His judgment
throne that self-righteous pride and He gives grace and He shows
mercy to those who are humbled, begging Him for grace and mercy.
I need grace, I need mercy, please. So that's true concerning our
eternal state. That's true concerning our temporal
state in this world. If we bow up in pride, God will
resist us. He'll leave us feeling far from
Him. If we bow down in humility, God
will give grace to us. He'll be gracious. He said, the
broken and a contrite heart, I'll hear that heart. And he'll
draw us near to himself. He'll comfort us. So verse six
says, humble yourselves. Therefore, Peter said, let's
not make God humble us because he will, you know, Peter. Peter
was a man who he brought a lot of things on himself. He was
lifted up with so much pride the night that the Lord was betrayed. You think of all nights. Here
the Lord is going to suffer for Peter's sin. And he was so lifted
up with pride. And you know what Peter did?
He said, I'll die for you. And the Lord said, before the
cock crows, you're going to deny me three times. The Lord brought
him down so low, and this is how he did it. All the Lord had
to do was look at him. That's all the Lord had to do
was just look at him. So Peter said, take my word for
it. We don't want God to humble us.
We want to humble ourselves, he said in verse six, under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt us, exalt you in due time. Verse seven says, casting all
your care upon Him, for He careth for you. Casting all your care
upon Him, for He cares for you. Verse eight, He said, be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour." Peter said, you
know, whenever the Lord causes his preachers to endure things,
that makes them very convicted and very passionate about what
they preach. And I can only imagine Peter
from his experience saying, listen to me, I'm telling you, I'm telling
you the adversary as a roaring lion is walking about seeking
whom he may devour. Where does the adversary walk
and seek to devour? Where does he do that? He does
it in the true assemblies of God's people. And I'm gonna exhort, I'm gonna do my calling and exhort the
Word of God and tell us we need to be sober. We need to be vigilant. The adversary
is not walking about in the bars. He's not walking down the gutter
and in the back alleys. He's not even walking through
false religion. He's not seeking to devour in
false religion. He is already deceived, and he
has already devoured those people. He's walking about and seeking
those that he does not have control of, those that he is not the
captive over. He is seeking those who are being
kept by the power of God in His mighty hand. We just had
a message on the fact that God's people are kept by the power
of God in His mighty hand. But even though they're being
kept, they are being sought after. Peter himself was kept in the
mighty hand of God Peter was kept, we know that,
Peter was kept in the mighty hand of God. But because of his
pride, this is what the Lord God said to him. He said, Peter,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that
your faith fail not. And when you are converted, Strengthen
thy brethren. And what the Lord was saying
in that was, I'm not gonna let you go. Peter, I am not gonna
let you go. When you are converted, when
you're brought back, I'm not letting you go. You're gonna
be kept. But he said, I'm gonna let the adversary sift you to
teach you a lesson. And he said, after it's over,
you teach your brethren to not do what you did. Strengthen them in my word, strengthen
them in my way. So he said in verse eight, be
sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring
lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Verse nine, he
said, whom resist steadfast, how? In the faith. What does that mean? That means
looking to Christ. That means looking to Christ's
Word, looking to Christ's way. Verse 9 says, Whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. He said, Realize that
we all have to go through these things. We all have to deal with
these things. All of these things will come
to each one of us, touch each one of us. Verse 10, he said,
but the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal
glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while,
make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. After
our time in this world is over, And the longer we go, the more
we realize our sin and our ruin and our, uh, it makes us ready
to go, makes us ready to go be with the Lord. Uh, I have plenty
of reasons to want to stay. I do. I have plenty of reasons
to want to stay. God's people are not morbid and
all that kind of stuff, but it makes us ready to be done with
our sinful flesh. And there's going to come a point
when that day will come and He's going to rid us of this sinful
flesh and everything it's doing to us, everything that it's doing
around us. And after all of this is over
and we're finally done with this old wicked man, After the Lord
finally strips that old wicked man away from us and he leaves
nothing but the purity and the perfection and the righteousness
of Christ the new man. Peter said at that point, we're
going to be perfect. We're going to be established.
We're going to be strengthened. We're going to be settled. Oh, he said in verse 11 right
here, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Silvanus, a faithful brother
unto you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting and
testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand.
The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth
you, and so doth Marcus, my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of charity. Give to each other the kiss of
true love, the embrace of true love, that spirit of unity that
Christ has created in the hearts of his people. for his people. Greet ye one another with a kiss
of charity. Peace be with you all that are
in Christ Jesus. Amen. Now, all of God's people
are going to be able to understand what Peter is saying right here.
They're all going to understand why he is saying that. God's people stay under the attack
of the fiery darts of the adversary. God's people stay under the attack. And I'm gonna tell you what his
goal is, and this is real. Look back at history and it'll
prove it to you. You just look back at recent
history, and I'm talking about within God's church. His goal is to divide God's people
and to draw their attention away from Christ. That's his twofold
goal. And he is, as the scripture says,
wily. And we're no match for him. Peter said, we need to be sober. We need to be awake. We need
to be aware of the fact that he is being allowed allowed and
we deserve whatever he brings to us because we bring it on
ourselves, but he is being allowed by his creator and owner and
God to do these things, to create these things and do these things.
And Peter is saying the same thing that the Apostle Paul said
in Ephesians 5. He's saying the same thing right
here, which is, brethren, be aware of the fact that we are
not wrestling with flesh and blood. You know, when care comes
and problem comes and why so many problems and so many issues? We think, well, it's this old
wicked flesh. It's this old sinful flesh. It's
the, yeah, that's there. But he said, we're not just wrestling
with flesh and blood. We're wrestling against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. And he said,
there is only one way to resist it. I want to know what that
way is. This is what he said to do. He said, cast all your care upon
him. Only way to resist it. Cast all
your care upon him. That's what it means when he
said in verse nine, resist steadfast in the faith. Only way. Cast
all your care upon Him. This is the only answer to all
of the problems that we're going to deal with. We need to get
ready. It's only going to get worse.
I wish I could say things are going to get better. They're
not. Not in this life, not in this
world, not in this flesh. It's going to get harder. Really? You think about how much
responsibility and pain does an infant really have? You know,
if they cry, how bad is it really? They're just torn all to pieces.
How bad is it really? Then they grow up and they become
young children. They start to experience a couple
things. Teenagers, they start to experience
a little more. You get out there and you get
married and then life starts to really kick in. You have your
own children and man, And the older you get, the more
responsibility you have, the more people you have looking
to you. And it just gets harder and harder and harder. And that's
what life for a believer is going to be. It's going to get harder
and harder. And the only answer to all the
problems that we're going to deal with within There are problems
without, but really the problem is not without. The problem is
within. The adversary is constantly attacking
us within, and the only answer to this, all of the raging problems
that are just one right after the next within us is this. Take it all. Cast all your care
upon Him. All your care as problem after
problem after problem after doubt after fear after... Take every one of them, cast
them on Him. Cast them all on Him. Now I'm gonna say again, The
adversary is going to try to divide us. And he is going to try to divide
us from Christ, from each other, and from Christ. He is not going
to be able to do it. Not God's people. Not God's people. And here's the reason why. God's
Spirit will take God's word and he will reach the hearts
of God's people. He will overrule. There is one
greater than our hearts. There is one greater than our
adversary. He's not God's adversary. He's
ours. He's God's pawn. And God's Holy Spirit is gonna
take the Word of God and He's gonna reach the hearts of God's
people by reminding them, He cares for you. You see everything
you're enduring and going through and all that pain and all that
heartache and everything, you turn your eyes right up. You
turn your eyes upon the Lord Jesus. You look full into His
wonderful face. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim. in the light of His glory and
grace. He cares for you. He cares for you. Romans 8 says
the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're the sons
of God. If we're sons of God, we're joint
heirs with Christ. He cares for you. Why does Christ
care for us? And when we say, why does He
care for us? We're saying those that God the Father chose and
gave to Him. Why does Christ care for us?
Because the scripture says He loved us with an everlasting
love in both directions. Sometimes we think everlasting
is in the past, long before you were ever formed in the belly.
I knew you, I loved you, but it's in both directions, from
everlasting to everlasting. He loved us. How did He prove
His care and His love for us? How did He do that? He gave His
life for us. If Christ gave His life for us,
do you think He's going to let us go to ruin? Let everything
just fall apart? Well, it just all fell apart.
He loved us and gave himself for us. Now, I cannot make that
loving and lovely to my heart. All right here, I'm going to
tell you something. Christ loved his people and gave himself for
them. He loved us and gave himself
for us. I don't have the ability to make
that lovely to me. But His Spirit does. His Spirit
can take that Word and put it into my heart and make me fall
in love with the sacrifice Christ made for me. In saying to me,
I'm gonna take all the blame to myself. I'll take all of it. I'll take every bit of it. All
of your fault, I'll make it my own. I'll own it. I'll take all the loss, I'll
give you all the gain. I'll take all the wrongdoing
to my account, and I'll make sure you're in perfect standing
with the Heavenly Father. I'll make Him turn His back on
me, turn His face from me, and I'll see to it that you're in
perfect standing with the Holy and Heavenly Father. I don't
have the power to make myself or anybody else fall in love
with that, but God's Holy Spirit has that power. And I pray He'll
do that for all of us. Lord, break what needs to be
broken. Mend what needs to be mended. Teach what needs to be
taught. Strengthen us. Conform us. Confirm us. Settle us. Help us. Lord, help us. Help us. This is what it is to cast our
all on Him. It's to say, Lord, You made me
and I ruined it. You saved me, and thank God,
I can't ruin it. But that doesn't stop me from
trying as hard as I can to every single day of my life. Lord, everything I touch turns
to dust and ashes, so I have no choice but to cast it all
on you. Would you touch it? Please, would
you touch it? That's what Moses was doing when
he told all those people, stand still, you'll see the salvation
of the Lord. Just stand still, cast it all
on Him, and stand still. I don't have time, I'm out of
time, but I'll just, let me just quickly read two verses of scripture
to you, okay? You can just listen to these.
This is Psalms 37, verse five. This says, commit thy way unto the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. I'm telling
you, that's the truth. What that means is don't take
matters into your own hands. Commit thy way to the Lord, and
then trust Him. You know, if we, one problem
we have is a lot of times we don't think we're gonna like
the outcome. If we don't think that we're
gonna, Be happy with the outcome. It's very difficult to commit
our way to him. Lord, give us the ability to
commit our way to you and then to trust you that the judge of
the earth is gonna do right. Whatever it is, it's gonna do
right. Whatever needs to happen, he's gonna bring it to pass rightly. Commit thy way unto the Lord.
Trust also in him. He'll bring it to pass. Here's
the other one I was gonna read to you. This is Proverbs 3, 5,
and 6, and it says, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, it says,
trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine
own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy paths. That is casting our all on him. That's what it is. Safest way
to go through this life. The most sober way, the most
vigilant way is to cast all of our care on the Lord, not leaning
to our own understanding, waiting on Him, looking to Him, trusting
Him. He said if He enables us to do
that, He'll direct our path. So because of the sacrifice that
Christ made for us and because of His love for us, Everything
He did to reunite that loving union with Him, we can cast our
all on Him. He cares for us. And I'm going
to stop. I'm just going to stop. But I
wish that we could somehow understand the love of God for us. It just
can't be told. It just can't be told. There's
a song that I was going to quote to you. Let me quote it to you.
I'll close with this, okay? It says, The love of God is greater
far than tongue or pen can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest
star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bowed down
with care God gave His Son to win. His erring child He reconciled
and pardoned from His sin. Could we with ink the ocean fill,
and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth
a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of
God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky. O love of God, how
rich and pure, How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore
endure The saints' and angels' song. Because of that love, cast
all your care on Him. He cares for you. All right,
you're dismissed.