Go with me if you would back
to 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter 5. And let's read verses 6 and 7
again. Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Every person in this room is
either burdened by something or will
soon be burdened by something. Every person in this room is
either currently enduring a great burden or will very soon endure
a great burden. Job spoke the absolute truth
when he said, man that is born of woman is of few days and full
of trouble. I mean, full of trouble. Sin ruins life. It just does. Sin taints life. Sin creates anger. It creates hostility. It creates
fighting. It creates broken trust. It creates broken love. Broken
homes. Loss. That's what it creates.
Sin creates loss. When sin entered man, man lost. It just creates loss. Sin creates
fear. Sin creates danger. Sin creates
disappointment. All of that can be summed up
in what our Lord called in Mark chapter 4, the cares of this
world. Cares of this world. This world
is full of care. And the reason is because this
world is full of sin. That particular kind of care
that our Lord mentioned, that word care means anxiety, worry,
unbelief, doubt, depression, misery, and sorrow. This world is full of it, and
we're full of it, completely full of it. All of our calmness,
all of our own calmness is drowning in anxiety. Just like a duck
sitting on a pond. Calm on the surface. We seem
calm on the surface. We try to have some calmness
about us. But I'm telling you from experience, it is drowning
in anxiety. All of our own peace and our
own contentment is drowning in worry. We want to have peace
and we want to have contentment, but it is just consumed by worry,
so much worry. All of our own faith is drowning
in unbelief. That man said, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. I believe, but it's all I can
do to find that faith. I can't hardly find that faith
because it's being swallowed up by my own unbelief. I believe. It's just constantly being swallowed
up by my unbelief. Our assurance is being completely
smothered by doubt. Our happiness, our happiness
is constantly being beaten down. Our poor happiness, it is constantly
being beaten down by our own depression and misery and sorrow. That's the care that this world
has laid on every single one of us because of our sin. That's
the care. Now Christ came into this world
to redeem us from this world and from our sin. He has said
to every elect child of His, Every soul chosen in him to be
adopted into the holy family of God. He says to every sinner
that has been made spotless in the blood and in the righteousness
of Christ. Perfect in his righteousness,
spotless in his blood. This is what he said. I have
overcome the world for you. And I've put away your sin for
you. You are carrying the burden of
care, but not the burden of sin. Think about that for just a minute.
We are carrying the burden of care, but not the burden of sin. Our Lord said, I carried the
burden of sin. Up Calvary's mountain, one dreadful
morn. I walked as your Savior, weary
and worn. Facing for you, death on the
cross, that I might save you from endless loss." And that's
exactly what he did. The sin that has caused the care
is gone. The sin that causes the care
has been dealt with, it's put away. So this is the commandment
that he's given to every sinner that has received an ear to hear
his voice in his word. Verse seven says, casting all
your care upon him for he careth for you. Cast all your care. on Him, for He careth for you."
If He carried the burden of sin for me, and if He carried the weight
of sin for me, and if He carried the penalty of sin for me, why
wouldn't He carry the care? Why wouldn't He carry the care
of sin for me? Now, in this commandment, he's
telling us what, how, where, and why. He's very plainly spelling
it out for us. What, how, where, and why. And
I want us to look at it, acknowledging this first. It's a commandment. It's a commandment. It's not
a suggestion. It's a commandment. We're just
saying, oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain
we bear. And that's true. That's very
true. But by not doing this, we're
not just missing out. We're disobeying him. It's a
commandment. It's a commandment. He said,
cast all your care on me. Cast it all on me. Cast all your
anxiety on me. Cast all your worry, all your
unbelief, all of your doubt, all your depression. Everybody
in here knows something about depression. Cast all your depression,
cast all your misery, cast all your sorrow, all of it. He said,
upon me, cast it all on me. That's what God's people are
commanded to do. Now, how do we do that? Well,
in all honesty, that is not a simple thing to
do. That is not a simple thing to
do at all. That is so much easier said than
done. That is so much easier read and
even believed and even desired than put into practice. That is not easy to do. Spurgeon
said it can be a very difficult task when the prosperity dries
up and there are mouths to feed at home. It's not easy to do. Not at all. Casting all our care. Some of our care, maybe. But all of our care. I mean all
of our care. As we watch sin go through our
mind, do you ever just stand there and watch sin flow through
your mind? Why am I doing that? Why am I
thinking that? As we watch sin, we just stand
there and watch sin just originate in the heart. As we watch anger
and lust and pride and covetousness, we just stand there and watch
it thrive inside this body. When we give sin an inch, it
takes 10 miles. When we give into it, and give
it an inch, it takes 10,000 miles. Everything in us and everything
around us is just feeding our depression, feeding our misery. Casting all
of our care on Him is not easy to do. That's something that
is not easy to do. As a matter of fact, with man,
it's impossible. It's something that God must
enable His child to do. And here's how He does it. This
is how casting all of our care is accomplished. Verse 6 says,
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. Humble yourselves. Make low Bring low. Abase. Decrease. Diminish. Everything about this
flesh. Everything. All ability. All pride. All desire. Don't even give it the time of
day. Don't even give it the time of day. Completely stop looking
to the flesh. Completely. Looking to our condition
in the flesh. If we take a minute and look
at our current condition in the flesh, it's always not where
we want to be. It always seems to be bad. It
always seems to be terrible. And dwelling on our condition
in the flesh and being consumed with it is what feeds all of
our care. That's fuel for the fire. The
more that we look on this flesh, the more weight and burden of
care we feel, the more we look at the flesh, the more. And I'm. Somebody came by my study this
week and said, what are you doing? I said, I'm preparing a message
for me. And I'm speaking to me. The more I dwell on this flesh
and look to this flesh, the more weight and burden the care feels
like. The heavier it feels. Verse 6
says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God,
that He may exalt you in due time. Bow down to the mighty
hand of God. Submit to His will. in everything,
dwell on and be consumed with His purpose and His absolute
control. Probably the next thing that
happens to you will be bad. When it happens, you just try
as hard as you can to think on His absolute mighty hand in it,
His absolute control and sovereign purpose in it. Every single thing that happens,
you dwell on Him and then sit back and wait for Him to exalt
you in His good time. That's what it is to cast all
your care on Him. This issue of sin, this issue
of sin that we have, God's people do not want to sin against Him.
We do not. We're ready to be done with sin.
I don't want to sin against Him. But just like the Apostle Paul
said in Romans 7, all of God's people realize, I can't stop. I can't stop. The more I try
to stop, the worse it gets. If I do in my mind think that
I've stopped, pride goes out the roof, and that's the worst
one of all. I just can't stop. I hate it,
but I can't stop doing it. Past sins. Things that cannot
be undone, cast them all on Him. Those sins
that will not leave your brain, every time it comes in, cast
it on Him. My Lord bore that. He suffered for that. He felt
so much shame for that. He felt so much guilt for that. Cast it all on Him. What you
and I are both doing right now, current sin. Cast it all on Him. Oh, wretched man that I am. God, be merciful to me, the sinner.
The things that you and I may do in the future, if God takes
His hand off of us for just a minute, the things that we might do, Cast it all on him. Lord, if
I'm going to be kept, you're going to have to keep me. Lord,
if I'm going to keep preaching the gospel, you're going to have
to keep putting it in me. And if I'm going to go through
this ministry and not bring reproach on your name and not bring reproach
on your word and not bring reproach on this congregation, you're
going to have to keep me. I just cast it all on you. The
moment we do that. All care is relieved. The moment we do that, all care
falls off. Probably one of the most common
cares that God's people will feel, one of the most common
cares that God's people will feel is the burden of what shall
I eat, what shall I drink, and wherewithal shall I be clothed. As long as we're looking to the
flesh, as long as the flesh is exalted in the equation, he said,
humble yourselves. As long as the flesh plays a
role in that equation, the weight of that care will only grow heavier
and heavier and heavier. Worse and worse. But the moment
that we cast that care upon him, we hear him say, Behold the fowls of the air. The next time that care comes
on you, take a second and see if you can find a bird. Behold the fowls of the air,
for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better
than they? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit to his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow. They toil not, neither do they
spin. They're not working out, trying to. And yet I say unto
you that even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed
the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast
into the oven, meaning you're not going to be cast into the
oven. Christ was cast into the oven. He's not getting rid of
you, he's keeping you forever. If God so clothed the grass of
the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into into the
oven, shall he not much more clothed ye? Oh, ye of little
faith, Gabe Stoniker. Therefore, take no thought. This is what it is to cast all
our care. Therefore, take no thought, saying,
what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall
we be clothed? For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth
that you have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added to you. Verse six says, Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you. And he will. He will. He will. in due time. What makes you say that? What makes you say that? How
do you know he will? How do you know that if I cast
all my care on Him, He won't leave me down in the anxiety
and the worry and the unbelief of doubt and depression and misery
and sorrow? How do you know? Because verse 7 says, He careth
for you. If you're in Christ, He cares
for you. The Father cares for His Son. Oh, the Father loves His Son.
The Father cares for His glorious Son. And if you are in Him, you
will receive, you will receive the very same care and affection
that the Son of God Himself receives. Cast all the care that sin brings
to you, all the anxiety, all the worry. Cast all the sin that
brings to you upon Him because He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never leave you. Not just my people, you. I'll never forsake you. I'll never forsake you. If God
puts you in Christ, you can put your name right there in the
place of you. I'll never forsake you, never. What struck me about this verse
is he says care two times. Verse seven says, casting all
your care upon him for he careth for you. The first one, our care,
means anxiety and worry and unbelief and all those things. The second
one, his care, means provision to care about, to take care of. It means the Lord will provide.
The Lord will provide in every way. in every need. Cast all your care upon him,
for he will provide. Now I want to close this message
by reading to you an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon's morning and
evening devotional on this verse. This is just a portion of it.
He said, O child of suffering, be thou patient. God has not
passed thee over in his providence. Well, he's passed me by. He's
with everybody else, but he's passed me by. He said, God has
not passed thee over in his providence. He who is the feeder of sparrows
will also furnish you with what you need. Sit not down in despair. Hope on. Hope ever. Take up the arms of faith against
a sea of trouble, and your opposition shall yet end your distresses.
There is one who careth for you. His eye is fixed on you. His heart beats with pity for
your woe, and his hand omnipotent shall yet bring you the needed
help. The darkest cloud shall scatter
itself in showers of mercy. The blackest gloom shall give
place to the morning. He, if thou art one of his family,
will bind up thy wounds and heal thy broken heart. Doubt not his
grace because of thy tribulation, but believe that he loveth thee
as much in seasons of trouble as in times of happiness. What
a serene and quiet life might you lead if you would leave providing
to the God of providence. With a little oil in the cruise
and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine
and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need
you care too? Can you trust him for your soul
and not for your body? He has never refused to bear
your burdens. He has never fainted under their
weight. Come then, soul, be done with
fretful care and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious
God. What a commandment. What a commandment. What a relief. Oh, it's such
a relief. I would love to do that. Can't
do it on my own, but would you enable me to do that? Let's all,
verse 6 says, humble ourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand
of God, that he may exalt us in due time, casting all our
care upon him, for he cares for us. He cares for us. What good news that is to sinners
in Christ. All right, let's all stand together.