That was good. Thank you. Let's
open our Bibles to the book of 1 Peter 1. This is at least where I'm going
to begin, 1 Peter 1. I'd actually been thinking about
another message for this evening, and then toward the end of Thursday, I became redirected in my thinking. I believe that was by the Spirit
of God. Hope so. And I want to deal with
another subject this evening. God cares for his children. That's our subject. God cares
for his children. And I'd like to begin this way. I think one of the most misunderstood
and certainly one of the most mysterious things that have to
do with the scriptures is that of inspiration. I certainly believe in inspiration. All scripture is given by God.
Inspired of God, inspiration means God breathed it. Inspired
means God breathed. He gave men that which they should
write, not like, say, a president of
a company would dictate to his secretary a letter in which she
had no interest. This was our Lord, as it were,
whispering to the hearts of about 40 different men that which they
should write. And they wrote exactly as he
gave them the message to write, the words that they should write.
And yet what is additionally mysterious about it is that the
Lord did this using the individual gifts of the men who he used
to write the scriptures. As you read through the scriptures,
you can see there's a distinctive difference in the writings of
men because God made use of, in a mysterious way, their individual
gifts. Such as David, when he was growing
up, he watched over his father's flock. and he loved to sing,
he wrote music, he wrote poetry. And when you read the book of,
as our brother read to us, Psalms a few minutes ago, the writings
of David are very distinctive because he writes as a poet.
In fact, as you study the books of the Bible, you'll find that
the book of Psalms is included in that section that's generally
designated as the books of poetry. That's because David himself
was a poet. You read the Proverbs of Solomon. God used the wisdom that he gave
Solomon, and so we read of the wise things that he wrote. You get to the New Testament,
a man like the Apostle Paul, who was an uncompromising champion
of sovereign grace. And he writes in such a way that
he never lets us forget the depths of his own wickedness in persecuting
God's people before God sought him and found him by his grace. Therefore, he stands with zeal. He's unmatched, really. He's unmatched. standing up for
and delivering out the message of God's free and sovereign grace,
and he sets forth his own wickedness, his own depravity, because he
knew where he came from. He came out of false religion. He came out of Phariseeism. He was a doer of the law of God,
and he felt like that's how he was justified, and God saved
him. from all of that and made him
to understand. He was justified by grace. He's
justified by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus. He's justified
by the righteousness of the very Son of God. And so he writes
in a way that, well, he kind of stands above the others in
a way. and being such a valiant man
for the gospel of grace, and then you read the writings of
a man like John, full of love. This is a man who
leaned upon the Savior's bosom. This is, if you want to read
about the love of God, you know where you go? You go to the writings
of John. And we read him, he says, God
is love. And he's the one who said, for
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. John's the one who wrote herein
his love, not that we love God. but that he loved us and gave
him his son to be the propitiation for our sins. He gave Christ
Jesus to be the satisfaction of divine justice. James, James,
he's a very practical man. He spoke very eloquently. directly to those who profess
faith in Christ Jesus, but they didn't have any works. They didn't
have any works. And it wasn't that he disagreed
with what the other writers of Scripture said about salvation
by grace and salvation by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus
Christ, He lived in an era and he lived in an area where men
made great professions of faith, but they didn't have any kind
of life to back up what they professed. And so he just boldly
says, well, faith without works is dead. Because it's by itself. We read Matthew, Matthew's writings. We're going through the book
of Matthew right now in our Bible class. He writes with a distinctive
flavor, I'll call it that, because he's writing to the Jews, and
he writes as a Jew, and he writes as one who is telling his fellow
countrymen, the Messiah has come. And so he goes back to the Old
Testament, and he draws all of these scriptures out of the Old
Testament, establishing the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is, in
fact, the Son of God. He is the Messiah. And so the
writings of Matthew are very distinctive in themselves. All
28 chapters. And I could go on and on, but
I come to Simon Peter. And as you read both 1 Peter
and 2 Peter, you can see decisive marks that this man, he's been
in the furnace of affliction. This is a man who knows something
about believers being tried. He writes as one who has been
in the fiery furnace. And there were some times he
came through just fine. Well, he always survived. But there were other times when
he was tried. He didn't come through so good.
He didn't behave himself like a child of God. But he knew what
it was like. And so when you get to the book
of 1 Peter especially, this is a book that emphasizes the trials,
the difficulties, the troubles, the struggles of a child of God. And I want this evening to focus
upon the book of 1 Peter, and then I'll give you a little bit
of an overview, and then I'm gonna go to chapter five and
talk about God's care for his children. Now, I've spoken about
different writers of scripture. I'll also say this, each book
of the Bible, I would say, kind of breathes its own special spirit. and has its own distinguishing
marks. If you wanted to learn about
sovereign grace, doctrine laid out in an orderly fashion, you'd
go to the book of Ephesians. Maybe to the book of Romans. But if you want to read a book
about people who are burdened with suffering, you go to the
book of 1 Peter. Every chapter, every chapter
reminds us of the difficulties that the people of God are called
upon to endure in this life. For instance, Peter is burdened
with this subject of suffering, chapter one in verse six. He writes, wherein ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness
through manifold temptations. Heaviness means you're put to
grief. you're put to grieve through
all kinds of troubles. Look at the second chapter in
verse 20. He says, for what glory is it
if when you be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? But if when you do well and you
suffer for it, and you notice the words for
it are italicized, inserted by our translators, he's saying
when you do well and you suffer, you suffer, ye take it patiently. This is
acceptable with God. You do well. What does that mean,
you do well? You're seeking the glory of God.
You believe Christ Jesus. You love the message of grace.
You endeavor every day to live in a manner that's honoring to
your God. And yet, believing this gospel,
you still suffer. This is amazing to some people
because there are lots of religions in this world, teachings that
say, you know, if you do indeed follow the Lord, hey, all your
troubles are over. Well, you know what the people
of God find? To a degree, we find this when
we begin to follow Christ Jesus and love His gospel, that's when
our troubles begin. And the reason they begin is
because all of a sudden we have struggles within. We struggle
with the flesh. And we have difficulties with
the world. Listen, we're going in an opposite
direction of the world. With the world, it's all about
self. And with our flesh, it's all
about self. And yet the Spirit, the spiritual
man, it's about Christ Jesus. And so we have a war within and
there's a war without. And we suffer. We suffer words,
the words of people, they make light of perhaps the fact that
we love the gospel of God's grace, we love the Lord Jesus Christ.
We suffer. Or maybe we suffer sickness.
Here we are, we're bound and determined, we're going to honor
God, We're going to bless Him. We're going to worship Him. We
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to give Him all the glory.
I'm so thankful for His bloody death. I'm so thankful for His
righteousness. I'm so thankful that He loves
me with an everlasting love, and we're seeking to do well,
and then we suffer. And I'll tell you, lots of times,
we don't understand. Lord, I'm doing everything I
know to do that's right. And yet we suffer. Peter says, take it patiently. Take it patiently. This is acceptable
with God. And the reason is this, whatever
suffering that we're called upon to endure, who sent it? God sent it. God sent it. So let's let's take it. Let's receive it with patience. And as we receive it with patience,
Lord, this is from you. I don't know what your purpose
is, but I do believe that all things are of God, and all things
are working together for my good, according to your eternal purpose,
because you've loved me with an everlasting love, and all
of these things are from my benefits. So I don't understand, but oh
God, give me patience to suffer. in a way that would be honoring
to you. I give you this promise. You're
going to have, and I'm going to have, lots of opportunities
to manifest to our family members, to our neighbors, to our friends,
We're gonna have lots of opportunities to manifest either the reality
of the grace that God has given to us or the absence of the grace
that God has given to us. Because I promise you this also,
if you profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is going to
be tried. It is going to be tested. And
the Lord is going to give, He gives to me, and He gives to
you, many, many opportunities to show to others that this grace,
we preach about grace, we talk about grace, and we should. We read about grace and we say
we love grace and we say we have the grace of God. The grace of
God, it's been shed within us like the love of God has been. God's been gracious to me. Oh,
how gracious and good God is to me. Well, let's see how much
grace I've got when I'm called upon to suffer. And you see, others, and we're
not living our lives for others. But we must always recognize
the fact there are others, there are people who are watching us.
And they know we talk about sovereign grace. They know we say God's
sovereign in all things. I believe God rules. And the
world says, you really believe that? Oh yes, I believe He rules
over every situation that happens. All things are of God, that's
what we believe. And then we have a trial. And
I guarantee you, if we fuss, if we murmur, if we say, oh no, why'd this
have to happen to me? Those around us, they're going
to draw this conclusion. They talk about grace. They talk
big. But when something actually happens,
where is that grace? And let's face this honestly. To a degree, We're all a bunch
of failures on this. And I'm sorry. And this is something
we have to confess to the Lord. Lord, I'm not as patient as I
ought to be. Lord, I don't face these situations
of difficulty. Things that are hard, be it sickness
or other Trials of whatever kind that God sent. Lord, I don't
handle these very well. And haven't you often had to
say to the Lord in confession, Lord, I'm so sorry. You sent
this trial to me. And I had an opportunity. I had
a wonderful opportunity to show to others the sufficiency of
your grace to me. And I didn't do so good, Lord,
and I'm sorry. I tell you, I've had to say that
a lot of times. Look at chapter, the next chapter,
chapter three. Look at verse 14. But, and if
ye suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye. Happy? Happy in suffering? Do you know
what that word, that is the exact same word as blessed. You mean when I'm suffering,
when I'm hurting, I'm blessed? You're always blessed. Is there
ever, let me ask you this and just kind of roll this around
in your mind. Is there ever, is there ever
a time in the life of a believer when you're not being blessed
of God? Listen, He sanctifies even these
difficult things. And He makes them He makes them
work for our good, and moreover, He makes these things work together
for His glory. Because they fulfill His purpose
regarding us. Happy are you. And hey, when you're hurting,
or you're sick, some difficulty, maybe a financial difficulty,
or a emotional difficulty, or trouble in the family, it's kind
of hard to say, you know, through this, I know this is a blessing. It's kind of hard to say that,
isn't it? Come on now, let's be honest. We have difficulty
with this. That's why Peter writes this.
That's why the Spirit of God led him to write about suffering
and trials and troubles and afflictions, because the Spirit of God, the
Lord Himself, He knows us. He knows how feeble we are. He
knows how frail we are. And He knows what we need to
read and what we need to hear. Look at chapter four and verse
14. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, once again, happy are ye. Well, that goes back
to the Lord's Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for
my name's sake. You're blessed, you're blessed,
happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of
God resteth on you. On their part, he is evil spoken
of, but on your part, he's glorified. But he says, but let none of
you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer,
or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer
as a Christian, don't let him be ashamed. Let him glorify God
on this behalf. People make light of you, people
say, are you really one of the followers of Jesus Christ? Don't
be ashamed. Stand up, be counted. Who's on
the Lord's side? That's what Moses said to the
people. Who's on the Lord's side? Let
him step over here. And we kind of meekly say, I
am. Don't be ashamed. He's not ashamed of you. He wasn't ashamed to enter into
this world's awful condition. He wasn't ashamed to represent
you, to stand for you, to die for you, to be buried for you,
to bear all of your rottenness, your sinfulness in His own body
on the tree. He wasn't ashamed of you. He's
not ashamed of you before His heavenly Father, our heavenly
Father. Don't you be ashamed of Him.
He said, if you're ashamed of me, I'm going to be ashamed of
you. I don't want to be ashamed of
you. And then look over in chapter
five in verse 10. But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
ye have suffered a while. How long is a while? I don't
know. Really, it's kind of throughout
your life, after you've suffered a while. make you perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. You see, it's obvious the prevailing
theme through the book of 1 Peter is dealing with trials. Go back to chapter one again.
Do we say we have faith? Look at verse one. Do we say
we believe on Christ? Well, I do. I do. I say I believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. I wasn't ashamed to confess Him
in believers' baptism. I'm not ashamed to say He's my
Lord and He's my Savior. I believe in salvation by grace
alone. without any works of men. I believe
that salvation is all of God and man makes no contribution.
That's what I believe. I believe God established this
salvation in His covenant long before He ever made this world.
And every detail of our salvation was ironed out by the glorious
Trinity. God chose His people unto salvation,
and Christ Jesus received these people as a gift, and He said,
I'll stand for them. I'm their surety. Look to me
for all of their salvation. I bear all responsibility for
them. And I'll go to the earth and
live for them and die for them. I'll bear the wrath of God for
them to make them righteous. They'll become beautiful through
my comeliness. And Father, I'll bring them all
home to heaven. And the Spirit of God agreed
to teach all of these salvation by grace and to regenerate them
by His almighty power through the Word of God. We're His. We're His. And I say, I believe the God
of the Bible, don't you? I believe God as He's set forth
in this book. I don't believe this mamby-pamby
God who wants to do some things but He can't do it. I believe
God does as He pleases all the time with everybody, don't you? I don't think God wants to do
things and men won't let Him. I don't believe that kind of
stuff. I don't think God wants to do anything. I think God does. He does as He pleases. I'm not ashamed of that. I believe God. I don't believe
Him like ought to, don't believe Him like I'm going to. But I
tell you, deep down in my heart, I believe God. I rest in God. I trust His Word, nothing else. I read the writings of men, and
I always read them with this remembrance. They are just the
writings of men. I read the Word of God, and I
always remember this. This is God's book. This is what
God's got to say to us. I'm not ashamed to say I believe
God. I have faith in the God of the
scriptures. Now if I say that, and I have
said that, I must not be shocked when that
faith is tried, when it's tested. In Genesis, the 22nd chapter,
Abraham, who had been tested so many times by God, and he's getting to be an old
man now, and Isaac is a teen apparently, maybe his upper teens,
something like that. And maybe Abraham thought, well,
I got a smooth road from now on out. My son, we'll find him
a wife. He'll have kids, and I'll have
grandkids running around at my feet, you know. I'm just entering
into the golden years. And God said, not so fast. I
got another trial for you. Another one? Oh, yeah. You think
those other ones have been tough? I got one for you that's a bit
of a doozy. Take your son, your only son,
Isaac, whom you love, and take him up on a mountain that I'll
show you and offer him as a burnt offering to me. That's a trial. If you say you believe God, he's
gonna try your faith. And again, I say you're gonna
have opportunities to manifest to people that you do believe
God. Even when you're hurting, you
may be crying, your heart may be breaking. You may be standing
over the body of a dear loved one, a husband, a wife, a mother,
a father, brother, sister, whatever the case may be. You may be looking
at them in the face and your heart breaking and your eyes
weeping buckets of tears. But then you say to those around
you, This is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good
in his sight. That's the attitude I wanna have. That's the attitude of Eli, wasn't
it? Well, sure. God told Samuel,
and then Samuel finally told Eli, God's gonna kill you two
boys. Now, they're rotten to the core.
They're ungodly men. It's the Lord. He didn't go to
pieces and say, oh God, that's not fair. He said, it's the Lord. Let me always remember, no matter
what comes my way, it's the Lord. It's Jehovah my Savior. Let Him do what seemeth Him good
in His sight. The trial of your faith. being
much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be
tried with fire. I tell you, the world's gonna
try it, the devil's gonna try it, but mainly God's gonna try
it. And he'll try it with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. Do we say we walk with Christ
Jesus as our companion and our counselor? Look at chapter two
and verse 21. For even here unto were you called,
chapter two, verse 21, because our Savior Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his
steps. Now, we know Christ was our savior. He was our sacrifice. He was
our substitute. He laid down his life to redeem
us. But we must also remember he
was also our example. And when men spoke evil to him,
he didn't give it back to them. When they slapped him, he just
turned the other cheek. He left us an example to follow
in his steps. It's like I was talking to the
Sun School class this morning. The things that we want to stand
up for and be accounted are the issues that have to do with the
Eternity. They have to do with God. Things
of this world, they're perishing. They really ultimately don't
matter. The only thing that matters is
the glory of God. And there let me stand up and
be counted. And I said, like I quoted Martin
Luther, he said, here I stand, I can do no other. There are battles down here that
are not worth fighting. There's land that's not worth
quarreling over. Go ahead and take it. I don't
care. I'm going somewhere else anyway.
My citizenship is in heaven. You want all the inheritance?
Take it. I don't care. I have the riches
of God's grace. We get so caught up in the things
of this world. And we want to hold on to them.
But we're not citizens of this world. We're citizens of heaven. And when we suffer, God help
us to glorify him and to manifest to people around us that this
grace that we talk about, it's more than talk, my friend. It's more than talk. This is
our strength. This is our life. This is how God sustains us. This is how God keeps us. He
gives us His grace. And He gives us more grace as
we need it. And I don't believe, I do not
believe at all that God will give us any kind of trial, but
what He won't also give us grace sufficient for it. As the fellow said, I don't think
I have dying grace. Well, probably you're not dying
then. When time comes to die, I believe
God will give you dying grace. Well, what do I need now? You
need living grace right now. You need grace to live. Grace
to face every day and not be grumpy, not be grouchy, not fret
about the things that happened to you. But you need grace to
face every day and say, Oh God, this is a great day. This is
a day you've made. This is your world. I'm your
adopted child. And I know everything you bring
to pass in my life is ultimately for my good. It's a wonderful
day, Lord. Send what you will. Help me to
rejoice in you. That's the attitude that I want. Are we sincere in following the
Savior? Look at chapter three and verse
17. For it is better if the will
of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing than for evil doing.
Because Christ also hath once suffered for sins. the just for
the unjust that he might, or in order that he would bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by
the Spirit. I'm sincere in following the
Savior, and therefore I know I'm gonna have some suffering.
Has God given us a heart to love and follow Christ Jesus? Well,
look at chapter four, verses 12 and 13. Beloved, watch this. Think it not strange concerning
the fiery trial, which is to try you as though some strange
thing happened to you, but rejoice. You remember how Paul wrote when
he was in prison in Rome? And he wrote to the Philippians
and he said, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. You reckon you could rejoice
when you was in a dungeon with rats all around you and human
waste and all your freedoms were taken away from you. Do you reckon
you could rejoice in that? If he gives grace to you, you
can. Is that right? If he gives grace, you can. And
he gave Paul grace. Rejoice, Peter says, rejoice
in so much year partakers of Christ's sufferings that when
his glory shall be revealed, You may be glad also with exceeding
joy when His glory is revealed. When we see Him face to face,
we see the glory of His person. And we realize more fully the
glory of His redeeming grace. We'll be joyful, we'll be glad
with exceeding joy. And are we faithful followers
of Christ Jesus? Well, look at chapter 5, 7, 8,
and 9. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cared for you. Casting all your care. You know
what that is? Anxiety. Cast all of your anxiousness
upon Him. I'll tell you something about
casting. It's a deliberate action. It just doesn't happen automatically.
It's a deliberate action, casting, literally throwing all of your
care. That's anxiety. That's worry. It's amazing how we worry about
things that never happen. We worry about, well, this may
happen. Well, it may not happen. But
we don't worry about it anyway, are we? We're just bound and
determined, as somebody said, to be worry wards. That's just
the way we are. We're casting all your care,
all your anxiety upon Him. Upon Him, upon Him upon whom
our sins and iniquities were. They were cast in the purpose
of God. and he bore responsibility for
them. All of that indebtedness became
his and he bore it away. You know why he bore it away?
Because he cared for you. He cares for you. How am I to live in this world? I'm to live every day actively,
actively casting all my care on Christ Jesus. And here's the reason. He cares
for me. I believe there are a few people
in this world who care for me and care about me. But their care is severely limited. That is, there's only so much
they can do. But nothing is impossible with
God, our Savior. So would it not be wise for me
as a child of God to actively cast my care upon Him since He
cares so much for me? He cared so much for me that
He chose me unto salvation. He cared so much for me that
He redeemed me. He cared so much for me, he justified
me. He cared so much for me, he forgave
all my iniquities in a just and righteous way by burying them
in his own body on the tree and then he bore them away. That's
how much he cares for me. I tell you how much he cares
for me. He who died was buried and rose again. He ascended back
to heaven and he is my advocate. He is my intercessor. He is my
great high priest. He represents me before the Father
in glory. That's how much He cares for
me. You know how much He cares for me? He cares for me to keep
Satan on a very short leash when it comes to what he can do to
me. You know how much He cares for me? He cares for me so much
that all the things that happen to me in my life, He makes them
all work together for my good and His glory. That's how much He cares for
me. You know how much He cares for me? One of these days, He's
coming back to take me home to be with Him forever. That's how
much He cares for me. You know how much He cares for
me? He's going to come back and raise my body, if I'm not alive
when He comes, my body be dead, be buried somewhere. He's gonna
raise my body and bring it all back together again. Fashion like unto His glorious
body. And then body and soul, He's
going to see to it that I stay with Him in His immediate presence
Forever! That's how much He cares for
me. So let me cast all my care upon
Him. Makes sense, doesn't it? It sure
does. If He cares so much for me, let
these cares of the world that light afflictions, and I know
when they come our way they seem very heavy, But in reality, Paul
says these light afflictions, and he says they're just for
a moment. My dear friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ,
those of us who are the Lord, we're going to be with Him in
glory very shortly. It's not going to be long. We'll
be with Him. And those of you who don't know
Him, I compel you to come to Him and believe Him and worship
Him. He's such a wonderful Savior.
He's so kind and tender and gracious to folks like us. It's almost
too good to be true, but it is true. It is true.