It's good to see you all again,
good to be with you once again. Let's turn in our Bibles to 1
Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5. God the Father was pleased to give his son all
the preeminence in the salvation of his people. And that means
he trusted all the elect that he chose to his son. Our Lord
Jesus entered covenant, the Son of God entered covenant with
the Father to take care of the consequences for all the sins
of God's people. the consequences eternally, and
also to teach us and instruct us and chasten us and grow us
as the head of the church. Everything is in His hand. Christ
is saving His people from the beginning to the end. Now, you
remember how the apostle Peter and the other apostles began
to argue over who should be the greatest in the kingdom of God.
And they became lifted up in pride. And the Lord said, told
them they would all deny Him. And Peter argued and said, no,
I won't deny you. These might, but I won't. And
I'll die with you. And the Lord told him, He said,
Peter, Satan has desired you that he might sift you as wheat.
But I've prayed for you that your faith fail not. And when
you're converted, strengthen your brethren. When you're converted
from this pride and from this fall, teach your brethren what
I'm teaching you and what I will teach you. And so that's what
we have here in 1 Peter 5. We have the Apostle Peter teaching
us what he learned through that trial. He says in verse 5, 1
Peter 5. Let's begin there at the second
part. He says, all of you be subject, submit one to another,
and 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 time,
casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober,
be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast
in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. but the God of all
grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After that you've suffered a
while, make ye perfect. Establish, strengthen, settle
you. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. I want to divide this into
three sections, three calls. And we'll see, first of all,
the call to humility. Secondly, we'll see the call
to faith. And thirdly, the call to patience. The call to humility, the call
to faith, and the call to patience. Now, first of all, this call
to humility. He begins there and he says,
be clothed with humility. God resisteth the proud and giveth
grace to the humble. 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. You
see, when the trouble came to Peter and the other apostles,
the contention arose because of one thing. It was just one
thing that caused contention between them. Now when contention
comes between us and our brethren, we'll look at every reason under
the sun and attribute it to a bunch of different things and look
for all these second causes. God just attributes this to one
thing, just one thing. He said in Proverbs 13.10, only
by pride cometh contention. That was the problem with Peter
and the other apostles, pride. arguing over who should be greatest
in the kingdom of heaven. It wasn't just Peter that did
it, it was all of the apostles that did it. And it was pride. Pride is the sin of sins. It's the spark that sets all
our other sins ablaze. It was pride that caused the
devil to be cast out of heaven. Lucifer said, I will ascend into
the heavens. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will, I will, I will be like
the Most High. That's what pride is always boasting. I will, I will, I will. Pride
was the temptation that led to the fall. When the devil entered
the garden, It was pride that he used to tempt and he said,
you shall be as gods. You partake of this forbidden
tree and you shall be as gods. And all of a sudden the forbidden
tree became a tree desired to make one wise. And the result
was by one man, sin entered the world and death by sin. And so
death passed upon all men because in Adam all have sinned. Now that's what pride resulted
in. The fall of the whole human race
started from pride. Now Peter knew something about
it. He had experienced it. That's how come he failed, arguing
with his other brethren. So Peter declares what the Lord
taught him through that trial. And he says, God resisteth the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. God resisted the proud
and gives grace to the humble. God finds us, those that Christ
has redeemed, those that He has made perfect by His blood, when
He sends the Spirit, He sends the Gospel, He finds us lifted
up in our pride, thinking we don't need God, thinking we're
doing alright on our own, dead in our sin. That's where He finds
us. but he's gonna have to give us
life and he's gonna have to create in us a contrite heart. God said,
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit and trembleth at my word. Now, preeminently,
you know who that is? Preeminently, that's our Lord
Jesus. The Holy Spirit humbles His elect
by making us behold our Lord Jesus Christ and how the Son
of God humbled Himself to save His people from our sin and to
glorify God the Father. The Scriptures tell us this over
in Philippians 2. If you want to look there with
me in Philippians 2, This is what the Spirit is going to reveal
to us and this is what the Spirit of God is going to speak affectionately
in our heart right here when He comes and saves us and humbles
us. Verse 5, let this mind be in
you which was also in Christ Jesus. Now I can say that to
you all day and it won't do any good, but if the Spirit of God
speaks this into our heart, it will humble us. And what is the
mind of Christ? Well, the verse is right before
that. He's speaking of what was the mind of Christ. He said in
verse 3, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind let each esteem the other better
than themselves. Look not every man on his own
things, but every man also on the things of others. That was
the mind that was in our Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is, read
on, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. You see,
the Son of God didn't conquer sin by pride. He didn't conquer
sin by pride. He conquered sin and death through
humility. The Son of God had every right
to make Himself a reputation. He's God. He's God Almighty. And He humbled Himself. He came
down and took the form of a servant. He came down and humbled Himself
and made Himself in the likeness of men, like unto His brethren.
He made himself under the law. He humbled himself and became
obedient even unto death, the death of the cross. He willingly
gave himself to be made sin for us who knew no sin. He willingly
gave Himself to be made a curse to bear the wrath of God in place
of His people that He might glorify God the Father and save His people
from our sin. That's humility. He made Himself
the least. That's why He's the greatest. You remember when He spoke that
and He said, He that will be the greatest in the kingdom of
God will be your servant. What He's saying by that is,
what God regards as greatest is those that are the least.
Those that make themselves to be the least in the kingdom of
God, the way up is down. And that's what our Lord did.
He's the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. He made Himself the
very least. You look to Calvary's cross and
you see Him hanging there between God the Father, offended, poured
out wrath on Him, and His offending brethren. And you see Him hanging
there, dying the just for the unjust in the place of His people,
and you'll see one who made Himself the least. That's humility. That's
perfect humility. And while he did that, he did
that casting all his care on the Father, trusting the Father's
covenant word to raise him from the grave when he had finished
the work of justifying his people and redeeming us from the curse
of the law. That's what he accomplished, and that's what God the Father
did. In due time, God the Father exalted him from the grave when
he had finished exalting the Father. What he did in humility
highly exalted the Father, and verse 9 says, wherefore God also
hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow
in humility. Every tongue shall confess Christ
Jesus the Lord in humility. Everyone that He saves, He's
going to do that by His grace. That's how He's going to bring
us to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. He's going to
show us a revelation of the Lord Jesus and how He humbled Himself
and went to the cross. And that right there, on that
cross, is what we deserve. And He bore that in room instead
of His people. That's what will bring us down.
That's what will humble us. That's what will humble us. Proud
Isaiah was woeing everybody else, but when the Lord gave him a
revelation of Christ and he saw the King of glory, He said, woe
is me. Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Why did he say
that? He said, because my eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. whenever Saul was proud and he
was breathing out threatenings and he was persecuting God's
people until he was given a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
when he beheld the Lord Jesus Christ, he heard Christ speak
and say, I am Jesus whom thou persecuted. And he fell to the
earth trembling and astonished, and he said, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? Now, what does it mean to humble
ourselves? under the mighty hand of God.
Well, it's to cast all our care into the hand of our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what Christ did on the
cross. He cast all his care into the hand of the Father and redeemed
his people. And He will bring you and me
who He has redeemed. He's going to bring His people
to cast all our care into the hand of our Lord Jesus and trust
Him to be all our righteousness and all our sanctification and
redemption and our wisdom and our all. That's what He's going
to do for us. We see it in the publican. The
Republican wouldn't even lift his eyes up to heaven. He's got
his eyes down in the dust. That's what he was. He had his
eyes facing what he was, the dust. And he's smiting up on
his breasts and he's crying out to God saying, God be merciful
to me, be propitious to me, have mercy on me, the sinner. What
was he doing? He was doing what Peter says
in 1 Peter 5, 7. He was casting all his care upon
Him, trusting He careth for you. That's what it is. Humility,
true humility is to cast all your care upon Him, believing
He careth for you. That never ceases the rest of
our days. Once He's called you, it doesn't
stop. It doesn't stop. You notice that
word there, casting, in verse 7. It's not past tense. It's present tense. It's ongoing. It's continually casting. You
know why? Because we have constant care. And we're constantly needing
to be casting all our care on the Lord Jesus. Salvation is
not just learning about total depravity and unconditional election
and limited atonement and so on, and got some doctrine and
now learn some doctrine, that's it. Salvation is Christ. It's
being brought to Him because you see what a dire sinner you
are. And brethren, I'm telling you,
He's saving us every moment, every day, before we knew Him,
since we've known Him. It's all the time, constantly,
that Christ is saving us. We need Him to say, you can't
bat your eye without Him giving you the grace to do it. You can't
take your next breath without Him giving you the grace to do
it. We got powers and principalities and rulers and devils all about
us that we can't even see. And He's saving His people every
hour constantly. When we sing, I need Thee every
hour, we need Him every hour. From the beginning to the end.
It's not only what God brings you to do in conversion when
He first calls you, it's what He brings you to do throughout
your life. And the reason He sends these
afflictions and these trials is to teach us and keep us knowing
we need Him to care for us. He's going to keep His people
casting all our care on Him, knowing He cares for you. How
does He do this? By the trials and the afflictions
that He sends, bringing us to a place where there's no way
you can save yourself out of it. He's going to show us what
we are in it, because what we tend to do is get lifted up in
pride and try to save ourselves out of it and get ourselves all
tangled up in a mess. And He shows you by that, all
flesh is grass. He shows us personally, I am
grass. That's all I am in myself, is
a sinner. And then He shows you at the
same time that thy God reigneth. He shows you your Savior is a
sovereign Savior. He keeps bringing you again and
again, reviving your heart in faith, and causing you to cast
all your care on Christ, and that's what He's going to keep
doing all the way to the end. Thus saith the High and Lofty
One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in
a high and holy place, and with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble. and
to revive the heart of the contrite one. He's going to keep reviving
His people. He's going to keep reviving us
in faith in the inward man while at the same time He keeps subduing
and killing this old man of flesh within us. The two words that
are translated care right there, casting all your care on Him
for He careth for you, they're two different words. That first
word, is concerning us and it deals with our concerns and our
worries and our anxiety. The heavy load is burdening you
right now. Whatever it is, it's burdening you right now. That's
what that first word, care, speaks of. The second word, in reference
to Christ's care, is a word that describes Him as a watchful shepherd. not anxious, not troubled, not
worried about anything, just as a faithful, powerful, sovereign
shepherd taking care of his people. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall
not want. Can you say that? If the Lord's
your shepherd, you can. You shall not lack anything. You won't want for anything.
Have you ever? We have it. We might think we
have, but you know, there's a difference between a want and a need. But
you haven't lacked anything. He provided everything we need.
He makes you lie down and bring pastures. He leads you beside
the still waters. He restores your soul. He leads
you to the path of righteousness for His namesake. And He'll do
it all our days, brethren. When he came here, he took care
of satisfying divine justice for all his people. That's what
he took care of. He satisfied divine justice.
Somebody will say, what about the consequences for our sin?
Well, Adam sinned in the garden, and when he did, we all sinned
in him, and there are some divine consequences for that. The soul
that sinneth must die. Not just the physical death,
must die eternally, must suffer hell eternally. Now who's going
to take care of that consequence? The Lord Jesus Christ did. The
Son of God came down and because He's eternal, what He did is
eternal. And because He took flesh like
His brethren without sin, He was able to bear our sin and
bear our curse and suffer that second death for us on Calvary's
tree. And so He accomplished our eternal justification. He is our eternal righteousness. Now if He settled that care for
you, can't you trust it to Him? Can't you trust everything to
Him? Christ took the care of making His people holy. Scripture
tells us He came to do the will of God because we couldn't do
it. Hebrews 10 says, by that will, by the witch will, He has
sanctified us forever by one offering. By one offering He
perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's what He did.
And then He sent the Spirit of God into our heart and created
a new holy man by Christ Himself being formed in us, uniting us
with Him so that we experimentally experience this. And He keeps
us all our days partaking of His holiness. So can't you trust
the care of Him guiding you and directing you and keeping you
all your days? This is what He accomplishes.
He has the care of all His people. He has the care of preserving
His people to the end. So we can trust every day to
Him. We can trust every minute to
Him to care for us and lead us. That means we should constantly
be casting all our worries and our anxious care and all the
things that are troubling us, casting it on Him. He can carry
you and all your burden. He can carry you and all your
cares. Do you care for your brethren? You have cares for your brethren,
you're worried and troubled about your brethren. How easily it
is for me, and I'll speak for me, but I think I'm speaking
for you too, how easy it is for me to be lifted up in pride and
thinking I know what's best for my brother, my sister. And what
we end up doing when we do that is judging our brother or our
sister. And it's what the scripture says,
who am I to judge another man's servant? How do you like it if
somebody comes in your house or if you're out in public and
somebody walked up and they started disciplining your child? That's
your child. Well, my brother, my sister is
my Lord's servant. That's his child. He's their
master. He's their father. He's their
head. Who am I that judge another man's
servant? To his own master he stands or
falls. Yea, he should be held up, for
God's able to make him stand. You see, in all of these things,
when we're lifted up in pride and try to take care of anything
of ourselves, we're not trusting and believing Christ. That's
what the issue is. Pride and faith just don't go
together. In all these ways, 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 cares for
you." My father, the Lord took my father home to Glory this
past month, and I spent four days with him in the hospital,
and he was unconscious. And while I was there by his
bedside, I kept looking at his hands, scarred, wrinkled, calloused. Those hands took care of me,
provided for me, corrected me, loved me. And as I looked at
his hands, I thought about my Heavenly Father's hand. That's
the hand that's mighty to save. That's the hand that Scripture
says in Isaiah 40 that He holds the waters in the hollow of His
hand. That's a big hand. Think of the
waters in this world. He holds the waters in the hollow
of His hand. He can hold you in His hand.
He can take care of you in His hand. He has and He shall and
He will. And He will exalt you in due
time. You know what that is? The due time is when He brings
you to the place to where He's caused you to cry out, Abba,
Father, and cast it all into His hands. That's the due time.
You know what He did? The Lord Jesus suffered on the
cross until He satisfied justice, till He had fully redeemed His
people, and then the Father exalted Him. He exalted Him, because
it was the due time. And He's going to let you suffer
till He brings you to the point, to the end of yourself, to cast
it all into His hand and trust Him alone, and then that's the
due time. That's when He'll exalt you.
That's what He did for Peter. That's what He did for Peter. The Lord's now unto them that
are of a broken heart, and saveth such ongoing as be of a contrite
spirit." The sacrifices of God, you want to sacrifice to God?
They're a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
God will not despise. A broken heart. Now secondly, His call to vigilance,
His call to faith. Not only does He call us to humility,
to submit to Him and cast it all into His hand, He calls us
to vigilant faith. Look here now in verse 8. He
says, "...be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil,
as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour, whom
resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." He's
saying to us, be awake, Be on guard, be vigilant, because we
have an adversary going about seeking whom he may devour. Now
he can't touch a soul unless the Lord gives him permission.
He has to ask, may I? Just like he came and the Lord
asked him, have you considered my servant Job? He has to have
permission to do anything. He's God's devil. He can't do
a thing. And the only way you and me though
can resist him is steadfast in the faith. That means having
your heart and your mind set on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting
Christ to save you. The Lord Jesus is our strength.
He's our refuge. He's our defender. He's our shield. That's who our Lord Jesus is. We're no match for the devil. Now, as you suffer afflictions,
and here's how subtle the devil is, as you suffer afflictions,
he tells you something to know. As you're steadfastly looking
to Christ, trusting Him, and you come into trouble and you
come into affliction, he says, know this, know that the same
afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. Now, here's how One of the instances show us how
we are no match for the devil. This is how subtle of a foe he
is. He will appeal to our pride even
in our affliction, even in our suffering. He'll have you to
think that your trial's greater than any of your brethren, that
you're suffering more than any of your brethren are suffering.
Nobody knows, no, nobody knows the trouble I'm going through.
And you'd be so proud of suffering. Nobody's suffering like I'm suffering.
Nobody cares that I'm suffering what I'm suffering. But our sovereign
Savior is ruling every affliction. He sent every affliction, and
He rules every affliction. And look what it says there,
the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. He appointed every trial that we suffer. And He's
accomplishing just what He's accomplishing in you, He's accomplishing
in your brother and your sister. The same affliction, He's accomplishing
the same thing in them. He's bringing them down. He's
teaching them their sinful nature still within. He's showing them
their need of Christ and their need to cast all their care on
Christ, just like He's doing it to you. Don't ever start thinking
that you're the only one suffering, and your brother's not suffering,
or they don't care that you're suffering. We're one. We're united. We're born of the same Spirit.
When one suffers, each one suffers. As a pastor, I could tell you
this, if everybody in the congregation is doing well, but you've got
one that's been out of shape, it's like having a sore tooth. You've got all these that are
doing well, but you just can't focus on anything but that one
tooth. And that's how it is between brethren. We're one. And the
Lord's accomplishing the same affliction through every trial.
When the Apostle Paul was cast into prison, he wrote this to
his brethren. He said, no man should be moved
by these afflictions. He said, you yourselves know
we're appointed thereunto. The Lord appointed these afflictions.
He's bringing these afflictions to pass. And Peter wrote this,
he said, greatly rejoice in the Lord, though now for a season,
if need be, you're in heaviness through manifold trial. Sometimes
there is a need that we suffer. because usually we were looking
too much at this world and carried away too much in the world or
we somehow puffed up in our flesh and we're not looking to Christ.
That's it. And all of them are for this
one reason. It's not just the consequences
of our eternal sin He's taking care of, He's taking care of
us every single day to keep us looking only to Christ and knowing
that we have to have Him every step of the way. You know, the
world doesn't believe this. The world doesn't believe that
Christ is really reigning and ruling in the hearts of His people
all the time. And He's working it through this
gospel right here. But that's what Christ is doing.
He's working, He's ruling, and everything in providence is under
His mighty hand. And He's accomplishing these
same afflictions in every one of His people, in each of our
brethren. What's he accomplishing in us?
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. Here's what he's doing. We come into a trial and we start
asking the question, why is this happening? Well, here it is. I pray the Lord gives us faith
to believe this is it right here. This is why he's doing what he's
doing. Here's the first need be right
here, verse 8. 2 Corinthians 1.8, Peter said,
"'We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which
came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above
strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.'" Here's why it
happened. This is why all our trials happened
right here. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves. that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so
great a death, and doth deliver, and whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us." That's what he's teaching us in every single
trial. Not to trust ourselves, but to
trust Him. He has delivered us, He is delivering
us, and He shall yet deliver us. And I'll show you the second
reason. Same chapter. This is what He's going to accomplish
in each of our brethren. As He comforts you and He consoles
you in your affliction, Christ Himself, He's teaching you more
of Christ, growing you in the grace and knowledge of Christ
so that you can speak of Christ to your brethren in their affliction
and comfort and console them with the same comfort that He
consoled you with. Look back up there at verse 3.
2 Corinthians 1.3, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, who comforted
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ
abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. You see that? It's Christ who's
comforting us and consoling us in the trial, saving us out of
it, so that you can go and tell your brother or sister how He
comforted you and consoled you and delivered you out of that
trial, so that through that Word, He'll comfort and console them
and deliver them out of that trial. There's the two reasons
He's doing everything He's doing. So we don't trust ourselves,
we cast all our care into His hand and keep doing so, and so
that we can teach our brethren to do the same thing because
we know it by experience now. We know it by experience. That
He's the only Comforter and consolation we have. This is why Paul said
in Romans 5, he said, we not only glory, in the grace wherein
we stand. Oh, we do glory in that. We glory
in the fact that you're complete in Christ. Your life's at God's
right hand, where He is right now. He's your life. And when
He shall appear, you'll appear with Him in glory. You're complete
in Him. Perfect in Him. Everything God
requires in Him. Holy as God's own Son in Him. Righteous in Him. As He is, so
are you right now in this world. And we're thankful and rejoicing
at grace where we stand. But we also praise Him and give
Him glory for sending us trouble. That's what Paul said in Romans
5. We glory also in tribulation, knowing. Tribulation works patience. And patience, experience. You
get to experience that God's grace is real, that He's alive
and that He's working and living and working. As He said, I'll
never leave you and I'll never forsake you. You get to experience
that it's God working in you both to will and do of His good
pleasure. And experience grows you in hope. You got a good hope
and you know it a little more when you go through a trial because
you know my hope is that one day he's coming again and I'm
going to be with him forever. And I've been growing in that
hope a little bit more because I saw him do it right here in
this trial I went through. He came to me and saved me right
through this trial. And that hope will never be ashamed. It'll never make you ashamed
for trusting and hoping in Him. Because in all of this, the love
of God is shed all in your heart by the Holy Ghost. And you see,
His love doesn't change. It never alters one bit. He's saving you by His everlasting
love. That's why we glory in the trouble.
It's not pleasant when it happens. But it always ends in this glorious,
where we're praising Him and thanking Him and saying, Lord,
You did it just like it should have been done. Just like it
should have been done. Now let's end with this last
thing. A call to patience with assurance. A call to patience with assurance.
Look here in verse 10. But the God of all grace who
had called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, You see
that? The God of all grace who called
us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After you've suffered a while,
He'll make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. You know,
when the trouble comes, we want to get out of it quickly. I want
to get out of it right now. I want out of it today. And usually
if I see my brother or sister suffering and I want to go to
them right now and try to say something, help them, do something,
I can't get them out of it. You know what James said by the
Spirit of God? He said, Brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into different trials, knowing this, that trying
in your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect
work. You may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. He's
saying you wait on the Lord so that you get the full benefit
out of the trial. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord for your own self. Wait on the Lord with your brethren.
He's going to accomplish the same affliction in them that
He's accomplished in you. He's the God of all grace. He's
called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus. He's not going
to lose you. He's not going to lose one of His people. He said,
I give them eternal life and nobody will pluck them out of
My hand. My Father is greater than all and nobody will pluck
them out of My Father's hand. He's called you, Peter said there.
He's the God of all grace who's called us to His eternal glory
by Christ Jesus. Now, we do well to listen to
Peter, because Peter was lifted up in pride. And Peter thought
he was strong. I don't have a doubt when he
pulled that fish from his knife and cut off that soldier's ear,
he was going to prove to the Lord that I don't care if the
Scripture did say I was going to deny you and be scattered,
I'm going to show you I'm not going to do that. That's pride.
That's pride. The Lord said, Peter, it's written.
I'll smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." It's
written. So we need to learn from Peter.
The devil has sifted him as wheat, but through the affliction the
Lord taught Peter these things he's teaching us right here.
And this is what he's going to teach you and me. Here's what
Peter experienced. This is what he knew. This is
how he's consoling and comforting us right now. so that we can
console and comfort one another when the Lord's worked this in
our heart. This is what He's going to teach you right here.
This is what He's going to do for you right here. He said, after
that you've suffered a while, He'll make you perfect. Does
that mean He's going to make you sinless? No. It means He's
going to perfectly do for you what He intends to do for you
in this trial right now. He's going to grow you in faith
in Christ. He's going to grow you in love,
knitting your heart together with your brethren a little more. He's going to establish you.
That means He's going to set you more firmly on Christ the
Rock. A little more firmly on Christ.
He's going to strengthen you. He's going to grow you a little
more in understanding that you don't have any strength in yourself,
that your strength is Christ. Paul said, when I'm weak, that's
when I'm strong. Because that's when the power
of Christ is resting on me. He's going to strengthen you,
making you see Christ as your only strength. And He's going
to settle you. He's going to calm your heart
in assurance that you're safe in His hand. Is that not what
He's worked for you in every trial you've ever been through?
Isn't that what He's done for you? He suffered a little while. He
suffered a little while, and He grows you in faith, grows
you in understanding. He establishes you a little more.
He strengthens you, making you see He's your strength. He settles
you on Him. That's what He's doing in every
one of these trials, and that's what He's going to do perfectly
for us when He brings you through the last one. He's going to do
it perfectly in that day. And you're going to be with Him
in perfection and see Him as He is. And in every one of these
trials now, here's what He brings you to do. And then when He brings
you through that last trial and you're with Him in glory, this
is what He's going to bring you to say right here, that last
verse, to Him be the glory and to Him be the dominion forever
and ever. Amen. Amen, brethren.