Turn with me again to 1 Peter
chapter 5. The message I believe God has
led me to bring to you this morning. Charles Spurgeon preached at
a men's business meeting one Saturday afternoon. They had
a luncheon or whatever it was that they had. ask him to be
their guest speaker. And he preached this message
to them. And about 35 years ago, my pastor
at 13th Street Baptist Church got up one Sunday morning and
preached this exact same outline. And by the grace of God, that's
what I hope to do here this morning. The message is titled, A Cure
for anxious care. Is there anyone in this building
that don't have trouble with anxious care? Anxious thought,
worry, fear. Is there anyone in this assembly
today that's not affected by what's going on with our pastor
and the events of the past two or three weeks? I dare say there's
not a single person in this building this morning who's a loving,
devoted member of this church who's not been perplexed and
troubled and asking and dealing with all these whatabouts and
what-ifs and all these things. And there's no sensible person
that's here this morning that's not concerned with the upcoming
election. I've never seen anything like
it. Or the economy, or the price of gas. I drove down to Taylor,
Arkansas last week, and I could go to Alaska and back on an airplane
for what it cost me to drive to Arkansas and back. And then
there's talk of food shortages. And I know without asking that
every one of us are concerned with these conflicts that our
country's engaged in overseas, concerned about our children
and our loved ones and those of us who are over there in harm's
way? And then what about spiritual
things? Is there a believer here this morning that's not daily
visited by that spirit of doubt that whispers in your ear and
causes you to doubt? and fear every thought you have
and every deed you do. Cares. Anxious cares. We've all experienced them. We're
all affected by them. We all struggle with them. And
you're struggling with them right here this morning while I preach.
Anxious cares. Oh, not me preaching. I'm an
elder in the church. I'm a deacon. Well, I've been
preaching the gospel for 35 years. Not me. I stand strong in the
faith. That's exactly what this man
told our Lord, who wrote this admonition. They might forsake
you, but not me. I'll go with you to the end,
just before he found the end. But now, this old apostle, his
head's gray, and his ship's run aground. And now he says, Come down. Humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
season. And he says, but the God of all
grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. Now listen. After that you suffered
for a while. He's going to make you perfect,
that is, mature. And he's going to establish you.
And he's going to strengthen you. And he's going to settle
you. What's he saying? Well, I believe he's saying this.
Merle, it takes a while to get what I know from here to here. That's what he's saying. That's
what he's saying. And you can tell when the doctrine
gets translated from the head to the heart because what you
know becomes part of what you do. I'm not trying to bypass the
fact that we need to learn truth. The apostle commended Timothy.
He said, thou hast known the scriptures from the time you
were a child that are able to make thee wise unto salvation,
but simply knowing them Didn't get it done. That didn't get
it done. And I encourage studying the
word of God and hearing these men like Lindsey and Don and
Larry and Ron come and hear them. Hold all you can hold. But I've
also learned this. Truth, if it's not experienced,
has very little effect on your heart. It just don't affect anything. And I said that to say this,
I want to enter in to what I'm preaching to you this morning.
I want to experience it. I want it to be part of me. I don't want this to be something
I write on the sign and we pass by and see it every now and then.
I don't want this to just be some quickie answer that if somebody
questions me, I can give it to them and look like I'm smarter
than I really am. I want this to be part of me. This is the blessing of God.
This is the blessing of God. And here's the cure. Here's the
cure for these anxious cares. In verse 7, casting all your
care on Him, for He cares for you. Now let's
start here. Anxious care, this spreading
over this and that, this doubting, this drawing suspicion and all
these things is a sinful practice. It really is. When you get to
look, I know when we think about sin we want to talk about murder
and stealing and deceit and all those things are sin, but this
is sin too. This is sin too. And I know we
don't think of it as such, but it is. And it's the working immediately
after he says, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for
you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil. That's
who draws those questions, Mark. That's who causes this worry.
And it's his subtlety that does it. You don't even know you're
doing it. You're caught up in it, and it takes you over. And
you're doing it before you even know it. And he said, watch,
be diligent. And he knew what he was talking
about. Resist him. How can you resist
him? Steadfast in the faith. That's
the only way. Knowing that these same afflictions
are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Hawker
said this. He said, I thank God and counted
a blessing of God that Satan is invisible. You think about that. What a
blessing. What if you could see him? There's
not a predator on this earth that wouldn't run and cower in
the corner at the sight of him. What a blessing. You don't see
it. But we hear him. He roars, and
we can hear him roar. And he also said this. It doesn't
say he seeks whom he can devour. He has the ability to... Our Lord told Peter, he said,
Satan hath desired to sift you like wheat. He'll just put you
in a pan and shake you through the sieve. It's not a matter
of can. But look at the word the Holy
Spirit chose. He seeks whom he may. That has
to do with permission. He didn't just run out and take
everything Job had. He got permission. That's what
Peter's talking about right here. Permission. He can only do what
God gives him permission to do. But anxious care, brethren, is
a sinful business, and it's dishonoring to God if we practice it. Now,
I'm talking about worry and frettings about anything to the point of
anxiety. to the point where it begins
to really bother you. I'm talking about worry, fear
of the unknown. I'm talking about things over
which we have no power to alter or change. Somebody sits at home and they're
healthy, but they refuse to work. And they say, well, I'm hungry.
Well, you ought to be hungry. You need to get a job. You need to get a job. I'm not
talking about that kind of anxiety. I'm talking about things over
which we have no power. And I'll give you four reasons
why. Number one, because anxious care make us imagine that we're
wiser than God. Did you know that? Think about
it. When we worry over this, and
fret about that, and worry over the economy, and wonder who's
going to be president, and we just tore all the pieces over
these things, we imagine ourselves to be wiser
than God. If I was at the helm, I wouldn't
steer my ship that direction. I'd go another course. Yeah,
Paul talked about that course over in Ephesians chapter 2.
It's the course of this world. He said that's where God found
you. Walking the course of this world. Walking after the prince
of the power of the air. That spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. Over and over and over the Lord
tells us my ways are not your ways. So why do we expect them to be? My ways are not your ways. There
is a way that seemeth right unto men. That's what we get all in
an uproar over. Well, it just seems to me, what's
that in comparison with the wisdom of God? There's a way that seemeth
right unto men, but the end thereof is dead. We'd steer our ship
the same way Peter did, right onto the rocks. That's exactly
what we do. Our Lord said this, the wise
man built his house on a rock. And when the winds come and the
rains fall and the waves get up, the house stays put. Why?
Because it's sitting on a rock. Anxious care. Rather than rejoicing
in the trial, tries by its own wisdom to interpret God's providence
and avoid what God has sent for your good and his glory. And one of the things Solomon
said in Proverbs, he said, there are six things that the Lord
hates. Yea, seven are an abomination unto him. You know what one of
those things are? A heart that imagines wicked imaginations. That's what it is. And that's
what doubting God is. It's a wicked imagine. It imagines
ourselves to be wiser than God. If we could plan the thing, if
we could steer the ship, we'd do it different. We'd do it different. And then the second reason is
this. And this is a bitter pill. Brother Mahan told me one time,
bitter pills, he said, don't chew on them, just swallow. Just
swallow them down. You don't want to chew on a bitter
pill. And this is a bitter pill. Anxious cares puts a question
mark on the love of God. That's what it does. You know,
over in Romans 8, I just love that scripture over there. I
feel the same way about it. I do this scripture over here
in 1 Peter. I'm biting my tongue. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose. All things work together. Who
shall separate us from what? The love of God. Who's going
to separate us from the love of God? We trust another in direct proportion
to how much we love them. Did you know that? You take a
little child. My little granddaughter's come
over to visit. One of them will fall and get
hurt. And if there's nobody around, she'll run to me or run to Grandma.
But not if Mommy's there. Or if Mommy's there, she's dead. Why? Because we commit ourselves
to the trust of those in exact proportion to how much we love
them. Now what's that say when we enter into these anxious cares,
Larry, about our love for him? Just not much there is there. You remember the story of Lazarus? Lazarus married Martha. They
were close to the Lord. I was surprised. I went back
to the scriptures and started looking. I was surprised at how
much time our Lord actually spent in Bethany. He spent a lot of
time there. They were close. He visited with
Mary and Martha and Lazarus a lot. And Lazarus took sick, not got
a cold sick, bad sick, sick unto death type of sick. And they
sent They sent some messengers. They couldn't leave the house
for fear he was going to die. And they sent some messengers
out to tell the Lord about Lazarus. And they come and they told him.
And it says, and the Lord loved him. And he names all three of
them there in John chapter 11. He said he loved Martha, and
he loved Mary, and he loved Lazarus. But it says he tarried two more
days. And at the end of the second
day, the Lord went to Bethany. And he told them why. He said,
this sickness is not unto death. He told that to his disciples.
He told that to the messengers. This sickness is for the glory
of God. He told them up front. And he
told them that he loved them. Up front. They already knew this.
But he tarried two days. And finally, he just turned around
and told his disciples he's dead. And he said, I'm glad for your
sakes that I wasn't there. Why? To the intent that you might
believe. I have a purpose in this. I've
got a purpose in this. Divine wisdom and divine love
rejoices in what is the sure mercies of God and the certain
good of all his children. And then after his delay, he
went to Bethany to see those that he loved. And
Martha had been stewing about this thing for two or three days.
I mean, why don't he come? Why don't he come? Where's he
at? Don't he know our brother's sick? And she stewed about it
and stewed about it until she got mad. And as soon as she heard
the Lord was coming out that door, she went, she ran up to
him and just blurted it out. If you'd been here, my brother
hadn't died. Guilty. Guilty. How many times? How many times? But listen to this. Mary sat still in the house. God teach me to sit still in
my house. Just sit still. If you've been here, my brother,
not now. If you'd done what I believe needed to be done, and when I
would, that you would have done it, and how I deemed necessary
to do it, everything would be okay. And he called for Mary to come
to him, and she repeated her sister's statement. You see, anxious care is infectious. I believe that's what the Lord
is teaching us here. It's infectious. And if you read that chapter
carefully, it says in verse 33, John 11, 33, when Jesus therefore
saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with
her, he groaned within himself. It was trouble. And then the whole outfit said,
could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have prevented
even this man from dying? You see how infectious it is?
Now you've got a whole town full of people, a whole house full
of mourners. And you've got a believer who
sat at the feet of Christ and who was singled out on many occasions
for her faith. You've got her infected with these anxious cares. And
it says, and Jesus again, groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It's a sinful business because
it makes us to imagine that we're wiser in God, and it causes us
to put a question mark on His love. And then thirdly, anxious
care weakens us for use in the kingdom of God. Brother Mahan used to tell this
story about a guy who owned a furniture company. And he sold a piece
of furniture to somebody, and he went back into the warehouse
to get his man to get it ready to load up. And he went back
there, and this guy had a big old, it was an old chair, a used
chair, sitting up on his back. He was toting this thing around.
riding and carrying that chair around. He said, what are you
doing with that old chair? He said, why? Well, he said,
I just sold a piece of furniture and I need you to go over here
and you can't do it. Oh, he said, I've got a lot of
household burdens that I have to carry with me. So he just
carried that chair away. But he said, I'll get the job
done. He said, how can you do the job and carry that chair?
You can't do it. And brother, we can't either.
We can't carry the burdens and trials and fears and all those
things that have to do with this world and minister in the kingdom
of God. You can't do it. You're too tired
to do it. You're too wore out to do it. You're too worried. You're too
full of doubt to do it. You can't work effectively in
the kingdom of God and carry these burdens too. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
6. In Matthew chapter 6, in verse 24, he said, no man can serve
two masters. Either he'll hate the one and
love the other. or else you'll hold to the one
and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore, based on this fact,
I say unto you, take no thought for your life. What you shall
eat, what you shall drink, nor yet for your body what you shall
put on is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment.
Behold the fowls of the air. For they sow not, neither do
they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth
them. Aren't you better than birds? Which of you, by taking thought,
can add one cubit unto his stature, one minute, one hour, one day,
one week, one year to your life? Can you just? He just strong-willed, pulled
him through. I've heard doctors say that.
What nonsense. And why take your thought for
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow,
they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you
that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these
little ones. If God so clothed the grass of
the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven,
shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? In
worrying and fretting over the cares of this world, we show
no difference, he said, between us and the heathen. He's just
like them. But he said in verse 33, seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, And all these
things will be added unto you. Take no thought, no anxious thought
for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought of the things
of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the what? The evil thereof. That's what it is. And then last of all, anxious
thoughts and cares, worry, they're dishonoring to God because they
take away the effectiveness of your Christian witness. Brethren,
you can't preach the absolute sovereignty of God and then worry
about the future. People just look at you and scratch
their heads. Oh, I thought he believed in
the sovereignty of God. You can't preach the Lord Omnipotent
reigneth and then question the ordering of his providence. You
can't preach the sovereign, immutable counsel of God and then struggle
to change what God is determined to be done. You can't do it. And every one of us have these
worries, and we have these cares, and the sin is not in the fact
that they exist. It's how we deal with them. Peter learned this. I'm telling
you, it was a bitter pill for him. He learned it over and over
and over. What a man to tell us this admonition. And he said, Cast your cares,
cast them on him, put them on him. But thank God there is a cure.
We can cast them on him. Now, let me mention just a few
of these cares that we're troubled with. The affairs of this world, certainly
we're all concerned with those. But he said, he that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
also with him freely give us all things? If God spared not
his son, he's not going to spare a loaf of bread. He's not going
to spare a gallon of gasoline if we're using that gasoline
for his glory. Now, get out in a motorboat,
I don't know. Oh, no. And secondly, I know
this. We worry over our children. And
I'm convinced of why. Because one time we was their
age, and we know what we did, and it scares us to death. That's
what it is, isn't it? Commit your children to the Lord.
He's the only one who can do them any good. He can't do wrong. He can't do wrong. And I'll tell
you this, they're in His hands anyway. We need to quit trying to bend
God's providence in favor of our children and our own selfish
desires and commit them to His trust. You see, here they are. Here they are. And get out of
the way. And then what about our jobs and our businesses?
More people are up in the air about that right now. A fellow I work for, he's got just
millions of dollars out here in the freshly developed land. And the building market's just
going downhill. Everything he does depends on
fuel. Fuel costs is going up. What
about these businesses? And we've got some businessmen
right here. I believe the scripture teaches us to do everything that
we can do to treat our employers right and to treat our employees
right and to do the best we can do and then back up and leave
the results to Him. Cast all your cares. And I can do that if I believe
this, he careth for me. And here's one we're all guilty
of. Anxious cares and doubts over past sins. You know what Paul said? He said,
forgetting those things which are behind. Forget them. God cast them behind his back.
He's scattered as far as the east is from the west. And we
want to go out there hunting them and digging them up. Leave
them alone. Forget about it. That's what
Paul said. Forget those things. Up here
is where you want to look. Up here. Up here is the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ. Press toward that mark.
Forget them. Forget them. And to continually
dig up and find fear over past sins puts a question mark on
the efficiency of the blood of Christ to have put them away. And then closely related to that
is this, our present infirmities. I'm talking about the flesh,
that's what I'm talking about. I'm not talking about disease
and illness, I'm talking about this flesh. You know people that are just
always walking around with their head, And they're always down
in the dumps over this or that and they continually dwell on
the flesh, on the flesh, on the flesh. Didn't he say something about Christ being the Son over His
own house, whose house are we if we hold fast our confidence
and what? Rejoice. Paul rejoiced. He said, I've learned to rejoice
in my trials. That's hard to do. It's hard
to do. Cast those cares on him. And
then what about this? I'll close with this. We worry about whether or not
we're going to hold out to the end, don't we? We worry about it. We fret about
it. Well, I'll tell you this. Everything
depends on who's doing the holding. Now, if you're doing the holding,
you ain't going to make it. If you just keep on keeping on,
you ain't going to make it. You see, perseverance and preservation,
they have to be preached together. You never want to preach those
two things apart. They're together. They're one.
We'll persevere, but we'll persevere because he that's begun a good
work in us is able to finish that work. We'll hold on to the end because
he's able to keep us from falling. We worry over things. We have
no ability to change, no wisdom to figure out, and no power to
alter. And Charles Spurgeon said this,
we're setting out to accomplish an impossible, impossible goal. The just shall L-I-P-E live by
faith. Casting all your cares on him,
for he'll care for you. Our Father, we bring everything we are, everything we hope to be, we bring all these worldly cares,
woes. Our children, state of our nation,
our leaders, We bring our sick, those in need,
our children, we bring all these things and commit them to your
trust. And especially this message this
morning, I commit into your hands, do with as you will. Use it for
Christ's sake. Amen.