The scripture reading at this time comes from 1 Peter, and at this time we'll read chapter 5 of 1 Peter. There in 1 Peter 5 we read this word of God. The elders which are among you I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. 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. 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 ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you, and so doth Marcus, my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. The text for the sermon at this time is verses 6 and 7 of 1 Peter chapter 5, which reads as follows. 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. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, Apostle Peter wrote this epistle to the elect strangers, to God's people, believing households in Asia Minor. In Asia Minor, whether it was in the region of Pontus, Galatia, or the other places mentioned at the beginning of the book of 1 Peter, wherever they lived, they suffered tribulation. They suffered great affliction by the hands of wicked men who did so because of the grace wherein they stood. in which God had worked in them by the Holy Spirit unto a godly, faithful, Christian life, as that royal priesthood whom God called out of darkness into his marvelous light and made them strangers and pilgrims in the earth. And although these elect strangers, these believers and their seed suffered many, many hardships outwardly, The apostle also reminded them that they were very blessed. That's set forth in various ways through the epistle. For example, at the beginning of the epistle, he calls them elect, according to the foreknowledge of God. That truth of election is of great blessing and consolation to God's people in the midst of hardship. He reminded them that they were begotten unto a living hope, Not a false hope, not a vain hope, but a hope which is a living hope that lives not just at God's right hand, but lives within them by the Holy Spirit according to His Word. What a precious treasure to those who suffer knowing that within them there is the beginning of the hope that we have when the work that God has been accomplishing in us is finally finished. He reminded them in 1 Peter 1 that they were bought with the precious blood of Christ. So precious is that blood of Christ to God, and having been purchased by the blood of Christ, the people of God would not be brought to ruin. They would not be brought to shame before God in the judgment. And he reminds them at the end of chapter two, they are under, therefore, in all of their tribulation, under the great perfect care of the shepherd and bishop of our souls. And in those hands of the bishop and shepherd of our souls, no man can pluck us. All of those things and many more examples we could give show the true blessedness of those believing households in Asia Minor who went through great and severe hardship in the early New Testament church. They belong to the kingdom of heaven. belonging to the kingdom of heaven in this life, restrained to the world, and on a pilgrimage through the world to the final manifestation of that kingdom in the day of Jesus Christ. That's something we witness also in our own lives as well. Outwardly there is hardship, there is affliction, There is that lot in life which God has given you, which is not easy. It's the hard way to the heavenly Canaan. Nevertheless, it is also true we have that citizenship in heaven. We have within us that living hope as God's dear children in Christ Jesus, who has purchased us with his own blood, according to God's will. For such elect, redeemed, believing strangers, the apostle gives in chapter five a few remaining exhortations before the epistle is concluded. In the previous verse, in verse five, the apostle emphasizes the virtue of humility. And he emphasizes that virtue of humility, not only with respect to others in the church, with respect to the elders who rule over us, or to others in authority over us, such as our parents. But he also emphasizes in our text the virtue of that humility with respect to God in heaven, who governs every detail of our lives. To that hand, the apostle exhorts us to submit ourselves by casting all of our cares upon him in the hope that soon he will exalt us to be with him in glory. Call your attention to the text under that theme, humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We'll notice, first of all, the meaning, then secondly, the manner, and then thirdly, the purpose of doing so. When we hear the exhortation, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that expression, hand of God, doesn't mean that God actually has a physical hand like we do. I can move around and do things with that, and well, if we have this hand, the text must mean that, well, God has a hand too. That's not the case. God is spirit. But our earthly hand, and the expression in the text, points us to something in God which this earthly hand represents. This earthly hand is capable of doing things. The earthly hand has the ability to do things. It can be controlled and moved. It can pick things up and put them down again. And that gives us an idea of what is infinitely and transcendently true in our God. Our God is sovereign. He is able to desire that which he wants to do, and then also has the omnipotence to do it. If he wishes to lift up or to cast down, God is both sovereign and omnipotent, to accomplish whatever he desires in all of his creation. It is under that hand of God's sovereignty and almighty power that the text reminds us that that's where we are. Everything is under that hand of God. The great creatures in the universe or here upon the earth under the hand of God. The tiniest things, looking into the inner parts of the atom under an electron microscope, under the hand of God, and directed by the hand of God, too, with that kind of precision. Wicked men, powerful men, kings and presidents and prime ministers, under the hand of God. devils, and Satan, yes, also under the hand of God. All things great, all things small, without exception, under his control. And that's where we are, the text reminds us, under that hand of God, under its dominion, under its rule, to sustain, to uphold us in our positions in life, and to move us wheresoever that hand will have us go. It is that hand of God, with its absolute perfection and precision, which governs every event of our life, great or small, significant, shocking, or routine and mundane. It doesn't matter. Under the hand of God. There's no circumstance, there's no place where we may go in this life and say, well, I found a place where I am not under the hand of God. Not so. Under the hand of God, you and I receive, we are given everything in body and soul. God's hand gives to us our daily life. We can make a list of everything that God gives us in this life, and that list would be very, very, very long. Some of the categories would generally include all the things of our daily bread, And we would see generally two main categories. God gives us the things of health. God also gives us the things of sickness, too. God gives us adversity and God gives us prosperity. God gives us joy when there's a marriage in the family. They marry in the Lord. In a God-fearing marriage, there's great joy. There's great sadness when there's death, especially the death of a young child or teenager or a young father or mother. There are fruitful years. There are barren years financially. Many more categories that God controls by his almighty sovereign power and government. And God is pleased to do that, not by arbitrary, on-the-moment, in-the-moment decisions, but according to His eternal purpose, and according to His motive, and how He gives what He gives by His hand. To the world, those who are not elect strangers in the earth, those who do not belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, who have not been bought with his precious blood, and whom there is not given that living hope by the work of regeneration, to them he also gives the good gifts of this life, but gives that to them out of the motive not of love, but to cause their destruction. He gives those things to the wicked to bring them to condemnation. He gives them adversity in this life to show them their frailty and their weakness and even their sin in response to which they do not repent before the righteous God. And so heap upon themselves more condemnation. The Lord teaches unto you who fear my name, To those whom I have bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, in whom I have worked that living hope in Jesus Christ and that true faith in him, my hand gives all things to you in this life, not by chance, but by my direction, day after day, moment by moment, without fail. Even as Joseph taught in Genesis 50 verse 20, our sin is governed by that hand. Now that's not an excuse for sin, as Joseph pointed out when he said to his brothers, you meant that selling of me into Egypt for evil. And his brothers agreed, yes, that was a horrible sin to do. God forbid that we ever do that ever again. Nevertheless, Joseph confessed, though ye meant it for evil, God meant it for good. God, by his hand, guided even that sin to serve God. the salvation of the 70 souls of Jacob's family into Egypt during the famine, and eventually to serve 400 years later, Israel coming out of Egypt and that glorious revelation of the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Passover lamb and the Red Sea of our salvation. Everything governed by God to show that he is righteous and the God of our salvation. And we may then be assured that because of that mighty hand of God, all things shall work together for our good, for Jesus' sake. Therefore, the apostle exhorts us, humble yourselves under that mighty hand of God. That's necessary because first of all, That's the hand of our redemption. That's the hand which extracted us out of the bondage of our sin, out of the darkness of our unbelief. Before that unbelief and the darkness of sin, we have no power of ourselves to fight that sin, to fight that evil, to fight that unbelief. The God who is rich in mercy, has taken hold of us by His great hand. And as He did to Israel, delivered by His right hand Israel out of the bondage of Egypt into the wilderness on the way to Canaan, so God's hand of grace delivers us out of the bondage of our sin. He justifies us. He sanctifies us. He makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus and leads us on the way in Christ to the heavenly Canaan. That's the mighty hand. And only that mighty hand can work that wonder of salvation in us. Humble yourselves, therefore, under that mighty hand of not only your earthly existence, but your spiritual existence in Jesus Christ. It's also necessary because from that mighty hand There flows unto you that fountain of every good and perfect gift, that stream of all good things. Those good things include the spiritual blessings which we have in Jesus Christ. It includes that work of the Father, the hand of God to lead us day by day whereby He teaches us His salvation, works in us faith, works in us the knowledge of Scripture, the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the hand which leads us through also the afflictions of this life to serve our salvation. Because of that mighty hand of God, beloved, we have reason. We must humble ourselves under that hand. What does that mean? To humble ourselves in the text means literally to clothe ourselves with humility. It means to put on a coat. It means specifically to put on servants' clothes. Not the clothing to go play a game, not the clothing to go to some other place, but servants' clothes. Clothes which mark us as servants. Clothing which says to God, yea, Lord, I am thy servant. Do with me whatsoever seemeth good in thy sight and for thy glory. Clothing in which we confess we are ready to receive from that hand of God whatever he has planned for us, whatever good gifts we need to receive, whether it's adversity or prosperity. And in that clothing, we receive whatever the hand of God gives us, trusting that our master never makes a mistake. He is always wise and just. that wearing the clothes of a servant is not merely humbling ourselves outwardly, but it begins in the heart, where God sees. There we must receive willingly what the hand of God dispenses to us. There we must be ready to love that hand which dispenses to us the good things of this life, or the things of adversity in this life. There we must spiritually have the posture of bowing before that almighty sovereign hand. Can we do that? Can we submit ourselves, wear the clothes of a servant before that hand which sends us through life as the Israelites experienced in the hard way through the wilderness? Will we humble ourselves when that mighty hand of God may need in his severe mercy to chastise us when we go astray? Will we humble ourselves under that mighty hand of God which does things which go contrary to my wisdom and what you and I want? It doesn't take very long for us as we are led by that mighty hand through life, even already as covenant children, to know that the answer to those questions is no. We will not bend and stoop, wear servant's clothes, wash feet. No. We want to be Lord, in control. We want to call the shots. And so we see we need the very mighty hand of God to which we must humble ourselves and submit ourselves, that very hand to come and humble us, lower us by his grace, to remove the pride and to fill us up with that virtue in Christ of meekness and humility. And out of that grace of humility there flows submission to the mighty hand of God. That humility will receive whatever God dispenses to us in life with patience, trust, will not question the ways of God, try to call down God from heaven and set up a judgment throne and put God in the witness stand or in the defendant's position and Ask God questions. No. Out of that grace of humility, we will receive from his hand whatever he dispenses to us to learn, to listen to what God is teaching us about the power of his grace and that hand which rules us in this life. That humility, beloved, has very calm, peace, and rest in this life. There under that mighty hand, we don't see that mighty hand as oppressive, as a burden, as cruel. We see that mighty hand of God as our shelter, our refuge in time of need. There we find rest because we know that hand knows us, knows our limitations, and will not put upon us that which His grace in us is not able to bear. In that hand, you see, we have an unconquerable refuge in whatever that hand leads us through in life. Submitting them to that mighty hand of God, the text teaches us how that takes place. That takes place, secondly, by casting our cares upon Him. That brings to mind many, many cares and concerns that we have in this life. You can be sure that when the elders come to visit you in family visitation this year, even you children, you may be asked the question, Do you have concerns and cares in this life? Sure we do. Even as youth and children we do. We care about our parents, our loved ones, our church, our classmates, our friends, our grandparents. We have a long list of those whom we know and our families and the Lord for whom we are concerned. And yes, we also have spiritual concerns, concerns for our church, for our churches, and not just our congregation or our own congregations, and that's it. We have a concern for the church of Jesus Christ, wherever that church is faithfully manifest in the earth. We have a concern for fellow Christians, fellow saints, that they also prosper in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. and that they grow in that knowledge, and that we with them be purified and strengthened and sharpened in that knowledge more and more and more. We have spiritual concerns for the covenant instruction of our youth in the fear of God's name. We have a concern for those who are maybe unbelieving neighbors in the community. We have concerns for those who may be wayward whom we know. And then there are all our earthly cares besides. The concerns about what are we going to eat this week? Meal planning must be made. What are we going to wear? The laundry must be done. The clothes must be purchased. Things need to be planned. We have concerns about where we're going to sleep, where we're going to live. The house needs to be maintained. Concerns for our loved ones and their health and strength. Those who may have debilitating sickness and disease. How much longer will they live in this life? We have concerns not only about our health, but also our wealth. Will we have the financial means to get through another year, another month, or maybe even only another week? We have these earthly concerns because we are made of the earth earthy. There are many more concerns we could put on our list of things that are cares, which we have. And according to the text and the word cares itself, these things have an effect upon you and me. The word cares literally means to divide or to pull apart or to pull in different directions at the same time. It's like taking a piece of, or a loaf of bread, pulling it apart in different directions. Only in this case, the word care indicates that there is a negative idea to that being pulled apart in different directions. It's not normal. It's not comfortable. It's unsettling. And that's how all of those cares that we have in this life, like a very large army, take hold of us and pull us in all these different directions. That makes us unsettled. As we're to sojourn down life's pathway as pilgrims and strangers, We're supposed to be going in one direction, our mind in one direction, our heart in one direction, and then to be pulled in all sorts of different directions at the same time? That's the challenge we face. What must we do with those concerns and cares? Concerning the sinful cares that we have in this life, the sinful concern that we have in this life, those things must be set aside. Those things certainly we must repent. But those legitimate cares regarding our daily bread and the spiritual necessities of this life, concerning our confession and walk of life, or the confession and walk of life of our loved ones in the Lord, or our concerns about the circumstances which the hand of the Lord has brought upon us, what must we do with those cares? The text may explain, under the mighty hand of God, cast those cares upon him, cast them upon his hand. That's very clear, isn't it? If you children learn in PE class, you take the ball and you throw it as far and hard as you can. Similarly, we're to take those cares and throw them as fast as we can upon the Lord. Not hold them tight in our bosom, allowing no one to take them from us. We're going to keep them to ourselves because, well, after all, I think I can carry them just fine. No, take those cares, humbling ourselves under the mighty hand of God, knowing our limitations, cast them upon him. Now, that doesn't exclude, of course, beloved, that we take the means which God has given us for health and life and cast them aside and become very careless and think, well, I'll just pray for my health and that's all I need to do to get health. No. When sick, we need medication, we need the doctor's treatment and the prognosis and all the things that they provide us, certainly. When troubled, we do need the listening ear of a friend, and we need their counsel. When distressed, perhaps financially, they may need financial help and advice and direction. We use the means which God has given us, so that through them we may receive our daily bread. Nevertheless, Even as we address those concerns by the various means which God has given us in life, still we must cast those cares upon the Lord and ask for his blessing also upon the means to address those cares. We bring them, as it were, before the light of Scripture. What does Scripture teach regarding this care, this health concern, this problem? And we bring them before Scripture, then also to the Lord in prayer. We identify them and place them before Him in prayer. All those things we must cast upon the Lord. The text is very specific, casting all your care. That word all in the original means every, every. The apostle and the Lord is not teaching cast most of your cares upon the Lord and then leave some behind for yourself, thinking that, well, I can handle this, this is fine. Every care. cast upon the Lord in prayer. Everyone. Why? Well, there are good reasons why that must be done. First of all, those cares do not come upon you by chance. Those things are also given to you under the mighty hand of God. God in his wisdom has put you in those circumstances in life in which you have those cares concerning yourself, your spiritual life, your spiritual growth, your family, your congregation, and so on. And since it is the mighty hand of God which governs and sustains you, and it's the very same hand that puts those cares upon you, then turn to that hand that has given you those things and trust in that hand that God will not crush you under those loads and seek your strength from him to bear up and through those loads of concern which God has given you in this life. And the apostle makes that clear when in the second place he says, cast your care upon him because he cares for you. It's even stronger in the original. In the original it says because it is a care to him concerning you. The it is a pronoun and the pronoun has an antecedent and the antecedent is All or every care that you have, every care that you have is a care to God concerning you. We don't often see that, do we? You have this sudden pain. We don't immediately think of, well, God, this is a care and concern also of God and our great physician in heaven. Don't often think that way. May even be tempted to think, well, he doesn't care for us in this moment of great calamity. But the Lord corrects us here and teaches, no, that's not true. The mighty hand of God which puts you in those circumstances, which bring out those concerns, which will pull you in all different directions, that is a care, a concern unto God, which doesn't pull him in all different directions, because he is the almighty sovereign one. He has known these cares about you from eternity. And those cares which in time He fulfills, He knows concerning you, those cares in Jesus Christ with thoughts of peace and grace to do you good. That raises the question then, because those cares have mattered to God from eternity, because as the Psalms teach, our God in heaven, seeing us in our calamities, wrestling with our cares, he actually collects our tears in his bottle. That's how precious they are to him. Why then, Do you and I fail to mention those things before Him in prayer, as we should? Why do we try to hide them, or think, well, I'll just carry them along the way on this sojourn on my own, and I won't cast them unto the Lord? Beloved, cast every care upon Him For every care is a care unto Him concerning you. Do not be proud. Do not resist, thinking, well, that's not the way I want to go in this life. Be humble before Him. And as His dear children, seek from Him the grace to be humbled from that sinful pride, to be humbled in the wilderness of this life by his grace and spirit, to see that you and I depend solely upon his grace and mercy of his hand. We need his hand of mercy, which is never failing, everlasting. Upon that hand we depend, and through these cares of life, that's the lesson which God is teaching you and me. But apart from the Lord, we are nothing. We need to be humbled to know that, so that God's purpose of his grace in Christ Jesus may be fulfilled in you and me, and that purpose is that he may exalt you. Yes, the Lord's purpose in this life is to cast us low, to be humbled, but with the ultimate goal of exalting you. And that exaltation can be understood from two different viewpoints in the light of those to whom Peter wrote 1 Peter. As pilgrims and strangers in the earth under horrible persecution, they had the expectation that soon they would be exalted over all of their wicked enemies who had persecuted them. The day would come when the emperor would be overcome. all the unbelieving persecutors, but God would take them from this life into the life everlasting in heaven. In heaven in their souls, they would have victory. Looking forward to the great day of Jesus Christ, when in body and soul, they would inherit the new heavens and earth in joy everlasting. And that is our glorious expectation too. After God has humbled us through the wilderness of this life to learn of His grace and truth in Jesus Christ, He will exalt you in glory. Nevertheless, there's also this second viewpoint we must not overlook. This exaltation also applies to this present life and even the tribulation through which God sends us. It is also in that way of the wilderness where God works in you and me humility that he also exalts us in Jesus Christ. And admittedly, beloved, that's not so clear, is it? Exalted when I'm dying? Exalted when my earthly strength and beauty is withering away? Exalted when we may be persecuted for righteousness' sake? Exalted when we may lose much in this life for the sake of Christ? Nevertheless, the Scriptures teach that within the way of obedience, submitting to God's hand as His dear children, casting our cares upon Him faithfully day after day, looking to Christ, our righteousness and salvation. Not only does that mighty hand of God humble us, but also spiritually exalts us by faith in Jesus Christ. He strengthens our faith in Him. Through the trial of our faith, He draws us closer to God and a stronger trust in Him. and a stronger clarity of faith where we see the promises of God to us and our covenant children are absolutely certain. God does never fail to provide us with every good and perfect gift exactly when we need it. God exalts us in the greater experience of the blessing and the fruits of salvation in Jesus Christ. That's the divine perspective and goal and purpose which puts our earthly suffering in a perspective which is soothing. This brings us, in our troubled hearts, back to that solid ground in Christ. Under this mighty hand of God, we're not just kind of floating around, but we're anchored to that mighty hand of God which holds us in life. We're anchored to the truth that that mighty hand of God, according to God's absolutely perfect wisdom, does everything good for his glory and for your heavenly advantage. Our prayer then is, as the apostle teaches in verse 10, that the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After we have suffered a while, make us perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle us. Anchor us in the rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ, with a view to receiving soon that eternal glory. Remember, beloved, The Lord will do that, that's His promise, according to the text, in due time. When? When we want that to happen? According to our timetable, now, at the snap of our fingers, let's get this over with, this tribulation, we're done with it, let's move on. According to our wisdom, Due time, beloved, means very clearly to you and me, there are no shortcuts for us through the wilderness of this life to Canaan. There's only one way through. And that only way through is our Lord Jesus Christ. which is the way you understand of God's marvelous, sovereign grace in Him. And the word marvelous means we'll never comprehend it, and we'll always stand in awe of what God has done with us, and in us, and through us, and for us in Christ, for us, who will never deserve that, who could never earn it, and of ourselves would never want it. And yet God freely, sovereignly, with his almighty hand, gives it to us, works it in us, and causes us by faith to enjoy it, that glory with him. And when God's time is right, when his work with us in this life is finished, so that our work in this life, in his kingdom, is done, then he will exalt you and me." And then we'll see on the other side of the tribulation the purpose, or at least part of perhaps the purpose for that particular tribulation. We'll see that growth and grace. He will exalt us when He receives us to heaven in glory. He will exalt us in the final resurrection in body and soul at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will exalt you in this life and in the life to come in due time, in His time. Therefore, beloved, humble yourselves under that mighty hand of God, casting every care upon him, for every care is a care unto him, in order that he may exalt you in due time. Amen. Let us pray. Most merciful and gracious Father in heaven, Write this word also by thy spirit upon our hearts. We may embrace this word, may bear good fruit in our lives, fruits of faith which are pleasing unto thee, and that willingness to submit to thy mighty hand by casting all of our cares, every one of them, upon thee. Believing with all our heart, each one is a care and concern unto thee. And in thee is the strength to bear up under and through these things, until thou shalt exalt us in due time, according to thy will. Hear us, heavenly Father, in thy mercy, looking upon us all in our different and various afflictions and cares in this life, with that mercy which endureth forever. For Jesus' sake alone, amen.