Well, I can't think of a better song, a better testimony, a better resolve than that song that we just sang, and even that last part. My Father's care is round me there. He holds me that I shall not fall, and so to Him I leave it all. He holds me that I shall not fall. And that truth is a reflection of the very truth that we are looking at this morning in the book of 1 Peter. And I would invite you to turn there once again to 1 Peter chapter 5. And if you're using one of the Bibles in the seats in front of you there, it's page 1016, near the end of the New Testament, as we are moving down the homestretch, as it were, in our consideration of this letter. And as it is with all of God's truth, because His Word is living, because His Word is active, because His Word is eternal, even though we will soon be finishing our focused consideration of 1 Peter, the truth that God has revealed therein carries on in our souls. And even as he plants it in our souls, that it might be nourished and develop and take root and bear much fruit in our lives, even as I trust it has been already. But I want us to look at 1 Peter 5, and I wanna read verse 7 and say a few words to the children among us, and then we'll be reading the longer passage of verses 1 through 11. But as we do each week, I wanna say a few words to the children. And as always, parents, if you can help your children, even in using those handout sheets that are in the seats in front of you for their benefit, for them to make use of those, and to consider what we'll be looking at this morning. But let me read verse seven and you can see how this so directly connects even with the song that we just sang. Verse seven, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. And children, if you are taking notes and even just to help focus your thoughts, the big idea that we see in this truth and that we're going to see in all the things that I'm going to be looking at this morning is this glorious, wonderful truth that God cares for His children. God cares for His children. And now children, little children in particular, let me ask you, how many of you, and you can raise your hand when I ask you this, how many of you have ever seen a little baby? How many of you have seen a little baby? Okay, that's great. Put your hands down, most of you. And let me ask another question. How many of you maybe have or have recently had a little baby in your family? Okay, some of you have done that as well. You can put your hands down. Thank you so much. Now, little babies are wonderful, aren't they? They're cute and they're cuddly and they're wonderful. But if you think about it, little babies need the care of their parents, don't they? There is nothing that a little baby can do for themselves by way of taking care of themselves. They are completely dependent upon the care of their parents. And in that sense, a little baby is absolutely helpless. And they need the care of their parents for such things as feeding them, changing their diapers, putting clothes on them, keeping them warm, giving them toys to play with, and all kinds of things. Completely dependent upon the care and the love and the provision of their parents. Now think about this with me if you will, young ones, that there is a great difference between their parents and the baby. And this is true for all of us at one point when we were little ones. There's just a great difference between the greatness of the parents and the need and the helplessness of the little infant. the ability of the parents to fully care for the baby. And really, if you think about it, mom and dad are a whole lot smarter. They know a whole lot more than that little baby does. And so the baby doesn't even realize it because they can't even talk yet. They can't even have thoughts or express thoughts. They don't know how to do that yet. But little babies quickly learn, don't they, to trust and to depend upon the care of their parents. because their parents are much wiser and they know much more and they are much smarter in that way. Now the reason I draw our attention to think about little babies and their parents is because in many ways it's a picture of the greatness of the difference between God himself and the greatness of his love and his care for those who are his children. And as much as a little baby needs the love and the care and the attention of that baby's parents, so all who are God's children need His love and His care. And this is really the central truth, the main thing that we see in the passage that we're gonna be looking at this morning, that God cares for His children, and because of that, God's children are to trust Him and to rely upon His care. And so that's what we're gonna be looking at, why we should trust God's care, how we should trust God's care as we see these very truths being spoken of by Peter here where we're at in 1 Peter 5. So I want you to keep those truths in mind, and as always, parents, encourage you to engage and interact with your children about these things later today, into the week, to help work them out and consider how God cares for His children and how His children are to trust Him. Well, let's go ahead and dismiss some of the children that will be going. They are always welcomed, encouraged to remain in here for families that desire, but we also have time as they interact around God's word with some who will be teaching and leading them. So grades three and below, roughly age eight and below, God bless you as you go and hope you have a marvelous time in God's word. And as I said, let me go ahead and read the larger passage. I actually wanna read all of verses one through 11. Once again, just to remind us of the context of all that Peter is dealing with here, following from all that he has been saying regarding the grace of God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal inheritance that believers have in Christ. And as a result of that, how we can find strength and confidence and courage from Him to stand firm by faith even as we live in this world and bear testimony of Him and even as we suffer in the ways in which God ordains in our lives as a result of our union with Christ. And so He's drawing His thoughts to a close. Let me begin in verse 1 and read down through verse 11. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders, clothe yourselves, all of you with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. We look to the Lord in prayer again as we look to his word. Our gracious Heavenly Father, in and of ourselves, we come to you now poor, needy, weak, and desperate. On our own, we have nothing, and apart from you we can do nothing, but we come to you confidently and expectantly in the great hope of the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ and the riches of your grace in Him which you have lavished upon us and all who believe. And as our greatest need is to know and trust and submit to you and to your great love. So we pray that you would move and work by your spirits through your word to grow us in these very ways. Pray that you would strengthen our faith in you and the assurance of your care for us in Christ. and that you would help us to humbly trust and submit to your good will, rejoicing in your mercies to us in Christ, even in whatever you may ordain in the circumstances of our lives. Lord, I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart would be acceptable in your sight in accordance with what you've revealed in your word, that you would work among us for our good and for your glory in our good, and that we might all the more faithfully proclaim your excellencies. We trust you to do all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we live in a culture that is quite saturated with empty, sentimental, spiritual cliches, sayings, and platitudes. We might call it hallmark theology or church sign theology. If you've ever seen many of the things that often appear on church signs around our community. Many of these sayings that we're very, very familiar with. Such things as, cheer up, things are going to get better. Or just think good, happy thoughts. Or be an organ donor, give your heart to Jesus. Or maybe you've heard the saying, when God closes a door, He opens a window. Or the saying, let go and let God. or sometimes those who are in ministry for their own sordid gain will tell you to give to God and He'll give to you. And sometimes even sayings that we're familiar with, such as speaking of the glory of God or even saying to others, God bless you, can often come across rather empty and sentimental and without much meaning or significance. And I mention all of that because in such a cultural context, the glorious truth that God cares for you, as I've entitled this sermon, that truth can sound just like another soft, empty, meaningless cliché. It can come across as very trivial and pointless and disconnected from the harsh, painful realities of life in this fallen and troubled world. But I would suggest for us this morning, even as we see this phrase in the Word of God, that for believers, God's children, there is no truth that is more powerful, more significant, more comforting and strengthening than the profound truth that in Jesus Christ, God cares for you. It is a weighty truth, it is a powerful truth, and it is comprehensively significant to every facet of our lives, beloved, to know with rock-solid assurance that God, the creator of the universe, the one who rules and who reigns over all, cares for you. Now this is the truth that Peter has really been proclaiming throughout his entire letter and now he speaks explicitly of this truth with what he says in verses 6 through 7, 6 and 7 of chapter 5. And as we've seen over and over and over again, the thrust of Peter's entire letter is a call for believers to humbly and faithfully stand firm in the grace of God, even in the midst of suffering in this world. If you look down in verse 12 again of chapter five, he says this, by Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it. And what Peter has been doing throughout the entire letter, through the inspiration and direction of God's Spirit, is proclaiming the nature of that sovereign grace of God and the wonder of His mercies to those who are sinful and justly deserving of His wrath. that He is forgiven, that He is cleansed, that He is reconciled, that He is given an eternal inheritance that is unshakable in and through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ when He poured out His precious blood. All of that grace, all of those blessings now belong to those who by His grace He has brought to saving faith. And in view of that grace now, as we live in this world and suffer according to His will, the persecution and the difficulties and the hardships and the grief and the trials that God in His love and His care ordains for our lives, we're to stand firm in that grace. And so this is what Peter is doing throughout his letter as he speaks of this grace and he prevails upon believers to be standing firm in this grace, to be living by faith and living as aliens and strangers in this world. And of course, as we've come into chapter five, we see that now as Peter is Moving to the end, he is saying some specific things to elders as he does there in verses 1 to 4, and how it is that elders are to shepherd the flock under the chief shepherding authority and love of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He says in verse 5 how the flock is to interrelate with the elders and to be of a submissive disposition toward the elders. And at the end of verse 5 he says that all elders and non-elders, all believers are to have a distinctively humble disposition towards one another. Clothed with humility. That we wear the garment of humility, that robe of a servant. of a disposition to serve and to minister, understanding that all of us live and find our being under the authority of God the Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Chief Shepherd. And now as he moves into verses six through 11, and as you can see, it very much connects with and builds upon what he has just been speaking of in verse five. Peter makes clear that the clothing of humility that we are to be dressed with with regard to our relationships with one another, that that humility toward one another is established on the foundation of humility under God's care and authority. You'll note in verse six, the connecting word, therefore. And it's connecting with what he has just spoken of, being clothed with humility toward one another, because of the truth that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And now, Peter says, in light of the fact that God opposes the proud, that He sets Himself in battle array, He literally goes to war with those who are proud, but He gives grace to the humble. Because this is true, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, casting all your anxiety upon Him. And so you see the connection that He is making. This is very significant and it has great implications for us because it tells us and teaches us that being clothed with humility toward others and submissive toward the human authorities that God brings into our life, it begins with being humbly submissive to God and trusting His sovereign care in our submissiveness to Him. And of course, the opposite of that implication is also true. If we are not disposed to be humble toward one another, if we are not disposed towards submissiveness, towards all of the human authorities that God puts over us, it is symptomatic of the fact that we are not indeed humbling ourselves before God's mighty hand. And we are not casting our anxiety upon Him. In other words, it's expressive or indicative of pride on our part. And so Peter is working this matter out that believers might find true hope and true strength and true comfort in the joyful submission and humility before God and His authority and His care. Now, as we look into verses 6 through 11, and as we begin to probe into this passage this morning, there's really one central commandment, one central exhortation, and then three supporting exhortations. The central command, the central exhortation is there in verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you. That's the central command. In view of the fact that God opposes the proud, but that he gives grace to the humble, humble yourselves under God's mighty hand. And that's what we find him speaking of in verses 6 and 7. And then the three supporting exhortations are what we find in verses 8 through 11. And I'll just mention these. This morning we're going to look at that focus central commandment in verses 6 and 7. Next week, Lord willing, will consider these supporting exhortations. But in verse eight, he in essence says, be alert because of the devil's activity. And then in verse nine, he says, be steadfast along with your fellow suffering Christians. And then with these statements that he makes in verses 10 and 11, the implication is be confident in God's faithful eternal purposes. Now I hope you can see how these three supporting exhortations are very much connected with the central exhortation of humbling ourselves under God's mighty hand. And they directly relate to that. And again, next week, Lord willing, we'll tease that out and explore that out more fully. But the overarching thrust, the central exhortation he's giving here, and again, this is concluding his entire letter, is be humble under God's mighty hand, casting all your cares upon him. Now, As Peter works this out, and again he's really summarizing what he's been saying all along about humility and about submission before God. We can go back to the very beginning of the letter and see this unfolding with all that he says throughout his letter. But now in a very direct, explicit way, he is magnifying God's perfect, sovereign care for his people. And with what he says in verses six and seven, he identifies both why and how believers are to humbly trust God's sovereign care. And that forms the framework of how we're gonna look at what he says in verses six and seven. Why God's people are to trust his sovereign care. That's what he speaks of in verse six. And then how God's people are to trust his sovereign care. So that's our outline for this morning. Why and how? Why and how? So let's look first of all at what he says in verse six. Why God's people are to trust His sovereign care. And again, this very much relates with what he has just said in verse five. He says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time He may exalt you. Now the basic explanation for why God's people are to trust His sovereign care is because God is the one who humbles the proud and exalts the humble. God is the one who humbles the proud and exalts the humble. And again, the word therefore very much connects this thought with what he has just said at the end of verse five. God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. As I've been thinking about that phrase, and it's a very common phrase, Peter is actually quoting from Proverbs chapter three, verse 34. We also find the same phrase used by James in James chapter four, that God is opposed to the proud, he gives grace to the humble. It seems likely that in the early church, this was a very common, well-known phrase. It'd make a great greeting card, wouldn't it? Dear friend, God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And in many ways, that statement is a summary of the entirety of God's revelation. If you want to understand what the Bible is all about, if you want to know how to read your Bible, set that truth in your mind. The Bible is about this truth, that God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. It's a story of scripture. It's the reality of His sovereign, eternal work in the Lord Jesus Christ. And over and over and over and over again, we see that played out. God is opposed to the proud. He judges the proud. He destroys the proud if they don't repent. And He pours out His eternal wrath on them. But conversely, to those who are humble, to those who by His mercy do repent, He pours out grace unspeakable. And that summarizes the entirety of scripture. Read your Bibles through that grid and ask the Lord to continually reveal His glory and His grace and to continually work in your own soul to know that He opposes the proud and He gives grace to the humble. And of course, the point of application in view of that truth is therefore, humble yourself under God's mighty hand. And in due time, He will exalt you." Now what does Peter mean in what he is saying with that phrase in verse 6? Well, when he says, humble yourselves, and as it's translated here in the ESV and in other English translations, it can be a little bit misleading with regard to the force of what Peter is actually saying. Verb is in an aorist passive sense. It's an imperative and it's in an aorist passive sense, which gives the idea of this matter of humbling oneself before God is to be a decisive, willing, urgent, immediate response to this reality that God is opposed to the proud and gives grace to the humble. There's a sense of urgency to responding to this. But as it is in a passive voice, it carries the thought not just of humbling ourselves, but in essence, allowing ourselves to be humbled, if you will. In other words, it really gives the sense of accept your humiliation. And it's making reference to the fact that God is the one in ultimate authority. God is the one in ultimate control. He is the one who created us. He rules over us. He reigns over every aspect of His creation. He is absolutely sovereign. And whatever He has ordained in our life at any given moment is a reflection of His loving care and authority. And our response is to allow ourselves to be humbled under his loving authority. That's the sense. Be humbled by God as he works through your circumstances and your situations to humble you. And so everything, including the suffering and the injustice that comes against us at times is ultimately sovereignly happening according to God's sovereign plan. We're to humble ourselves before that. Again, this is really what Peter's been addressing throughout the whole letter. Remember what the statement at the very end of chapter four says, verse 19, very similar in thought. Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. It's another way of saying humble yourselves, be humbled under God's mighty hand. The humility here that he speaks of is a lowliness of mind. It's a proper estimate and understanding of ourselves in relationship to the God of the universe. And it clearly has the sense of trusting and submitting to his wise and his goodwill, even when doing so results in suffering in this life. And it includes renouncing any self-reliant regard for our own will and desires. I like what one commentator, he said regarding this, he says, quote, the humility of which Peter speaks is not simply a winsome graciousness, but it's the humility of repentance, of despairing self-trust that turns to God in saving faith. It's the humility that Jesus speaks of in Luke chapter 18 when he tells a story about a man who pours out his soul before God in contrast to a self-righteous Pharisee. And this man simply pours out his heart and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the kind of humility that is being spoken of here. Not just, as this writer has said, a winsome graciousness, but a humility of repentance that despairs of any sense of trust in oneself and looks only to God and to the grace that he so freely gives to those who are humble. And so again, this is what Peter has been expressing throughout his letter. Another place we see this, back in chapter two, verses 21 to 23 as he speaks of the need for believers to imitate the submissiveness of the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings. He says in verse 21 of chapter two, for this you've been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. In his incarnation and in accordance with the will of God, the Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself under God's mighty hand. He entrusted himself to the care of his God even when it meant death on cross. He humbled himself. And this is what we are to do deliberately, willingly, decisively, urgently, immediately, in view of the fact that God rules and He reigns and He gives grace to the humble, but He opposes the proud. We're to humble ourselves under His mighty hand. Well, what does this little phrase, under His mighty hand, mean? It means that you take everything that you are experiencing, everything that is bound up within your circumstances at any given moment, and acknowledge that it is ultimately coming from God's mighty, sovereign, loving hand. And we might have a tendency often to think of this in more of a negative sense, you know, not think of it so much as under his mighty hand as maybe kind of being under his thumb with the wrong, deceitful ideas that God is somehow being cruel or abusive or malicious towards us. I think one of the lingering memories at times that comes from my own childhood, when I was a little kid it was an annual event when the Wizard of Oz would come on television. This was in the days when we only had three channels and a public service channel and it was a big deal once a year when the Wizard of Oz would come on and we would watch that and If you've ever seen that movie, you know the scene where they finally appear before the great and the wonderful laws and he's terrifying. In reality, yes, God is to be feared in a right way. He is holy. There is no one greater, no one more terrifying in that sense than Him. But as this phrase, the mighty hand of God, appears frequently in the Old Testament, and most prominently in connection with God's work in delivering his people from bondage in Egypt, and leading them out of that bondage, and leading them through the promised land, or into the promised land, we find repeatedly reference to his mighty hand. to His mighty hand. And of course, it's a word picture that the Lord has given to us of His powerful, sovereign authority, delivering, providing for, and leading His people into the land of His promise for their joy and for His glory. And we find that most prominently, it's made reference to in Exodus chapter 13, numerous times throughout the book of Deuteronomy as God's people are being prepared to go into that promised land. Reference made to his mighty hand and even to his outstretched arm. And it speaks of his power, it speaks of his authority, it speaks of his wisdom, it speaks of his goodness, and it speaks of his design to bless and to provide for his children. There's other times in the Old Testament we see that phrase referring to His testing and to His chastening of His people, but even that is all with the ultimate intention of their joy and of their goodness in Him. I think of it just by way of illustration of how parents often have to lead their kids by their own hand. Like when a parent has to take a child to the dentist. Most children, if they're of any age and have been to the dentist once or twice, understand that this is not probably the best place to go, that it can be a little bit scary, that it can be a little bit terrifying. And we've probably all seen images and scenes of parents taking their child by the hand, knowing that this is what's best for the child, knowing the child is terrified, and yet saying, you've got to come. You've got to come. In many ways, God leading his children by his mighty hand in an infinitely greater way is the picture and the image that Peter is drawing upon as he draws in that Old Testament phraseology. And notice the promise that he gives. Humble yourselves, allow yourselves to be humbled under God's mighty hand so that, here's the purpose, so that at the proper time He may exalt you. Now remember, he's just said at the end of verse 5, God opposes the proud but He gives grace to the humble. And you might say, well, I believe before the Lord. I'm being humbled by His grace. I'm seeking Him. I'm seeking His will. I've confessed sin. I'm seeking His strength and His help. And I want to follow Him and I want to obey Him. But my circumstances aren't getting better. In fact, my circumstances seem to be getting worse. They're getting more painful. They're getting harder. They're getting more difficult. I'm getting more weary. The promise that Peter is giving, the great and glorious promise that he's giving is continue to humble yourself under his hand in the proper time. In the proper time, according to his will, according to his design, he's going to bring you out of it. And that's what he's promising and that's what he's stating. So that at the proper time, at the right season is the sense of it, God will bring you out of it. Now it's important to know and understand, in His sovereignty and in His wisdom, as long as we are in this world, we have seasons, don't we, sometimes of more intense trials and difficulty, other times perhaps not as intense. And in God's sovereignty, according to His prerogatives, sometimes in this life, He provides some measure of relief from those trials. And sometimes He does, and we can thank Him for that and rejoice in His sovereignty and His wisdom in that. But I think the ultimate reference point when Peter says that He will eventually bring you out, He will eventually exalt you. And that's really what the term has to do with being raised up, being lifted up. He's going to bring you out of this. I think it's ultimately pointing to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ and the consummation of the ages. And that time when the Lord Jesus Himself will be vindicated and glorified among all of the nations. And all of those who belong to Him will likewise be vindicated. And the reality and the glory of who He is and of His saving work, which has been mocked and which has been spit upon and which has been sought to be destroyed and rejected, and all of those who belong to Him experience those same things. Beloved, in that great day when the Lord returns and when the consummation of His purposes are brought to fulfillment, We will be vindicated with him. We will be lifted up with him. And I think, because Pope Peter, throughout his letter, makes reference to the coming glory when Jesus Christ is revealed. And as he does that, and again, as this connects with what he says now in chapter five, beloved, that needs to be our ultimate reference point. It's so often, isn't it, that our hope and that our desires and that our longings become so short-sighted. And the Lord knows all of those. He knows the burdens and the cares of our heart as we're gonna be talking about. But we hope if we're single that someday we're gonna be married. We hope that perhaps if we're married and don't have children that someday we'll have children. We can just fill in the blank with all kinds of things, can't we? This job, that job, this home, that home, this circumstance, that circumstance. If we're battling physical ailments, we long for that day when we'll be free of those. And again, beloved, God is a good God. He is a generous God. He is a kind God. And often in our lives, we experience relief and certainly countless blessings that he gives. But the call for us, even as Peter is calling these believers to whom he's writing, is to raise the horizon of our hopes. and to look to that eternal reality. And as he says in chapter one, verse 13, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you in Jesus Christ's review. You know that little saying that I referenced earlier, cheer up, things are gonna get better? In an ultimate sense, in an eternal sense, that's exactly right. But in this life, they may get worse, they get harder, they get more grievous and more painful. But you see what Peter's doing throughout the letter is not in any way removing these trials from believers, nor is he advocating that these believers try to remove themselves from those trials. What's he saying? Look to Christ. Look into what He has done. Look into who He is. Look into the inheritance that you have in Him. This is the grace of God. Stand firm in it. God will exalt you. He will ultimately exalt you. He will ultimately lead you out in His own way and in His own time. This is really the thought that he champions, and again, just extends in verses 10 and 11. And again, this is summarizing everything he's addressed, but here it is. After you've suffered a little while, not diminishing the reality of suffering, but in comparison to eternal glory, it's a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever, amen. Beloved, we are to humble ourselves. This is why we are to humble ourselves, under his mighty hand, because of the eternal inheritance and hope we have in him, and that one day, He will return. One day, we will be exalted, vindicated with Him in the great hope and power of all of His riches and all of His reality, all of His mercies in the Lord Jesus Christ. And thus, humbly, we are to submit ourselves and humbly trust God's will, God's ways, God's timing, God's provision, His love and His care, and to be confident and content In our current circumstances, knowing that God has us exactly where He wants us, and that is whatever else may be going on, He wants us to be learning to humbly submit to His mighty hand, casting our care upon Him. You see, God is more interested in changing us in the knowledge and comfort of His love and grace than He is in changing our circumstances. Beloved, as we embrace this reality, The hard place then becomes the sweet place because it's the place the Lord uses to deepen our knowledge of him and our trust in him and our joy in him who is our chief good and great shepherd. The hard place can become the sweet place when we learn to humble ourselves to be humbled under his mighty hand. As we consider this point before we move on to the how, how do we do this? Let me just offer a couple of thoughts by way of application in view of this truth. Thought number one, beware of grumbling and complaining in your circumstances. Beware of grumbling and complaining in your circumstances. I hope you see how such grumbling and complaining, which we are so easily tempted to do, aren't we? We are so easily tempted to do, but those are evidences of pride, of rebellion, of unsubmissiveness to the mighty hand of God, of discontentment. 11, we need to learn from the history of God's dealings with Israel. This is held before us in the New Testament as an example. Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians 10. We find it elsewhere, to not be like them who were given to idolatry. They didn't want to worship the one true God. They gave themselves to idols that were reflections of the imaginations of their own heart. They grumbled and they complained. God brought severe discipline to them. In fact, the entire generation of adult people that God brought out of Egypt into the wilderness because primarily of their resistance to God's mighty hand and their grumbling and their complaining, which gave indication of that resistance, God brought judgment. And they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years so that that entire adult generation would die off. And until a new generation then was raised up that then came into the promised land, and yet that disposition of grumbling, complaining, the idolatry and rebellion and unsubmissiveness that's bound up with all of that persisted. And we can trace that through in the history of all of God's dealings. You know, do you ever feel like God is just fighting against you? Do you ever feel like, man, everything you try to do, He's just resisting it every way. He's fighting it every way. Well, you might need to check your heart, possibly. It could be that that's happening because you're fighting against Him. Because remember, God is opposed to the proud. And the term that's used there is He goes to war. He sets Himself in battle array. If you feel like God is fighting against you, perhaps you need to seek His face and say, Lord, am I fighting against you? Am I rebelling against your mighty hand? I've had countless examples of this in my own life because of the residual presence of pride and rebellion and the Lord just continues to keep hammering and growing on. But years ago when we lived in Simi Valley and our children were small and One day I'm doing some work in the house. I don't even remember what I was working on, but it just wasn't going the way I wanted it to. Any men identify with this reality? Don't you love the Lord sanctifying work? It's just not going the way I want it to. And I have a measured amount of time. I've got to get this thing done. It's not happening the way I want it to. And I sinned. I just was angry. Oh, I was angry. And I had these work gloves that I was using. go from our front door out into the garage. And our garage is one of those garage, it was the kind of garage that had the kind of single panel door, you know, this big panel door that you lift up. And at the bottom of that door, there's like this guide bar that helps stabilize the door. It's this long thing. It's got brackets on either end that are sticking down. So I lift up the door and I go in the garage and I take my work gloves and just bam, I just throw them against the workbench. I was just angry and I was frustrated and I was proud and I was arrogant. It was sinful, it was horrible. And no sooner had I thrown my gloves down in anger, I turned around and stomped out of the garage door and I misjudged the height of that bracket on the bar and it slammed me right in the forehead and I just went down. I just went down. And it was a dramatic illustration. just vividly in God's mercy and grace. He said, okay, Greg, that's the way you wanna play? That's the way we'll play. I'm opposed to the proud, and it stuck with me, and I still wrestle with pride. By God's grace, there's not the same displays of anger as that was a shameful display, but I wrestle, and we all do in different ways, in different degrees. And God very kindly threw me to the ground, quite literally. to remind me that he's opposed to the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And we need to be aware of grumbling and complaining in our circumstances. A second point of application related to this is also be slow and cautious in trying to change your circumstances. Be slow and cautious in trying to change your circumstances. Don't think you know what is best for you. Only God knows what is best. Father knows best in the fullest and purest sense. Now, obviously, God in his wisdom, his economy, gives us a sense of freedom to make decisions. We do that every day in a host of various ways and to choose different options. But, oh, how we need to be alert to the motivations and to the affections of our hearts. Because isn't it true, beloved, and this is very much connected with why we have to be alert against the temptations of Satan, which he's gonna speak about in verse eight. Because the focal point of Satan's strategy and attack is to tempt us to not humble ourselves under God's mighty hand. And whenever we're in difficult and hard and painful and grievous circumstances, we start looking for greener pastures somewhere else, don't we? Ah, if I just had a different job, If I'm single, if I were just married, or if I just had more money, or if I just had a different living situation, or, oh boy, if I could just get away on vacation, and it just goes on and on and on and on and on. Now, at a certain level, certainly, is there anything wrong with those kinds of desires? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It is okay, and it is right to have such desires. And it's okay, and it's right to ask the Lord to meet those desires. But the issue has everything to do with our heart and with our motives. And are we asking Him in a submissive way? Exactly how Jesus asked the Father in the Garden of Gethsemane before He went to the cross, remember that? Father, if there's any way that this cup could pass from me, I really don't wanna do this. But what's his resolve? What's his humbling himself under God's mighty hand? But not my will, but yours. Because I know you're good, and I know you're wise, and I know that this is in accordance with your sovereign plan. So beloved, there's nothing wrong with legitimate and reasonable desires. And we should submit those to the Lord with that heart and disposition that says, not my will, but yours. Elizabeth Elliot said, the secret is Christ in me, not a change in my circumstances. And we need to be aware of our tendency when facing difficulty to want to change our circumstances. Or maybe we're anticipating something in the future and we're trying to strategize and push and pull strings to order our circumstances in just the right way that we think they ought to be for us. Parents, beloved parents, is it not true that we can so often do this with our children? How we want to get them in the right team and in the right class and with this thing and with that thing. And again, at a certain level, is there anything wrong with that? No. But it has everything to do with our hearts. And think about it in terms of what we're exemplifying for our kids. We need to entrust ourselves to the mighty hand of God. We need to beware of grumbling and complaining. We need to be slow and cautious in trying to change our circumstances. Well, beloved, this is why we are to submit ourselves to God's mighty hand, because he opposes the proud, and he gives grace to the humble, and he will exalt us in due time in his perfect wisdom. The question now becomes, well, how do you do that? Practically, reality, how do you do that? Well, this is what Peter addresses in verse seven, and I hope you see this so clearly. He says, casting all your anxieties on Him because He cares for you. The answer to how we trust His sovereign care is by deliberate, conscious faith, casting our anxiety on Him, confident of His care for us. This is the answer, beloved. Now verse seven, as he says, casting all your anxieties, it's a participle. And in being a participle, it's explaining how the imperative of verse six is applied. So in other words, it's not a separate or a new command as it is unfolded in some of our English translations, but rather it is an explanation of how we humble ourselves under His mighty hand. We humble ourselves, we allow ourselves to be humbled as we cast all of our anxiety upon Him. in the absolute confidence, as Peter says at the end of verse seven, that He cares for us because He cares for you. And oh, beloved, what a wealth of comfort, glory, and hope is in this passage. F.B. Meyer said that every word of this precious verse is golden. And listen to what Martin Luther, the great reformer, said of this passage. He said, quote, this is a beautiful and comforting passage, one which every Christian should believe and write on his heart that it may comfort him in every need and temptation. End quote. Beloved, this is our hope. This is our joy, this is our comfort, this is our power as we grow in the knowledge of His care for us and as He has supremely displayed that care in and through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He accomplished at the cross. So in the hope and the confidence and the comfort of that care, we can take the whole package of all that would make us anxious, cast it upon Him, and walk in submissive obedience to His will, even when it means going to the cross. You see, that's the whole point, beloved. That's the whole point. To be so mesmerized by Christ, so gripped by the wonder of God's grace in Him and the eternal inheritance that lays before us. That as we are casting our care upon Him, as we are in doing so humbly submitting to His mighty hand, we march forward even when we are marching into flames. or even when we're marching into the cross, or even when we're marching into the rejection of a family member against us, or even when we're going to be marginalized or ostracized in the classroom, or even when we're going to be looked over for the job promotion, nothing is more important to us. than the care of our Father and His mercies in the Lord Jesus Christ, our confidence in that care and our assurance of the eternal inheritance that waits for us. And so we say, gladly would I leave behind everything that I might have in this world. Beloved, this is our hope, this is our power. Now the aorist, again, this participle is in an aorist tense. It represents, just as with the command there in verse 6, it represents a decisive, comprehensive casting, a resolve to continually have casted all anxiety upon Him, even as we face new cares each day. And the sense of casting, the term that is used here, it literally means to throw something on something else. It's used numerous times in scripture. We see it in the Old Testament, Joshua chapter 10. We hear of God throwing down, casting down hail from the skies. In 2 Samuel chapter 20, we learn of someone throwing a garment on an injured man. It's the term that's used in 1 Kings 19, 19 when Elijah throws his cloak on Elisha. We also find it in Luke chapter 19, when the disciples throw their coats on a colt for Jesus to ride on. They throw their coats on him. So it means to throw something on something else or someone else. And Peter, of course, is using this metaphorically to describe the entrusting of all of our anxiety and care to God. We cast it all on him. We throw it all on him. Now, it's interesting, in the Greek, When it says cast all your anxiety, anxiety is singular. It's not plural as it's given here in the ESV and in some of our other English translations, but rather it's singular. And I think the significance of that, even in connection with all of our anxiety, is that we look at the entire package of everything that we might face in this life, all that we might easily become anxious or worried or care about, and as one big, giant, colossal reality, we cast the whole thing on the Lord. And in essence, that's what we do when we come to Him in faith, when we repent of our sins and when we respond to that gracious, authoritative invitation that Jesus gives, even Matthew 11, as Steve read earlier today. We come to Him and in essence we cast our cares upon Him acknowledging that we're weary and heavy laden under the load of our own guilt and of our own sin and of all of the anxiety and fear that such sin creates. We cast that on Him and we take His yoke upon us. We take His authority. We're bound to Him. We cast it all upon Him. And this sense of anxiety, what is it? Well, the word really has to do, the word anxiety itself in the Greek has to do with that which divides. That which divides and draws our minds in different directions. And hence we think of it as care and as worry and anxiety, those things that keep us awake at night. draw us away from faith and peace and things that easily distract and distress us that can provoke us with great anguish and torment. I like the description of this anxiety that F.B. Meyer provides and let me just read you what he says. He says, quote, Care, according to the Greek word, or anxiety, is that which divides and distracts the soul, which diverts us from present duty to weary calculations of how to meet conditions which may never arrive. fret and worry and anxiety, the habit of anticipating evil, crossing bridges before we reach them, the permission of foreboding fears about the future, all that attitude of mind which broods over the mistakes of the past and dwells on the shadows which coming events may cast, rather than on the love and will of God, this is care. Amen. And that's the end of the quote as well. And we all understand this all too clearly, don't we, in our own experience? The same term that is used here in verse 7 for anxiety is what Jesus uses in Matthew 6, verses 25 through 34. when he frequently speaks of not being anxious about the cares of this world, about the basic necessities of food and clothing and shelter. He uses the same word in Matthew chapter 13 as he explains the parable of the sower. He speaks of the way in which cares, anxieties of the world will choke out God's word in people's lives and make it unfruitful. It's the same word that Paul uses in Philippians chapter four, verse six, when he says, don't be anxious about anything. It's the same sense of anxiety. And again, I think we all understand this intuitively and experientially because we are so easily consumed by it. And do you see that if we are allowing ourselves to be consumed by such anxiety, such fretting, such cares, such worries, beloved, what's it ultimately indicating? That in pride, Rebellion, we're not entrusting our cares to the Lord, and we're not humbly submitting under his mighty hand. And this is where we have to go back to in our hearts to deal with these matters. And again, what a glorious truth in verse seven, all anxiety. All means all, and that is all that all means. And praise God, He gives us this word. All of the things that we can so easily be tempted to worry about, and especially the many ways that we can suffer in humble submission to God's will. We understand to obey Him, the implications of that in this world, we're going to experience suffering and difficulty and hardship in a variety of different ways. But it means all. And just think of it, beloved, distresses, discouragements, disillusionments, doubts, fears, despair, griefs, a dark cloud that reigns over our own sins and failures of the past, our weaknesses, perplexities that we face, troubles, and on down the line. Whether you're a man, whether you're a woman, whether you're young, whether you're old, whether you're single, whether you're married, whether you're a parent or not, or a student. I mean, we can just have these things flooding in in so many ways. We become consumed and concerned with spiritual matters, emotional matters, relational matters, social matters, educational matters, financial matters, physical, occupational, familial, ministerial, parental, and just on down the line, right? Just a flood. In Psalm, I think it's Psalm 94, 19, the writer says, when my anxious thoughts multiply within me. He affirms that God's consolations delight his soul, but isn't it true that so easily those anxious thoughts, they just explode. Spurgeon describes it like branches and limbs on a tree that just fissure all over the place. It's just our mind can become so consumed. And you see, beloved, what the Lord wants us to know is that if that's occurring, it's because we're not trusting Him, not casting our care upon Him. And so we are to pass everything on to Him. And beloved, just think also even about Peter, his own experience. This is the Peter who had arrogantly boasted that he would follow the Lord to death only in a matter of hours to deny Him three times. Can you imagine the shame? Can you imagine the guilt? Can you imagine the remorse? How if it were not for the grace of God, that event could hover over Peter his entire life. But you see, God cares, God forgives, God cleanses, God restores. It's not to diminish those things, but beloved, you and I, all of us have things in our past, even as recent as yesterday, that we deeply regret, that we deeply are bound with guilt over. All of that is part of what He wants us to cast upon Him. Now, of course, what is the driving glorious motive for humbly casting all of our anxiety on Him? Well, here it is at the end of verse seven, because He cares for you. Because He cares for you. And I love the way this rolls out in the Greek. It literally says, because to Him, it is a care concerning you. To Him, it is a care concerning you. It matters to Him about you. It is a care, it is a concern. It's interesting in Mark chapter four, you don't need to turn there, but verses 35 to 40, as the disciples find themselves in a boat with Jesus, Jesus is asleep, a storm comes up, they're terrified, they're afraid, and what do they say to Jesus? Jesus, why don't you care? that we're going through this. It's the same accusation that Martha brings to Jesus in Luke chapter 10, when she is busy serving and doing all kinds of things, and her sister Mary is just sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to Him, worshiping Him, wanting to learn from Him, and Martha says to Jesus, Jesus, don't you care? It's interesting also even in John chapter 10 as Jesus is speaking of himself as the good shepherd, he speaks of those who are false shepherds who serve among the sheep for a period of time but show themselves only to be hirelings because when wolves come and when dangers come against the sheep, these false shepherds, they leave town. They get away. Why? Because they don't care for the sheep. This is the care that is being spoken of with regard to the care of the Father. And the glorious truth, beloved, and oh, get this, and let this sink deep into your heart and mind. Feed on this, pray about this, be nourished in this truth. For believers, the one who died to bear all our sin now lives to bear all our care. It's our hope. And you see throughout his letter Peter is spoken directly of the suffering substitute of the Lord Jesus Christ in pouring out his blood. Suffering the wrath of God in our place. He says this back in chapter 2. In verse 23, I'm sorry, verse 24, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you've been healed. You were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls, the one who cares for you. because of the work of Christ in bearing our sin. He speaks of it again in chapter three, verse 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. You see, you can't know the fullness of God as the one who carries the burden of your cares. if you've not yet cast your sins upon Him, trusting the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And dear friend, for you, it may be that you have never come to Jesus in faith. You have never responded to that authoritative invitation, that loving invitation He gives in Matthew 11, to come to Him and to lay your burdens down and to acknowledge your sin and your guilt. And you see, you'll never know the fullness of His care. In fact, God will be an enemy to you if you are still hanging on to your sins. But oh beloved, if you have cast your sins upon Him, if you have embraced fully the absolute total sufficiency of His sacrifice and knowing that He bore God's wrath for every one of your sins and that His righteousness is now credited to you so God now counts you righteous in Him, that's the essence of His saving work, of His justifying work, if you have done that, then you can have absolute confidence that even as you're mindful of sin that you yet experience a need to confess as you do, you can do so in the hope that he's made you his child, that you belong to him, that he's called you a saint, that you are one upon whom he has showered mercy. And so you can cast the care of that sin and you can cast every other care upon him because the one who died to bear all of your sin now lives to bear all your cares. And oh, the comforting contrast between the depth of our need and the greatness of His loving, faithful care, greater, beloved, infinitely greater than the contrast between the care of a parent with their little baby. So wise and so good and so kind and so merciful. You know how he wants us to think about his care and his goodness. This is why Peter says what he does back in chapter two, verses one to three. And you see, you see how this plays out in reality? You see this, how this plays out in our relationships with one another? We can so easily become so arrogant towards one another, and so harsh, and so cruel, and so unforgiving. And beloved, God has called us to care for one another's souls, and to address issues when there's matters of sin, and yet to do so with great humility, and gentleness, and care, and love, and eagerness to forgive and to restore, even as God has forgiven us. And if we're not inclined that way, it's indicative that there are unresolved issues in our heart that we're not trusting to the Lord. that we're not humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, that we're not casting cares. And so listen to what Jesus says in chapter two, verses one to three. So put away all malice and all deceit and all hypocrisy and envy and all slander. And get this, like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation if you indeed have tasted that the Lord is good. In essence, he's saying, listen, if you've tasted the goodness of the Lord in salvation and mercy and forgiveness and grace, well, keep longing for that goodness. And that goodness, beloved, is revealed in God's Word in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Keep longing for that. longing to know more and more of His goodness. Now, we're moving towards an end here. I want to just highlight though, even with what Peter says when he says this in verse seven, to cast all of our care upon Him because He cares for us. He's actually quoting, as he does frequently throughout his letter, he's quoting from Psalm 55 in the Old Testament. You don't need to turn there. But in Psalm 55, verse 22, we hear these words, cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you. He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Now what's interesting, the context of that Psalm, as it is penned from David, the Holy Spirit through David, the context which David references throughout that Psalm is that he is being persecuted, he's being attacked by false friends, He's experiencing hostility, persecution, and betrayal. And this is real life. This is what he's dealing with. But in the midst of all of that, what is he doing? He is casting his cares upon the Lord, confident that the Lord cares for him. And so in a very similar context to what the believers that Peter is writing to is experiencing, the same kind of hostilities, the same kind of persecution, the same kind of betrayal from false friends who one time appeared to be friends and showed themselves to be otherwise, Peter is saying cast your cares upon the Lord. Cast your burden upon the Lord in the same way that he met David and sustained David so he will meet and sustain you even as he met and sustained the Lord Jesus Christ in his sufferings. And honestly, beloved, as Peter draws upon this example of David in Psalm 55, 22, so we, in essence, could look at all of the Psalms. The Psalms are a how-to manual, if you will, of casting your cares upon the Lord, being confident of His care for you. And we see countless examples of this throughout the Old Testament. Think about Joseph in the Old Testament. All of the injustices, all of the harshness, all of the unfair events that came against him because of the jealousy of his brothers, because of the neglect of others, because of being misaccused of things that he wasn't guilty for. And yet in all of it, what did he do? By God's grace, he humbled himself under God's mighty hand. And in God's time, he exalted him, and Joseph cast his cares upon him. And he knew that God was at work in his circumstances, which is why in chapter 50, verses 19 to 21, he speaks such rich, such warm, such comforting forgiveness to his brothers, whom he would have had every right to destroy off the planet. And he says, listen, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what's being done now. He knew the care of his God, and that enabled him to respond in a godly, gracious way. So beloved, we are to cast our cares upon him. That's how we humble ourselves under his mighty hand. And I should just also note that casting cares on God does not mean neglecting responsibilities and obligations that God gives to us. It doesn't mean we just go somewhere and for the rest of our lives sit in a corner and just keep casting our cares on. No, this is an active casting of cares. We're to follow in obedience. We have to do hard and difficult things and the Lord calls us to that. Cast our cares means to trust his power and his provision and his protection in the fulfillment of those responsibilities. And this again is what Peter makes so clear throughout his entire letter. Well, beloved God cares for his children. And if you are one of his children through faith in Jesus Christ, he cares for you. And don't take that as a little saying on a Hallmark card or a little quip on a church marquee. Understand the weight and the significance of that statement in view of all of scripture, that the God of the universe, he knows you perfectly, he loves you eternally and perfectly in the love that he has in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's faithful and he will pour out grace, pour out mercy, pour out his strength as you seek him and trust him and cast your cares upon him. And even just by way of a very practical exhortation, you might say, well, how do I do this on a day-to-day basis? Interestingly, in Psalm 55, and I encourage you to read that whole psalm on your own, but in verse 17, listen to what David says. Evening, morning, and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. Start there. in the morning, in the evening, and at noon. Utter your complaint and your moaning to the Lord, trusting that He knows, trusting that He cares, trusting that He opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble, and in due time, He will lift you up, even unto eternity in the Lord Jesus. Father, may you apply your truth to our lives. You know us. You see us. Every thought, everything. Lord, as you've been pleased to gather all who are gathered here today, may you shepherd our souls. And may each one know the joyful confidence and hope and comfort of your shepherding care. Lord, we need your grace continually even to trust your grace in this way. We cannot conjure up this faith on our own. We need you to help us that we might humble, be humbled under your mighty hand and that we might cast all of our cares upon you and the confidence that you care for us and that we might leave them there. Lord, do your work for your glory even as we go from this place. Thank you for your mercies in Christ's name, amen.