Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Strength for the Suffering

0:00 Continue in a spirit of prayer as we approach God's Word. Our Father in heaven, we reflect on these words we have just sung and we offer them again to you as a prayer, asking that we might rely on you for you are the Almighty One, and that in you our souls would take courage, that our souls would wait, that your truth might sustain us, especially when we are faint, when we feel desolate, alone. O Lord, may your might be our strength. May your love be our joy. We pray that your mercy would be upon us all of our days and that you would give us peace. help us now that we may find these things not in the mists or in the clouds but in the firmness of your word and give us ears to hear in Jesus name amen 1 Peter 5, coming to the end of Peter's letter, we read in verses 6 through verse 14, the end of the book.

1:18 Follow along as I read 1 Peter 5, beginning at verse 6. 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.

2:19 By Silvanus, a faithful brother, as I regard him, I have written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. stand firm in it. She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings, and so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with the kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ. As I said this morning, it's tempting when we come to the end of one of these letters to think that we just have an assortment, a hodgepodge of material and exhortations to wrap up this letter. All the big doctrinal points are out there. All of the meaty stuff has been communicated. All the soaring passages have been read. When you think of almost any of these epistles, you think about the high mountain point, It's usually not in that last paragraph where he mentions the people and gives the greetings and tells you to kiss each other.

3:28 That's the part that I'm looking for. It's easy to sort of trail off when we come to these last sections and think of it as less than we should. It's a kind of tidying up. As if your mom were writing you a letter in college. I doubt that very many letters get put into the mail, but that's still a…it's extra special, isn't it? And you get something. It's not an ad. It's not a solicitation. It's not a bill. It's not junk. Someone wrote you a letter. So, whether you write a letter or it's an email, I know no one under the age of 25, or let's kid ourselves, 35, maybe 45, checks emails. So it's most likely to be, as I do with my kids, a text. I try to use correct punctuation. I use capital letters.

4:21 My kids say, Dad, you seem so angry. Why are you always using periods and commas? And I say, well, you're going to write well. Practice writing well all the time. But it's as if mom were writing a letter, got to the end, and said, finally, remember to go to bed on time. Take your allergy medicine. Make sure to drink enough water. When you do your laundry, separate the whites and the colors, and please, please, do your laundry. Your brothers and sisters say hello. If you run into your cousin at school, be nice and give him a hug. Love, Mom. That's how we're apt to read the end of one of these letters. Here's a few tidying up, just a bit of wisdom, some aphorisms, a few hellos, and off we go. But there's much more to it than that here at the end of 1 Peter. There are important exhortations and some of Scripture's simplest and sweetest promises. As we've heard many times throughout the summer, this is a book about suffering.

5:24 You can see the heading in chapter 3 before verse 8, suffering for righteousness sake. You can see the heading in chapter 4 before verse 12, suffering as a Christian. What I want you to recall in particular, turn there, is chapter 1, verse 6. Chapter 1, verse 6, in this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials.

5:57 Yes, this book is about persecution, and that can be hard for us to fathom, and we have an expansive view of insults or people speaking ill of you, and there's biblical warrant for that. That's how Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount talked about persecution. It can be a broad category of people reviling you, but even that can be hard for us to sometimes wrap our heads around or think is really our lot in life. And so, perhaps sometimes when we have these sections on suffering and tied to persecution to think, well, that's really for maybe a few of us in the room, and maybe I'll need this someday. I hope not. But we hear suffering. I wonder even what you thought when you saw the title. You may not pay much attention to it. Strength for the suffering. You think, yeah, that's good. That's good. And maybe you're here tonight and you already know, yes, I am in that category. I am suffering. I am struggling. This has been a hard season.

6:58 There is great trial and loss in my life. But a lot of the rest of us probably think, well, that's nice. There are a lot of sufferers. I don't know if I'm in that category right now. We tend to reserve it for cancer, death, overt persecution. But that's why I want you to notice in chapter 1 verse 6 though you have now for a little while been grieved by various trials well surely that covers about everyone in this room have you had over these summer months anything you could classify as trials probably a variety of trials not just the biggies say health concerns maybe you have plantar fasciitis that's the one running injury I've never had amazingly everything else I hear it's very painful marriage maybe you think well marriage I know there's marriage is falling apart that's not really ours but boy we just keep fighting over the same things. We fight over the allotment of the chores, or we fight over decisions with the kids, or we can't seem to see eye to eye about the in-laws. Maybe your kids.

8:18 Maybe it's as simple as potty training has just been a nightmare. Maybe a child was cut from a team or isn't going to get a part in a play, and that's going to be painful. Or maybe there's a a rash you can't quite figure out, or they have to have braces and they don't like it, or they have bad eyes and they need glasses. Maybe it's your job, and it's not that you're unemployed. You have a boss who's a pain, or you've been asked to do something and it doesn't seem quite right, or you just are feeling like the commute is too long. There are all sorts of trials, relationships, finances. Facing something in your life new and scary or also a trial is facing something that feels old and boring, or maybe you are grieving the loss of a loved one. And long past the time when people have been giving you cards and sending flowers and remembering anniversaries, it was five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, and that wound still feels raw. And you say, yes, I have experienced trials of many kinds. Isn't that everybody in this room?

9:29 Now, maybe you are the type of person who complains about everything. There are those sorts of people. I live up to that sometimes, so I try to have that sanctified. I want to be, as we heard over the summer, grace detectors, not looking for opportunities to grumble. Maybe you're the sort of person who doesn't outwardly complain, but you figure you just gut through life, kind of your shoulders are slooped, your head is hanging low, you feel borderline miserable all the time, but you think, I'm not really in the category of a full-on sufferer. You've always assumed that the suffering sermon, that's for Job-like suffering, and your problems seem small, ordinary, garden variety, and you almost feel like, though you know this isn't the right theology, you almost feel like, I really shouldn't bother God with these problems. There are many bigger problems, and He's probably got a lot of other things going on. And you are missing out, and I'm missing out, on grace that God means to give to us as you experience trials of many kinds.

10:53 So, this sermon is not just for Job-like suffering. It is for anyone who has been or is now in the category grieved by various trials, and that must be almost all of us. Here's what I want you to see, four exhortations and three promises. Some of them we can deal with quickly, some will linger a bit more. Here's the first exhortation, humble yourselves you see that in verse six humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of god now this might take us aback here's a whole book that a major theme is about suffering and if you are getting to the end of your counseling session with someone who is suffering you would probably think oh that sounds a little insensitive and in conclusion as you have been suffering and you face many trials. I want to remind you to humble yourselves. But let's make sure we hear God's Word in the right way. This is not a finger in the chest, tsk, tsk, that we tell people, sufferer, now you better be humble. You better just deal with it. It can feel to us like that's the last thing someone needs to hear. This is not, however, about putting the sufferer in his place. Remember what we saw at the conclusion of this morning in verse 5, God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So, verse 6 is obviously connected with verse 5. When Peter says to the sufferer, when God reminds you, I want you to humble yourselves, he's not trying to shame you. He's not trying to put you in your place. He is trying to put you in the way of blessing because blessing comes to those who are humble.

12:45 And look, this is a particular kind of humility. This morning we saw the humility toward one another. Now this is a humility before God. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. It is a humility that comes to the Christian by God's grace that you would be humble and to accept God's providence in your life. And that's hard when the providences involve trials. But think about it. What would you call it if you think you know better than the God of the universe how to run your life? Might you call that a species of pride? I don't know if that sounds harsh and we're sort of trained in just the air we breathe, a kind of Rogerian therapy that just does active listening and just sort of pulls out of people what is already there. And there's certainly some good skills to learn in asking lots of good questions. But we also have a place to give biblical exhortation, and this is one of them, to humble yourselves under God's mighty hand. Lest we think, well, God has just, he's lost the plot. This thing has spun out of control. He doesn't know what he's doing. That is a species of pride. Whereas humility, the kind of humility that God blesses, stands before God, especially in the midst of trials and says, God, I bow before you and you know better than I do what I need and what you're doing. And you see the promise there that he may exalt you. Maybe not right now, maybe not in the timing that you and I would like, but at the proper time. There's a good word for us. The proper time. Now, when's that? That's in God's timing. You may want, okay, God will take humility on Monday, exaltation on Tuesday.

14:49 Here we come. It doesn't usually work like that, but at the proper time, if you would trust Him. There's blessing. How many times do parents tell their children, especially when they're young, trust me, I know where I'm taking you. You need to take this medicine. It's going to hurt, but it will be good for you. Yes, the shots will help you. These rules are for your good. I promise I won't forget you. Now, we actually have twice in the last year, forgotten a child at home and driven somewhere else. But God, God will not forget you.

15:31 Put your hand in mine as we cross the road. That's what humility is. You can see it in a child. That's the humility in faith like a child. Not the immaturity of a child, but the trust of a child. Where's the safest place in crossing a busy road if it's not holding the hand of mommy or daddy? Where's the danger? The pride that rips out of that hand, says, I know what I'm doing. I know where I'm going. I'll get across this intersection just fine. Thank you very much. Every loving parent reaches down and says, if you would but hold my hand, if you would trust your mom and your dad, it's going to go better for you in the end. And there's such wonderful practical advice here in verse 7. And yes, we're spending longer time on this first one because it's so rich.

16:27 You see verse 7, casting all your anxieties upon him. Grammarians call this an instrumental participle. In other words, verse 7 is telling us how we humble ourselves. What does it look like to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God? This is really important. Lest you think, well, humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. I guess it's just passive acquiescence. I just stand here and I'm humble and I guess, God, you do what you want. Or we think that the truly humble Christian who trusts God never feels, what's the word here, anxieties? If I were a godlier Christian, I would never have a worry. If I were a godlier Christian, I would never have a fear. I would never feel a burden. I would never wonder what tomorrow is going to bring. No, the Bible is more realistic than that. It says, here's how you humble yourself. Not that you never have an anxious thought, but that you cast all your anxieties upon him. It's an action that we take as an expression of humility. We can do it through prayer, to tell God, I lift this up before you. We can do it through an attitude adjustment.

17:55 Instead of carrying around this worry, this difficulty, this anxiety, don't you love that strong, active word there, casting. Stop clutching it. Take it. Pitch it off. Throw it to God. Cast your anxiety upon Him. And to meditate on this verse 7, you could spend a profitable quiet time this week, just on verse 7, because there is some wonderfully insightful biblical psychology here. You might say, well, but doesn't Jesus say, don't worry? And doesn't Paul say, I have learned the secret. I'm not to be content in all circumstances. But Paul also says elsewhere in 2 Corinthians, recounting all of his trials, his shipwrecks, his stonings. And then he says, and above all this, I have my anxieties for the churches.

19:00 You know what weighed down Paul even more than physical pain? Relational burdens, relational anxiety. You say, wait a minute, Paul. I thought you were the guy who learned the secret and everything. You were always content. You never had an anxious thought. And there he is saying, yes, I have had anxieties for these people that I love. Calvin puts this well. He says about verse 7, God does not wish us, or we might say expect us, quote, to be void of all feeling. That's what Calvin says. Because sometimes Christians think, some of you have been down this spiral before. You're worrying, and then you worry about your worry, and you worry about how much you're worrying about your worry. And you say, okay, I'm worrying. I don't want to worry. And then I know that God says not to worry, and now I'm a worse person because I am worrying. And then now I've got something else to worry about. And it just keeps going. And this is how many of us think at times. You are anxious about your anxiety. So, the Bible says, on the one hand, do not worry. Which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life. That's what Jesus says. Isn't that true? Probably said this before, you know, this quip, you never get to the end and there's a dire diagnosis and the doctor comes in and it's a very somber mood and the doctor says, well, all we can do now is worry.

20:33 That's never the cure. That's never the remedy. No, you can't add a single hour to your life by this worry. But you have them. Peter recognizes this. It doesn't say if you're truly humble, you never feel any anxiety. It says when you're truly humble, you cast them. You have them and you deal with them. Listen, it is not a failure that you might ever feel fear or nervousness, let alone sadness or dis-ease about the future. The question is, what are you going to do with that? Because that's when it can become sinful. Heard this analogy one time, it's like standing in the ocean. Some of you have done this over the summer and we went for a few days and I love being in the water. My dear wife is quite sure there are millions of sharks. We actually did see some little baby sharks last year, so that didn't help with the there are sharks here in North Carolina. But one of the things I love and some of you love is the waves, and they come, and the tide comes in, and even some of the big waves. And when you see it rolling, and the white caps are coming, and you know you got to brace yourself. You got to get in a little bit of a crouch. You got to lean into it as it comes. And if you are prepared for it, you know, and it breaks over you and you don't get swept under, get swept away. Well, anxiety and worry can be a little bit like that. You can, some of you can see it. You can almost sniff it. You can, it's like you can smell a storm's coming.

22:22 You can smell some worry is coming. And it's there. And when those waves come at the ocean, you cannot stop the tide. You cannot stop a wave from coming and breaking on the shore. What you can do is you can lean into it. You can get your posture. You can be ready to face it that when it comes, it breaks over you. And worry is a little bit like that. It's coming, but it doesn't have to pull you under. It doesn't have to sweep you away. You don't have to lay down and give up before the wave even reaches you. To cast that burden, that trial, that difficulty, that anxiety upon the Lord is an expression of humility. Of course it is. It communicates, I cannot carry this on my own. And that is hard for some of us to admit.

23:18 I am not strong enough. I cannot carry this by myself any longer. And so I cast this upon the Lord. And don't miss, before we move on from this verse, that precious word. This little word has been sweet to me in my life because I admit I can tell myself. I have to preach to myself. I can be that sort of person who thinks, I have little problems. And God's got a lot of, there's a lot of wars and things going on. and I don't want to be, even though I know that's bad theology. So this word is sweet to me. I hope it's sweet to you, that little word, all.

24:01 Casting. What kind of anxieties do you want, Lord? Which ones? Just cancer? Just death? Is that it? Okay, okay. Well, it's good to know this verse is here for me. Cast all of them. Now, yes, it's true. if you only pray about the proverbial hangnail in your life. You're missing how Jesus wants us to pray. But do pray for the hangnails too. All your anxieties, can't find your keys, cast it before the Lord. Pray about it. You have an indigestion and you got to go to an important meeting, pray about it. You can't get your computer to work? Pray about it. You can't figure out these insurance forms? Cast the anxiety on the Lord. You have a project due by midnight, even if you should have worked on it all summer? Come before the Lord. You have nervousness about a big game or a tryout?

25:04 cast all, all, all, all your trials. Nothing too small, nothing too petty. Nothing is a bother to a heavenly Father who loves you. Bring all your anxieties. It's not hubris. It's pride not to bring them. It's humility to say, God, you have something to do with every bit of my life, and I bring it before you. I told you that would be the long one. Here's the second exhortation. Be sober-minded and watchful. See those two together in verse 8. Get your head screwed on straight. Keep your eyes open. Remember here, the context is suffering. these Christians are facing trials. And when we face trials, we think we can become too narrow. We think about, I got to get through the trial. And what does that mean? I got to feel better.

26:06 I got to get better. I got to deal with the fear, the pain, the sadness, the worry, and you get some tunnel vision. We often don't think about the spiritual warfare that we're under in the midst of trials. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Why? Because your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Do you know that when you have trials, that's what's going to happen? Many of you heard when Tim Keller is now with the Lord, suffering from cancer, he remarked often that the most important battle in his life was not fighting cancer but remained fighting sin. When you are suffering, you are poised for either a tremendous spiritual victory that will redound to the glory of God and will make people stand up and take notice, or you are poised for a great spiritual defeat. In our context, especially in the Western world. Half of spiritual warfare is simply remembering that there's a devil and he doesn't like you or Jesus. That's about half of it to remember there's a real devil.

27:29 Notice here these three things about him. One, he's an adversary. The devil is never, ever, ever on your side. Two, he's a roaring lion. What does a roaring lion want to do. He wants to frighten you. He wants to intimidate you. Went to the zoo this summer when we were in Colorado. And I think the lions, they're always sleeping when you're at the zoo. But once in a while, you're at the zoo. And they come up. And we had this once years ago with one of our kids. I forget if it was a lion or a tiger. But they're there. And that is a frightening thing. Even when there's that thick glass. It never seems thick enough when they actually come up against the glass and let out a roar. It's frightening. That's what the devil wants to do. He wants to intimidate you. And then it says he's seeking someone to devour. The devil's goal is to eat your faith for breakfast. And sadly, I bet every one of us, at least the adults, we've seen this happen. You don't think that the devil has his claw marks in countless deconstruction stories? When you hear these and people post them online, the deconstruction stories, so often those origin stories of deconstruction, I mean people leaving their faith behind, they start with suffering, a pain, an internal wrestling, or an offense, or sometimes very tragically real abuse. And the person then, as they tell the story and reflect on it years later, will say this took them down a path to reconsider everything they had known.

29:15 And it doesn't happen all at once. It happens over months and years. And the devil is very shrewd. The devil does not often do a frontal assault on Jesus himself. I think he knows that Jesus is too magnetic, too attractive, too undeniably good and glorious, that he doesn't often try to convince people, You know what? You don't need Jesus anymore. No, that's a hard sell. You know what he will do? He will convince you that you're just leaving behind the church, or you're just leaving behind the Bible, or you're just leaving behind an ism, or you're just leaving behind someone's interpretation, or you're just leaving behind religion, or some version of Christianity. He won't tell you that you're leaving Jesus. But most of the times, that's what has happened. The person has left behind Jesus as he is presented in the Scriptures. Jesus, he has been worshipped for 2,000 years, and so often that starts in suffering. Know that when you are facing trials, the devil is walking around looking to pounce and devour because he knows that there's a moment now where he might be able to convince you of something that he couldn't before.

30:40 We see the third exhortation follows on the heels of the second one. Resist the devil, verse 9. Now, I don't want to read too much into the lion imagery. Peter's not trying to give us a detailed animal metaphor or fable, but I think it's significant that the devil is described as a roaring lion. So he makes a lot of noise. He's described as a lion seeking someone to devour. So he's going to growl and he's going to prowl.

31:18 You can't stop that. You can't stop that the lion has a roar. You can't stop that the devil will prowl around. But he does not have to eat you up. Trisha and I have been reading over the past few months C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy. I can't remember if I did read that one as a kid or not. I know I read Chronicles of Narnia several times, so if I did read it, I've forgotten it all, so it's all brand new. In the second book, won't spoil it if you're working your way through, but this one is set on Venus. It's called Paralandra, and I won't spoil the book to tell you that the hero of the book, Ransom, is sent there by God to prevent a second fall. And so the story is very philosophical, it's very theological, and a lot of it is this interplay between the Eve-like character who is innocent and pure and beautiful and the man who's inhabited by a demonic presence and his temptation, and then Ransom who realizes, and hence his name Ransom, who's sent there to prevent the second fall.

32:30 I won't tell you what happens, but there's an amazingly insightful description that Lewis gives of Ransom when he finally gets up the courage and he realizes that he's going to have to literally and physically wrestle with the devil. Now, ours is not physical in that same way, but Lewis is painting a picture of this man who's inhabited by the devil. And Ransom is so sure that he will die, but he knows this is the right thing to do, and I will probably die because he is brilliant, he has superhuman strength, but he will do it anyways. And lo and behold, to his great surprise, when he finally gets into the scrap and they're exchanging blows and punches, he realizes that he might just win against all of his fears and his unbelief, he realizes the devil is not invincible. He can be defeated. I don't know if Lewis had this picture here, but it fits perfectly. Resist him. He's not all-powerful.

33:45 He's not all-knowing. And one of the ways following Peter's logic to resist the devil is to realize that you're not alone. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. This is important. One of the things that makes suffering even worse is one, if you feel you're all alone, and two, if you feel like it's absolutely purposeless. But here, Peter's reminding us, you don't have it worse than everyone else. Other people in the world are suffering. You're not the only one going through these trials, and you are part of a worldwide family. Now, it's not to say that everyone has the same suffering or everyone suffers. Objectively, some people have harder lives than other people and are given more bitter providences.

34:37 But it says here the same kinds of suffering, not identical, but the same kinds of suffering. So, here's encouragement, Christian. Here's inspiration to find camaraderie because suffering is made much worse when it feels random, when it feels pointless. And this verse puts your suffering in a global context. Your sleepless nights, which drag on and feel to be just…you don't even know why they're happening. Your sleepless nights as a Christian are a part of the biggest story in the world that God is writing. And all around the world, this brotherhood, this family, brothers and sisters are suffering. You're not alone.

35:29 You're not the only one. Exhortation number four comes at the end, verse 12. This could really be the summary for the whole book. Stand firm. He says, I've written briefly to you, exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. I think he's referring to his whole letter, this is the way, to coin a phrase, this is the way, now walk in it. I have shown you what the way of grace looks like. Now stand firm. Reminded me that this is a good tagline we have. It's not, there's other good ones out there. Christ Covenant Church, you see on the bulletin, standing on truth, walking in grace. Those are good biblical ideas, and we see it right here, put together. This is true grace, stand firm in it. He's talking about everything He has laid out before these Christians.

36:29 I've laid out for you truth and grace. Now plant your feet and don't move. He references in verse 13, she who is in Babylon. This doesn't mean the literal Babylon, but refers to the system of the world, perhaps here to Rome. So two realities. You're in Babylon, but you're chosen.

36:52 You're in the world. You're not of the world. It's a great way to describe the Christian life. This book is about how to live as a true Israelite when you are in exile in Babylon. In the summary of all that Peter has said, here I'll give it to you in two words, stand firm. Our world likes to talk about always going on a journey. There's some good ways to conceive of a journey. There's a good way to go on a quest, to be seeking. but you must find when it comes to God's truth and grace, he doesn't want wanderers. He wants us to be fixed, firmly planted, standing. He then gives scattered throughout three promises, and we'll deal with these quickly. Three promises. Those are the four exhortations here, three promises. Number one, go back up to verse seven. I skipped over it when we meditated on verse 7. I wanted to save this. Such a sweet promise. Here's a promise for you. God cares for you. Because maybe you thought up in the previous verse, 6, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Okay, I get it. God's sovereign. His providence rules over all things. He's mighty and I have to just deal with it. Okay, I get it. He's big. I'm small. He calls the shots. I don't.

38:20 I'm humble about it. But that's not all God wants you to know. He's not toying around with you. He's not just playing some perverse game of cosmic chess for His enjoyment. No, He cares for you. One of the simple, most precious promises in all the Bible. It's like the end of Exodus 2. 2, God's people and slavery are crying out for deliverance. And before anything has really happened, we've been introduced to Moses, but he hasn't come to save God's people. We read at the end of Exodus 2, and God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel and God knew. He knows.

39:14 He sees you. He's not blind to your suffering, to your trials. He's not indifferent. And above all that, we have this promise here at the end of verse 7. Think how much a simple note from a friend means in your hour of trial. It could be a phone call, a card, an email. Today, it has never been easier. It has never been easier, Christian, to encourage people than today. You have a phone. You just send it. It takes a few seconds. It can be as short as a text that says, I'm thinking of you. I'm praying for you. I'm with you. I'm your friend. I love you. Imagine pulling up your phone and somehow, I don't know what it would look like. It wouldn't be green. It wouldn't be blue.

40:08 It would be something. And you get a text from heaven, from God himself. It's all sparkly and golden, the text. And somehow you know it's from God, and you're not even sure what to do. It's short. It's short. You kind of wish it was long, but it's short. and all it says is, I want you to know I care for you.

40:37 Wouldn't that make a difference in your life? It makes a difference if a mom or a dad or a friend or a brother or a child or a pastor, it makes a difference when a human being says, and here is God sending a text directly to your heart that says, I want you to remember, Christian, I care for you. second promise God has called you verse 10 he's called you to eternal glory I like the juxtaposition after you've suffered a little while the God of all grace who has called you to glory that's the Christian life it's an amazing fact if you are a Christian your personal story began in grace your personal story ends in glory what could be better you know how your story ends. You know how it began in God's electing grace. It ends in His perfecting glory. The God of all grace, He's never in short supply of mercy and help, and He'll get you to where He's called you. And here's the final promise. He cares for you. He has called you. He will confirm you. You see that collection of promises in verse 10, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, establish. All four promises are saying the same thing, saying, I'm with you.

42:01 I'm going to help you. Can you trust me? Can you trust me not only today but with tomorrow? As you've read before from probably Piper or Lloyd-Jones, and I've said the same thing to you, anxiety is living out the future before it gets here. That's anxiety. When God promises, Jesus tells us that sufficient for the day are its own troubles. But his mercies are new when? They're new every morning, every morning. Don't live out tomorrow's anxieties today. You haven't gone to tomorrow's graces. You haven't gone to tomorrow's mercies. You have mercy for today. You don't have to think about, how will I ever get through tomorrow, let alone ten more years like this? Well, you don't have the mercy for ten years from today. You have mercy for today. And you have this promise that he will strengthen you, restore you, comfort and establish you.

42:58 The God of the universe cares for you and he's on your side. Martin Luther once was writing to a friend who was beset with fears and worries. Many Protestants during those days in particular were understandably afraid. They were threatened with persecution, suffering, banishment. The road ahead looked difficult, if not impossible. Here's what Luther, in his inimitable way, wrote to his friend. I fear not, and why should I fear? I have seen two miracles lately. I looked up and I saw the clouds above me in the noontide and they looked like the sea that was hanging over me and I could see no cord on which they were suspended and yet they never fell. And when the noontide had gone and the midnight came, I looked again and there was above me the dome of heaven, and it was spangled with stars, and I could see no pillars that held up the sky and those stars, and yet they never fell. Now, he that holds the stars and moves the clouds in their course, he can do all things, and I trust him in the sight of these miracles.

44:18 Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your many great and precious promises to us. Would you help each struggler, each sufferer here with the trials of various kinds to know that you have given us such a help, such a bulwark, such a firm foundation. Help us to stand firm in it and know your kindness, your grace.