God’s Word On Handling Our Troubles

Transcript

GR 1952
05/08/2016
God’s Word on Handling Our Troubles
I Peter 5:5-9
Gil Rugh

We turn to I Peter chapter 5 where Peter is encouraging Jewish believers to stand firm and keep faithful during difficulties and trials. We are reminded there is no turning back. By God’s grace we have committed ourselves to Jesus Christ to follow Him. There is no turning back. So it is nice to know there is no alternative. So we persevere and go forward and that is what the readers of this letter that Peter has written are encouraged to do. To persevere, to stay faithful, to keep their focus on the goal toward which they are moving and the realization of all that God has promised to them.

Pressure sometimes reveals weaknesses, cracks as we would say. We sometimes talk about the fact the pressure reveals our character and pressure develops and produces our character. We grow under pressure. And the pressure is good for us because it sometimes reveals weaknesses that are there that need attention. We have all been in situations where certain pressures come to our lives and we feel not prepared to handle it and it is a reminder, this is good for me. I have learned to trust the Lord and that is where Peter is going to in the section we are going to be looking at. We learn to trust the Lord. It is a humbling experience.

At the end of chapter 4 we had summarized: “Therefore those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.” We go forward. The suffering doesn’t deter us, it doesn’t push us off course and it doesn’t cause us to turn back. We entrust ourselves to the Creator who is faithful and we pursue and continue to do right.

Then he moves into another “therefore;” an exhortation to the elders. Peter identifies himself with these elders, their responsibility to shepherd God’s people, exercise oversight, to provide godly leadership that becomes important all the time but especially in times of difficulty and trial. You know it is when the wolves attack the sheep, where there is danger for the flock, that the shepherds must exercise their responsibility with greater care.

David as a shepherd of the sheep in the Old Testament talked about killing a lion, killing a bear. So the elders are responsible for the shepherding of the flock for caring and they must do it properly, not in a domineering, lording it over kind of manner but showing an example and they are reminded there is a chief Shepherd, Christ Himself. They will be accountable to Him and rewarded by Him for faithfulness in carrying out their responsibility.

We move right in a logical fashion if you will in verse 5 when he says: “You younger men likewise.” That word ‘likewise’ indicates that we are continuing in the same vein of thought, “You younger men likewise.” He is going to give a series of commands here in these verses that we are coming up to.

Let me mention the commands to you. I like, in sections like this and it often happens as you get near the end of a letter he pulls together a series often presented as commands, to wrap things up and we are going to have several commands beginning in verse 5 there are two of them. First is “be subject” in verse 5 and the second command in verse 5 is “clothe yourselves.” Then you come down to verse 6, the command “humble yourselves.” Then you skip down to verse 8 there are two commands, “be sober,” as we have it “Be of sober spirit.” And the second command in that verse is “be on the alert.” And then in verse 9 “resist,” “resist him.” These commands given to encourage and challenge and these first verses are going to talk about the matter of humility, humbling ourselves.

You know we sometimes focus on what we think of as the major sins, murder, immorality, stealing, things that are concrete and tangible but the Bible warns carefully about sins like the tongue or sins like pride and they are probably the sins that confront us most often. Can any of us say we’ve dealt with the sin of pride? I might say I haven’t murdered anyone for a long time and I am doing pretty well and I could say of other sins I haven’t done but can I say I haven’t been proud, arrogant? Boy, I don’t remember the last time I was proud or arrogant. It is sort of like the sin of the tongue. Boy, I just can’t remember when I would have said anything that would have been better unsaid. Those kinds of sins we constantly battle on a daily basis and pride finds its way in and so he is dealing with this in the context of what he has been talking about.

Verse 5: “Younger men, be subject to your elders.” And the younger men are younger. I would address the dividing line between younger and older in New Testament passages at 40. Whether that is the age or is it just middle aged people wanting to find a cutting off point a little higher but that is a common one. The words often they say in the times refer to those under 40. The timing or the age is not particular. Younger are dealt with here. The question comes with “you younger men be likewise subject to your elders.”

Are the elders here just older people or do we pick up with what he was talking about with the elders in the first four verses? I think in the context he is probably connecting it with what he talked about. That word ‘likewise’ becomes key and indicates a continuation of the subject he was talking about. He was talking about elders and so he addresses the younger men and their responsibility to be subject to the elders and among believers even younger people can be a little bit more restless with the old, slower leadership.

We see this in our college campuses in the broader context. Often becomes centers where rebellion is expressed so we have protest movements and so on. Well believers who may be younger in age in the fellowship of believers have to be careful that they too respect the leaders that God has appointed. Their time will come so to speak in God’s plan as they mature and grow.

So I think that is what he is addressing here. “You younger men likewise,” in the same way that he had been talking about the elders, you have a responsibility to be subject to elders and he brings that in and it prepares the way for him to address the subject of humility and being willing to humble ourselves. He is addressing this to believers because much of the difficulty that comes we don’t like to look at it this way because we don’t like to think of ourselves as being proud but much of the conflict and difficulty that comes even among believers and you will note, “You younger men likewise be subject to your elders and all of you.” So now we have broadened it not just to the younger men. “Clothe yourself with humility toward one another.”

So he is talking about believers’ responsibility and it is a responsibility we all have to clothe ourselves with humility. The word ‘humility’ is a compound word that just basically means to be of lowly mind, lowly mindedness. Not in the sense you know, of an attitude of self-disparagement. Oh you know, I realize I am not as important as some other people. I realize I am not as gifted as other people. I don’t know that I have anything to contribute. That is not true humility. I need to recognize what God has provided for me in Christ, how He intends me to function but true humility recognizes God’s work in other people. It’s not exalting self as we see so obvious and evident in the world. It’s not even discussed as an issue anymore. We have to build people’s self-esteem. We have to build their self-worth. They have to think of themselves as important. They have to think of themselves as worthy. They have to think of themselves. The problem is the first part of that – think of themselves, think of themselves, self, self, self. What about me, all of you? “Clothe yourselves with humility.”

As one commentator put it, this is really a distinctly Christian virtue. It has never been something popular in the world, that sense of self-importance, proclaiming yourself as a characteristic of fallen man. Pride becomes the root of our sin. That is one of the greatest difficulties in salvation. To come to salvation in Christ is a humbling experience. I have to come to what? Recognize and accept before God that I am an unworthy, hell-deserving sinner. There is nothing I can do to save myself, to rescue myself, to redeem myself. That is a humbling thing. People get offended when you present the Gospel to them. I have my belief, I have my church, I think I am a good person. I don’t think God would send people to hell. Maybe people who are extremely corrupt like an Adolf Hitler or somebody like that but I don’t think….it is humbling. But that humbling of ourselves before God that he is going to talk about, we talk about saving faith has a beginning point but it has no ending point. When you place your faith in Christ and your trust in Him that is the beginning of a life of faith. When you humble yourself before God and acknowledge that you are unworthy and He alone can save you that is the beginning of a life of humility and that is the challenge. That is why he says, “Clothe yourselves with humility.” That is a command as the command was for the younger to subject themselves to elders now all of us must clothe ourselves. It is what is the adornment of our lives is genuine humility before God.

It is an attitude which puts others first, which appreciates God’s work in their lives. You know we humble ourselves before one another. That doesn’t mean we can be arrogant before the unbeliever but within the family of God we have to manifest the character.

Come over to Philippians chapter 2, this is the perhaps most familiar passage that really defines and explains and illustrates true humility. It starts in Philippians 2: “If there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit,” that fellowship produced by the Spirit, that bond. “If any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.” The bond that is there, that enables us to function as one as the people of God spiritually. What would hinder that? “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit but with (here we are) humility of mind,” being lowly minded. “Regard one another as more important than yourselves. Do not look out for your own personal interest but also for the interest of others.”

You see putting others before yourself which is a characteristic of love and in verse 2 we were to be “maintaining the same love.” That doesn’t mean I say, “Well, you know I am really nothing. I don’t have anything to contribute to this body. You know I realize I am just sort of here.” That is not humility. I recognize God has placed me in this body. He has gifted me to be part of this body but you know my focus is not on how blessed this body is to have me. And they will realize what a blessing I am to this body. No, you look around and say, “How blessed I am Father that you have placed me in this body of believers.” How I appreciate and can think of different believers and how God is using them in your life and others’ lives and it is humbling. You think look at how the Lord is using them and the self-sacrificing way they serve and they are not about getting attention. They are not about getting recognition. They just go about being used of the Lord in whatever way He can use them and what a blessing they are to our body. How my life has been blessed. My attention is on them. It’s not that God doesn’t use me but you know when you are putting others first your attention is on them. It is not on self and that is what it is. “Don’t do anything from selfishness, empty conceit. With humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourself.” God has put me here. He has blessed me and used me in the body. What really amazes me is the giftedness of others and how God is using them.

What is the example? Verse 5: “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus who although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant, being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance of man. He humbled Himself becoming obedient to the point of death even death on the cross. Therefore, God highly exalted Him.” That is the goal at the end. I don’t exalt myself and at the proper time God will honor us appropriately. That is what He told the elders. You do your job and when the chief Shepherd comes there would be reward given. That is true for all of us. We are anticipating that time. This is what Peter is going to say.

So Christ is the example. You know, these kinds of attitudes creep in so easily. That is why the Scripture constantly reminds us, it is not about me. It’s not about me. It’s about others. How can I be a blessing to others? How can I be an encouragement to others? How can I be a help to others? How can I benefit them? That takes lowliness of mind. I am willing to be a servant for others. You humble yourself in that way, you know, it’s not what the world admires. They admire that self-confident, self-assured, we have to build into our young people, we talked about the roles today. Our young women have to have that self-assurance and that confidence and that self-centeredness that the world admires. But God does not.

So again we are going upstream so to speak. We are committed to live our lives differently than everyone around us in the world of how the unbeliever is living. What we are being told in our schools, what is being bombarded at us on television, in media and so on – stop thinking about yourself. Now that starts with salvation. We are talking about believers. At the root of sin is self, is pride, is arrogance. We have looked at the Old Testament with the fall of Satan. I will, I will, I will, I will. Where does that lead?

So humility. Come back. “Clothe yourselves with humility.” I mean that is a way of picturing. This is the characteristic of our lives. It is part of us. It is not acting humble so people you know, get an idea that we are humble. It is just the way we function. We are always looking for ways to benefit others and appreciating how God is using them.

“Toward one another.” So it is a responsibility we have toward each other. Look back in chapter 4 of I Peter, verse 8: “Above all keep fervent in your love for one another because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a gift of God’s grace employ it in serving one another.” We are stewards of God’s grace. He entrusted us with the gift of His grace to be able to serve others. So that permeating thought.

Back up to chapter 3, verse 8: to sum up, “All of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kind hearted, humble in spirit. Not returning evil for evil, insult for insult. Giving a blessing.” You are those who are going to inherit a blessing. That constant reminder. And even in our relationship to one another.

Isn’t it a terrible thing that the church gets noted for its conflict. There are going to be conflicts. We have studied the letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the church with conflicts, but it’s a church that is immature. And when we have conflicts you know what it’s usually over? Sometimes it is doctrine. You have to fight those battles. Paul waded into those in full force in the letter to the Galatians, portions of the letter to the Corinthians but often it is not doctrine. You know what it is? Pride. I think I am right. You think you are right. Who is going to yield? I can’t yield, I am right. Well, I yield as a believer. We are to be of lowly minds. Most of our conflicts are hard to resolve. The last letter I received from a family leaving said, “Now this is not about doctrine. There is no doctrine, doctrinal issue.” Well, what is the issue? Where are our issues? Can we resolve this? Pride is a conflict. It creates conflict. He doesn’t want that to happen here.
So we are back in chapter 5. The command was to “Clothe yourself with humility toward one another” and there is a very good Scriptural reason for this. “For God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Now you note here the connection – you clothe yourself with humility toward one another. If you don’t you’re functioning in pride toward one another and God is your opponent because pride ultimately has its root in what? Arrogance against God. I tried to provide, you know, a more spiritual cover for my pride. We do as believers because we don’t just put our foot down and say, “I am too proud to humble myself.” We are not going to say that because I would be evidenced to be wrong. So I doctor it up but we have to be careful. We clothe ourselves with humility toward one another here as believers, humble ourselves because God is opposed to the proud and I do not want to be in the position of having God as my opponent. I mean where am I going with this? He gives grace to the humble and that willingness to humble myself. To the lowly ones He provides the grace to enable me to function as He wants me to function.

Even as believers we can bring misery to our lives by persisting because then God’s grace doesn’t enable us and the frustration can build and grow. I mean if I am a believer am functioning with God being opposed to me and thus I am not receiving the grace I need is my life going to get better, more contentment, more joy, more peace? No. Then I am more frustrated and then I am more upset with the fellow believer because they are the problem. They are the one causing my frustration but God is opposed to the proud. He is talking here to believers. That doesn’t mean He is our enemy in the way He is to the unbeliever. But it is like in your family. When you disobey your father he is opposed to you. When you are doing and functioning as you should not and there is conflict because pride is not to be a characteristic of His children. It is not a characteristic of the Savior that He provided for us. We read in Philippians 2 how am I going to justify selfishness, pride. “The Son of Man didn’t come to be served but to serve and give His life a ransom for many.” “God is opposed to the proud,” a quote from Proverbs chapter 3, verse 34 and it is a quote given in James chapter 4. We will look over there a little bit later.

“He gives grace to the humble,” the humility of mind. That word ‘humility of mind’ just the word humble with the word ‘mind’ with it basically. Humility is lowliness. You function as a servant you are functioning lowly in a humble manner.

Look at verse 6: “Since God is opposed to the proud He gives His grace to the humble; therefore (another command) humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time.” You see we are constantly drawn into that end time event. Verse 4: “For the elders, when the chief Shepherd appears and you are rewarded.” The time we humble ourselves and are anticipating the time when He will exalt us. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” You cannot disassociate showing humility toward from being humble before God. You note the connection “Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” Our unwillingness to humble ourselves before one another is in effect arrogance against God. I am not willing to humble myself. I just can’t do it. I just won’t do it. Now again, that doesn’t mean you yield to things that would be unbiblical. We can’t say, I realize you now hold a different doctrine. Well, we don’t want to have conflict here so I will yield. No, the Scripture has to be. This is true in other areas of conduct and so on. But so often, if we are not careful, it’s pride and that creates the conflict. So humble yourselves. “You must humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.”

The expression, “The mighty hand of God” is a demonstration of His pride. Where are we going if we won’t humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God? Pharaoh in the Old Testament with the exodus from Egypt he would not humble himself under the mighty hand of God. Can you win? Why do you have to tell believers this, because we have not yet been made perfect. We are going, we are developing. That’s why I say, and it is a process we are never done with.

So different situations come into my life that pressure me in a little different way to be willing to humble myself and you know it is a growing process. I look back over the years of my life and say, I think back and look through different situations and say, “maybe I should have just yielded there. Was it necessary to take a stand there?” We have to, you know, evaluate and grow. We want to be careful. What is the issue here? “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.” In other words there is no place to go. You consign yourself to a life of misery, frustration and how long can you live there and still consider yourself a believer?

You know people carrying on their resentments for years and profess to be believers. Something is wrong. He will exalt you at the proper time. When I decide I want recognition now it is not the proper time. I want my honor now. I want people to pay attention to me now. Give me credit now; build their life around me now. Then God says, “It comes at the proper time.”

So we are talking about believers here when he gives the command, verse 6, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you.” Because the unbeliever is not going to be exalted, he has to begin at the beginning to humble himself before God acknowledging his sinfulness and place his faith in Christ. But for us, even as believers, that’s an ongoing thing. When I think of it this way it concerns me about I want to more sensitive to this because I certainly don’t want to be found putting myself in a position where God is opposed to me and I am resisting humbling myself under His mighty hand because the mighty hand of God can bring severe discipline to His children, it has to.

In our home, this would get me arrested today, I guess. We used to spank. Now that they are in their forties we don’t do it anymore but sometimes they still could use it but we don’t do it. But you know we start out, we used a ping pong paddle. Why should I sting my hand? That is not the point. I don’t want to say, “This hurts me more than you, it should hurt you more than me. You are getting paddled, not me.” So we used the ping pong paddle. We start out, “Well, what you did you are going to get three, that meant three, one, pow, two, pow, three pow. If things didn’t change we didn’t go back and start with three. We are up now to five. I remember being asked by one of my children. “How high will you go?” “Would you go to ten?” I said “We will go as high as you make it necessary.”

Now that is where we are with God. His mighty hand, we require His discipline. How severe will the discipline have to be for you to humble yourself under His mighty hand? That is what he is talking about. And He will exalt you at the proper time. The goal of discipline, what? It is for good and it is so that we might share in His righteousness and His glory, His holiness. It is for our benefit and someday we will be exalted because through that disciplining process, remember we had up in chapter 4, verse 17: “It is time for judgment to begin with the household of God and if it begins with us first what will be the outcome for those who don’t obey the Gospel?” God’s disciplining process is being willing to be humbled by it and to trust Him through it.

So verse 7: “Casting all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you.” Isn’t that great? Why do I fight, why do I struggle, why do I resist? God doesn’t want to be my opponent. Just like you as a parent. You don’t want to be your child’s opponent. Sometimes he requires it and sometimes they say, “Oh, if you loved me you wouldn’t do this.” And yet we explain no, because I love you, I will do it.” Discipline is a necessary part of the love and the family relationship but you know in it all I can cast my care on Him. Oh, if I lead a humble life what do I do? My concerns I can turn over to Him. “Casting all your anxieties on Him.” We humble ourselves and we turn it all over to Him. Anything that causes us worry, causes us concern I can turn it over to Him. We have the song, “All your anxieties, all your cares, bring to the mercy seat, leave them there.” Isn’t it great that we have a God who says, “You know, turn over your concerns to Me.” What is worrying you? What is troubling you?

We can lead, in a proper sense, if you will, a carefree life. When I get worried about me, when I get focused on me, I have a self-centered life and then I become concerned about taking care of me and when I am worried about me taking care of me I also get concerned about you taking care of me. And the concerns of my life begin to multiply and pretty soon they become overwhelming. Just always under it. He says, “Cast all your care on Him because He cares for you.” That is the beauty of it. I mean does it get any better than this? The almighty, all powerful, all sovereign God who created it all, Who rules over it all has it all under control down to the minutest detail.

Marilyn and I were out walking the other day or doing some silly thing and looked at a tree as we were walking by and there was a dead bird. We remarked to each other about that, “And God knows that bird died there.” The sparrow doesn’t die without the Lord knowing.

Come back to Matthew 6. You know the Lord is not telling us “tough it out.” You know, build your inner strength. No, He says “Turn it over to Me. Let Me take care of it for you.” Matthew chapter 6, verse 25: “For this reason I say to you” and the reason was you are not worried and concerned about the things the world is worried about. “Don’t be worried about your life,” and all the things that go into life and how God takes care of the birds of the air. We can’t change anything in our life that amounts to anything anyway. If I decide I am going to spend the next week worrying when the week is over that won’t have fixed anything but I can turn my worries and cares over to the Lord. That doesn’t mean that now I just sit in a chair and do nothing. I turn it over to the Lord and now I proceed doing what He says I should do and trust that He will take care. There is another song; “God Will Take Care Of You.” It is true. God takes care of the plants of the field, verse 28 and they have more glory and beauty and you know you look at the flowers out there and the beauty of those flowers and they didn’t do anything but God gave them that beauty. So He will take care of you. At the end of verse 30: “You of little faith.” That is why we need the pressures, the trials, the difficulties because I learn to trust Him. Don’t worry then.

The unbelievers in the Gentile world as he talked about it there because he is ministering in a Jewish context. They are worried about all these things. They ought to be worried. They don’t have a heavenly Father to take care of them. They are in a world of hurt. They are in a world of trouble and there is no real answer. We might as well go and have another drink because you are perishing but your Father knows your needs. “Seek first His kingdom, His righteousness and all these things will be added to you. Do not worry about tomorrow. Tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” It doesn’t mean you don’t plan for tomorrow, make appointments for tomorrow but I realize tomorrow is in the Lord’s hands. Ultimately I can’t control tomorrow. I’ve made certain plans for tomorrow but they are contingent as James said, “You say, ‘If the Lord wills.’” If I have a stroke tonight my plans will change in a significant way. I don’t control tomorrow but I have the responsibility to do today. I cannot do tomorrow. My actions are limited to today. So I do what God would have me do today. I trust Him as I am living in obedience to Him to take care of me.

Come back to Psalm 55, Psalm 55. We have looked at a few Psalms but we may never get to Psalm 55. And this is in the context of opposition, enemies as so many of the Psalms are concerned, difficulty. Calling and starts out asking God to hear his prayer, verse 3: “Because the voice of my enemy; the pressure of the wicked. They bring trouble upon me. In anger they bear a grudge against me.” And this is causing him great consternation and even his friends, verse 12: “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend. We who had sweet fellowship together, walked in the house of God in the throng.” And what do you do? When you not only have enemies who oppose but friends who are now enemies who oppose you.

Verse 16: “As for me, I shall call upon the Lord, and the Lord will save me.” Come down to verse 20: “He has put forth his hands against those who were at peace with him; he has violated his covenant. His speech was smoother than butter, but his heart was at war.” Verse 22: “Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.”

The background to what Peter is saying, “Where could I go but to the Lord?” He will never allow the righteous to be shaken. So he ends, “I will trust in You. I will call upon the Lord.” You know it is a humbling thing. We show humility to characterize our lives whether the trouble comes from without or within, I humble myself before God. I cast my cares, my burdens, my concerns on Him and know He cares for me. Verse 16: “The Lord will save me.” He will see me through. That is the point.

Come back to Peter. You know isn’t it amazing how many times when you stop and just reflect on it, the Bible deals with these kinds of situations and just part of God’s plan. We live in a fallen world. We have been redeemed by God’s grace but we haven’t yet been perfected. So we are all at different stages of maturity and none of us have arrived at complete perfection. So all these things press in upon us and we are growing. We are growing, maturing and sometimes we get weary but we are to keep on.

So as he comes back to I Peter chapter 5, in this you know Peter has said nothing about the devil in this letter up to this point. Now as he is closing he gives three commands related to the devil. “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert,” verse 9, “resist him. Be sober, be alert, be aware, watch out. Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” The devil’s intention is always total destruction. It doesn’t say he prowls around like a cat wanting to scratch you. That is not what the devil is doing. He is like a prowling lion who wants to consume you, devour you, destroy you. that is not a game. If he has his way you couldn’t recover. Our responsibility is to be sober, be alert, be aware. You know, be sober, be on the alert. Different words carrying the same picture. Be sober, have all his senses about him. He is aware. He is alert. He is watchful because there is an adversary, the devil and he is behind. He is not leaving God’s people alone. “He is your adversary,” Peter writes as he writes to believers. He is the devil which is the translation in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for Satan which means the slanderer, the opponent.

So where do so many of the conflicts come? Well the devil is moving about. Remember in Job God asked Satan, “Where have you been?” “Going to and fro on the earth.” You think he avoids congregations of believers? He is there to cause trouble. We get caught off guard and we become a tool of the devil. That is when we say things we shouldn’t say. It is amazing.

We have someone who had left the church. You know they came and told me one evening that they were leaving. They said, “We are leaving. We believe God wants us somewhere else.” The next day they called me on the phone, this happened recently and said “I just want you to know, I can’t believe what is happening. I have heard from several different sources, people telling me what I said my reason was for leaving and I haven’t talked to anybody.” They said to me, “Where does this come from? I have never told anybody that but there are people telling me what they were told I said about leaving.” Where did that come from? We know, right? The devil puts it in somebody’s mind, a professing believer. Where do they pull this stuff out of the air? I was meeting with some Christians a while back and said, “Where did you get this? Where did you get this?” I have no idea about some of those things. “Your adversary the devil prowls about.” He is throwing out things all over the place and he is looking for vulnerable people and you know he wants to promote, yes, well, did they listen to you? Do you think they care about you? How much attention have you got? That is not a caring church is it? You have worked hard. How much recognition did you get? And then they treated you like that. The devil always want to whisper in our ear sometimes using other people sometimes he puts the thoughts there and I have to get them out of my mind. He is roaming about. Do you think he is not working here? He is a trouble maker.

“Resist him.” There is the command. He is the devil, he’s the slanderer. He’s our opponent but he is talking about what he does among us here. He is the accuser of the brethren in the presence of God but he has his emissaries working here among us. That is why he has to tell these people, “be alert, be watchful.”

How do we have the kind of conflict among believers who are to be of the same mind, the same love, the same commitment to truth? What happens? It ought to be resolvable. You come to the Word and examine is the doctrine correct or isn’t it? Paul had no problem recognizing false teaching going on and that had to be corrected; other things. You know we can’t underestimate the devil. “You resist him.” What does that mean? You stand against him. Again it is a command. As literally, “stand against,” two words, compound word in Greek, stand against. Even when regarding the devil we are not told to run away from him. Sometimes we run from temptation. Of the devil were planted. We stand against him. We are firm in our faith and that is not just in the doctrine, the faith and the faith we have but in our faith and trust in God we have “cast all our anxiety on Him” in verse 7 “knowing He cares for us.” Now we know the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

So this issue of suffering difficulty, trial, persecution doesn’t mean we are not doing what God wants us to do. It doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us. It doesn’t mean God is not in control. It doesn’t mean everything is not under control. We may not have it under our control but He has it under His control. So my life is under His control. He cares for me.

What can men do against us? What can the devil do against us? He can inflict difficulty, pain, suffering. The book of Job being an example. We have seen this in some of the Psalms. He can’t win because “greater is the One who is in us than the one who is in the world.” We draw upon His power. He can, if God so wills for my life, there can be pain inflicted. There can be trouble. It can be on going and all trouble is unpleasant or it wouldn’t be trouble. But he can’t win and I always remind myself. I am confused a little bit.. And quite frankly I am a little shaken but there no reason for that because You are still the God who has everything under control. My responsibility, I ask myself, what is it? What is the next step I should take? Remember, I just have to be concerned about today.

“Lord, what should I do next?” And then I proceed. It helps resolve it. But Lord, how is this going to come out? I can’t see any good that is going to come out of this. Lord, what if this happens? Nothing will happen that the Lord does not plan for me. Now if I am living in rebellion against Him I better stop the rebellion. If I am functioning in pride and arrogance I better stop because He is opposed to me functioning like that. So naturally I want to examine myself but I am not going to park there. Trouble in the life of the believer is not an unusual circumstance. Trouble in a church is not unusual. It is going to happen. We have battles, we have conflicts. We have difficulties. We learn to handle them Biblically. We work through them. We ask ourselves, what is my responsibility?

I realize other believers are suffering greatly in the world. Maybe a different kind of persecution and suffering, maybe a similar kind but suffering is the lot of believers. “In the world you have tribulations,” Jesus said. “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” So we ought not to think it is unusual.

“And after we have suffering a little while,” we will come back to this when we start next time, “the God of all grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” He keeps bringing us back. It is God who is at work. It is God who is bringing us to the ultimate end. We will keep in mind these are instructions given to believers. So watch out. That’s why I say, “Don’t lend your ear to the devil. Don’t lend your tongue to the devil. He is the devil, he is Satan, he is the slanderer. He is the trouble maker. We don’t want to get caught off guard. We may not be being led away to prison but the devil is very pliable. He has an arsenal of weapons to try to keep God’s people from growing, maturing, moving forward. I trust that he won’t be successful in our lives because we are committed to honor our God and obey Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your Word. Lord, thank You for Your patience with us that You never grow weary of careing for us. You are never impatient with us. Lord, you are unwilling to tolerate rebellion and sin in our lives. We thank You for that. Thank You for the pressures, the trials, the difficulties that remind us of our weaknesses, remind us and point out to us areas of immaturity, areas we need to grow, areas we need to learn to trust You. thank You for the blessing being part of a family of believers and Lord we are reminded that this is where we have the opportunity to manifest our unity, our oneness that we are the same in love. We are the same in mind, to manifest humility in serving one another. Lord, may all areas of our lives and ministry together be a testimony of Your on-going grace as You prepare us for the glory that will be ours someday. Bless us in our service for You in different places in the days of the week before us. May we be alert to every opportunity, ready to be used of You, ready to speak on Your behalf we pray in Christ’s name, amen.