This brings me to this morning's address:
“God Cares for the Humble of Heart”
1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. NKJV
1 Peter 5:6-7 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. NKJV
My Christian friends: I bring to your attention two simple verses from today’s epistle for this reason, namely, that they demonstrate what it is to be a Christian. These two verses separate the Christian religion from all the other religions of the world. All the other religions of the world are pagan for they tell you what you must do to obtain God and a place in heaven; whereas the Christian religion tells you what God has already obtained and done for you in His Son Jesus Christ. All the other religions place bigger cares upon you as a practitioner of paganism; whereas, Christianity relieves you of your cares by placing them upon Jesus, the true God that cares for you! Paganism teaches you to exalt yourself by your good works in order to please God; Christianity teaches you to humble yourself in order that you may be exalted and by His power do good works. The two verses are these: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon Him; for he cares for you.
The late Missourian, Pastor Herzberger, wrote in “The Family Altar” of 1943, regarding John 3:30:
“‘He (Jesus) must increase, but I (John the Baptist) must decrease’” And then referring to that which John strived, Herzberger wrote regarding Jesus, “With this humble submission even unto death He atoned for our inborn pride and vainglory that causes much strife and pain in the world. But with His humble example before us, we are to learn of Him, to grow like Him in meekness and lowliness of heart. When we do that, really strive to follow His example, we shall grow more and more in the knowledge of our deep, sinful depravity, our utter worthlessness and helplessness to save ourselves, while our blessed Lord with His unmerited love of our poor souls, His daily pardon and help, and comfort grow more and more precious in our sight. The more we learn to forget self and live in and for our Savior, the more we shall attain to that ‘rest of soul’ which He promises those that take upon themselves His easy yoke and light burden.”
“‘He (Jesus) must increase, but I (John the Baptist) must decrease’” And then referring to that which John strived, Herzberger wrote regarding Jesus, “With this humble submission even unto death He atoned for our inborn pride and vainglory that causes much strife and pain in the world. But with His humble example before us, we are to learn of Him, to grow like Him in meekness and lowliness of heart. When we do that, really strive to follow His example, we shall grow more and more in the knowledge of our deep, sinful depravity, our utter worthlessness and helplessness to save ourselves, while our blessed Lord with His unmerited love of our poor souls, His daily pardon and help, and comfort grow more and more precious in our sight. The more we learn to forget self and live in and for our Savior, the more we shall attain to that ‘rest of soul’ which He promises those that take upon themselves His easy yoke and light burden.”
Here is our Savior’s great love – mercy and care. This providential care sustains you when times get rough. The burdens and cares you experience – you cannot carry them for they will eventually overwhelm you. It doesn’t matter what your cares are: the corona virus pandemic, finances, loss of friends or family, or even the omnipresent social teachings of Marxism in our government that even today is hell-bent on destroying our Republic. It simply does not matter. If you think that you can solve the world’s problems then you are bound to go through mental and spiritual crises. So take a step back and think to yourself, “Why do the democrat socialists want everyone to have a free college education?” Could it be that it is in these free colleges and universities that every student is being indoctrinated not to think for themselves, but to be anti-free speech, anti-capitalism and indoctrinated to submit themselves in everything to the Marxist-socialists ideologies?
Our young are often taught to have more self-esteem with slogans like “Respect me; respect yourself” or “Black Lives Matter” to the exclusion of anyone else. But if you think too much of yourself you will always become haughty and self-loving. However, if you follow the example of John the Baptist who wished to emulate Christ, you would be self-abasing, and hence be lifted up by God Himself, in due time. You would then experience that which King David expressed in Psalm 55:22, “Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved.”
The Christian’s burdens will be greater than those of the heathen, but these burdens will always be opportunities for the Christian to express the love of Jesus and to give thanks for having a God that cares. Prayer and praise should ring out to God in times of trouble, such as, “My heavenly Father, You have created me when I was nothing; You, and You alone have redeemed me through the merits of Your Son, my Savior, Jesus Christ; You will not fail me now in my time of need.” Such a prayer is ridiculed by the haughty, self-lovers of this world; however, such a prayer makes your heavenly Father blessed indeed.
People today are not inclined to believe and trust in God that cares. Mankind simply does not think that God, if man believes there is a God, is concerned about everyday life. Man is more likely to believe in the process of evolution; that we are mere accidents of a random process. Or to put the best construction on it, man may believe that God created the primordial slime that eventually evolved into man and that God now leaves all things to order themselves.
It therefore is no small wonder why mankind thinks so highly of itself, over and above its Creator, since mankind doesn’t believe that God cared so much to create man in His image of true righteousness and holiness. Man must now recreate God, especially the Lord Jesus Christ who became man, according to one’s own race and imaginations. But this is what it means to be created in the image of God as St. Paul tells the Ephesian Church:
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4:17-24)
I never heard of an ape that was righteous and holy, although humans are so inclined to give animals rights that even exceed that of our own species. But this I do know: God created Adam and Eve in righteousness and holiness because He is a caring God and not some cosmic prankster who loves to watch primordial slime ooze its way into becoming a man by means of evolution. Pius XII, in his 1950 papal encyclical, pronounced that Darwin's theory about the origins of life and Christianity were not necessarily in conflict, the Roman Catholic church has viewed evolution as a “serious hypothesis.”
Pope John Paul II, in a letter released to the Pontifical Academy of Science meeting in October1996 in Rome, said “Fresh knowledge leads to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than just a hypothesis.” That, by the way, is the teaching of the late Pope John Paul II, namely that God did not create Adam and Eve as the Bible says it happened, but that man was an evolutionary process and that we indeed evolved from apes. But God nevertheless cares; and if He cared enough to make Adam and Eve in His image of true righteousness and holiness, then it had to be that He cared for man so much that He was obliged to redeem His fallen creation, not for man’s sake, but for His own name’s sake.
As it is written in the 23rd Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Or take Psalm 37:5-7, Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.
As it is written in the 23rd Psalm, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul: he leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” Or take Psalm 37:5-7, Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. Rest in the LORD and wait patiently for him: fret not yourself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass.
If Christian pastors believe that God personally doesn’t care – then they should not be preaching. The true angel God had in His care, was that angel who proclaimed the everlasting covenant during the turbulent times of the Reformation, namely, Martin Luther.
As Luther himself wrote in his sermon for today:
“Let me illustrate from my own experience. What should I have done when I began to denounce the lies of the indulgence system, and later the errors of the papacy, if I had listened and given heed to the terrible things all the world wrote and said would happen to me? How often I heard it said that if I wrote against such and such eminent people I would provoke their displeasure, which would prove too severe for me and the whole German nation. But, led thereto by reason of my office (otherwise I would have preferred to keep silence), I must continue. I commended the cause to God and let Him bear the burden of care, both as to the result of the work and also to my own fate…Oh, how much good would God accomplish through us if people could be persuaded, especially the eminent lords and kings, that what Peter here says is true: ‘He careth for you!’ How much could He do if they only believed that truth instead of seeking, through their own wisdom and reason, to equip, strengthen, and compose themselves by aid of human might and assistance, friendship and alliance, for the accomplishment and maintenance of their own cause!”
“Let me illustrate from my own experience. What should I have done when I began to denounce the lies of the indulgence system, and later the errors of the papacy, if I had listened and given heed to the terrible things all the world wrote and said would happen to me? How often I heard it said that if I wrote against such and such eminent people I would provoke their displeasure, which would prove too severe for me and the whole German nation. But, led thereto by reason of my office (otherwise I would have preferred to keep silence), I must continue. I commended the cause to God and let Him bear the burden of care, both as to the result of the work and also to my own fate…Oh, how much good would God accomplish through us if people could be persuaded, especially the eminent lords and kings, that what Peter here says is true: ‘He careth for you!’ How much could He do if they only believed that truth instead of seeking, through their own wisdom and reason, to equip, strengthen, and compose themselves by aid of human might and assistance, friendship and alliance, for the accomplishment and maintenance of their own cause!”
Many have for a long time, even a life-time, talked about trusting in God above all things and yet
have proven this to be only lip service as they sought human wisdom in lieu of God’s Word. And although Christians have come a long way in trusting in the caring providence of God, we still have a long way to go to show in our daily living that God cares for us. We need to daily confess our sins and seek God who really cares for us. His mercy is caring and is displayed throughout the Bible in both New and Old Testaments.
have proven this to be only lip service as they sought human wisdom in lieu of God’s Word. And although Christians have come a long way in trusting in the caring providence of God, we still have a long way to go to show in our daily living that God cares for us. We need to daily confess our sins and seek God who really cares for us. His mercy is caring and is displayed throughout the Bible in both New and Old Testaments.
His promises, those old certainties, haven’t changed one iota even though the world in its folly has changed enormously. Philosophies flood the market and have overcome even the sales of the Bible in America; philosophies of Karl Marx and Black Lives Matter inundate our news media; and, the Bible itself has continually changed in translations even to the detriment of civil social order and of men’s souls.
But look at what Jesus told His disciples in Luke 12:29-31, “And do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows that you need these things. But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.” Or consider what St. Paul wrote the Church in Corinth (2 Cor. 11:7), “Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?” And, also in 2 Corinthians 8:5, “And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.”
My friends, you do no one wrong in seeking the God of the Bible who cares for you; you do no wrong in praising and glorifying our heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. You who seek to follow Jesus’ example of caring and giving, even if it means self-abasement, is the reason that God in His wrath has not already destroyed this world. For if anyone wants to contend with you in what you believe, teach, and confess, let him do so at the detriment of his own soul. For you it is who depends upon this fundamental Christian teaching. Yes, to depend upon the One eternal God that cares for you in every aspect of your life is a Christ-like thing. This is nothing less than mercy that emanates from the bowels of God Himself who so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. But, as Christians, you too must be exhorted to cast all your cares upon the Lord.
Every Christian should glory in Jesus Christ their Savior who gives them strength when they do not know where to turn; Jesus, who is the sinner’s friend; Jesus, who cancelled the debt that the Law demanded by carrying the Commandments and nailing them to the holy cross with His body. Jesus, who with the Father sent the Holy Spirit to comfort those who are terrified and fear what is overtaking them in this world as well as the fear of the wrath of God that is coming to all those who are boastful and irreverent.
As Luther spoke of humbling oneself, “The heart, through knowledge of its sin, becomes terrified in the presence of God’s anger and anxiously seeks grace. Thus, a humility is born, not merely external and before men, but of the heart of God, from fear of God and knowledge of one’s own unworthiness and weakness. He who fears God and trembles at His word will surely not boast against anyone. He will even manifest a gentle spirit toward his enemies…The cause of this shall be ‘the mighty hand of God.’”
Therefore, let us implore God, through the mercies of Jesus Christ, that He may grant boldness and steadfastness to the leaders of our Republic to strike down the evils that are now besetting us. Wait patiently and commit yourselves to prayer so that even the enemies within our State may also humble themselves under God’s mighty hand.
And, in all things let us retain the knowledge to always submit ourselves to God’s providential care so that we may truly believe what is written in the last stanza of Hans Brorsom’s Danish hymn of 1734 (TLH #413), “I Walk in Danger All the Way”: “My walk is heavenward all the way; Await, my soul, the morrow. When thou shalt find release for aye From all thy sin and sorrow. All worldly pomp be gone! To heaven I now press on. For all the world I would not stay; My walk is heavenward all the way.” Amen.
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