The God of all grace is presented as the ultimate source of strength and provision for believers in every life situation. The sermon draws from 1 Peter 5, highlighting Peter's experiences as an elder and witness to Christ's sufferings and glory, emphasizing the importance of humility, faithful shepherding, and mutual submission. It illustrates God's grace through the example of Peter's restoration after denying Christ, the need for compassionate care between younger and older believers, and the profound peace found in casting anxieties upon God who deeply cares for us. The message concludes by affirming that after a period of suffering, the God of all grace perfects, establishes, strengthens, and settles believers, leading to eternal glory.
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The first epistle of Peter, chapter five. We'll read from verse one. The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock.
And when the chief shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a crown of glory that fiteth not away. Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, unto the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith?
Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who have called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And during these morning sessions we have been looking at some of the great names of God. Tuesday morning we were looking at that lovely term, Your Heavenly Father, a term that occurs seventeen times in the Sermon in the Month.
It's the first teaching in the New Testament concerning a name of God, and it's something unique, something entirely new. Not an Old Testament revelation at all. But the delightful thing about the present dispensation is that we have been brought into a family and we have been brought into relationship with our Father. And how delightful it is that as soon as a person is born again, by intuition, they say, Abba, Father. Now yesterday morning we were looking at another magnificent term in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter seven, the God of glory. And how the God of glory appears to his people.
We're speaking about Abraham, the initial point of a life of faith. And then Moses, the power for his service, was the appearance of the God of glory in his life. And then Stephen, at the end of his life, just before he passed into the presence of the Lord, worried that the heavens were opened and he saw the glory of God. Now this morning we want to look at another lovely term, one of the most delightful in the New Testament concerning our God. And the expression that Peter uses here is the God of all grace. And I want to speak this morning about the God of all grace in five different situations that we find in this lovely chapter.
I want you to notice that Peter is an old man. He has possibly had at least thirty years of service. And he's writing his two letters and he's calling to remembrance various experiences that he had in his life with the Lord. If you take the first epistles particularly and look at it carefully, you'll find that Peter, actually, is speaking about experiences that he had had himself. And practically all his teaching in both the first and the second epistles surrounds these experiences that he has had. I believe that all true ministry is the result of experience. You know, it's so possible to read a book.
And I believe in reading books. One of the most valuable things I have in the world is a good library. And for nearly fifty years now I have been collecting books. And I have a real treasure in the library that I have, the written ministry of God's dear saints. I think that one thing that people don't realize today is the tremendous treasure that we have in our language. And our young people today, they're not reading. I was speaking to Mr. Loizzo, the publisher, just a little while ago, and he said the pathetic thing about the assemblies of God's people today, he said our young people are not reading. And he said these tremendous volumes that have been written a couple of generations ago by early brethren, he said they're being bought today by clergymen, being bought today by people in the denominations, but the people in the assemblies today are not buying them and reading them.
Now I think that that is a pathetic thing. And I think if we could only get a real desire to read this valuable literature that we have in our language, I believe it would revolutionize our lives. Of course, the important thing is the Bible. And that is taken for granted. We should study our Bible. And we should get down to the careful, systematic study of the Word of God. But I do believe that we should make it a point of getting some of these tremendous treasures that we have in our language today and carefully study them and keep them. But the point is this, it's so possible for a man to read a book and get a clear outline in his mind of some great doctrine and then get up on a platform and if he has a little bit of ability and is able to speak and able to put it over, well, some people think that that's marvelous.
That is ministry. But my dear friends, the Word of God that makes it plain that all true ministry is the result of experience. Things that have been burned into the heart and life in God's school. It's not so much verbiage or a vocabulary or elicution or anything of the kind. It's learning things in God's school. Things that have been burned into the heart and life. And when a person gets up and opens the Word of God... and speaks in that way, I believe, it reaches people's hearts. Not so much their heads, their intelligence, although I believe that that is important. I think again that all true ministries should have a three-fold object.
First of all, it should be directed to the mind. It should be intelligent. It's not just mere verbiage, but I believe that when a man gets up and speaks, it should be directed to the intellect, to the mind, so that we can grasp what he's getting at. But then second length, It should be directed to the conscience. On anything that does not have an effect on our heart and life, well, after all, it only swells our head. It makes us feel self-important. It should be directed to the conscience. But then thirdly, it should be directed to the heart. Our heart should be warned and drawn to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I believe that this is what we get in First Peter, chapter five.
Peter is an old man. And the words that he's using here in the experiences that he's speaking about, connected with the God of all grace, is something that has been burned into his heart and life and soul through experience with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Now, I want this morning to point out at least five different situations in the chapter, where Peter has learned lessons, and each one of them illustrate this lovely title of God that we get at the end of the chapter, the God of all grace. He is the God of all grace for every situation in life. Now the first little paragraph in the chapter is directed to the shepherd, that is to the elder, to the overseer, to the older men, those that have the responsibility for leadership among the people of God.
And this first little paragraph, I believe, is based on John chapter twenty one. Now I want to read it again. And if you keep John twenty-one in mind and the experience that Peter had there with the Lord, I think it throws a floodlight on what he's saying. The elders, which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, on a witness of the sufferings of Christ. You know, he speaks a lot about the suffering and the glory. And he's speaking about something that he saw. He was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. He was the man who sat at the fire in Pilate's Judgment Hall. and who saw men smite the Lord Jesus. First of all with the open palm and then secondly with a closed fist.
They buffed at him. He was a witness of the sufferings of Christ. Peter was sitting at the fire and he saw it all and he's referring to this here. He said, I was a witness. I saw what was happening that night in which the Lord was betrayed. And he said, I'm a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also partaker of the glory. He always links these two words together, the suffering and the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint but willingly, not for a filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fate is not away.
I believe what he's talking about here is the experience that he had with the Lord that is recorded in the Gospel according to John, chapter twenty-one. You remember he goes out fishing. And by the way, the first lesson in John twenty-one is a lesson connected with catching fish. Evangelistic work. There's so much activity today. We have no criticism of that at all. I believe we should be active in trying to win souls under our Gospel testimony. But sometimes there's such a thing as activity without any result at all. And many a time I wonder why. There's so, people are so busy today in the work of the Lord and there's so meager results.
I wonder if the lesson that was taught the disciples in John twenty one needs to be learned again. We need to get our orders from him. And when we're in the will of God, and we're in the path that he has for us, and when we get our orders from him, put the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. They had toiled all night and I hadn't gotten a single thing. And the Lord standing on the shore, he said, Children, lads, have you any meat? No. Just one word abrupt. No. Well, he said, Put the net on the right side of the ship and ye shall find. And they dropped it on the right side of the ship and immediately there were a hundred and fifty-three big fish in the net.
It's a lesson in connection with catching fish. But then the second lesson is a lesson in connection with feeding sheep. And I believe that the basis of this little paragraph is the lesson that the Lord taught Peter that day, sitting at the fire by the seaside. I want to speak a little bit more about this tonight in the meeting, and I just want to refer to it very briefly right now. You remember Peter had denied the Lord three times. He had done it beside a fire, and the word that's used for the fire there is a charcoal fire. The word is only used twice in the New Testament. It was the same type of a fire where Peter had denied the Lord.
And the Lord lit a fire by the seaside. It had a peculiar, pungent smell. And I believe the Lord deliberately lit the same kind of a fire as it was in Pilate's Judgment Hall. A couple of years ago, I was over my native land, walking along country road in County Tyrone. I smelled the smell I hadn't smelled for a long time. It was the smell of a peat fire. This may not be very well known in this country, but in the country places in Ireland, those little country cottages away on the back side of the mountain, the fuel the burn is peat. It's dug out of a bog, and it's dried out, and they use it for fuel, and it is a very pungent, peculiar smell.
If you won't smell it, you never will forget it. And walking along that little country road, in the summertime, I smelt the smell of a peat fire, and it brought back a flood tide of memories to my mind. Things had happened when I was a boy. I believe the Lord did the same with Peter. Peter had denied the Lord at a charcoal fire, and the Lord lit a charcoal fire. And sitting beside the fire, he said, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these. And some of my friends would tell me, But what the Lord meant was the old boat on the net. Lovest thou me more than these? But the pronoun shows that it wasn't the boat on the nets at all.
He had said, Although all of these should deny thee, yet will not I. And the Lord, he takes the knife and he puts it right in his heart. Lovest thou me more than these. He reminded them of what he had said. And Peter, I think he must have felt ashamed. Or he said, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I am fond of thee. He can't use the high divine word that the Lord used, but he uses a lesser word. And he said, thou knowest that I am fond of thee. And the Lord said, feed my sheep. And three times the question is asked. And three times the answer is given. And three times he gets a commission. Each time it's different. Feed my sheep. Give food to the lambs. Take care of the sheep.
It's a three-fold commission that he gets. And he's passing it on here. The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder. And I think that he's thinking of that day by the seashore where the Lord taught him that lesson. You know, I believe, beloved brethren, this morning that one of the great needs among God's people today is the lessons that have to be learned here. Some people get the idea that the greatest gift in the world is an evangelist. Well, now, I do appreciate the work of an evangelist. This is a gift that's becoming increasingly scarce today. Men that are really able to preach the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. It is becoming a very rare gift. And sometimes in our gospel meetings we hear a little homily on how we ought to behave ourselves instead of a real good rousing gospel address.
Every time I hear a man preaching the gospel I just bow my head and I thank God. It's a wonderful gift. And then the second thing is teaching. And I think that this is a good gift too. It's badly needed everywhere today. To throw illumination on the Word of God, the systematic expository ministry of the Word of God is badly needed. But oh, there's a third one. And that is the shepherd, the pastor, the man who is able to feed the flock and to lead and to guide the people of God. Everywhere today it's badly needed. I could tell cases this morning, things that I know, of young people that have drifted away. haven't been at the meeting for six months, and there's not a soul who's inquired where they are, what they're doing.
Oh, I feel that that's a tremendous need. One of the greatest needs among God's people today is the shepherd, the elder, the overseer. These are three terms that are used in the New Testament forum, and Peter uses them here. He uses the word oversight, and he uses the word elder, and he speaks about shepherd work. What is an elder? An elder is a man that's characterized by spiritual maturity. And what is an overseer? An overseer is characterized by spiritual authority. And what is a shepherd? A shepherd is characterized by spiritual capacity. And oh, this man, the elder, the leader, the guide, is so badly needed everywhere today.
You know, the world says when a man comes to sixty-five, he's through. and they just throw them out. The sum would even go as far as to say, when a man is forty, he's of no further use. Now this is the way the world looks at it, but God does not. I believe that when a man comes to sixty-five, he's coming to the most important years of his life. I had the privilege of spending about six months with Mr. C.F. Hogg in Cape Town in nineteen forty-five. It was the last six months of his life, and Mr. Hogg was eighty-two years of age at the time. I used to go to his room every day, and I would sit at his feet and listen to that dear man.
He taught me many things that I hope I have learned. But among other things he said this, he said the most important years of my life was between sixty-five and eighty. He said, I regard those years as the most important of my life. Do you mean to say that a man who has walked with God for forty years, and has tried to learn something from the Word of God when he comes to sixty-five that he's not and has been matured and has had experience in the life and the work of God. Do you mean to say that that's not valuable? I believe it is. The most valuable men that we have among us today are elder brethren, men of spiritual capacity and men who have learned the lesson here.
And I do want to say this morning, to beloved brethren who are here. Give yourself to this work. And there are three positive things here and three negative things. For the sake of our time this morning, I'm not going to go into them in any detail, but there are three positive things that Peter says here to the elder. And then there are three negative things that he should avoid. And when we take these six qualifications and put them together, we get the qualifications of a man of God who shepherds and leads and guides the flock of God. And then at the end, there's this lovely, lovely reward at the end. When the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fatheth not away.
Oh, how delightful this is. And I believe that the God of all grace can be applied to this situation. Some time ago, I think it was little over a year ago, I had the privilege of taking the funeral of a dear man in the city of Toronto. And if anybody had asked me, who do you think is the outstanding man of God in Toronto? I wouldn't have had any hesitation at all in saying that it was that man. Now, he's gone to go with the Lord, and I have no hesitation at all about mentioning his name. His name is Albert Kitcher. I've known Mr. Kitcher, I suppose, for over forty years. And that dear man was a busy man.
He was a real elder, a real shepherd. You'd never find him preaching on the platform. But he was a man whose heart was full of love for Christ and for the people of God. And for many years that man did no secular work on Thursday of every week. He gave that day to the Lord. I've stayed in his home. And sometimes at seven o'clock in the morning he would be in his office working. After I came home from a meeting at night, at eleven o'clock at night he would be working too. A very, very busy professional man. But every week he gave Thursday to the Lord. And another brother who's still alive, Jim Bucking, these two brethren, they had a little black book.
And of the herd of any case of trouble or difficulty among the people of God, they made a little note of it. not only in their own assembly but in any assembly or any home or any situation that they heard about that needed help that needed counsel that needed advice they made a little note of it and on Thursday morning the two men met they had a little word of prayer and meeting alternately in each other's homes and after they prayed together they spent the whole day visiting now on two occasions they invited me to go with them And I don't think as long as I live will I ever forget some of the things that I saw and heard. Sometimes it was the hospital. And other times it would be a home.
And sometimes it would be the jail. You know, there's some dreadful things happening. And these two dear men, men whose hearts are full of love to Christ and love to his dear people, have spent the whole day on Thursday visiting the homes of God's people. Oh, I believe that this is a work beyond all Christ. And I do want to recommend it to brethren who are here this morning, if you're getting old, and maybe the world has said, now you're through. As far as your business or your professional life is concerned, my dear brother, you're not served. If we could only get a revision of the tremendous need among the homes of God's people today and the assemblies of God's people and give ourselves to this work, oh, how valuable it would be.
So Peter, the first little paragraph here is based on John twenty-one. and the experience and the commission that he had from the Lord at that time after he had denied the Lord. Now let's look at the second paragraph. Likewise ye younger submit yourselves unto the elder. Ye all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisteth the proud and giveeth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. Now the first paragraph is addressed to the elder. and is based on John twenty one. And this second paragraph is addressed to the younger folk, and I believe it's based on John chapter thirteen.
You remember in speaking about the Lord washing the disciples' feet, how he took the towel and he girded himself. And he got down upon his knees and he washed the feet of the disciples. Now the word here be clothed with humility. It's exactly the same word that's used in John. Be clothed with humility. It means gird yourselves with a slave apron. I think that the first paragraph is based on John twenty-one, but the second paragraph addressed to the younger folk is based on John chapter thirteen. You know, again, when we think of modern conditions, I don't know of any greater problem among the people of God today. than the relationship between young and old.
Now, I suppose I'm on the latter category at the present time. I've been a Christian now for fifty years. I don't like to feel like that. It depends on how I'm feeling. If I'm feeling well, sometimes I feel as if it was about twenty-one. And I know the time when I'm feeling a little bit darned, get down in the dumps, I feel as if it was about eighty. Actually, I'm neither. But in any case, I have a tremendous lot of sympathy for young people today. You know, they're up against problems that we never had when we went to school. And everywhere we go today, we find young people that are disturbed and confused in their minds.
Again, it would be so easy to tell stories about this. Everywhere we go today, even in the homes of God's people, young people that hear these terrible theories, that are being propagated in the academic world today, they're being upset and confused, and many of them are completely losing their faith on drifting away from God. I was at a conference just before I came here, and there's a dear brother there. He came to me with the tears running down his face, and he told me about his second boy that had just graduated from college. And he came to his father, and he says, Dad, he said, I don't believe there's a God. That boy was in fellowship and in assembly. And before he went to college, he took part in the meeting, stand up in the Lord's day and open the Word of God.
And after his four years in college, when he come out, he said, Dad, I don't believe there's a God at all. And the poor father was completely heartbroken. Now, this is the kind of thing that our young people are up against today. And I think we have to recognize that. And all the need there is today for sympathy from older men that maybe have gone through this experience themselves. to sit down with these young people and counsel and try to help them and put the other side of the picture before them because there is very much another side of the picture on the other hand the older folk they say well you know i don't know what's coming to over young people today forty years ago we never did this and we never did that and we never did the other thing and when we hear some of the language that they use and some of the things that they do they're completely horrified But then if you're talking to the young folk, they say, you know, the older folk today and the word they use, this jargon that they use today, they're not able to communicate.
They don't communicate with us. And what do they mean by that? Well, we don't talk their language. On the kind of language and the slang that they use today, we absolutely refuse to use language of that kind. I have no sympathy at all with the language that's being used by them today. And when they talk about not being able to communicate, well... That kind of thing, it irritates me no end. But on the other hand, this friction between young and old, I believe, is one of the greatest problems that we have in our assemblies today. What's the remedy for it? What is the remedy for it? We get it right here. And if we could only learn the lesson, both the younger and the older. If we could only learn the lesson that we get here, and the lesson that was taught Peter in John chapter thirteen, be clothed with humility.
Girred yourself with a slave apron. Be clothed with humility, for God he resisteth abroad, and he giveth grace to the humble. But oh, the need there is today for mutual sympathy between young and old. Now, when we look at the Bible, we find that these difficulties disappear like the morning cloud if we only follow the principles that we get in the Bible. Older men like Paul and younger men like Timothy. This is a principle, an older man and a younger man. working graciously together. I think I've told you more than once that I went to Africa when I was twenty-one. And in those days the old pioneers were still alive. And I had the very great privilege of serving my apprenticeship in the work of the Lord with older men.
I remember them all. There's not one of them left today. They've all gone home to be with the Lord. But the very memory of those dear men is a benediction. We never thought of criticizing them. We never thought of saying that we couldn't communicate, but those men, they knew their book, they knew the Bible, they loved the Lord, and they were very sympathetic to younger workers. Oh, I hope I've learned that lesson too. As we get older, young people, sometimes they make mistakes and sometimes they say things in the meeting that possibly we'd be inclined to criticize. But I hope that we do what Aquila and Priscilla did instead of rebuking them publicly from a platform.
to invite them out for a meal. Invite them to your home. And while you're sitting with them at the table, just instruct them in the way of the Lord more perfectly. And do it in a gracious way. And I think if we do, I think that some of these difficulties that we have among us today can be resolved. Paul and Timothy. Oh, if we had only more men like Paul, I believe we would have more men like Timothy. And if you had only more men like Timothy among us today, what a wonderful, wonderful blessing it would be for the people of God. So here is the God of all grace for the servant. The God of all grace for the shepherd. At the beginning, here is the God of all grace for the servant. Now look at the third one.
This lovely little verse in the center of the chapter. Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. You know, as I look at this passage, immediately it just flashes before my mind the situation that we find in Mark chapter four. You remember the disciples are in the little boat and the Lord said, let's go over to the other side. And while they're toiling and rowing and going over to the other side, the storm blows up and the waves come over the side into the little boat. And it looks as if it's going to be swamped and read that the Lord, he lay with his head upon a pillow. on the thwart of the little boat and he was fast asleep.
And they came and they awoke him and they said, Careless thou not that we perish? Don't you care that we're going to the bottom? And immediately he awoke and he rebuked the storm and the sea and immediately there was a great care. Now the word that's used here for care cares casting all your care upon him for he cares for you. It's taken from Mark chapter four. Careless or not that we perish, of course he cared. And Peter is passing it on here. He said, casting all your care upon him because he cares for you. I never read this passage, but I think of an incident that happened at the end of the last war over in Africa.
And this passage of Scripture was burned into the heart and core of my being at that time. So it was a whole year. We were over in Angola during the war at the height of the war when we didn't receive any mail. There were circumstances that caused that. I'm not going to go into the details about it. But in any case, there was a year, nineteen forty-one, at the height of the war, when mail was not coming through. There was a young woman at that time working with us. Her name was Grace Smith. She was an English girl from Portsmouth in the south of England, and a most gracious godly girl. She was doing the schoolwork at Kapanga, where we were living.
But during that year, she discovered that she had a physical condition that needed attention. It was a serious condition. But the fact that no mail was coming through, she kept it to herself. I should say that during the eleven months, when mail didn't arrive, that we never missed a meal. And not only that, but we didn't go into debt for one brown penny to anybody. Our dear native brethren at that time were awfully good. Oh, you talk about race relations. You know, we love the people over there. And in those days when they realized just what was happening, well, we realized the love and affection of our beloved African brethren.
We didn't miss a meal and we didn't win the debt for a penny. But in any case, there was eleven months when supplies from the outside was not coming through. And then we got it all in a heap. I remember one night there was an African turned up at the door with a great big bag on its head tied with a piece of string and sealed with sealing wax. We had a whole year's mail in a heap. And we brought the bag in and we cut it open and we tumbled the letters out on the floor and we sorted them out and we didn't go to bed that night at all. We sat all night and we read our mail. Some news was good news and other was not so good. But we had a wonderful time that night reading our mail. And the next morning, Grace came to my wife and she told her what she had discovered during the year.
And my wife came and told me. And immediately I said, well, now, we'll not delay a single hour. We'll just go and we'll find the surgeon, we'll find the doctor. And about fifty miles away, there was a man called Dr. Strangway, a Canadian, a very fine surgeon, and we went to consult Dr. Strangway. And as soon as he saw and heard what the condition was, he said, we'll not delay a single day. He said, we'll have an operation right away. He asked us to be present. And as soon as he started to operate, it was perfectly obvious that it was a very serious condition. He did what he called a radical operation. And after it was over, now he said, when grace is able, we'll send her down to South Africa for radium treatment.
Well, she went down there. And after a few treatments, she came back again. The doctors down there, the medical fraternity, they wrote a letter and sealed it and gave it into her hand and told her to go back to Angola. And she came back. And the letter was addressed to Dr. Strangley. When he opened the letter, he could see that the disease was terminal. He turned around to me, now he said, we'll leave Grace here for a day or two. And I said, when I'm absolutely sure of our diagnosis, then he said, we'll tell her. After a few days, there was no doubt about it at all. And I never forget that day when we went in. The doctor and myself. The doctor put his arm around her shoulder. He said, Grace, in a little while, he said, you're going to see the king and his beauty.
You're going to be with the Lord. She burst into tears. And she turned around to me. She said, please take me home. Well, now home to her was a little cottage at Capango where she lived. And my wife and I had the very great privilege of taking care of Grace for the last six weeks of her life. I asked the doctor, how long do you think it'll be? Oh, well, he said maybe three months. He said it can't be any longer than that. But instead of three months, it was exactly six weeks. And my wife and I had the privilege of taking care of her day and night, taking turns. It came to the last day. It was a Saturday. And Grace sent for me in the morning. I went into the room and she said, Would you please read to me?
I said, Grace, what shall I read? Or she said, You'll know. And I just opened my Bible at random and my book opened at the passage that I've read this morning. And I started to read it. And when I came down to this verse, Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. She lifted her hand. She said, What does that mean? Well, I said, Grace, the way I feel about it is this. There are two words for care here. And the first one is a plural word. It means anxiety. It means anxious care. And the second word is a singular word. It's an entirely different word. And the way it appeals to me is this. Casting all your anxiety. Your anxious care. I said, your care could be anything.
It could be financial. It could be domestic. It could be anything at all. God says, casting all your anxious care upon me, for he cares for you. Your care could be anything, but God has only one care. And that care is you. He cares for you. I could see a smile coming over her face. I said, wow, she said, that's a lovely pillow. I had a little word of prayer with her, and I left the room and went out, went to my work. A little while afterwards, just as the sun was going down on that lovely Saturday evening, my wife sent for me. She said, Grace is going. and I went back into the room and I was just in time to see her pass away to go with the Lord.
I went out and I worked all night and we made a coffin, just a plain wooden casket. And the next morning Walter Gammon and I, we carried it into the room and we put our body in the casket. And that afternoon we had a meeting, we had a funeral service with about two thousand Africans and I think fourteen white men were there, Portuguese officials and traders, and we had a very lovely funeral service. And on the Sunday afternoon, we carried her down to the African forest, where four other missionaries are buried, and we laid her there until the daybreak, and the shadows flee away. You think I can ever forget this verse?
Casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. My beloved friend, I don't know what your care is this morning. your anxious care. It could be anything at all. But oh, how delightful this is. He cares for you. He is only one care, and that care is you. There are several other things about the verse here that one would like to talk about this morning, but I just pass it on. It's directed to the storm taught. Don't you care that we perish? Don't you care that we're going to the bottom? Of course he cares. He cares for you. And whatever the situation in life is that we may have, he cares for us. Now, the next one, our time is gone.
We'll just have to be brief in closing. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Be sober, be vigilant. Keep awake. Isn't you referring here to Gethsemane? Here is the seduce. While he was in Gethsemane, and the Lord was upon his face on the ground, sweating as it were, great drops of blood, Peter was fast asleep. He was fast asleep, and he little realized that the devil is a roaring lion. He was walking about, seeking whom he may devour.
But thank God is the God of all grace for the seduce. And poor Peter, he was brought back again very gently by the Lord himself. and restored the communion with him. And then the final one. But the God of all grace, who have called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while. Now there are two little alterations here that the revised version gives, and I think they're delightful. I just want to mention it. But the God of all grace, who have called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a little while, The revised version introduces the little word little while and then himself.
Make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And these four words that Peter uses, every one of them is taken from his own experience. Our time has gone and we're not going to talk about them this morning, but there are four delightful words here that form the foundation of the Christian life. The first one is perfect. The second one is, establish, strengthen, settle you. And this is the four-fold foundation, the basic foundation of a Christian life. And it's the God of all grace who's responsible for putting us in this position. May God bless his word for his name's sake.