Turn with me now to Exodus 15. Exodus 15, let's read verses
6 to 8. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become
glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee. Thou sentest forth thy wrath,
which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils,
the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as in
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. With
the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together,
the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea. Turn over to Psalm 89. Psalm 89 verse eight says, O
Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy
faithfulness round about thee, thou rulest the raging of the
sea. When the waves thereof arise,
Thou stillest them. Thou rulest the raging of the
sea. When the waves thereof arise,
Thou stillest them. Turn over to Psalm 107. Psalm
107, verse 23. They that go down to the sea
in ships that do business in great waters, these see the works
of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and
raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. He commandeth. Turn to Jeremiah
31. Jeremiah 31 verse 35 says, Thus saith the Lord, which giveth
the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and
of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the
waves thereof roar. The Lord of hosts is His name.
Turn over to Matthew 8. Matthew 8, verse 23, it says, And when he was entered into
a ship, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose
a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with
the waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him
and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. And he saith
unto them, why are you so fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he
arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great
calm. But the men marveled, saying,
what manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey
him? After the Lord stuck his finger
in the Caribbean Sea last Tuesday, September the 24th, and formed
Tropical Storm Helene. And then on Wednesday, September
the 25th, with the blast of his nostril, He sped it up into Hurricane
Helene. And then with the guidance of
his hand, he sent it through the southeastern portion of this
country, bringing great devastation and great flooding like I did
not realize was even possible. I didn't even realize that kind
of flooding and devastation from a hurricane was even possible
here. After our God did that, not Mother Nature, not global
warming, not El Nino or La Nina, not bad fortune, not unluckiness,
after Jesus Christ, the Lord, Our God did that, seeing not
only the devastation and the distress that it put this part
of the country in, and not just the people of our communities,
I'm talking about brothers and sisters, our loved ones. After seeing all of this destruction,
we can't help but wonder, why? Now, if it was just Mother Nature,
and if it was global warming, or if it was La Nina, or one
of those reasons, we wouldn't wonder why. But it's the Lord. We just read
that it's the Lord. And we, and I include myself
in this, I also can't help but wonder why. We know that our
Lord has done it. That's not what the message is
about. That's established. Our Lord did it. We know that
our Lord did it. But what we don't know and what
we cannot understand is why. Why does our Lord do these things? I want to give us three scriptures
that will tell us why, and then I want to bring us to the focus
of this message. Something was just very heavily
laid on my heart because of all of this. I actually had a message
prepared for tonight, and it got bumped. This was just too
heavily laid on my heart. I want to end the message by
bringing our attention to it, bringing our hearts to it. Why
does our Lord do what he does? Why does our Lord do these things?
There are many reasons. There are many reasons. I got
to thinking about all of the reasons why our Lord could do
these things and there are many. I'm sure there are an infinite
number of reasons why our Lord does what he does. Who could
possibly know the mind of the Lord? Who could possibly understand
the mind of the Lord? But he has recorded three of
his reasons in his word and I want us to enter into these three
reasons because they will be a great blessing to us Because
of these three reasons, I have a message for us. So here's the
first one. Go to John 11. John 11 verse 1, now a certain
man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and
her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now doesn't our Lord control
sickness? Isn't all sickness in his hands
to give or to withhold? Didn't he say, I wound, I heal,
I the Lord do all these things? If he loved Lazarus, why would
he give Lazarus sickness? If he loved him, why would he
do that to him? Verse 3, Therefore his sister
sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. When Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Number one, everything
that our God does is for his glory. It's for his own glory. And even in all of this devastation,
we are glorifying him right now, aren't we? In all his works,
we glorify him. He said this sickness was for
the glory of God. That's the whole reason he got
sick. Everything that he does is number
one for his glory. Our Lord allowed the whole race
of his chosen people, Israel, to be taken into captivity and
into hard bondage for 430 years. They had to work and make bricks
and Why would He do that? Why would
He allow that? Why would He send His people,
His chosen people through that? If He loved those people and
if He really did choose those to be His special particular
people, why would He do that? This is what He said. He said,
I raised Pharaoh up for this purpose. that I might show my
power in him and through him. I allowed that for my glory. If he is glorified, can we not
say amen? If he is glorified, amen. Why did he make all of this in
the first place? Why did he make the heavens? for His glory. The heavens declare
His glory. The firmament shows His handiwork.
It's all for His glory. Number one, everything that our
God does. That ought to answer everything.
Why did that happen? Why would He do that? Here it
is, His glory. Okay, that's good enough for
me. That's enough. All of eternity is going to be
about His glory. all for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. That's the first reason.
And that's what we want. That's what we desire, that Jesus
Christ the Son might be glorified. Number two, go with me to Romans
8. Romans 8 verse 28 says, and we know that all things work
together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. Is that, you
know, I've told you so many times, it's just an epiphany to me.
Is that an epiphany to you? Every time I read that, it's, I know it's so. I don't understand
it, I believe it. But it's so, the second reason
why our Lord does everything that he does is our good. Our good. Why are our brother
and sister right now down in the middle of a war zone? Why are they sitting down there
right now with destruction all around them? Their good. The
good of all of God's people. Somehow, the good of His elect,
the good of His chosen, all things. And who does all things? Who
is it that's doing all things? Ephesians 1 says, the Lord Jesus
Christ, our God, does all things. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. And after the counsel of His
own will, all things work together for good, to them that love God,
to them that love God being God, to them that love God who actually
is God, to them that love the God who has the right to do this. Why did he do this? Well, he
has the right to do this. He sent that storm through a
sinful land, a sinful nation, a God neglecting, God hating. He has the right, He's God. He's
God. All things work together for
good to them that love God. To them who are the called, called
to the changed mind of the truth concerning him, concerning us. Called to bow the knee to Christ. You know that's what we're called
to do when we're called? We're called to bow the knee to Jesus
Christ. Called to love him for who he
is, love his sovereignty, love his finished work of salvation. To them who are called to find
all of their hope of salvation in the blood of His cross, called
to forsake all works of the flesh, turn to His works of righteousness
alone. To them, everything that He does
is for their good. Everything that He does is not
for the good of all men and women on earth, but to them, to them. Everything He does is for their
good. We look around at all this and think, how could all of this
be for our good? I've seen those. I've seen so
many videos now on on, you know, YouTube and the Weather Channel.
And who would have thought that Irwin, Tennessee would be so
famous around the world? I've had people call me from
different countries. We saw Irvin Irwin on the on
the Internet. Total devastation. How could
all that be for good? Honestly, I don't know. But it
is. If God says it is, it is. You
know everything that Joseph's brothers did to him. They were
jealous of him. They lied on him. They sold him. Imprisoned him. At the end of
it all, he said, you meant it for evil. God meant it for good. All of it turned out to be good.
It all turned out to be good. I've told you before about Brother
Henry, you know, getting to the end of his life and just so tired
of bad news. You would like to see some bad
news, turn on the TV or get on the internet or walk out of your
front door or look in a mirror. He's just so tired of bad news.
And it didn't matter what was told to him, he would answer
with, but it's good, right? How many times did he say that?
We were sitting in our kitchen one time. He and I were sitting
in our kitchen. How's work going? I had the store.
How's the store going? Oh, yes. But it's good, right? Not really. Mm-mm, no. No, I
just... But it's good. Well, you know,
here's the problem. The problem is... But it's good,
right? Yep. It's good. Great! Doris! Did you hear that? He said, work is going good.
I wish I could be like that. All things work together. What happened here is just a
little component, just a little piece of the whole puzzle. All
things work together for good. His glory Our good. Number three, hold your place
right here in Romans 8 and go over to Philippians 1. Philippians 1, Paul is writing
to the Philippians from prison. And he said in verse 6, the Lord
has begun a good work in you. Good. At the end of verse 11,
he said it's unto the glory and praise of God. His glory, our
good. Verse 12, he said, but I would,
you should understand brethren that the things which happened
unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. He said, what has happened to
me? My imprisonment, my being thrown in prison. He said, it
has happened to me for the furtherance of the gospel. the furtherance
of the message of the gospel. You say, well, how could Paul
being thrown into prison be for the furtherance of the gospel?
In verse 14, he said, this has made many other brethren step
up and start preaching. Verse 14, and many of the brethren
in the Lord waxing confident by my bonds are much more bold
to speak the word without fear. That's good. That's for his glory. and the good of God's people,
the furtherance of the gospel. Somehow, everything that God
does is for that gospel message taken one step further. It's for the spreading of the
message of the gospel, and it's for the calling out of His sheep
through that message. Somehow, a door of utterance
is going to be opened. and the Lord's own blessing. The Caesar Nero, have you ever
heard of the name Nero? Anybody ever said that? You know,
Nero, he was the Caesar. At that time, there were different
ones, different names, and he was the one who put Paul in that
prison for preaching the gospel. He put him in there for preaching
the gospel. He was known as the worst one of them all. He was
the most violent, vicious one of them all. He hated the gospel,
he hated Paul, so he locked Paul up in his prison trying to shut
Paul's mouth. But Paul kept on preaching and
Nero Caesar's family started listening to Paul and God saved
them. Look at Philippians 4 verse 22. All the saints salute you chiefly. They that are of Caesar's household,
chiefly. Most, the ones who are saying,
please greet the brethren the most, are the ones of Caesar's
household. Paul said this all turned out
to be good. For the furtherance of the gospel, to the calling
out of his people, all unto the glory of God, Everything that
happens is for the purpose of opening a door of gospel utterance. Everything that happens. It's
for the promotion of the message of the gospel. And what exactly
is the message of the gospel? Flip back to Romans 8. Here it is. Romans 8 verse 29
says, Whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son. Can you not wait for that? That He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified,
and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What shall we
then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That
is the message of the gospel. If anybody's ever wanted to hear
a gospel message, that was it. That was it. That is the message
of the gospel that brings glory to God and good to His people. That's the end result of all
things. All right, so with that being
said, turn with me now to our text, and we'll close with this. All right, let's finally make
it over to our text. Proverbs 3. This is this is where I started. This was always my text. It just
took me a little while to get to it. This is what was. Laid on my
heart and. This is what I want to focus
on. Leave here focused on Proverbs 3 verse 5. It says. Trust in
the Lord. With all thine heart. and lean
not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths. Even though we don't understand,
let's trust him. Let's trust him. Everything that
he's doing is for his glory, our good, and the salvation of
his sheep. Let's trust him even though there
are times that we cannot see how he would allow us to get
into the position we're in or how he could possibly get us
out of the position we're in. By his grace, let's just stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. Let's just stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord. Let's trust him. and his
mysterious ways. Let's do everything we can do
to help those in need, weep with those who weep. Let's be a good brother, a good
neighbor, a good friend, a good citizen. Let's do all those things.
And while we do it, let's just stand still, see the salvation
of the Lord. Let's acknowledge him in everything. I read this for our scripture
reading. He said right here in chapter three, it'll bring peace. It'll bring happiness. It'll
bring health. It'll bring wisdom. Lord, let us trust you in all
your works. Give us the grace to trust you. Oh, for grace to trust you more. That's what I pray he will produce
in us. Grace to trust him more. Amen.