If you wish to follow along,
turn to Galatians chapter two. Galatians chapter two and four.
Somewhat of a context, I will read the first 10 verses. Galatians
chapter two and verse one. Of course, Paul is continuing
his letter. But he wrote, then 14 years after, I went up again
to Jerusalem with Barnabas. and took Titus with me also.
And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel
which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were
of reputation lest by any means I should run or had run in vain.
But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled
to be circumcised. And that because of false brethren,
unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty,
which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into
bondage. To whom we gave place by subjection,
know not for an hour that the truth of the gospel might continue
with you. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me. God accepteth
no man's person. For they who seem to be somewhat
in conference added nothing to me. But contrarywise. When they
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, and the
gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, for he that wrought
effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas, and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace of God that was given
unto me, they gave unto me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship,
and that we should go unto the heathen and then to the circumcision. Only they would that we should
remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do. Now before I began in earnest
on my message, let me say that this passage, whether it's in
the English or in the Greek, is a little, these 10 verses,
a little difficult because it sounds as if Paul was almost
not finishing what he meant to say. And I know that's a bad
way for me to put it. But let me try to move this context
into context for us. I'm paraphrasing, Paul basically
said, I heard that there was a problem in Jerusalem, and I
went there to see what was going on. And when he got there, Paul
realized that there were false brethren there coming in to spy
out our liberty, which we have in Christ, but there was a specific
reason. They were there to bring us into
bondage, but this did not happen. Paul says Titus was not compelled
to be circumcised. And when these men began to speak
forth, Paul said they had nothing to say. I'm paraphrasing again.
They had nothing to say. But contrary wise, what happened?
Because Paul was so firm for the gospel that these men were
silenced. Then they find out, these men
see who? They see Titus. They see Peter,
I'm sorry, James, Cephas, and John giving them the right hand
of fellowship. So their whole purpose, the whole
purpose of these infiltrators was foiled by God. And there's
a word here that the Apostle Paul uses to indicate this, but
contrary wise. You see that word? But contrary
wise. My title for this message this
morning is A God Wrought Contrarywise, because that's what happened
here. Now, the Apostle Paul was at the center of it all, but
it's because God moved the Apostle Paul not to give one inch concerning
the truth of the gospel. Now this one thing lets us know,
no matter if it's one person or two people or three people,
always stand fast for the gospel. But to the message now. The word
contrarywise. Now, I agree and I understand
that it is not a word used very much in our day to day, but the
word contrarywise equals this. And it's quite simple. There's
nothing profound about it. It's on the contrary. or the
exact opposite. That's what the word would mean.
And this is what Paul's saying. These men come in to bring us
into bondage, but the exact opposite happened. Do you see that? The
exact opposite happened. Now it's used three times in
scripture. That is this word translated
contrary wise into English. And it's used three times in
the Greek New Testament. And I wanna read the other two.
And you can turn there if you wish just to see how the word
is used. 2 Corinthians chapter two. Remember,
it's only used three times. But I'll have more to say about
that in a moment. 2 Corinthians chapter two and verse five. And most people, most commentators
feel that this person, This individual that the Apostle Paul is going
to mention here in 2 Corinthians chapter five is the same one
he mentioned over in 1 Corinthians who had taken his father's wife
to be his wife. But anyway, look at what he says,
verse five. But if any have caused grief,
he hath not grieved me, but in part, that I may not overcharge
you all. I don't know, some of you may
have experienced this, and I see it on occasion, that when someone,
let's say someone messes up at work, they give this universal
chewing to everybody. You ever experienced that? It's
not you, it's not your coworkers right around you, but someone
down the hall screws up royally, as we say, and they give everybody
a chewing. rather than taking it to the
person who did the wrong in dealing with them. Well, this is what
Paul's saying here. Lest I overcharge you all. In other words, not everyone
is at fault here. But let me go on. Look, sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many.
Now, if it is the man mentioned in 1 Corinthians, Paul told them
to do what concerning him? If he was unrepentant, put him
out from away from among you. That's what he said to do. Now,
exactly what happened, we don't know. So let us not speculate,
Jack, as to what happened. But something happened, they
did something, and this person, if it's the same person, but
even if it's not, it's still valid, this person had a turnaround,
had repented. Now look, as sufficient to such
a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many, so that,
now you see the word, contrary wise. So that contrary-wise,
ye ought rather to do what? Just keep hammering him? Well,
he done screwed up once, we gotta keep an eye on him, right? He
done messed up once, we gotta watch this person. But contrary-wise,
ye ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps
such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. And that's just, I'm not even
gonna deal with that. That's where the word's used.
It's also used by Peter, 1 Peter chapter three. Turn there if
you're following along. 1 Peter chapter three. And I will try to kind of tie
this in in a moment. 1 Peter chapter three, I think it's just
mainly one verse. 1 Peter chapter, yes. 1 Peter chapter
three and verse nine. Now, of course, we're coming
into the middle of a thought here that Peter's given us instruction
concerning our conduct and our walk in this world. In verse
nine, he says this, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for
railing, but contrary-wise, do the opposite. Do what? But, blessing. Knowing that ye are there unto
called, that ye should inherit a blessing. So, we see in these
three passages, in Galatians 2, it's a little convoluted,
whether it's the Greek language, the Greek text, or in the English,
it's a little convoluted, but what is being said when they
say contrary wise is, whatever was originally the intent, Now
the exact opposite is to take place, or is taking place. Simple
enough. And the reason I say that is
because I want you to understand I'm not trying to take the word
contrary-wise and establish some doctrine. For instance, as an
example, we have the words in the Bible, justification. reconciliation,
redemption, and on and on. These words establish a particular
doctrine, a specific truth. I'm not saying this word contrarywise
does that. I'm just talking about this,
a God wrought contrarywise, and we'll look at that just in a
moment. Now, while the word is only used three times in the
New Testament, there are many acts of contrarywise. And just
a little lesson, so contrary wise is both singular and plural. Just like we don't say dear and
dears, we say dear. So contrary wise can be singular
or it can be plural. But what I'm saying is there
are many contrary wise acts of God. things that God Almighty
works in this world to bring about the exact opposite of what
men are trying to bring about. Now that may sound simple enough,
and I suppose that in certain aspects it is simple enough,
but as we look at some of these God wrought contrary wise, we
will see that this is profound. Think about it, let me give you
some examples. I'm gonna give them some titles,
these contrary wise. I want us to see a backfire contrary
wise. First of all, that's in our text.
These men snuck in. They slithered in, as Jude puts
it, unawares. They came in privately to spy
out our liberty, and Paul makes it clear as to their reason.
Their main goal was to do what? Bring us into bondage. But it
didn't happen. Why? Because somebody stood for
the truth of the gospel. Now, In our text we see this,
the legalizers sought a check on gospel liberty. They were
wanting to shut gospel liberty down. And they may have had some
valid reasons. And even Paul acknowledges one
of these valid reasons in this letter, because he warned our
brothers and sisters in the region of Galatia, and he warns us,
use not your liberty, what? For an occasion to the flesh. Why? Because we are prone to. You know, people used to say,
well, if I believed that, I'd sit all I want. Well, you're
right, you would. And even believers, if they start
believing the truth in the flesh, they will then feed their flesh. They'll use the liberty we have
in Christ to feed the flesh and not honor God and his gospel
and his people. So we see here this backfire.
These men came to what? Bring into bondage. And what
happened? Liberty just continued to usher
forth. So much so that here, Peter,
James and John gave Paul and Barnabas what? The right hand
of fellowship. So these legalizers sought a
check on gospel liberty. They wanted to shut it down.
It's dangerous. No, it's not dangerous when the
spirit of God moves. But it is dangerous if it's in
the flesh. And I have much more to say about
that, God willing, later. So they're here to put a check
on gospel liberty. But they were frustrated by God
moving our brother Paul to vehemently defend gospel liberty. Now listen to me. It's not the
logic of an argument that makes the difference. It is the clearly
spoken word of truth that makes the difference. And I say this
again, and God willing, I'll try to get into it in detail
later, if we're all here that long. I know this because I've been
there. You've been called to liberty. You're called to it. It's not just something special,
Jack. This is what we're called to, liberty in Christ. But because we are still what
we are in the flesh, we must be constantly warned. Only use
not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh. I'll do what I
want. And then when everything works out fine, we think everything's
fine. And it's just not so. And we will see examples of that
as we move on. So we have this backfire contrary-wise,
where a certain group of men were trying to do one thing,
but God wrought a what? Contrary-wise, but there's another
one. Now turn to Romans chapter five. Romans chapter five. And I'm gonna give all of these
contrary wise titles or a word to describe them. And I think
as soon as I say it, you'll kind of have an idea of where I'm
going with this. Now, first of all, we've seen
this backfire contrary wise, but now there is a overpowering
contrary wise, wrought by God in light of even sin and sinfulness. Now, do you hear what I'm saying?
This religious world does not want to be honest with people.
They try to make sin and sinfulness to be some kind of accident in
God's universe. And I'm here to declare that
it is not. Our sovereign God could have
kept the tree of the knowledge of good and evil out of the garden. Our God, our sovereign God could
have restrained Adam and Eve from eating of the fruit of that
tree, but he did not. Why? Because God has something
to manifest in this world. Now look at it, again I said
it, there is an overpowering contrary wise, wrought by God
in light of sin and sinfulness, Romans 5 verses 15 through 20. But not as the offense, Now this
is odd language, and I've already dealt with this, so I'm not gonna,
I dealt with this when we was in Romanism, so I'm not gonna
go back into detail with it. But not as the offense, now look,
so also is the free gift. There's a phrase we use, it's
the same but different, you ever use it? It seems like it's the
same but different, it's kinda what Paul's getting at here.
But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through
the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and
the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded
unto many. Could this gift have abounded
without sin? Without the first offense? Without
the first problem, Jack? No, no. Now, people say, well,
but you can't talk like that. I just did. And this is exactly
what Paul's saying, okay? Let's go on. And not as it was
by one that sinned, so is the gift. See, that's still kind
of complexing language, but this is a complex subject, folks.
This is something that God, the eternal sovereign God, It ain't
thought up. Purposed in his own mind, Ellen,
before even the world began. And us puny little finite creatures
cannot get a true grasp of it. We think the best way for good
to happen is to keep all evil out, right? Right? But God did not do that. He did
not do that. And this is exactly, I'm paraphrasing,
this is exactly what Paul's saying here. So again, and not as it
was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was
by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses,
do you see it? Offenses unto justification. What need would there have been
for justification without the offense? Do you see that? Now, let's go on. Now, I understand
this seems a little convoluted language, but it's the spirit
of God, Tommy, giving a finite man words to write down, whether
we can wrap our puny little minds around it or not. But this dark
spot we're looking at, what seems like a dark, difficult spot,
this enigma we're looking at is going to be opened up a little
as the spirit continues to move, Paul. So let's go on. Four, if
by one man's offense death reigned by one, Much more, they which
receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. What is going on? Therefore,
see, he's getting further. He's explaining it, giving more
detail. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, Even so,
by the righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men
unto justification of life. Do you see it? There's a word
that men use, it's called representation. Now think of it. If each of us had to fall on
our own, we each would have had to have a different representative. Do you see what he's saying?
But since one man sinned and cast the whole world into evil
and darkness, wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world,
and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. That's already
established in verse 12. So now he's saying, therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon men to condemnation.
Since we failed in a representative, God says, I will redeem you by
a representative. Do you see it? God's not gone
out of bounds with his wisdom. He's not went contrary to anything. He's still working according
to the same order. We fail in a representative,
we fail in a substitute, now there is redemption in a representative
and in a substitute. We would have never come up with
something like that. Again, I say, our thoughts are
what's the best way to have good? Avoid evil altogether. But let's go on, we're not done.
Let me read 18 again. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one. Do you see it? Of one, the free
gift came upon all men and the justification of life. For as
by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. God didn't ask you and I our
permission about it, our thoughts about it. We did not even exist. God ordained it this way because
God says, hands off, this is my purpose, not our purpose. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, now we're seeing God working on that same
level, that same plane, you see it? That same wisdom. So by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Now he's gonna give us a little
bit more explanation. We're still not gonna grasp this. You're still not gonna say, oh,
I got it, because you ain't God. and I'm not God, but look, moreover,
the law entered, not that the offense might be put down. Do
you see it? Do you understand what I'm saying? Not that the offense might somehow
be conquered by the law, no, moreover, the law entered that
the offense might what? Abound, you see it? It's made worse by the very thing
God gave. But God is not to blame because
the law is not the problem. The problem's here. I've heard
another use this illustration before. I've used it before,
I'll use it again. You know that stinking, rotting,
dead carcass you smell on the side of the road? The sun that
comes out in the day and heats that thing up, just accentuates
the filth and the corruption of that carcass. But it's not
the son's fault. It's the fault with the dead,
rotting carcass. The fault's not with God's holy,
righteous law. The fault's with us. But he gave
the law to say, here's how bad they really are. You see? Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. And we can maybe say, okay, well,
I can understand that a little. Right? But, where sin abounded,
now here's the contrary wise, but where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. You see, somebody says explain
it. No, I just preaching it. Believe God. See, our problem
is we are so analytical. We think we're so smart. I can
figure this out. You can't figure it out. Just
believe what God says about it. I can't make sense of this. Wouldn't
it have been best just to leave the tree out of the garden? No,
not if God is to manifest abounding grace. Wouldn't it have been
better just to leave the law out of it so we really didn't
know how bad we are, just try to do the best we can? No! God's intent on showing us how
corrupt and nasty and stinking we really are. But think about
it, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Now Jack, if that's not a contrary
wise, I don't know what is. If it's not, opposites are confusing,
are they not? When you've got two opposite
things, but then God does what? Brings them like this. Now, not
like this necessarily, but like this. And God puts them right
one up against the other. I don't understand how those
fit. God didn't ask us to understand it. He says, believe me concerning
it. believe the record I gave of my son. Why? That as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, to deny what
Paul is just, the conflict of it. The difficulty of it, the
enigma of it, is to deny the reality and the glory of Jesus
Christ himself. That's another thing. Now, think
of this. In all of these, we see, and
we will see, God working by his wisdom. Now listen to me. I know so-called preachers today
of the Bible don't want to say things like this. If they're
honest at all and they read this book, they know these contrary
whys are there, they just don't ever want to mention them. They
don't want to talk about them. Think about it. In all of these,
the two I've mentioned so far, the couple, two or three more
that I will mention, and this Bible's full of them. It's full
of contrary wise. It's full of Jack God coming
in and God using what's going on to bring about an exact opposite
of what those who were doing the deed meant to accomplish.
That's full of it. Now think of it, in all of these,
we see and we will see God working by his wisdom and his power for
the good of his elect. using even the sinful acts of
humanity to bring it to pass. And that's when the religionist,
the legalist, I should say, says, well, you're giving people license
to sin. I will say it, and I know it'll
be misunderstood. God gave men license to sin when
he put that tree in the garden and said, now, you eat it or
you don't eat it. Huh? There it is. And think of it, Adam didn't
have another woman to run around with. He didn't have a beer joint
to avoid. He didn't have dope to try to
avoid. He had one command, don't eat of the fruit of that tree.
And in his perfect state, his upright state, what did he do?
He ate with his wife. Now you wanna talk about confusing,
that's us. That's us. Now, here's one who
had communion with God before, just this. And I don't know it
happened like this, so don't come to me later and say, you
don't know that he read you up and picked one, or maybe I did. Don't give
me that. When he took that fruit, and
he bit of that fruit, he plunged us all into eternal darkness. And that, think of, that's all
he did. And before that act, he had perfect
communion with God. Now, even a rational, even a
rational creature would say, whoa, I'm naked. What have I done? Bow down and
say, oh God, forgive me, right? What did Adam and Eve do? When
they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the cool of the
day, they ran and hid. But they ran and hid, but they
had clothes on now. They had fashioned to themselves
their own clothing to cover their nakedness. But here's the point.
Outward, overt deeds never cover what we really are in here. And yet, God said these, you
talk about a contrary wise, Adam, wherefore art thou? He wasn't
looking for information. He is forcing Adam to confess. Aren't you glad God forced you
to confess? Well God didn't force me, well
then you've never been there. You've never been there. Okay,
let's go on. Turn to Genesis chapter 45. We're
gonna look at just a few more examples. And I'm gonna try to tie this
all in together, God willing, here in a little bit. I know,
I've been there. I was one of them. And by nature,
I'm still one of them. I know even after I give us these
examples, I know the excuses that legalistic religionists
still come up with, and I'll give you a couple of them. So
remember, in all these things we see, we will see God working
by his wisdom and his power for the good of his elect, even using
the sinful acts of men to do it. So in Genesis chapter 45,
we read of a contrasting contrary wise wrought by God in the evil
actions of evil wicked men. Look at it, Genesis 45 and verse
three. And Joseph, now you all know
the account of this, so I'm not gonna go back and give context.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Now can you imagine
what that was like, huh? I am Joseph. Does my father yet
live? Now this is, I understand, I
said well this is, what they do is a natural reaction. Yes
it is. It is. But remember, God calls
natural action what? Corrupt action. Fallen action. Even though it's natural. You
know, people say well that's natural for me. That don't make it right.
It don't make it right. It's natural for a dog to throw
up and eat its own vomit. But Peter says that's not a good
place to be, is it? And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And his brethren could
not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. I understand
why, don't you? They're on the spot now. And
this is not just a casual meeting in Egypt one day at the local
meat shop. This man's standing second only
to Pharaoh himself. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. I could see the fury just shoot
out the roof, don't you? I could see that lump in the
throat and that heart, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Joseph
said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. They
came near. They had no other choice. They
knew they had no other, run, yeah, where you gonna run to,
huh? And he said, I am Joseph, your
brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. He's being nice to them. You
understand that, don't you? He's being nice to them. They
wanted, all but one of them wanted him dead. and would have had
him dead had God not moved in a contrary wise to have one brother
say, no, let's not do that. Let's just sell him or put him
in the pit and starve him and sell him into slavery. You see
it? Aren't you glad God hadn't just give you a list of how bad
you really are and say, here's all your real problems? We're
still reading through this book looking at our real problems,
aren't we? Ain't even discovered them all yet. We couldn't take
it all at one time, could we? Look, but now look, whom ye sold
into Egypt. Now therefore, be not grieved. Do you see that? Huh? Be not grieved, it's time for
a whooping. It's time for these boys to be punished, right? Yes,
if all you want's pure justice. But if you're intent on showing
grace, hmm? That's a contrary wise, right?
Look, now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves. You know, that's what God tells
us. But we're still so consumed with ourselves, even in seeing
our corruption, we still, well, I just wanna feel how bad I am.
I'm such a great sinner, oh. God said don't, what did he say?
Don't be angry with yourself. Look at it. Why? That ye sold
me hither for God. Do you see that? For God did
send me before you to preserve life. He said, God's in this
thing. Somebody said, I can't figure that out. Don't try. Just
believe it. That's the whole problem. We
think, I still sometimes think I can educate men and women into
the truth, just put everything in a good order, have it all
laid out, have it logical and reasonable, and people can just
receive it. No. They might receive facts,
but they can't love who God is. Apart from just the revelation
that says, you know, I don't understand that at all, but that's
who God is and I believe him. Look at it. Therefore, be not
grieved or angry with yourself that you sold me thither, for
God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two
years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there shall
be five, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest,
He still gives God the credit for it all. Huh? You're making God the author
of sin? No, I'm making God the sovereign of the universe. And
that's not even right. I'm declaring him to be who he
actually is. I'm not making him to be anything.
Strike that, make him anything. God sent me before you to preserve
you, a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives with a
great deliverance. And some say, but preacher, you're
pushing your own spin on this. Okay, okay, I'm pushing my own
spin, but look at what Joseph then said near the end of the
book. Turn to Genesis chapter 50 now. I'm here to declare this morning
concerning this truth of a God wrought contrary wise. I'm here
to declare that their purpose, their evil, that same evil God
purposed as a blessing And this is exactly what Joseph said.
Why can't Joseph believe God? This boggles my mind, Tommy.
He understood this and didn't have a lick of Bible. Not a lick
of Bible. Why, because God teaches you
the truth by experience. But aren't you glad you have
the Bible now? Therefore your experiences can be held in check.
Now look at what Joseph said, let me find my spot. Genesis
50, just a couple verses. Verse 19, and Joseph said unto
them, fear not, for I am in the place of God. But as for you,
now think of it, think of the phrase, what he said here. But
as for you, ye thought evil against me, and they did. I mean, had
it not, again, had it not been for God just checking one brother's
mind, they would have killed him, Ellen. They just slaughtered
him, just murdered him. Joseph said to them fear not
I'm in the place of God, but as for you ye thought evil against
me But God meant it unto good He didn't say God turned it for
good Though we can say that's true But Betsy, it's deeper than
God just turning it for good. God meant it. Do you see it? This is what God
thought. This was God's purpose. This
was God's will. You see, even their evil acts,
especially their evil habits, But as for you, you thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as
it is this day, to save much people alive. And I say, one
of those days is gonna come when Christ winds this whole thing
down and this world's gonna be made to confess God did all of
that for his glory and the good of that people he just saved.
They're gonna be made to confess that. They're gonna realize that
everything they did in this world, God was manipulating them. I
heard one preacher say that a few years back, and I love that he
manipulates us. He manipulated Satan. Go ahead,
do all this to him, but you have a limit you cannot cross. Didn't
he not? The arch enemy himself. There's another contrary wise,
I don't even have that one dimension to me. You think, think of it. Is not such a contrasting contrary
wise an act of our God in the redemption of souls? Isn't that
exactly what God did when he saved us? He used the evil acts
of men to hang the Messiah, the Son of God, on the accursed tree. Right? And what happened by His
Christ's act on that tree? We were redeemed from our sin
and our sins. Turn to Acts, you know this,
Acts chapter two. I'm trying to wind this down
now. Acts chapter two, no doubt a very familiar passage to all
of us here. Acts chapter two, verse 22. This is Peter speaking, ye men
of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know. Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Ye have taken and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain. And somebody says, but that's,
I don't know, that's confusing language. Well, let's unconfuse
it. Is that a true word? Let's unconfuse
it. Listen to what the disciples
all together later said. Look at Acts chapter four. And
verse 23, Acts 4 and 23, some of the disciples were put in
prison, they were let go, it says, and being let go, they
went to their own company and reported all that the chief priests
and elders had said unto them. And when they heard that, that
is the people who hadn't been locked up, received this word
from them, and when they heard that, they lifted up their voice
to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God. Oh, that
God would move men and women to start saying that, you're
God. not just in title, but in act. Thou art God, which hath
made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is,
who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, why did the
heathen rage and the people imagine vain things? The kings of the
earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against
the Lord and against his Christ. For of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered, what?
What? Together. Look, now here it is. For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. That don't make God
the author of sin, that makes God the absolute sovereign of
the universe. And don't you worry about, don't
be afraid of using the exact language of scripture. Yes, the
human mind, the flesh, the unregenerate will question mark it. Yes, they'll
throw up all kinds of problems, but don't be afraid to say, thus
saith the Lord. Look, and now Lord, behold their
threatenings. Kind of lessens their threatenings
down a little, don't it? If he was in absolute control
of what they did to the master himself, now, Lord, behold their
threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
they may speak thy word. If they kill us, Ellen, all they've
done is send us all to glory. If they persecute us and harm
us physically, all they'll do is make it more, and I know this
is not the best way to say it, but make it more real for us
when we get to glory and say, that was nothing. That was nothing. This is a contrasting contrarywise. Now there are many more. I understand
that there are many more. And many of these God-wrought
contrarywise, listen to me, we probably never, ever recognize. I'm trying to bring this home
now, put some shoe leather on. A lot of this has just been facts,
right? Truth, yes, but facts. But folks, I have no doubt that
God works contrary-wise in our lives constantly, and we, Jack,
don't even recognize it. Don't even recognize it. And
I'm sure we all could give examples of things we did recognize, where
we had one thing in mind, we were doing, doing, doing, and
all of a sudden, the exact opposite came to pass. And we realized
that was the best after all. Huh? Because remember, it's not
your will. It's not my will. It's not what
I want. It's what God decrees. And that's
what's gonna happen to our good, if we're His, or to our condemnation,
if we're not. Think of it. It's no wonder. It's no wonder that Paul 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.
Even our sins, God will work to our good. But that does not
mean we are to revel in and engage in our sin. And somebody says,
I don't understand that. Quit trying to understand it.
Believe God concerning it, and realize your will's wrong, and
God's will's right, and your ways, my ways, are not his ways.
We haven't figured out what, well I know this is what God
would have me do, you don't, I don't know squat. Age four or five, and now there's
more, I'm not just, there's four of us here this morning that
never thought we'd be where we are today. In the circumstances
of our lives. Never thought of it. But you
know what, I thank God for it, Jack. As difficult it is for
everything you've went through up to this point, God has meant
it for your good. Don't try to figure it out. I
can see, you see old Mordecai said, man, there's Haman building
those gallows, and I know he's got it in for me. You remember
the story of Mordecai and Haman? Haman hated that old Jew Mordecai
more than any other Jew in the land. And having a gallows built
specifically for Mordecai. Now turn to Esther. And I think,
did I mark that one? No, I did not. Uh-oh, we're gonna
have to see who can find it first thing here. Where's Esther at?
Somebody help me. It's after Joshua. For Job. I want to read that
verse if it takes me 10 minutes to find it. I've got to read
that verse. I was supposed to mark that and
say I didn't do my job this morning. There it is. Thank you. Whoever,
Jody, was that the one? Somebody buy me a Bible with
little thumb tabs in it sometime. I'm just kidding. Don't do that.
Now turn to Esther chapter 7. And I'm going to tell you something. Mordecai was a creature just
like we are. Was he not? I'm sure he knew
that man hated him. But then look at what it says,
Esther chapter seven and verse 10. Now Haman built these, he had
these built for Mordecai and was conniving and working. under
the king to get Mordecai's neck in the noose. Wasn't he? Go back and read the whole book
of Esther's about that. So they hanged Haman. Haman,
he's the one that ended up with his noose in the neck. So they
hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Do you see that? Now, somebody
says, well does God always do that for us? Not always in that
manner. Because there are many God wrought contrary wise. Do you remember what the three
Hebrew boys said? They said you either, was it
Nebuchadnezzar? Said you bow down to the sound
of the music, you worship my gods, we're gonna cast you in
this fiery furnace. You know what they said? No,
we will not. Because our God will deliver us. But if he don't,
we still not gonna bow to your idols. Do you see that? If he
don't, well I know, I have this sneaking suspicion, Jack, that
they might not have knew it in these exact words. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. If they hurt me and kill me in
the end, they have done me a favor. They've done me a favor. And
I can't understand that right now. Somebody starts threatening
me, this old boy probably had chill bumps run all over. But
our God's able. Now I didn't close my Bible,
y'all thought I was through, and I did too, but I gotta find
this one thing I can say to you. Got ahead of myself. Now you
talk about a backfire when it comes to Mordecai and Hathor.
I guess it's probably the same rope Probably had that nice,
good rope. Same rope, same wood, same gallows. You see, our God assures us of
his sovereign right and his sovereign might to get to himself praise. this religious world's God is
just struggling to get somebody to let him have some kind of
glory. Is that not the facts or not? Am I building a straw
man on them? They're always talking about,
as one preacher stood here and said, he read a thing in the
paper and he said, it was the wantonness God. God wants this,
God wants you to do that. God would like to see this done,
God would like to see this happen. He says, the wantonness God you
ever heard of in your life. Religion, this is what religion,
I told you I'd give you this. This is what religion does. Well,
we know God does that on occasion. Right? Well yeah, on occasion,
God'll move into man's wheel. God'll move in and do things.
Turn to Psalm 76 and I'll show you, it's not on occasion. Matter
of fact, let me put it this strong. It's never on occasion with God. Never. Psalm 76. Now, you'd be turning it if you're
there. Psalm 76. It's never on occasion. You see,
God is not trying to reach into the events of time and then kind
of, it's starting to get out of kilter, so then he kind of
steers it back. It's going exactly as God has
ordained from before the foundation of the world, including the evil
acts of me and you and our enemies. And it's not, you know, God is
not piecemeal sovereign. He don't have spurts of sovereignty.
He is absolutely, all the time, eternally sovereign. And do I
have scriptures for that? We do. Psalm 76, verse 10. Surely, I love that. I used to
actually misquote that, Jack, and I used to say even. It ain't
even, it's surely. When I finally read it for what
it really, I said, that's even better than what I was thinking.
Surely the wrath of man, what does that say? Shall praise thee. Well, but you know, that's on
occasion, right? Spurt of sovereignty, he kind
of gets in there and infiltrates and kind of manipulates every
once in a while. Oh no, oh no. Surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath shalt
thou restrain. You see that? There's a lot of
things we would do, but it's not according to God's sovereign
purpose. You know what he does? He restrains it. They would have killed Christ
before he got to the tree. Do you hear me? But what did
God do? It wasn't his purpose. One time
he just kind of went incognito and just walked right through
them. They didn't even know he was there. Why? Because he had to die on
that tree. Because on dying on that tree,
he spared us from the corruption, and the curse, and the sin, and
the sins. Red, I can't figure that out.
But God says that's the way I did it. And I'm grateful to God for
it. I believe it with all I can.
And whatever belief I have, God gave it to me. And you too. Think about it. God rules even
over our enemies. See him? Our enemies. Out there,
see him? But I say he rules over our enemies.
See him? Look at him in the mirror every
morning when you get up and comb your hair and shave or fix your
makeup and everything, huh? He controls even this enemy. Our God rules even over our enemies
within and without. and he manipulates all things
to his praise and our spiritual good, whether we can see it and
understand it or not. Paul didn't say we understand
how all things, we just know that all things work together
for good. You know what he says? To them
who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose,
Heavenly Father, continually teach us, yes, Lord, teach us,
but remind us of these things. Some of these lessons are not
only hard taught, but we're just so incapable of truly comprehending
the lesson. But Lord, keep us believing.
Lord, force upon us your sweet, merciful, tender grace and compassion,
and make us to believe the record you gave this son in his name,
amen.