As always, it is a delight to
be back here with you at Fairmont Church. Bobby, thank you for
this song. Thank you. There's a single statement in
the seventh chapter of Mark's gospel to which my heart and
mind often turns. I have preached from this passage
of scripture And this subject, I have no idea how many dozen
times, but it's been on my mind again much in the last few weeks. I have a lot on my heart and
mind, both in our own congregation and in churches around the world
for which I have some responsibility. A lot of things that cause me
care, pain, and distress. I have in recent years seen the
apostasy of a few with more pain than I can put
into words. The evils of this dark, dark
day are always in my face, on my mind. We have, as you know,
a good many sick friends in our congregation. We have three families
going through some tough times. I got a call from Brother David
Coleman. He's been down here. Most of
you know him. He's been sick for a long time
now, very sick. I got a call a couple of weeks
ago, and the doctors had finally put him on some medicine. And
he was crying with joy, and me too. When he got done, he said,
Brother Don, for the first time in two years, I don't have any
pain. And he'd been in pain a long time. Joe Crabtree, Brother Bruce's
wife, will soon leave this world. Darwin's wife, Kathy, will soon
leave as well. And we rejoice in God's goodness. We really do. We rejoice and
God's goodness to his saints when he takes them out of this
world. But we miss folks that are dear to us, and we hurt as
we watch them hurt. Heresy and snares are good many.
I'm getting to be a little older, and I just looked it up again
in Psalm 90. Days of your years, God allows
you to live 80 years. Strength will be labor and sorrow.
The older you get, contrary to what folks might think, the more
heaviness, the more weight, the more pain you bear as you deal
with other people in this world. So in recent weeks, God the Holy
Ghost has turned this text of scripture around in my heart
countless times. I've had it on my mind driving
down here yesterday and working on this all day today. It has
been a comfort to me. I pray it will be to you. If
you found your place in Mark chapter 7, try to picture the scene as I
describe it to you. Our Lord Jesus has just come
to Decapolis from the coast of Tyre and Sidon where he had graciously
healed the Syrophoenician woman's daughter who was grievously vexed
with the devil. He there performed miracles of
mercy. And when he came back to Decapolis,
he continued his acts of mercy, healing one who was both deaf
and dumb. Matthew tells us, you don't need
to turn there, but in Matthew 15, describing the same day,
he says, great multitudes came unto him, having with them those
that were lame, blind, dumb, and maimed. and many others,
and cast them down at Jesus' feet. And he healed them, insomuch
that the multitude wondered when they saw the dumb to speak, the
maimed to be made whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to
see. And they glorified the God of
Israel. Mark, however, was inspired of
God to call our attention to just one of our Lord's many miracles
on that day of miracles. the healing of this poor deaf
mute by our Savior's omnipotent word. His fame was so great that
he simply couldn't be hidden from the crowds. They found out
where he was and there was a huge crowd before the Savior. And
the dumb and the deaf was made to hear and to speak. He cast out devils, opened the
eyes of the blind, and raised the dead by the mere word of
his power. You can imagine the astonishment
of the crowd. At the end of the day, that crowd
who had seen his just stunning miracles, miracles of mercy portraying
his work of grace, but miracles clearly declaring him to be God
the Messiah, they were amazed and they said in verse 37, he
hath done all things well. that were beyond measure astonished,
saying, He hath done all things well. He maketh both the deaf
to hear and the dumb to speak. As those men and women who only
observed miraculous cures of the body, that's all they saw,
miraculous cures of the body. If that's all they saw, they
were astonished. and said he hath done all things
well. How much more astonished you
and I ought to be who have experienced and are experiencing what those
physical cures only represented, the healing of our souls by the
power of his grace. by the mere word of his grace,
through the power of his blood, by the power of his spirit, but
by the mere word of his grace, he speaks and has caused us to
live. He speaks and forgives our sin. He speaks and heals our leprosy. He speaks and causes us to hear. He speaks and opens our dumb
mouths so that we can speak forth the praise of God. You and I
surely ought to be astonished, and we ought to confess before
God and before men, before the angels at his throne, before
his church, and to all who will hear our voice, He hath done
all things well. Looking over my life and everything
I've experienced in these 68 years, I lift my heart to heaven
and this I declare. He hath done all things well. Everything. Everything. Like
you, I've had a few trials, a few heartaches, a little pain, a
little sorrow, a little hurt, a little bitterness, just a little,
just a little, like yours, just a little. It might not have seemed
like it at the time, but it was just a little. Our light afflictions,
which are but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory. And I am ashamed to confess I've
caused more pain than I've experienced. But God, my Savior, has been
so kind and gracious to me that were I to die this very night,
you can write these words on my gravestone. He hath done all things well. Here lies a man who for 68 years
has been the unceasing benefactor of God's abundant mercy, love,
and grace, and my Jesus hath done all things well. I ask you, my brother, my sister,
do you not testify the same? Does your own life's experience
verify that? I know it does if you're God's. from first to last, from the
day of our birth to this hour, from the earliest pangs of sin's
conviction to the blessed thrill of sin's forgiveness, from the
cradle to the grave, from earth to heaven, this will be our testimony
regarding the way our ever-gracious God has led us through this wilderness
and in everything we've experienced along the way. He hath done all
things well. In providence and in grace, in
every truth he's revealed to us from his word, in every token
of his love, with every stroke of his rod, with every sunbeam
of his goodness, with every cloud that has darkened our skies,
In every sweet morsel he's put into our lives, in every bitter
thing he's mixed in our cup, in all that has been mysterious,
confusing, painful, and humiliating, in all that is given and in all
that he's taken, he's done all things well. This is, must be,
and shall be our grateful acknowledgment when we at last see all things
concerning time in their clear light. When we look back over the mountains
of experience in time, from the standpoint of heaven's glory,
we will testify he hath done all things well. Our great God
and Savior who loved us, chose us, redeemed us, and saved us
by His grace. He who has kept us in all our
ways has done all things well. He who is our God, I keep saying
this maybe because I need to keep hearing it. He who is our
God is too wise to err, too strong to fail, and too good to do wrong. He's too wise to err, too strong
to fail, and too good to do wrong. He cannot do wrong. You study
the universe, study all that's history, study the history of
the world, Study the history of your life. Study the events
of life. Study them with a microscopic
eye of faith. Search out every detail. And
when you've read what God has done in his work, you will acknowledge
he has done all things well. That's the only thing I have
to say tonight. And I want to say it to you in
four or five different ways, but that's what I want to tell
you. Repeatedly he hath done all things well turn back to
the 119th psalm for just a moment I like to take scripture and
Read it in the first person Wherever I can I try to put my self in
the place where the one is speaking especially in the Psalms here
is Don Fortner's testimony, just one of them, but it's a good
one. Psalm 119, verse 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. Teach me good judgment
and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was
afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. Thou
art good, and doest good. Teach me thy statutes. God my
Savior has dealt with me. What an astonishing thing. God
has dealt with me. All the days of my life, God
has dealt with me. In another place, David said,
surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my
life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The
words should be read with this understanding. Goodness and mercy
chase me like hounds on the trail of a deer Goodness and mercy
chase me like beagles chasing a rabbit all the days of my life
And they chase me right into the house of the Lord Thou has
dealt with thy servants the Lord God the angel of the Lord has
for 68 years encamped round about me. The angel of the Lord, that's
God our Savior, Pastor. The angel of the Lord is Jesus
Christ, the messenger of the covenant. He has encamped round
about me for 68 years. Not only has he dealt with me,
he's dealt well with me. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. The fact is, he has dealt so
well with me that these words don't begin to start telling
my astonishment at how well he's dealt with me. This little word,
well, sometimes you find a word in scripture that can't really
be translated into English with just one word. They're just bursting
with meaning. This little word, well, is one
of those magnificent little words Bursting with meaning, let me
give you some hints. He has dealt most favorably,
most kindly, most graciously, most lovingly, most pleasantly,
most sweetly, most prosperously, most finely, most joyfully, most
merrily with his servant, particularly These last 51 years since he
saved me by his grace, God has dealt well with me as his servant. Of course, he's dealt well with
me as his son, as his bride, as a member of his body, as his
friend. But I like to take these words
just as they are here, applying them to myself. He's dealt well
with me as his servant, unto me. but less than the least of
all saints is this grace given that I should preach to you the
unsearchable riches of Christ. Oh, what an honor. What an honor. God has allowed me, of all men
in this world, this is most astonishing. God has allowed me the privilege
of preaching the gospel of his free grace since I was 17 years
old, all over this country, and all over the English-speaking
world. That's astonishing. In our news media these days,
when they're trying to get something banned on somebody who's up for
an office, they'll find these yearbooks. You haven't noticed
that, have you? If you should find the yearbook
for Parkland High School Mustangs in 1962, 6, 67, or 68, and you
would look for the most likely to wind up in prison. That's
where he'd find my name. That's where he most likely would
find my name. But oh, what doors, God's
a wonder. For me, it made them effectual
to suppose. And he's dealt well with his
servant, in the doors he's closed just as well. Just as well. He has done all things well. He's dealt well with me all the
days of my life according to his word. According to his word
of predestination, his purpose, according to his word of promise
in his book, according to his word of grace in the gospel,
And he's dealt well with his servant all these days, all the
days of my life, according to his word, Christ Jesus the Lord. He's dealt with me all the days
of my life, according to his abundant mercy and grace, in,
by, and with Jesus Christ his son. Let me elaborate just a
little more. Let every redeemed sinner who
serves God with willing heart acknowledge the Lord's unfailing
goodness to him. Truly, he has dealt well with
all his servants according to his word. In addition to the
immeasurable riches of his grace on us in Christ Jesus, our great
God has constantly loaded our lives with the goodness of his
providence. He promised there shall no evil
happen to the just. And I have proved it for 68 years. Not one evil thing has ever happened
to me. No evil has ever befallen one
of God's elect. Much that we experience appears
at the time to be evil. In our unbelief, God forgive
us. We even look upon it as evil.
But God has proved himself faithful. Hear me, children of God. God
has proved himself faithful. I have never yet experienced
anything in these 68 years. Not one thing. Bitter or blessed. pleasing or painful. I have yet
to experience anything that I don't look back at and say, God, thank
you. Thank you. That's just the way
I want it. That's just the way I want it.
I wouldn't have chosen it. I would defend him. I would not
have moved in that direction. But oh my God, I thank you that
you ordered my steps and you brought me this way to this place.
He had done all things well. It's good to acknowledge that
when we can see it and enjoy it. But when we can, with tears burning
our cheeks, and a lodestone crushing our
hearts. When we're bowed down with care
and sorrow and pain, when we can with nothing to buttress
the statement except God's word and God-given faith, then when
we can say, admit it, he hath done all things well, That's
faith speaking. That's faith speaking. Child
of God, whatever our God has done for you, with you, and to
you, he has done you good. The same is true of me. Thou
hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. The hymn writer put it this way.
Let us his praise and wonders tell. Sing, for our God's done
all things well. Through Jesus' sin-atoning blood,
sinners are reconciled to God. In grace and providence as well,
the triune God does all things well. The Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, the triune God in whom we trust, has promised and has
proved it good that he works all things for our good. In grace
In providence as well, the triune God does all things well. Let me give you a few examples.
I'll call your memory to things with which you are very familiar.
First, he has done all things well from eternity. When we think of all that our
Savior did for us as our covenant surety in old eternity, if you'll
let me use such language, Before the world ever was, he worked
things well for us as our surety. In the covenant of grace, the
Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, took on himself the total responsibility
of our soul's eternal well-being. He took on himself the total
responsibility for our soul's eternal welfare. I know preachers
are forever trying their best because they're scared to death
somebody's actually going to believe God, I think. You don't
want to go too far with that. You get overboard on God's sovereignty. You've got to recognize man's
responsibility. Let's talk more about God's sovereignty. If I go overboard, let me go
overboard here. The Son of God before the world
was, assumed total responsibility for me, for my everlasting good. That means I can't mess it up. That means you can't mess it
up. Before the world was, he drew near to God on our behalf.
His delights were with us, with the sons of men. His heart was
upon us. He pledged himself to redeem
and save us. He gave himself as the Lamb of
God, slain to redeem us. And the Father accepted us in
him, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in him, and trusted
him. That's something. When Robert
Hawker was dying, one of his friends came in reading and read
for him one morning the first chapter of Ephesians. They got
to the 12th verse where it says, in whom ye also trusted after
that ye believed, after that ye believed, I'm sorry, in whom
ye also trusted, I'm sorry, they wished me to the praise of his
glory who first trusted in Christ, what it says in verse 12. And
Hawker had him stop. He said, and who first trusted
in Christ? And the fellow scratched his
head like he didn't know, because he didn't. And he said the triune
God first trusted in Christ. Oh, he who is God eternal before
the world was trusted his glory, his people, his purpose, his
will, the saving of his church to his son. And if the father
trusted him, well might we trust him. Well might we trust him. And then in the fullness of time,
God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. And the Son of God came
down here, took on himself our nature, took hold of the seed
of Abraham, and as he did, he hath done all things well. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
who assumed responsibility for our souls before the world began,
pledged himself to obedience as a man. Obedience to God as
a man, to perform righteousness, not for himself, he didn't need
any, but for his people. And our Lord Jesus walked on
this earth for 33 years, the full age of a man. And all the while, he lived in
perfect alliance with the law and will and word of God in heart,
in word, in thought, and in faith as a man that he might bring
in everlasting righteousness for his people. He did this as
our representative, but representative doesn't tell it all. We have
representatives in Washington, and most of us don't like them
much. We have representatives in Washington who do things for
us we wish they wouldn't do. Representatives in Washington
who do things, but they're legal representatives. And because
they're legal representatives, they act in our name, and the
things they do by law in our name, we are obliged to, and
we have done, because we put them in office. They're our representatives. Now that's true concerning our
Savior. He was our legal representative. So that what He did, we did in
Him legally. But more than that, There was a man by the name of
Levi who was in the loins of a man named Abraham. That's not
a representative. That's a daddy. He was in his
loins. And Levi paid tithes to the Lord
Jesus Christ, Melchizedek, in the loins of Abraham. That's
what the book says. Now how'd he do that? He was
in it. He was in it. I don't mean maybe
he was in him. I don't mean sort of he was in
him. I don't mean there was a sense which he was in him. He was in
his loins, his seed. So that what Abraham did, Levi
did in him. Now hear me children of God.
We are the seed of him. who is called in the book of
God the seed of woman and what he did we did so that as he obeyed
God we obeyed God as he walked with God pleasing God We walked
with God, pleasing God. As he lived in perfection as
a man, we live in perfection as a man. As he believed God,
so we in him believed God. And as he was accepted of God,
because, now listen, because of what he did as a man, we who
are here, are accepted of God because of
what we did as a man. Give me what he did. That's what
I said, what we did. What we did in him, in him. So that he is called the Lord,
our righteousness. The Lord, our righteousness. And he gives us his name, Jeremiah
33 verse 16, the Lord our righteousness. Well, Brother Don, you need some
help. You get justification and sanctification
mixed up. No, I didn't. No, I got it right. He is our righteousness for justification,
and he is our righteousness for sanctification. He is our rightness
before the law, and he is our holiness in character, so that
in the new birth, the righteous character of Christ, his holy
nature, is imparted to his people, imputed to us in justification,
so that the law says we're righteous, imparted to us in sanctification
in the new birth. What is that sanctification?
Now, I want to tell you something. And I wish I could get all the
fellas I know who claim to believe free grace to at least listen
to me. No, don't do that. Read the Word
of God and hear what it says. You folks talk about progressive
sanctification and progressive holiness. And you know, the Spirit
starts His work in you and then you exercise and you do a lot
of push-ups and jumping jacks. You read the Bible a lot and
pray a lot and you pull yourself up by your bootstraps and you
just get holier and holier and holier until the last year. You're
right before heaven and the Lord just takes you home. Barnyards
are full of that stuff. That ain't true. That ain't true. We are made holy by Christ Jesus
our Lord, who is that holiness. without which no man shall see
the Lord. This is what happens in the new birth. God does not
come around and heal old man Adam. That old man doesn't get
any better. He doesn't change. He's still
nothing but sin. God creates in you a new man,
created in righteousness and true holiness, Ephesians 4, 24.
And we have in that new man that holiness without which no man
shall see the Lord. This is what's called. We are
made partakers of the divine nature. so that every believer, every
child of God walking on this earth is both flesh and spirit,
old and new, sin and righteousness, and everything about us, everything
about us reflects both the old and the new, everything. You
cannot do the things you would, neither the old man nor the new
man. That which is born of God doth not sin, 1 John 3. That which is born of God sinneth
not. That which sins is of the devil. That's the old man, that's the
old man. But brother John, everything I do messed up with sin. It is,
isn't it? That's because we live in this body. Shelby and I go
to England a couple times a year in Ireland. And one of the motels
we stay in, in fact most of the places we stay, they still have
a strange way of doing things in their bathrooms. Most of them
have got two taps and two spigots. Over here's the cold, over here's
the hot. We had those nice little boys in North Carolina, just
a little shabby, we used to have two taps and two spigots in each
sink. Hot water here, cold water here, unless somebody got them
mixed up. We got a cold water tap here and a hot water tap
there, but they come out the same spigot. They're mixed together. So it is with everything we do. Flesh and spirit is mixed with
it all. So that we do nothing right.
We do nothing as we would. We constantly are at war with
the flesh. But that new man can not sin. And when God gets done with us
in this world, The only thing we lose is the
old man. That's all. The only thing we
lose is sin. The only thing we lose is death.
The only thing we lose is sorrow. The new man lives forever. He lives forever. The new man,
when this body is dropped in the grave, nothing happens to
the new man, nothing. He just moves up, that's all. He just moves upstairs, that's
all. He just moves in home, that's all. The old man is done. Oh, thank God. Soon the old man
will be done. Done forever. Done forever with
everything displeasing to God. and everything displeasing to
me. Everything, everything. That's
what it is to be made a new creature in Christ Jesus. Old things are
passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Christ
Jesus has protected forever them that are sanctified. And now
in Christ Jesus, you and I wearing the garments of salvation, and
having in us his nature, are made whole and holy. See, when Adam sinned in the
garden, God said to him, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. And I've been looking for that
a long time. Adam didn't die, John. He walked
around for hundreds of years longer. He didn't die. He still won't, but he did die.
God said, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now some folks who don't understand
the scriptures, they try to get around that, says, well, that
means dying, thou shalt die. That ain't what it meant. Thou
shalt surely die, that's what it meant. Well, how did he die? He died spiritually. You see,
man by nature was created body, soul, and spirit. And when he
sinned in the garden, he died spiritually. So that man born
of woman is just body and soul. Body and soul. Body and soul. And the Lord Jesus comes in the
power of his grace and he makes the lame man and the blind man
and the deaf man and the dumb man and the dead man whole. He creates a new spirit in us. So that now the spirit of Christ
dwells in us. And in Christ we are made body,
soul, and spirit again. And now being in Christ, one
with Christ, the Lord God accepts us as He accepts His Son. Smiles on us as He smiles on
His Son. and is pleased with us as he
is pleased with his son. Turn to Ecclesiastes 7. I want
you to read a short passage with me. Ecclesiastes 7. We offer our bodies, that is
our lives in this world, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God. That's what we do. Faith in Christ
is giving ourselves over to Him. We do this continually. A living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God. Now just what on earth is
there about Lester Buckner that's holy and acceptable to God? I've
known him a while. I've known him a while. I like
him. I like him. But there ain't nothing about
him holy and acceptable by nature. Nothing. Not even a thought.
Well, how can he be holy and acceptable to God? Only because
of God on his throne and God in him. You get that? So that in our lives, God accepts
us in the totality of our lives. Several years ago, I was preaching
out in Kansas City, Missouri. And there was a 70-year-old preacher
there. He'd been preaching for a long
time. I preached with this pastor here at Ecclesiastes 7. And when
I got done, that old man came up to me. I thought he was an
old man then. He came up to me smiling and tears running down
his cheeks. He said, he said, Brother Don, that's the most
liberating preaching I ever heard or read in my life. Now let's
see what he says. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 7. Go thy
way. Eat thy bread with joy. Drink
thy wine with a merry heart. Oh, you can't read that in church
anyway, can you? Well, it's in the book of God.
How come? Why should I eat my bread with
joy and drink my wine with a merry heart? For God now accepteth
thy works. Now, that's not talking about
coming to church three times a week or preaching three or
four or five times a week or reading four or five chapters
a day. That's not it. That's talking about What you
do every day? You get up and fix breakfast?
Sit down with your wife and have a cup of coffee? Go out in the
yard and mow the grass? Go out and pitch horseshoes with
your grandson? Go watch your grandson play a basketball game?
God now accepteth thy works. He accepts the totality of your
existence in this world with his son. The totality of it. Quit looking at whatever's over
there. Y'all look at me. It ain't gonna bother me any. If it don't
bother me, I know it won't bother you. God accepts the totality of our
lives. Read on. Let thy garments be
always white, Christ our white righteousness. And let thy head
lack no ointment, the Holy Ghost, the unction of the Spirit, life
in the Spirit. Now listen to what he says about
these works. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all
the days of thy, the life of thy vanity. which he hath given
thee under the sun, all the days of thy benedict, for that is
thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest
under the sun. Solomon said, God accepts your
works, don't you? You go home, sit down in your
big blue easy chair in the evening, and Shelby brings you a glass
of wine or a cup of coffee, and lights your pipe, and you sit
down there, pat her on the thigh, hug her neck, kiss her, God accepts
you. Accepts that just as much as
He does what I'm doing right now. Accepts you. In the totality
of your life, read on, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it
with all thy might. Whether ye eat or drink, whatsoever
ye do, do all to the glory of God. For there is no work, nor
device, nor knowledge, No wisdom in the grave, whither thou goest. God accepts you in His Son, with His Son, as
His Son, in the totality of your life in His Word. the life of Christ's perfect
obedience, that righteousness he worked out for us, would be
of no benefit to us at all without atonement, because justice must
be satisfied. Righteousness could never have
been given us had justice not been satisfied. Therefore, in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. And in his great wondrous
work of redemption, He hath done all things well. He was made sin for us. He was
made sin for us. He took the cup of God's wrath
and God's offended justice. and with one tremendous draft
of love he drank damnation dry and said it is finished so that
there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit that is
to those men and women in Christ Jesus who are born of God They
have a testimony from God, like Enoch had before he was translated,
that they please God. God tells me, in my soul, in
my conscience, in my heart, God says, John Fortner, you please
me. That's called the sprinkling
of the blood of Christ. That's called faith in Christ.
That's called being purged from an evil conscience. to serve
the living and true God, so that now, since sin is put away, justice
is satisfied, and the curse of the law is removed, in Christ
we are free and perfectly safe. Shelby and I don't watch much
television. Most of us are not fit to watch,
including the news. But we record old things. We record things
where the blatancy but man's ungodliness is not quite so advertised.
We don't have to watch a wagon train. And those old westerns,
some of you know what I'm talking about, they'd be out in the prairie
and suddenly see a fire. And they'd go in the direction
away from the fire and set a fire ahead of it, burn off the ground,
and then pull all the wagons and cattle and horses on that
ground where it's burnt. And they just wait for the fire
to burn. As you get closer and closer,
the little boy says to Danny, Danny, what's going to happen
to us? Son, we're perfectly safe here. We're standing on burnt
ground. The fire can't touch us. Oh, thank God for the burnt ground
of Christ's shed blood. The fire of his wrath can't touch
us. It's called free justification. perfect redemption everlasting
righteousness And then in his grace. Oh He has done all things
well He he set a time before the world
was when he would call you by his grace He called it by specific
name he said behold thy time was the time of love and and
he arranged. Before ever the first star was
set in the sky, he arranged. Before ever he spoke the sun
into existence, he arranged. Before ever he said let there
be light and there was light, he arranged. Every particle of
every atom of the universe and every event of time graciously
to bring you to the appointed time of love,
where he had by his providence prepared you, and by his grace
prepared you to hear his word. And he sends a preacher to you.
And he says, live! You've heard hundreds of preachers
before, hundreds of sermons before. Maybe never heard either before.
But he spoke. And when he said, live, he spread
his dirt over you, his righteousness, and you became mine, he says. God arranged everything. Everything. Everything that ever
was for me. Can you imagine that? Child of
God, God arranged everything. Everything that ever was for
him. He's done all things well. I would have never come to him.
I would have never sought his grace. But I started dating a
girl. It wasn't this one. I was dating another. She didn't
have any more interest in the gospel than I did. But her daddy had
a little bit of good sense. He wouldn't let her go out with
me unless I went to church with her. So I'd go to church with her. I
didn't pay any attention to the preacher, but I listened to Sunday
school teachers. Some of them got through. I've
tried out here, but some of them got through. And then one day,
I forgot about the cross sitting beside me. And I forgot about
everything else, because I heard a man preach the gospel of God's
free grace. And the Savior spoke and said
to me, and everything he'd ever done,
everything he had ever done to that day, was for that day, just
for me. And everything he's done since
has been but the preserving of my soul, keeping me in faith. Oh, we see many women turn from
the Savior, abandon Him, forsake Him, His
word, His truth, His worship, His people, His cause. And we
get upset with him. I guess that's right. I don't
know. We get frustrated. But the fact is, by God, I acknowledge the fact
is, the only reason I still continue to believe in him is because
he won't let me go. That's all. That's all. I left him a thousand
times a day, but he shall give them one way and one heart, and
they shall not part from him. And in all the manifestations
of his love for my soul, he hath done all things well. Oh, would to God that ye might
know the length and breadth and height and depth of the love
of God in Christ Jesus that passeth understanding. That your minds
and your hearts might be filled and consumed with the love of
Christ that passes knowledge on. Oh, amazing love. Behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should
be called the sons of God. And all of this God's salvation,
God's purpose, God's providence. Paul tells us about a place called
heaven. And he says concerning that place,
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into
the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them
to love. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? Oh, we read about heaven. The
last three chapters of the book of Revelation, it's all taken
up, telling us about it. And we haven't even begun to commence
to getting started having an idea what it is. Whatever you
say, heaven's like that. No, it ain't like that. It's
better than that. Whatever you've heard, it's better than that. Whatever you've thought, it's
better than that. I have not seen, nor have you
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things
which God has prepared for them to love him. How beautiful heaven
must be. Oh, how beautiful heaven must
be. Sweet home, of the happy and
free. How beautiful heaven must be. For there we will begin to see. And we will forever continue
beginning to see. He hath done all things well.