Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I pray your prayer for attention to the chapter we read, Lamentations
of Jeremiah, chapter 3, and reading prayer text, verse 37. Verse 37. Who is he that saith,
and who cometh apart when the Lord commanded it not." Lamentations
3 and verse 37. Jeremiah is living in the time
when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar and he saw the desolations of
Jerusalem for some 19 years from when Nebuchadnezzar first came,
carried away some of the captives, including Daniel, and then left
others to care for the land. But those kings that he set home
to the land, they rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. Jeremiah was
used to warned them, to exhort them to be submissive to what
he saw, rightly testifying, was God's chastening hand, God's
dealing with them. He exhorted them to be submissive
under it, and there's a good lesson for us there as well,
to be submissive under the Lord's chastening and correcting hand. We wouldn't think if we had a
child that was being corrected, if they were refusing to bow,
if they were refusing to be affected by it, and sort of shrug it off
and just to go on, that that would be a sign of a child that
was profiting by the Lord's hand. And we should also look at that
which is happening in our land as well, we have round about
us and recognizing it as the Lord's just hand and to bow before
the Lord however much that may be affecting us and we may be
in the similar situation to Jeremiah. Jeremiah was walking out that
time that some 1400 years before When the children of Israel came
into the Promised Land, Moses warned them that in the latter
days they would depart from the Lord, they would turn away from
Him, and He would carry them captives, He would deal with
them, He would chasten them. And many times through their
history, through those 821 years, they were brought for shorter
periods of captivity. But they didn't hearken, they
didn't hear. And now comes the time when the
Lord will bring them into captivity and the temple shall be destroyed. And dear Jeremiah is seeing all
of this happening. He also has some wonderful prophecies
that they should be brought back from Babylon. That again land
would be bought and sold in that land. He had that prospect. But
the thing that he was going through here, he very much felt that. Jeremiah was sharing in the sorrows
of his people. However much Jeremiah may have
served the Lord and feared Him, and was speaking on the Lord's
behalf, he was right in with his people. And he was the same
with Daniel. Daniel was carried away into
Babylon. Those are the Lord's people,
Ezekiel, prophesying to those in Babylon in captivity and the
Lord's dear people they share with us. In the last wars then
it affected those that served the Lord and those that did not.
It didn't make any distinctions in that way. The rationing, it
affected all. The bombing, it affected all.
Those things that are coming upon us now, then it touches. those that fear the Lord, and
those who have no thoughts at all for the Lord. And Jeremiah
is one of those here. And he greatly feels what is
going on. And he bewails his calamities. The first 18 verses in this chapter,
he is bewailing his condition. He says, I am the man that has
seen affliction by the rod, of his wrath, he clearly sees the
wrath and rod of the Lord. And you can read in this first
part of this chapter how he feels to be set in dark places. The Lord says to him about he
cannot get out, when he cries and shouts, he shutteth out my
prayer. You'd think in this time that
the Lord would give his dear people access in prayer. that
he'd help him, that he wouldn't hide his face from him in that
way. But even in this way, it's affecting
him, it's touching him. Dear friends, don't be surprised
if we feel the same through these things here. It is touching us. And when we try to pray, when
we cry to the Lord, to feel that those ways are shut up. Sometimes
it is not so. We bless the Lord when we have
that access and sweet savor and blessing. But we have this picture
of Jeremiah in his position, and he says in verse 17, Thou
hast removed my soul, far off from peace I forgot prosperity. I'm just saying this, that there's
so much in this chapter that we can get little glimpses of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is more afflicted than any
man. They cast him into the dungeon,
they cast a stone upon him. The path that he was to walk
in was for his church and for his people. And Jeremiah and
the things that he speaks here points to those sufferings of
the dear man of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. who shall suffer
for his sins, be more afflicted than any man, and should bear
in his body the sins of his church, his people. It laid on him the
iniquity of us all. May we always remember that.
You and I escaped the eternal sovereign judgment of God for
our sin. Then those sins have been laid
upon the Lord. He has felt the weight of them
all. bowed down, sweating great drops
in Gethsemane, crying out upon the cross, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? And when we come into these paths
like Jeremiah, we are to look, we are to remember the Lord,
we are to think of that which he went through, they all forsook
him and fled. And Jeremiah here speaks of being
in this lonely path, a lonely voice in the midst, of a crooked
generation, the Lord came unto his own, his own received him
not. And in that great work on Calvary, there was his people,
away with him, away with him, crucify him, crucify him, as
the Lord prayed, Father forgive them, they know not what they
do. So Jeremiah, he bewails his condition,
things that he is actually going through here. Now, I point out
there's a great difference in bewailing our condition and complaining
actually of God himself and laying those charges against God. And we think of what is written
in Psalm 78, And this is referring to the
children of Israel when they were going through the wilderness,
before they came into the Promised Land. In Psalm 78 and verse 17
we read, They sinned yet more against him by provoking the
most high in the wilderness. They tempted God in their hearts
by asking meat for their last day. They spake against God. So this is not just murmuring,
this is not just feeling the things that they are passing
through. They are actually speaking against God. They said, can God
furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, he smote the rock that
the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? How different it would have been.
If they'd have said, behold, he smoked the rock, the water's
gushed out, he can give bread also. He can provide flesh. He is a refuge for us. He is
our help. How believing that is, to view
the Lord in that way, instead of speaking against him, and
slighting his power, his might, as if was he able to do it at
all. So there's a difference, and
in the things that we pass through, Yes, we may complain, we may
have lamentation like Jeremiah, but may we never insinuate the
Lord has not power, or might, or love, or compassion, or he
hasn't just done what he's done. May we always remember the Lord
is a good God, a merciful God. And so, Jeremiah then, he comes
in verse 21, to recall to mind a source of hope, that it does
well for us to remember in our present distress in this land,
with the coronavirus and with the uncertainties that are around
us and in every household, he says this, I recall to my mind,
therefore have I hope. And those verses that follow
They are most sacred, they are blessed verses. It is at the
Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions
fail not. That's true today, as it was
yesterday. They are in you every morning,
great is thy faithfulness. There is much there, especially
for those who know that they are the Lord's people, and be
able to say, the Lord is my portion, sent my soul, therefore will
I hope in Him. Dear friends, may we not be quick
to cast away our hope and refuge in the Lord. You know, with a
child, if a child is running around and they are even doing
something that is being forbidden them, then they fall over, they
get injured, they're crying, They flee to the parent, they
go to the parent. They don't say, are you really
my mother? Are you really my father? Are
you really my parent? In their time of distress and
need, they just flee to that refuge, and the one that has
fed them, watched over them, kept them, looked after them. And this is what Jeremiah recalls
to mind. It is good, he says, The Lord
is good unto them that wait for Him. Wait for Him, dear soul,
to the soul that seeketh Him. Seek Him, poor soul. It is good
that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation
of the Lord. Dear friends, may we do both
of these things. Hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. And the younger ones, the children,
the young people, It is good for a man that he bear the yoke
in his youth. These are blessed words, they're
encouraging words, strengthening words that Jeremiah recalls to
mind. He says, therefore have I hope. But then when we come to our
text, he clearly sees the deserved hand of the Lord. Who is he that says, and he cometh
to pass when the Lord commandeth it not. And we may say in thee,
subject the word that is before us here, nothing happens without
God's express permission. Who is he that saith, and he
cometh to pass when the Lord commandeth it not? I want to look with the Lord's
help at three points. Firstly, the sovereignty of God
that is set forth here. Secondly, the question that is
begun in our text. Who is he? Who is he? does say that it cometh to pass
and the Lord commandeth it not. And some of those examples from
the Word of God where there has been a sign that something shall
come to pass and it has not because it has not been the sovereign
Word of God. Then thirdly, irresistible grace,
the providence and grace of God is taxed in relation to the Lord's
work when He calls His people by grace and works savingly in
their heart. Who is He that saith, and who
cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Who is He
that depart from me, I desire not the knowledge of my ways.
And the Lord says, arrest that man, arrest that woman, convert
them, save them. Irresistible grace. But firstly, the sovereignty
of God. There is no higher authority
than God. When the Lord appeared to Moses
in the burning bush, and Moses asked him his name, he said,
I am that I am. And in John chapter 10, our Lord
many times refers to himself as the I am. I am the good shepherd. He is one who has not had beginning
or ending and who is subject to none other, accountable to
none other but himself, to his holiness, his faithfulness, to
have reference to none other at all. We read in Hebrews chapter
2, verse 10, For He became Him, and this is
a description of Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are
all things. What a description! All things
are for God, and all things are by God, in bringing many sons
unto glory. to make the captain of their
salvation, that is Jesus, perfect through sufferings. All things
were created for God and for His honour and glory, and His
people, especially this people, have I formed for myself. They
shall show forth my praise. The heavens, they declare the
glory of God. They show forth His praise, His
majesty, his mind. When God would speak to Job and
bring Job to be humble before his almighty hand as Job in his
great affliction was seeking to justify himself rather than
God. And the Lord took the way of
pointing Job to all that he'd created. And he takes in chapter
38, especially there's other chapters later on as well that
deal with this, but he says in verse 4, where was thou when
I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding. And then in verse 11, what the
Lord says of the waves at the sea, how they don't come over
the land, hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here
shall thy proud ways be stayed." You know, apply that to the present
play. The Lord knows how to restrain
it. To go so far and no further is
in the Lord's hand. And Job was brought to see that
with the sea. You go down, you see the sea,
how the waves beat upon the shore, smash upon the shore, and yet
they just come to the sand shore, to the cliff, and that's as far
as they go, and they receive Macadam. God has sent that decree
over them. And then later on, the Lord causing
it to rain on the earth, verse 26, where no man is, On the wilderness
wherein there is no man, man has not anything to do with that,
as to bring that rain to water the earth. And then in verse
31, Job 38. Canst thereby in the sweet influences
of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion. Those are the constellations,
the stars. Pleiades, those stars, they govern
the spring. We're coming into spring. You
see all of the trees that were looking dead, now they're all
coming out into Bart. Not a noise, not a sound, but
could you go and see one tree after another and try and stop
it from coming out into Bart? No, because the Lord has put
in those influences of the stars, ordered it, decreed it, And if
it comes to pass, Orion is the, that which governs the winter
months, the cold, you can't change the seasons. They've been ordered
by God, let's just continue while this world continues. And these
things were said before Job, so that Job was brought Lower
and lower, he said, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear. Now mine eyes seeth thee, wherefore I call myself and repent
in dust and ashes. As recorded in God's word, the
way the Lord taught me, Joe, for our instruction, is the main
man is small. Man is helpless before these
things were God-tasked. May we be very clear on this.
The things that happen in this world, they don't happen just
by chance. To have a fatalistic thing, what
will be, will be. It just happens. There's no orderer,
there's no governor, there's nothing in control at all. Or on the other hand, to say,
well, there's an evil influence in this world. It's Satan. And
these things, they come from Satan's hand. And the God that
made the heavens and the earth, he's powerless to stop them.
He's helpless. He must look on. in helplessness
while Satan has his way and brings these things. Not to think that
that should be the case, that Satan is stronger and mightier
than the Lord or some other power, whatever it may be. I mean, not
to think as well that God has left it to man. He's made the
creation, he's then set in order nature, and he's given it to
man, and man must best arrange it the best he can. Yes, he has
given it to man, to dress the garb and to look after the world,
but it's not into man's hands. We are to be responsible stewards
and to do that which honors and glorifies God. But the things
that happen and the destiny of this planet and this world is
not in man's hand, not in kings. The Lord is the King of kings
and Lord of lords by me. Kings reign and princes decree
justice. The Lord is a sovereign God that
does not have to give account of any of His matters. He is
the author of morality. He's not to be put in the bar
of man's morality and what man thinks is right or wrong. The
commandments are given by God. The right and wrong is ordered
by God. And every one of us one day shall
stand before the judgment seat of God to give an account, being
God in the dark, but he is the judge and we shall stand before
him and he is a sovereign God. There is no higher course of
recourse than to God himself and we are to hold that so clearly. Who is he that saith, and he
cometh at last when the Lord commandeth it not? When the Lord
has set forth His command, then His command is with authority
and power. We had it this morning, where
the Lord stood in the boat and He rebuked the winds and the
waves, and there was a great calm. What manner of man is this,
that even the winds and the waves obey Him? This sovereign God,
who can choose when to bring those words, when to still them. He is sovereign Lord of all. May we remember this in this
present dispensation and present time and humble ourselves before
His almighty and His sovereign hand. But secondly, who is He? I want to look at some examples
from the Word of God. We go back to the book of Job. We have the account there of
how Job was so afflicted and the reason why. We read that
the Lord asked Satan, has thou considered my servant Job, that
he was an upright man, and Satan had an answer to this. Yes, Job might be perfect and
an upright man, that is not perfect as sinless, but as upright All
sinner could be, serving the Lord and fearing the Lord and
assuring or hating evil. But Satan answers, he says, doth
God fear, doth Job fear God for naught? And he says, you put
a hedge about him. You've protected him. You've
protected his goods. You've protected his health.
You've given him every blessing. Of course he serves you. You
take away those things and He'll curse thee to thy face. So God gave Satan a mission to
take away those things, to see if what Satan was saying was
true. And when all of those things
happened in that first book of Job, and did Job one thing after
another, He has the Sabians coming upon his oxen, taking it all
away. He has the fire that's come from
heaven consuming up the sheep and the servants. He has the
camels all carried off with the Chaldeans and the servants slain. And he has another messenger
coming and saying that his sons and daughters were eating wine
in the eldest brother's house. A great wind came from the wilderness,
smote it and destroyed them all. One thing after another, dear
Job, he falls down to the ground and he worships the Lord. He
said, naked came I out of my mother's womb and naked shall
I return thither. The Lord gave and the Lord hath
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. In all this Job sinned not nor
charged God foolishly. And then Satan came again And
said, well, you've touched Job's outward things, but all a man's
life will he give for his health, for a nice life, so take away
his health, his strength. And so the Lord gave Satan permission
to do that, but charged him, but save his life. Thus far and
no further, Satan had to pass permission before he could do
anything in Job's life. and in the lives of his family
and his servants and his oxen and his sheep. The Lord is over Satan. Satan
is a mighty foe. We wrestle against principalities
and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. But God is the
Almighty God. And you know that Job went through
all of this. what was to be proved in this,
that the reason why Job feared the Lord was because the grace
of God in his heart, and the Lord sustained that faith that
he had and that trust in the Lord, and he didn't serve God
for all of these things that God had given him. You know,
many, many that will have a form of religion, when things are
nice and going well, yes, they'll follow and they'll serve the
Lord, When things go wrong then they're offended and they say,
I thought God was a God of love. And now He's not? Then I'm not
going to serve Him. I've served the Lord, I've gone
to church, I've gone to chapel, I've done what's right. Now I'm
afflicted, now I have these trials, now I've lost my job, now these
things are happening. If this is the God of the Bible,
then I don't want to have anything to do with Him. And Satan's had
6,000 years experience of dealing with men like that, and he knows
for the most part of men, in fact all the men, except by God's
grace, except by the strength that God gives His people, that
is the reaction. They return against God. They
rebel against Him for that which He does. We read in the Revelation
at the last day, those that are afflicted in those times, that
they shall not bow or humble before the Lord, but fight against
Him. It is a great mercy, a great
blessing, if when adversity, troubles, and trials come, and
the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is, that
the Lord is pleased to give us grace to bow before God, humble
ourselves before His hand, that may we learn from this account
with the question of our text. Who is he? Who is he? That saith that he cometh to
pass when the Lord commandeth it not. Satan, he says you do
this, you take away these things of Job, you'll curse them. You'll
prove to be a reprobate. Did it come to pass? If Satan wished to take away
Job's life, did it come to pass? It couldn't. All that Satan did was permitted
of the Lord. May we remember that the latter
end of Job was better than his beginning. The Lord truly blessed
him, but it didn't take away the greatness of the trial, the
grievance, the sorrows that he had, right through that passage. Who is he? In the book of Esther,
we have the case of Haman. Haman, he was the Jews' enemy. He hated the Jews. Mordecai didn't
bow down to him and reverence him. And he thought scorn just
to touch him. He wanted to destroy all of the
Jews. And we read from The Book of
Esther from chapter 3 and verse 8. Haman then says to King Ahasuerus
about this certain people that have different laws. He said,
there are certain people scattered abroad, dispersed among the people
in all the provinces of thy kingdom. Their laws are diverse from all
people. Neither keep thy, the king's,
laws. May never be said of us, we don't
keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not for the king's
prophet to suffer them. If it please the king, let it
be written that they may be destroyed. Well, the king gave that permission. The king said unto Amon, the
silver is given to thee, but he offered to give to the king
the people also to do with them. They have seen good unto thee,
and many will look upon thee. Christian in that way, their
laws are diverse, they're separate from all men. Well, we are bidden
to be subject to those in authority, the powers that be that are ordained
of God. It is only where it is said that
we ought to obey God rather than man, where man's decrees go contrary
against God's, that we stand against it. So we have Haman determining
here to destroy the Jews, which no doubt were the most loyal,
the best subjects in the land, but they didn't bow before Haman. Haman, he hated that. But did Haman get his way? Did
he destroy the Jews? Jews, who is he that saith, and
hath cometh to pass, when the Lord remindeth it not? Already
before Haman did this, God had put Esther in the position of
his queen. He had Esther little while ago,
didn't we? Who knoweth thou that we've come
to the kingdom for such a time as this? And it was overturned. The Jews were delivered, they
were saved. It was a great deliverance. The
days of Purim, they recognized this wonderful deliverance that
God gave on Queen Esther's intercession to the king, so that the letters
of the sentence of death were reversed to a sentence of life. That is the gospel. Taking away
the sentence of death and giving the sentence of life, the gospel. The law condemns. The Gospel
gives life in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have then a case when Assyria
came up against the Ten Tribes. He took them away and then sought
to take Judah and Jerusalem. And this was in the time of Hezekiah. And we read in Isaiah chapter
36 that Ha-Sennachred, the king of the Assyrians, he sent Rabchake
to speed to rail upon those, the Jews. And we have the account
of what was said in Isaiah 36. And he says that he's gonna take
them all away, grabs the key, cries with a loud voice, and
he rails against them. And he says, I will come and
take you away to a land like your own land, a land of corn
and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. And he says, beware
lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, the Lord will deliver us. And
he cites all the other gods of the other lands that they didn't
deliver them out of. their hand, that did what Rhapsody
say come to pass? Was Judah destroyed? No. We read in chapter 37 and verse
33, Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king, of
Assyria. He shall not come into this city,
nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shields,
nor cast a bank upon him. By the way that he came, will
the same shall enter. Who is he that saith unto him,
Come at the pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? We could speak of Nebuchadnezzar,
the burning fiery furnace, later on the seven years that he had
that losing his mind and afterwards at the end of the time he comes
and speaks so clearly concerning the last thing actually we read
about Nebuchadnezzar lifting up his eyes and he says how that
He blessed the Most High, praised and honoured Him, and liveth
forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom
is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to His will
in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What doest Thou? how he blessed him, blessed the
God of heaven and of earth. But we pass on to dear Peter,
when our Lord started to speak of his sufferings, his death,
and what he should accomplish at Jerusalem, Peter took him
and says, this shall not be unto thee. The Lord rebuked him. He said, get thee behind me,
Satan, thou desirest Not the things that be of God, but the
things that be of man. Satan speaking, as it were, through
Peter, that he would stop him, stop the Lord from going to Calvary,
reaching Satan's head, bringing about the redemption of all the
people of God. Was Peter able to stop the Lord? Who is he that saith, and it
cometh to pass, the Lord commanded it not? No, Peter doesn't get
his will nor does Satan at all. What about those when our Lord
was being taken and they had the sword, put up the sword into
his sheath? Thinkest thou not that I could
pray my Father, and presently give me twelve legion of angels,
seventy-two thousand angels, This is what must be come to
pass. It cannot be stopped. And what
about then, the sealing of the stone? When he died, they said,
he would rise from the dead. Well, seal the stone. Make sure
he doesn't. Set a watch. Who is he that saith,
comeeth to pass, the Lord commandeth it not. There was an earthquake.
The men became as dead men. The Lord rise from the dead,
an angel came down all the way to stone so that you could see
that tomb was empty. Those beautiful words that we
read as Peter preaches in Acts 2 and he says in verse 23 of
Acts chapter 2 Him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ,
being delivered by the determinate counsel and full knowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain,
whom God hath raised up, having loosed the veins of death, because
it was not possible that he should be holden of it." The beautiful
words that He says that before them, therefore let all the house
of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus
whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. The Spirit convicted
them of their sin. The Lord gave him that sweet
promise unto you and your children, to all that are afar off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call. There's no salvation in
any other but in the Lord Jesus Christ and what He had accomplished
and what He had done at Calvary. And who is He that saith, They
come at the pass, and the Lord commandeth it not. The Lord had
commanded that the prophets all showed that Christ should suffer
and rise again the third day from the dead and that He should
then ascend up into heaven and that in His name should be life
and belief in His name. Well, I want to come then to
our third point, the irresistible grace of God. That which the Lord has done
at Calvary, putting away the sins of His people, that which
He has done for them, is to be made known to them and realized
in this life. The Lord is appointed when everyone
is born into this world. He is appointed for his people
when they shall be born again of the Spirit, when they shall
be given a new nature, when they shall be given spiritual life. And who is he that saith, and
hath come at the past, when the Lord commands that time? Many of the Lord's people, myself
included, We have very actively, in our lives and in our thoughts
and in our works, declared that we did not and would not have
this man to reign over us. We designed our own way, we planned
our own lives, and it was without God and without hope in the world. But blessed be the Lord for such
a word as our text, who is he that saith, He cometh to pass
when the Lord commandeth it not, The Lord commands His people
to repent. He brings them to it. He accomplishes
it. He is exalted to give repentance
and remission of sins unto Israel. He said to Saul of Tarsus, who
was so far fighting against the Lord, hurling men and women unto
prison, the Pharisee of the Pharisees. He met with him on the Damascus
road when he was in the middle of his corpse of hailing men
and women to prison. And he stopped him there, spoke
to him from heaven, Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, and thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks of no doubt the pricks of conscience and thoughts that
maybe these people who I'm persecuting is right. Maybe it is right,
the gospel. Maybe there is some truth in
it, and there may be some that may hear me. this day that are
thinking that too. Maybe there is truth in the things
of God. Maybe the Lord is a Sovereign. Maybe that those things that
keep happening in my life and the Lord is governing those things,
the things that go wrong, the things that have a voice in them,
the things that happen and our conscience says, listen, listen
to that voice. Then bow before the Lord. One of our hymns, hymn 76, it
speaks of that way that man is determined to go. And it begins, there is a period
known to God when all his sheep, redeemed by blood, shall leave
the hateful ways of sin, turn to the fold and enter in. It
goes on at peace with hell, with God at war, In sin's dark maze
they wander far, indulge their lust and still go on as far from
God as sheep can run. And it speaks of, when wisdom
calls, they just stop their ear. And judgments will mouse his
neck and sway their roving feet to wisdom's way. But then we
have a time that there's glory to God. They nurture Rome beyond
the limits of his love. Fenced with Jehovah's showers
of wills, firm as the everlasting hills, the appointed time goes
on the face, not to propose, but called by grace to change
the heart, renew the will, and turn the fleet to Zion's hill. Irresistible grace that cannot
be stopped in the Lord's appointed time. The Lord was going in the
way, Zacchaeus, his eye answered him, see him, who he was. And
he was low of stature, climbs up into a sycamore tree to see
him. And the Lord comes by and he
stops under that tree and he looks up. And he calls him by
name. How did the Lord know he was
there? How did he know his name? He said, Zacchaeus, come down. I must dine at thine house. There
was an appointment Zacchaeus did not know. God did not know,
God did not, the Lord knew. And that is the Lord's hand and
the Lord's work. And it is the sovereign work,
irresistible work of God in calling His people. John Euston had been
brought up to the age of seven years of age with his dear mother
before she died. And she taught him the truths
of God. But then she died and he went
off and was the most rebellious of people, drunken and in the
slave trade, a slave monster. And yet the Lord was pleased
in the great storm in the sea to bring him into great concern
of soul, make him remember what he'd learnt, heard in his childhood. And the Lord called him. Many
of our hymns are written by John Newton. about the grace of God,
that which called him free, sovereign grace of God, irresistible grace
of God, the sovereignty of God in the saving and calling of
sinners. And in everything in our lives,
the work that he does in our souls, the blessing that he blesses
through the word of God, through the preaching, And that which
happens to us in our lives, the sicknesses, the trials, the providences,
the jobs we have, the schooling and those of you young people
that may be having the exams postponed and different things
are happening in your lives. Those things are all ordered
by God. My life's minutest circumstance
is subject to His eye and we're assured in Romans 8 we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are called according to His purpose. And it is a blessed
thing to see the Lord's purposes arriving fast, unfolding every
hour, and that it be to that end, to bring our souls back
to Him, away, away from the world, wife sins and back unto Him we
have left our first love. Blessed be to be brought into
communion with Him again. May we bless the Lord. They come at the pass when the
Lord commandeth it not. The Lord has commanded salvation. He has commanded the salvation
of His people. It's certain and it is sure. And in every tribulation, in
every trouble, they also are under the command of God, a good
God, a gracious God, a God who will turn it about to His honour
and glory. and the salvation of His people,
the Lord bless His Word to us. Amen.