with the hymn that's on the back
of your bulletin. If you can find a bulletin, we'll
open the service with the hymn on the back of the bulletin.
Let's all stand together. God thy kingdom come, with reverence
would we pray. May the eternal free in one his
sovereign scepter sway. They graced triumphant reign,
and Christ exalted me. Sinners deserving endless pain,
Thy great salvation see. Mercy, truth, and peace fill
each believer's soul. And the sweet kingdom of thy
grace their raging lusts control. ? Thus let thy kingdom come ?
? And free salvation reign ? ? Till all thy saints are five at home
? ? And never part again ? Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to begin this morning
in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. If you'd like to turn with me
there in your Bibles, we'll be looking at various texts pertaining
to the message this first hour concerning things we know, things
we know. I want us to go to the Lord in
prayer and remember our brethren in Missouri and also in Iowa. Of course, I feel sure that everybody
here has heard about Joe Terrell, and they're having a memorial
service for him this morning in Missouri. Drew Dietz will
be preaching that message, and then next Sunday, in Rock Valley,
Iowa. And our church will be taking
up a love offering to help Mary, Joe's daughter, and Bonnie, Joe's
wife. So if you'd like to participate
in that, you can mark your gift for the Terrells. And we'll get that out to them
soon. The message I want to try to
bring this morning concerning things that we know
has been something I've been thinking about all week since
this news came out about Joe. We, by the way, been And his
wife, Sherry Lee, that's Joe's son. Some of you may not know
him. They attend here. So Ben and Sherry Lee left on
Tuesday to go out and be with family. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, thank you for giving us a place where we can
gather together, where we can open thy word, where we can have
the hope of knowing that you are faithful to your promises,
to be where two or three are gathered together in thy name.
Thank you for the blessing of your Holy Spirit. The very one
who inspired the penman of scripture to write thy word is the one
who inspires our hearts to hear thy voice and to understand and
to believe thy truth as it is revealed in Christ. Lord, we
pray this morning that you would bless us to that end. Lord, we
are frail, needy, sinful men and women who are in need of
a word from thee. We're in need of your comfort
and your your hope and your peace and your grace and mercy. Lord, we pray for our brethren
in Missouri. We pray for the Morrell family
and the Terrell family in particular and ask Lord that you would Continue,
as you've so faithfully done according to the testimony that
we've heard from them, provided grace and mercy and hope and
comfort to their hearts. We pray for Drew as he brings
the gospel message. Pray, Lord, that you would give
him words to speak and pray that you would make them effectual
to the hearts of your people. We ask it all in Christ's name
and for his sake and glory. Amen. Before we begin, I want to recognize
Charlie Belarose, who's here this morning. Charlie graduated
from Parris Island, survived 13 weeks of Marine boot camp
as of Friday. Charlie, we're proud of you and
we're happy you're here. You have your Bibles open with
me to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. When circumstances like has happened
this week or like as happens often by God's providence in
your life and in my life, when circumstances are extraordinary,
when we feel overwhelmed and confused, we might be tempted
to think that nothing makes sense. We might be tempted to think
that we don't know what or who to believe or that we're not
really sure of anything. We've all had those thoughts
and those feelings when overwhelmed with difficult times. Truth is that it is in those
times that the Lord is faithful and merciful to speak truth and
peace to our hearts. It is in those times that we are drawn to him for comfort
and for hope and for truth. how many times I've seen someone
going through a very difficult trial, rather than being more
faithful in services, they become very inconsistent and their feelings
are, you know, I just don't know if I can worship because things
are too overwhelming for me right now. That is brethren, the very
time that we need worship, that we need God's mercy and his grace
and the hope and encouragement that we receive from one another
more than any other time. And this is the effect that trials
always have. Satan is happy to plant seeds
of doubt in our hearts. goes all the way back to the
very beginning, the Lord called him a liar and the father of
lies. And the very first words that
we hear coming from his mouth questions the very word of God. When he said to Eve, did God
say that thou shalt not eat of the trees of the garden? Not
only Did he call into question God's word but he perverted God's
word, he twisted God's word in order to give to Eve just enough
doubt and confusion to lead her astray and his tactics haven't
changed. His methods are the same today. Eve, being confused by those
words, said, oh no, that's not what God said. He said we could
eat of all the trees of the garden except the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil in the midst of the garden. God said do not
eat of it, neither shall you touch it. Well, there's no evidence
in what God told Adam that he said not to touch it, and yet
it was just enough to add to. You see what happens when we
add to or take away From the simplicity and the clarity of
God's Word, it only leads to more confusion and more sin and
more doubt and more fear. This morning I want us to just
look at some verses in their simplicity and in their clarity
that we might find those things that we know, that we know are
true. In the midst of whatever we don't
know, there are things that we know. I am the Lord and I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. We would be consumed by the uncertainty
and the instability of our circumstances if we did not have that glorious
hope that our God never changes. He is the rock. When all the
shifting sands of this world are caught away with the storms
of life, we have a rock on which we can stand, a rock upon which
we can build a house that will not fall. And that's where I
hope the Lord will settle our feet this morning upon the rock
of ages, the Lord Jesus Christ, the rock that is higher, as the
scripture says, than all other rocks. Truth is that the heart is never left unchanged by fiery
trials. The effects of that fire on the
heart will be determined by the nature of the heart. Like the effects of the noonday
sun, the hearts made of wax will be melted from the heat of that
trial, while the hearts of clay will be more hardened by the
heat. of that trial. The questions
and confusions that naturally come to the heart and to the
mind in a time like this will cause some to doubt. It will
cause some to even accuse God of wrongdoing. They will be disillusioned
and some will even use circumstances to justify their own unbelief. And thus the Lord in trying faith
proves it to be whether or not it's of him. Others will be greatly softened. They will be strengthened in
their faith. They will see more clearly their need for a sovereign,
omnipotent, loving Savior to keep them. They will draw nearer
to the throne of grace to find help in their time of need. David, a man after God's own
heart, after having unlawfully taken another man's life, wife,
and then as a means of covering up that sin, took that man's
life. How confusing that story is. And yet we have Psalm 51 where
David cries out after having been confronted by the prophet,
by God, create in me, oh God, a clean heart. renew in me, oh
God, a right spirit. That's our prayer. In times of
confusion, in times of darkness, faith will see its own need for
God's mercy and for God's grace. Faith will not will not point
its finger at the sins of others and think, well, I'll never do
anything like that. Faith knows that if the Lord
was to leave any of us to ourselves, there is no limit to what sin
could do in our hearts and in our lives and in the lives of
others. There's some things that we know.
And in times of shadow and darkness and doubt and fear, we must go
back to those things that we know. Those things that nothing
can change. Those things that are sure and
certain and steadfast and stand there and say whatever else might
be going on, this I know. And our knowledge of these things,
though incomplete, and our knowledge of everything
concerning God is incomplete. We don't understand anything
as it fully is. But just because our knowledge
is incomplete does not mean that our knowledge is uncertain. The
knowledge that we have. I was in my late 20s struggling
through college and I was in a church. We had a youth group
and I was kind of over it. I had to get a 10th grade high
school student in my youth group to tutor me through college algebra
and I got by just on the skin of my teeth. And if you gave
me an algebraic problem today that I would look at, it'd be
Hebrew to me. I mean, actually, I know a little
bit more about Hebrew than I do algebra. That being said, I know how to
add and subtract. I know two plus two equals four. Just because I don't know anything
about higher math doesn't mean that the things that I do know
aren't true. And so it is with the things
that we know about God. There's so much about him that
we don't know. But that doesn't mean that the
things that we do know are uncertain. We know these things by the revelation
that God has given to us in his word. And faith just believes
God. Oh, for the gift of faith that
we might believe God. Look what the Lord tells us in
1 Corinthians chapter 13 concerning knowledge. concerning knowledge. Look with
me at verse nine. For we know in part and we prophesy
in part. We might not know anything about
calculus or trigonometry or algebra, but we know that two plus two
equals four. We know in part and the things that we know
are sure. But when that which is perfect
is come, he's talking about the full revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which we made when we're in his presence, whether it be
at his second coming or whether it be when he takes us home. When that which is perfect is
come, then that which is in part, shall be done away." Oh, we'll
understand the fullness of his glory. When I was a child, Paul
said, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child,
but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now,
we see through a glass darkly. That word darkly is the word
riddle or mystery where it's the imagery of a mirror, it's
not looking through a glass that's dirty, it's the imagery of a
mirror and mirrors back then would have been polished metal
that would have tarnished very quickly and had to be repolished
frequently in order to get a good reflection. And so here's a mirror
that has not been polished for a while and it's distorting the
reflection. And Paul says we look through
a glass darkly but then face-to-face. Now I know in part The things
that I know are just a portion, a fraction of those things that
I shall know, but nevertheless, I do know them. But then shall I know even as
also I am known, but now abideth faith. We look to Christ, on
Christ, in Christ, through faith. Our faith is incomplete, our
faith is mixed with unbelief, that's our problem. That problem
is our sin. And now abideth, we walk by faith,
not by sight, we walk by faith. We walk Believing what God has
said though we don't fully comprehend it, though we don't fully understand
it, we believe it. Now abideth faith and hope and charity, love. And the greatest
of these is charity. Why? Because when we see Him,
when that which is perfect is come and we see Him in the fullness
of His glory, we'll no longer need faith. Our faith will be
our sight. When we see Him, we will no longer
need hope. Our hope will be our experience. But we will bask in the glory
of His love for all eternity. And so the greatest of these
is love, is love. Our knowledge, though incomplete,
does not make what we do know uncertain. Eye has not seen,
nor has ear heard, nor has it even entered into the imagination
of man the things that he has prepared for us. Oh, let us perish the thought
of heaven being an improved version of this life. It's not gonna
be anything like this life. There'll be no darkness, no shadows,
no shadows at all. The scriptures are clear on that.
The brightness of the light of his grace and glory will be such
that there'll be no shadows. Right now, we live in a shadowy
land. And we know, 1st John chapter
3 verse 2, we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. To talk about the things that
we know, we must begin with the person that we know. Because
the things that we know about that person cannot be separated
from his person. Paul said, in 2nd Timothy chapter
1 at verse 12, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him against
that day. I've trusted him for everything. I've invested all in him. I've got no place else to go.
If he's not all of my righteousness, if he's not all of my salvation,
I have no hope. I'm not looking to Christ plus
something that I've done or something that I've failed to do or not
done as the hope of my salvation. Christ is all. Christ is all
and he's in all. And that's what Paul said, I
know whom I have believed. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, all the truths of God and all the hope of our salvation
is bound up in him. The second person of the triune
Godhead, the son of God, the living word of God. We don't have a stoic or fatalistic
view of the sovereignty of God. We are looking and holding and
loving a God who is sovereign. We don't find our comfort in
times of uncertainty in a doctrine, though we know that doctrine
is true, the sovereignty of God. We find our comfort and our hope
in the God who himself is sovereign. It was the Lord Jesus who said
to the disciples, in particular to Peter, you know, the chapter
divisions in the Bible were not original. They were added so
we could find our way around in the Bible easier. And if you just read chapter
13 of the Gospel of John, the Lord had just rebuked Peter and
told him that he was being controlled by Satan, that Peter, it was
Satan, Peter, that speaking through Peter, when Peter said, oh no,
Lord, you're not going to die. And the Lord said, get thee behind
me, Satan. Oh, how that must have struck
Peter's heart. The Lord has just called me Satan. And then in the very next breath,
our Lord said, let not your heart be troubled. Peter, you believe
in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house are
many mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you, but I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go
and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And I will
receive you unto myself so that where I am there, you may be
also." So thankful that our Lord full
of mercy and that when we like Peter say foolish things and
do foolish things he's merciful not to condemn us, rebuke us,
he comforts us with words of hope and promise. Martha at her brother's tomb
said to the Lord, Lord, I know that my brother will rise in
the resurrection at the last day. I'm comforted in that. I've been given that promise
and I know that it's true. And the Lord had to speak a word
of hope and comfort to Martha by letting her know that the
resurrection was not just a future event, that he himself is the
resurrection. For he said, Martha, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he die, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Martha, the hope of the resurrection
is not just a doctrine, it's not just an event. People who
call themselves Christians all over the world celebrate the
event of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. But I fear that
the vast majority of those people that are celebrating an event
don't understand the meaning of that event. They don't understand that the
Lord Jesus himself is the resurrection. That his resurrection is the
evidence that God has given to his people that what he accomplished
on Calvary's cross was successful in saving his people from their
sins. The father rose his son from
the dead as the positive proof that the Father was satisfied
with what Christ accomplished and that everything necessary.
That's what the Lord was saying to Peter in John 14 when he said,
I go and prepare a place for you. He wasn't talking about
going to heaven and getting things in order in heaven. He was talking
about going to the cross. This is what has to be done in
order to prepare a place for you. God's justice must be satisfied. God's law must be fulfilled.
My death on the cross is going to be everything that God requires
for your salvation. I go and prepare a place for
you. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the living word that became flesh. He is now seated, sovereign and
successful at the right hand of the majesty on high. He is himself his people's advocate. John said, I write these things
unto you that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous
one. We have a righteousness in heaven.
We have one to whom we can plead our cause and have access to
God in our sin bearer, in our substitute, in our surety, our
savior. the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know. I know whom
I have believed. I know who he is. I know I know
him. This is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou
has sent. God's word reveals Christ and
God's Holy Spirit reveals him to the hearts of his people and
and in whatever confusion there might be in the circumstances
of our lives, in the circumstances of this world, we know that our
God reigns. And all these things happen according
to his providence. Psalm 76 verse 10 says, the wrath
of man shall praise thee. Actually,
that verse starts out with the word surely, I missed that word,
that's an important word. Surely, surely God says, don't
doubt it, the wrath of man shall praise thee and the remainder
thou shalt restrain. So anytime that there is the
exercise of man's wrath that goes unrestrained, If one man
is unrestrained in his wrath in murdering another man, there's only one reason for that.
And that one verse gives us the answer. Surely the wrath of man
shall praise thee and the remainder Thou shalt restrain. So if God
doesn't restrain it, he purposed it for his praise and for his
glory. And I can tell you by the testimony of the brethren
that I've been talking to this week, that the wrath of man that
was not restrained last Monday morning, God is using for his
glory. and the believer's hearts are
being softened and God's mercy is being poured out and God's
grace is being experienced and they are hurting, yes. Grieving, yes. Element of confusion,
certainly. But settled and comforted by
the God in whom they believe is sovereign? Yeah, he's being
glorified. My hope and prayer is that he
will be glorified here as well and that events like this and
like whatever else God might send our way would be used of
him to soften our hearts not to harden them, to cause us to
see ourselves in need of grace and not to call God into question
or point our judgmental fingers at someone else. Our God is sovereign. Romans
8, 28, and we know. We're talking about things we
know. In times When things happen that we don't know, we must go
back to those things that we know. And we know that all things
work together for good. Don't stop there. The unbeliever or the religionist
might read a verse like that and think, well, you know, there's
a silver lining around every cloud. And there's something
positive that's going to come out of this. No, the truth is
for the unbeliever, every blessing that they enjoy from the hand
of God in this life will only add to their judgment in the
life to come. And we hear unbelievers speak
of the death of a friend who's suffered in this world and they
say things like, well, at least they're not suffering anymore.
And they have no idea that whatever suffering they had in this world
cannot be compared to the eternal suffering in the judgment of God. No, Romans
8.28 says, for we know that all things work together for good
for them that love God and for those who are the called according
to his purpose. That's who God's working all
things together for good. Those whom he has called according
to his purpose. God has purposed a particular
people and he calls them by his grace and he works everything
together for their good. And again, their good is not
just some positive thing that might come out of a bad situation. Their good is Christ. That's the good that God brings
to the hearts of his people through trials and troubles. The Lord Jesus said, why callest
thou me good? For there's none good but God.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the end of our trials and troubles
and blessings. It's all for the purpose of pointing
us to Christ and giving us hope in Christ in this life and in
the life to come. And so the good that we look
for, the good that we look for is the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And with Him, with Him will come
all the blessings of His grace and all the blessings of His
mercy. And we know, we know that He works all things together
for good for them that love Him and those that are the called
according to His purpose. These are things we know. Turn
with me to Daniel chapter four, Daniel chapter four. Notice in verse 25, Daniel is
interpreting Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And Daniel says that they shall
drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast
of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen,
and they shall wet thee with the dew of the heaven, and seven
times shall pass over thee till thou know. that the most high ruleth in
the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Nebuchadnezzar
was king over the greatest nation in the world, Babylon. And Nebuchadnezzar
is going to become proud in his reign. Power corrupts and ultimate
power corrupts ultimately. And here Nebuchadnezzar with
the power that God gave him is being corrupted by his pride.
And he thinks that he's achieved that place. And now the Lord
is giving him a vision of his chastisement, not his judgment,
but his chastisement. God's going to chastise Nebuchadnezzar. And through that chastisement,
he's going to teach him something. Look here at verse 34. From verse
25 to verse 34 is Nebuchadnezzar's experience of going out and living
like an animal and being chastised by God. And at the end of the
days, when the chastisement of God was complete, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and 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? Till thou know, Nebuchadnezzar. And by God's grace, Nebuchadnezzar's
understanding returned to him. And here's what he confessed,
God's right. Whatever God does is right. Who am I to stand in judgment
of God? And who am I to take pride? Nebuchadnezzar
goes on to say, God knows how to humble the proud. Ecclesiastes chapter three, He
makes everything beautiful in His time. Brethren, the sufferings of this
world cannot be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us. The time of reward may not be
in this life, but it'll be in the life to come.
and whatever God has ordained and purposed for us in this world. If it leads to us being with
him, oh, it cannot be compared to the glory that shall be revealed
in us. Everything's right on schedule.
Nothing's out of place. We know that the Bible is the
Word of God. I'm not here to try to prove
that to you. I don't need to defend it. I
don't need to use logic or reason or anything else to try to, God's
giving you faith, you know. that God's word is not by private
interpretation, but holy men of God spake as they were moved
by the Holy Spirit. And the same Holy Spirit that
inspired the penman of scripture inspires your heart to believe
it and to hold to it. God's word is perfect. It's true and faithful. Where do we go in time of need? We flee in faith to our God and
we cling to the one whom we know. In whatever troubles and trials
come, he reigns over the armies of heaven, and over all the inhabitants
of the earth, and no man can stay his hand, and no man can
say unto him, what doest thou? That's where we stand. That's
where we run to. That's where we flee. Amen? All right, let's take a break.