The Gospel of Mark, Chapter 7. I have a lot on my heart and
mind, many things that cause me great heaviness, many cares
that trouble me. We are all aware of the senseless
slaughter of those men and women in Las Vegas, the fires in Northern
California, I've been in touch with my friends there, Brother
Stan Warta here got some of his family lost their home there.
All the evils of this dark, dark day, the social evils, political
evils, most of all the corrupt, horrid evils of the religious
world, the church in this day. Our dear friend, Brother Larry
Chris has been sick for six weeks. He's very sick. Doctors don't
yet know what the cause is. I have some families in Danville
going through some difficulties. Many of you are faced with heresies,
bombarded with heresies on every side by which the souls of many
are ensnared. I'm beginning to learn something,
I think, of what Paul meant when he asked the saints of God to
pray for me because of the care of all the churches. These men
here, these pastors, care not for their own flocks alone, but
for every congregation where Christ is worshiped. God's servants
care and care deeply, care deeply. Care for those things that trouble
you, those things that hinder you, those things that bring
confusion and difficulty in your lives. And in recent weeks, God
the Holy Ghost has graciously turned one sweet morsel of Holy
Scripture over and over in my heart countless times to the
great joy and peace of my soul, and by it has given me great
encouragement in my heart. And I pray he will do the same
for you. Have you found Mark 7? Mark chapter
7. I'm not so much going to preach
to you as just to give you some things I've written down here
and my own thoughts in the light of the text we'll read in just
a moment. Our Lord Jesus here has just come to Decapolis from
the coast of Tyre and Sidon where he had graciously healed the
Syrophoenician's daughter who was grievously vexed with an
unclean spirit. Here in Tyre and Sidon, or Decapolis
rather, he continued his acts of mercy, healing one who was
both deaf and dumb, and his fame spread like wildfire. So much so that he simply couldn't
be hidden. There was a huge crowd gathered
around him. He calls the lame to walk, the
deaf to hear, the dumb to speak. He who cast out devils, opened
the eyes of the blind, Unstopped deaf ears Healed the lame and
raised the dead By the mere word of his power was standing before
this great crowd of people and they stood before him astonished
And at the end of the day they expressed their amazement in
these words verse 37 He hath done all things well He hath done all things well. That's my subject. That's the
one thing I want you to see tonight. He hath done all things well. Looking over the days of my life
and everything I can recall in my life that I've experienced
in these past 67 years, I lift my heart and my hand to heaven. And this is my testimony. He
hath done all things well. Everything. Everything. Everything. Like you, I've had
a few trials, a few heartaches, a little bit of pain and sorrow,
a little hurt and bitterness. And I'm ashamed to confess I've
caused much more than I've experienced. But God, my Savior, has been
so kind, so gracious to me, that were I to die before I finish
this message tonight, you can write these words on my gravestone. He hath done all things well. Here lies a man who for 67 years
was the benefactor of unceasing special divine care. My Jesus has done all things
well. Sinners redeemed with wonder
tale, Christ Jesus has done all things well. By grace through
sin atoning blood, believing we have peace with God. Now you tell me, you who know
my God, You who are born of God, you who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, can you not say amen to what I've just said? He hath done all things well. From the day of our birth to
this hour, from the earliest pangs of sins conviction to the
blessed thrill of divine forgiveness, From the cradle to the grave,
from earth to heaven, this is the glad testimony of every believing
soul regarding the way our ever-gracious God has led us through this wilderness
and in all the experiences of it. Many of them, Brother Donnie,
we would have avoided. Many of them we would never have
planned. Many of them, not one father
here would plan for his own children, many of them. But God, our Father,
who is infinitely better, wiser, and more loving than we can ever
imagine, has ordained it all, and done it all, and has done
it well. He has done all things well. In Providence, and in grace,
in every truth revealed in his word, in every token of his love,
in every stroke of his rod, in every sunbeam of his goodness,
in every cloud that's darkened our skies, in every sweet morsel
he puts into our lives, in every bitter thing he's mixed into
our cup, in all that has been mysterious, confusing, painful,
and humiliating. In all that has been joyous,
delightful, and blissful, in all that is given, and in all
that he's taken away, he hath done all things well. Our great God and Savior, who
loved us, chose us, redeemed us, and saved us by his grace,
has kept us in all our ways, and in all the while, he's done
all things well. He who is our God, Brother Donny
Bell has said so many times, is too wise to err, too strong
to fail, and too good to do wrong. He's our God. He's our God. My dear friend, Brother Harry
Graham has been with the Lord for some time now. He was 35
years my senior. I met him when I was 19 years
old, pastor of a little church called Sunlight Baptist Church
in Asheboro, North Carolina. I heard him say many times, if
I could just believe a tithe of what I'd preach, I'd be so
much better off. Our God is too wise to err, too strong to fail,
and too good to do wrong. And if it comes to pass, God
did it. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things. Study God's universe, all the
history of it. Study his creation, his providence,
his judgments, and his grace. View them in every light you
can. Examine them as closely as you
can. Study them with all the diligence
you can. And this must be your testimony
if you understand anything about God. He hath done all things
well. Turn back to Psalm 119. The 119th
Psalm. Listen to this testimony that
David gives of his experience of God's grace. Verse 65. I want you to get there because
I want you to read it with me. Psalm 119 verse 65. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant, O Lord, according unto thy word. In verse 68 he says,
Thou art good and doest good. I could never find better words
to sum up my life's experience. God, my savior, has dealt with
me. I find that amazing. God, my savior, has dealt with
me. All the days of my life, he's
dealt with me. For 67 years, the angel of the
Lord has encamped round about me. God himself has pitched his
tent around this man. He encampeth round about his
own. That's what the psalmist tells
us. Not only that, he's dealt with me and he's dealt well with
me. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. The fact is he's dealt so well
with me that these words do not begin to start telling my astonishment
at how well he's dealt with my soul. The little word David uses
for well is one of those small one-syllable words used in Scripture
that's just bursting with meaning. It means most favorably, most
kindly, most graciously, most lovingly, most pleasurably, most
sweetly, most prosperously, most freely, most finely, most joyfully,
most merrily. He has to help well He has dealt
well with me. Particularly, these past 50 years
since he saved me by his grace, God has dealt well with me as
his servant. As his son, yes. As his friend,
yes. As his spouse, yes. But I take
particular delight in saying that he's dealt well with me
as his servant. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints is this grace given. that I should preach to
you the unsearchable riches of Christ. You see your calling,
brethren? Look at what God has called and
gifted with the gospel of his grace to declare to others. How
astonishingly well he's dealt with us. He's dealt well with
me according to his word, his word of absolute eternal predestination. His word written in this book,
a promise. Christ who is his word and the
word of grace given in the gospel. Truly, he hath dealt well with
me. Let me elaborate a little bit.
Let every redeemed sinner who serves God with a willing heart,
you who are gods, men and women, acknowledge the Lord's unfailing
goodness to you. Truly, he has dealt well with
us, his servants, exactly as it is written in his word. He
has dealt well with us, exactly as it is written in his word.
Truly, he's dealt well with us, and in addition to the immeasurable
riches of his grace in Christ, our great God has constantly
loaded our days with goodness in his providence. This is his
promise in Proverbs 12, 21. There shall no evil happen to
the just. There shall no evil happen to
the just. Just a few minutes ago, your
pastor and I were talking about his recent episode, had to go
to the hospital. Friends, we say things that I hope we don't
mean. Friends call or they'll visit and I say, well, Lord,
we're sure good Deliver you from that. He was good at sending
you too. And good if he didn't deliver
us. He does everything exactly right. Exactly best for you. Everything. There shall no evil
ever happen to the just. It's not possible. It's not possible. Evil will happen to God's Son
before it happens to me. Can't get to me unless it goes
through Him. No evil shall happen to the just. Much that we experience, I know,
appears to be evil at the time. We may, we do, in our unbelief,
even look upon it as evil. But God has proved himself faithful. Looking back upon the things
we thought were most evil at the time we experienced them,
who here would not say, I thank God that happened just as it
did? I thank God that happened just
as it did. I praise him for the experience.
By it, good has come to me. And good has come to a brother
or a sister here and there. It's good to acknowledge the
good when we see it. But it's far better and far more
honoring to God to acknowledge the goodness of his providence
when nothing can be seen good in his providence. When nothing
good can be seen except by the eye of faith. when I can look
to my Father in the teeth of darkness and pain and heartache
and confusion and instability and say, God is on His throne
and God is doing well, then God is honored. We don't look. God keep us from looking to things
we see and judge God by what we see. We must not look at the
things we feel and judge God by what we feel. We must not
look at things as we apprehend them and judge God by our apprehension,
but rather judge our experience, the things we feel, our understanding
by God. We do things just the opposite. He hath done all things well. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. according to thy word. My brother, my sister, whatever
it is that God has done for you or with you, we want to say to
you, whatever God has done for you or with you or to you, he
has done for you and he's done you good by it. Everything, every
detail. But Brother John, you just don't
know what I've gone through. Well, you might be astonished,
but I expect I probably do. And if I don't, God Almighty
is still true. He has done all things well. 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. Back before the world began,
in old eternity, if I can use such language, when our Lord
Jesus Christ, God's darling son, stood forth as our surety in
the everlasting covenant of grace, he did all things well. A covenant ordered in all things
and sure. I don't know how to explain things
concerning God's covenant, I recognize the language of the covenant
is given to us in human language to give us some little apprehension
of God's everlasting purpose of grace. I'm fully aware of
that. But I know this. I was born June 10th, 1950 on
a sharecropper's farm on the kitchen table in a shack down
in Bladen County, North Carolina, just about 10, 12 miles from
the congregation down in Spring Lake. And I don't know why my
mother and dad named me Donald Stewart Fortner, but that's the
name on the birth certificate. Don't know anybody in the family
ever been named such. Don, I am told, can mean one
of two things, either a mighty ruler or a little brown stranger,
neither applies to me. Fortner comes from folks who
were in Germany who kept Fords. Our family, I reckon, were trolls.
But I can tell you why they gave me the name, before the world
was. God Almighty wrote my name in
a book called the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation
of the world. And God Almighty chose me in
everlasting love. God Almighty, before the world
was, sacrificed His Son for me, who stood forth voluntarily to
lay down His life for me. And before the world was, He
did it! He did it! Who can understand
that? God. I'm talking way over my
head. It was done before the world
began. And God Almighty accepted me in His Son and smiled upon
me. He tells me in Proverbs 8, His
delights were with me before the world was. His delights were
with me before the world was. Before they died, my parents
both found some delight in me. They didn't much before that. God Almighty found delight in
me before the world was made. Because he accepted me in his
son. And accepting me in his son blessed
me. Now listen, you can read it for
yourself in Ephesians 1. With all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. The eternal, triune, incomprehensible,
infinitely good God gave his elect in his son every good thing
God can give. That's enough, we can go home
now. Oh my soul, there's nothing good God can give to any mortal
he hasn't given us in Christ from eternity. How come? Because we were accepted
in the beloved. The objects of his complacency,
his delight, and his satisfaction before the world was. Then in
time, 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 God's own darling son, the man, Christ Jesus, he who
is God, walked on this earth for 33 years, the full age of
a man, in perfect obedience to God, in obedience to all his
law, in obedience to all his will, in obedience to all his
character, living in perfect righteousness, but not for himself. He came here as the sinner's
substitute, as the representative of a chosen people, as a mediator,
as the God-man, the surety. He came here to do what Daniel
the prophet said he would do, to bring in everlasting righteousness. That is righteousness that is
of infinite worth because it is the righteousness of a man
who is God in the flesh. Jesus Christ obeyed the will
of his father in every detail. He said, I delight to do thy
will. Oh my God. He said, your law
is written in my heart. I delight to do your will. Oh my God. And for 33 years,
he did it perfectly. Bruce Crabtree, I love you. You're such a dear friend. I'd
like to love you as I love myself. But I can't. I just can't. Just can't do it. Just can't
do it. And even more than that, I'd
like to love God with all my heart, but I can't do it. Listen,
yes I did. Yes, I did. In the person of
his son. Brother Paul, we are really and
truly one with Christ. Really and truly one with Christ. Brother Todd, Bob, and I were
talking this afternoon, folks concerned, well, that's the way
God sees things. That answers a lot of questions,
doesn't it? Let me tell you a little secret. This is deep, deep, deep,
profound theology. It'll take you a while to get
it, listen carefully, listen. However God sees things, that's
how they really are. I'm one with Christ. If you're
his, you're one with Christ. So that everything he did, while
he walked on this earth, when he ate a piece of bread to the
glory of God, when he freely forgave his enemies to the glory
of God, when he take a drink of water to the glory of God,
when he laid down at night and rest for the glory of God, when
he got up in the morning and went about his business for the
glory of God, always doing his father's will. Don Portner perfectly
obeyed God. Perfectly. He is, as the scripture
says, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness, the only righteousness
we have. He is our righteousness for justification,
and he is our righteousness for sanctification. That is to say,
he by his obedience unto death has justified us before God's
law and he by giving us his nature in the new birth has made us
righteous inside so that we have in Christ that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. So that the believers described
like this, these are the men who accepted with God. Men and
women in whose spirit is no guile. Well, that'll wipe you out, and
that'll wipe me out, except as we are made new creatures in
Christ, partakers of the divine nature in which there is no guile. A nature There is God in you,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's called the new birth.
That's called sanctification. But preacher, what about our
horrible sin? Would to God every time I stand
to speak, I could expose to every person listening to me the utter,
vile, base, hideous corruption of your heart at the very core
of your being. You're nothing but sin. You never
had a good thought, never even had a good thought about having
a good thought, let alone done a good thing. It's not possible. Everything you are is sin, and
everything you do is sin, and even as a believer, everything
you do is polluted with your own corrupt heart nature. That's
what you are in Adam. But in Christ, you're called
holiness to the Lord. In Christ, God says you're holy. God says it, not me. And if God
says it, that's the way it is. We have that holiness, perfect,
spotless holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. He
gives it to us in his blessed, blessed work of regeneration. He came here and fulfilled righteousness
for us, but righteous obedience alone would never bring salvation. Righteous obedience alone would
never satisfy God. Righteous obedience alone would
never make up for the past. Sin must be punished. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. So our Lord Jesus Christ, when
he had finished his work as Jehovah's servant upon the earth, set his
face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. And there he said,
the Son of Man must suffer many things and must be crucified
and be buried and rise again the third day. Because in order
for God to save my soul, in order for God to save you, in order
for God to be just and justify us, he must punish sin to the
full satisfaction of justice. And so the Lord Jesus went up
to Mount Calvary and he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? And the echo reverberates, because
I am of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Awake, O sword, against
the man that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd. And the Lord Jesus freely, voluntarily
took the sword of divine justice when he was made sin for us.
and swallowed up the whole of the wrath of God and by the sacrifice of himself
put away our sins he didn't just hide them he didn't pretend that
he put them away when he was made sin for us Justice, in furious,
holy anger, slew the Son of God because he fully deserved to
die. You see, God won't do anything
except injustice. God would not punish his son
if his son didn't deserve to die. And God won't save you if
you don't deserve to be saved. Deserving, not in you or what
you do, deserving because Christ with one tremendous draft of
love drank damnation dry and there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. And then he comes to his own
at the appointed time of love in the sweet, sweet blessed work
of his spirit. The wind blowing where it listeth
and calls to life chosen redeemed sinners by omnipotent grace. Now there's a lot of stuff that
goes on in religious circles and men try to get folks conned
into being religious, make a profession of faith, raise your hand, bow
your head, pray, repeat after me, come up here and sign a card,
God bless you, you're saved and everything's all right, and you
go on to hell. When God comes saving, I'll tell you what he'll
do. If God's pleased tonight to invade
you by his grace. Lord God will you do that. Awaken
the dead. Give them life. You're going
to find strange things going on in you. For the first time
in your life you're going to begin to abhor yourself. You'll begin to abhor yourself. And you're gonna recognize that
God's just to send you to hell. And you'll find yourself doing
something that just a minute ago you couldn't do. You just
couldn't do it. You will find yourself believing
on the son of God. You see, faith is not a decision
you make. Try making it. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. You're sitting there
with your husband in the hospital, I'll tell you when you believe
God, when he gives you faith to believe him. Until then, you
chew your fingernails into the bone. Is that accurate? That's
the way it is. You can't decide to believe God.
You must, but you can't. But God, the Holy Spirit graciously
works faith in you and you find yourself delighted to trust his
son. And you who believe, you go through
your struggles ups and downs and you wring your hands and
pace the floor and you get angry and you get upset and you're
disturbed and then at last God works faith in you and you stoop
down and take his yoke upon you and learn of him and you find
rest unto your souls only as God the Holy Ghost works faith
in you working faith in you he pronounces you clean He sprinkles
your conscience with the precious blood of Christ and says, you
please God. You please God. Before Enoch
was translated, we're told in Hebrews 11, he had this testimony
that he pleased God. Oh, Enoch must have been a mighty
good man. His neighbors looked at him and
said, if anybody goes to heaven, it'll be brother Enoch. He's
a good man. No, no, that is not what it means. God spoke to Enoch and said,
you please me, come on up. And when God saves a sinner,
he speaks the word of grace in your soul and declares you accepted
in the beloved. Through the blood and righteousness
of God's darling son, I please him all the time. All the time. Even when I displease
you and displease me. And the things I do often displease
the Lord, as it was with David. But David's acceptance with God
didn't vary a bit. And Bob Morrell, your acceptance
with God can't vary. It's in Christ. You got that? It can't vary. Our apprehension,
only because we look at ourselves, may vary. God's acceptance can't
vary. were accepted in the beloved.
And the Lord God all the days of our lives does all things
well in his good providence. We know that all things work together for good. We know it because
it's written in this book. And we know it because we've
been taught by God's spirit. And we know it because we experience
it every day. How's that gonna be good? I don't
know, but I'm anxious to find out. I don't know how God's gonna
work good out of this. Oh, that's gonna cause so much
damage. Oh no, it ain't gonna hurt anything. Ain't gonna hurt
anything. No evil shall happen to the just.
None of them. Nothing gonna impede God's cause,
God's purpose, God's kingdom. Nothing gonna stop the progress
of God's gospel. Nothing gonna stop the ride of
Christ Jesus through this world, conquering and to conquer. Nothing
shall impede Him, but everything works for Him. For Him. Somebody was discussing with
me just recently, I can't remember whether it was here or who came
here, Curse on Ham. Folks have the stupid idea, some
folks have it referred to a curse on black folks that can never
be saved. That kind of dumb, David. What's it talking about? Shem and Japheth, they're spoken
of as blessed of God. Ham said, he said, boys, come
here, let me show you daddy now. He's just like I always told
you he was. That's the way with the ungodly. They expose evil. They love to get on Facebook
and talk about it. They love to get in the corner and talk
about it. They expose evil. Godliness says, Shaym, get the
other end of this blanket. Let's go and cover him up. And
refuses to look upon it. And the Lord God sent by Moses
cursed his ham. His seed shall be servant of
servant to Shaym and Japheth. And Japheth, the Gentiles, God's
elect among the Gentiles, shall possess the tent of Shem. These are the Israel of God.
What does that mean? Let me tell you why the ungodly
exist. Let me tell you why the reprobate
exist. There was a fellow by the name of Judas. Do you know
who was God's servant? As much God's servant as you
are. Not willingly, but as much God's servant as you are. There's
a creature called Satan, the devil, Apollyon, the old serpent,
the dragon of hell. He's God's servant. This is surprising
to most folks. He's not a rival to God. He's
not in competition with God. He's God's devil. He's God's
devil. And he does nothing except that. which God Almighty ordains and
uses for the benefit of His elect. Nothing, nothing, nothing. No evil shall happen to the just. For we know, we know. Oh God
convince me every minute of every hour of every day till my days
here are ended. All things work together for
good to them that love God to them who are be called according
to his purpose and when the last thing has been done that God
before the world was ordained must be done every knee will
bow and every tongue confess to wondering worlds as we look
back over all the course of time And we'll say forever, he has
done all things well. Lord God, if I could, I wouldn't
change anything. Past, present, or future. I like things just the way you've
ordained them, just the way you worked them. Give me grace to
bow to them and worship and serve you. Amen.