It is good to see you here this
morning. I'm not going to be able to broadcast
again today, and the Lord will help us to fix this problem.
I know that there are many. I just received a letter thanking
us for the messages that they're able to see online. We've had
the last two weeks not been able to get it to work. We'll see
what the Lord provides. We're going to see something
about providence today. I pray God will teach us. I am just as perplexed as you
are concerning providence. It is a constant struggle. And by grace and power of the
Spirit, faith always must win over what we see, what we think,
and how we feel. God's Word is true. And faith says, let God be true. And every man, including this
one, be a liar. I do pray God would help us to
understand something about providence. We are all facing A new year. We are all coming in from a year
of great trouble, great fear. And now that it seems the political
winds have changed and all of that, people have given somewhat
of a hope. Listen, don't put your trust
in men. Don't set your confidence in
men. We're going to see in a minute,
God's going to have His way. Whatever that is. And He's got
a good purpose. And that is the salvation of
His people. Whatever He's doing, that's what
He's going to do. He's going to use whatever providence
is at hand And He's going to use it for His glory and the
salvation of His people. You can trust that. You can trust
that. So now as we face this year,
I've thought about this as a message to prepare for you in the coming
months of this year. And if God, peradventure, give
us the ability to live, I want you to have this principle
of comfort. And that's the title of it, a
principle of comfort. principle of comfort. Now, go to Ecclesiastes chapter
9. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Our text will be found in verse
1. Scripture says, for all this
I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the
righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. Now there's your comfort. There's
your comfort. It's going to be the first part
of this. Your comfort. The principle of comfort. Now
the second part of this deals with providence. Because this
is what causes us to be uncomforted, doesn't it? Isn't what we feel
or what we think and what we see under the sun cause us anxiety? Cause us to not be comforted? Well he's going to deal with
that too. Listen. He said, no man knoweth either
love or hatred. By all that is before you, you
are not going to know either the love or the hatred of God
by what you see." And notice that, he said, no
man. I mean, that's very important, because you'll drive yourself
mad trying to figure this out. Now, let's deal with this. This
wise man Solomon who wrote this book, He declares something here. He says, for all this, I consider
it in my heart to declare all of this. Now, in the previous
chapter and the chapters before this, Solomon is dealing with
everything under the sun. In all of his wisdom, he views
folly and he views a wise man. He views a lazy man. He views
a working man. And he comes to this conclusion
under the sun. Since all die, he says it's vanity. Vanity and vexation of spirit. You want to know what's under
the sun? Vanity and vexation of spirit. Yes, an industrious
man is better than a wise man. That's what he said. You have
a better life than if you're lazy. A wise man is better than a fool.
There's no doubt about that. But notice what he says this
concerning things under the sun. Look at chapter 8 and verse 4.
Notice he is going to tell us who's ruling all things under
the sun. He says in verse 4, where the
word of the king is, there is power. And who may say unto him,
what doest thou? Now he was king, so obviously
he's not talking about himself. That was true in an earthly sense. Under the sun, when a king says
something, who's going to say anything against it? But listen,
Solomon is talking about the king. The king. He said, in the word of the king,
there is what? There's power. And who's going
to change it? Who's going to change it? God,
who is king and sovereign over all the works of creation, and
does all things after the counsel of His own will. Who will thwart
His plan? Anybody? Nobody. Where the word of the King is,
there's power and who's going to say anything against it? This thought of God of absolute
sovereignty. This thought of God's absolute
sovereignty, what it should do is lead men to bow. It should lead men to bow to
God. Why? Because in His hands is
life and death. Listen to what God says in Deuteronomy
32, 39. He said, See now, I am He, and there is no God with
me. Got that? There's no God with
me. I'm God and that's it. Listen, I kill and I make a life. Now who kills and who gives life? God says I do. I wound and I
heal. Listen to this, neither is there
any that can deliver out of my hand. Can you deliver anyone's
life or death or wounding or healing out of the hand of God?
Can you do anything about that? What do you have to do with that?
Can you do anything? Seeing this truth that God, the
truth of God, we must understand that all things that happen then
in time and eternity are according to the will of God. Whatever
is happening, it is according to the will of God. All things
are decreed and happen in time according to the eternal purpose
and power of God. God doesn't make things up as
He goes along. You do. I do. Something, we're
determined to go this way, we hit a roadblock, what do we do?
We go another way. Why? Because we can't overcome
it. We can't do anything about it. God does not see things that
way. He cannot change. He said, I
am the Lord, I change not. I change not. Why? Because all
of His decrees are perfect. Everything He ordains is perfect. This should be a comfort to the
elect, shouldn't it? In Ephesians chapter 1, the apostle,
after giving the doctrine of election and redemption, he says
this in Ephesians 1 and verse 11, he said, in whom? In Christ. We have obtained an inheritance. Isn't that good? You that believe
in Christ, you've obtained an inheritance. Why? Being predestinated. Why did
you obtain that inheritance? Was it you? No, you are predestinated
to it. According to the purpose of him
who worketh, listen, all things after the counsel of his own
will. This is Solomon's wisdom that
he found out under the sun. This is the wisdom that every
believer knows, that God is king and his word alone has power.
His word alone has power. His divine providence is for
the salvation of His elect. So it is with the election of
His people. So it is with all things that
happen in time are according to His purpose. He is right now
moving all things after the counsel of His own will to do what? When
I say purpose, you know that that has an intention. God purposes
something. He decrees something. There's
a reason for it. And listen to His reason. The salvation of His people. That's what He's doing. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, as the great high priest said this, All power is
given unto me in heaven and in earth. Why? that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Now what is he going to
do? If that's his purpose, who's going to stop him from doing
his purpose? Everything in the purpose of God is moving in perfect
harmony with all of history and the present events and future
events are moving together. We only see pieces of this, don't
we? We only see it from our perspective.
We don't see everything even that's around us. We only see
a certain amount of things. So we don't see the whole thing.
God's telling you the whole thing. I'm doing it to save my people.
And yet as Solomon looked in this business under the sun,
knowing that God is king, knowing that his word has power, look
what he says in verse 17 of chapter eight. He said, Then I beheld
all the works of God, that a man cannot find out the
work that is done under the sun, because though a man labor to
seek it out, yet he shall not find it, yea, further, though
a wise man think he know it, yet he shall not be able to find
it. Solomon is saying, look, God
is sovereign. And in this matter of providence,
nobody's going to know what He's doing. You're not going to be
able to figure it out. No man can find out the work
that is done under the sun. Man cannot, by searching or by
his finite wisdom, understand the work of God. He's not going
to do it. Solomon put all of his wisdom
into it, and he said, you're not going to find it out. I didn't,
and you won't. Now some people think they got
this thing figured out. Solomon includes them there.
He said, there's a wise man. He thinks he got it figured out.
What's the end? Yet he's not able to find it.
He's going to be wrong. He's going to be wrong. You ever
been wrong trying to figure this out? See, oh man, this has got to
happen now. Look at this. And it goes a different
way. She's a strong man. And Solomon
includes this in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said the race
is not to the swift. You think that the race would
be for the swift, right? I don't know, look at our leaders
and see what happened. You know, you got the biggest
bunch of morons running the place. And that, I mean, seriously,
you'd think that that would be the most wise, the most noble,
the most intelligent people should be leaders. And yet, what do
you find? Why? It's the providence of God. Now,
why would he do that? God's using it for his salvation
of his people. I can't tell you. I'm not gonna be able to figure
it out. We look at circumstances of time
and we see chaos. How would you see? I see a tornado. I see a hurricane. Everything's
blowing. You can't tell where it's going,
where it's coming from. That's our life. That's how we
see things. We see random events, unexplained
tragedies, unexplained victories. Some are born poor and die rich.
Some are born rich and die poor. The righteous suffer and the
wicked prosper. Isn't this vexation? If you're just honest, it's vexing,
isn't it? It's vexing. The false gospel is well received
and the true gospel is despised. Isn't that something? Mighty kings are overthrown by
the weak. Wicked kings oppressed by the
good. There seems to be no justice.
Why are some children born with illnesses and others born healthy? Why do God's people labor in
sickness while the wicked prosper in health and wellness? We can look for reasons, but it's utterly useless to try.
We can apply ourselves to know this, but the wisest of men are
not going to figure this out. So then let us learn what God
will teach us concerning providence and what God gives us to comfort
us in our confusion. And I know this, that this comfort
If you are without comfort this morning, this should move you
to find comfort. And I tell you, there's only
one place to find comfort. It's in Christ. There is no place
of comfort and rest and peace other than in Christ. And that's
where he's going to lead us. Now Solomon in these verses declares
to us divine wisdom concerning the providence of God. And he
gives us first a principle. Look at this principle. He said,
for all this I considered in my heart even to declare this.
This is what the reason I did that was for this. Listen, this
is what I found out. That the righteous and the wise
and their works are in the hand of the king. The righteous, the
wise, and their works are in the hand of God. First of all, who are the righteous? That's a vital question. If there's
any comfort, if you were to have any comfort in this chaotic world,
in this sin-infested, this upside-down, chaotic world, listen, you're
gonna find that only the righteous are gonna be comforted. Now,
who are they? What is it to be righteous? Simply put is to be without sin.
You cannot be righteous unless you are totally, absolutely free
from all sin. The comfort is to the righteous,
to those who may be able to stand before the judgment of God without
guilt. Only those who are holy. That's
who are righteous. Now, is there anyone here who
would confess themselves to be without sin? Who can confess that? Is there any among us who would
say they have kept the law of God to perfection? No, the scriptures
plainly declared to us that that is not true. He says there is
none righteous, Romans 3 in verse 10. There is none righteous.
No, not one. He tells us in Galatians chapter
3 in verse 22, all under sin. The scripture has concluded,
this is what the word of the king has concluded. The word of the
king has concluded this, all under sin. That's what the king
has concluded. All under sin. But this principle of comfort
is speaking to all who have righteousness. Now, how then may a sinner have
righteousness? Since we are all sinners, how
may we have righteousness? You can only have righteousness
through Jesus Christ. There's no other way to be righteous.
There's no other way to be righteous. In that same chapter in Romans
3, he tells us there's none righteous. Well, how then can we be righteous?
By the law, he said, therefore, by the deeds of the law shall
no place be justified in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. But he said, now the righteousness
of God is revealed. How? That Jesus Christ, he said
this, In Romans 3, 22, he says, the righteousness of God which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ. How may righteousness be obtained?
Only by the righteousness of another, of this man, Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can raise
his hand and say, I've been righteous. He's the only one. He obtained the righteousness
of God, how? By His faithfulness, by His obedience. And He being the eternal Son
of God, He did not need righteousness, did He? Why would He come to
be a man and obtain righteousness here? He did it for one reason. As I told you, God does all things
for the salvation of His people. He came into this world to obtain
righteousness for those that God gave to Him. Everyone He represented. Now
listen to that. Everyone Jesus Christ represented. He by Himself obtained righteousness
for them. He did that. He obtained righteousness
by His obedience. Why? So that we may have that
righteousness imputed to us. Imputed to us. That word means
charged. Abraham, listen, Abraham believed
God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, why was
it imputed to him for righteousness? Listen, because he was righteous.
You can't impute somebody to be righteous that's not righteous.
This is the work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer,
is to make us righteous. To create in us a new man that
is holy and without sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
the world to make us righteousness, even the righteousness of God,
which is unto all and upon all them that believe. That righteousness
He made is unto all and upon all, who? That believe. You believe? Listen, this verse is speaking
to you. Now you have righteousness, Not
your own. You did not merit it, you didn't
earn it, you didn't obtain it. Yet it's mine. Why? It was given
me. It was given to me by the Lord
Jesus Christ who made it Himself. He gave me His righteousness.
Therefore, when it says the righteous, He's speaking to me. But not
only did the Lord Jesus Christ give us a merit force of righteousness,
sin also must have been dealt with, right? We did sin. We did
actually offend the holy God. We're not pretending we didn't
sin. If any man say he had not sinned, he makes God a liar.
The truth's not in him. So how does God deal with our
sin? Our Lord Jesus Christ not only provided righteousness,
but he himself provided redemption. He paid the debt for our sins. Righteousness would not be complete
had sin not been dealt with because we are not righteous. We could
not have any comfort except the justice of God for our sins be
satisfied. There's no comfort in that. You
can't have comfort unless you know that God's justice is satisfied
with you. You won't find any comfort. Why? Listen to what Peter said. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Is that not astounding? It's
the most amazing thing in all the world that Christ, our Redeemer,
bore our sins. Our sins were charged to Him.
Why? For God hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. God could not punish an innocent
man. And so, yet, He was still the Holy Son of God. I don't
understand that. I can't fathom that. I know this,
that in Him, God punished all my sin. And He said this, He
said, His soul, in Isaiah chapter 53, He said, and His soul shall,
He shall be satisfied. By the offering of His soul,
He shall be satisfied. God's satisfied. That's why we
are righteous. You who believe in Christ, you
are righteous. You are made righteous. You had
no contributing factors to this, did you? What'd you put into
it? What'd you add to it? You didn't even give it to yourself.
Matter of fact, you were walking this earth not wanting it. And God gave you life. God gave you faith. And now then,
when he says the righteous, he's talking about you. Is that not
amazing? You're not gonna look in the
mirror and find that. This is the work of God's saving
grace. He said the righteous, now notice
the second thing, the wise. This is not speaking of earthly
wisdom. This is, again, speaking of spiritual
matters. It is the spiritually wise. The spiritually wise. He said
to the righteous and to the wise, those who are made wise unto
salvation, you that believe, you are made wise. You may not
be wise in anything else. You may not know anything else.
You may be dumb as a box of rocks. I tell you this, if you know
this, you know everything. Listen to the answer to this
question. Tell me the answer to this question, you wise. How
can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can God be just and you're
ungodly, how can he do that? I know the answer. I got the
answer that way. By Jesus Christ. That's it. By a representative man. That's how he can do it. Because
he obtained, my representative man obtained my righteousness,
and my representative man was punished for my sins. And God
is just now to give me favor. And how were you made wise? You
were made wise through the preaching of this gospel, weren't you?
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Isn't that a wonderful passage? I love that. That's amazing.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How shall they call on Him whom they have not heard? And how
shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word
of God. God's laid out the means. He chose His people. Christ redeemed
His people. The gospel goes out. Says, Whosoever
will, come to Him. And you know what His people
will? They'll come. Thy people shall be willing when? In the day of thy power. That's when they're willing.
That's when they call. You can't call unless you have
life. Could you call on Christ without spiritual life? Is that
possible? Except you be born of the Spirit
of God, is that possible for you to call out? A lot of people
believe that you got to call out to be born again. That's
like saying you got to breathe before you're born. You've got
to breathe before you're conceived. No, you can't breathe until after.
When God gives you life, what are you going to do? You're going
to call. You're going to call. And this is wisdom. I knew a lot about doctrine when
I was young. I really understood it. I understood election. I understood total depravity,
limited atonement, irresistible grace. I understood these doctrines. I didn't know him. I didn't understand him. I was
a fool trusting in my knowledge. But when he came to me, it was
not a doctrine to be grasped in the mind. It was a person. I was not coming to a doctrine.
I was coming to a person. This doctrine was not just words
on a page. It was real. I was depraved. He was sovereign. I needed him. I pleaded for him to come to
me. And you know what he did? He did exactly what he said he
was gonna do. He gave me rest. Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will. I will give you rest. That's what I found. Somebody's
come to Christ, listen to me. You are made righteous through
that representative and you are wise. You have wisdom that the
sons of this world will never have. Scripture says this, you know
all things. Now man, If that's talking about earthly stuff,
that's not true. That's talking about earthly stuff. I was looking
up some doctor things the other day and they were just spouting
off this stuff like he was... Like they knew exactly what they
were talking about. And I couldn't keep up. At all. So it's not
talking about that. I know all things that are necessary.
I know Him. Do you know Him? Then you're
wise. Notice this, and there works.
And there works. Listen to me, everyone who is
born of God will do good works. There's no doubt about that.
Isn't that what the scriptures tell us? They plainly tell us
that, that we are created of God in Christ Jesus unto good
works. Listen, they're not even up for
a debate as to what they're going to be. Now, I don't know what
they're going to be. Listen, because God hath foreordained
that we should walk in them. Even our good works are foreordained
to what we should do. But believers will have good
works. We will walk worthy of the calling that we are given. We will walk by the law that
is given to us. And that law is what? Faith and
love. James says, if we keep his commandments,
he is in us. And what are His commandments?
That you should believe on the name of the Son of God, and that
you should love one another, even as He gave us commandment,
1 John 3, 23 and 24. That's our commandments. Those
are our commandments. And they're not grievous, are
they? Are any of those two things grievous? Is it grievous to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? No matter of fact, we want to
believe more, don't we? Loving one another, is that grievous
to love? To the flesh it is, not to the
spirit. I love you. I love you. It's not grievous to love. Not to the heart of the believer,
not to one who is made wise. And we know this, that none of
our good works have anything to do with our acceptance. Listen,
just like my righteousness and my wisdom, my works are of Him. Any fruit we bear, where does
it come from? You got an apple tree, it sprouts
up, grows limbs, and all of a sudden there's some apples on it. Where
did it come from? Did it come from the leaves?
Or the branch? or the tree and the root. What does the fruit have anything
to do to bear itself? It doesn't. Where do our fruits come from?
They come from God. They come from God. But notice
here's the comfort. My righteousness is of God. My
wisdom is of God. The fruit that we bear is of
God. Listen, and that's exactly what he's, this is the comforting
part. Listen, he says, go back to your text. He said, I considered
all this in my heart to declare all of this, that the righteous,
that you believer, the wise, that you and your works, listen,
are in the hand of God. They're in the hand of God. If these things are true of you,
this is the most comforting part of this. That my righteousness,
my wisdom, and all the fruit that I bear is in the hand of
God. Which means what? If God controls all things, and
He does, All things work together after the counsel of His own
will, and it does. And God has willed to give you
righteousness. God has purposed to give you
wisdom. God has decreed that you should
worship and serve Him in faith and love. Listen, you will continue
to be righteous, you will continue to be wise, and you will continue
to bear fruit. Why? Because you are in His hand. In His hand. I like this, the definition of
this word. It means open hand. Open hand. Believer in Christ, we that have
been washed in the blood of Christ, have the imputed righteousness
of Christ, we that have the wisdom of God given to us, listen, God
receives you with an open hand. I thought of this illustration,
if you had a A child. And the child's looking around
and he sees his father. And he starts running to his
father with his arms out. What would a loving father do?
Would he punch him? Or receive him? This is what God does to the
righteous and the wise and their works. What does he do? He receives
them. He receives them. Isn't that not astounding? I'm
preaching this morning, and I'll tell you what, the sin is so
marred, anything in my mind, that there's no way possible
that God could ever accept this. Oh, He does. Isn't that astounding? Why? Because it is through Christ. Through Christ. That's why we
sing that hymn. God sees my Savior, and listen,
Then He sees me. In the Beloved, accepted and
free. This word means accepted. That's
what it is. All your righteousness and all
the wisdom that God has given you, all of the works that God
has given you into doing this, they are received with open hands. With open hands. Why? Because of the faith of obedience
of Christ. because of His blood that cleanseth
us from all of our unrighteousness. Listen, I know my faith is weak.
I don't have as much love as I desire to have. But because
I am in Christ, listen, this is what it means. Here's your
principle of comfort. You are forever accepted. Forever accepted. You're accepted in Christ Jesus. And Solomon says, now in this
next part, Solomon's going to deal with providence, because
this is what interrupts our comfort. I've given you some comfort.
If you're in Christ, you're righteous, and there's nothing going to
change that. You don't have anything to do with it? You can't mess
it up? You can't mar it? It was done outside of you. It's
something that God puts in you. And it's something God keeps
in you. Now, your wisdom. You may lose your mind. You may
forget your name. He won't forget you. He won't
forget you. And your works, though marred
with sin, are what? They're in the hand of God. They're
received of God because of Christ. Now, providence often goes against
what that says. And so Solomon will now turn
and deal with providence. Look at what he says. He says,
no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before
them. He redirects now to the providence
that we see. Believer, you will never know
the love of God by what you see. An unbeliever, listen to me,
you will never know the hatred of God by what you see. Surely we cannot know our salvation
by looking at our works or our religious deeds. Isn't that right? You can't look at your fruit
and say, oh, look at my fruit, I must be a believer. Look at
what I've done. You can't do it that way. It is our nature to think that
if all is well, God loves me. Now that's through your flesh.
Our flesh is prone to see it that way. We must never strive to determine
God's love or hatred based on outward circumstances. Or even
our love or our faith. Why? Because your love and your
faith are waning, aren't they? They're not constant. They're
not steady. They fluctuate. So you can't
base God's love on your faith or your love. Our experiences and our circumstances
in this life may be good or bad. But whatever they are, listen
to me. Here's your comfort. Therefore,
you're good. We're gonna study this in coming
weeks, Romans 8, 28. We know. You wise, you know something. Because you're in Christ, you
know this. We know that all things, what work together for our good,
to the good of them that love God, to them who are the called
according to His purpose. All things work together for
our good. But things do not always appear
to work to our good, isn't that right? The appearance of the
thing may be good, or the appearance of the thing may be bad. But
notice this, God says both are going to work together for your
good. In Psalm 73, Asaph was struggling
with this so much that his faith had failed. He said, my foot
had nigh well slipped. I had almost lost all faith in
God together. Why? Because he saw something
under the sun. He saw that the righteous suffer
and the wicked prosper. Does this not vex you? It does. It's vexing to our soul. This
is not, this is always, seems to be always the case. Believers,
the righteous in Christ, suffer. But we are not to trust what
we see, but rather to trust the word of God. So as you go through
this year, you listen to me. Things are going to appear for
your evil. They're going to appear as though
that they are evil. You can't tell the hatred of
God based on those things. You can't tell if God loves you
if this year goes smooth and everything goes well for you.
You shouldn't base God's love on what this providence has brought.
Where are you going to know whether God loves you or hates you? You
can only know that by what God says in His Word. Believer, trust
His Word. The Apostle Peter was on the
Mount of Transfiguration and he saw the Lord transfigured
before his eyes. You know what Peter said? He
said, yet we have a more sure word of prophecy. Isn't that
something? Peter says, I don't want you
to trust my eyes. What I want you to trust is the
word of God. So you shouldn't trust your eyes.
You shouldn't trust your feelings and the things, the providences
around you. You should trust the Word of
God. Why? All things, joy, sorrow, peace,
war, famine, death, all things work together for good to God's
elect. This brought to mind, it's now
been almost 10 years, I think. Our brother Cody Gruber, missionary
in Mexico, dear friend of mine for many, many years. At the
very height of his ministry, I mean, at the very pinnacle
when I just, you know, when he was being used so greatly at
that time, I couldn't, you couldn't help but see it. Lord was using
him in those churches there and in the United States. And then
all of a sudden, God took him. I tell you, for a long time,
I was in great confusion as to why that happened. I didn't understand. I couldn't figure it out. I looked
around me, and there were so many false prophets and false
religionists, freewill work religion preachers that have lived for,
you know, 80 years, 90 years, spouting out lies. That time
I was looking at Billy Graham, I was looking at him and saying,
how in the world could that happen? There's a man of God preaching
the gospel of God's free grace, and there's a man spouting lies,
and he's popular and loved by everybody. This man's unknown,
unsung, and died. But if I go to the Word of God,
I can understand. He says, the righteous perish, and no man
lay at the tart, that he escapes the evil. God didn't do it for
his punishment. God did it for his good. And so as we see these things,
where are we going to find any peace? The only place you're
going to find peace is the cross. The only place you're going to
find peace is the cross of Christ. Don't try to look at the tragedies
or the joys of life to see God's love. Look at the cross. You
want to know if God loves you? Look what He gave. He that spared not His own Son,
how shall He not with you freely give us all things? You want to know if God loves
you? Look what He gave you. You need any more proof? Listen to what Isaiah 46 says.
He says, God declared, He said, I'm God and there's none else.
Declaring the end From the beginning, from ancient times, the thing's
not yet done, saying, I will do all my pleasure. What is God's pleasure? What
is God pleased to do? God is pleased to save His people.
That's what God's pleasure is. The pleasure of the Lord is saving
us. Listen to Psalm 149, verse 4. He said, for the Lord taketh
pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. What is He going to do? This
year, what is He going to do? He will take pleasure in His
people and He will beautify the meek. He will save His people
from their sins. I've often given you that illustration,
right? Of the Ezekiel 10, the wheel
within the wheel. I read that just yesterday again.
I read it through astounding the beautiful things The wheel
is the providence of God. And these cherub were, he said
there were four of them and they were all moving straight forward.
And the cherub had their wings. You know, I didn't notice this
before. And he said the hand of the man was under the wings
of these. Who's that? That's Christ. He's
the man in fine linen that Ezekiel sees at the beginning. He's the
one directing this providence. And you know this, When you look
at a wheel, you're not supposed to focus on the spokes. It'll make you dizzy. Don't look
at individual providences and try to trace them back to God. Man, how's this evil thing over
here going to bring about the salvation of God's people? You're not going to find that
out. You're not going to find it out. Stop. Stop trying to
trace it. What are you to do? You're to
look at the hub, the thing that doesn't move. Look at the hand
of the man who is guiding providence. It's Christ. It's Christ. So you don't understand. Neither
do I. And you won't ever. It will drive you mad trying
to find it out. And then again, all you'll get
is just being mad. God already told you in his words
you won't find it out. Why do you second guess that?
You won't find it out. You won't ever be able to figure
it out. Don't try. You don't have to. Be at peace. Why? The righteous and the wise
and their works are accepted. What do you have to figure out
all this other stuff for? You can't tell the love or hatred
of God by what you see. We often sing that hymn, God
moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants
his footstep in the sea and rides upon the storm. You see footprints
in the sea? Once you lift up your foot, it's
gone, right? Can't tell where he's going, can't tell where
he came from. That's provenance. Plants his footsteps in the sea
and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of
never failing skill, he treasures out his bright designs and works
his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. Do the things of the world and
providence perplex you? Where is the comfort? It's found in this, the righteous. Has Christ made you righteous? Has he made you wise? Do you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ simply? Do you believe on Christ
alone? It's not going to put any of
my stuff to it. Leave him alone. And listen to this. Me and all
my works are accepted with open hands. And I'm not going to figure
out Providence. It's only maddening to try. bow in submission to the sovereign
will of God, knowing this, that he works all things together
for the good of them that love God, them who are the called. Are you called? According to
whose purpose, yours or his? I'm called according to his purpose. Then I know this, all things
work together for my good. I'm not saying you're going to
be able to... This is a constant struggle within our minds and
hearts, isn't it? Isn't it? You're not going to get to that
point, a eureka moment, where everything's going to be... You'll
get there, and then what? You'll go back down again. Then
you'll get there, and you'll go back down again. I know this. I'm at the most calm when He's near, when I have Him
in view. When I have Him in view, I'm
the most calm in any providence. But let Him get out of my sight,
and man, we freak out. God help us to keep Him in view.
As we progress through this year, if God be gracious, keep Him
in view the whole year. Oh, be merciful. I say deliver
us from trouble. We don't want, we pray God keep
us from trouble. I ask for no dark provinces.
I don't, I'm not asking for any. If they come, keep Christ in
view. Pray God bless this to you. Let's
stand and be dismissed and pray. Holy Father, be merciful and
gracious, please. Be kind. According to the righteousness
of Jesus Christ that you've given to us and the wisdom of knowing
Him, believing Him, I beg you, if there's anyone here without
Christ, that you would move their souls to trust Him, to abandon
their righteousness, and lay hold of His by faith
alone. I ask you to do this for your
own glory. Comfort your people in the midst of our troubles. Keep us safe as you promised
to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, 6 p.m. Brother Boots will
be here at 5.30. 6 p.m. we'll have service and we'll
eat after.