Colossians 1, I ask the older
Sunday school class to join us in this Bible study because I
want them to hear this. They need to know this just as
much as we do. I pray that this will be an encouragement
and a relief to all of us. I pray that this might come with
a sincere heart of comfort and I pray that this will be a true
relief to all of us. I wanna read the text and then
I'm gonna give you the title of this. The text is Colossians
1, verses 16 and 17. It says, for by him were all
things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities
or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him, all things consist." Now, let me give you the title
of this Bible study. It's this question. Who controls
the coronavirus? That's the title of this Bible
study. Who controls the coronavirus? Here's the answer to the question.
Verse 16, by Him were all things created that are in heaven and
that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created
by Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist." God controls the coronavirus. It's His virus. It's His virus. The adversary
is His adversary. All of the devils are His devils. This earth is His earth. These people are His people,
meaning He made them. He controls them. He owns them.
And that virus is His virus. God controls the coronavirus. Verse 16 says, for by him were
all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth.
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things
consist." Do you mean to tell me that God created the coronavirus? Yes. All things were created by Him. Why would God create the coronavirus? For Him. For Himself. For His will. For His purpose. For His glory. I do pray that
it drives everybody home to turn on their TV to watch the television
program this morning. I pray it does. All things were
created by Him and for Him. He is in control. He is in absolute control of
every speck and every particle and every cell and every atom
on this earth. Not only does He control great
things that happen in the earth, the greatest things that happen
in the earth. A hurricane comes through and
we say, God did that. Earthquakes, God did that. Not
only does he control the greatest things, he also controls the
absolute smallest things that happen on this earth. Nothing
does anything outside of his control. Psalm 24 one says, the
earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. That means nothing does anything
outside of his control. Nothing. Turn with me over to
Matthew chapter 10. Matthew 10 verse 27. It says, What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light. And what ye hear in the ear,
that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill
the body. Them doesn't just mean people. People, things, germs, viruses,
them. Verse 28 says, fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but
rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body
in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without
your father? I used to think that meant that
a sparrow couldn't die without the Father giving permission,
and it does mean that, but that's not what it says. It says a sparrow
can't even fall on the ground without the Heavenly Father giving
permission. Verse 30, it says, but the very
hairs of your head are all numbered. Next time you take a shower and
you see all that hair at the drain, There's no need to wonder
why that hair's down there. God said number 7, number 14,000,
number 23,007, and number 64,000, fall. That's what happens. That's what happens. You say
that's silly. That's the Almighty. That's what
it is. That's the Almighty who is in
control of us. Not general control, but absolute
detailed control. Turn with me over to Job 36. Job 36, verse 26. Behold, God is great, and we
know Him not. Neither can the number of His
years be searched out, for He maketh small the drops of water. They pour down rain according
to the vapor thereof. which the clouds do drop and
distill upon man abundantly. He does that. When that happens,
He does that. Look at chapter 37, verse five. God thundereth marvelously with
his voice. Great things doeth he which we
cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, be
thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain and
to the great rain of his strength, he sealeth up the hand of every
man that all men may know his work. Verse 10 says, by the breath
of God frost is given and the breath of the waters is straightened. Verse 16, does thou know the
balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is
perfect in knowledge? How thy garments are warm when
he quieteth the earth by the south wind. We turn the weather
channel on and they say, well, a warm front is pushing up from
the south and the temperatures are gonna rise over the next
few days. And they say it's because of barometric pressure or something,
I don't understand all that. That's not why. God says, rise
up, south wind. That's the hand of God doing
that. Chapter 38, God is talking to
Job and he said in verse 34, Canst thou lift up thy voice
to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst
thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, here
we are. He's the one who says lightning
strike. And the lightning says, here
we are. That's how it works. God is controlling everything.
He's controlling the elements. There's no such thing as Mother
Nature. Everybody says, well, Mother Nature's being really.
There's no such thing as Mother Nature. There is only the Almighty
Father. That's all there is. He is controlling
everything. He's controlling you. He's controlling
everything about you, everything in you, everything around you. If you shiver, He is the one
doing that to you. Now understanding that, let's
see how He deals with His people, right, those that are His people.
Turn with me to Exodus chapter 5. Exodus chapter 5, verse 1. And afterward, Moses and Aaron
went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither
will I let Israel go. And they said, the God of the
Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three
days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our
God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. They said, if we don't obey him,
he is going to send a pestilence to us. The word pestilence means
plague, disease, virus. I looked up the word pestilence
throughout the scripture. I can't tell you how many times
I wrote down scriptures where the Lord said, I'm gonna send
a pestilence upon you because of your sin against me. It really
shouldn't be that shocking to us that God would send a pestilence
throughout the whole world. Shouldn't be shocking at all. What we're seeing is, in what's
going on, what we're seeing is no difference than what Israel,
I mean Egypt saw. That's what all the plagues represented. Egypt, it was all
because of sin. It all represented sin. Plagues
and disease, it was all a representation of man's sin and the judgment
of sin. But look how God dealt with His
people who were right there in the middle of it. Look at Exodus
8, verse 20. Exodus 8, verse 20, it says,
And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning,
and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water,
and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that
they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my
people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and
upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses.
And the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies,
and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that
day the land of Goshen." The children of Israel were being
held captive in the land of Goshen. That's where Israel was. Verse
22, I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which my
people dwell. that no swarms of flies shall
be there. To the end, thou mayest know
that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth, and I will put
a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall
this sign be." And the Lord did so, and he brought that swarm
of flies on them. That's exactly what happened.
The Egyptians had flies all over them. I mean, they were covered
in flies. The Israelites had none, not
one fly. They all passed by. Look at chapter
nine, verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses,
Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God
of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For
if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, behold,
the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle, which is in the field,
upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen,
and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous
moraine, a disease. And the Lord shall sever between
the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. And there shall
nothing die of all that is the children of Israel. And the Lord
appointed a set time saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this
thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on
the morrow and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle
of the children of Israel did not one. And Pharaoh sent and
behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites
dead and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let
the people go. Not one of Israel's cows died. Look at verse 22. And the Lord said unto Moses,
stretch forth thy hand toward heaven that there may be hail
in all the land of Egypt upon man and upon beast and upon every
herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses
stretched forth his rod toward heaven And the Lord sent thunder
and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. And the Lord
rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and
fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none
like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And
the hail smoked throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was
in the field, both man and beast. And the hail smote every herb
of the field and break every tree of the field, only in the
land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no
hail. Chapter 10, verse 21. And the Lord said unto Moses,
stretch out thine hand toward heaven that there may be darkness
over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And
Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was
a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw
not one another, neither rose any from his place for three
days. But all the children of Israel
had light in their dwellings. Chapter 11 is where the Lord
said, I'm going to send one more plague. I'm going to kill the
firstborn male in every house. This is where we see that all
of this was pointing to Christ. That's the reason for everything. Everything that happens is to
point us to Christ. Everything that happens is to
point us to Christ. He said, I'm going to kill the
firstborn male in every house. Chapter 11, verse seven, he said,
but against any of the children of Israel, as they go out, I'm
gonna free them after this, and against any of the children of
Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast that
you may know how the Lord doth put a difference between the
Egyptians and Israel. He said, I'm gonna show you how
I have sanctified my people. I've set my people apart in Christ
my Son, in Christ my Lamb." They're going to take a lamb. And he said, that lamb is what's
going to make the difference. In every house, the firstborn
male is going to die. But for my people, that lamb
is going to be their firstborn, and that's Christ. Christ is
the firstborn. of all his people's house. Their
elder brother is going to be the one who dies for them. The
oldest brother died. That elder brother is going to
die. They're going to slay that lamb. They're going to confess
his blood over the doorposts of the house. And he said, when
I see his blood, I'll pass over you. And he said, that plague
will not come to you because it came to him for you. That's
the reason why. That's what all of these things
represent. That's what it all represents.
This is all a picture of what we deserve. And it's a picture
of the fact that God spared us from what we deserve through
Christ suffering it for us, taking it for us. Everything that we
are reading right here physically, this is puzzling. You think,
why is this? What are you saying in this?
Everything we're reading physically points us to something spiritually.
God says, in Christ, my son, my people are a separate people. They are separate people. We
are worried about whether or not the coronavirus is going
to attack us, whether we're willing to admit it or not. We are. We
are. Something in the back of our
mind keeps saying, oh, I better not touch that. I don't want
to get the coronavirus. We are. If we could only see the invisible
principalities and powers of darkness and evil that are constantly
trying to attack us. And they are attacking the Egyptians.
They're all over them. They're swarming all over them. But if we could only see the
invisible powers of darkness that are constantly trying to
consume and attack God's people and how God has said, no, you're
not touching them, not my people. If we could honestly enter into
how God has separated us, sanctified us, protected us, set us apart
from the spiritual plagues that come upon man because of his
sin. If we could really enter into
that, We wouldn't think twice about the coronavirus. If we
really could enter into how He has totally put a wall of protection
around us and hedged us about, we wouldn't give it a second
thought. We would realize we are being safely kept in the
hands of our God. Now, I'm gonna be brief, but
go with me to Psalm 91. Psalm 91 verse 1 says, He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide
under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. In Him will I trust. Surely He
shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome
pestilence. He shall cover thee with His
feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall
be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day,
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked. because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall
give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot
against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample
under feet. because he hath set his love
upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because
he hath known my name. He shall call upon me and I will
answer him. I will be with him in trouble.
I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation. Now what does that mean? What
does that mean? Here's what it means. God is
in control of all of this. That's what it means. God is
in control. Go with me back to Colossians
1, and I'm going to leave us here with some closing comments. Seeing what God did for His people
in the plagues, And reading Psalm 91, it brings
this puzzling question. When we read that, it brings
this puzzling question. Here's the question. Are you
saying that if I'm trusting in Christ and if we're among the
ones that were chosen to be put under the blood of Christ, are
you saying that we won't get it? Is that what you're saying? Are
you saying that we're not going to get it? This great pestilence that's
just sweeping the whole world, you're saying we're not going
to get it? Is that what you're saying? Not unless God gives it to you. What we read in the plagues and
what we read in Psalm 91 was what God purposed in His heart
to do. He said it's not coming to them,
and it didn't come to them. That's exactly what the Word
of God says. This is what it says. You will
not get the coronavirus unless the almighty, sovereign, all-powerful
God chooses to give it to you. God's people are sinful flesh
just like everybody else, subject to every disease everybody else
can get. There's nothing about us that
separates us from the weakness of sinful flesh. But nothing
will come to us unless God Almighty sovereignly chooses to give it
to us. The virus does not come by touching
door handles. I'm not a doctor and I'm not
pretending to be. I'm just making the statement
that the virus does not come by shaking hands. The virus does
not come by getting sneezed on. The Lord made purpose to use
those means. But the virus does not come by any of that. The
virus does not come by going to school and sitting in a classroom
and learning. It doesn't come that way. It
comes by God choosing to give the virus to a person. That's
how it comes. If God chooses to give the virus
to us, we are going to get the virus. Mark it down. If God chooses to give the virus
to me, I'm not above anybody. If God chooses me and He selects
for me to get the virus, there's nowhere I can run, there's nowhere
I can hide. The virus will come to me. If
that's His will and that's His work, none can let it. None can stop it. He does whatever
He pleases. And if God chooses to give that
virus to us, mark it down. We're going to get the virus.
Let's just prepare ourselves. And if God does not choose to
give us the virus, we're not going to get the virus. There
is nothing in God's universe that's left up to chance. Nothing. Nothing. Now, are we going to
tempt God? Are we going to tempt God by
saying, well, I'm not washing my hands anymore and I'm going
to go around and lick the surface of everything because if he's
going to give it to me or if he's not, absolutely not. We're
not going to tempt God. We're not going to foolishly,
arrogantly say, are you going to give it to me or not? We're
not going to do that. Are we going to break the law
if the law imposes curfews? Are we going to break the law
of the land by ignoring all that stuff and rebelling against all
that stuff? Absolutely not. We're not going to do that. But
by God's grace, here's what we're going to do. We are going to
rest in the almighty power of the sovereign God. That's what
we're going to do. That virus is His virus. He made
it, He owns it, and He'll do with it as He pleases. For by
Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth,
visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities,
powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before
all things, and by Him all things exist. And I know I've run long,
but I'm going to give you this anyway. Before I moved here,
I was in Rocky Mound and we used to meet in the study on Wednesday
night just like we do here and a man would read and pray. And
I always made it a point to sit by Henry. I wanted to sit by
Henry. And every now and then he'd nudge me and hand me something.
And he handed me this piece of paper one time. And I think he
wrote this because normally he would credit it if somebody else
said it. It says, the peace and rest that a man enjoys depends on his confidence in
the God who controls the flight of an angel and the flight of
a fly, who controls both the flash of lightning and the glimmer
of a glow worm. It doesn't matter what it is.
It doesn't matter how great it is. It doesn't matter how small it
is. A man can enjoy true peace and rest if his confidence is
in the fact that all of it is in the hand of the Sovereign
God. All of it. We can truly rest
in that. Alright, you're dismissed.