O let Thy grace inspire my soul
with strength divine. May all my vows to Thee aspire
and all my days be Thine. Good hymns. Good choice. They go well with the message
tonight. Romans 8. Go back to Romans 8 with me. Romans chapter 8. You know how
I feel about your pastor. I've said so much before. But I love him dearly. We were so
close. when we were young men in our
20s, spent a lot of time together. And the two of us became dear
friends a long time ago, 30 some years ago, nearly 40 years ago. And boy, did we have a good pastor.
We were both under Henry Mahan's preaching, and I told Johnny
and Tommy today, I don't know of a man out there who preaches
more like Henry Mahan than John Chapman. And boy, do I mean that
as a compliment. But he learned well, I learned
well, and there's no one I'd rather hear preach than your
pastor. I thank the Lord for him, and I know you do too. Romans 8, read verse 28 with
me again. Romans 8, 28. Yeah, I turned
it on. Romans 8, 28. And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to his purpose. Now, this verse
is often quoted, isn't it? often used and abused and misused
and misapplied and misunderstood and usually it's not quoted in
its entirety. Usually it's just, and we know
all things work together for good. But God's people, it says,
we know. We know. All things work together
for good to them that love God, to them that are called according
to His purpose. Now everybody doesn't believe
that. Everybody doesn't believe that. There was a lady in our
church that was talking to a man. She works in a bank. She was
talking to a man about trying to, in her way or feeble way. She's a young believer, and you
know how difficult at times it is to talk to people. You have
a hard time recalling scripture and saying the things you want
to say. Well, she was trying to talk to this man about her
sovereign God, being sovereign over all things. She said, I
believe that if I get in my car and go down the road and I have
a car wreck, she said, I believe that's God's will. That man who
claimed to be a believer, he said, oh no, oh no, no, bad thing,
God doesn't want bad things to happen. Now you've heard that
before, haven't you? We've all heard people say that.
The people don't believe that. They really don't believe that.
But God's people know. And this is their peace and their
comfort, all of God's elect, God's children know. And they
love this truth, and they get great peace and great comfort
from this, that God works all things together for our good. That God's doing it, no matter
what it is. That God's doing it. He's the first cause of all
things. We love that, don't we? That's
all our peace, that's all our comfort. all of God's elect,
all of God's children. Isaiah 54, which our Lord quoted
in John 6 45, he says, they shall all be taught of God. Isaiah
54 says, all thy children shall be taught of thee, and great
is the peace is their pain. that God reigns and rules among
the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, none
can stay His hand, that God does all things, all things, A-double-L,
all things, that gives His people comfort and peace, assurance. We know, we know. And verses
29 and following, I'm not going to deal with, but it says that,
because those He foreknew, You know why they know? Because He
foreknew them, foreloved them, predestinated them, everything
about them. Don't you love that? Don't you
love that there's nothing happening by chance or randomly, that the
world's not going, it's not in chaos, but everything is under
the divine rule and control of our God? Aren't you glad? You
can go to sleep at night, can't you? We know, we know. These things,
and verse 31 says, what shall we say then to these things?
Well, that man said to my sister, he said, I don't believe that.
Well, there's Vicki. Hi, Vicki. That man said, I don't
believe that. Well, we do. We know. We don't
just believe it. We know. And it gives us great
comfort and great peace. We know these things. God before
us. Who and what can be against us?
And the rest of this chapter deals with what can separate
us? What can harm us if God be for us? All things, all things. In verse 37 he said, and all
these things were more than conquerors through him that loved us. Now
everything is working together because God is working everything.
That's why it's all working together because God's doing it. All things
work according to His will. He's God who worketh all things
after the counsel of His own will and His purpose. Known unto
God are all His works from the beginning of the world. Isn't
that what the scripture said? And we love that. Look at Isaiah
43 with me. Go over to Isaiah 43. You know
these scriptures and We love to look at them again and again
and again. Most believe that God's like
a man, don't they? They believe God's like a man.
He's a bystander in the affairs of men on earth. He really can't
do anything. He's subject to man's will and
whims. And sure, God's no different
than a man. He's just hoping everything turns
out alright. Isn't that what most people believe about God? Hoping all things will work out.
Hoping man will make the right decisions and the right choices.
That's not God. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's no God at all, is it? Now we know Him that is true.
We know the true and living God. In Him we live and move and have
our being, the scripture says. Look at Isaiah 43 verses 10 through
13. You're my witnesses. He's talking
to His chosen people. You're my witnesses, saith the
Lord. Like that lady at the bank. She was bearing witness. of Him. You're my servant whom I have
chosen, that ye may know me, and believe me, and understand
that I am He. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I even I am the Lord, and
beside me there is no Savior. I have declared and have saved. I have showed when there was
no strange God among you. Therefore you're my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
He, and there's none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it, or prevent me?" You've all seen
that slogan, let go and let God. The word let never belongs in
front of God's name. It's God that does the letting.
We can't prevent or let God do anything. I've never... One time
in my adult life, I wanted to vandalize. And it was one of
those so-called church signs that had that on it. I wanted
to get me a can of spray paint and go there at night time. And cover up that let God be... let go and let God. And I wanted
to pray, God is God. But it wouldn't have made any
difference. God's got to reveal Himself to you. And He reveals
Himself to His chosen. Look at chapter 44. His chosen,
look at verse 24, chapter 44. Isaiah 44, 24. Thus saith the
Lord, thy Redeemer, to His redeemed people, He that formed thee from
the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things. that stretcheth
forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by
itself, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and make
the diviners mad." I think he's talking about the weatherman. I the Lord do all these. Chapter
45, look at this. Well, you read this to people
and they They get mad, boy, but this is the word of the Lord
Himself. Verse 5, Isaiah 45, 5. I am the
Lord, there is none else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they might
know from the rising of the sun from the west there is none beside
me. I am the Lord, there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. All things work together. We've
got all things. All things. All things. Not something. If there's anything
outside of God's control, we're goners. A germ can kill you,
right? An atom splits and we're all
blown up. Everything. Spurgeon once said that God can... He said, you look at a ray of
sun coming through the window in a day. You see the dust particles
in that ray of sun? God has predestined the path
of every particle of dust in that ray of sunlight where it's
going to land. You believe that, Bill? That's
God. Say, I don't understand. Good.
You don't want a God you can understand. If you can understand
it, He's just a man, isn't He? We need a God we can understand,
a God that we can trust, all-wise, all-powerful, over all things,
in control. Proverbs 16.4. You don't have to turn. I'm going
to quote it for you. If somebody's never heard this verse of Scripture,
it'll change their theology, if the Lord is pleased to change
them. Proverbs 16.4 says, The Lord
hath made all things for Himself. Even the wicked for the day of
evil. That's what it said. Do you believe
that? You know as things go on, keep
going on and on, the truth is going to become so strange to
people. And it is now. Who believes that? Now God's not the author of sin.
God's not chargeable with sin or wrongdoing. But the Lord hath
made all things, somehow or another, all things. Satan is a created
being. Satan is absolutely under the
divine control of God Almighty. Yes, he is. Do you remember he
wanted Job? He wanted Job, but he couldn't
get to him. God put a hedge about it. And
it's the same with all of God's people. They have a hedge about
it. And Satan can't do anything unless God gives him permission.
Isn't that right? I heard this story
years ago. This woman over in England, I
believe it was, back in the 16th century, poor woman, a believer,
and we had no screens on the windows. She had her windows
open. She was a real poor woman, a widow woman. And she would
pray to the Lord daily, and the little ragamuffin kids in the
neighborhood knew when they could hear her praying. And she'd pray
near her kitchen window, and they thought they were going
to pull a trick on her. And they heard her praying, Lord,
give me this day my daily bread. Would you give me my bread, please,
Lord? And prayed that prayer. And those
boys heard it, and they went while she's praying, and they
got a loaf of bread. And behind that window, they
put that loaf of bread up on the windowsill, and they hid
down behind the wall. And the woman finished praying
and looked, and Billy, there was the loaf of bread. And she said, thank you, Lord,
for sending that bread. And those boys popped up and
said, silly old woman, God didn't send that bread, we did. She said, well, the devil may
have brought it, but God sent it. That's the way it is with everything.
Everything. We don't understand every single
incident, but you can write it down. Well, God did write it
down. I do all things, all things work together for the good of
God's people, them that love God. You love the God of the Bible?
I'm not talking about the God that men, you know, everybody
loves the God the way they think he is. But I'm talking about
the God of the Bible. I'm talking about this God who
does all that, who controls all that. Sovereign. Just. God who chooses a people, his
discretion, his choice. God who does all things. Most
people don't, my wife was at the beauty, what do you call
them, getting her hair cut. She was talking to this lady
about her God, and this woman's a so-called Christian. She goes
to one of these big old charismatic places, you know, Pentecostal
place, whooping and hollering, and believes on Jesus and all
that, believes God. And after my wife began to talk
to her, this woman said, point blank to her, said, I hate your
God. I hate your God. Well, she didn't
know, but that's her God. And she doesn't know this because
she doesn't love God. And why does anybody love God,
the true God? Because he first loved them.
He chose them. Right? He revealed himself to
them. How many of you in here were
in false religion? Methodism or Catholicism or whatever. Maybe most of you. Maybe all
of you. Very few like me. I grew up hearing
the truth. But you're in false religion,
and so you hated the God of the Bible, didn't you? You had a
God of your imagination, a God the way you wanted Him to be,
a God that you made up, a God who wants to and can't, a God
who tries and fails, a God who's just standing back, loves you
so much and wants you to accept. That's not God at all. And then
when you heard the true and living God, like Bernard said, you'll
either get mad, sad, or glad. I like to see some kind of reaction
from people. It means they've heard you. Mad.
Most people, it's mad. That lady in our church, it was
in Methodism, and she came, somebody invited her, she came, and one
of the first things she heard me say was, God doesn't love
everybody. Find it in the Bible. She said, I will. And she went
home. And she couldn't find it. But
it wasn't long until the Lord revealed Himself to her. She
loves the truth now. She loves the God of the Bible.
Why? She's one of His chosen. Them that love God, whom He first
loved, whom He foreloved, whom He foreknew, whom He called,
called by this gospel, our gospel, called by the gospel. God, all
of God's people are called one way, by the gospel. The only
true gospel. justified, predestined, all things
about Him. Them that love God, who are called
according to His purpose. Purpose. Now, I bet you Brother
John's told this story, but I'm going to tell it again. You're
nodding your head. I'm still going to tell it. Every one of us are here indirectly
because this happened. 1950, Rolf Barnard came to Ashland,
Kentucky to preach a meeting. My dad was a young assistant
pastor, psalm leader of the largest Southern Baptist Church in eastern
Kentucky, a thousand members. And the pastor of that church,
Don Wells was his name, invited this evangelist named Ralph Barnard
from Winston-Salem to come there and hold a meeting, okay? He
came and held a meeting. First, he held a meeting in Central
Park, downtown Ashland, Kentucky. And all the churches, so-called,
all over that area came. All the members of, you know,
everybody would go to tent meetings back then. And Dad was there
and he said Barnard got up and the first two things he said
were, two biggest lies ever been told and ain't neither one of
them something. He said, number one, God loves
everybody. He said, just ain't so. He said, number two, Jesus
died for everybody. He said, it just ain't so. Ain't
the Bible. Dad said, you could hear everybody's
jaw hit the floor. Quiet as What in the world is
he saying? Well, shortly thereafter he held
that meeting in Powder Baptist Church where my dad was, okay?
And my dad was that young man, twenty-four, six years old, twenty-four
years old, was sitting on the front row with my mother, and
Barnard was preaching. He said, young man, stand up
and quote Romans 8.28. And dad stood up and said, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God. And he sat down. Barr said, hold it. He said,
you didn't quote it all. Stand up and quote it all. And
dad said, and we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, who are called according to his purpose.
And dad said, as soon as he said purpose, Barnard hollered at
the top of his lung, purpose, purpose. God does everything
on purpose. He said, learn something about
the God who does all things on purpose. You'll know something
about the God of the Bible. Dad said it was like a shotgun
hit him between the chest. And later on he told him, young
man, you and that pretty little wife of yours, he said, you and
that pretty little wife of yours go home and you get out the book
of Romans, you open it up, and you ask God to show you Himself. And they did. Purpose. God does everything on purpose.
And you know what that purpose is? Let me just read it to you.
It's found in Ephesians chapter 1. That purpose is the redemption
of His people in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here it is. both which are in heaven, which
are on earth, even in him, in whom Christ we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted
in Christ. It's all about a kingdom that
God made. It's all about Christ who is
the head of that kingdom, the head of the covenant, the redeemer
of his people. purpose, to have a people just
like Christ, redeemed by Christ, conformed to the image of Christ.
He's created all things for the pleasure of His Son. And as Scripture
says, He pleased the Lord to make you His people. If you're
one of these that love God, called according to His purpose, it
pleased God to make you His people. And that's why Paul said there
in Romans, hey, how shall He not with Him freely give us all
things? We're His bride. Christ came
for his bride, like Hosea came for Gomer. And she's a fallen
woman, a forlorn woman. That's who he came to save, wasn't
it? Sinner. And Christ came and he saved
these people, and we're his bride, and so he gives all things. Paul
said that to the Corinthians. All things are yours. All things. All things. Everything is on
purpose. On purpose. and bringing many
sons to glory. Now, the world and religion doesn't
believe in this God. And they say things like this,
how can evil things possibly be in God's purpose? How can
a loving God allow such things to happen? How could a loving
God allow such things to happen? Actually, the opposite is true.
What they're saying, how could a loving God not save his people? How could a loving God not keep
his people? If he loves them, how could he
allow them to perish? He can't. It's a holy God. It's a holy God that men must
come to understand. I'm going to give you several
illustrations and I'm going to close. I'm not going to take
long at all. Your pastor and I, we were told to be short. And we are short, aren't we? Spurgeon one time, he had a preacher's
school and you know John probably told you everything I can tell
you. We heard the same illustration. Spurgeon had a preacher's school
and he had a fellow in there who was real short, shorter than
him. Spurgeon was only about five foot four. Well, he's heavy. But he had
a young man in there, a real short fella, and he assigned
all these fellas an impromptu message. He'd give them a text
and say, stand up and preach on this. Stand up and say something
about this. And this short fella, he said, young man, stand up
and preach a message on Zacchaeus. That's fitting. Well, the young
fella got up there nervous. He said, well, He said, Zacchaeus
was short. He said, I am too. He said, Zacchaeus was up a tree. He said, I am too. He said, when Zacchaeus came
down, he said, I will too. Spurgeon gave him an A on that.
Where was I? The whole thing, I'm going to
be short. You say, that goes without saying.
Let me give you a few illustrations from the scriptures, a few stories
to prove, not proving God, but for us, okay, for God's people. People like us in the scriptures,
they went through all things. You read Hebrews 11, and there's
nothing, in fact, people, we go through some terrible trials,
but they pale in comparison to what we read about our brothers
and sisters in Hebrews 11. They really did. Adam and Eve, they failed, didn't
they? Could God have prevented that? Absolutely. Why didn't
He? It wasn't His will. Right? Could He have prevented that?
Well, why did He allow that to happen? Could you answer that? We don't need to answer that.
It's kind of like we ought to tell people, who art thou to
reply against God? Like one old writer said, sin's
here, isn't it? It wouldn't be here if God hadn't
allowed it. It's here. I like this, what Thomas Watson
said, one of the old writers. I love this man. See if you can
understand that. He said, God hath a hand in the
action where the sin is, but no hand in the sin of the action. Are you with me? God hath a hand in the action
where the sin is, but no hand in the sin of the action. That's
a good statement. Adam and Eve. It was God's purpose
for them to follow, wasn't it? Or they wouldn't have followed.
Let me just give you this much. This much I know. That it had
to be for God's greater glory, didn't it? Had to be. The angels
saw this. The angels who saw their Fellow
angels fall, rebel, Satan, Lucifer. They saw the third of the heavenly
hosts rebel against God, didn't they? And the holy angels that
did not fall, they saw this happen and saw God put them in chains
and reserve them in outer darkness. He saw this happen. Alright?
He saw Adam and Eve. They saw Adam and Eve do the
same thing. The same thing. And Ed, you know
what the angels were thinking, don't you? He's going to come
down hiring on them like he did these other angels. But no. No. God who's holy casts those
evil, rebellious angels into outer darkness. But God's not
just holy. God is love. God is merciful. God is gracious. They didn't
know what mercy meant. This is part of his character.
This is part, one of his attributes. It has to be shown, doesn't it?
And this man, this rebellious man and his wife sinned against
God. The angels thought he's gonna,
his holiness, his justice is gonna fall on their head. But
no, the Son of God came walking in the garden where they were
and spoke kindly to them. Adam, where art thou? Eve, woman,
what have you done? And they saw him speaking to
them, and the angel saw him take a lamb and skin it, shed its
blood, and take that lamb's skin and wrap it around this guilty,
rebellious sinner. And the angel was thinking, what
is this? And if somebody would cry it out, they would have said,
this is mercy. God is merciful. God will pardon. God will forgive
sin. This is His greatest glory. And this all portrays and all
prophesies of the Son of God who is to come thousands of years
later and be the Lamb slain. This is substitution. This is
love. Greater love hath no man than
them. This is love, sovereign love, undeserved love, gracious
love, condescending love. This is God. This is who God
really is. All of His attributes are sin.
That's the best I can do with that. Why did He allow it to
happen? Abraham. Years later, a man named
Abraham left his home. He was an idolater, 75 years
old. He's proof of God's sovereign call and God's choice. Abraham was a 75, can you tell
a 75-year-old person anything? What if they're a 75-year-old
Methodist? Southern Baptist. Could you tell
them anything? No way. Well, God did. He revealed
himself to old Abraham and he left his father's house, left
his idols, left his father's house, wandered about Following
the Lord's leadership, he came to Bethel. Came to Bethel. Just
like you. Came to Bethel, the house of
God. But then there was a famine. He went through so much. Abraham
didn't. Lived 175 years. Went through so much. He went
through famine. Then he left Bethel. He went
down to Egypt. He shouldn't have left Bethel.
And you shouldn't either. God's people are going to have
bread, no matter. There's a famine of the hearing
of the Word today. Not bread, but the hearing of
the Word. And you have it in abundance here, don't you? Don't
leave. Don't leave. There's no reason to. So he did.
He left and went down to Egypt. You know what happened to that?
Oh, kind of trouble. He denied his wife. Oh, what
did that cause between them? You ever have any marital strife?
Oh, that was horrible, wasn't it? Huh? He had a division with
his nephew Lot. Lot was like a son to him. He
chose Lot to bring him with him, didn't he? He did everything
for Lot. He loved Lot like a son. Abraham didn't have children.
And Lot was like a son to him, an adopted son. And they had
division, they had strife. You ever had division and strife
with those you love? That's hard, isn't it? You ever
had somebody, a brother fall out with you and leave you? That's hard. It shouldn't be. Abraham's the one that said to
Lot, he said, we be brethren, there shouldn't be strife among
us. But it happens, doesn't it? That was hard. Did this work
out? Was this God's purpose? Yes. He was childless. Abraham was
childless. Anybody here without children?
It's a hard trial for a woman especially. We had 12 or more
people in our church that never had, the Lord didn't give them
children. It was a tough trial. My wife and I didn't think we
could have children. The doctor told us we couldn't
have children. It was tough. Then he got a boy. He got a boy. Ishmael. And that's another story. And
then Tommy, God said, cast that boy out of here. Oh, can you imagine? Anybody had a wayward son and
had to kick out of the house? This all work out? Is it all
for good? Is God doing this? And then it says, after these
things, God did try Abraham. He said, Abraham, take your son. He had another son, a miracle
child, Isaac. And oh, he loved Isaac. But then
when Isaac was about 16 or 18 years old, God said, take your
son, your only son, whom thou lovest, travel three days and
offer him on a mountain as a burnt sacrifice, kill him. And he was
sacked. Did that work out? I want to hear somebody say,
did that work out? Oh, is there a more beautiful
picture of the gospel in Genesis 22, huh? Huh? Abraham, lay not
thine hand on the lad. Look behind you, there's a ram
caught in a thicket by its horn. That's Christ and Him crucified.
That's what it's all about. All those things work together.
All things. Jacob. Jacob. Don't you love the story of Jacob? He was at Bethel too, wasn't
he? Kept coming back. Jacob. All things work together.
Oh, God says, Genesis 42. Go there with me. Genesis 42.
You know God calls himself by the name of the God of Jacob
more than any other name. Did you know that? I'm the God
of Jacob. Jacob. He said, I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob shall
not be consumed. Jacob have I loved. And no matter
what Jacob does, no matter where Jacob goes, no
matter what happens to Jacob, it's God that loves him, keeping
him, leading him, guiding him, directing him. until he comes
all the way home. Genesis 42, but Jacob didn't
think that. Look at Genesis 42, verse 36. You got it? This is back when
he, well, the whole story is something. Let me say this before
we read this. You know, Jacob, he had a brother that was against
him. Anybody? Anybody had a brother turn against
you? Abel. I was going to bring up
Abel. His brother hated the truth and
killed him for it. Was that of God? Did God purpose
that? That's one of the clearest types
in the Bible of two religions in the world. There's only two
religions, Cain and Abel. Is that of God? Yeah. Well, Jacob's
brother Esau hated him. and went after him. Boy, that
was a trial. Well, he wanted to marry Rachel, remember? He
fell in love with Rachel, and he married the wrong woman. He
married the wrong woman. Don't answer. But he, don't you
dare answer. But, alright, so he had to work
14 years to get the woman, Rachel. She was an idolater, had those
idols on her. Had children, 12 boys, and they
were nothing but trouble, all of them but two. Nothing but
trouble. Went down to a place called Padana
Ram and he got rich. No mention of him seeking the
Lord, praying to the Lord, but they got rich and boy, he forgot
about God. And his family got into nothing
but trouble. His boy, nothing but trouble. Strife within all
the family, everywhere, banana ran. But God, he belongs to the
Lord. Jacob belongs to the Lord. Was
all that of the Lord? Yeah, he's going to bring him
back to Bethlehem. Laban, his father-in-law, anybody
have in-law troubles? Don't answer that. Oh my, there
was strife between Jacob and Laban. Well, look at this. Genesis 42, when it's in the
end, Jacob's an old man, and you remember Joseph is gone.
Verse 36, remember Joseph disguised himself and told them to bring
their brother Benjamin back. And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not. Simeon is not. Simeon, remember, was in prison
by Joseph. And you will take Benjamin away?
All these things are against me. Why are they? Why are they? They were all for him. They were
all for him. He couldn't see, Tommy. He couldn't
see. He's going to. In the end of
this chapter, Joseph, he saw Joseph, who's a picture of Christ,
and Joseph said, you meant it for evil. But what? The Lord
meant it. But what? Say it. All things
work together for good. All of them. Moses, one more,
okay? I had two or three more. One
more. Moses, his parents, Amram and
Jochebed, they were in Egypt. They were in bondage. They were
in misery. They lived in bondage. They were
under a corrupt government. Sound familiar? They had two
children, a 13-year-old girl named Miriam, a three-year-old
boy named Aaron, and she's expecting their third child. The decree
came down from Pharaoh, kill all the male children of the
Hebrews. Kill them all. And buddy, as many as they could
find, they threw them in the river. Who did that? Pharaoh do that? God said, you
read with me in Isaiah 45, Deuteronomy 32, 39, he says, I kill, I make
alive, I wound, I heal, I the Lord, I create peace, I create
evil, I the Lord do all these things. Those parents went through
the greatest trial. It was horrible, terrible. Jacob,
the scripture says, Rachel was weeping for her children because
they were not, but God did that. And in mercy, he took every one
of those children, spared them a life of sin and misery, took
them all home. Well, Amran and Jokabed had a
baby, a baby boy, and they knew he was meant to be killed. Jokabed took that baby boy and
put him in an ark of bulrushes and slammed it, pitched it, and took that baby and put it
in that ark and put it in the water, the flags, the weeds,
the reeds down there by the water's edge of that river, and she shoved
it out. And she told her 13-year-old
daughter Miriam, said, watch the basket and see what becomes
of it. She went home. And her husband,
Amram, who's a believer, he said to her, honey, this really happened. He said, honey, we don't know
what's God's purpose in all this, but our God's good. And it's
good. It's going to be good. And they're both weeping. You
think so? You know so. Did it turn out good? Did it
turn out good? Huh? You know what God did? He
said, for this purpose I've raised Pharaoh up to show my glory,
show my power. He had Pharaoh's daughter come
down by that river's head And she finds this baby in a
basket, alright? Pharaoh's trying to get rid of
this Redeemer, this Savior in Israel. He's trying to get rid
of it. He thought he had, okay? And he has Pharaoh's daughter
bring the Redeemer, bring the Savior into his own house and
raise him up. Who would be the Redeemer or
the Savior of Israel? All things. We just don't know. You see, we're It's like a tapestry. This whole thing that the purpose
of God, ordered in all things and sure, is like a tapestry. Have you ever seen the backside
of a tapestry? you know, a tapestry is a mass
of threads that seem unconnected, don't they? If you look at the
backside of it, you think, I don't see any conformity, any uniformity
of there. What it's all about? Well, if
you turn it around, you'll see the whole picture. And you know,
God has given His people an understanding that they might know Him that
is true. And you know what everything in this universe is working together
for? If you'll see it, you'll see
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. For His glory, for His honor,
and for His people to be married to Him, to be in His kingdom,
to be conformed to His image. That's what it's all about. The
whole picture, the whole purpose, everything God has ordered, It's
for the glory of His Son and the good of His people. Do you
believe that? All things work together for
good to them that love God, who call according to His purpose. You want me to dismiss this in
prayer? I'll do that. Let's just stand and I'll dismiss
this in prayer, okay? Our Father in heaven, we thank
you, thank you, thank you that thou art God and beside thee
there's none else. And that you've given us this
understanding that we might know you, that you're true and we're in Know
Him that is true, or in Him that is true, even in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. How we thank You. How we thank
You that You have not left us in darkness as others. You opened
blind eyes and deaf ears. You've given us an understanding.
We thank you, Lord. We don't understand everything that happens
in our life, but we know that you are the God who doeth all
things. Give us this peace that passeth
understanding. Peace that comes from trusting
our God in all things. Lord, give us this faith. Give
us this faith. And the greatest proof of that
is Calvary. And men with wicked hands took
and crucified the Lord of glory, but did what God determined before
to be done. And the greatest good of all
came about through the worst evil. We thank you, Lord. We thank you. We met here tonight
to praise and honor and glorify your name. In Christ's name we
pray and give thanks. Amen. You're dismissed.