born of woman is a few days full
of trouble. Full of trouble. Trials, afflictions,
tribulations. Our Lord said you must, through
much tribulation, enter the kingdom of heaven. Trial of your faith,
work of patience. Troubles, trials, sorrows, heartaches,
dilemmas, persecution, distress. Depression, sorrow, sadness,
loneliness, things befall us, especially believers. Believers
go through these things, things that are tough to face, health problems, sickness, Finding out that someone you
dearly love is sick, grievously ill, is a terrible trial. There are many troubles. Troubles at
home. Troubles in the family. One woman
may have trouble with her husband. A set of parents may have trouble
with children. Sickness, all of these things.
A woman loses an unborn child and another lady finds out she's
expecting. And that's a trial. The thoughts
of raising a child in this world today is a frightening thing.
Full of doubt, uncertainty, even fear. What? Where can we get any company?
Where can we get any answers? How can I comfort someone who's
mourning? What can I say to encourage someone
who is depressed or downcast? What will settle somebody who's
anxious and troubled and not knowing what the future holds?
What will prepare us all for an uncertain future. What is it? And what will convict? I need to say something to convict
someone of their sins and their desperate need of salvation. What one thing will do all of
that? Let's read it here in Romans
14, verse 7. Romans 14, verse 7. None of us
liveth to himself or by himself or for himself. or alone. No man dies to himself. Whether
we live, we live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore, or
die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord, both of the
dead and the living. It's one thing that will do all
of these things. Comfort, courage, settle, convict. It's a knowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord over all. He's Lord over
all. Now, people like to say that.
Preachers like to say that when they're preaching. But I intend
to define what that means. for him to be Lord. The title
Lord means absolute. That means it can't be changed.
Nobody can do anything about it. Absolute. Sovereign. Creator, ruler, controller, provider. over all things. When I say,
when we say, when the Scripture says that Jesus Christ is Lord,
it means He is absolutely in control of all things. Now, there's nothing that will
settle your heart like that. There's nothing that will settle
you and give you peace and comfort and enable you to face an unknown
out there more than that. That Jesus Christ is Lord. that everything is in his hands.
And let me just give you three basic points of this message.
Number one, all people are in his hands. Number two, all blessings
are in his hands. And number three, the dispensation
of everything, of the direction of everything, is in his hands.
Everything. Number one, all people are in
his hands, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's called the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. And there may be a king in Switzerland
or a king in Jordan, but he's a pretender. Jesus Christ is
king. He rules that country. He rules
it. He reigns over it. Lord of lords. There may be many little lords
over in the House of Parliament that like to wear their little
powdered wigs, you know. But he's Lord. He controls the
lords of Parma. He's lord over all. He's lord
over his enemy. Yeah, he's lord over his enemies.
They don't know it, but he is. He said that. Turn back a couple
of pages to Romans 9. Romans chapter 9. One of the
chief enemies of the Lord and his people was Pharaoh, wasn't
it? Pharaoh kept the Lord's people
in bondage, or did he? Now, the Lord did that, and He
raised up Pharaoh. Romans 9, verse 17, the Scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up. I put you in office, I put you
in power, Pharaoh, that I might dump you in the river and show
my power in thee. My name might be declared throughout
all the earth. It was such a glorious deliverance
that Everybody had to acknowledge the Lord did this. The Lord's
enemies are in his hands. It said there in Acts 2 and in
Acts chapter 4, it says the same thing, of a truth against his
holy child, Christ Jesus. Both Herod, Pontius Pilate, the
Gentiles, the people of Israel, everybody was gathered together
to do whatever his hand had determined before to be done. They can gang
up on God. But they'll do exactly what he
intends for them to do. He's Lord. He's Lord over his
enemy, and he's Lord over your enemies. Your enemies are his enemies,
and vice versa. Right? You have any enemies?
He knows who they are. He said, Vengeance is mine. I'll
repay. I'll repay. He's Lord over his
enemies. And he's Lord especially, though,
over his people. He's especially Lord over his
people. He calls them his sheep. The apple of his eye, his anointed. Don't touch mine on it, unless
I say so. He said that to Satan who wanted
to get at Job, didn't he? He wanted to get at Job so bad,
he said, well, I've decided that you can touch the things that
he owns, but don't touch his person. You can't touch his person. Satan said, I know that. You've
got a hedge around him. That's right. And He has one about all
of His people. And nothing can happen to them
unless God Almighty directs it. Nothing. Now, there's nothing that will
give you peace like that. Nothing. What have I got to worry about?
The Lord over His people. He knows His sheep by name. They
follow Him. He knows where to find them.
He comes calling them. And when he's pleased to do so,
one word, one look from him, he breaks them in a moment, brings
them to his feet, saves them, calls them, keeps them, provides
for them, comforts them, nourishes them. They're his people, just
like our children are our children, and we take care of them. So
does the Lord. How much more shall the heavenly Father? He's
Lord over his people, his people. Saul of Tarsus, you remember
him, don't you? He didn't look like one of the Lord's people.
at the time, but he was. And the Lord came calling one
day and said, Saul, Saul, come down off your high horse. It's
time to get in the dust at my feet. And Saul said, what will
you have me to do, Lord? You're my Lord. He didn't know
much about this Jesus of Nazareth, but he knew that the one that
knocked him off his horse was the Lord from that day forward.
The Lord. Zacchaeus, come down, you're
mine. Mary, master. Thomas, Lord. He calls them, they answer, they
respond. The Lord over his people. He guides, he guards, he feeds,
he strengthens his people. And anybody touching them touches
the apple of his eye, and they can't do it unless he says so.
And his people will be totally conformed to his will, his way. This is comforting, John. It's
what we want. Be conformed to his will. You
will. You will do what he wills for
you to do. And I like that. Don't you? Because the thing that I would
do, the thing that I will to do, that's not what I do. But
the Lord said, I will, therefore you shall. I like that. He's Lord. They will conform
to his will, his way, and his rule. He's in control. He's their
Lord, and they love it that way. Anybody have it any other way?
Huh? I'm not wise enough. I'm just
not wise enough to take one step without his direction. Secondly,
no, he's not only Lord over all people, all people in his hands,
but all blessings are in his hands. All blessings are in his
hands. You remember the story of Joseph?
Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the storehouses. And people
were hungry, and there was a great famine throughout the world.
Pharaoh put this slave in charge of the storehouses. Oh, I wonder
what man knew that. Well, the Lord did, in wisdom. Do you remember Joseph's final
words to his brethren? He said, The Lord kept me alive
to save much people to this land. The Lord put me in charge. was in charge of the storehouses,
and anybody that wanted anything, they had to come to him. And
the Scripture says, All authority is given unto Christ in heaven
and earth. All authority. He said that in
John 17, Thou hast given him power over all flesh. All flesh. Everything is in his hands. The
blessings of pardon. We need to be pardoned. Our chief
need before a holy God is forgiveness of sins. That's the chief thing
we need. The chief blessing we need. Men
don't know it. Men don't want it. Men don't
care for it. But thank God, He makes some people know it, want
it, and care for it, and He provides it. Pardon for their sin. Forgiveness
of sin. Salvations of the Lord. Salvations
of the Lord. And the Scripture says in Daniel
4, it says that The Most High ruleth," that's Jesus Christ,
"...ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever
he will, and setteth up over it the basis of men." The basis
of men. I told you He's Lord over His
people, and He's Lord over those who rule His people. The King's
heart is in the hands of the Lord. That means Saddam Hussein,
over there, the evil king or Bill Clinton. Whoever's evil and whoever's
good, he's lord over that. He controls that. He decides
who's where and who's ruling whom. They're his people, and
they're under a man's rule. He puts that man in office. That
gives me peace. I'm not worried about a thing.
I'm not going to get on a picket line. the protest line, because
my Lord put him there for a reason. Judgment. Judgment. If that's the Lord's will, so
be it. But blessings of God, though. Why is this nation blessed
above all nations, and why were you born here? You think of all
the places you could have been born. Mexico or Africa or wherever. Why were you born here? Why were
you born under the parents that you had, that loved you and provided
for you? Have the things that you have.
Jesus Christ is Lord, and He decided it that way. We need
a better reason to praise Him this morning, huh? And He gives
it to whosoever He will. The kingdom of men gives it to
whomsoever He will. And the blessing of pardon, the
cheapest of all blessings, is of the Lord. He said, I'll show
mercy on whom I will show mercy. Not of him that willeth, but
of him that runneth. It's of God, Jesus Christ, that showeth
mercy. The Lord saves whom He will,
when He will, and none can say anything about it. And those
He does that to, they say, Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. I'm glad it's
that way, because if He'd have given me what I deserve, I would
have been among the damned. The blessing of righteousness,
we need righteousness. And only He has it. It's in His
hands. It's in His hands. Righteousness.
He has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption. No
man is saved without that perfect righteousness, and Jesus Christ
has it, and He alone can give it. He gives it to those that
ask Him, and He makes us righteous. The blessing of strength, the
Scripture says, they that wait on the Lord shall renew their
strength. That's another term for those that believe Christ
shall renew their strength. Those that trust Christ shall
find Him to be their strength. A very present help in time of
trouble. He said, call on me and I'll
deliver you in the day of trouble. He's their strength. He's their
strength. You need some strength right
now going through some problem? He's a very present help. Very
present help. Healing. Healing. Over in Deuteronomy 32 verse
39 it says that I kill and I make life. You hear that? Nobody dies. Nothing dies unless
the Lord Jesus Christ directed it. Nothing. He said, I kill and
I make alive. You hear that? He knows best. He knows best. Blessing of healing,
I make sick. I wound. And I heal, he said
there. Didn't he? Cancer is not some
unknown illness. God Almighty knows every cell
of it. And he sends it. You believe that? He ain't Lord
if he's not Lord over cancer. Right? He's Lord. He said, I
wound, I make sick, and I heal. I heal. If it's the devil doing
it, And Christ can't do anything about it, then the devil's Lord.
Right? No. Isaiah 45, 7 says this. It said, I, the Lord, I create,
I form the light, create darkness, I make peace, and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. That doesn't mean moral evil. It means sin, although it wouldn't
have happened unless God Almighty decided for it. And I don't understand
that. Don't begin to try to explain
it. But sin would have never entered unless the Lord determined
it. Somehow or another, it's going to get Him glory and show
that He's Lord. Somehow. Try to figure it out? You can. The blessings of comfort. You know this is so. Scripture
says, He is our peace. He is our peace. Everything is, this world is
so chaotic and confusing and troubled and without reason. If there's not an absolute controller
in charge of everything, if there's not an absolute Lord reigning
and ruling, I'm going to get my family and run to a cave somewhere.
Because you don't know what that little fellow over in North Korea
is liable to pull the trigger. Huh? Where's your hope for your
family? Huh? Where's the comfort? How
can you have peace in such a warmongering world? Huh? How can you? Knowing
that Jesus Christ is the first cause of all things. He's Lord.
Not only all people are all blessings, That's comfort. That's comfort.
Blessing of comfort. But all dispensations. The dispensing
of everything is under his direction. Scripture says, He doeth according
to his will and pleasure among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the earth. He does according to his will
and pleasure. Everything. He's the supreme
dispenser and disposer of all things. Everything's in his hands.
And he doles it out exactly as necessary. to fulfill his will
and his purpose, and for the good of his people, and whatever,
the condemnation and the wrath of other people. He doles it
out. Providence, good things. Like I said, the things we enjoy,
the blessings that we have in this life, are all because Jesus
Christ decided to give them to us. No other reason. We didn't
get them of ourselves. What do you have that you have
not? What? Receipt. From who? Your boss,
your employer, your mom, your dad? The Lord Jesus Christ. Good things. And the more you
realize that good things came from the hands of the Lord, the
more you'll enjoy those things. Uh-huh. When you realize that
everything you have, you perceived it, you didn't deserve it, but
He freely gives it to you, that'll make you enjoy those things that
much more. And when He takes them away from you, you realize,
hey, the Lord gave it. The Lord can take it away. Bless
the Lord for giving it to me in the first place. Thank you,
Lord. I sure did enjoy it while I had
it. Didn't deserve it. He took it back. He took it away.
It was yours to begin with. The sooner we realize that, the
better off we'll be. Right? He's Lord over all good
things. He's Lord, like I said, over
bad things. Afflictions, trials, tribulations, all of these things. But the child of God can rejoice
in knowing that the judge of all the earth is going to do
right. He said all things work together
for good, didn't it? to them that love God who have
called according to His purpose. We might not see it right now,
but someday we're going to see it and we're going to shout hallelujah
for doing it. My, my, my. Bad things. Things we think are bad. I always
wanted to preach a message along those
lines. Think it well. Start to give
it away. I think I'll save it for another time. At an illustration
I'm going to give you. I'll give it to you later. Maybe
in my next Sunday morning message. Bad things. Things that we think
are bad that happened to us. And they just... Oh my, Job. Just think of the things that
happened to Job. Bad things, weren't they? Huh? Seemingly
bad things. Could anything worse have happened
to a man than happened to Job? No. Nobody ever got as low as
Job. Nobody ever, save the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And in the end, when it was all
said and done, Job looked back when he had twofold more than
he had to begin with. And not to mention an unfailing
trust in his Lord that he did not have before. as a result
of those trials. Don't you know he was praising
God after it was all over? Sure he was. And you will, too.
Bad thing. Bad thing. All right. And then gifts. The provision
of gifts. All gifts. And I'm talking about
preaching or witnessing or singing or playing an instrument or whatever.
The Lord raises up those instruments. The Lord gives gifts to preach
the gospel and to do all of these things, and He purchases these
gifts, and because we don't have them, we don't feel like we've
been slighted or that we're of no use whatsoever. The Lord decides. He decides. He gives gifts unto
all men, and according to the measure of grace, He decides.
He gives them, and certain people have different gifts. And we're
not to be proud of those by any means. He can take them away
just as quickly as He gave them. God gives the ability to do anything. Without me, you can do nothing.
And then His Word. And I take this as one of my
greatest comforts. As I've said so many times, liberty
is relative, but the truth is unchanged. I'm tired. Right now I'm tired. And I didn't
feel much like preaching this morning. But the truth of what
I'm saying right now this morning can be the greatest thing somebody's
ever heard. It can pierce a heart. It can comfort like no other
message you've ever heard. I don't matter. It's just the
Word. It's the Word. I don't matter.
The instrument does not matter. It's His Word. He says His Word
won't return void. But it'll accomplish what he
sends it to do. And God sends his word or he
withholds his word. It's up to him. It's up to him. And no one can say God's unfair. God's unfair. He would be fair
in withholding it from all of us. We don't deserve to do it.
I don't deserve to ever preach another message, to ever handle
these holy things. But God has people, I'm convinced,
right here, and He's got a word for somebody that somebody needs,
irregardless of my feelings. And He's going to preach it,
and He's going to say something to somebody, somewhere, for their
comfort or either their conviction. That's the blessings of gifts,
dispensation of all things is in the hands of the Lord, all
things. And lastly, lastly, death. We think that's final, don't
we? Death. And we make spirit. I still cannot
help but think about the fact that we haven't had a funeral
in here. We haven't had a funeral here of a longstanding member somebody
that's been here ever since I've been here before. We haven't
had one since I've been here. It's going to happen. It's going to happen. Who? I don't know. Christ knows. And that death
of that person, whoever it may be, it may be somebody we look
like Virgin. Like I said, she's the oldest.
that we're going to lose a racial started going down here where
virgin medicine calls it lord calls now use the means of medicine
but he did that maybe make you should see how frail you are
that you're eighty-some years old you you pass do right the scripture says it's
pointed out to a man wants to die when whenever the lord appointed
He knows your hour. That's what Job said. His days
have determined the numbers of his months with thee. His months,
his days, his bounds, he cannot pass them. There's a day set
in God Almighty's book for Henry Sower to leave this planet. And
he's not going to live one hour past that. Maybe him, maybe one
of our youth. And it's going to be tough. No
matter who it is. Don't want to lose you, Birdie.
We've got to. You're old. You can't live forever,
can you? And we're going to miss her,
because she's just great. But you've got to go. Right? And it'll be sad, won't it? It
won't be for her. It won't be for her. It will
be for death. Who causes death? And your only
hope. Your only comfort, your only
peace that you're going to have when this comes, when it comes,
not if. Somebody, my wife, would say
sometime, well, if so and so happens to you, and I say, it's
not a matter of if, it's when. That's what we ought to talk
in, it's when. And our only comfort and our
own hope in those times when these things happen is in realizing
that, hey, the Lord said, I kill. I kill. Death. Death. And it's not a finality. It's
just the beginning. Just the beginning. If anything,
we ought to envy those. The reason we're so sad when
people die is because we miss them. We're going to miss them.
We're not going to see them anymore in this life. We need to have
the sure confidence, if that was a believer, we need to have
the sure confidence that David had when he lost his child. Child. You need another You need any
other promise to children in heaven than this one? When David
said, Well, He can't come back to me, but I can go to Him. I can go to Him. And we'll be sad when we lose
some of these people we dearly love. We'll be real sad. We'll
cry. Nothing wrong with tears. Our
Lord wept tears. He sure did. He wept. He was a man of sorrows. And
we'll be sad and we'll miss them. We'll miss them until the day
that we die and go be with them. But really now, we ought to envy
them. We ought to envy them. Death. You know, this ought to
be frightening to an unbeliever. The things that I'm saying ought
to be frightening to an unbeliever. That all these things are in
the hands of this sovereign Lord, even you are. An unbeliever who
doesn't know Him, doesn't care, It ought to make him fear and
tremble and want to know Him. Shouldn't it? Shouldn't it? But
a believer, it ought to just settle him right now. Just absolutely
settle him. Make that old heart quit beating
so fast. Settle it right now. Have peace. Because He's Lord. And judgment. He said, all authority,
all judgment is rendered unto me. He's the judge of the quick
and the dead. All men someday will stand before
this One, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will dole out to them
either eternal life, according to their relationship with Him,
or eternal death, according to the fact that they don't care
about Him. We're in His hands. The Lord Jesus Christ, He's Lord. I don't know how that makes you
feel. I see some smiles, and I'm glad,
real glad. I see everybody on here, I'll
be smiling. This wasn't a message of condemnation
or a hard message. No, this is a message for your
comfort and your peace. Everything that happens to you,
happens to you because the Lord Jesus Christ ordained it. And nothing can happen to you
but what He does and directs it. Nothing. Can you smile? Good. Jesus Christ
is Lord. He's Lord. And when we say that,
we mean it. We mean it. All right, stand.
And I'll dismiss this in prayer.