Well, there is no special music
this morning, so I'm sorry, Susanna is sick, but I'm not prepared
to render to you special music, and I don't see anybody else
volunteering either. So we'll just forego special
music this morning. Well, would you open your Bibles? Let's go to the book of Psalms,
Psalm 74. If you would look at that passage
with me, Psalm 74. I actually don't, to do a verse-by-verse study
of Psalm 74, but I would, because really I just wanted to look
at a special statement out of the psalm. But if you have a
few extra minutes this afternoon, if you'd read it, you'll discover
the The main message of Psalm 74
is that the saints of God in trouble ask God to remember those
mercies that he has heaped upon Israel in the past, and therefore
to remember them in mercy in their present circumstances. And as you read Psalm 74 at your
leisure, you think of the mercies that God has given to you down
through the years. And if you presently find yourself
in a state of anxiety, a state of trouble, a state where you're
just agonizing over things, be it what it may, then when you
see God's face in prayer, ask God to show you mercy as He is
ever mindful of His covenant mercies. Because really, if you
read Psalm 74, you'll find out this is the basis for their asking
God to remember them, is it? They say, remember your covenant,
your covenant. And we ask God to do that when
he When we seek His face, Lord, remember You wrote my name down
in the Lamb's Book of Life, and You showed me grace for Christ's
sake. Lord, You have bailed Your people
out many, many times in the Old Testament and in the New Testament,
and even in my life. Lord, You've helped me on many
occasions. I ask you, O God, to help me
again." That's kind of the theme of Psalm 74. And as you go through,
you'll find the word, remember. Don't forget. That kind of verbiage. And I think it'll bless you as
you read through that. especially the first 11 verses
have to do with the difficulties that Israel was then dealing
with, and then he begins at verse 12, and he exercises some faith,
that is Asaph exercises faith. You'll see this is what's called
a maskal song, which means instruction. It's full of instruction for
the people of God. And so I'll show you one statement
that I want to work on. But first of all, let's ask for
God's blessings as we go into the message this morning. Lord, we read in the scriptures
that you're in heaven. You're seated upon your throne
of majesty. And therefore we should reverence
you, we should let our words be few. Lord, it is a great mercy
that you would even listen to anything we had to say. And yet
you listen to everything that we have to say to you, because
we are your offspring. not only by creation, but we're
your children by regeneration, by the new birth. You have birthed
us into your family, Lord, we're your little ones. And as such,
we're fully dependent upon our Father to provide all things
for us. And Lord, we must all say, all
of your people say, you have abundantly blessed us all that
we could ever think or ask for in the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, make us to be even
more grateful. It is so easy for the words,
we're thankful, Lord. It's so easy for those words
to roll off the lips. Let our hearts be always in the
attitude of gratitude to God and thanksgiving for all of your
tender mercies and for your grace that was given us in the Lord
Jesus even before you made the world. Now, Lord, we come to
you at this particular time of the service as we are ready to
embark upon the message that we believe you have for us this
morning. Oh, how desperately we need you
to say to us by your spirit words that will bless your people Words
that will, first of all, magnify your name, magnify the name of
the Son of God, exalting Him in His role as our Redeemer and
as our great Savior, and words that will exalt you, O Father. And then in the message, may
there be words that will exhort us. those of us who are the people
of God, enable us to be students of the scriptures and not to
merely hear, but to be hearers and doers of the word of God. We wait upon you to speak to
us. We do so with the understanding
that nothing of any value will take place this morning. without
the presence of your spirit. Lord, I ask for me that you would
enable me to preach in such a fashion that these dear folks before
me, people who are watching by way of the internet, these who
are eternally bound souls, Lord, may you give me a message for
them that will benefit them spiritually and eternally. We've come here, Lord, with a spiritual
hunger and a thirst. Would you satisfy our desires
and speak, Lord, to each of us inwardly. May we be very ready to hear that which
God has to say to us. Oh Lord, we humble ourselves
before you. We recognize that we're of the
dirt made from our father Adam, having come forth from that man
whom you named Adam, red dirt. We came from dirt. We're going
back to dirt. Lord, nothing of any significance
will ever be attained by any of us except the spiritual significance
and light that we have in Christ Jesus. Nothing else matters. And as we listen to the Word
of God this morning, may we, each of us, have an understanding
that only the things of our God truly matter in this world. Bring us to believe and to Love
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior. In his name, I ask these
things. Amen. There's a statement here
in Psalm 74 that I'm going to focus in on, and I'll give it
to you in just a little bit. I want to hold you in suspense.
just for a few more minutes, and then I'll give you this statement
that I'm going to read to you. And it's from the ink pen of
Asaph, who the Spirit of God used him to write this portion
of scripture, Psalm 74, this mascal psalm, this psalm of instruction. But here's my subject. What is
God doing today? What is God doing today? Now we know that the scripture
says, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. So begins the inspired scriptures. In Exodus, the 20th chapter,
Moses also wrote that in six days God made the heaven, and
the earth and all that in them is. And of all of his creative
works, God said, and his is the only words that matter, God said
after he viewed all that he had made after six days of creation,
God said, it's all very good. And then we read in the second
chapter of Genesis that on the seventh day, God ended the work
that he had made. And he rested on the seventh
day from all his work, which he had made. He rested from all
the work that he had made. Which leads me to then ask this
question, is God active today? And there are those who say that
God got everything going, that he did indeed create all things,
he brought everything into existence, and that then God kind of, he
sat back And even now, he is just an observer of all that's
going on. Many people think that God has
no utter control or total control over all things, but rather he
watches and he does so as one who is very dissatisfied with
the way things are working out because they're not working out
the way he designed them. That's the idea that many people
have of God. Well, I have you to know, and
I want to say to all of you and to those of you who are watching
by way of the internet and to those who are perhaps listening
to this message sometime in the future here, I want you to know
that God is not idle. God is not a mere observer. of the things that are going
on in this world. And I could say, I could answer
this question, what is God doing today? I can answer it very general
in this way. He is fully accomplishing everything
he purposed to do. Now, that leads me to ask another
question. What is it that God has purposed
to do? And the answer is God has purpose
to do everything that ever exists and happens. All things owe their
first cause to God. There's a verse of scripture
which we have looked at on numerous occasions in Ephesians chapter
1 and verse 11 that says, in whom, that is, in the Lord Jesus. And those of you who are familiar
with Ephesians chapter 1, you of course recognize the fact
that one of the key statements or prepositional phrases, I should
say, in Ephesians chapter one is in him, in Christ, in whom,
always in him. Everything, and learn this, if
you don't learn anything else from the message this morning,
learn this. Everything good and blessed and
gracious that God has for folks like us is in Christ Jesus. Now you've got to learn that.
That's the basics. That's the basics. You see, we
deal with God and God deals with us through this mighty mediator. And therefore, if he blesses
us, he must bless us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so then we
read there in Ephesians chapter one, that he has indeed blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. And then he gets down to verse
11 and he says, in whom, and now we know who he's talking
about, in Christ, that is in the Son of God, we also have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things, who worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will." What is God doing today? To those who think that God is
idle, to those who think that God is setting up in heaven in
an armchair or perhaps standing, leaning over the banister of
heaven and observing all things that are going on in the earth
and wondering where in the world did things go wrong. Folks like
that need to read this portion of scripture and may God give
understanding of this portion of scripture that He is working
all things after the counsel of His own will. Understand this,
God has never lost control of everything that he has created.
Never for a moment. He has never taken a sabbatical
leave from being God. He has never vacated his righteous
and just throne. He is always at work. working
all things after the counsel of his own will. Nahum says this
in Nahum chapter 1, he says, the Lord has his way in the whirlwind. God has his way, he has his way
not only in the whirlwind, but in the stillness of the night. God has His way in times of joy
and excitement and happiness. That's God's way there. That's
God's will there. And when we're brought into the
depths of doom and despair and gloominess and death and all
of those sorts of things, God is ruling there as well. He has
His way there. The issues of life and death
and everything in between belong to God. We must say to those who think
God has lost control or that God isn't in control, we must
say to them what Luther said to Erasmus. Your thoughts of
God are way too low. Or maybe we should say what God
said to Israel. You thought that I was such a
one as yourself. And I'm afraid a good many of
us, when we think of God, we think of God relative to ourselves
and our limitations. God has no limitations apart
from His own holy character. And He always does His will.
We're limited by many things. We're limited by a lack of ability
to always do what we want to do. We're limited by our own
feebleness. We're limited by our own, oftentimes,
lack of strength, lack of knowledge, lack of wisdom. But God lacks
for none of these things. Our thoughts of God are way too
low. Our God is seated in the heavens,
and He does whatever He wants to do. Even Nebuchadnezzar, a heathen
king, was brought to understand that, and he said that God rules
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest thou?
You can stay my hand, You can stop me from doing something
because I'm a weak man. I'm just flesh and blood. And
any of us can be stopped by one who is more powerful than we
are. But who's going to stop God? Is man's will powerful enough
to stop God Almighty? This is why we utterly despise
the teaching that man has a free will. Because it exalts man's
will over God's will. You have no power, you have no
ability to do anything except that which God has willed. I tell you again, our thoughts
of God are way too low. And Luther was right. He was
right when he brought that indictment against Erasmus. And he's still
right today. We think too little of God. That's why you hear the terminology
of today, stuff like, let God. Won't you let God have his way? And if you think about that,
if you think about the greatness of God, the immutability of God,
He's unchangeable. The omnipotence of God is all
powerful. The omniscience of God, He knows
everything. He knows the thoughts in your
mind before you ever think them. Can you comprehend that? And
no. You think of the greatness of
God and then think of our own Very deplorable state. And then you begin to realize
that in anything, this side of hell is mercy. Oh, how great is our God. The psalmist said, great is the
Lord and greatly to be praised. The God of 2020 religion today
isn't greatly to be praised. He's greatly to be pitied. The
God who is generally preached from most every pulpit in America,
He isn't worthy of reverence. He isn't worthy of worship. He
isn't worthy of adoration. He's worthy to be felt sorry
for. Don't you feel sorry for God? Our Lord Jesus, you remember
when he was on his way to the cross of Calvary? There was some
women along the way and they were weeping. And these were
some of his followers, ladies who had supported him and who
loved him and who believed him. And here he is carrying his own
cross. He's bleeding, he's been beaten,
and he's carrying the cross of Calvary to the place of execution. And as they behold this one whom
they loved, they see him in what appears to be, appears to be
weakness. They felt sorry for him, and
they began to weep. And he just stops. He says, don't
weep for me. Weep for yourselves. But why shouldn't we weep for
you? Look, you're going to your execution. You're innocent of all charges.
You're not guilty of blasphemy. You're not an enemy of Rome. We weep because this is totally
unfair. Listen, the Savior was totally
in control of all things that were going on, not only that
day, but every day, and every day in your life as well. Who governed things at the cross? Our Lord was governing things.
All things were working together according to His will. What is God doing today? God is doing today exactly as
He was doing 2,000 years ago when the Son of God went to the
cross of Calvary to redeem His people, to justify His elect. When He sent His Son to satisfy
all the demands of offended law. God is doing today what he was
doing then. He was controlling and governing
all things according to his will. So I'd say in general, we could
say that he is accomplishing his eternal purpose. His eternal
purpose. One vast, One expansive, one all-inclusive
purpose. And make sure you understand,
God isn't making any new decisions today. God is not waiting for you to
do something and then He's going to have a response. Many people think we act and
then God reacts. No. God acts and we react, but
he is governing all things. Oh, that God would bring us down
in our thoughts of self, that he would humble us, that he would
break our very pride, that we would bow prostrate before him
and see him for who he is, the God of grace and glory who governs
all things. 2 Corinthians chapter five and
verse 18 says, all things are of God. What is God doing today? Well, he's working. I had Ron read that passage of
scripture out of John chapter five, really for one verse. And that's the last verse that
he read to us. My father worketh hitherto and
I work. What is God doing? He's working. He's working. Now understand
this, when God does a work, it isn't like we do a work. By no
means is there any comparison because when we work, we get
tired, right? We get tired, we get weary. And there in Genesis chapter
2 when it says God rested from His work, it doesn't mean that
God got tired, that He had expended so much energy that He needed
to take a break. God doesn't take breaks. It merely
means that God had finished with that work of creation and then
He began the work of providence. What is providence? Well, it
is God directing all things, nothing left out, okay? It is
God directing all things to the end that he himself predestinated. That is, he's governing everything
and bringing everything to the point, to the result, to the
end that he himself ordained. This is what God is doing today.
Now, as I say, it doesn't weary God to work in this way. Because as you think, if you
wanna kind of get an understanding of the greatness of God, take
another look at a globe. And look at all the countries
in the world. First of all, every country,
and then even if you wanna break it down to cities and that sort
of thing. One God reigns throughout the
world in every individual life. I don't know how many billion,
three billion people in the world a day. I don't know something
like that. I don't know how many it is, but God knows every last
one of them. He even knows the hairs on everybody's head. Nothing escapes God's attention. Now, if your God isn't the God
who governs all things throughout the world and in heaven itself,
Amongst all of the angels, the elect angels, as well as the
fallen angels, that would be Lucifer and the one third of
the angels that fell with him in their individual rebellion
against God. If your God doesn't govern all
things in heaven, earth, and under the earth, all things at
all times, you, my friend, have got the wrong God. your God's much too little, much
too little. The scripture says, and those
of you who know your Bible, of course, Acts chapter 17. And that's when Paul was in Athens
and speaking on Mars Hill. And he's beginning to speak to
them about God. And he looked at all their statues,
all their religious relics and superstitions. And he said, I
perceive you're a very superstitious people. You're a very religious
people. You've got all these idols, a bunch of them. And then
I noticed you even had a statue to the unknown God, just in case
we missed one. He said, that's the one I want
to talk to you about. And then he says, of that God, he says,
in Him we live. This is what Paul said, in Him
we live. and move and have our being. All three billion people on the
earth today, that's true of. In him we live and move and have
our being. You say, but I'm one among three
billion. I don't know what population
is. Somebody probably correct me on that, but it won't be the
first mistake I've ever made, but it's a bunch of people. But
everyone who exists in this world lives and moves and has our being
in God. And God is actively engaged in
governing everything that happens to you and to somebody on the other
side of the world. This morning our son called from
Hiroshima. Typically, he calls on Sunday
morning, we have a nice chat, and he said, we're having a,
what did he say, a storm coming. He said, it's supposed to hit
sometime tomorrow. That's on the other side of the
world. You mean, God, he's sending a storm over there, but he sent
sunshine here? Yeah, the same God. It's kind of like when first
time we went to Japan and we looked up in the night sky and
said, is that the same moon we look at from the United States? Yeah, it's the very same. Isn't
that amazing? It's the same moon. And it's
the same God who rules over there amongst all those people who
rules here, governing all things. The Savior said, my father worketh
hitherto. He worketh hitherto. God doesn't
take a day off. There is no Sabbath for the Lord.
He works hitherto and Christ said, and I work. And he had
a work to do. And you'll remember how often
he referred to that work that the father gave him to do. He
said, I must finish the work that God gave me to do. Our Lord
was here to do a work. He wasn't here to just sit idly
by. He wasn't here to investigate
what kind of circumstances existed on the earth. What are those
people really like? So I think I'll go down and be
a monk. He's here to do a work, to do a work. a work that God
assigned to him, a work which he volunteered to do in the covenant
of grace, the work of redemption, the work of saving people. That's
God's work. What is God doing today? He's
doing His will. And among the people of God we
can say, all things work together. Who's working them together? It's amazing, most everybody
under the big umbrella of Christendom, of Christianity is a great big
umbrella. Most of them don't believe the
gospel, but lots of people embrace Romans 8.28. They say, oh, it's
such a precious promise. Well, it is. All things work
together. We know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Well, I would ask you this question. How can you have confidence? How can you be sure? that all
things are working together for your good unless there is one
back behind the scenes working them together. Because you're
not working them together, are you? No. Well, who is working
all that? Who is doing all of this? It's
our God. Our God. He governs all things. What is
God doing? Well, let me give you this verse
here in Psalm 74. And if some of you perhaps were
reading the Psalm over, I'd rather you did that later, but maybe
you were reading as I was saying those introductory remarks and
you got down to verse number 12. And here at Asaph, he gets his,
He gets his assurance from this, for God is my king of old. God is my king. God is my sovereign. He's the
sovereign of the world. He's the king of the world. What is God doing today? He is
working salvation in the midst of the earth. What is God doing
today? He's working salvation. He's
working salvation. Now this is the salvation He
purposed to bring about before He made all things. I mentioned
the covenant of grace. This is when God determines salvation. Actually, it's always been a
determination of God because the decree of God is as eternal
as He is. He purposed to save. He ordained
salvation. He chose the people into salvation. He gave those people, He gifted
those people to the second person of the Trinity, the Son of God,
to be the Savior, to be the surety. He determined everything that
would happen, creation. That would be the stage upon
which he would bring to pass the great drama of redemption. God made all things and he made
this globe, this earth. He made this in such a fashion
as it could sustain life, our life, human life. He put on this
earth everything that would meet the needs of people. proper atmosphere. God made us
in such a fashion we had to have air to breathe, he provided that. No difficulty for that. He made
us in such a fashion we had to have food to eat, so he purposed
food. Water to drink, so he provided
an ample amount of water. All things necessary to sustain
human life. It's not that way on any of the
other spheres or planets that God has made. Just this one. The reason, you know, when I
was beginning my series on the book of Genesis, I said, Genesis
1, 1 says, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. And he only says heaven and earth, because heaven, that's
where God's throne is, and that's where he ordained all things,
and earth, that's where he's gonna bring salvation to fruition. That's all that's important in
the economy of God. You say, why'd God make all the
rest of the things that he made? Why'd God make stars? Why'd God
make all these things that no human eye will ever see? It was
for his pleasure. That's what the scripture says.
You read there at the last verse of Revelation chapter four, for
his pleasure they are and were created. See, we think it's all
about us. It's not all about us. It's all
about God, that which is for His pleasure, that which is for
His glory. Creation is for the glory of
God. It manifests the power of God and the wisdom of God. Providence, it manifests the
energy of God, the exact purpose of God in directing everything
to the end that He Himself has ordained, and this salvation,
this grace that God gives to us in Christ Jesus, that's of
Him as well. And all things render glory to
His name. I know men, men, women, people,
and we think everything kind of revolves around us. We're
just we're players on a chessboard in a sense in a sense But there
there is a people that exists in this world That are very special
to God He has loved these people than
everlasting love And he was so very much a affectionate toward
us, that he who purposed our fall in Adam, he came to our
rescue, and he sent his darling son to save us. And our Lord Jesus, the scripture
says, he died for our sins, according to the scriptures. He was raised
again the third day, according to the scriptures. God is working salvation. He
ordained salvation. He worked for our salvation back
before He ever made the world. Actually, everything about our
salvation was, every eye was dotted and every T was crossed
before the world began. Even Christ Jesus is said to
be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And then He created. And ever since He's been Here's
a good word I think to use right here. He's been manipulating
everything that ever happens to fulfill His wise design. We go through 4,000 years of
Old Testament history. What was God doing then? He was
working, working, And every, we know this, the
Bible is a book of redemption. It's a book of the salvation
of God's people by the doing and the dying of the Son of God.
And throughout the Old Testament, we might think of the Old Testament
as being a multitude of little puzzle pieces, which God is fitting together
to make way for the arrival of the Son of God. And God has arranged,
he arranged, he purposed a multitude of things that had to happen. Here's another way to express
what I'm endeavoring to say. The Old Testament tailor makes
a garment that only fits one man. He has to be born in Bethlehem.
That rules out a bunch right there, doesn't it? He had to
be of the tribe of Judah. Messiah did. He had to be of
the tribe of Judah. He had to be an offspring of
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And he had to be born of a virgin. Wow, that really narrows the
field down to one. But a multitude of other things
were said about him in all these puzzle pieces that God in his
infinite wisdom had designed. They've all got to come together. At his birth, This little infant
must be taken into Egypt. That was written hundreds of
years before he's ever born. So that puzzle piece can't be
left out. And when he is born, there's
going to be a great, great lamentation, great crying. from the women
in and around Bethlehem because the king is going to butcher,
he's going to kill, he's going to execute the male babies under
two years of age. That's got to come to pass. And
I mean, I could go on and on and on. All those little puzzle
pieces that had to fit. And then Jesus of Nazareth was
born And by that time, all the puzzle had been filled in from
the Old Testament, every piece. I could say thousands and thousands
of pieces of a puzzle that none could ordain but God and none
could fit them all into position but God. And we just kind of say, wow.
How utterly amazing. But there are other pieces of
the puzzle also. He's got to grow up before the
eyes of God. Isaiah 53 says that. He's got to be wounded, bruised. That's gotta happen. Those are
pieces of the puzzle too during his life. He's got to die between
transgressors. And he's got to be buried in
a rich man's tomb. And God had those things written
hundreds of years before he was ever born. All these puzzle pieces. That's our God. What was God doing? Working salvation. and even the actions of Judas,
that's another piece of the puzzle. And that he would cry out, I
thirst, another piece of the puzzle. And though the two thieves who
were crucified with him, their legs were broken so that they
would quickly die, when they came to Jesus of Nazareth, he
was already dead. Another piece of the puzzle fulfilled. Not a bone of him shall be broken. And then a spear was thrust into
his side. He was pierced. Another piece
of the puzzle. I mean, on and on you can go. What was God doing then? I'll
tell you what God was doing. He was working salvation. He
was working justification. He was working redemption. He
was working reconciliation. He was working to put away our
sins by the sacrifice of His Son. That's what God was doing. And then he was raised from the
dead, another piece of the puzzle. And then he ascended back to
heaven, Psalm 24, another piece of the puzzle. And he's gone
back to glory where he rules and he reigns, another piece
of the puzzle. I mean, all of this comes...
Listen, if you don't see the reign of God in all things, Well,
you just don't have eyesight. Oh, that God would give you a
cure for your blindness. This is our God. And the scripture
says that he who governs all things does so as a reward for
his substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. And
he's coming again someday. What's God doing today? He's
working salvation. Give you one illustration, and
you'll recognize this. Within the congregation of Jerusalem,
God raised up seven men to be deacons, and one of them was
a fellow by the name of Philip. Well, Philip became an evangelist. tremendous preacher. God sent
him, due to persecution, God sent him to preach in Samaria,
which was the capital city of the Northern Kingdom. And the
Lord was saving lots of people. But way away, some 1,200 miles
away, pretty good distance, Pretty fair hike, 1,200 miles. Before anything except horseback
or chariot, and that's how this guy came. 1,200 miles away. Here's Philip,
he's in Jerusalem, first of all. And here's a guy 1,200 miles
away from Jerusalem, he is in Ethiopia. Now Ethiopia today
is just a little nation. But Ethiopia back then was all
of Africa, the whole continent. And this guy, he was the treasurer.
He was the secretary of the treasury under the queen. But God gave him an interest
in knowing something about the God who made all things. And
so he asked for some vacation time, I suppose. and he took
a chariot. He goes 1,200 miles to Jerusalem
to attend a feast. And he wants to know about the
God of Israel, but he didn't get much information
there, and so he's on his way back. Well, meantime, God takes
Philip and sends through persecution, difficulties, These things happen
in the purpose of God. He moved Philip from Jerusalem
over to Samaria. And then under his ministry,
God's saving lots of people. And then the Spirit of God came
to him and said, I need you to move. Need you to move. And I don't know how the Lord
transported him, it would seem to be a miraculous
movement. He just moved him out in the
desert. And there was that man, this
Ethiopian eunuch, totally dedicated to the nation of Ethiopia to
serve the queen. And this guy is reading the scriptures. Now, let me ask you, come on
now. A man in Ethiopia, a man in Jerusalem,
1,200 miles away. What's the odds of them brushing
past, paths crossing? Well, nil and zero, as we would
say. Because Philip is a preacher.
This Ethiopian eunuch, he's Secretary of the Treasury. He's a big wheel. He's somebody. What's God doing? He's working
salvation. He's doing all this for the salvation
of one man. Because you see, the Scripture
says, how shall they hear without a preacher? Well, weren't there
preachers any closer? Perhaps, but the one God purposed
to use was Philip. Looks like the Lord would have
sent a missionary to Ethiopia. No. That's what you think, maybe
I think that way, but that's not how God arranges things.
So God has this man come to Jerusalem being disappointed with that
religion that was graceless and Christless. He's on his way back,
going through the desert, and here's a preacher who all of
a sudden appears beside of him, jogging along beside his chariot. Must be in pretty good shape,
I suppose. And the man is reading the Bible. Somehow or another, he got a
hold of the scriptures, the book of Isaiah, rolled up in a parchment
and he's reading. And Philip said, do you understand
what you're reading? He said, how can I except some
man tell me? He said, oh, I got some good
news for you. And I'm sure Philip was then
thinking, now I know why God sent me out here. Because he's
working salvation. That's what he's doing. Man stopped his chariot. Philip
got up in the chariot. The man's reading from Isaiah
chapter 53. reading about the one who'd be
smitten, afflicted of God. He said, can you tell me who
the man's writing about? Is he writing about himself,
this fellow Isaiah? Is he writing about himself or
some other man? He's writing about some other
man. And then the scripture says, Philip began at the same place
and preached unto him Jesus. What is God doing? He's working
salvation. And here you are today. And here
I am. And our paths cross. What is
God doing? It may very well be even within
this congregation or out there in the internet land, it may
be God's working salvation in some person right now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved. And for those of us who are the
people of God, let us worship the Lord, who
is working salvation in the midst of the earth. And he's even working to continue
your salvation because He's working to preserve you. He worked to
convict you and to convert you by the gospel like He did the
Ethiopian youth. He's working to maintain that
work. Scripture says it's the Lord
who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. And
someday He will do another work for you He'll take you home to
glory. And He'll do another work. He'll
glorify your soul. And then, sometime in the future,
because when you leave this world, you enter into eternity, the
Lord Jesus is going to come back and He'll do another work for
you. He's going to raise your body. He's going to make it like
Christ's glorious body, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor
any such thing. And then in the end, all the
people of God together, then we'll all sing, sing the praises
of Him who did His great work, the work of salvation. What's
God doing today? He's not idle. He's working salvation
in the midst of the earth. Let's bow our heads. Lord, we bow to give you thanksgiving
for all things. All things are of God. And Lord, we cannot begin to
comprehend that you're the God who governs and wills and purposes
all things. We can't begin to grasp that. But we can't begin to grasp the
greatness of our God. And we worship you. We fall down
before you. Oh, how utterly gracious of you,
Father, that you would give consideration to us before the world began.
Those of us who are by nature just the worms of the dust. And
you've been pleased to raise us from the dungheap of sin and
lift us up to be among the very princes of your people. Oh, how gracious you are. Oh,
how merciful to sons and daughters of Adam through Christ Jesus
our Lord. Give us the spirit of worship
and thanksgiving. And may we always remember, Father,
that you're working. We may be in deep waters in our
lives, but you're working your perfect will in the life of your
dear children, bringing all things together, making them work together
for good. We bless you. We thank you. Lord, we praise you for Jesus'
sake. Amen.