welcome all of you that are watching
by way of the internet. These are unusual days and due
to the serious nature of this virus,
I decided to cancel our in-person services and we're, of course,
we're on casting and I hope that the services will be a blessing
to you. And this will, this morning,
this evening, and also Wednesday evening, we will do the same
thing, and then kind of reevaluate the situation next weekend, and
we'll let everyone know the schedule, lack of schedule, next Wednesday. Today we'll have scripture reading
and my brother Trayvon is going to pray for us and then I'll
have the message for the hour. Scripture reading this morning
is from Romans chapter 8 and we'll begin with verse 28. Very
familiar. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom He called,
then He also justified. And whom He justified, then He
also glorified. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son,
but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long.
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our Lord and our God, and Father
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we give you thanks for
this opportunity to send your work forth through the means
you have provided. We know that nothing can stop
your word from going out to your people. And this morning, during
this time of uncertainty, we ask that you bless your word
from our pastor as he proclaims Christ to be crucified from this
cool pit. We thank you, Lord, for all things.
We know that nothing is taking place that is outside of your
realm of purpose. You purpose all events, all things,
for your glory and for the welfare and eternal welfare of your people.
We give you thanks in Christ's name. They are seated beside
you as our Lord and Savior and are seating for us. Lord, we
know that you have said when two or three are gathered in
your name, you'll be among us. And though there only be four
in this room this morning, there are many you have gathered via
the live streaming in your son's name. And we know it means the
same as if they were all here. We have one mind, one spirit,
one father, one savior. And Lord, we ask that you bless
the word this morning. We'll give you thanks for your
son that saved us, charged our sins to himself, took him to
a cross, bled and died before you, took our condemnation from
you, your wrath and vengeance laid upon him. for us to be accepted
by you in him, cleansed from our sin, robed in his righteousness,
and accepted by you. Pray for those who may be watching,
who are going through trials, burdens of the flesh. Lord, we
know that you're always with your people, and we give you
thanks for that. Give us rest and comfort and
contentment, and we only find that in your son. We'll give
you thanks and praise in his name for his sake. Amen. Welcome. I would ask you to get
your Bibles. And I'm going to give you several
passages this morning And we'll start in the book of Job, and
we're going to chapter one. Job, chapter one. And I know that you're seated
in your house watching internet, but I hope that you'll get your
Bible, follow with me in the scriptures. Our subject today is Does God
govern all things? Does God govern all things? What is God's relationship to
this world? And what is God's relationship
to everything in the world? Does God govern only the good
things that happen? Or does God govern over all things? We could debate that. Perhaps
you have a difference of opinion than I do, but actually what
we think or any debate that might be raised is has no bearing on
the accurate answer to the question, we must go to God's word. Does
God govern all things? I know to many people that it
seems that God has a very little relationship to his creation. that lots of people believe that
He made everything, and then He's just kind of let everything
go, and it's going in its own direction, it's going as it will,
and in the end, God will again take the reins, and He will bring
everything to an end. But that isn't what the scriptures
teach. There are lots of people who
believe that God governs in the good things and the devil governs
the bad things. That all the troublesome things
that happen to your life and in my life and throughout the
world, there are lots of people who believe that those things
are governed by the devil. Good things by God, bad things
by the devil. So, let's see if we can get the
right answer this morning. And we'll go to the Scriptures
to see what the Word of God has to say. Because this is all that
matters is what God says. Our God says, let every man be,
let God be true and let every man be a liar. There is one authority. There
is one authority that is without error. That is the scripture. So I want you to get your Bible. Hope you've got it already. And
you'll go with me to the book of Job. Now, we could ask Job this question. Job, does God govern all things? Job, God said of you, you are
a perfect man. That is, this is gospel perfection. This is a man who loved God,
who believed God, who looked to God through the sacrifice. He believed that one who is the
seed of the woman who was coming. He believed Messiah. He believed on Christ Jesus. This is a man who wasn't working
for his salvation. for everlasting life. Here's
a man who looked to God through Christ Jesus for all of his salvation,
and God says of him, he was a perfect man. This is gospel perfection. He's righteous through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus. God said of Job, he's an upright
man. He's justified, and by God he's
been forgiven of all of his sins. It's obvious that Job believed
in the necessity of a blood sacrifice because as we read in the first
chapter, he would offer sacrifices on behalf of his children because
of their own sinfulness. So he's a man who understood
without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. So, as we look at Job, who was
a perfect man, who was an upright man, and a man who feared God,
he reverenced God, he respected God, and the Scripture says he
hated evil. As we look at this man, and as
we consider who he is, and the things that he has to say in
this book, we would ask Job this question, Job, does God govern
all things? Most men who have written various
books on the book of Job, and as far as that goes, commentaries
on the Bible, they believe Job is the very first book that was
written. Now, indeed, in the catalog of
Scripture, the book of Genesis is the very first book, but most
believe as far as that book which was written first, it's the book
of Job. And Job, he begins by giving
us the answer to this question, does God govern all things? And I want you to look at this
passage of scripture with me. And I'm not going to read the
whole passage because we don't have the time to do that. But
I would say concerning Job, he's a man who gives us the answer
to this question. Now, Job was, himself in his
own house, very comfortable. He was a wealthy man. He was
a healthy man. He had everything that a man
could possibly desire. He had a big family. He had ten
kids and he had lots of riches and he felt good. He had a wife
that loved him and everybody in the city respected him and
the children when Job walked they said, there's Job, he's
a very special man. He's a man who believes God.
And this man, one day, one of his servants came in. His servant
said, Job, your sons and your daughters were having a party,
a social gathering. And a messenger, this messenger
says to Job, he said, these Sabeans, they came upon this gathering
of your children, and while the children were inside of the house
celebrating and rejoicing and having a good time, this servant
said to him, Job, all of your oxen, have been stolen, and your
asses. And those servants who were watching
over those animals, they've also been killed. A devastating blow,
to say the least. And then after that servant had
stepped aside, there was another servant there. That servant said
to him, Job, lightning, lightning struck your flock of sheep and
those who were watching the flock. and it burned them all up. They're
all gone, Job. And then as soon as that servant
had spoken, another servant stepped up and said, Job, the Chaldeans,
they came upon your camels, and they stole them, and they killed
the servants who kept the camels. And as soon as he finished, there
was yet another servant. This is one right after another,
each one the bearer of bad news. But then another servant came
in and I'm sure he was brokenhearted and he was very upset. He said,
Job, a wind has destroyed your house where your sons and your
daughters were gathered together. And Job, that wind blew the house
down. It fell on your children. Job,
they're all dead. Now, after all of this has happened
to Job, we still want to ask him this question, Job, does
God govern all things? Well, let's read his answer.
Job chapter 1 and verse 20. Then Job arose, having received
each of these servants, This last one with the devastating
news that all ten of his sons and daughters had died. Job arose,
he rent his mantle, he shaved his head, he fell down upon the
ground and worshipped. He worshipped. He's in grief. That's indicated by the fact
that he rent his mantle, that he shaved his head. But in all
of this, though his heart is broken, and though he's very
upset, he's still worshiped. No matter what happens, no matter
how bad things get, we must worship God. We must worship Him who
made us. We must worship Him who governs
all things. We must worship Him who saved
us by His grace. Job recognized the hand of God. He worshiped God, and then he
said in verse... Verse 21, naked came I out of
my mother's womb and naked, naked shall I return thither. And then
he says, the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Job, who do you say governs all
things? And he says, God does. The Lord
gave all of this to me. He gave me my wealth. He gave
me my health. He gave me my children. And now
God has taken them all away. God governs in all things. This is what Job is telling us.
Did you hear him? As I say again, this is the oldest
book of the Bible. And this is recorded in the very
first chapter of the oldest book in the Bible. Does God govern
all things? And the very first book ever
written and put into the canon of Holy Scripture says, God reigns
in all things. He governs in all things. The
Lord gives, the Lord takes away, and in all situations, blessed
be the name of the Lord. in this virus that people are
so worried about, and rightfully so, we should be concerned about,
shouldn't worry, but we should be concerned, and we should take
reasonable precautions. Does God govern in this? Well,
he governs in all things. Ask David, the sweet psalmist
of Israel, the man after God's own heart, that one of whom it
was said of the Savior that he was David's Lord and David's
son. And we ask David, David, does
God govern all things? And he answers, and he says in
Psalm 135 and verse six, he says, whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and in all deep
places. He says in Psalm 22, 28, for
the kingdom is the Lord's and he is the governor among the
nations. There's a governor in this world. And that's just not an empty
title for God. He's the governor who governs. In Psalm 67 and verse 4, the
Lord shall judge the people righteously and govern the nations. There's nothing that God doesn't
govern. There's nobody that God doesn't
govern. David says in Psalm 93 verse
1, the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth, he is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength. Wherewith he hath girded himself,
the world also is established and it cannot be moved. Well,
then let's ask the Lord. Let's see what he has to say.
And I know all of this is his word, but let's hear it come
out of the mouth of our God. If you would turn to Isaiah chapter
45. Isaiah chapter 45. And I'll have you look at verse
seven. Take your Bible, turn to Isaiah chapter 45 and verse
seven. In fact, I'll read verse five
too. I'll start at verse five. Are
you there? Isaiah 45 and verse five. I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. There is none else, there is
no God beside Me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the west that there is none beside Me. I am the Lord. I'm not a pretender. I don't
have an empty title. I am the Lord. I am Jehovah. I am the ever-existent One. I
am God and there is none else. Now look what he says in verse
seven. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do
all these things. He says, I form, I form the light. The word here is, it brings to
our minds the idea of one who is a potter. You know what a
potter does. He takes clay and he molds it
and he fashions it according to his own will. And the Lord
says, I'm the one who fashions the light. He fashions the natural
light. He said, let there be light and
there was light. Genesis chapter one, verse three
says that. He formed natural light. He made
the sun just as he would want it to do. He fashioned it with
his own hands, as it were. And he also forms spiritual light. He is the potter, and we're all
the clay. And he gives to creatures of
clay, spiritual light as it pleases Him. He doesn't give everybody
spiritual light, but to many people, He does give spiritual
light. And to others, He creates darkness. He holds back the light. He doesn't
give light to everybody. Our God shows mercy to whom He
will show mercy. He's gracious to whom He will
be gracious. He says, I form the light. I'm
the one that does it, God says, and I create darkness. And then
He says, I make peace. First of all, He made peace between
His people and Himself. His people were at enmity against
Him. We were enemies against God.
He made peace through the peacemaker, the Lord Jesus. He made our peace
by the blood of His cross. Our enmity against God was great,
but God purposed to save a people, and he saved his people by the
death of the Lord Jesus. He is our peace, the Bible says. He makes peace. You can't make
peace with God. I can't make peace with God.
You can't. Neither one of these men in the
back here can make peace with God. And you, as you watch me
on the internet, you cannot make peace with God. God says, I make
peace. Don't you try to steal that from
him. Don't you think that you can
establish peace between yourself and God? That's a work only Christ
Jesus could do. And he could only do it by the
death of the cross of Calvary. It's by his blood, by his sacrifice
that he made peace with God. And then he says, I make peace
and create evil. Now, what kind of evil is this? Because this seems to present
a great problem to a good many people. Well, the Bible says
that God tempteth no man to evil. But must we not attribute all
things to God in this sense? God gives to men the abilities
to do evil things. For instance, in the garden,
now you think with me, in the Garden of Eden, could God have
kept Adam from doing the evil that he did, the evil of rebellion? Well, certainly he could have.
God had dominion over all things. God had the authority over Adam.
But that evil of Adam's transgression was necessary for this reason,
for God to be able to display his greatest glory. You see,
the glory of God is seen mainly, I know it's seen in creation,
and I know it's seen in divine providence, God ruling all things,
but especially and mainly it's seen in salvation of sinners. Had there been no evil of sin,
had there been no evil of transgressions, had there been no evil of iniquity,
there would not have been the necessity of the Savior coming
into the world and therefore God's greatest glory would never
have been revealed. So God created evil. He created
the circumstances. He made Adam with the ability
to transgress God's law. And then God's eternal purpose
of grace began to fall into place. God creates evil. But this word
evil, really the idea here is God creates troublesome situations. He creates turmoil, afflictions,
tribulations, things of this nature. such as this virus that's
going around. Does God govern that? Well, surely
he does. Did God create it? Yes, he does. Listen, every microscopic atom
of germ or bacteria throughout this world is governed by God
just like everything else. Nothing moves, nothing exists
apart from the government of God Almighty. And if your God
doesn't govern over all things, my friend, you've got the wrong
God. The God of the Bible governs everything, and everybody, and
every disease, and every ailment. He governs in the issues of life,
and He governs in the issues of death. I form the light. This is what God said. You wouldn't
argue with God, would you? He even says in verse 9, look
at verse 9 of Isaiah 45. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. You wouldn't strive with God
over this. He says, let the potsherd strive
with the potsherds of the earth. In other words, let worthless
pieces of broken pottery, let them squabble among themselves. But he says, shall the clay say
to him that fashioned it, what makest thou or thy work he hath
no hands? Would you call God to the bar
of justice and you judge Him? God says He doesn't owe you an
answer for anything. He does His will everywhere. Ask a heathen king. His name
is Nebuchadnezzar. Heathen king, does God govern
everything? And he says, he doeth his will
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? That's what Nebuchadnezzar said.
Don't you argue with God. Don't you quarrel with God. That'll
be the end of you. And so the Lord says, I form
the light, I create darkness, I make peace and I create evil. I the Lord, you underline that,
I the Lord do all these things. All these things. Everything proceeds from God. What is God's relationship to
the Corona virus? God has brought it about. Now,
why did he do that? Well, that's not for me to say,
because I'm not privy to God's hidden secret purposes. But I
will say this, it could be a judgment. It could be a judgment of God.
And it could be the means by which he brings some people to
just stop and consider the things of eternity. Now, understand this. No affliction,
no trouble will ever in and of itself cause a man to go to Christ
Jesus. It just won't do it. You can
read Amos chapter four. God said, I sent all of these
things to you, all of these afflictions, all this turmoil, all of these
physical judgments and these calamities. He says, yet you
didn't return to me. These were warnings from God.
But they may be used of God to get a person's attention. and
then God will send to them the gospel. Listen, there's only
one power, only one power, only one omnipotence, only one authority
can draw you to Christ Jesus to believe him and that's the
authority of God himself. That's the power of God himself. He says, thy people shall be
willing. David says, thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. And maybe God will use
this to make you think, to make you think about your own situation,
your own salvation, and the lack thereof. And then God, using
the Word of the Gospel, like you're hearing right now, of
Christ and Him crucified, then God used this message to bring
you effectually to Christ Jesus. Oh, that you would consider your
end, the shortness, the brevity of life. And my, what a fragile
thing life is. And we're discovering that once
again. Yes, God governs all things. I want you to look at another
passage of scripture with me, and that's in the book of Amos.
I just made mention of Amos chapter four, but I want you to look
in Amos chapter three. if you would, Amos, and I'll
ask you to go to chapter three. That's one of the minor prophets. Minor, not in importance or significance,
but in brevity. It's called the major prophets
and the minor prophets. And you'll find Daniel, the last
of the major prophets, and then Hosea, Joel, and then Amos. And I want you to go to Amos
chapter three. Amos was a herdsman. He's an
inspired prophet of God. And he says this in Amos chapter
three in verse one. Hear this word that the Lord
hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole
family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying, you
only have I known of all the families of the earth. Therefore,
I will punish you for all your iniquities. Now, when we think
of judgment, because God talks here about punishing you for
your iniquities. When we think of judgment, I
want you to know this, and I want you to remember this. Every person
will stand before God someday. There will be a judgment. The
judgment, according to the scripture, is by the standard of righteousness. The judge will be that one whom
God sent into this world who died for our sins according to
the scriptures and who was raised again according to the scriptures
and exalted into the heavens. Judgment will be carried out
by King Jesus. Christ himself will be the judge. That will be an individual judgment. You cannot answer for another.
I cannot answer for you. Now, for the people of God, we
need to understand Christ Himself is our righteousness and He answers
for His people. We stand in His righteousness
now and we stand in His righteousness then and we will stand in His
righteousness forever. We're made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 21, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. There is no judgment therefore,
there is no condemnation, to all of the people of God because
Christ has been judged for our sins. He took our sins upon himself,
Isaiah 53 and verse six says that our iniquities were made
to meet on him and God judged our sins in his own son. God forsook him so that we would
not be forsaken. God poured out his vengeance
on him so that he would not pour out his vengeance on us. Now
that's, there's an individual judgment that is yet in the future. But this portion of scripture
speaks of national judgment. Now listen, there will be no
future judgment of nations. Do you understand that? There
will be no future judgment of nations. There will be a future
judgment of individuals, but there will be no gathering of
entire nations in the future so that nations will be judged.
Therefore, judgment against nations, it happens in this world, in
this life. In this context, God is sending
judgment upon the nation of Israel. The Lord reminds them of what
He had done for them. He says, I brought you up out
of the land of Egypt. I did that for you. And He did
many, many, many other things for Israel, and yet, and yet,
they rebelled against Him. And God says, therefore, I will
punish you for your iniquities, you as a nation, national judgments. And we know that for the Northern
kingdom, eventually they were taken into captivity and their
identity was lost. The Southern kingdom was also
taken into captivity and God was pleased to spare the remnant
according to the election of grace. Consider all that God
did for them. Yet they were unthankful. They
followed after idols. They forgot God. And they didn't
look to the Savior who was promised. They didn't look to that one
Isaiah wrote about in Isaiah 9, the son who would be given,
the child that would be born. whose name would be Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince
of Peace. The blood sacrifices, which all
pointed to Christ Jesus, they either ceased, the people ceased
to offer those, or they carried them out without any heart worship. And God announced that he would
punish Israel for their iniquities. Now, it may be, and I'm not the
final authority on this, of course, but it may be that this disease,
this virus, I should say, is the judgment of God against many
countries in this world. I do know this. Men have forgotten
God. There's no fear of God before
the eyes of men. and God deals in vengeance? Is this virus of God? Why, sure
it is. Sure it is. Does God govern this
sickness? Absolutely. Is it a judgment
upon some people? Well, upon the wicked and those
who die in their sins, it is a, what the scripture calls in
the book of Revelation, a trumpet judgment. It's a warning from
God. Perk up, listen up, pay attention. This ought to get all of our
attention that we shall not live, we shall die. Maybe not now,
but someday. And it may be that God will indeed
use this virus as a means to get somebody to doing some serious
thinking, and then God will follow that with the gospel of grace.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if you were one of those people that
God dealt with your heart and convicted you of your sin? Well, look at verse three. God says this, can two walk together
except they be agreed? You see, God and Israel could
not walk together any longer. Well, what was the reason? Because
they disagreed with Him. You can't walk with God and disagree
with God. They disagreed with who God is. In fact, in the Psalms, David
said, and he's quoting the Lord, the Lord said, you thought that
I was such in one as yourself. If you think God is like you,
there's a disagreement there. Because God is not at all like
us. He said, my ways are not your
ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts. He's a great and glorious
God and we're little peons of the dust. We're just worms. We're just wiggling maggots before
God. Men have low thoughts of God
and they have high thoughts of themselves. There's no fear of
God before their eyes. There's no true worship. And
when it comes to salvation, men look to the works of their own
hands. They look to what they've done. They disagree with God's
verdict concerning men and God's remedy for sin. There's much
talk today about being tested for this virus. Well, we've got
a more serious virus than this coronavirus. We've got the virus
of sin. We've all been infected with
this virus and we've all been tested. We've been tested by
the word of God. Listen to Psalm 14, see if this
isn't a test. The Lord looked down from heaven
upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand
and seek God. And this is what God says. They're
all gone aside. They're all together become filthy.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. That's God's verdict. That's what God says. In Romans
the third chapter, now we know that whatsoever things that the
law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that every
mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before
God. God has pronounced us guilty
as charged. We have been tested. We have
been tested. And we've all been found to have
the positive result of the test. We're all full of sin. As an
egg is full of meat, man is full of sin. That's you, that's me,
that's everybody in the whole world. We're infected and the disease
of this virus is deadly because the Bible says sin when it is
finished, it brings forth death. And you see Israel, they disagreed
over the remedy, over the remedy. Of course, people want a vaccine,
people want a cure for this virus that's going around. Well, there
is a cure for the infection we've got. Now listen, the blood of
Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. There is a great
physician. There is a great physician and
that's the Lord Jesus Himself in His substitutionary work.
There is a cure, but men are stubborn. They ignore the truth
of the only right way to come to God by Christ and Him crucify. They go some other way. No wonder
God says, can two walk together except they be agreed? He said,
you don't agree with me in the way that I save sinners. When Israel was bitten by the
fiery serpents, there wasn't a cure. It was deadly. It was lethal. And the Lord said to Moses, build
a serpent of brass. And you tell everyone, look and
live. Look and live. And our Lord Jesus,
hundreds of years after that happened, he said to Nicodemus,
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. There is healing for the
soul. There's salvation in looking
to the Lord Jesus and him crucified. All right, look at verse four. Remember, he's saying, hear the
word of the Lord. He says, will a lion roar in
the forest when he hath no prey? Will a young lion cry out of
his den if he hath taken nothing? Listen, it's the Lord who is
the lion and he roars. Will you not listen to him? And
I know this is talking about the Lord. Let's go back to Amos
chapter one. Look at Amos chapter one and
verse two. And he said, the Lord will roar
from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the habitations
of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither. Do you not hear the voice of
the lion? Could we not say that this virus
is the voice of God who is the lion and he's roaring? Will you
not hear him? Will you not listen to him? And
look at verse five. Can a bird fall in a snare upon
the earth where no djinn is for him? Shall one take up a snare
from the earth and have taken nothing at all? This tells us
that no affliction and no trouble ever comes upon people by chance,
but by the net of God, by the appointment of God. And God says,
for your sins, he tells Israel, I've spread my net to capture
you and deal with you in judgment. The design of the fowler is to
catch people in the net for judgment. And then look at verse seven,
and I would say before I read verses seven and eight, I wanna
ask you a question. In fact, I'll just ask it to
Amos. Amos, does God govern all things? And this is what Amos says, verse
six. Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city and the people not be afraid? He says, shall there be evil
in a city, affliction, turmoil, virus, sickness? afflictions,
trouble, all of those things fit in there. Shall there be
evil in a city? And the Lord hath not done it.
Who's done all of this? Who's doing all things? God is,
the Lord is. Don't pay any attention to those
who say that God has nothing to do with the storms of life,
the distressing things, the sicknesses. He governs all things. Look at verse seven and eight.
Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto
his servants, the prophets. I tell you, God revealed his
secrets to his servants, the prophets, and he reveals his
secret to his people of how he saves sinners. And he tells us
what he's doing. What is God doing? He is governing
all things for His glory and the good of His people. Our brother
read to us from 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. I would ask you this, how could
that possibly be true if God doesn't govern all things? You're an intelligent person.
I pray that God will give you on top of your natural intelligence
and wisdom, spiritual intelligence and wisdom. It's God who works
all things after the counsel of His own will. Ephesians 1
says that, and He's the one who's working all things for the good
of His people. Now look at verse 8. He says, the lion hath roared. Who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, who
can but prophesy? Will you listen? Will you listen
to the roaring of the lion? You know, in the book of Revelation,
we read that the lion is the lion of the tribe of Judah. And
in the fifth chapter, not only is he the lion of the tribe of
Judah, but he's the lamb who was slaughtered for the sins
of his people. Oh, he is a lion to his enemies,
but he is also the lion who defends his people. And he is the lamb
who was crucified for his people. And he lived and died and rose
again to save us. Does God reign over all things. You know the
answer to that. If you've been listening to the
Word of God that I've read, all of these scriptures, you know
our God reigns. And you who are the people of
God, in the midst of this virus and of any trial, don't worry, don't be anxious. I would say exercise caution. Just as you would do here on
13th Street, the traffic is quite heavy at times. Well, I wouldn't
go out to 13th Street and say, well, I believe that God governs
all things, and so if I'm going to be hit by traffic, I'll be
hit, and I'll just walk across the street without looking. No,
that's to tempt God. That's foolish, but I will look
both ways. Then I cross. Take reasonable
precautions. Well, certainly do that. Do that
all the time. But know this, you who are the
people of God, our God reigns. He reigns over everything. There's
nothing in your life over which he doesn't have absolute sovereign
authority. Rest in Him. Rest in His care. This evening I'm going to be
speaking about the subject of divine providence, how God rules
all things. And we'll deal with that this
evening, and I hope that you'll be watching at 6.30. May I say
a word to those of you who know not the Savior? Oh, may God give
you ears to hear what's been said. and open up your heart
to give you a desire and the will to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and be saved by His magnificent grace. I'll close in prayer. Our Father, it is with thanksgiving
that we bow before You this morning to thank You that You govern
all things. Lord, what comfort this brings
to the hearts of your children, to know that our loving, gracious
God, who chose us in everlasting election, who sent your Son to
redeem us, and your Spirit to call us, and to quicken us, and
to make us to be born again, and giving to us the gifts of
repentance and faith, just to know that you govern all things,
Lord, that speaks peace to our hearts. and to know that the
one who is vested with all authority and power over all things is
our Savior, the Lord Jesus. That is the reward for his successful
work of redemption. Oh, Lord, speak peace to the
hearts of your dear people. Make us to know and to believe
that our God does all things well. and that you do govern
all things. Thank you, Lord, for your loving
kindness, for all of your tender mercies. Bless the word of God
to each one who has listened to it this morning. We ask these
things for Jesus' sake. Amen.