of God. And it says here in Isaiah
46 and 9, Remember the former things of old, for I am God and
there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. Now watch this, declaring the end from the beginning. Nobody else can do that. From one end of eternity to the
other, before we ever started, he said, this is what the end
is going to be. And everything it took to get to that end, he
purposed from here to there. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel, my will, my purpose,
my decree shall stand And I will do all my pleasure. Let me tell
you a little, give a little bit of my own testimony. Years ago,
when I was a very young man, I was beginning to, God began
to teach me some things. And I remember I was standing
up, sitting up on the hill behind our house. We got a, we lived
right in the middle of a big bunch of wood, 70-something acres.
And I was up on the hill behind the house squirrel hunting. Very
troubled about some things. And I was sitting there, and
I had a Bible with me, and I got it out, and I was sitting on
a stump, and I was reading that Scriptures, and I said, Oh God,
teach me, teach me. And God gave me a verse of Scripture
out of 2 Timothy 1-9. God who hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, and I was concerned about holiness, and
works, what part they have in salvation. And it says, God who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Life
come on. I learned right then and there
that everything God did, He did on purpose. And my life began
to change just as an upheaval. And it was a long time getting
there. For me, it was. But in God's time, it was a short
time. But I began to search the Scriptures in light of God doing
things on purpose. And I come to find out that everything
that's ever been done in all of time is done on purpose. I was saved on purpose. You're
saved on purpose. The sun rises every morning by
the purpose of God. I was born where I was on the
purpose of God. My name's Donald Bell because
it's the name God gave me from eternity. That's the only reason
my name's what it is. It could have been anything,
anything. But oh beloved, when we talk
about things happening in our lives, we sometimes call them
accidents, Call them chance, luck. But everything that happens
in time, regardless of what we call them, is nothing, nothing
but the working out of God's eternal purpose. That's all it
is. And there are three things that
we do not allow in our congregations, allow in our services. Because
we believe in God's sovereign providence, God's sovereign purpose. Everything that happens, was
purposed in eternity. We don't allow Lady Luck. We
don't allow Mother Nature. We ain't going to allow her in.
And we certainly ain't going to allow Miss Fortune in either.
We ain't going to do that. And when we talk about decrees
or the purpose, when God talks about decree, it's singular. It's singular. Purpose is singular. And all this means is, is God's
purpose or determination respecting future things. Now everything
to us is future. The next minute is future. The
rest of the day is future. Our lives are future. But to
everything to God, beloved, His determination or purpose is respecting
future things. But when the Scripture speaks
of God's decree, it's one. You know, to them that are called
according to His purpose, according to His eternal purpose which
was in Christ Jesus. It doesn't never say His purposes.
It doesn't never say His wills. It's all one. It's all one. And when we talk of His decrees,
we use the plural because we don't see the whole. We can't
see the whole. We see them carried out in time,
just a little bit at a time. But beloved God doesn't require
distinct purpose for everything that happens. He doesn't. No, no. God doesn't need or doesn't
take one step at a time the way you and I have to do. He doesn't
have to stop and figure out what to do next. He has no contingency
plans. You know, known unto God are
all His works from the beginning of the world is what Acts 15,
18 says. And all that God's decrees are
are called His counsel. Why are they called His counsel?
That's what He says, My counsel shall stand. God's decrees are
called His counsel for they are wise. They are called His will
for He is under no control. Who controls Him? And He acts
according to His own pleasure. It is called His determinate
counsel and foreknowledge. Look over here in Isaiah 14.27. And I love to talk of God these
ways. I just do. I just delight in it. You know,
I've talked about God's will and somebody being sick. I don't
know how many times I've heard people say, well, it's not God's
will for you to go through this. It's not God's will. If it ain't,
whose is it? If it ain't, whose is it? If there
ain't anything in God's will, it ain't going to happen. You
know, we've got a dear lady in our congregation now. She's on
her fourth round of cancer. She's got leukemia now that's
chemically induced from all the other Chemotherapy she's taken
over the years, they gave her a certain time to live, and him
and her both are just at rest, at peace. You know, this is God's
will, this is God's purpose, and we ain't fixing to kick against
it. I'm talking about Rupert Rutherford. His daughter committed
suicide. Got up to take care of her funeral.
You know what was the first thing that came out of his mouth? He
said, Father, we're here to kiss the hand of your providence.
I'm not mad at you. This is what sin does. If it hadn't been for your grace,
I'd go crazy over there. But we're here to kiss your hand
of prophety. And we bless you. I thank you for the time that
I had. And oh, look here in Isaiah 14.27. It's talking about God's purpose.
He says this, "...for the Lord of hosts hath purposed it, Who's
going to disannul it? Who's going to say, this ain't
going to happen? You may annul a marriage, but
you ain't going to disannul God's purpose. And His hand is stretched
out. Who's going to turn it back?
Who's going to do that? Oh, beloved, so His decrees are
called His counsel for their wives. They're called His will
because He's under no control and He acts according to His
own good pleasure. And the decrees of God relate to all future things
without exception, without exception. Whatever is done in time was
foreordained before time ever began, whether great or whether
small, whether good or whether evil. And it reaches to all creatures,
all events, life or death, our state in this time and our state
in eternity. Ain't that what it says? For
whom He did foreknow, then He also did predestinate. Then He
predestinated, what does it say? Called. Then He called, He also
justified. Whom He justified, He also glorified.
Everybody, that's in the past tense. You know why? Because everything, as far as
God's concerned, is done. The end's already here. We just
got finished here for us yet. Ain't that right? Oh, and that's
why it says the children, not yet being born, having done neither
good nor evil, that's the purpose. Purpose of God according to election
mystic. Not of worse, but of Him that
goeth. It says the elder shall serve the younger. What shall
we say then? It is written that God loved
Jacob and hated Esau. What are we going to say? It's
not of him that wills, it's not of him that calls, but of God
that shows mercy. Oh, look over in Isaiah, we're
in 45, we're in 46, look here in Isaiah 45, 27. I believe that's,
yeah, 45, 7, excuse me, 45, 7, not 27. Look what it says here. This
throws a sprag in Armenians' wheels, boy. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. And I create evil. I'm the one
that do all these things. Just let me give you an illustration
of what I'm talking about. You know, if a honky-tonk down
home, they call them honky-tonk jute joints, and if a honky-tonk
or a jute joint gets burned down or something, everybody said,
oh, God burnt that place down. Oh, we're so thankful God put
the devil out of business. Church catches on fire, it burns
down, they say, oh, God let the devil destroy it. The devil does
the bad, God does the good. But oh my, God does them both. God does them both. Which one's
got the most power? God or the devil? Oh my. God didn't create, then walk
off and leave His creation to wander aimlessly. He set the
bounds of man. He said, you've got this much
time on earth and this is all the time you've got. Huh? Henry Mahan, when his son got
killed in Vietnam back in 1969, a person come up to him and said,
boy, what's the shame, Henry, that your son got killed so much
before his time. And what Henry said was this,
he said he had every minute, every moment of time that God
gave him, every bit of it. He said he didn't die before
his time. He didn't die at all before his time. He had every
day that God ever gave him. Yeah. And, oh beloved, he set
the bounds of man. He set the bounds of nations.
How many nations have come and gone? Rome with its great empire,
Greece with its great empire, Babylon with its great empire,
Nebuchadnezzar with its great empire. All empires have come. America's got its time and it'll
go down. Every nation, He gives the bounds
of the nations. He raises up kings and sets down
kings. And oh beloved, He sets the bounds
of creation itself. He says this about creation,
the elements shall soon melt with a fervent heat, and God
Himself shall create a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. This earth here has got a time
set forth when it's going to be destroyed. And He says our
days are numbered. And I tell you, I'm going to
preach a message on this very soon, and hope. He says that
He numbers the hairs of your head. Every time I run a comb through
my head, there's more of them, less of them than there was before.
I can't count them, it's in the comb. He counts every one of
them on your head. That just shows us how He takes
an interest in us. That if He cares for the least
things, what about the great things? And all is fair shall
not fall to the ground. Where we live, we just got birds.
Oh, we got every kind of bird. They get in our birdbath and
they just flop around. And we got yellow ones, blue
ones, red-headed ones, black ones. They got every kind of
bird. And we got all these nests in all of our trees and bushes
all over the yard. And just every morning, boy,
here comes them little sparrows down to the ground, down to the
ground, down to the ground, down to the ground. And every time
they get down there, I say, That fella got down there because
God put him right there. That's what it means. It don't
mean he's flying along and get dropped. That means when they
drop to the ground to get something to eat. When they drop to the
ground to get something to make a nest out of. When they get
to the ground to take something back to feed to their babies.
God put him down there. He had to prove that where he's
at. Huh? And if God takes care of that
which is least, how much will He take care of you which He
loves? Oh beloved, God fixed everything
in time. For everything and everyone from
all of eternity. And what assurance, what comfort,
huh? And oh beloved, God's decree
is eternal. It's eternal. He doesn't take
life like we do. A day at a time. A day at a time. That's the way we take it, a
day at a time. Sometimes an hour at a time. I need Thee precious
Savior, I need Thee. Oh, I need Thee. Every hour I
need Thee. And oh beloved, We need him,
but his decree is eternal. He doesn't take life like we
do. And if he has to change anything at any time, that means that
there was a flaw in his wisdom. That means that he was a flaw
in his power. That means there was a flaw in
what he purposed from all eternity. He has to back up and say, oh,
I goofed up. I goofed up, huh? It would be
to say that God's knowledge is limited. He knew everything but
this one thing. Oh, God's understanding, beloved,
He comprehends the past, He comprehends the present, He comprehends the
future. But all we can comprehend is
what we remember from the past and what's going on right now.
We don't have a clue what's going to be tomorrow. And I'll tell
you what He's done for me and you. He foretold our future before
we ever were. And He's brought it to pass.
He's brought it to pass. How come you wasn't born in Africa?
How come you wasn't born a Catholic? And you may have been, God saved
you from it. How come that you're not, why are you not here and
not someplace else? Why are you not an Armenian?
Why do you not got both fists raised up and facing God's face
right now? And there was a time that we did. But our future was
foretold. And He brought us to pass. He
formed us in our mother's womb and brought us forth. And His
purpose towards us. Ain't that right? I quoted to
you. God who has saved us. That's in the past tense. That's in the past tense. I mean, you know, this is amazing
to me that everything God does is in the past tense. As far
as God was concerned, I saved from all eternity. But as far
as I was concerned, I saved in time. Why was I saved in time? Because God purposed for me to
be saved. He gave me grace in Christ before
the world ever began. And why did He do that? Because
it was His purpose to do it. According as He had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. Why? That we should
be holy without blame. Why? In love He predestinated
us to the adoption of children. Why? According to the good pleasure
of His will. Huh? Oh, bless His name. You know, we are not here on
accident. Here's what we do know. We know what we were without
God, and we know what men will do without God. I can predict
what my children are going to do. I can predict what the world's
going to do, I can predict what people's going to do, you can
predict what a politician's going to do, you can predict what's
going to happen because man in his fallen state, he's going
to do exactly what fallen men do. Lie, steal, cheat, the end
justifies the means and they'll say anything to clear themselves
before other men. Huh? When they got Christ in
their hands, Christ, they were just doing what God determined
for it to be done, but they'd done what they wanted to do,
and God didn't make them do a thing. He just left them to do their
own will. Huh? Not only are God's wills
decree eternal, but God's wills decrees are wise. His decree
are wise. Look with me at Psalm 104. They're
wise. Oh, the wisdom of God. Psalm 104. I have been Bruce Crabtree years ago.
I've known Bruce Crabtree since 1976. He was a free will Baptist
and I was a tongue speaking Pentecostal. I jumped benches and he had just
started hallelujah. And God began to teach us the
Gospel at the same time. And me and him would talk for
hours and hours and hours about these things. I remember him
and I talking about God's decree. Did He decree everything, or
what did He not decree? We just wondered and pondered
these things and prayed about these things, and God brought
us along, teaching us the Gospel at the same time. And we come
to the conclusion, if God didn't decree everything, we're in a
mess. We're hurting. We're hurting. Why did He leave
out? If He left something out of His
decree or His purpose, it may be me. It may be my salvation. Now, look what it says here in
Psalm 104, in verse 24. O Lord, how manifold, how great,
how many are Thy works! In wisdom hast Thou made them
all. is full of thy riches." So His
decrees are not only eternal, but they're wise. They're wise. You know, His decree, respecting
the fallen and our salvation by grace, how wise. That's why Christ is called the
wisdom of God. And let me just throw this statement
out to you. If you ever understand and see
that Christ is the wisdom of God, How that by Christ, God
can be just and justifier. You'll know the gospel. Have
you ever learned that? How Christ is the wisdom of God. That God can be just and justify
us through Him. You'll understand the gospel.
You know, His decree, respecting the fall and our salvation by
grace. Without the fall, what would we know about God? What
would we know? We'd know two things. We'd know
Him just as the Creator. And only is it just God. We wouldn't
know anything about love. We wouldn't know anything about
grace. We wouldn't know anything about truth. We wouldn't know
anything about righteousness. We wouldn't know anything about
mercy. We wouldn't know anything about His patience. We wouldn't
know anything about His long-suffering. We wouldn't know anything about
anything but Creator and justice. He drove us out of the garden.
And in Christ, beloved, He told out all of His attributes. Christ
came, and there we see God is Creator. He made all things by
Him. We see also His grace. We see His love. We see His truth.
We see His righteousness. We see His power. We see His
wisdom. We see His love. We see His mercy.
All is told out. We see His justice. We see His
life. Everything is told out in Christ on the cross. I remember
years and years ago, I read in the scriptures, there in Genesis,
where God kept Abimelech. Maybe you all read this, where
God kept Abimelech back from sinning against him when Abraham
went down to, was it Egypt? Well anyway, Abimelech,
he got down there and he told old Abimelech, when he got down
there, he said, Sarah was so good looking, he said, whatever
you say, you're my sister because they're going to kill me and
take you. Hell, what a selfish, sorry rat he was. But yeah, he
was God's elect. And when you read the New Testament,
you read by Abraham's faith. We're the children of Abraham.
But anyway, God said, I kept, told Abimelech, I kept you back
from sinning against me. I read that, and I thought, oh
my goodness. If he kept Abimelech back from
sinning against him, Why did he keep Adam back from sinning
against him? To keep us from getting in the mess we're in
now. And I pondered that and pondered that and pondered that.
I was afraid to mention it to anybody because I thought, man,
people, they'll think I'm a infidel, you know, questioning God. And I pondered that and pondered
that, and one day I was sitting in a wooden swing, swinging under
a tree. Sitting in a big old wooden swing, swinging under
a tree. And it dawned on me. Had not God If he had kept Adam
back from sinning against him, then we would have lived and
we would have all been subject to a fall sooner or later. But
by purposing, and I'm going to say this without a shadow of
a doubt, without purposing the fall of Adam, See, Christ was
the Savior before there was ever a sinner. Christ was the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. Before Adam ever fell,
God had the remedy for his fall. Is that not right? So God, and
He let Adam do what He would, but yet, beloved, He had the
Savior before the sinner. And this is what I said, if Adam
hadn't have failed, then I wouldn't know Christ. I wouldn't know
grace. I wouldn't know love. I wouldn't
know truth. I wouldn't have a righteousness.
In Adam, I'd have had just his righteousness. In Christ, I'd
have the righteousness of God. In Adam, I'd be a subject to
fall again. In Christ, I'll never fall. Right? And so you can go on and on and
on, and that just put my mind at rest. Now I say, Lord, keep
me back from sinning against you. Do me like you did Abimelech.
Don't let me sin against you. Oh, beloved, he is wise. And what about Joseph? Here's one of his decrees regarding
Joseph being sold into slavery. Remember Joseph sold into slavery? His brothers. So let's look at
it in Genesis 49. Look at Genesis 49. And this
is a perfect picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. His brothers hated
Him. They just hated Him. Why? Because
the Father loved Him. Just because the Father loved
him. They hated Christ. Why? Because the Father loved
him. He manifested the Father. And his brethren hated him. And
they were going to kill him, but they saw, well, we can get
some money out of him. Just like Judas did. I can get
some money out of him. And so they sold him and he went
down into Egypt and spent seven years in prison. God raised him
up. Set him there on the throne over
Egypt. Everybody had to bow down. You got bread, you had to go
to Joseph. You got anything, you had to go to Joseph. Well,
all of a sudden, his brethren, they got in a great, great state. Now, they didn't know him. His
brethren did not know Joseph. There's the one that hated him.
There's the one that sold him. We hated Christ. We did not know
Him. But, oh, one day, they was all standing there in front of
me. He said, I am Joseph. Scared him, but he totally guessed it.
He's going to get even with us now. He's going to get even with us
now. He's going to destroy us for sure. And that's what we
think sometimes. And look what it says. It says
in verse 18, "...and his brethren also went and fell down before
his face, And they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought
an evil against me, but God made it unto good. Why? For to bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. And thus
God took the wrath of His brethren, the wrath of Potiphar, and brought
it, took that rathom in and used it to praise Him and raise His
Son up. And God made the wrath of man
to praise Him when His Son hung on that cross. We meant it evil,
but God meant it for good. Man meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. And the wrath of man shall praise
Him, beloved, because all that they purpose to do against Christ.
Look at the multitude that no man can number. A multitude ten
thousand times ten thousand. Thousands are saved by the death
of Christ. Oh my, we meant it for evil,
but God meant to save many people alive. Oh, the wisdom of God. And not only are they eternal
and they're wise, but they're free. They're free. What I mean is that there's nothing
that coerced them. Nothing that coerced them. Look
over in Isaiah 40 verse 13 just a moment. God was alone when He made His
decree. Nothing, nothing, absolutely
nothing influenced His determination. Then you have to sit down and
figure out the best way. And a lot of times the best way
is not the right way or the good way. One thing my wife tells
me all the time, she says, stop and think before you do something. Oh, if I stop and thought, I
would never get it done. I think about it all the time,
I just believe I'll put that off. I was doing something the other
day, I forget what it was now. But it was, when it was said
and done, it was one of the stupidest, dumbest things anybody could
do. And my wife stood there and said, you know better than that.
I said, I did. But you didn't have to come rub
it in. You don't have to come rub it in. But all his decrees
was uninfluenced, uninfluenced by his determination. Look here
now, in Isaiah 40.13, Who hath directed The Spirit of the Lord. Or being his counselor taught
him that this is the best way. Go this way. Go that way. Do
it this way. Do it that way. There was a fellow over in England. What's that guy that took Lloyd
Jones' place at Westminster? Went to Henry's for years. Anyway,
he had a Pentecostal come in there. And Pentecostal got up,
and he was preaching, and he showed me this tape. I sat and
watched it myself, and he couldn't hardly believe it, that he had
had him in his pulpit doing this. But he says, God told me that
if I could get 300 prayer warriors, that he would rearrange things
in heaven. If I could just get 300 prayer warriors,
and they give so much money, now it takes money, God would
rearrange things in heaven. Well, what does that say right
there? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord? Who has been His
counselor? Oh, I'm sure God had kind of
told him what he was going to do. Oh, Jimmy Swagger used to
say, Wait a minute, Lord, I'm busy. I've got to tell these
folks this before you tell me that. Oh, and look, it says in verse
14, With whom took He counsel? And who instructed Him? and taught
him in the path of judgment. Who taught him knowledge? Who
showed to him the way of understanding? Who did? Who did? The President and all these fellows
running. They got all kinds of counselors.
They got one for foreign affairs, one for finances. They got them
for everything. But God never had anybody sit
down and went and said, now help me figure this out. I need to
know what to do in this situation. He was free to decree or not
to decree. He could decree one thing and
not another. And all it amounts to, God is
independent and sovereign in all of His dealings in this world.
And I love it like that. I do. And they're not only free
and eternal and wise, but they're absolute and unconditional. Now
you think about this. God's decrees. God's purpose
are not dependent upon any condition being met or any work being performed. Nothing. It ain't this I will
if you do. God will if you'll let Him. God
will if you'll allow Him. God would love to do this. God
would like to do that. And then God wants to do this
and God wants to do that other thing. Will you let God in your
heart? Would you let God have His way
with you? And they say that old song, what,
don't let God, let don't let what? Huh? Don't allow God Almighty to do
anything? That was a fella, you know I've had
so many guys come by the church and men and women come by and
put those newspaper articles and one day, I was sitting in
my study and boom, boom, boom! Banged at the door and the hog
said, come in! Big old guy come in, bigger than Norm. He pulled
something out of his pocket and he said, did you write this?
I said, well, what is it? You know, I don't know if I did
or not. I said, what is it? He said, you said here that God
doesn't love everybody. And that Christ only died for
His elect. He said, did you write that?
I said, I did. He said, do you believe it? I
said, I do. He said, well, a woman in our church read that and said,
if that's the way God is, he said, I ain't never going to
go to church again, and I ain't never going to hear anybody else
but preach again. He said, do you know what you
done to that woman? I said, I didn't do anything to her. He said, I don't believe you're
saved. I said, so what? I said, I ain't going to take
a baby after them because you don't think I'm saved. That ain't
got nothing to do with anything. What people think of don't absolutely
amount to nothing. Nothing when it's all said and
done. And he said, I'll tell you what,
when I let Jesus in my heart and I said, when did you do that
and how did you do it? He said, what do you mean when
and how? He said, didn't you? And I said, no sir, I didn't.
He said, you're not saved then. I said, well how do you go about
letting Jesus in your heart? How do you open it? How does
that happen? How do you go about letting Jesus
in your heart? How in the world do you do that? Tell me how that's
done. And he sat there, he left there,
come in there ready to fight and left down there like this. That's the truth. People use
these stupid stains and traditions of men. And God Almighty, if
you have to do something in order for God to do something, then
you're the one with the power. There's no purpose in God. There's
no decrees in God. There's no will in God. The purpose
is in you. The will is in you. The power
is in you. The condition is in you. So who
has the power? Where God has decreed an end,
He decreed whatever it took to get to that end. And you know,
I'm not a builder by no stretch of the imagination. But you know
you go out at a building site, we built a new building back
a few years ago, and they started bringing the material out there
and they set up several big piles of 2x4s, big piles of sheeting
here and yonder, and they laid all this material out. There
it is, just big stacks. So we had the plans how to take
all that and turn it into this. All this one day was stacked
out there. But somebody took all that material and put it
all together to set out there, and they're just building out
of it. That's what God, you know, that God before He ever began
the building, He said, this is what I want it to be. And He
declared the end for the beast. And He puts it all together.
And you know why? When we get to eternity, we won't
even want to know how He done it. You know why? Because it
won't make any difference to us. All things will be new, and
all things will be passed away. And that's why we read a minute
ago that He declared the end from the beginning and from ancient
times to things that are not yet done, saying, Oh, my counsel
is just dead, and I'll do all my purpose. And He decreed the
means to that end. Just like, let me show you. Look
over here. And 2 Thessalonians 2.13. Here's your perfect illustration
of it. Just like our salvation. God decreed our salvation, but
He also decreed the means. He decreed the means. You know,
He ordained that we would believe. That His elect, He decreed salvation
for His elect, but He also decreed that they be given faith to as
many as were ordained to eternal life. What happens? They believe. Look here. You know, in verse
13, 2 Thessalonians 2, We are bound to give thanks always to
God for you, brethren, your beloved of the Lord. Now watch this,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. But
oh my, how are we going to come to this salvation? Through sanctification
of the Spirit. The Spirit is going to set us
apart. That's what that word sanctification means. It means
to be set apart. He set us apart from all eternity.
That's one of my lines. Our Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. I know my sheep and I've known
of mine. They said, if you're the Christ, tell us plainly.
He said, I've told you, but you've moved on. Why have I? Because
you're not of my sheep. We don't become sheep by believing,
we believe because we are sheep. And so here he says, you know,
the Spirit sets us aside, and watch this, through the belief
of the truth. He's not going to, he's not saving anybody ever
apart from the truth and by being set apart by the Holy Spirit.
And He decreed that they're going to save His elect, but you're
going to do it by faith. You're going to do it through
the gospel. You're going to do it through some preacher preaching
to you. That's the way He meant to do
it. And if we had to meet a condition before God could work out His
decree, who has all the power and the wisdom? Who would know
what to do? Who would know what to do? What would
you do? I want you to do something in
order for me to save you." Well, what is it? What is it? I'd love to know. And oh, let
me tell you this in closing. Let me give you one more thing.
His decrees are eternal, wise, free, unconditional, they're
absolute. And now let's look at His decree
and our responsibility. And here's the way it goes. God
said, David, seek ye my face. You know what David said? Thy
face I will seek, O Lord. God said, seek ye me? What happened? We seek ye. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest. Oh, we love election. But at
the same time, whom thou causest, causes, comes and brings us to
approach unto thee. And that's the way he does us.
Seek ye my face. We say, Lord, thy face will I
seek. You see, we don't know God's eternal decrees until they
already come to pass. You know, we know it in the past
tense. Just like this time last year,
I had no idea that I'd be in Oregon today. I had no idea that
He was thinking of me. I didn't know until He called
me and asked me. That was decreed from all eternity, just as sure
as God's on His throne, but I didn't know anything about it until
He asked me. Ain't that right? And that's why I say we know
it in the past tense, but God knows it in the future. God's
Word is inspired, yet they were written by men, and those men
worked machines. And yet we say this is the Word
of God. Forty different men over a space of thousands of years
wrote things. Isaiah wrote things 700 years
before Christ came, and Christ will fill them down to the very
minus new detail. Huh? Genesis 3.15 tells about
Christ coming. Galatians 4 tells exactly how
He comes, through the womb of a woman, through the seed of
a woman. Here's an illustration. Christ
our Lord is both God, He is God, He knows all things, and yet
it says He increased in wisdom. How can that be? How can that be? His decrees
are not a responsibility. He was almighty. Christ was almighty,
yet He was crucified in weakness. Oh, the great mysteries. All
I know is that God is working it out, and He is working it
out in us, working it out through us, and working it out in this
world. And if God didn't decree all things, let me ask you this,
what's the alternative? What's the alternative? What's the alternative? That
means everything's left to chance. Blind faith? What's that fellow,
I've got it, wrote down on my desk who says, you know, no matter
how dark the scroll, no matter how filled with damnation or
that, he says, you know, I'm the captain of my soul, the master
of my faith. Oh, I don't want to be the captain
of my soul, the master of my faith. Do you? But oh, without
this decrees of God, we make our own destiny. We are the captain
of our own souls. We're master of our own fate,
if everything's not under the control of God Almighty. And
where would our peace be? Where would our peace be? And
I do, and I know I shouldn't do this, and we all know we shouldn't
do it. Just like right now, with this
election coming, I've never been as troubled over our nation as
I am right now. I am troubled. I am troubled. I'm like there was in Israel
when a wicked king was raised up. And all I see is wickedness. I see darkness just engulfing
us, just coming darker and darker. It's just dark coming around.
And there's just little light here and yonder around God's
people that I see this darkness. And you know the only reason
I've got peace is because I know that God's will is going to be
done and by His grace I'll accept it. And whoever becomes president,
I'm going to keep my mouth shut about it. I'm not going to belittle
them. I'm not going to bad mouth them
because the Scriptures tell us against that. Pray for them that
are in power that we may serve God reverently and in peace.
I may not like him, may not agree with him, but oh God, please,
please do for our nation. Oh, save our nation. Save our
people. Save our people. But where would our peace be
without the decree and purpose of God? Where would our assurance
come from? Where would it come from? And
especially, to whom could we flee for refuge in our time of
need? Where would we go? Where would
we go? If it wasn't for God's purpose
and God's decree, we can come to Him and say, Lord, I know
this is Your will, and we'll bless You for it. We'll thank
You for it. And I'm not mad at you for it.
I don't never want to charge God foolishly. Do you? And I
have such great peace and assurance, such peace and assurance, that whatever happens, God Almighty
is the one at the reins. He's the one controlling all
things, ordering all things, decreeing all things, carrying
out all things. And you know, that's why we can, whatever happens
in the future. You know, there were lots and
lots and lots and lots of people, of God's people. Joseph, when
he was in prison, seven long years, he'd ask them, fellas,
when you get out of here, will you remember me? But oh my, you
never heard him say a thing against God. Not a thing. You say, oh my, that just sounds
like tough. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
look what He suffered in order to redeem us. Alright, God's
decree and purpose. Our Father, in the precious,
holy, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank You. We
bless You and praise You for Your goodness, for Your grace,
for Your mercy, for Your purpose. And O Lord Jesus, we pray that
We, within your sovereign will and grace, always find our assurance
and comfort and peace in you. Bless these dear saints. Thank
you for the time that we've enjoyed together. Continue to bless our
time together. I love them and I pray that you'd
bless our fellowship and encourage us and teach us and instruct
us and meet the needs of our heart and bless the dear saints
at home. When the preacher comes and the
other people, oh Lord God, Worship you in spirit and in truth. We
bless you. In Christ's name, Amen.