turn if you would to 2nd Kings
chapter 3 we're going to continue in the same chapter that we looked
at last week the name of the message is God's enemies defeated
God's enemies defeated and we will see Elijah is a picture
of Christ as he is the mediator Christ is the mediator between
God and man. We see here that Elijah will
be the mediator between God and Jehoshaphat and the other kings.
The king of Israel and the king of Edom. And the only reason,
again as we looked at, look at verse 14 of 2 Kings chapter 3. The only reason that Elijah had
a council with these kings was because of Jehoshaphat. My oh
my, look at this. Second Kings 3.14. And Elijah
said, as the Lord, that's Jehovah, of hosts liveth before whom I
stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat,
the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee nor see thee.
Praise God that he looks at us in Christ, that he sees us in
Christ, that he doesn't see us in our natural state. And the
reason he doesn't is because we are the blood-washed saints
of God. We've been dipped, we have been
plunged into the fountain of Christ's blood. the fountain
of Christ's blood. Let me tell you a little story
about what Jean-Claude told me and I've said it before and I'd
like to repeat it. He was talking to a preacher
over in Africa and this preacher had a brother and somebody in
the town that they lived in, they lived in the same town,
somebody in their town wanted to put a curse on the two of
them. So he went to the local voodoo guy And he said, I want
to put a curse on these two brothers. And the fellow said, well, I
can curse him, but I can't touch that fellow. I can't touch him because he's
covered. And it was the preacher. He's covered. Can't touch him
at all. And his brother was an unbeliever.
We are covered, beloved. under the precious, precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are protected. We are hedged
about. Now, do we still go through things
in this world? Yes. We're going to look at Romans,
a verse in Romans later on, and we're going to see that we go
through things. But all things that we go through
and that occur in this world, in our life, occur for our good
and for God's glory. And it would help us to keep
sight of that, eh? That's why we preachers always
say, keep your eyes on Christ. Keep your eyes on him. Because
there's not a maverick molecule in God. If God's sovereign, there's
not a maverick molecule, is there? Not one. He's in absolute control
of all things. Scripture says visible and invisible.
That's our sovereign. That's our king. That's the one
who saved our souls, beloved. What rest that can bring us.
When we get anxious, and we do, right? Let us remember that. God, you're a sovereign over
all things. Even this situation I'm going through, you're absolutely
sovereign in it. I like what you said about eating
them peanuts. God moves in mysterious ways, doesn't he? You couldn't
get that done. There's a reason, right? We don't know. But there's
a reason. There's a reason that you didn't
go yesterday to that appointment and that you have to go Friday
now. We don't understand it. But there's a reason. We might
never know the reason, but there's a reason. And it's just incredible. In God's elect, we're precious
in the eyes of the Lord. We can't fully grasp that, can
we? Because we're a bunch of sinners saved by the grace of
God. But we are precious. We're like precious stones in
his eyes. A rare jewel in his eyes. A rare jewel. And we say, me? Yeah. We are such rare jewels
that God the Son purchased us with his blood, gave his life
for us. That's how valuable we are to
God. He sent his only begotten son into this world to bleed
and die for us. If we weren't important to him,
if we weren't valuable to him, he'd have just left us in our
sin, wouldn't he? But we're vessels of honor to
him. See, we don't understand that. We say, I'm a vessel of
honor, that's what the scripture says. But we don't understand
that, do we? But we are, we're valuable in the Lord's eyes.
And if it wasn't for Jehoshaphat, Elijah wouldn't even talk to
these men. He says, I wouldn't even look at you, and I wouldn't
have nothing to do with you. But praise God, we're in Christ,
right? And a child of the living God, a born-again, blood-washed
saint of God, we have a mediator. We have a mediator between God
and us, and it's the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom
for our eternal souls. He gave himself a ransom, my. Last week, we looked at the miracle
which God did and fell in the empty ditches. Without rain,
without wind, he filled the empty dishes. I read this one guy,
I'm going to delete him right out of my e-story. He said, well,
this wasn't because of a miracle. There was a rainstorm further
up in the mountains and the water came flowing. Delete, don't need
to read that guy anymore. This was a miracle, beloved.
And God himself said to Elijah, there ain't going to be no rain.
There's not even gonna be any wind, and water's just gonna
come. And that's what happened, isn't
it? Water just came. Oh my, this is a miracle of God. And if this water hadn't have
come, these three armies would have perished. Thousands of men,
they would have perished. And not only was there enough
water for the men, but there was enough water for all their
cattle. Like you said, Dave, thousands of cattle, thousands of head
of cattle. My, the amount of food that the Roman legionaries
would purchase in order to feed the legionaries was astronomical. The amount of cattle and sheep
and goats that they took with them into the battlefield, they
all followed behind along with the baggage train. And it was a lot of, and then
there was people that sold wares with them too and everything.
So imagine this, here's a huge, three armies, not just one, three
armies together. Doesn't even tell us the number,
but we know it's a large number, don't we? They would have perished
without this water. And we see here, what do we see
here? We see that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, don't
we? If it wasn't for Joseph, I, Lord, have nothing to do with
him. But because of Jehoshaphat, and
several commentators said not just Jehoshaphat, but for some
of his soldiers who were believers too, because they come from Judah. God had mercy on them all. Isn't
that amazing? Now, not mercy in a saving way,
in the sense like we have with salvation, but mercy in the sense
that the rain falls on the just and on the unjust. He provides
for, think of that. You ever think of this? He provides
for people who curse his name. He provides for them. And they
don't acknowledge it, they hate God, and yet he still provides
for them. Yeah, my, he's so benevolent. No, yeah, he's just, he's so
benevolent. He just opens his hands and the animals of the
sea are fed, the animals of the world are fed, and we humans
are fed as well. Fowls of the air are fed. Isn't
that amazing? All from the abundance of his
hand. Oh my, my. But he has a special mercy for
his people. And that comes in and through
the mediator. Our mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. And again, this miracle only
occurred because Elijah sought God for Jehoshaphat. And that's
evident, right? And Elijah said, as the Lord
of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, surely were it not that
I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah. Who was going
to come out of Judah? Christ. The Lion of the tribe
of Judah. He came as a lamb the first time,
didn't he? He coming back as a lion. We were talking about
that in the weekend. He's coming back as a lion. He's, his, one
of his, oh, beautiful titles. The Lion of the tribe of Judah.
My, my, he's just so, that's our king. That's our king, beloved.
Now let's read verses 13 to 14 here. And we're going to read all the
way to the end of the chapter, and I'm just going to speak a
little bit on these words that are before us here. And Elijah
said unto the king of Israel, what have I to do with thee?
Get thee to the prophets of thy father. Go back. What he's saying
is, go back and worship Baal and all them. Go back to the
prophets that your mom and dad set up. Go on. Because his dad was Ahab, and
his mother was Jezebel. We know the story of those two,
don't we? And to the prophets of thy mother. And the king of
Israel said unto him, nay, for the Lord hath called these three
kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. Look at
that. He's thinking, we're going to be destroyed. We're going
to die of thirst. We have all this food around
us with these animals and everything, and we're going to die of thirst.
My oh my. And Elijah said, as the Lord
liveth, as the Lord of hosts liveth, see, our God lives. He's
a living and true God. He ain't like the prophets of
Baal, right? His prophets are real. They prophesize
about the true God. Those prophets of Baal, Baal's
just a figment of people's imagination, right? That's all he is. He says, as the Lord of hosts
liveth. Oh, our God lives, beloved. He
lives. Before whom I stand? We stand
before the living God in Christ, beloved. So did Elijah, right? Oh, yeah. Surely, were it not
that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat, the King of Judah,
I would not look toward thee. I'd not even see thee. I'd just
walk right. He wouldn't even acknowledge
they were even there. My, my oh my. Now again, Elijah's the type
of Christ, he has mercy. He has mercy because of Jehoshaphat
here. And you know, God will have mercy where his people are. He'll show mercy where his people
are. He's gonna have mercy upon these three kings only because
of Jehoshaphat. And because of maybe some other
believers that are in his army. My, oh my. Take note, take note
too, I thought about this, I mentioned it to Vicki. Take note how the
Lord gives Elijah boldness. These are kings. These men are
kings. They're rulers in their countries.
Right? Back then, if a king wanted to
take your head off, he could take it off just at one command.
Look at the boldness that the Lord gives Elijah. See, Elijah
doesn't fear what man can do to him. Like the scripture says,
right? Fear not him who can destroy
your body, but fear him who can destroy both body and soul in
hell. We're not to fear man. We're
to fear God. And for us, it's not a slavish
fear. It's a fear of awe and reverence.
Our God is God. He's the true and living God.
And he reigns. But praise God, he watches over
us and directs us, and even our steps are ordered by him. My. He knows, Elijah knows, these
kings are but mere men. Think of this, too. Elijah serves
and knows the true King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He loves
the sovereign God of the universe. That's who he loves, only because
he first loved him, right? He says, I serve the sovereign
of sovereigns. That's what we proclaim. When
we say Jesus is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, we're
proclaiming him as the sovereign of sovereigns. There's no one
higher than our great God and King. No one comes close. Men
don't even come close to them, to who He is. He is King, and
He is King over all things visible and invisible. That gives us
great comfort, knowing that our lives are in His hand. Our times
are in His hand. And when our time comes, He's
going to take us home. to be with them forever. Where
we will see Christ face to face. And we'll be there for eternity. What's he say? What's the Father
say? When I see the blood, I'll pass over you. It's the blood
of Christ that cleanses us from all sin, beloved. It's the blood
of Christ. My Now we see here, Elijah calls
for a minstrel. A lot of the commentators said,
he's pretty worked up. He's looked at Ahab's son. He's
lit up just by what he said to him. And so he calls for a minstrel
to calm him down. Have you ever noticed sometimes
we can be really worked up, and we start singing a hymn or something
in our heads, and do you notice how it calms us? You know why? Because we're starting to set
our minds upon Christ. We're setting our heart upon
Christ. We're memorizing verses and you're
running the verses through your mind. You can be worked up and
you start, you know. I was talking to a brother today
on the phone and we were talking about, again, about like Elijah,
not fearing men. And I brought up that scripture.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of
love and of a sound mind. You know, I run that through
my mind. When I get afraid of something, I run that through
my mind. God, you've not given me a spirit of fear, but of power
and of love and of a sound mind. And it brings peace to my soul.
It brings peace to my soul. In the midst of a turmoil in
my life, I just run that verse, and oh, how comforting it is. Look what it says now, verse
15. But now bring me a minstrel, and it came to pass, when the
minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him. That's
Elijah. The word of the Lord comes to
Elijah the prophet, and he's going to tell them what they
are to do, and he's going to tell them what God's going to
do, more importantly. More importantly. He said, Thus
saith the Lord. Jehovah's telling you this. This
is not Elijah telling them. Elijah's just the mediator, right?
He's just the mouthpiece, isn't he? See, we preachers, we just proclaim
the report. Elijah's gonna proclaim to them
the word of the Lord. Look at this. Make this valley
full of ditches. So that's all they're going to
do, just dig a bunch of holes. Could you imagine when he said
that to those kings? The men are already wasted. They're
already drained, right? Yeah. Seven days, right? Yeah,
seven days. They're wore out. They're not
drinking water. They're at the end of the rope.
And Elijah says, go dig a bunch of ditches in the valley there.
And as I said last week, when they went back to the men and
said, dig a bunch of ditches, could you imagine the grumbling
that might have went on? What? We're half dead. Dig a bunch of ditches. Elijah
the prophet. Got a word from the Lord, said,
dig a bunch of ditches. Now, the men who serve the Lord
and love them, they'd have went eagerly, wouldn't they? Here's
the word from the Lord. You said it, Lord, we're going
to do it. Dig a bunch of ditches. Now, watch what the Lord's going
to do. He does it all. He didn't need
them to dig the ditches. He just told them to do it. Right? Yeah. He speaks and we listen. And we do, right? What He tells
us to do. Mine. But you know, God is the
God of salvation. Salvation is the Lord. In salvation
there's nothing for us to do. Now we labor for the Lord because
we love Him, right? That's just serving. Serving
Him in the church, serving Him in all different aspects of our
lives, right? Mine. And he says, for thus saith the
Lord, you shall not see wind. There won't be wind come. So
what usually happens when a rainstorm comes up? Sometimes there's wind
that pops up, right? We got them 75 mile an hour winds
a couple of weeks back. And then, boom, the rain hit.
Neither shall you see rain. There won't be a drop fall from
the sky. See how foolish that one guy
said when he said, well, this wasn't a miracle. Oh, my gosh.
Just, like I say, delete. That's so easy to do when you
read something like that. My, oh, my. Yet, yet, that valley
where you're going to dig all them ditches, right, shall be
filled with water. It'll be filled. Yep, shall,
amen, shall be filled with water. That ye may drink, both ye and
your cattle and your beasts. So your horses are gonna be able
to drink, your cattle are gonna be able to drink, you're gonna
be able to drink. There'll be so much water, there'll be water
left over. How do we know that? Well, we're
gonna find out the Moabites, because of the sun and everything,
thought it was a sheen of blood. It was water. And the reason,
I found out the reason that they thought it was a sheen just because
of the sun, there was no water in that area before. So they thought that they had
fallen upon each other and started slaughtering each other. My, oh my. Again, notice there's no wind,
there's no rain, and Elijah tells them, those ditches are going
to be full of water. This valley's going to be full
of water. And then he tells them, this is a small thing for the
Lord to do. I love that. I just love that. It's nothing. Controlling the
elements, it's nothing. Controlling the wind and the
rain, it's nothing. It's nothing. It's but an exercise
of his sovereign power. And he created it all, right?
Of course he's going to have, he's going to have the rule over
it all. You see, you ever look when,
watch the weather guys and they show that jet stream. You know
who controls all that jet stream? Our sovereign God. When them
storms come down from the Arctic, down from Canada, it's all God's
sovereign hand moving them to come down. They're all like,
oh, we're so surprised this polar vortex just hit us. We're so
surprised. Didn't catch God, but he sent it. Right? And living in Michigan, we know
we're going to get snow, don't we? We're not going to get California
weather in Michigan, except in the spring and the summer. It's
beautiful. But we're not going to get that in the wintertime,
are we? No. My, oh, my. Look at this. Look at this again. Verse 18
of 2 Kings 3. Oh, my. And this is but a light thing,
small thing, in the sight of the Lord, in the sight of Jehovah. And then, not only does he say,
well, given me all this water is but a small thing, but he
also says, I'm going to deliver all the Moabites into your hand. Remember the king of Israel,
Ahab's son was like, oh, we're here, they're going to destroy
us. No wonder Elijah rebuked him. My. My. Look at this. He will deliver
the Moabites also into your hands. So not only is he going to give
you water, but he's going to deliver your enemies into your
hands. See, God always defeats his enemies. And the enemies of his people
are his enemies. Right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. God's a jealous God. He protects his own. He takes
care of his own. Look at this. And then he's going
to tell them, I'm going to deliver the enemies into your hands.
Look at this. And you shall smite every fence city. When you go
into the Moabite land, you are going to destroy all the cities.
You're going to take the rocks, and you're going to cast them
into the fields. You're going to make their fields where if
they want to ever grow things again, they're going to have
to pick all them rocks. And where did they get the rocks from?
From the villages that they destroy. It says here. And ye shall smite
every fence city and every choice city, and shall foul every good
tree. Any tree that's bearing fruit,
you're going to destroy it. You're going to cut it down.
This is God telling them to do this. And stop all the wells
of water. You're going to fill the wells
full of rock and sand. You're going to stop them so
they can't use them ever again. And if they do use them, they're
going to have to pull all that rock stuff out of there. My. It's not like today where they
can just go down and make a new well. No, they had to dig these
things, beloved. And when a well was stopped with
rocks and stuff, they just figured, well, we'll just dig another
well. And look at this, in every good
piece of land with stone, you're going to take their best fields
and you're going to pitch stone on them all. My, this is what God does to
the enemies of his people. They become barren. What happens
when someone stands in front of the Lord in their own self-righteousness?
They're absolutely barren, aren't they? absolutely bankrupt. And the scripture says the Lord
stops their mouth, so all the world becomes guilt before God.
Look at this, and it came to pass in the morning, when the
meat offering was offered. Okay, so they get up in the morning,
and they offer sacrifice unto the Lord. They should have done
that before they even left. Right? So I imagine Jehoshaphat's having
this done. They offer a meat offering unto
the Lord. Proper sacrifice. They offer a meat offering unto
the Lord. And what happens? When the meat offering was offered,
that behold, there came water by the way of Edom, and the country
was filled with water. Look at that. Here comes the water. God promised
the water and what happened? There was no rain. Here comes
the water. There was no wind. Here comes
the water. Oh my. See, it's a small thing
for the Lord to do. It's nothing for him to do this. What a miracle. No rain, no wind,
and yet all the ditches were filled with water, just as Elijah
said the Lord would do. My beloved, the God before us,
who can be against us? Now let's read the Moabites'
reaction. And when they were all And when
all the Moabites, verse 21, heard that the kings were come up to
fight against them, they gathered all that were able to put on
armor and upward and stood in the border. Back then, 15, 16-year-olds,
they'd have a sword in their hands. Anyone who was able to
hold a sword were going forth. Now, for them, they're defending
their land, right? Because the three kings are going to come
over with their armies into Moab. And they rose up early in the
morning, and the sun shone upon the water. And the Moabites saw
the water on the other side as red as blood. And they said,
behold. And they said, this is blood. It's water. But because of the
sunlight hitting it, it looked like blood to them. This is blood. The kings are surely slain, and
they have smitten one another. Now, therefore, Moab to the spoil. Now when they say to the spoil,
they're going to go over there and collect all the armor, all
the gold, all the silver, all the animals are going to spoil
those three armies. So they thought. And now think of this too, the
kingdom of Judah and Israel, they had been at war for about
a century. They'd been fighting each other. And then The country of Edom
was a vessel to Judah. They were a vessel to them, they
paid tribute to them. So we see because of the sun's
reflection upon the water, the Moabites, though this previously dry area,
see they were thinking this is a dry area, that must be blood.
They had no idea it was water. They thought it was all a bunch
of, just a bunch of blood laying around. Because there was no water there
the day before, was there? And there was no rain and no
wind. So they probably thought, oh,
that looks like a bunch of blood. Because if they would have thought
it was rain or water, the wind and rain, but there was none
of that. None of that. Previous day had
been all dry. And they thought, look, it's
shimmering with blood from the three armies. They started to
butcher each other. They thought there was a massacre
going on amongst the three armies. Because there was jealousy between
Israel and Judah at one time. Again, they had fought. And previous to this, Edom had
rebelled, but they was quenched. So they probably thought, well,
maybe Edom rose up and is fighting among them all, too. So they
thought, well, all these three allies are now against each other. And they said, let's go. And
when they said they went in for the spoil, they're running. They're
going, we got this. And I would imagine they're not
going in in ranks like they should be. They're going and just running
to get there. to get to the spoils. Oh my. Remember the word of the
Lord that Elijah delivered to the kings in verses 18 and 19.
Let's read that again. And remember this is for Jehoshaphat's
sake. And again, several commentators
say for the other true believers in his army. says in verse 18
and 19, and this is a light thing in the sight of the Lord, He
will deliver the Moabites also into your hand, and ye shall
smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall
fall every good tree, so every fruitful tree, stop all the wells
of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones. And then we see in verse 24 to
27 the complete delivery of the Moabites into the hands
of the three kings and their armies. Look at this. And when they came to the camp,
this is the Moabites, and when they came to the camp of Israel,
the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites so that they fled
before them. But they went forward smiting
the Moabites even in their country. So here they come, they're running
in thinking, we've got these guys, we're going to get a spoil.
They're all slaughtering each other. Oh, oh. It says here,
the men of Israel, they rise up and they start killing the Moabites.
And they start chasing them, even into their own country.
And look at this, and they beat down the cities, and on every
good piece of land cast every man his stone, and filled it. And they stopped all the wells
of water, and filled all the good trees, again that's the
fruitful trees, only in Kur-harsheth left they the stones thereof.
Howbeit the slingers went about it and smote it. So that city
was a walled city. So what did they do? They got
the slingers, knocking the guys off the walls. They can't tear
the city walls down. But those slingers back then,
those guys were experts. They could take a man off a wall
with a stone. And so they're picking guys off.
They're smoking guys that are on the high walls, the slingers
are. And when the King of Moab saw
that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him 700
men that drew swords to break through even unto the King of
Edom. But they could not. So here's the King of Moab. He's
taken 700 swordsmen out with him. to try to get to the king
of Edom. Figuring if I can get that king
and slay him, maybe it'll stop. He couldn't do it. He couldn't
do it. And look at verse 27. Oh, what
depravity of man is on display here. This king of Moab took
his eldest son that should reign in his stead. and offered him
up for a burnt offering upon the wall. Most commentators say he offered
him up to his false god. And the men of the three armies
were so moved with compassion, knowing that the king of Moab
would not stop, knowing that he would sacrifice his own people. either on the altar or by sending
them into battle. It says this, and there was great
indignation against Israel and they departed from him and returned
to their own land. My oh my. After seeing him sacrifice
his son to a false god. My oh my. This moved the invaders
to see the king that the king of Moab would sacrifice all his
people if he had to. He'd kill them all, or have them
be killed. Gil brings forth that they're
moved by compassion. The three kings returned to their
lands, the king of Judah to the land of Judah, the king of Israel
to the land of Israel, and the king of Edom to the land of Edom,
and took their armies with them. Now, what a lesson is set forth
here before us. What a lesson for us. We look at this text and we can
see that the enemies of God will be defeated. They will be. They're numerous here on this
earth, aren't they? But they will be defeated. They will be. And it's not by might nor power,
but by my spirit, sayeth the Lord. It's not by our strength. Was this great victory, the delivering
of the Moabites into the hand of these three kings, did it
come about by their strength? Not at all, did it? God said,
I'm going to do this. I'm going to give you water,
and I'm going to deliver your enemies, my enemy, into your
hands. My, oh, my. Didn't he say Moab
was his washpot? My, oh, my. What a lesson. The battle's the
Lord's, beloved. The battle's the Lord's. We stand
firm in Christ, don't we? We don't have to move forward.
We stand firm in Him. Stand fast in the liberty, the
freedom, wherewith Christ hath made you free. Stand fast there.
Just stand there. Even in the whole armor of God, which is
Christ, we're told to stand fast. Stand fast. We only move when the King moves
forward with His banner, don't we? And remember, His banner
over us is love, isn't it? His banner over us is love, beloved.
The battles of the Lord's. He will remove the enemies of
His people, because they're His enemies too. And He will remove
them. And He will keep His elect in
peace. In peace. Now we may go through
things in this world, but we can have peace in our hearts.
Knowing that our King is in charge. Knowing that He rules and reigns.
Turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 8. Now we can be moved by things
that happen in this world. Often times the things in this
world catch us by surprise and we can be moved by them. But they never catch God by surprise.
They all come about by His perfect sovereign will. Look at this
in Romans chapter 8, verses 28. A verse that we're all very familiar
with. God's people are familiar with this verse. It's a beautiful
verse. It says this, and we know that all things work together
for them, or for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Look at the first words of this
verse, and we know. We've been taught this, haven't
we? We didn't know this before the Lord saved us. And even then,
things were working out for our good, and we didn't even know
it. It says here, and we know. It's not a matter of opinion.
It's not a matter of opinion. It's not a matter of uncertainty.
We know this as surely as we know that we are redeemed by
the blood. We know this. We know what Paul's
going to write about. He says, that all things, next
part, that all things, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. All good angels, rulers, ministers,
all evil beings such as Satan, all good events such as peace,
prosperity, health, and happiness, and all other bad events such
as war, famine, sorrow, sickness, and death. All things. All things. Had the dear sister used to attend
here. Lord took her home. And she told us about some things
she went through as a child and as a young lady. Just things,
just horrendous things. You know what she said to me
one day? I know why all that happened
now, Brother Wayne. I know why it all drew me to
Christ. Drove me to Christ. Isn't that
wonderful? And she found out what true love
was. She found out what true love was. My oh my. All things. Look what
this says next. Work together. Work together. All things. Good and bad. All
things. Everything. All of these things,
not only things that are present and operate in us or towards
us, but they all cooperate under God's goodness and God's direction
and control. You know why? To fulfill his
purpose. All things worketh to fulfill
God's purpose. We can't understand that, can
we? And we're not called to understand. We're just called to believe
it, aren't we? And by God-given faith, we believe it. We believe
what this verse is saying. My, oh my, all things work together. Turn with me, if you would, to
Genesis, in light of this. Genesis chapter 45, in light
of this work together, all things work together. Think of this,
too. Keep your finger, though, there in Romans 8, because we'll
go back there. And we'll see this truth brought forth by Joseph,
that all things work together for the believer in Christ. Look
at this, Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. Think of
this too. Joseph's route to the throne
of Egypt. His brothers throw him in a pit.
He's sold into slavery. He goes to Potiphar's house. He's in charge of all the things
in Potiphar's house, right? Then Potiphar's wife tries to
lay with him. He says, no, I'm not going to have anything to
do with that. He takes off. Potpourri gets mad, throws him in prison.
There's a baker who just happens to be there, and a butler. And
he says to the, I think it was the butler, he said, just remember
me when you get up there. And King has a funky pizza dream,
right? And he doesn't know, he can't understand what it is.
He just has a bad dream. He can't understand what it is.
And so Joseph's called, and he interprets it. And the king makes
him prime minister over all of Egypt. All things work for the good,
together. You see? Look what he says here.
Look at the testimony he has to his brothers here. Genesis
45, verses 3 to 8. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. They thought, he's going to kill us. He doesn't
think that, though. See? God in Christ loves us. Right? We're his brethren, aren't
we? We who are his people. Oh. And Joseph said unto his
brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And
he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now,
therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you
sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve lives. See, now he sees it. He sees
it. He sees it. For these two years
hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years
in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God
sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth and
to save your lives by a great deliverance. See, our lives,
we've been saved as God's people by a great deliverance, haven't
we? by the Lord Jesus Christ. In his redemptive work, he did
it all perfectly to redeem our eternal souls by a great work,
by great deliverance. Think of this, Christ was sent
into this world before we even were to deliver us, to deliver
us So now it is not you that sent me hither, but God. And
he hath made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house in
the world and throughout the land of Egypt. So let's go back
to Romans chapter eight. We see there all things working
for good, don't we? Things that man meant for evil
there, casting Joseph into the pit to be sold to a slaver. Joseph says, you meant it for
evil, but God meant for good. Oh my, what grace God's given
him. Look at verse 828, look at the
next part. For good. All things work together
for good. For good. Eternal good is meant
here, not necessarily present comfort, ease, and joy. This
is eternal good. For our eternal good. There's things we go through
in this earth that are very painful. Painful in the heart, painful
in the mind, painful in the body. My, but what's our ultimate desire
as believers? To be with Christ, isn't it?
Isn't that our ultimate desire? And God is conforming us to the
image of his son, and our ultimate desire is to be home with the
Lord. Isn't that amazing? Boy, God's done a work in us,
hasn't he? He's changed us. You know, it used to be, and
I often hear, when I talk to some young people about Christ,
they say, well, I want to live life, and I want to experience
all these things, and I want to do this, and I want to do
that, before the Lord comes. I just want to go see the Lord,
don't you? Oh, my. Oh, what rest we have
in Christ. As we sang in that song, we're
going to go to our eternal rest, beloved. And so our ultimate
desire is to be with Christ and to be like Christ. And this is
what all things are accomplishing, beloved. as the spirit conforms
us to the image of Christ. Ephesians says this, that in
dispensation of the fullness of time, he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestined according to the purpose of him,
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted
in Christ, to the praise of his glory, who works all things,
all things after the counsel of His own will. My. Now a lot of people stop
right there. When they quote this verse, a
lot of people stop there. Religious people often stop right
there. But they forget there's a whole other part of the verse. I remember Henry Mahan told the
story of the Lord saved him when Ralph Bernard was preaching on,
I believe it was on this verse. And he looked at Henry and he
said, can you quote that verse? And Henry said, yeah, all things
work for good. And he stopped. And Ralph said,
say the rest. Say the rest. He said the rest. Look at what the rest of the
verse is. Oh, wow. Here we go. We're going
to read the rest. Why is all these things happening
for the good of God's chosen people? All according to the
will and purpose of God. Look at this. To them that love
God? Who are the ones who love God?
Remember in Galatians we're seeing the Spirit of His Son ascending
to those because we are sons. Because we're God's elect. Oh
my. to them that love God, to them
that are called according to His purpose. Not our purpose,
His purpose. So the promise of eternal good
and well-being is not a blanket promise to all men and all women,
no, in the world, but only to those who have received Christ,
who love Christ, who have been affectionately called by God,
the Holy Spirit. by his grace to save in faith,
born again by the Holy Spirit of God. And whosoever will hear
this message know that there's no mercy outside of Christ. All God's mercy and grace is
wrapped up in Christ. He's the only hope for sinners.
There's no mercy for anyone outside of Christ. Colossians 2, 9, and
10 says, for in him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
And ye, you, Dave, you say, me, are complete in Christ. Yeah,
amen. Complete. There's nothing else
to be done. Complete in him. Wow, this is,
it's incredible. And as I said earlier, all of
God's enemies will be defeated. Man, this includes those who
are, again, the enemies of his people. And we don't need to
seek vengeance. Turn a few words to Romans chapter
12. We are not called to seek vengeance. You know what we are
called? We're called, we're just lamb, sheep. We're not called
to have vengeance upon people. Now that's in us, isn't it? Let's be honest, that's in every
one of us. Right? To lash out if someone
wrongs us, to lash out back at them. That's true of every man
and woman in this world. But look what it says here in
Romans chapter 12 verse 9. Dearly beloved. Divinely loved
ones. Dearly beloved. That's God who
we are dearly beloved to. Avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Look at that. In the
Greek, the word vengeance there means a vindiction, retribution,
also a revenging or vengeance or punishment. The Lord says,
that's mine. I'm going to repay your enemies
and mine. You don't have to do it. And
here is the cause of most unrest, people taking on themselves to
avenge themselves. If somebody wrongs us, the first
thing we want to do is wrong them. Strike back. To strike back is
in our nature, isn't it? It's in us. It's in our flesh. In Romans 12, 9, look what it
says, give place to wrath. Yield to it, do not resist it,
keep it out of the way. And what this means is let it
burn itself out so that there's nothing left. Let it burn itself out. Henry
Mahan said that. He said, yield to it, do not
resist it, keep out of its way and let it burn itself. Let it
be spent. Because if the wrath is spent,
there's no more wrath to get mad at somebody else, right?
And how can we do that? I've learned through the years
of this, and it's helped me get over some things, is I think
of how much God has had mercy and grace to me, how much he's
forgiven me, right? And I should forgive others.
It's not easy. And it's, God's still working
on me. I'll tell you why. But sometimes I just got to let
things go and move forward. Right? Personally. I have to. Vengeance is not mine, it's the
Lord's. He'll repay. Mine. So we're not the brood
over misunderstandings. That's what I love within the
body right now. We don't brood over misunderstandings, do we?
We don't. And I thank God that we don't
do that. We don't keep them warm. May
we let them die. May we let them die. Knowing
that someday God will settle all accounts. He will settle
them all. I've seen it in my life. You've
probably seen it in your life. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. I'll tell you why. And our anger will never win
the heart of a foe. Our anger will never win the
heart of a foe. But our kindness may reach their heart and their
conscience. Do not let evil men and evil thoughts dictate your
course of action. Do not let hatred and hard feelings
get the better of you or your Christian principles. Do not
let evil revenge displace the divine light of forgiveness.
Just think of how much God has forgiven us. And what does he tell us? And
this is hard for us to do. Pray for those who despitefully
use you. Love our enemies. My. My. And think of this. God saved
us from our own enemies. God saved us from ourself, didn't
he? I'm my own worst enemy. God saved me from myself. God also saved me from his law, which had a rightful claim on
me. God the Son did that. God the Son saved me from the
justice of God. He did it for you, too, if you're
a believer. He satisfied the justice of God,
didn't he? Fully. And you know what God
saved us from, too, is the wrath of God. He extinguished it. There's nothing left. There's
nothing left. I often think of that picture
that we sing in that, what's that song we sing about the rock?
And we're behind the rock. I can't remember what it is.
He hideth my soul. Thank you. He hideth my soul.
And I often think about how here we are. We're tucked into that
rock. And this is a picture, to me
it's a picture of being like in a sandstorm in the middle
of a desert. in the Middle East and all that sand is just beaten
against that rock. Just the fury of that storm is
just pounded on that rock face. And here we are, we're tucked
behind the rock, tucked down, safe. So that not even one drop
of that sand's touching us, beloved. Not one drop of that rage of
that storm is touching us. See, when Christ died on that
cross, all the wrath through our sins was poured out upon
him. And not a drop of that wrath will ever touch us, beloved.
We're safe in Christ. Safe in He who has redeemed us
with His precious, precious blood. He redeemed us out from under
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. And He's fully
satisfied the justice of God. in our room and place. He's extinguished
again. He's extinguished the wrath of
God. You know, when they put out a fire, there's still smoke
for days coming off it. There was no smoke coming off
this. It's gone. It's gone. The wrath of God is
totally appeased. And he did this to redeem our
souls. He shed his precious blood to redeem our souls. Even so,
when we were children, we're in bondage under the elements
of the world. But when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions
of sons. And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit
of his sons into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba? Do you know who else cried
Abba? Christ. Abba, Father. We're gonna look at this this
weekend. The word Abba is only used three times in the New Testament,
and Christ is one of the ones who speaks it. Abba, Father. Abba, Father, wherefore thou
art no more servants, but a son. And if a son, then heir of God
through Christ Jesus. Praise His mighty name. Praise
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ.