That's our biography, isn't it?
All right, open your Bibles, if you would, to Philippians
chapter one again. I believe the Lord's given me some
light to understand the gospel in this passage. Brother Eric
just read for us that I didn't have before, and I pray the Lord
will bless it to you like he did me as I studied this this
week. I'd like to begin the message with this statement. The God
of heaven and earth, true living God, is sovereign in all things. Every event that happens, happens
because God's will is being done at the exact time that God willed
it to be done from all of eternity. No matter what it is that's going
on, as brother Bob Boyd tells us so frequently, everything's
right on schedule because God's sovereign in all things. And
the reason behind everything that God does is the glory of
his son and the salvation of his people. God is working every
event of human time together to save his people, to bring
them to faith in Christ, and ultimately to bring them to glory
with him. And all those events have to
happen just the way that they're happening in order for God to
accomplish his will and his purpose. Now that's God's will. And absolutely
nothing can stop that from happening. Nothing. If that were not true,
Jonathan, I wouldn't bother preaching. If it was just left up to chance
or left up to me talking somebody into doing something, I'm not
a salesman. I just wouldn't. But if God's
sovereign in all things, and God will bless the preaching
of his word to his glory and to the salvation of his people,
then I feel quite willing to preach Christ wherever God gives
me the opportunity. And I have four points to show
us this this morning, how God sovereignly works every event
together for the glory of his son and the salvation of his
people. The title of the message is God's sovereignty in all things. And here's the first point. This
is one of the epistles, this letter to the Philippian church
is one of the the epistles we call a prison epistle. Paul wrote
this in prison. Well, Paul wrote this letter
from prison in Rome because God put him there. Look here at verse
12. But I would that you should understand
brethren that the things which happen unto me have fallen out
rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. Now Paul's getting
ready to tell us why it is that he is in prison. So we'll understand
that it was God who put him there. And this is no accident. God
put him there to accomplish his purpose, to save his people by
the preaching of the gospel. Almighty God is accomplishing
his will while Paul's in prison, just as much as when Paul traveled
everywhere across the fruit of plain preaching as a free man. Now, Paul was not in prison because
the devil did it. Paul was not in prison because
the forces of evil somehow temporarily prevailed against God and caused
caused Paul to be put in prison and caused a delay in God's will
and purpose. Paul was in prison in Rome because
God put him there. God determined to put him there
before time began and God put him there when it was time. While
Paul was in prison there, he also wrote letters to the church
in Ephesus and to his friend Philemon. And in those letters,
Paul calls himself the prisoner of Jesus Christ, the prisoner
of the Lord. That's what he called himself.
He didn't say, I'm a prisoner Whoever was Caesar, Nero, I don't
know who was Caesar at that time. I'm not the prisoner of Caesar.
I'm not the prisoner of Rome. I'm the prisoner of Jesus Christ. I want to tell you, the Roman
army was impressive, weren't they? The entire Roman army could
not keep Paul in prison if it was not God's will that he be
there. And the entire Roman army couldn't set him free if it was
God's will that he be there. It was God's will that he be
there. Paul was the prisoner. of Jesus Christ, he was there
by the will of the Lord to accomplish God's will and purpose. Now,
the same thing is true of you and me today. God hadn't changed. The same thing is true of you
and me today. Our trials and our troubles,
I mean, you know, it's easy for us to see when God blesses and
things, you know, make you so happy, you say, oh, this is God's
will, you know, for me, God's doing this, it's God's will.
That's true. It's equally true of our trials
and our troubles and the things that cause us such tears, they're
sent to us by God on purpose. Purpose to do it before he ever
said, let there be light. They're never an accident. Never,
never an accident. Now, that's true. I know you
know that's true. Now, that doesn't take away the
pain. And the heartache said, well,
this was God's will. But yeah, absolutely it was. But that doesn't
take away the pain and the heartache, does it? That doesn't take away
the tears. God sends pain and lost his people,
but now that doesn't take away the tears. Pain and loss still
hurt, don't they? But I tell you this, knowing
that our wise, loving, heavenly father, the one who gave his
son to put away my sin, knowing that he's the one that sent the
trial, that he's the one that sent the heartache. That comforts
the heart, doesn't it? It doesn't take the pain away,
but it comforts the heart. I tell you, I'd a whole lot rather
have the events of my life, the events of the world in which
we live, I'd a whole lot rather have all that directed by the
will and hand and purpose of my father than just blind luck. When you, I like that knowing
this is, everything that happens here is God's will and purpose
being carried out. So it's the Lord who put Paul
in prison. And you know, a lot of times the Lord sends us something,
a trial, a trouble, sends something into our life, and we don't know
why. We don't know why. I'm of the opinion we probably
won't know why most of the time. In this case, Paul knew why God
put him in prison. And he tells us, so we'll know
whatever else it is going on, whatever else God's accomplishing,
whatever trial and heartache and trouble he sends us, he's
accomplishing the same purpose. This is the purpose for Paul's
trouble here that he's put in prison. It's for the furtherance
of the gospel. That's why God does it. Everything
for the furtherance of the gospel to send the gospel to his people.
That's what Paul says in verse 13 So that it's fallen out in
verse 12 for the furtherance of the gospel So that my bonds
in Christ are manifest in all the palace and in all other places
So you and I would tend to think God put Paul in prison because
now he's done with Paul any He's gonna put Paul on the shelf.
He's done with Paul. And you know, the people were, Paul would
go preach and they'd beat him. They'd run him out of town. They'd
try to kill him. Well, God's gonna put Paul in prison and
I'll teach you, you can't have the gospel anymore. You know,
he's restricting the gospel. God didn't put Paul in prison
to restrict the gospel. He put Paul in prison to spread
it, for the furtherance of the gospel, to send the gospel to
God's people right where they were. People in the palace, in
Caesar's court, heard Paul preach when he was in prison. And they
believed Christ. They saw this man preach. He's
standing there in chains. And they believed Christ. They
couldn't have heard any other way. This is God's way to send
the gospel to them. Now, we need to remember this.
And I don't think that we could remind ourselves of this too
often, about everything that God does. God's ways are not
our ways. If you and me, if this is what
we were going to do, we're going to spread the gospel in Rome.
Here's what we would do. We would make Paul and Caesar
friends. And they'd sit down to dinner and Paul would be telling
them about the gospel and Caesar would come hear Paul preach in
some nice place, maybe the Coliseum or something, you know, Rome.
we'd save Caesar. And then we'd turn Caesar into
a preacher. He'd preach to people in his
court. He'd preach to people, you know, who were under his
rule and spread the gospel all over Rome. That's what you and
me would do. God put Paul in prison to accomplish
that. He put Paul in prison to spread
the gospel in Rome. You think of that. People in
the palace, they wouldn't have heard unless Paul was in prison.
People at the prison wouldn't have heard unless Paul was in
prison. And the church at Philippi is a place that ought to understand
that exactly. How did the church at Philippi
begin? Paul shows up in town and he finds a group of ladies
down by the riverside where prayer was wont to be made. Paul preached
Christ to them. They threw Paul in prison. You
know why God threw Paul in prison that day? So that jailer, I mean,
Eric and I were talking about him the other day, this is a
hardened, hardened man. Oh, he's hard. And he beat Paul
and Silas, and he liked it. I mean, this is just, you know,
it's part of the job, but I like it. You know why God did that? So Paul and Silas could preach
to that old jailer and break that man's heart and reveal Christ
to him and save him and his whole house. That's how the church
at Philippi started, by Paul getting thrown in prison. These
people understand, oh, this doesn't mean God's done with Paul. I
see God's going to spread the gospel in this. I see how God
could do that. See, Paul the preacher was in chains, but the
gospel was never bound. The gospel, even though Paul
was in chains, was spread to God's people right exactly where
they were at the very moment God intended for them to hear
of Christ and believe on him. Now, Paul is not in a, like a
dungeon or something at this time, for whatever reason, They
let him have his own hired house and, you know, more comfortable
than being in a dungeon or something 24-7. But while he was in this
house, 24 hours a day, Paul was chained to a Roman soldier. And people would come to visit
Paul, and they'd hear him preach. This is how Onesimus, remember
he ran away from Philemon, he ran away to the big city in Rome,
and who'd he run into? Paul, he remembered him. He'd
come visit at Philemon's house, and Onesimus remembered him,
and maybe out of curiosity or whatever, you know, he went to
hear Paul, and God saved him. Well, when Paul was preaching,
and Onesimus heard and believed Christ, you else heard? That
Roman soldier who was chained to Paul. He heard, too. Maybe he believed, I don't know,
but he had to hear, didn't he? He had to hear. This is a good
reason to bring our children to the service. They may not
want to come, and maybe you don't have to put them in chains so
they sit still and listen. But now, boy, you never know,
somebody's there when God will open their ears, you know? We
need to remember this. This is what we're called on
to do. We're not called on to make results. We're called on
to preach Christ to our generation, to our generation. And I promise
you this, That message is going to accomplish God's purpose.
We're going to be seeing it. I promise you he will. God's
sheep are going to be saved. God's sheep are going to be called
out. They're going to be instructed. They're going to be fed. They're
going to be comforted. And I, I just guarantee that's
going to happen. There's no power on earth can
stop the gospel from reaching the hearts of God's people. It
is utterly impossible because this is God's will and purpose. And he's pleased to do it through
the preaching of the gospel. Now that encourages me to get
up tomorrow morning and get in the book of Genesis and start
getting ready for Wednesday night. And I hope it encourages you
to give and to support this ministry and do what you can to support
it. Because this is the responsibility that God's given, the joy that
God's given us to preach the gospel to our generation. This
is how God's going to save his people. And it's going to reach
them. All right, here's the third thing. The gospel also spread
at this time because other men stepped up to preach in Paul's
absence. Look at verse 14. And many of
the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much
more bold to speak the word without fear. Now these were preacher
brethren. They saw how bold Paul was being. Even though he was in chains,
he was arrested for preaching the gospel. Boy, it didn't change
his message. He wouldn't compromise. He wouldn't
be quiet. Even though he was in prison
for it, he was so bold. And these men thought, wow, if
Paul can be that bold, well, he's in prison. I can be that
bold here in my pulpit, where God's given me a chance to be
the pastor. And they boldly and clearly preached the gospel.
See, some people thought, oh, well, here's Paul. He's kind
of the leader of this movement. Put him in prison, this whole
thing's going to shut down. No, you try to quiet Paul down, it
just spreads out. More men started preaching boldly
and clearly, because nobody can stop the gospel from being preached
to God's people. See, this is another way the
gospel's never in chains. It's never bound up. God has
more than one preacher. Aren't you glad of that? I mean,
you live down there in Tennessee, aren't you glad Ashland's not
the only place? God has more than one preacher. You can hear
the gospel from more than one man. God has men, no matter how
bleak it looks, God always has those 7,000 that have not bowed
the knee to Baal. He's reserved his people and
they're preaching the gospel. You know, it could be if Paul
was out on one of his mission trips and he preached the gospel
and the Lord's raised up a church Boy, there's this young man.
He's trying to pastor. He's trying to preach. He's got
all this responsibility on him. He's worried, you know, is he
going to get hauled out and put in jail and stuff? And he sees
Paul in prison. And boy, he starts boldly preaching
Christ. Just the gospel being preached
there like it never was before. God's people are being blessed.
Christ is being preached and glorified in that place. God used another man. He used
a man he sent there to be the pastor. They're so glad Paul
came through. Paul was a traveling missionary.
I don't think he was ever a pastor in any one place. And he traveled
through and he preached. We're thankful, aren't we? But
those people that God was pleased to say, that people he was pleased
to begin that new work, you know how they were fed? You know how
they grew in grace? You know how other believers
came in? It was through the weekly preaching by a pastor. that God
raised up. It wasn't Paul. Paul was off
someplace else now. It was that pastor God raised
up in that place. That's how God feeds his church. That's how God causes his church
to grow. It's the weekly preaching from the pastor. I just love
that. How God sends his man to a specific
place, to a specific people, and they just fit together. Well, that's what was happening
as Paul was in prison. These other congregations were
just flourishing, even though Paul was in prison. Because these
men who were pastoring, they just, they more boldly preached
Christ than ever before. Just how wonderful, you think
how that is? It's just, oh, that's just how, only God would do things
this way. But, just like today, everything wasn't completely
rosy. Look at verse 15. Indeed, preach Christ even of
envy and strife, some also of goodwill. The one preached Christ
of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to
my bonds, but the other of love, knowing that I'm set for the
defense of the gospel." Now, all these men that Paul's talking
about here, they were preaching the gospel. They were preaching
Christ. They were preaching salvation,
in Christ. They're preaching Christ, our
righteousness. That's what Paul says. They're preaching Christ.
They are preaching how the father chose a people and he put those
people in Christ, our surety. He made Christ their surety before
time ever began. And when only the father, the
son and the Holy spirit existed, Christ stood as the surety for
his people. Father gave him a people. He
said, father, I'll bring them home. Father, I'll redeem you
and I'll bring every one of them to you. I'll go pay for their
sin by sacrificing myself. I'll become flesh and blood and
sacrifice myself to put their sin away. I'll shed my blood
to satisfy your justice against their sin. Father, these people
you've chosen, they're sinful people. They cannot keep your
law. They're not going to be able
to ever do anything but sin, but I'll come in the flesh. I'll
come as their representative and I'll obey the law for them.
I'll give them a perfect righteousness by my obedience. And I won't
just give them a righteousness. I will be their righteousness.
I'll be their righteousness. I'll trade my righteousness for
their sin. I'll make them the very righteousness
of God in me. When I shed my blood to pay for
their sin. Father, these people, they're
my sheep. And they're just like the animals that you're going
to create. And we call sheep. They're just not right, right.
They're going to go the wrong way. They're going to get lost.
They're going to be defenseless against wolves. But Father, I'll
come and I'll be their shepherd. I'll be the good shepherd. I'll
give my life for the sheep. I'll go to find my lost sheep.
They're all going to wander off. I'll go find them. I'll find
every one of those lost sheep. Every one of them I'll pick up,
put on my shoulder. I'll bring them home. I'll be
the good shepherd. They can't protect themselves
from the wolf by will. I'll protect them. I'll preserve
them. They need to be led. Father, I'll lead them. I'll
lead them to the green pastures of the word and teach them to
feed in the green pastures of your word. I'll take them and
lead them to drink by the deep still waters of your word. Father,
these people you've given me, they're spiritually blind, but
I'll give them eyes. I'll give them eyes to see. And
when I give them eyes to see, you know what they're going to
see? They're going to see I'm their all. They'll see me. They'll
believe. They're spiritually deaf. They're
not going to be able to hear the gospel. They won't be able to
hear it and believe it. But Father, I'll give them an ear to hear.
And when they hear the word preached, you know what they're going to
hear? They're going to hear me. And they'll believe me. Father, these
people are dead. They're going to die in Adam.
But I'll give them my life so they have eternal life. I'll
make them see this and believe this and love this, that I am
the sum and substance of the gospel. I'm going to make them
love me. I'm going to make them need me. I'm going to make them
make them believe on me and cling to me. That's what these men
were preaching. That's preaching Christ. He's
everything that all the gospels in him. That's what these men
were preaching. They were preaching a mixture
of law and grace. They were preaching Christ. That's what Paul said.
Look at Galatians chapter one. I know they were preaching Christ
or else Paul wouldn't have rejoiced. Galatians chapter one, verse
six. He's I marvel you're so soon
removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ
and to another gospel. See Paul's writing to correct
this church. They start mixing grace and works. He, he can't
stand for that. He said, no, that's, that's not
another gospel, which is not another, but there'd be some
that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. This is
what Paul's got to say about that. Though we, or an angel
from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which
we preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so I say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that you've received, let him be accursed. That's pretty
strong, isn't it? Well, then I know these men were
preaching Christ. They were not preaching a mixture
of law and grace. They're preaching Christ or else
Paul wouldn't have rejoiced. Some of them were doing it with
the wrong attitude. Some were preaching Christ, Paul says,
in envy. They were envious of Paul's success
in the ministry. They weren't content to preach
the gospel to the people that God gave them to preach to and
the people that God gave them to minister to. They were envious
of Paul's success. They were envious of the numbers.
They were envious of the love that people had toward Paul.
And they just wanted to be recognized Like Paul was recognized. They
wanted to be loved like Paul was loved. They wanted to have
that same success that Paul had. They're envious. And they thought,
now is my chance to get those results. Now is my chance to
draw those people to me, because Paul's out of the way. They're
preaching out of envy. Some were envious of the gifts
that God had given Paul. They were envious of Paul's gifts
in preaching. They were envious of his gifts in writing. You
know, I'd like to remind these fellas Along with those gifts
came a thorn in the flesh and persecution to keep Paul humble.
They weren't envious of the thorn, were they, in the flesh, but
they're envious of the gifts. They're envious of the love and
things that Paul had. They wanted to be recognized
as the best preacher around. And they thought, now's my chance.
Paul's out of the way. And they're preaching very boldly,
trying to get some recognition for themselves. Some were preaching
Christ. but they're doing it with strife,
strife with Paul. Now, something happened before
Paul went in prison. These men had some strife. They must have argued over some
matter that was insignificant. It doesn't matter. They agreed
on salvation in Christ. They agreed on redemption in
the blood. They agreed on regeneration in the spirit. They agreed on
these things, but they had, Some matter of indifference, some
matter of loss. It doesn't change salvation the
least, it doesn't affect your soul in the least, but they just
got an argument over it. I mean, who knows if it was church
government, it was how you ought to dress, or how long your hair
ought to be, or, I mean, I don't know what it was. Some matter
of indifference. And they got to arguing over
it. My soul. Well now, you know what these
men think? They're preaching with strife,
they think. Mm-hmm. Paul's getting what he
deserves. If he'd agreed with me on this
matter of how long a fellow's hair ought to be, or how long
his robe ought to be, or what color sandals he ought to wear,
if he'd agreed with me on that, he wouldn't be in jail. But now
he's in jail because he disagrees with me. How full of ourselves
do we got to be to think that? And they're thinking, well, if
he agreed with me, you know. And they were just preaching
so strong of Christ, because this is what they thought. Well,
I want Paul to stay in prison no longer so he'll learn not
to disagree with me. My goodness. Others, thankfully
others, preach Christ in love. They preach the gospel in love
for Christ. They preach the gospel to people
in love for them. I tell people that I never was
old enough to go to Brother Henry's preacher school. I went to preacher
school 10 minutes at a time when I was alone with Henry before
the service. I was going to read for him or something or after
service if we were alone. I went to preacher school 10
minutes at a time. And this is one of the lessons
he taught me. He said, I don't care how gifted
a man he is in the scriptures and understand the scriptures.
I don't care how good he is at studying and being dedicated
to I don't care how good of an orator he is, how well that he
can, clearly he can say things. If a man does not love people,
he can't be a pastor. He'll never be successful at
it. Well, that's a good, that, I
took that one to heart now. I took that one to heart. You
just can't preach the gospel to people if you don't love them.
If you don't care for their souls, these men would preach. They
love Christ, but they love people. They want people to know Christ.
I want things to go well with you. I want you to have good
jobs and homes and families and have happy marriages. I pray
God bless you. Oh, I want you to know Christ.
Oh, I want you to know Christ. You just can't preach the gospel
without loving people. And they love Paul too. They
loved him. They loved the Lord. They loved
the gospel. There's just no greater joy God
can give you than being able to talk about Christ, preaching
Christ to people. They loved it. They loved it. And they wanted
others to know Christ. Oh, I'll tell you, in case you've
ever forgotten this, God's preachers are just like every other believer. We're in the flesh. and we act
like it and I apologize. And I'm not using that as an
excuse, but it's just a fact. I hate it. I hate it when preachers
get this way because what we see happening today happened
in the early church and in Paul's day too. Here's a man that he
preaches Christ. This man's a believer. He preaches
Christ, but he's just got some pet peeves. I mean, whatever
it is, he got some pet peeve out of what people ought to do
or not to do, or how they behave, how they ought not behave. And
I mean, it's just, by golly, it's so important to him. And
he just hammers on that. Well, here's a fellow over here
that doesn't think that. That's not his pet peeve. He
might have another one, but not that one. Well, they just can't
have fellowship with each other. It's over this pet peeve. They
let it come between them. They're letting a matter of indifference
come between them and stop their fellowship with one another.
And I tell you what's worse, they're pushing their pet peeve
on the congregation, on those that listen to them, and putting
that burden on them. All that is is flesh. That's
all it is. I can't tell you how hard I try
not to do that, and if I do it, please forgive me. Just understand
it's flesh. But this is just one man, he's
got flesh and spirit. It's acting like the flesh. That's
all there is to it. And this is important for everybody, not
just preachers, but every believer. We need to remember this. Our
attitude in what we do is important, but our attitude in doing it
is important. It's so important. A man can
say all the right words. He can say all the right doctrines. He can say these things that
are true from scripture. but his attitude affects how
hearing. Somebody could do something.
You think about somebody doing you a favor, and they can do
it with a bad attitude, grumbling and complaining and letting you
know, I'm doing this for you, but you're an inconvenience to
me. What do you think? Well, just don't do it. It's
not a blessing to you, is it? It's not a blessing to you. A
man could preach that way, say the truth, It affects how I hear. Now, we have to have the truth.
I mean, you know, we got to go back to this. These men are preaching
Christ. I'm just not going to listen to somebody that's not
preaching Christ. We have to have the truth, the gospel of
Christ. It can't be a mixture now of works and grace. It can't
be a perversion of the gospel. It can't be leaving something
out. It can't have that. We've got to have the truth of
the gospel. But if I could pick, and I bet you'll say the same
thing, I'd a whole lot rather hear a man preach the truth whose
heart is bursting with love and has got a sincere attitude about
this thing of worship. I'd a whole lot rather hear it
from that man, wouldn't you? I mean, I don't care if he's
not a good orator or somebody else, if he stumbles over his
words or doesn't pronounce some words right, or he doesn't use
correct English. I'd a whole lot rather hear him
preach than somebody that's got all his ducks in a row, but just
got the wrong attitude. I feel I can say this because
this is a quote from Brother Henry. Balaam's ass spoke the
truth, but he was still an ass. I don't want to be that guy to
you. I don't want to be Balaam's ass. I'd rather hear a man preach
Christ who loves Christ and cares whether or not loves me enough
to want me to know Christ. I want to do something for somebody
and let them know It's not a heartache for me doing this for you. It's
a joy. Thank you for letting me do this
for you. Have the right attitude. Now let me tell you how all,
I said all that to get to the right here. This is the truth
of the gospel. This is how God saves sinners. This is our attitude
in worship and our attitude before the Lord, attitude with each
other. But here's how this fits into God's sovereignty and salvation.
I sure am thankful. My salvation doesn't depend on
a preacher and his attitudes. I'm so thankful your salvation
doesn't depend on my right attitude. Sometimes it's not, sometimes
it's bad. I try to hide that, but you know,
God uses his preachers to preach the gospel so his people hear
and believe Christ. But listen, God saves sinners
in spite of the preacher. Now he uses the preacher, but
in spite of the preacher's weaknesses, in spite of his flesh, God uses,
it's the gospel that saves. It's Christ that saves. It's
not the preacher, it's Christ. You know me, this does not excuse
a bad attitude. But when we have a bad attitude,
this is my comfort. I haven't derailed God's purpose.
His purpose is still being accomplished. And the church is just much better
off if all of us, especially preachers, but all of us are
focused on Christ, preaching Him and worshiping Him and seeking
Him. If we're trying to see Christ
and all we see is Christ, we're not going to have time for these
other issues. We're just not going to see Him.
The glory of Christ is going to overwhelm us and those things
will fade into insignificance. That's why I want to preach Christ
so we see him, we see him. All right, here's the last thing. That God is sovereign. God always
does his will. There's nothing that happens
on this creation that's not God's will. Yet, God uses the prayers
of his people to accomplish his will. Look at verse 19. For I
know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer
in the supply of the spirit of Jesus Christ. Now, the word salvation
here doesn't mean the salvation of Paul's soul. He means deliverance
from prison. Paul wanted people to pray that
he'd be set free from prison. I don't want to be here anymore.
Peter was in prison one time. Remember, all the people were
together praying that Peter would be delivered from prison? And
an angel came and opened the doors and delivered Peter. And
Peter came knocking on the door. And they heard it was Peter.
Now, they're praying that the Lord deliver Peter. And they
didn't believe that Peter was out there. But he was delivered,
wasn't he? Paul said, maybe the Lord will
do that for me. And the Lord is able. Would you pray the Lord deliver
me from prison? This is the point I want us to take from this.
The Lord uses the prayers of his people to accomplish his
sovereign will. This is just the way God works.
God's will is going to be done. And I can't think, well, you
know, it doesn't matter what I do, because God's just going
to do his will, so it doesn't matter what I do. No, sir. God's
will and purpose is always done. You're absolutely right. But
here's how God works. This is just the way he's pleased
to work. Whenever God's getting ready to do something, you know
what he does? He puts it on the heart of his
people to pray for it, and then he does it. So whatever it is
that God has laid on your heart, whatever concern, whatever it
is, pray, pray. Need mercy? Ask God for mercy.
Need deliverance from a trial? You need healing? Pray. Do you need God to provide? Do
you need to ask? Is the trial crushing? Do you
need grace sufficient? Well, brother, pray for it. Pray. You concerned about the souls
of your loved ones or people that you know? Pray. Whatever it is God's laid on
your heart, the scripture tells us at all times about all things,
pray. Your heavenly father hears and
he works through the prayers of his people. So God's sovereign,
we don't have a doubt about that, do we? Any doubt about that,
God's going to save his people and how that thrills my heart.
And I want Christ to be preached. I want him to be preached everywhere.
And I pray, Lord, give us the right attitude in this thing.
Not just to be concerned, you know, with me and mine and I
want this place to be, you know, as popular as this place or as
big as this place. If Christ is our focus, we're
gonna be thrilled wherever Christ is preached, wherever God's pleased
to call out his people. We're not in competition with
other congregations and other preachers. We're laborers together. We're laborers together. I'd
like for us to strive together, wouldn't you? Now sadly, that's
not always the case, and I wish I knew why the Lord does it,
I don't know, all the reasons. But here's what I think is one
reason why the Lord allows these things to happen. You know, this
preacher's got this pet peeve and he's gets crossways of this
one over here, but they're both preaching Christ. I tell you
one reason I think God does it. It's so we don't get so caught
up in that cracked clay pot. And we have this treasure in
earthen vessels so that we esteem the treasure more than the clay
pot. That clay pot's cracked from time to time. but the treasure's
not. God, give us faith in the treasure.
Focus on the treasure, and these other things will fall into place,
don't you reckon? Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for
your word. How we thank you for salvation
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, how can we ever thank
you for him? That someone as glorious and
wonderful as your darling son would pay such a horrible price
to redeem vile sinners such as we are, as low as we are. Father,
how we thank you. And Father, how I pray that you
give each heart here this morning faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
that we might leave here looking to Him, clinging to Him. Father,
I pray you'd fill our senses so that we can't see or smell
or hear anything. Christ our Savior. And as we
look to him, Father, cause us to be a blessing and a help to
one another. Give us the right attitude of
humility, submission before Christ our Savior and to one another.
Father, how we beg of you that you would deliver us from becoming
a stumbling block to Christ for some poor sinner, for some of
our brothers or sisters. Cause us to be a help and encouragement
to one another. as we strive together for the
glory of Christ our Savior. Father, it's for his glory, for
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Isaac Conleason, closing
hymn, if you would.