Well, good evening to everyone.
If you would, open your Bibles with me to the book of 1 Corinthians.
1 Corinthians chapter 13. As you're turning, a couple of
things. I know I mentioned to you the possibility of changing
our service time on Sunday evening, and we're just going to go ahead
and keep that time at 6. If in the wintertime we've got
any folks that the dark road is too much of a problem, we
should be able to just move you to Sunday morning, no problem.
But I think it just seems like it's best when we leave it at
six, so you don't have to worry about that. Also, Lord willing,
next Sunday, Elder Eric Floyd will be preaching both services
here. Sunday morning I'm going to be
preaching in Danville and Sunday night in Lexington. So coverage
of your prayers is that Eric and I preach and we travel. All
right, 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels and have not charity, I am become as a
sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the
gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and
have not charity, I am nothing. Not just I have nothing, I am
nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth
long and is kind. Charity envieth not. Charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, does not behave itself unseemly,
seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, Rejoiceth
not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. Beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. But whether
there be prophecies, they shall fail. Whether there be tongues,
they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it
shall vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy
in part. But when that which is perfect
is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. When
I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought
as a child. But when I became a man, I put
away childish things. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know, even as also I am known. And now abideth faith,
hope, charity, these three. But the greatest of these His
charity. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign
Heavenly Father, we bow carefully, reverently before your throne
this evening, knowing that we come before the throne of God
Almighty. And yet, Father, we're thankful
that sinful men and women such as we are can come before your
throne boldly, confidently, not because of ourselves, but because
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're so thankful that we can
come in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his obedience, pleading his
blood alone, knowing we will be accepted in the beloved. Father,
we're thankful. And Father, I beg of you this
evening that you would give us an hour of true worship that
you would enable us to forget about the goings on of this life
for a little while and let us hear of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that you'd cause
your word to take root in our heart tonight, that you'd give
us something that we can take back with us out into the world
through this week, something that will benefit our souls,
something that will arrest our attention and focus our attention
upon the Lord Jesus Christ that will cause us to trust him, to
rest in him, to love him and be committed to him. Father,
how we thank you for this opportunity. This is not an opportunity to
be able to gather together and hear your gospel preached that
is found everywhere in the world, but you've given it to us here.
And Father, we're so thankful. Oh, how we thank you. And Father,
I pray that you'd make us good stewards of the gospel that you've
given to us. Make us faithful to it, faithful
to preach it, faithful to support it, faithful to hear it, faithful
to always come needing to hear a message from thee. And Father,
we thank you for your blessings. How you have blessed this congregation
over the years is greater than human tongue can tell, and we're
thankful. And Father, we also pray that
you would not ever leave us alone, but that you would continue to
bless. Bless us now. Bless our children, our grandchildren
in the future, as you blessed us in the past. Continue to bless
your word in this place, that this might always be a place
where sinners can come hear the Savior, where sin sick sinners
can come and be healed in the sweet palm of Gilead, the blood
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray for our world
at this time. We pray for this sickness that
is sweeping the land. We pray for the civil unrest
that is also sweeping the land. Father, we pray that you'd give
us peace, that you'd heal, that you'd give peace, that you'd
give folks a little bit of wisdom, some love and care for one another,
that your people might have peace, that you'd restore peace to the
land. And Father, for those who are hurting and sick, those that
are sick of body, those who are in deep waters and difficult
times, Father, we pray for them. We pray that you'd heal. We pray
that you'd comfort, that you'd give your people who are in trouble
a special portion of your presence. Father, all these things we ask
and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. We've got a special treat
tonight. Maggie and Sydney have been working
on a special for us. We've got to hear them practice
it tonight and it's beautiful. And so girls, you come sing that
for us now. Day by day and with each passing
moment Strength I find to meet my trials here Trusting in my
father's wise bestowment I've no cause for worry or for fear
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure Gives unto each day
what he deems best Lovingly it's part of pain and pleasure Mingling
toil with peace and rest Every day the Lord Himself is near
me With a special mercy for each hour All my cares He faint would
bear and cheer me He whose name is Counselor The protection of His child and
treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid. As Thy days, Thy strength shall
be in measure, This the pledge to me He made. Help me then in every tribulation
So to trust Thy promises, O Lord That I lose was not faith's sweet consolation,
offered me within thy holy word. Help me, Lord, when toil and
trouble meeting, e'er to take as from a father's hand. One by one, The days, the moments
fleeting Till I reach the promised land One by one The days, the
moments fleeting Till I reach the promised land That was just outstanding. Thank
you, girls. Outstanding. All right, if you would, open
your Bibles with me again to 1 Corinthians 13. I titled the message tonight, We
Know. Verse 12, 1 Corinthians 13. For now, we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know, even as also I am known." In verse 9, the apostle
says, for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. And that's, in this flesh, the
best we can do. The best we can do right now
is see through a glass darkly. Just dimly, like you're looking
through a frosted glass. Can't see as clearly as what
we'd like to see. We do not know nearly everything
that there is to know about God. I don't know nearly what I wish
I knew about God. And we do not nearly know now
what we will know and clearly understand in eternity. I don't
know what new thing, something new that we might learn in eternity,
but I'm confident of this. In glory, we're going to be shocked.
how much we underestimated the glory of Christ the Redeemer.
We're going to be shocked how much more glorious He is than
we ever imagined. So we know in part, but now by
God's grace, there are some things we know. There are some things
that a believer knows beyond a shadow of a doubt. There are
some things we know about God. We know that God is holy and
God is just. And we know God's also merciful
and gracious. I know that. It's not a mystery
to me. I don't have to wonder how God
saves sinners. We know how God saves sinners.
God saves sinners by His will, not our will, doesn't He? We
know that God saves sinners by the sacrifice of Christ for our
sin. And we receive that salvation
through faith. It's not by works. It's received
by faith. We know that. We know everything
that we need to know about in order to be saved. In his word,
God has told us everything we need to know in order to trust
Christ, in order to believe him. And believers know what the world
does not know. We know something that the flesh
does not know. And here's the reason for it.
The Lord's taught us. It's not we're smarter and we're
more intelligent, we're more spiritual. The Lord has taught
his people and given them an understanding. That's why we
know these things. Our Lord told his disciples,
it's given unto you. You didn't figure this out. It's
been given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,
and to them it's not been given. The only reason we know these
things is God's given us an understanding. He's taught his people. God has
taught you how he saves sinners. I know that's a mystery the natural
man cannot figure out, but you know it. You know it, because
God's given you faith to believe it. I know we don't know everything
there is to know about God, But that does not give us the right
to put a question mark on any part of this word. Nothing that
you learn in eternity will ever contradict one thing in this
book, not one. See, we're not free to have our
opinion on the word of God. It's all these different denominations
and doctrines and stuff. They've just got their opinion
on the word of God. But we're not free to have an opinion on
the truth. I mean, the truth is just the truth. We're not
free to have our opinion on any particular verse of God's Word. A lot of people like to take
one verse and pluck it out of God's Word and build a whole
denomination around it. And we're not free to do that.
Well, I'm not free to say, well, that's what I think that verse
means. Every verse of God's Word is to be interpreted by the rest
of God's Word. And if we look at a verse of
Scripture and we say, well, I think that's what that means, but it
doesn't agree with the rest of God's Word, we're wrong. It's
got to agree with the whole Word of God because the whole Word
of God has one message. One message. It's Christ. So
we don't know everything there is to know about God. But nothing
you'll learn in the rest of your life and nothing that you will
learn throughout eternity will ever contradict the truth that
God has revealed to us in His Word. You just write that down.
And I want to give you seven things tonight that we know. These are things we know. There's
no ambiguity about it. We know these things because
they are revealed to us in God's word. That's how we know them.
And you'll never learn anything that will make any of these seven
things to be untrue. Number one, look back at Romans
chapter seven. We know that no part of salvation
comes from anything that we do. Romans chapter seven in verse 18. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. Now this is the Apostle Paul
writing after the Lord saved him, and he still says, in my
flesh dwelleth no good thing. That's what we mean by total
depravity. It means everything about us
is sinful. Everything. We can't do anything
righteous. We can't think anything righteous.
We can't even want to do anything righteous. Everything we say,
everything we think, everything we want to do is sinful. We're incapable of doing anything
good because there's nothing good in us by nature. All our
nature, our flesh can produce is sin. So we can't do anything
that would deserve for God to save us. We can't do anything
to get God to save us, because everything we do is sinful. And
what we do offends the Holy God. So He's not going to save us
because of something we do. He'll damn us because of something
we do, but He's not going to save us because of anything we do.
If we're going to be saved, this is what total depravity means.
If we're going to be saved, God's going to have to do all the saving.
He got to. Because I can't see any spiritual truth unless God
gives me eyes to see it. I can't hear, I can't love, I
can't understand any spiritual truth unless God gives me an
ear to hear. I cannot love Christ and I cannot
believe Christ unless God gives me a new heart, a heart that
will love Him and believe Him. Being completely sinful means
this, that we are completely dependent on God to show mercy
to us. Sinners don't have any other
hope than God's mercy and God's grace. Totally depraved sinners
are totally dependent on God for their salvation. I know that. I know that. And what's more,
I love it. I love it that way. What would
you rather depend on? What would you rather be dependent
on? God's grace or your works? Which one? I love being dependent
on God's grace, don't you? I'm glad to know. I'm glad God's
taught me I am totally depraved, so I'll be totally dependent
on God's grace. That's a good place to be. All
right, second, look in the book of 2 Timothy 1. We know. We know we're sinners,
and we know, secondly, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Savior
of sinners. 2 Timothy 1, verse 11. Whereunto I am appointed a preacher,
and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which
cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I am not ashamed,
for I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that
day. And I tell you this so often,
salvation is a person. That's what Paul says here, salvation
is believing a person, believing him, It's being persuaded that
He is able. It's committing it all to Him.
Salvation is in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has
accomplished all of the salvation of God's elect. Salvation is
in a vital, necessary union with a person, with a person. Salvation
is being joined to Christ by faith in Him. So salvation is
knowing and believing Christ. That's what the Lord said. He
said, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God, and that they might know Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Knowing God, knowing Christ,
that's eternal life. It's salvation. Now salvation
is not in knowing the right doctrine. You can intellectually know the
right doctrine and be lost. Salvation is knowing the person.
You can't know Christ and be lost. It's impossible. If you
believe Christ, I'll tell you what about your doctrine. If
you believe Christ, your doctrine will be just fine. If God will
show you Christ, your doctrine will be just fine. Because if
you believe the right person, what you believe will be right
too. You know, what we know is entirely dependent upon who we
know, who we believe. So if I believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, if I've seen Him, if God showed me who He is, then
I believe, I am fully confident of this, that He has put away
my sin by His sacrifice. It's gone. Now that has to be
true. Since the Lord Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, who has come in the flesh, and He came, Scripture
says, to save His people from their sin. Now I ask you, what
else would He have done except save His people from their sin?
Because if He's the Son of God, He did what He came to do. He
saved His people from their sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
God-Man. He's God, so He can be perfect.
He's a man, so He can be my representative. He's God, so He's sinless. He's
a man, so He can be a sacrifice for my sin, for the sin of men.
Now, the God-Man cannot fail to save everyone that He came
to save. Everyone for whom He died is saved. They're justified. Their sin is forgiven. You know
how I know that so? Because of who I know. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, cannot fail. And if I believe
Christ, if God has showed me who He is, then without hesitation,
I will put all of the responsibility of my salvation upon the shoulders
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll do that without hesitation
because if I know Him, I know He's trustworthy. And I'll just
cast it all on Him. I don't want any plan B. I don't
want a fallback plan. I'm going to put all my eggs
in one basket, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, this thing of salvation
isn't Christ plus my faith. It's not Christ plus my morality,
Christ plus my anything. If I believe Christ, if I know
Him, this is what I know, salvation's got to be all Him. because Christ
is all. I know that if God showed me
who He is. Then if I believe Christ, I don't fear the day
of judgment. I don't fear the day when I close
my eyes in this life. I don't fear that one bit. Honestly,
I'd like to hang around a while. I'd like to be with you a while,
but you know, I don't fear it. The believer doesn't fear punishment. We don't fear judgment. Not if
I know Christ, I won't. Because if I'm in Christ, I'll
never be ashamed. If I believe Christ, I will never
be ashamed. I'll never be found guilty because
Christ has already taken my guilt away from me and put it away.
He paid for it so that I am not guilty. Then what do I got to
be afraid of? Why do I have to be afraid of
standing before God in judgment? Not one thing if I believe Christ. Not one thing. Because I know
whom I have believed. And if I believe Christ, I'm
going to follow Him. I'm going to be committed to
Him. That brings me to my third thing. Look at the book of John.
John chapter 10. Here's the third thing we know.
We know the gospel when we hear it. Now remember where we began,
our first point. This is what we know. All men
are sinners. That includes me. I'm completely
sinful. But one of the most plainly taught
doctrines in all the Word of God is God's electing love. The Father elected the people
to save. Out of the lump of fallen humanity,
God chose a people to save. And scripture describes those
people as God's sheep. Here in John 10, verse 26, the
Lord's speaking to the Pharisees, those who would not believe.
He says, but you believe not because you're not of my sheep,
as I said unto you. Now you notice the Lord didn't
say you're not my sheep because you don't believe. Like, you
could choose to believe and make yourself a sheep. That's not
what he said. He said you don't believe because you're not my
sheep. You don't believe because the Father did not choose you.
You don't believe because the Son did not die for you. You
don't believe because the Holy Spirit did not give you life
and faith in Christ. If you were a sheep, you'd believe.
God would give you faith. You would believe. But you also
don't believe Christ because you don't want to believe him.
The flesh does not want to believe Christ. You cannot come unto
me, the Lord said. And he also said, you will not.
You cannot and you will not because of the nature of your flesh.
But the sheep, those who the father has elected unto salvation,
they believe Christ and they follow him because God's given
them faith. Look here at verse 27. My sheep
hear my voice. And I know them, and they follow
me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand." Now the sheep, they know Christ when they hear
Him preached. They know it. They know the gospel
when they hear it. They know it, they love it, and
they believe it. And they follow Christ. And they
recognize the false gospel when they hear it too. And they won't
follow it. They might not be able to put
their finger on something wrong, something missing, but they know
it's not sheep food. They know there's no blessing
for their soul there. It's a false gospel and they will not follow
it. Look at verse five. The Lord says, in a stranger
will they not follow, but will flee from him for they know not
the voice of strangers. So the sheep, they hear Christ
and they follow Him. They're committed to Him. They
won't go anywhere else. The sheep come. And when God
gives them ears to hear, they hear the Gospel. How Christ came
and He saves lost, dead, rebellious sinners. He saves them by His
obedience to the law for them. He saves them by His blood shed
as a sacrifice for their sin And they say, that's what I need.
That's for me. They say, that's the Savior that
I need. That's the Savior that I can
trust. That's the Savior that I can love. When are you going
to preach that again? Where can I hear some more of
this? Where can I hear some more about Him? They say, I'll be
back. I want to hear some more of that.
And if they come back, that's pretty good evidence they're
the sheep. Because the sheep, they follow Christ. They're committed
to Him. and they want to hear more of
Him. And here's how the sheep live following Christ. Because of what people say in
the world, you get all kinds of wrong impressions in your
head. What does that mean, the sheep live following Christ?
You've got to dress funny and talk funny and never have any
fun. What is it to follow Christ? Well, it's not by showing off
your good works. It's not by showing how different you are
from the rest of the world. Here's how the sheep live following
Christ. It's to live dependent upon Him. It's to live showing
a dependence on Christ and to live showing a thankfulness for
His love and His grace. That's how the sheep live following
Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Look in 1 John chapter 5. Here's the fourth thing we
know. We know that there must be a new birth if we would be
saved. 1 John 5, verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that wicked one toucheth him not. And we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. And we know
that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding.
that we may know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is
true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God
and life eternal. Now we know there must be a new
birth if we would be saved. Now remember where we began,
our first point. We began knowing that we're dead and seen. We
began knowing that we're nothing but seen. The Lord said that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of
the flesh will never be anything but flesh. It will always and
only be dead, sinful, rebellious flesh. Now, if my old nature
is sinful, and it cannot be changed, it can't do anything else, then
it ought to be obvious to me, I need God to give me a new nature.
Because my old one is worthless. My old one is no good. And that's
why the Lord told Nicodemus, Nicodemus, you must be born again. You cannot see. You cannot enter.
You cannot understand. You cannot love the kingdom of
heaven lest you be born again. You must be born again. Now,
just like all the rest of the gospel, the new birth is an utter
mystery to the flesh. It's a mystery. It was a mystery
to Nicodemus. Now, I'm going to go on the assumption
that Nicodemus was a man of above average intelligence. He must
have been. He's a student of the Scripture.
He's a ruler in Israel. This man devoted himself to studying
the Scriptures. And the new birth. The Lord talked
to him about the new birth. And he was just shocked. He said,
how can these things be? He actually thought the Lord
was telling him he had to go back into his mother's womb and be
born again a second time. This is a mystery. But the new
birth is not a mystery to the Spirit. The new birth is not
a mystery to you. In other words, the new birth
is a mystery only to those who've never been born again. Two natures,
two completely different opposing natures in one body. Two natures
that are both me in one body. That's a mystery if you've only
got one nature. But if you've been born again,
the new birth, two natures in one body is as obvious as the
noonday sun. It just couldn't be more obvious.
This is the life of every believer. Every believer lives with two
natures in them. The old man and the new man.
The flesh and the spirit. And those two natures war against
each other for all their worth until this flesh dies. That old
man, just like the Lord said, is flesh. It will always only
be flesh. He can't do anything but sin. He can't do anything holy. He
can't do anything righteous. Oh, he can be religious. He can
get, you know, works religion, but he can't trust Christ. He
can't do anything righteous. All he can do is sin because
that's his nature. He was born from the sinful seed
of his father, Adam. That's all he can do is sin.
But there's a second nature. That new man, he can never sin. That new man can't not trust
Christ. That new man can't commit the
sin of apostasy. He can't leave Christ. He can
only do righteous. That new man can only believe
Christ. And he can't do anything else because that's his nature. He was born from the seed of
his Heavenly Father. He is born from the sinless seed
of the Word of God. And he can't do anything but
righteousness. He can't do anything but believe.
Now John says, we know that the whole world lieth in wickedness.
That's my flesh included. lieth in wickedness. So if I've
got a new man that believes Christ, I've got a new man that loves
Christ and trusts Him, how did he get there? God had to make
him be born in me. God had to put him in me. I couldn't
make that happen. I couldn't make the new birth
happen. I couldn't make a spiritual man live in me and exist in me
any more than I could make myself be born physically. God had to
do that for me by the power and will of the Holy Spirit. If a
man or woman would be saved, must be born again. I now look
back at Job chapter 42. Here's the fifth thing that I
know. I know that God is sovereign. After everything that Job had
been through, this horrible trial, and Job would probably like to
have back a couple of those things that he said, that time he spent
with his miserable friends, He'd like to have done something else
with his time, wouldn't he? Spend his time with miserable
friends. And then God came to Job and God told Job, Job, where
were you when I created the earth? Where were you when I... Can
you do what I can do, Job? Can you pluck that whale out
of the ocean with a hook and cause it to play? I can. Can
you do that, Job? And after God spent about three
chapters talking to Job, Job just listened. God revealed something
himself to Job, and this is what Job said, Job 42, verse 1. Then Job answered the Lord and
said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought
can be withholden from thee. And if we know God, God has taught
us the same thing he taught our brother Job. God is sovereign. He can do everything. There's
nothing too hard for God. God always does as He pleases. And His will is always done. Now the Father chose a people
to save. And in time, in the fullness
of time, when His hour was come, God the Son and human flesh died
for the sins of those people. You know why that happened? Because
that was God's will. That was what God determined
before to be done. Well, then all those people that
the Father chose, all those people for whom the Son died, They're
saved. They can never perish. God and
His sovereignty will not allow it. God is sovereign. Nothing
can ever overrule God's will. So all those people He determined
to save shall be saved. I don't care what happens between
here and eternity. Those people shall be saved. Now just let that sink in for
a minute. Just let that sink in. and let that comfort your
heart. The sovereignty of God is not
a doctrine that we use to be different from other folks. The
sovereignty of God is the soft pillow upon which God's people
lay their head and rest while the storm rages around them.
God's He shall save His people from their sin. If you look in
the book of Ecclesiastes chapter 3, you'll see this is something
every believer knows. Solomon knew this. Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Every believer knows that if
Christ saved me, I'm saved. I'm saved by His doing and His
dying, so my salvation is eternal. And I can't do something to make
myself lose it. Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse
14. I know, I know this. I know that whatsoever God doeth,
it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it nor
anything taken from it. And God doeth it that men should
fear before Him. The salvation of God's people
is eternal. It can never be lost. It's perfect. When the Savior died, what did
He say? It is finished. And you can't do anything to
add to it. It's finished. And you can't
do anything to take away from it because you didn't contribute
anything. He finished it. You can't add to it. You can't
take away from it. It's finished. And God saves
His people that way so that men will fear before Him. So that
they'll reverence Him and worship Him. The fact that the salvation
of God's people is eternal and can never be lost never makes
God's people want to go out and sin more. No, it makes them want
to worship God. Look over a page of Ecclesiastes
chapter 8. Verse 12. Though a sinner do
evil and a hundred times and his days be prolonged, yet surely
I know that it shall be well with them that fear God. which
fear before Him. Now, no child of God is such
a great sinner that the blood of Christ won't save us. No child
of God can out sin the blood of Christ, the forgiveness of
God in Christ, because the debt has already been paid. It's been
paid in full by our Redeemer. So nothing you do will ever cause
you to lose your salvation. Not if Christ saves you, it won't.
Now, if that makes you think, Good, well I've got diplomatic
immunity. I can just go out and sin all
I want and nobody can make me pay for it. If that's what you
think, then God hasn't saved you. Not yet he hasn't. God's
people don't want to go out and sin, that grace may abound. No,
I don't want to sin. I am determined not to sin. I mean, I thought about that
this morning. I'm determined on this day that we meet together
and worship this morning. I thought that I'm determined
I'm not going to sin today. This is the day and point where
we come together and worship. And I failed. But when any man sin, we have
an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
That's why your salvation can't be lost because of who our savior
is. So it shall be well with the
righteous." I don't care what happens. Come what may, it shall
be well with the righteous. My sin, oh, the bliss of this
glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the
whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. Praise
the Lord. Praise the Lord, oh, my soul.
It's well. It's well. And right now I know our world
around us doesn't seem very well, does it? But you write it down. But don't write it down. Solomon
already wrote it down for us. Isaiah wrote it down for us.
Come what may in this world, it shall be well with the righteous. It shall be. It's well because
of who our Savior is. Right, here's the sixth thing
in that vein. Look at Romans chapter 8. Here's
the sixth thing that we know We know God's providence is good. Romans chapter eight, verse 28. And we know, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Now, everything
that happens in time is exactly what God predetermined would
happen before creation. You know, all human time is is
the unfolding of God's purpose, what God purposed to happen before
He created anything. Now, since that's true, there's
no accidents, are there? No, it's not an accident. It's
God's will. There's no such thing as good luck or bad luck. It's
just God's will. That's all there is. All there
is is the decree of God Almighty. Now I know men choose to do things. They choose to do things and
they do them because they want to do them. But somehow God's
in control even of that. God works in every event of human
history. He works in every act of every
human being and puts those things together for good. for good,
to accomplish good, to accomplish His purpose and the salvation
of His people. And there are many examples of
that in Scripture, but here's the preeminent one, the cross.
Men did exactly what they wanted to do, didn't they? I mean, they
did exactly every mean, vile thing they wanted to do, they
did. But what did they really do?
Peter said, you did what God determined before to be done.
God wrote in the Old Testament about the sacrifice of His Son.
He wrote about what would happen. And it's like those men went
through, and just like in a play, you know, in a play, they say,
okay, this person does this, this person says this, this person
goes downstage left and does this. And it's a script. And
it's like they went to the Old Testament scriptures, like a
play script, and said, what are we supposed to do next? They
didn't do that, but it's like they did. They fulfilled every
Old Testament prophecy of the Messiah being crucified. They
did what they wanted to do, but they did what God determined
before to be done. And what was brought out of it?
What was brought out of the evil, wicked action of men at Calvary's
Hill? What was brought out of that?
Good. The salvation of God's people
was brought out of that. There's the sacrifice. Oh, I
know men are doing what they want to do, but there's the sacrifice. You want to behold the Lamb of
God who has taken away the sin of the world? There He is. That
man on the middle cross. There He is. God brought good
out of it. He brought the redemption of
His people out of it. And the same thing is true in
everything we ever go through in this life. Now, I can't explain
it. I mean, I can't explain it. I
do not understand how the many painful things that we see go
on in this life and the painful things that happen to us personally.
I cannot understand how that works together for good. I can't
understand how God brings good out of pain. I can't understand
how God brings good out of something that's so heartbreaking. I can't
understand it. And often, I'll look back on
it And I still don't understand. Sometimes I do. Now there are
times, I look back, just since I've been married, I look back
over some things and I say, oh, oh, I see. I see, I think I see
something what God was teaching us there. A lot of it I still
have no idea. Maybe a will and glory, I don't
know, but I don't right now. But you know what? I don't have
to understand how something's so to believe it. I don't have
to understand that. God saying it is good enough
for me. God saying it is good enough
for faith. So I believe it. Because God said it. And nothing
encourages me to preach Christ more than that. More than knowing
God's providence. Somehow God's working everything
together in providence to bring about the salvation of His people.
Nothing encourages me to preach Christ more than that. Nothing
encourages me to trust Christ more than that. despite everything
that's happening that I don't like, somehow it's got to happen
just that way. So God is going to bring about
the salvation of His people. Nothing encouraged me to trust
Christ more than that, just to rest in Him. There's no reason
for panic. Somehow, God's using even this,
even this what people call an unsettled time in 2020, God's
using even this to bring His people home to be with Him. And
that's enough for me. All right, here's the last thing.
Let's go back to where we began. 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Here's
the seventh thing we know. We know there's a better day
coming. 1 Corinthians 13 verse 12. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know, even as also I am known. Now I know in part right
now. And yet there's a sense in which
I see Christ so clearly. I see Christ so clearly, I believe
Him. I see Him so clearly, I hang
all of my salvation upon Him. But yet I often get very discouraged. Because not only do I just see
Christ very dimly, I can just barely make Him out at all sometimes. God's given me faith. I know
that. But it is almost always so weak. I just am discouraged. I'm just ashamed of myself. Pain,
fear, heartbreak. They fill my heart with doubt
and they fill my pillow with tears. And here's something else
I know. I'm not really surprised by that.
I don't like going through it, but I'm not all that surprised
by it because this is what I know. That's a believer's lot in this
life. Because the Lord said, in this world you shall have
tribulation. It ought not surprise me when
I have it. But this is what I also know. A better day is coming. A better
day than this one is coming. And when God someday calls me
out of this clay prison, calls me home to be with Him, then
I'm going to see Christ clearly. There's going to be no more frosted
glass. Nothing between me and the Savior I'm going to see face-to-face.
That's true for every believer. We'll see Him face-to-face. And I won't need my weak faith
anymore because now I'll see Him. I won't need my my weak hope anymore because
then God will have given me everything He purposed for me, everything
He purchased for me. It'll be mine in possession.
Then I'll have no more pain. Just like I won't have any more
need for faith or hope, I'll have no more use for pain or
fears or tears. They'll be gone. I'll have perfect
bliss because I'll be with Christ and be made just like Him. Look
over at 2 Corinthians, in closing, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now we know this. We know this.
A better day is coming. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 1. For we
know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle, this fleshly
body were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not
made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan. earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven. We earnestly desire
to be clothed upon in that body made just like Christ. If so
be that being clothed, we should not be found naked. We will be
found like Adam. Four, we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened. Not for that we should be unclothed,
but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath brought, he hath prepared for us the selfsame
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the spirit.
Therefore we're always confident, knowing that whilst we're at
home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. For we walk by
faith, not by sight, and we're confident, I say, and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the
Lord. Now that is the sound of complete
victory. To be absent from this body is
to be present with the Lord. And that's the better day that's
coming for every child of God. And you know, our hearts would
be much less troubled if we would stay focused on what we know,
on what we know. All the things that we just think
about, all the things that you worry about. How many of them
ever come true? You know, what we worry about
is we tend to worry about what might happen. Would my heart
be comforted if I thought on what I know? Not what might happen,
but what I know. If you want to focus on what's
going to happen in the future, focus on this. There's a better
day coming. Now focus on that. And we try to figure out God's
purpose and what God is doing. You know, why did God send this
pandemic and just shut the world down? Why is God just causing
all this disruption? in our society today. Why is
God doing that? You're going to run yourself
nuts trying to figure that out. Because the hidden things belong
to God. You're just going to be like a dog chasing your tail
trying to figure out the hidden purpose of God. But if we stick
to what we know, there'll be calmness of heart. There'll be
comfort of heart. And that's what I pray. I pray
the Lord to use this message tonight to comfort your heart
by reminding you of what you already know. by reminding you
of who that you already know. By taking this message, if he
would take this message and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to your
heart, it'll be well. All right, let's
bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for this clear teaching of your
word. that points us. Everything that
we know always points us to look to, trust in, and rest in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And oh, how we thank You for
Him. How we thank You for a Savior who would give Himself to put
away our sin. Father, we're thankful. And cause
us to rest in Christ our Savior. Cause us to think on Him. To be focused on Him. much less
on the goings-on of this life, which is just temporary, and
focus on Him. Father, comfort the hearts of
your people with this revelation of Christ our Savior. For it's
in His precious name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right,
y'all are dismissed.