Psalms 31. One thing beautiful about the
preaching of the Gospel, you don't have to worry whether this
message will suit or not. It's suitable to all. and for
all seasons." And this message here, this one phrase, I think
is the same way, same thing. It just struck me. I've been
looking at this for a little while. Psalms 31, before we look
at several verses, it is supposed by the old writers that David
penned this in troublesome times and in circumstances. And just
looking at several verses, look with me at verse 4, Psalms 31
verse 4, David says, pull me out of the net that they have
laid privily for me, for Thou art my strength. Look at verse
9, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am in trouble. Mine eye
is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. And verse 13, for I have heard
the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While
they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away
my life." So, David's in trouble. David's in trouble. Now, these
passages, these verses, amongst others, and look at verse 5,
"...into thine hand I commit my spirit." That sounds like
the cry of Christ on the cross. So, preeminently, all Scriptures,
says Christ, in the Psalms, he says, David wrote of me, Moses
wrote of me, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced in it. So all Scriptures
point to Christ preeminently. However, all Scriptures written
by inspiration of God, is good for doctrine, reproof, destruction
of righteousness, that the man, the woman of God, is for us too. In this particular phrase, I
want us to look at, in the middle of the psalm, found in verse
14 and particularly verse 15, and I would like us, by God's
grace, allowing, the Holy Spirit will enable me, enable us, to
by faith lay claim to exactly what David laid claim himself
in times of difficulty. Look at verse 14, But I trusted
in Thee, O Lord, I said, Thou art my God. Now, it doesn't do
you any good if you acknowledge that there is a God, which we
hear so often. He's got to be your God. He's got to be your God. But
look at this next phrase. My times are in your hand. If that's all, you can take away. My times. Every person here,
boy, girl, man, woman, whether you're 15 years old, whether
you're 8 years old, whether you just turned however old alley
just turned, or whether you're 70, your times
are in God's hands. We can, we must take these verses
as well by faith and receive comfort to ourselves. My times, our times, Specifically,
He's my God, my times are in His hand. To view this simple
golden phrase and take it to ourselves is truly, as Jeremiah
said, it's the healing balm of Gilead. As Moses said, it's taking
honey out of the rock. As Isaiah said, it's a nail in
a sure place. And I'll tell you what, if you
look around, which I don't recommend it, but if you look at the news
at all, Things are a mess. They've always been a mess. The
beautiful thing is, is when you read history, and you read about
Spurgeon's day, and he went through the downgrade controversy, they
were downgrading the Bible, it's not inspired anymore, which downgrades
the Gospel, he took a stand against it. He thought, you know, this
is crazy. If you look at Luther's situation,
you go back in history, and the Scripture says there's nothing
new under the sun. It's just new to maybe us, and maybe us
in this country as Americans, but it's like I told somebody
in Nixa. I said, as an American, it concerns
me, but as a believer, I could care less. And I need to act
like a believer and be a believer when I look at the Scriptures. to ask God, the Holy Spirit,
to apply this truth. My times are in your hands. To ask Him to apply this truth
that our times are in God's hands is to live daily upon the bread
of heaven, to dwell grandly upon Him who loved us and gave Himself
for us. And we will enjoy the sweetest
communion. This is one of the grandest truths
to realize and to submit to You have a bad day at work, step
back and say, my times are in His hands. Laying in the hospital for seven
days, looking up at the ceiling, waiting for Him to crack me open,
my times are in His hands. Let us muse into this untold
blessing, this phrase this morning. Let's look at it. My times. It's plural. Not just right now. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It's all inclusive. My times
are in His hands. All that has to do with us is
in the God of the whole universe's hands, and that would be power.
My times are in your power, your hands. Doesn't Proverbs 21 say, the
king's heart is in the hands of the Lord. He turns it, whether
so ever he does. If 1 Corinthians 6 and John 17
is true, if we are one with Christ, and Christ abides in us, and
we in Him, will not the Father who delights in His only begotten
Son and loves Him world without end, will He not be just as concerned
with those of us who are in His Son? Turn to Proverbs 8. Proverbs
8. This speaking of the relationship
the Father and the Son have before eternity, this is what it's speaking
about. In Proverbs 8, verse 22, the
Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of
old. This is the relationship between
the two persons in the Trinity. God the Father and God the Son.
I was set up from everlasting, from beginning, wherever the
earth was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I was brought forth." Now, keep that thought
and look at verse 30. Then I, says Christ, was by Him,
the Father, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His
delight, rejoicing always before Him. Now look at verse 31, "...rejoicing
in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights were with
the sons of men." The Father delighted in His Son, and the
Father delighted in the sons of men, or sinners, men and women,
which will eventually be saved by the preaching of the gospel,
and the quickening work of the Holy Spirit. He was daily His
Father's delight, but He's also delighted with us. David knew
right well this singular doctrine of the supreme appointment of
God is what Spurgeon calls it, or I call it God's absolute sovereignty
in Providence. And consequently, David rested
his very soul upon Christ and His truthfulness in this Word."
He didn't have the Bible, he had scrolls, but it's still inspired. Old Testament, New Testament,
it's inspired by God. My times, or our times we could
say, the whole church, collective, every elect sinner drawn unto
Christ in grace and mercy, Psalms 47 verse 4 says, He shall choose
our inheritance for us. And the believer is so satisfied
with that. We don't want to choose our own
inheritance, because we know in Adam we die, and we may have
a good head on our shoulders, but then age is going to catch
up with this. We can't do what we used to do.
We can't perform what we used to do. All these different things
affect us because we're sinners. So we want the Lord to choose
our inheritance. Which incidentally, that's redemptive
glory in Christ. That's our inheritance. We're
sons and daughters of the Most High God. Why? Because our times are in His
hand. If we could just muse upon that,
if we could just take it in, and when something crosses us,
or anger, if we could just sit back and say, But my times are
in His hand." What a large pillow to lay to sleep upon. Therefore,
we can boldly say firmly and without hesitation that His will
be done. That's what Christ says, pray
to the Father. He teaches how to pray, the disciples said.
Thy will be done. It's not a question, it's a command,
it's a statement, a fact. His will shall be done in the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men. Who can turn
His hand? He yields to no one. He's the
preeminent, self-existent One. He does not need us, but He's
included us in this scheme of redemption. Proverbs 16. This is the truth. And there's so many Scriptures
like this, I've just pulled out a few. Proverbs 16 and the last
verse. My times are in thy hand. The
lot is cast into the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is
of the Lord. Sounds like He's in control of
everything. If He's even going to control some dice, In verse
9, a man's heart devises his way, but the Lord directs his
steps. You remember that old rascal
king Nebuchadnezzar? He walked out and he said, this
is Babylon. Look at what I have done by my
intellect and my hands and me, me, me. And before the words
came out of the fill of the ground, the Lord humbled him. He crawled
around. Made them eat from the ground
until the Lord humbled them. And then he knew what he was.
He knew who God was. And then when God restored him
back, he said, Oh, I give God all praise and all glory. Who
has a dominion like His dominion? This God, the only God, my times
are in Thy hand. We scheme and plot, try to figure
out the infinite, better to simply trust in Him who is too wise
to err and too loving to do wrong. My times, times of sickness or
health, of poverty or wealth, my times in my youth, my old
age, and all things in between, no matter what our lot in this
life, we can confidently ascribe all things for us or against
us, is of the making of our Supreme God to us and for us." Isn't
that what Joseph said in Genesis chapter 50? It's horrible. He'd been left for dead in a
pit, sold into slavery, Went to Potiphar's wife. She
tried to mess around. He resisted her, threw him in
jail. I don't know how long he was
in jail for, but he met all these bakers, all these people. Tell
the king I'm in here. Well, he forgot. In prison. and then go past that little
boy, raised him up, elevated him, and then when he met his
brethren, I love this phrase, he said, you meant it for evil,
but God meant it for good. Why? How could you say such a
thing? This is going on over here, and this is going on over
there, and this is going on over here, and this is going... These
are all cogs in his wheel. Like if you were looking at the
back of a watch and see all those wheels turning. Every one of
them is essential. And God is our God. And He has dominion over all
things. In Romans 8, verse 28, everything works together for
good to them that love God and who are the called according
to His purpose. You can't take one out, you've
got to put the whole thing together. We're not loved unless we're
called. We're not called unless it's according to His sovereign,
predestinating purpose. It's not just our times, the
redeemed, but all men everywhere are in His all-encompassing hand,
either in mercy unto salvation or in the hands of judgment unto
eternal condemnation. You remember that guy, his name
is Shemii? When David was fleeing from Absalom
and he and his soldiers were walking up the hill, and this
guy comes out and he's throwing stones at him, and he's cursing
him. It's 2 Samuel 16, but look at
that sometime. David said, his captain said,
let me just go over and remove his head. And David said, no,
God had him do that. God had him
do that. And you remember we just looked
at it in Numbers 22, Balaam, the false prophet. He's hired
by the king. Of course, he takes his money.
And he says, curse Israel. They're too big for us. And he
says, I can only speak what God tells me to speak. And he tries
to curse, and the Lord ends up blessing him. That's out of the
mouth of an unbeliever. Our God controls
everything. That's why we can say, David
can say, In the middle of pull me out of the net, we still pray
like we don't know what's going to happen. We know who's on the
throne, but the wherefores and the whys we struggle with. We're
human. We're sinners. We understand that. We have compassion. When people are hurt and people
get sick, our compassion goes out and we weep with those who
weep. We're not unsensitive. No, we
should be the most sensitive of God's creatures. But we don't
despair like the world despairs, because Christ is our Redeemer.
And we know that nothing has taken place. God's not blindsided
with anything. My times, your times, our times
are in His hands. For if there be one particle
that's not controlled by God's eternal predestinated character,
He loses all. Scott Richardson said, and I
use it all the time, either God governs or He is governed. Either
He rules and reigns in righteousness or He Himself is ruled over. But we know in Revelation chapter
19 and verse 6 said, The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. It continues and continues. Well,
secondly, my times are in God's hands. That's a good place to
be. That is a good place to be. God is not an uninterested spectator
in our life events. Queen Elizabeth, this is just
kind of to illustrate a monarchy, we don't understand a monarchy,
but Queen Elizabeth She had some interests in Holland and she
pulled one of her subjects, a very well-to-do merchant, said, I
want you to go over and represent my interest in Holland. And he
said, if I do that, my own interests are going to fail and I'm going
to lose everything. And she said, how can that be? I'm the queen
and I will look after your merchandise. Is not God better than the queen?
If He sends us out in a swamp area, in a backwoods area, or
as our dear brother in Africa, will He not take care of His
own? Yes, for sure. His hands are
ever around us. The everlasting arms, we sing
that song underneath us, and you can't get any further than
underneath. So I can't get any lower. Well, His arms are underneath
you. Well, I still got a little...
He's underneath you. So His hands, our arms are around
us, they're beneath us, they're above us. As a watchful father
over His dear little children. And the scripture says no man
can pluck you out. Of what? His hands. My times are in His hands. If I wish I could just... I wish
I had seen this much, much earlier. when I was in my 20s or 30s,
63 and still backwards. But sink or swim, I'm just going
to hang on to this. I'm going to hang on to this. What? Will our Father send His
beloved Son to call and quicken and redeem us and not care over
His lambs all the day long? There's another story with a
historical figure, Sir Francis Drake. He was the one that circumvented
or circumnavigated the whole globe. And the story is told as he's
coming back to England and he's coming up the River Thames, that
a tremendous, terrible storm hit. And He said, what, circle the
world and now be shipwrecked in a ditch? Never. Never. Let not this man's human faith
put us to shame. My times, our times, are in His
hand. We sing that hymn. Hymn 267,
all things work together for good. And George Whitfield was
one to say, our life is immortal until our
work is done. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said,
fate is blind, providence has eyes. And we're under the caring
providence of God. But as we look at this and meditate
on this, and I hope believe this verse, what should it do? What
is the effect? What does a steady belief and
trust in this heavenly statement has upon our souls? Or what effects
of my times are in His hands? What does that do? Well, it does
several things. One, it reduces anxiety. It reduces
anxiety. Well, I've got this issue. I've
got this trouble. Is your case particular? It may be to you.
But you can go to this passage and say, I am a child of the
Lamb. You sent your Son to redeem me. His blood to buy me. I am not
my own. I therefore believe that you
said this to me personally. My times are in your hands. We
will find heaven's shore no matter what the enemy or the opposition
comes our way. Isn't that what Jude 24 says?
Him who was able to keep you from falling and present you
faultless before His presence. That's the Scripture. Secondly,
it eliminates regret. And I thought I remembered a
phrase that I'd read so long ago and I'd forgot it. Should
have, could have, or would have, should not be in the saint's
language. Oh, I know we look back and say, I could have done
better by my kids. I could have made sure that they
blah, blah, blah. That's what parents are for,
is protect the kids. I know we have that, and that's human nature.
But to grieve over it and say, oh, if I'd have just made this...
No. Your times back then were in His hands, whether you knew
Him or not. For He does all things well.
And He has ordered our steps. That's what Jeremiah 10 says.
He orders our steps. May we seek to walk with Him,
love Him, worship and obey Him, but do not live in regret. I
see people who think that they have something to do, they have
power, their own free will, etc., etc., and they beat themselves
up. What might have been? I think it was Luther who said,
don't look backwards, you're not going that way. Some of these
guys, some of these men, I wish I was around. I wish I could
get, you know, which one day we'll have sweet fellowship with
these men. But some of the wisdom. Well, thirdly, it gives assurance
and peace in times of trouble, distress, and hurt. As a father
disciplines his tender children, so too our kind and gracious
father will make sure we never leave his side or he never abandons
us. We may not know what he's always
doing, but ours is to trust and to submit to him and to know
without doubting God's grace is always for us. And as Moses
said, shall not the judge of the earth do right? all the time. Fourthly, it says this is a good
remedy to see that our times are in God's hand is a good remedy
for the fear of man, or in my case, the fear of the unknown.
Situations and events in our lives. 2022. We don't know what
tomorrow is going to bring, so what are we worried about? Let
us trust Him who never slumbers or sleeps, and thereby get a
good night's sleep. With God on our side, the Scripture
says in Romans 8, we are more than conquerors. And fifthly, which there's more, I could go on and
on, but I got to thinking about it. Turn to 1 Peter 2. We are
being conformed to the image of Christ. When we realize our
times are in God's hands, we are being conformed and made
like Christ. 1 Peter 2, and starting in verse
20, for what glory is it if when you're buffeted for your faults,
you take it patiently, but when you do well and suffer for it
and take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even
here unto where you call, because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that we should follow His steps. Christ
who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, who when
He was reviled, reviled not again. When He suffered, He threatened
not, but committed Himself to Him that judges righteously."
That tells me that Christ says His times were in God's hands. So we ought to do the same thing.
See something happens or something goes against our children, will
we get our back up? Vengeance is not ours, it's the
Lord's. But we're being made more like Christ. To see in this
book, my times, our times are in His hands. Wasn't David doing the same thing?
Remember in 2 Samuel 23, these be the last words of David. These
be the last words of David, I think is verse 1. In verse 5, he said,
my house isn't so with God. All my children don't believe.
Friends, neighbors, they don't believe. They don't trust the
Gospel. I still have enemies. Although it be not so, he said,
God hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things
and sure. Though he make it not to grow,
though I don't see it. David, as he's laying in his deathbed,
could relax and say, my times are in God's hands. And we sing
that hymn, it is well with my soul. There really is never a
time And I know the world, I know we have worldly thoughts and
confessions, you know, getting cancer or getting a heart issue,
whatever the situation, it's not a good thing, but on the
other hand, there's never a not well time in our lives. And if we could realize that,
it would eliminate regret, it would reduce anxiety, it would
give us assurance and peace, it would be a good remedy for
the fear of man, I remember Rodney and I talking
about when this stuff came up a couple of years
ago. Well, they may throw you in jail. Rodney said, we'll start
a prison ministry. I told that to several people
and they were like, that's a good answer. It's easy to say on this
side of the bars, isn't it? But, you know, as Donnie Bell
said, since he heard the good news, he's never had bad news.
This is a guy that lost his wife to horrible cancer. We weep, but not as the world
weeps. There's so many benefits to what
believing this phrase, my times, our times are in his hands. But
I have to close that the Gospel is sober. It's for everybody. And I address you who have not
trusted Christ for the salvation of your souls. Jonathan Edwards
preached a sermon years ago that directly applies to you if you
do not know Christ. Sinners in the hands of an angry
God. God is angry. He's just. He's
holy. You have insulted Him to His
face. You have rejected His Word, this book. You'll read any other
thing but this. Like I said last Wednesday, we'll
pull up a periodical, we'll pull up a newspaper, we'll turn the
TV on, but these books just lay in dust. You are an enemy to His grace.
You have not submitted to His sovereign right as Lord over
all. Dear one, call upon Him. plead for His mercy, ask to be
given a new heart and a new desire to believe, repent, and come
to Him. For I know this, He's a God of
mercy. And if He puts a heart of repentance
and crying upon Him, He's placed that heart in there and will
not reject. He never rejects the true call for mercy in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We know Him. to be a sovereign
God, a holy God, a just God, but a merciful God. Bruce, would
you close us?