I feel that there is much to
say today and I want to get straight into our message this morning. I want to just remind us, if
there's any need for us to be reminded, that there's a lot
of people who are worried and anxious at this time. In the
throes of this virus pandemic that we are in, a lot of people
are concerned. Now, I've mentioned that I'm
not a scientist and I'm not a doctor, and some people will say, well,
what have you got to say to us then? Because we need to hear
from the experts. We need to hear what it is that
we need to do. Well, I'm not any of those things. But as I mentioned in my introduction,
I am a gospel preacher. And to that extent, I am a comforter
of the souls of men and women. I take my responsibility, I take
my calling seriously. I am called upon by God to comfort
the souls of his elect people. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 1
says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned. For she has received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins. When the prophet Isaiah was writing
those words, he said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith
your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem. Now Jerusalem wasn't
a city in that context, in that verse. It was a people. And it wasn't just the Jewish
people. but it was the people with whom
God had made a covenant of peace by the Lord Jesus Christ. A covenant
with a people that he called his covenant people, a people
to whom the gospel of grace and peace came through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that people is not a single
nation, but it is rather a people that are chosen and redeemed
out of every nation, tribe, family under heaven. Individuals upon
whom God has set his mercy and to whom the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ comes with soul-saving grace and power. As a preacher of the gospel,
it is my job to preach Christ. to those who have ears to hear,
those who have eyes to see him as he is lifted up, the Lord
Jesus Christ upon the cross. And it is my job to comfort that
people in the midst of this sinful world and in the midst of all
the contrary circumstances that arise in our lives. It is the
gospel of Christ that comforts the Lord's people. It is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up. It is the power of
his sacrifice. It is the preciousness of his
blood. It is the efficacy of his grace. It is that justifying righteousness
which flows to us through the great sacrifice which the Lord
Jesus Christ has made. That is what will comfort our
souls. That is what will be meaningful
to us in the midst of our trials, in the face of our difficulties,
as we approach those hurdles in this life that we are called
upon to face. And as we begin this morning
to think about these matters, I want you to think seriously
about something that the Bible says is important. And it's important
in many, many ways, but it has a relevance to us this morning,
I think. Four times in the Bible, four
times in Scripture, we are urged, harden not your heart. Harden not your heart. And this is what I meant when
I said to you earlier that I'm not going to present this coronavirus,
this virus disease that is going around in our society at the
moment as a judgment. Rather, I am going to refer to
it as a warning because it was a warning like the Plagues in
Egypt were a warning, like the pestilences that come into our
world are a warning, that God will hold men accountable for
the things that they say and do, that there is yet an opportunity
to flee the wrath that is to come. If this was really a judgment,
then the sword of God would have come down upon this earth, this
world already. Time would be no more. We would
all be ushered in to his great judgment throne. The time of
life would be over for us all. This is a warning. This is a
warning that that judgment is coming and that we are to harden not
our heart. rather listen, rather receive
the truth as it is preached to us concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ. And there is a repetition, these
four-fold repetitions of harden not your heart because constantly
we are tempted to do just that, to harden our hearts against
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, to harden our hearts
against the doctrine of God that he has revealed to us in scripture.
to harden our hearts against the providences of God. This
is a providence, this is a circumstance that has come into our life,
into our society, into our time. No one a few months ago anticipated
that there would be anything like this happening. People had
planned their holidays, people had planned their visits, people
had planned their doctor's appointments, people had planned to be enjoying
at the end of winter and the beginning of spring, getting
out into the countryside and experiencing something of the
beauty of our environment. And what has happened? We are
constrained, we are restricted, we are placed under charge and
we are being told not to leave our own homes. Nobody saw this
coming. This is a providence of God.
But let us not harden our hearts against the message that this
providence is bringing to us. Let us not harden our hearts
against the revelation of God, because God is speaking today. He doesn't speak in audible voices. He doesn't speak in dreams and
visions. He doesn't speak the way that
many people with their pseudo-spiritual ideas talk about God speaking
to them. God speaks in the Scriptures. God speaks in the Bible. God
speaks in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ when it is preached
from that Bible. And God speaks in the providences
of life. This providence is calling upon
us to harden not our hearts. God is speaking to us. He is
speaking to us as a church. He is speaking to us as a society. He is speaking to us as a world. He is speaking to us today. Let
us take his words seriously and let us not harden our hearts
against them. In these present circumstances,
this is a warning and it is granting us an opportunity. Now I've got
two readings that I want to make this morning. And the first one
is found in Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Now that's not the easiest book
to find in the Bible. It's just after Psalms, which
is just after the middle of your Bible. But in Ecclesiastes chapter
9, I've only got a couple of verses there, so there's no need
to turn to it right now. Just listen if you will. This
is what it says. This is probably written by Solomon,
and Solomon says to us, remember this, that Solomon is reputed
to have been the wisest man that ever lived. And this is what
the wisest man who ever lived said to us. For all this, he
says, I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that
the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of
God. No man knoweth either love or
hatred by all that is before them. All things come alike to
all. There is one event to the righteous
and to the wicked, to the good and to the clean and to the unclean,
to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not, As
is the good, so is the sinner. And he that sweareth, as he that
feareth an oath. You see what Solomon is saying
there? He's saying that it doesn't matter
how smart or clever or good or able you are. You don't know
what is going to happen tomorrow. Doesn't matter how wise, how
prepared, how experienced, you don't know what is going to happen
tomorrow. Furthermore, whatever happens
tomorrow will happen if you're good or bad. if you're righteous
or wicked, if you're rich or poor, if you're anxious about
it or you're careless of it, if you worship God or if you
don't worship God. He says in verse three, one event
unto all. And I think that that's something
that we can see right here and right now. Oh, I know that there's
a little bit of concern at the moment because some people who
are rich are managing to get the coronavirus tests when people
who need them aren't getting them. Well, yes, of course, these
things are always going to happen. But the point that Solomon is
making still stands, that when these events come upon a society,
they come upon everyone. How we deal with it might be
slightly different, but they come upon everyone. Solomon is
telling us that all things happen alike to all men and women. And that, at least, is true with
regard to the outward circumstances and experiences of our lives. These things do come upon a society,
like this pandemic that has arisen. It's come upon all of us alike,
whether we worship God or whether we don't worship God, whether
we're rich or poor, whether we're good or bad, whether we're righteous
or unrighteous. But here's the point. Although,
as Solomon says, all these things happen alike to all men and women,
They do not happen for the same reason, nor do they produce the
same effects. And that brings me to my second
reading. Don't need to turn to it at the moment. It's just a
verse that I want to quote to you from Proverbs chapter 12.
It's Proverbs 12 and 21. And it says this, there shall
no evil happen to the just. but the wicked shall be filled
with mischief. Now I want you to notice something
here. I want you to notice that there
is a distinction in this verse between two categories of people. There is the just and the wicked. This is Solomon again who's writing
in the Proverbs. He says, there shall no evil
happen to the just. but the wicked shall be filled
with mischief. Here is this distinction between
these two categories of people, the just and the wicked. Now,
let me just, by way of quick explanation, state this. By nature, there isn't two distinctions,
or there isn't a distinction, there aren't two categories of
people. By nature, all men and women are wicked. There are no just people. There are no righteous people.
All men and women are wicked. We are born with a sinful nature. And very quickly, as we grow,
we exhibit that sinful nature in sinful conduct and in sinful
actions and in sinful words. Such that John says in his epistle,
1 John 1, verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have
no sin, we're self-deceiving and we're lying to ourselves. But Solomon says that despite
everyone being born in sin, despite everyone being wicked in their
natural state, some have been made just. Some have been justified. They've been made just. That
means that they have been given That status, that position, that
name of being holy and righteous before God. They have been justified,
they have been made just. There is no sin seen in them. And furthermore, the Bible tells
us that we have been made just not by our works or our desires
or by our decisions or by our will, but it is an external justifying
power, a power to justify that comes from outside of us. It
is the blood and the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ when
he died upon the cross that makes men and women just. This justification
is God's gift to certain individuals. Not earned by those individuals
because of what they've done. Then it wouldn't be grace. Then
it would be what we'd earned, but it's not. It's not merited
because we're special in any way. It's not worked for, but
it is freely given by God, and it is freely received. That is
why it is not something that the powerful or the wealthy or
the popular in this world know anything about, because this
comes to the poor in spirit. This comes to those who receive
God's gift, who are prepared in their hearts to receive the
gift of God's mercy and his grace, the very righteousness of God
bestowed freely. through the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ upon the cross and by the preciousness of his blood. So Paul, that one that we've
been speaking about, that one who suffered so much to deliver
these messages into our hands, that we can read these things
today, he says in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 7, who maketh thee to
differ from another? Who maketh thee to differ from
another? What hast thou that thou didst
not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? Who makes
us different? Are some people just because
they're better than everyone else? No. If we are different,
it's because God has made us different. What do we have that
we haven't received? We all come into this world.
As sinners, we all come into this world as little babies,
little infants, and we are given everything. What do we have that
we haven't received? If we are just before God, it
is because He has made us just. He has given us righteousness.
He has justified us in His sight by the blood and sacrifice of
Jesus Christ. Justification is part of salvation
and salvation is God's gift to his people. Remember we spoke
earlier about comfort, he comfort he, my people saith the Lord.
Speak unto Jerusalem words of comfort, That comfort that comes
to Jerusalem is comfort that comes to God's people. That people
of peace, because that's what Jerusalem means. It is the people
of peace. Salem is peace. And so salvation
is God's peace given to us as a free gift. through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Jerusalem is that people whom
he has chosen from out of all the nations, tribes and families
of this world, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. and
God has made us to differ. God has made one man just and
left another in his wickedness. It is God who has made one woman
righteous and left another in her sin. This is God's gift And
it is God who makes us to differ. Grace is God's gift. Grace is what we have received.
Mercy is what we have received by the grace of God. And all
glory goes to God and to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. So here is a single event, according
to Solomon, that happens to us all. A single circumstance. And let me be clear, because
I don't want to be accused of ambiguity on this matter, I am
not suggesting for a moment that God's people are immune from
life's troubles and that they are preserved from the hard providences
of life. We know that that is not so. Did anyone suffer more than Saul
of Tarsus? Did anyone suffer more than Paul
the Apostle, who gave us that catalogue in Corinthians of the
things that he had endured? How he'd been shipwrecked, how
he had been whipped, how he had been stoned and left for dead? Here was a man who knew much
about suffering in this world, whose body must have been bruised
and battered and bleeding. in so many different ways, whose
mind must have been so on edge in so many situations and on
occasions, and who knew what it was to feel those welts on
his back and that pus and his infections and all of the bruises
and the beatings that he'd had. Oh no! Oh no! The people of God,
God's chosen people, are not preserved from the hard providences
of life. The same events afflict the just
as the unjust, the just and the wicked. But we know this because
the Word of God tells us it is so. We believe this. There shall
no evil happen to the just because, and this is the important point,
God will bless to the just every trial and sanctify every hardship
to us. Without question, God's elect,
God's just people, that Jerusalem who are comforted by the gospel
of Jesus Christ, they all suffer. They suffer all the evils and
the trials and the hardships of this life. Everything that
comes into this world as a result of sin falls upon the elect just
as much as upon the wicked, falls upon the righteous just as much
as upon the unrighteous. But the difference is this, that
when the just suffer, they are not suffering as a judgment or
as a punishment. but they are receiving everlasting
benefit for their souls out of that trial and that suffering. One of the old hymn writers said
it beautifully when he wrote, When through the deep waters,
these deep waters are the sometimes overwhelming circumstances that
we are called to bear. Circumstances that we think are
going to completely submerge us and we're going to sink under
them and never resurface again. When through the deep waters
I call thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
For I will be with thee thy troubles to bless, And sanctify to thee
thy deepest distress. When through fiery trials thy
pathway shall lie, My grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame
shall not harm thee. I only design thy dross to consume
and thy gold to refine. You see, here's the amazing fact
that the trials that come upon this world and come upon all
men and women in this world, as Solomon testified, one act
to all, one event upon all, yet that event is used differently
upon these two categories. There is no evil falls upon the
just and yet there is mischief to those who are the wicked because
God is taking that self-same trial and applying it to one
people in a way of judgment and a way of warning and to the other
as a blessing. Child of God, All our trials
are born in the immediate presence of our God, in the immediate
presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our Saviour.
When we bear our trials, when these trials come into our lives,
when they come upon our hearts, when they enter into our souls
with the bitterness that they bring, The Lord Jesus Christ
is standing beside us. Hear this and believe this to
be true. If God afflicts us with a virus, it is because of his sovereign
will and all-knowing goodness that he does it. He may very
well do that to us. He may very well bring this coronavirus
into the lives of one or another of you who are listening to these
words this morning. But if you are a believer in
the Lord Jesus Christ, if you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ,
if you are one of those justified ones, it's not an evil thing. It's a good thing. and he shall
be closer to you in your trial. than he would be without your
trial. He promises to be with us. He
gives his angels charge over us. Our feet will not be allowed
to be dashed against a stone, such as his preserving of us. No evil shall befall us, even
in the experience of these events that come into our lives. If
the Lord touches our body with an illness or the bodies of those
that we love, is he making a mistake? Is he at fault for doing that?
Is God in error because someone who is a child of God, someone
who is a believer has a hard experience or gets an illness? God forbid. In 2 Samuel 22, verse
33, there the writer says, it's David again actually, he says,
God is my strength and power, and he maketh my way perfect. There is a perfectness about
this way of our pilgrimage journey. There is a perfection in it. Because while there's hardship,
and while there's regret, and while there's sorrow, and while
there's pain, and while there's all that catalogue of persecution
and trouble that Paul attested to in his own life, and we can
re-echo in ours, to a greater or lesser extent, there is a
perfection in the way in which the Lord leads his people. Romans
8, 28. We know! We know all things work together
for good to them that love God. And that is the fiery darts of
Satan and the divers temptations of grace. The events that come
into our lives by the direct purpose of God in order to wean
us off of this world and to cause our hearts to lay more heavily
upon our Saviour Jesus Christ. Listen, listen, we shall not
enter heaven as an untried battalion, but as a bloodied army. We shall enter heaven as a warrior
people who have been tried and tested and have proved the worth
of our captain. and followed him whithersoever
he led us. This is a fight. This is a battle
that the church is called to engage in. It is a battle with
the world and the world powers. It is a battle that happens because
of sin and against the powers of the air. that spiritual wickedness
in high places and it is a battle which enters even into the very
soul of an individual as that old man and that new man wrestle
together and out of that battle comes trial but out of that battle
comes victory. Jill and I, my wife Jill and
I, we like to walk. And when we're walking around
the streets in the little town here where we're living, the
dogs bark at us. There seem to be a lot of dogs
in the gardens, in the houses around about here. And sometimes
if the dogs have got access to the street, they'll run out into
the street and they'll be barking and it makes us a little apprehensive
at times. Why am I telling you that? Well,
because there's an episode in scripture about a barking dog
when somebody was passing. I wonder if you can remember
what that is. When the children of Israel were leaving Egypt,
God said to them, not a dog will move his tongue against man or
beast, that ye may know how that the Lord doth put a difference
between the Egyptians and Israel. The Egyptians and Israel are
a picture there of the just and the wicked of whom Solomon spoke
in Proverbs 21. It's speaking about those for
whom the Lord is pleased to stand. And he told the children of Israel,
he told Moses that when they were leaving Israel, I can't
walk past the end of this road without half a dozen dogs barking
at me. But when Israel, the whole nation,
those hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people that
walked out of Egypt that night in which the death angel passed,
not a dog barked against them. nor a dog moved his tongue against
them. Such was the preservation in
which the Lord held his people. God has made a difference between
the just and the wicked, between his church and the world, not
in the suffering of trials, but in the purpose of those trials,
not to save us from them, but to bring us through them, with
greater faith in him. Every trial that the church experiences,
every trial that a child of God has to endure, every problem
and hardship teaches us to see the spiritual blessings of grace
flowing to us from Christ. God teaches us in this way to
see and to trust the Lord Jesus Christ and his works. In Matthew
chapter five, verse 45, the Lord says, your father which is in
heaven maketh his son to rise on the evil, and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. He has made
a difference between the just and the unjust, on the evil and
the good. He has made a difference, but
the same sun shines on both, the same rain falls on both,
but there's no grace in those providences for the wicked. and
there's no curse in them for the just. God simply uses both
the sun and the rain to deliver his people out of this world
and accomplish his perfect will in their lives. God has made
a difference to us for a reason. He has justified his church and
his people that elect people in Christ for a cause He has
saved his people for our good and for his glory. And he that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Are you frightened about the
coronavirus? It's God's virus. It is accomplishing
his purpose amongst the wicked and amongst the just. Are you
anxious about the effects and the consequences of this virus? Fear not. No evil shall happen
to the just. God is in control and he is working
all things together for your good. And yes, our temperatures
may rise and our breathing may be affected. Yes, we may have
the symptoms of this. And yes, it may even be that
some of the Lord's elect are taken home to glory by this means. We're all going to be taken home
to glory by one means or another. And we will learn in the midst
of this trial how good and how gracious, how loving and how
merciful our God is to his people. The Lord's people shed tears
as others. The Lord's people feel pain.
We know loss, but we have hope. We hope in Christ. We hope in
God. We trust his promises. We shall not harden our hearts. By grace, we shall have faith
in him and we shall believe. We shall take God at his word
when he declares to us. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, For I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. And when thou walkest through
the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba for thee. Since thou wast precious in my
sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee. Therefore
will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Rejoice
in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Let your moderation be known
unto all men. The Lord is at hand. Be careful
for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the
peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your
hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen. Amen. Thank you very much for
your attention this morning. Thank you for sharing with us
in our fellowship and in our service. I trust that these words
will be an encouragement to our hearts as we face the challenges
of our day. And we will remember to look
beyond the Here and now, look to our Saviour, look to our God
and trust Him for His promises in the face of every challenge
and every providence. May the Lord bless us. Here's
a benediction and we will be finished after this. I will switch
off the machine. The Lord bless thee and keep
thee. The Lord make his face shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee and give thee peace. Amen.