a devastated wife or husband,
a weeping parent or son or daughter. And I never take those things
lightly. We have many friends, many faithful brothers and sisters
in Christ who are going through heavy, heavy trials. Our hearts
ache for them. Some of you are enduring great
trials of faith. Maybe no one knows about them
but you and your father who sent them. But your heavenly father
has been pleased to put you in the furnace of affliction. And
yet he sustains you by his grace, and you're comforted in the midst
of great trial, in the midst of great heartache, in the midst
of great trouble, by the sweet knowledge of God's wise, adorable,
and good providence. the knowledge of the blessed
assurance of his goodness and his grace in Christ Jesus the
Lord, and the peaceful confidence with which you deal with those
things, facing those things and embracing those things that God
our Savior has done, with which you recognize that he has done
all things well. that gives you sweet composure,
and your sweet composure in the midst of difficulty, your faith
in the Lord Jesus is more encouraging to me and encouraging to God's
people than words can express. Some of God's saints, it seems,
have trials and temptations like Job, one upon the heels of another. And usually, usually, those who
have the most difficult trials seem to bear them with the greatest
ease, composure, and joy. Isn't that amazing? Those whose
lives are the most burdensome seem to most enjoy the life of
God's grace in Christ Jesus the Lord. They always encourage me
by their composure. And in the light of the heavy
trials some face, I get a little disturbed when people get all
bent out of shape because they've got a leaky faucet or a hangnail.
In recent days, as I've thought about and tried to pray for and
try to help my troubled friends, my heart and mind have been directed
to meditate almost constantly upon the gracious, wise, adorable,
and good providence of our God. I used to try, and thank God
it doesn't take a lot of trying these days. I think more about
God's eternal purpose of grace, God's accomplished redemption
in Christ and God's providence than anything else. When trials,
temptations assail our souls, nothing is more helpful, nothing
is more comfortable than the blessed knowledge of God's all
wise purpose of grace and his unerring providence. Now with
those things said, I want us this morning to look at two words,
just two words that are constantly used through the scripture, commonly
in connection with God's providence. They're used together 220 times
in scripture. Obviously we're not going to
look at all of them. That'd take a while. But I do want us to
look at 19 of these places where these two words are used. You
don't need to turn to all of them. I'll ask you to turn to
a few. So if you'll just jot down the references, you can
look at them later, and those references will actually be the
points of my message. I'm not going to be doing much
preaching. I'm just going to read some scripture with you
and let the scripture expound itself and expound itself in
the light of your experience of God's grace and his mercy. It's a message I'm sure that
will thrill the heart of every heaven-born soul. It will comfort
and encourage you who know God, if God the Holy Ghost will graciously
enable me to preach it and you to hear it. And it's a message
that I trust he will be pleased to use to give you life and faith
in Christ if you're yet dead in trespasses and in sins. May
God be pleased now to speak by his word. Let's begin in 2 Corinthians
chapter five and verse 18. This is my subject, all things,
all things. What a broad, broad, broad statement,
all things. Now understand this, when God
the Holy Ghost says all things, he means all things. Not just all good things, not
just all pleasant things, not just all sweet things, but all
things. When God says all things, he
means all things. Here in 2 Corinthians 5 verse
18, the apostle Paul tells us, all things are of God. All things are of God. I'm sure you didn't hear that.
All things are of God. Trace everything to its origin. Trace anything to its origin. All things are of God. Well, pastor, just how far are
we to take Paul's statement here? You think about that for a minute.
All things are of God. I hear people tell me all the
time, I'll make some statement or quote some pastor, we can't
take that too far. Listen to me. You can't take
that too far. You can't take that too far.
If I understand what this book teaches, and I'm sure I do, or
I wouldn't be standing here. You can carry those words just
as far, just as high, just as deep, just as wide as your imagination
will allow you to carry them. And when you've reached the utmost
end of your imagination, you will not have even begun to commence
to get started understanding the fullness of it. All things
are of God. Take that blessed inspired statement
just as far back as eternity past. And I know that's a redundant
statement, but I don't know another way to say it. And take it just
as far forward as eternity future. Take it up to the highest heaven,
down to the lowest hell, and through the world. through all
the ages of time, and through all that you have experienced,
all that you are now experiencing, and all that you shall yet experience
in time. And when all that has been and
shall be considered, write these words over the whole picture. All things are of God. What a blessed caption for history. What a blessed caption for my
life. What a blessed caption for our
experience. In creation of the universe,
all things are of God. We read in Revelation 4, Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are
and were created. All that was created in the beginning
when God created the heavens and the earth, God created that,
all of it, all of it, everything, all of it, for He And everything
that comes to pass in time is still the creation of God. And
God creates it for Him, for His glory according to His will.
In the wise, orderly disposition of providence, all things are
of God. This is what the scripture says.
Of Him and through Him And to him are all things to whom be
glory forever. Of him, that's the source. Through
him, that's the means by which they're accomplished. To him,
that's the end, the goal for which they're brought to pass.
William Cowper understood this. I love this hymn. It's not in
any of our modern hymn books, but it's a great hymn. God moves
in a mysterious way. his wonders to perform. He plants
his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in
unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures up his bright
designs and works his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh
courage take. The clouds you so much dread
are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding every hour. The bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flower. So judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind the frowning providence,
Our God hides a smiling face. Blind unbelief is sure to err
and scan his work in vain. God is his own interpreter and
he will make it plain. in the salvation of our souls.
All things are of God. Here in 2 Corinthians 5, that
is obviously what Paul is talking about. Look at any one aspect
of salvation. Look at the whole package of
grace. Salvation is one of those big,
big, big words in scripture. We generally think about salvation
as the time when first God gave us the privilege of faith in
Christ. Salvation takes in everything from eternity past to eternity
future by which God saves his elect. And all of it is God's
work. Election, predestination, and
redemption is of the Lord. Forgiveness, pardon, justification
is of the Lord. Reconciliation, regeneration,
sanctification are of the Lord. Repentance, faith, conversion
are of the Lord. Preservation, resurrection, and
ultimate glory, all are of the Lord. All things are of God. Well, preacher, that doesn't
leave any room for man. Yes, it does. Yes, it does. Man's the one who saved. He doesn't
contribute anything to the saving. Man's the one who's forgiven.
He doesn't contribute anything to the forgiveness. Man's the
one who's accepted. He doesn't make anything to make,
do anything to make himself acceptable. This is what the book of God
says. Now, I suggest that everybody who imagines that man contributes
something to salvation, at least bother to read scripture a little
bit. So then, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. In Proverbs 16, four,
we learn secondly that all things are for the glory of God. Listen
to the wise man. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. I don't pretend to presently
see what God is doing in all things. Oh, what things we've seen and
experienced. What things we see and experience
in the world. And scoffers and infidels and
religious infidels and scoffers as well. will say things like,
if there's a God in heaven, how could this happen? If God does
all things according to his will, how can you explain this? Some
years ago, after one of the mass murders at one of the schools,
one of the preachers on CNN, not CNN, on Fox News one morning
made this statement. He said, God's gonna have a lot
of things to answer for. To who? To you? Not hardly. I don't pretend to understand
the meaning of things in the temporary state of things. I
don't pretend to understand what God is presently doing. But I
am assured and I have absolute confidence that in all things
the Lord our God is making himself an everlasting and a glorious
name. That's what Isaiah said concerning
the children of Israel and their wanderings through the wilderness.
He brought them out of Egypt by mighty hand and stretched
out arm. He brought them out of Egypt by the merit and power
of the blood sacrifice of the Passover lamb. He brought them
out of Egypt by the power of his omnipotent grace by his stretched
out arm, portraying our salvation in Christ Jesus. And he led them
in the most direct best way possible from Egypt into the land of promise. I mean, he led them in the most
direct, best way possible. He took them on a three day trip
for 40 years. And everything they experienced
in the 40 years was only for their good. Every Canaanite and
Hittite and Perizzite and Jebusite, every Moabite and Ammonite, all
of them, all the trouble, all the complaints, all the difficulties,
all the bitter waters, all the hunger, all the thirst was just
for their good and for his glory. God making himself an everlasting
and a glorious name. That's what God is doing with
us and among us and in this world today. This is what God's doing. He's making himself an everlasting
and a glorious name. He's making himself an everlasting
and a glorious name. And I am prepared by his grace
to wait patiently until he shows the world his everlasting glorious
name. All things are of the Lord. He hath made all things for himself,
yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. In Ephesians chapter
one, verses 10 and 11, The apostle writes by inspiration and tells
us that all things are disposed of by God. In the dispensation
of the fullness of times, he will gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. He worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. He's set out from everlasting
to do some things. He's set out from everlasting
to do some things. And he's never been turned aside
for a second from what he's set out to do. But rather, he works
all things, everything. Every thought of every man's
imagination. all things, the falling of every
sparrow, the rising of every nation, the tearing down of every
nation. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Oh, what glorious good news. I am nothing but an insignificant
man. But if I could convince my daughter,
if I could convince my grandchildren that I have absolute power over
what every man, woman, and child in the universe thinks, speaks,
or does. I have absolute power over the
hissing of every snake. I have absolute power over every
drop of rain that falls, over every hailstone, over every flake
of snow. I have absolute power over the
shining sun, the moon, and the stars, the heavens, and the earth,
and hell itself. I could tell them anything, and
they'd believe it. If I could just convince them,
they'd believe it, because Daddy will take care of stuff. He'll
take care of stuff. Will you hear me? God, our Savior,
has absolute power everywhere. And he exercises that power everywhere,
over all things, all the time, exactly as he purposed it from
eternity. Now the long and short of that
is this. Everything that comes to pass in time was purposed
by our God in eternity and is brought to pass by God's wise,
holy, good purpose of grace for the saving of our souls and the
glory of his name. Number four, Hebrews chapter
two, verses eight and nine. Tell us that all things are under
the feet of and in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. The
father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hands. Your pastor touched on this yesterday
afternoon, just briefly. All things have always been in
his hands as God, he's the eternal son. All things have been put
in his hands as our covenant surety and mediator for having
accomplished the redemption of our souls by the sacrifice of
himself. All things put under his feet
that he should have power over all things. He says thou has
given him power over all flesh. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. To this end, Christ both
died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. All things soon shall be put
under his feet, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall
confess, yes, Satan the demons of hell, The ungodly rebel, you
who refuse to bow to him now, I will not believe him. I will
not trust him. He will not be my Lord. And you
who believe him, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Oh, rejoice my heart. Rejoice
my soul. He who loved me and gave himself
for me holds the reins of the universe in his hands. Oh my soul, God give me grace. Never, never, never to forget
that for a moment. He absolutely governs all things
according to his love for me. All things are under his feet
in total subjection to his will all the time. Now let me tell
you what that means. All things are for me. for me. Don't you delight when
somebody does something just for you? Just for you. No matter how insignificant it
is, they did that just for me. Just for me. You've heard me
tell it. I've traveled a good bit up until just a few years
ago. Shelby always stayed home with
our daughter until she got out of college. But when I'm gone,
I can tell you what's waiting for me when I get home. There'll
be a hot dish of macaroni and cheese coming out of the oven,
even though I'm not supposed to eat it. Got too much sugar
in it. Always there. Well, that's not so great. You've
not tasted her macaroni and cheese. But even if it wasn't so great,
she did it just for me. Will you hear me? Whatever it
is that God, my Savior does, He does it just for me, just
for you. That's the reason he does it.
Number five, go back to 2 Corinthians again. I want you to look at
this. 2 Corinthians chapter four, verse 15. This is what I've just told you. All things are for your sake. Job said, he performeth the thing
that is appointed for me. Many such things are with him.
The psalmist said, I will cry unto God most high, unto God
that performeth all things for me. Oh, what a Savior we have. I have a very dear friend who's
stationed in San Diego. He's in the special forces in
the Navy. God saved him a few years ago.
When I first met him, he came to Danville. I corresponded with
him. Somebody came to Danville, one
of our conferences. And when he introduced himself, he said
to me, he said, I don't really know the reasons behind our president
ordering the troops to invade Iraq when he did, but I know
why he did. He did it to save me. You see, he heard the gospel
because a brother of his, who had been saved by God's grace,
thought enough of his soul to send him some of our CDs. And
he listened. You know, when you're off in
Iraq, I've never been over there, but when you're off, you got
nothing much to do except sit and wait to go out again. And
so he'd listen to the CDs just because he didn't have anything
else to do. Didn't have anything else to do. And the Lord got
him. Yes, God raises up nations and
God brings about war and God tears down nations and God brings
about peace just to save his people, just for the glory of
his name. Romans 8, 28 is very familiar
with you. Let's look at it word by word. We, all who are born of God, All
who are taught of God. We know. It's not a matter of
speculation. We know. We know because it is
revealed to us in his word. We know because we've been taught
it by God the Holy Ghost. We know because we've experienced
it. Look back over your life, my
brother. I just caught Sean's eye. You look back over your
life. How old are you now? 34, 34, boy my soul, 34. Had the world by the tail on
her downhill pull. 34, look back over your brief
life. Tell me what you would change. What would you change? But you
don't know what, what would you change? Everything! to this point has been ordered
by God to put you right there here in this message right now.
And to bring you at last to heaven's everlasting glory. We know that
all things, good and bad, prosperous and adverse, pleasant and painful,
sickness and health, the birth of a child and the
death of a child, All things work together. Like gears and
cogs and a piece of machinery, they work together. We tend to
look at things like that. Ever since I got here and sat
down the first time, I wonder what that's for. And I find that kind of
foolish, it's part of the light. I don't care what it's for. We
tend to just look at things, things look out of joint, out
of place. And we look at one thing. And
the scripture speaks this way. All things work together. Many years ago, I normally don't
put it off till Saturday night, but I was out mowing late. I
hadn't quite finished all my studies, but it had to be done.
Yard had to be mowed. We got a big yard. And I had
an old used John Deere riding mower that I'd bought to help
me. And I'd work on it for 15 minutes and run it for five,
but that's what I had. And I was clipping along pretty
good. And the mower was running great.
And I had made two or three passes down the big yard and I looked
behind me and realized it wasn't any grass being cut. The mower
was running fine. But I had hit a stump sticking
up out of the ground and sheared that little old pin. Just, what
do they call that, the shear pin is what they call it. Just
that little, I'd sheared that, that's all it was. Man, less
than a quarter of an inch thick. That's all, less than an inch
long. But I'd sheared it and the mower wouldn't work. It sounded
good, looked pretty good, but it wouldn't cut a blade of grass
because one piece was missing. All things work together for
good. Watch this now. Good. Nothing
but good. I'll tell you what's happening
to you today. The very best thing possible, temporarily, that is
in time. I see that the very best thing
for you today is what you are right now. Very best thing. They work together for spiritual
good. Oh, the very best it can be. And they work together for eternal
good. To who? To them that love God. And who loves God? Those who
are loved of God. to them who are the called according
to his purpose. His purpose, his purpose is to
conform us to the image of his old dear son in resurrection
glory at last. God's providence is always good. He knows just what we need. In
everlasting wisdom he, all things for us decreed. Look at first
Corinthians chapter three, verse 21. All things are yours. If you're a believer, if you
trust Christ, this is God's word to you personally. to you and
I who are believers collectively, men and women born of God, his
church and his family, his children, all things are yours, all spiritual
things, all temporal things, all heavenly things, all things
to eternity, all the glory of glory is yours for we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. Now, I want you to look at this
one, Matthew 22, Matthew 22 verse four. Here is a text designed and intended
specifically for the benefit of you who are yet under the
wrath of God. Oh God, help you to hear me now.
Will you please listen to me if you're not in too big a hurry
to go to hell? Listen to me now. Our Lord Jesus commands saved
sinners to declare to lost sinners that all things are ready. Verse
four, he sent forth other servants saying, tell them what you're
bitten. Behold, I have prepared my dinner. My oxen and my fatlings are killed
and all things are ready. Come to the marriage. The Lord
God has sent me clear across the United States to you this
day with an invitation from heaven to the marriage supper of the
lamb. come just as you are, bring nothing with you. This is one
marriage at which no guest with gifts will be admitted. You can't
bring anything, nothing, nothing. At this marriage, all the gifts
come from the father of the group and they're all bestowed upon
the guest because of the group. This bride has no dowry. But
in Christ, all things are ready for the salvation and eternal
bliss of needy sinners. The spirit and bride say, come.
And whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life
freely. Here in Christ is complete pardon. Oh, behold his blood
atonement. Complete pardon for all sin.
Complete righteousness. Perfect righteousness. The very
righteousness of Christ, our obedient representative. Here
is sure acceptance. He has promised, him that cometh
unto me, I will in no wise cast out. And this is a call to unconditional
salvation. He who is God our Savior says,
they shall not depart from me. Our security is Christ himself. He says, I give them eternal
life and they shall never perish. Now, I want you to look at this
one as well. Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter
13. Listen to what God says. Verse 39. By him, all that believe
are justified from all things from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. Justified. There is no justification
by the works of the law and certainly not by any other works you invent.
There is no justification to be had by religious ceremonies,
baptism, the Lord's Supper, or anything else. Protestants pick
up the word from papist from whom they're descended and they
call Baptism and the Lord's Supper sacraments means of grace. That
is not so that is not so Baptism is a believer's confession of
Christ in baptism Identifying himself with Christ in his death
burial resurrection. It is the believers confession
of Christ It is not a means of salvation And this bread and
wine we're about to receive is the remembrance of Christ, confessing
him in the remembrance of him, eating the bread representing
his body, drinking the wine representing his blood. But you don't receive
any grace by it. You confess grace already received.
There's no salvation to be had in ordinances, ceremonies, and
sacraments. But there is full, free, complete
justification in Christ from all things. Justification. I've read a lot of books on justification,
and I've written a good bit about it myself. I've preached about
it a lot, and will do so again. But let me see if I can give
it to you shortly. Do you folks remember days prior
to computers? And you ladies who did secretary
work, you know what you had to do to justify the right-hand
margin? When we were younger, first started putting out bulletins,
over here is your left-hand margin. Everything's perfectly even.
And I would write the articles out and then Shelby would type
them. And she would take a ruler or a straight edge and mark a
line down here on the right-hand side, because everything was
out of whack. Look like that. And to make it look pretty, she
would count the spaces and then retype the article, putting in
enough spaces to make the thing justified on the right hand side.
Now you just hit Control J and it's done. There it is. Now here
is all God's righteousness. all the requirements of God's
law, all God's holiness, all of God's perfection, all that
God requires of man, all that God can give to man. Now watch
this, watch this. Here is Dodd-Ford, perfectly justified. equal to
everything God himself can require of a man because I'm accepted
in the beloved. Christ Jesus is able to justify
you from all things in your conscience. He's justified his people by
his obedience unto death. He's able to speak justification
to you in your conscience. We often talk about having a
good testimony before men. Well, let me tell you something.
Don't try to do that. That's just a show of religious
self-righteousness. Some folks think, oh, look how
he dresses. He's so godly. Look how she dresses. She's so godly. She must be a
holy person. She doesn't have any makeup on. Now, you laugh at that. That's
exactly how folks think. And that's exactly how we've
been taught to think. I want to have good testimony before
men. Now you listen carefully to what I'm saying. I want that
woman to be honored to be my wife. I want to live and behave
in such a way that people are honored to be in my company.
Honored to call me father or grandfather or friend. Honored
to call me pastor. I want to behave blamelessly
before men. But men don't know what godliness
is. Well, I want people to see Jesus
in me. People didn't see Jesus in Jesus. They ain't gonna see
him in you. What is a good testimony then? Enoch, before he was translated,
had this testimony, that he pleased God. What was that? God spoke to Enoch. As God gave
Enoch faith in his son, and God said, you please God. That's
the testimony. It is the testimony from God
in my conscience. I can't tell you what testimony
it is. God has told me I please Him. I'm justified. I'm accepted
in Him, not by what I do or feel or know or experience, but in
His Son, justified from all things. Not only are God's elect justified
from all things, we're told by our Lord in Matthew 19, 26, with
God, all things are possible. You remember the story of the
rich young ruler? He came to the Lord Jesus and said to him,
good master, what good things shall I do that I may inherit
the kingdom of God? And the Lord said, that's easy. All you have
to do is love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and being,
love your neighbor as yourself. And he's, well, I've always done
that. Can you imagine? I've always been perfect. I've
always been perfect. And the master said, let's see.
Go sell everything you have and come follow me. And he looked
at his bank account and his wallet, and he said, I don't think so,
and he left. And the disciples looked at that man, that good,
moral, upright man, and they said, Lord, who then can be saved? And our Lord said, I'm gonna
tell you something, it's easier for a rich man to go through
the eye of a needle. Now you've heard a lot of explanation
about that. Let me tell you what it means. You ladies still have
sewing needles at home? You know what the eye of the
needle is? It's easier for a camel to go through that needle's eye
fully loaded than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's exactly what it means. Many women loaded with riches
of their own righteousness cannot go through the needle's eye.
With men it's impossible. Oh, but with God, all things
are possible. There's no filth the blood of
Christ can't cleanse. No self-righteousness God can't
strip away from you. There's no guilt the blood of
Christ can't purge away. With God, all things are possible. There's no nakedness His righteousness
can't cover. No spiritual deformity that His
grace cannot correct. All things are possible with
God. He can save you. And then in Mark 9, 23, the Lord
Jesus said, if thou can't believe, all things are possible to him
that believeth. This man brought his son, his
demon-possessed boy. And he said, master, have mercy
on my son. He's grievously vexed with the
devil. And the Lord Jesus said to him, If thou canst believe,
all things are possible to him that believeth. And the father
of the child cried and said with tears, Lord, I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. Here is a father believing Christ
for his son. The boy was possessed of a devil.
He couldn't believe, he wouldn't believe. So his father came to
the Lord Jesus and begged mercy for his son. And when the master
saw his father's faith, he saved his son. What an encouragement
there is for you, mothers and fathers, regarding your sons
and daughters. Several years ago, one of our men back home,
Brother Rex Bartley, read that portion of scripture and led
the congregation in prayer. And as he was praying, he said
something I had to pause and write down because I didn't want
to forget it. He said, Lord, never once in your word do we
find a sinner seeking mercy for himself who did not get it. And never once do we find any
who sought your mercy for his child who did not get it. So we bring our lost children
to you and ask that you will be merciful to them for Christ's
sake. What do you do with them? Bring
them to Christ, leave them in his hands and wait. The worst
thing you can do is con them into making a profession of faith.
The worst thing you can do is trick them into thinking they're
Christians. Bring them to the Savior and wait. Our Savior said
that faith as a grain of mustard seed is sufficient to pull down
full-grown sycamore trees and remove mountains and cast them
into the sea. Paul said, I can do all things
through Christ which strengtheneth me. All things are possible to you
who believe. In 2 Corinthians 5, and I want
you to look at this one. Verse 17. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. John tells us that he that
sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new. He said,
right, for these words are true and faithful. In the new birth,
The Lord Jesus gives us a new nature. He doesn't repair the
old nature, he puts a new nature in us. In reconciliation, he
gives us a new record in heaven. In the resurrection, he will
give us a new body. In the renovation of the creation,
he will give us a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. But if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Do you remember the days of cassette
tapes and VHS tapes? You used to have a rewind button.
Did you ever wish with your life that you could just push the
rewind button and start all over? Listen to me. I call on you now, right now,
push the rewind button. and start all over. Start all
over. Wipe the slate clean. Start all
over. Start a new life with no possibility
of messing it up. It's called faith in Christ. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Christ has put away our sins. God doesn't remember our sins.
And if God doesn't remember them, that's because they're not. Now,
how do you explain that? I don't know how to explain that.
I don't have to. God doesn't remember my sins.
And if God doesn't remember them, it doesn't much matter who else
does. All things are become you. Romans 8, 32. 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? All things. He freely gives us all things,
everything we need as we need it. When my daughter got married,
When Doug came over to ask for her hand in marriage, I tried
to make it as tough as I could. That's the daddy's responsibility.
And so I wanted him to be very uncomfortable. He came to show
me his plans and so forth. And I asked one thing of him,
and that is that you worship God with my daughter. I asked
nothing else. And he's a great son-in-law. Love him. Thank God
for him. Great father. When they got back from their
honeymoon, on the first trip at the house, we had a package
for him. We don't have anything, but we
have some life insurance. I gave Doug a copy of it, told
him where everything is. I gave him keys to the house,
keys to the cars, keys to the truck, keys to the garage. I said, whatever I've got, whatever
I've got, I ain't got much, whatever I've got, anything I've got,
it's yours. Take it and use it however you
want to. Somebody asked me one time, did
he really do that? I just gave him the most precious thing in
the world to me. I gave him my daughter, you think I wouldn't
give him a monkey wrench? God gave his son for you. God gave his son for me. And
he will spare nothing. He will keep nothing from you,
needful for you. Nothing in time, nothing in eternity,
nothing. So that he who supplies all our
need, does so according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. He meets all our needs. Then in Acts chapter 3 in verse
21, God the Holy Ghost speaks of a day coming, a time of refreshing. It's called the times of the
restitution of all things. What a day that will be when
God has restored all his creation to himself by Christ Jesus. And
all the universe, all the universe, every angel,
every demon, every child of God, every believer, every unbeliever,
the whole universe will be made to see and see forever that everything
that has been has been to the glory of God for the good of his people. Everything
and everybody will say amen, Jesus Christ is Lord, God is
God, and that's just the way it ought to be. Tempted and tried,
we're oft made to wonder, why should it be thus all the day
long? Yet, blessed father, loving and gracious, we know you're
wise and never do wrong. Father alone will know all about
it. Father alone will understand
why. Cheer up, my brother. God is your father. We'll understand
it all by and by. Look at one more text with me,
Mark chapter seven, Mark chapter seven. Peter tells us that the end of
all things is at hand. Soon, soon, there's gonna be
an end to all sin, an end to all trouble, all our struggles,
all our toils, All our trials, all our unbelief, all our temptations,
an end to this world, an end to everything, everything temporal. Shelby, a few weeks ago, was
reading that book I wrote. A while back, going home, she
hadn't read it yet, and I was studying, she was laying on the
bed in the motel room, and she read the chapter while I was
dealing with that, no more sickness, no more sorrow, no more death,
no more pain. She said, I'd like to add one
more thing to that, no more packing, and she wrote it down. Gonna be an end to everything
here that you wish an end to, everything, everything. And when
God our Savior gets done, We will confess with astonishment,
he hath done all things well. You see that Mark 7, 37? These
people beheld our Savior's wonders on earth and they heard this
word from him. They heard his word and they
said, we read that they were beyond measure astonished. Oh,
I'm beyond measure astonished. Beyond measure astonished saying.
He hath done all things well. Yes, blessed be his name. God our Savior has done all things
well. Oh, for a heart prepared to sing
to God my Savior and my King, with all the saints I'll join
to tell, my Jesus hath done all things well. if I should leave
this world before I get to my seat here and take the bread
and wine with you, remembering our Savior. When the time of
my departure has come and you want to remember something about
this man and his life, you can write these words over my life's
history. He hath done all things well. with me and mine. He hath done all things well
with you and yours. He hath done all things well
to the glory of the triune God. All things are yours. Years ago, I read a story about
a man whose boy was killed in Vietnam. He was a rich man, just
he and the boy lived together. I don't know what happened to
the mother. But this wealthy man was an art collector, and
he and his son enjoyed collecting art. They had the means to do
so. They had many, many fine, fine, very expensive pieces of
art in an art room in one of the rooms in their house. And
when the Vietnam War broke out, he volunteered to go to service,
and he was killed. Well, after his buddy in the
military got out of the military, he knocked on the door one day,
and the man came to the door, and he saw this scruffy-looking,
smallish fellow there with a package under his arm, and he said to
him, he said, you don't know me, but your son and I were good
friends. In fact, he was killed saving
my life. And he told me often about your
love and appreciation of art. And I've got something here I'd
like to give you. The man invited him in. And he opened up the
package. He said, it's not much. It's
the best I could do. It's my picture of your son. And the man with tears in his
eyes walked over to the fireplace and took down that rich, rich
expensive piece of art and set it to one side and hung that
portrait of his son by the fireplace. And everybody that came in his
house after that, he'd show them that portrait first thing. That
was the most precious thing to him. And in time he died. and they were going to have an
auction to take care of his estates and it was advertised and folks
came from everywhere, came from everywhere, waiting to see the
art bid on those fine pieces of art. And the auctioneer stood
up and opened the auction and there was just one piece of art
sitting there with a covering over the easel. And he pulled
it off and he said, I've been ordered to start with this picture
of the sun. And folks said, we came to get
the real art, not that. And folks mumbled and complained.
He said, I've been instructed to start the auction with this
picture. Nothing is sold until the picture
of the son is sold. And folks murmured and complained.
Finally, the man who'd been a gardener for them for years stood up and
he said, I bid $10 on it, and nobody else would take it. And
so he sold it to the man for $10. The man came up, got his
picture, went back, sat down in the auctioneer. He said, there's
one more thing I have to tell you. I was instructed that now
the auction is over. And he hit the gavel and declared
it closed. And folks were complaining, just screaming. And he said,
the final word in the will is this. He who gets the son gets
all things. Come to Christ. Take Christ with
the hand of faith, buying without money and without price, Jesus
Christ the Lord, and go home with all the things you want. Oh, God give you that rich grace.
Amen.