Two of the most revered names
in Scottish church history are those of Robert and James Haldane. The Haldane brothers were born
to aristocracy. When they were grown, God saved
them. Robert Haldane sold the bulk of his wealth and estate
property and gave it to the cause of missionary work around the
world. His brother James was a famous
admiral in the Navy. He achieved great fame as an
admiral before God saved him. James pastored the church in
Edinburgh for something over 50 years, I think 51 or 52 years. His brother Robert Haldane had
a long protracted visit to Geneva on one occasion, and while there
one day he began talking to some students who were theology students. He didn't know it at the time,
but they got talking and began to talk about things of God.
And then he found out they were theology students and realized
they didn't have any idea who God is, what God does, or how
God works. And he invited them to come to
his room and regularly study with him the Word of God. And
they did, week after week, studying the book of Romans. let me give
you an indication of just how God sometimes is pleased to work. Robert Haldane took those young
students, just a handful of them, half a dozen, maybe nine altogether
I think, and week after week taught them through the book
of Romans. And God saved those fellows. the names of some you will know,
Cesar Millan, a great hymn writer, Merle DuVernay who wrote the
history of the Protestant Reformation, men used greatly. Saved by God's
grace in that effort made by that man to teach them the Word
of God. As a result of their teaching,
his teaching, Probably the best commentary written in the English
language on the Book of Romans was that by Robert Haldane that's
still in print today. You can get it most anywhere.
And that was done just sitting in your room at night, teaching
some fellows the Word of God. Whatever God puts in your hand
to do, do it faithfully, do it with all your might, and that
which you esteem to be insignificant, God just may make to be very
significant. Let that be settled in your heart
and mine and in ours as a congregation. McShane's teaching resulted in
what has come to be known by some as the, not McShane, but
Haldane's teaching, known as the Haldane Revival in Geneva,
for it reestablished the teaching and preaching of the word of
God and the gospel of God's grace in that place that had been famous
for it just a couple of hundred years before. And the way God
worked, Ms. McShane, I keep calling her McShane,
Haldane, Haldane emphasized throughout his ministry, teaching those
young men the greatness and the glory of God. The greatness and
the glory of God. This generation desperately needs
a sense of the greatness and the glory of God. You and I need,
the Church of God needs, the world needs an overwhelming sense
of the greatness and glory of our God. Everything in our society
is focused on man, his goodness, his greatness, his ability, his
power, his talents, his potential. Education, politics, and religion
does everything it can to bolster man's opinion of himself. Give
men a high opinion of themselves. Not so this book. The sooner
you and I learn that we are nothing but sin, that we can do nothing
but sin, and that we shall of ourselves come to nothing but
sin. The sooner we learn it, the better.
Everything in the world and everything in the church ought to be focused
upon God, His greatness and His glory. We are nothing, less than
nothing before Him. The triune Jehovah, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost is everything. Nothing depends on us. Everything
depends on God. Nothing is determined by us,
nothing. Everything is determined by God.
Nothing is controlled by us, nothing. Everything is controlled
by God. Today, everybody has a strange
but universal notion that God is somehow like man. And they're
startled. They're shocked and they're enraged
when they hear someone declare God's supremacy and his sovereignty. They're enraged when anyone dares
to openly assert that God really is God. God really is God. Not like Baal and Nebo, worthless,
weighty, costly idols who can do nothing. But God really is
God. He is so great, so glorious,
that he must love himself supremely, infinitely above all men and
angels. God is so good, so great, so
glorious, that he must prefer his own glory to everything else. God is so infinitely great, so
infinitely glorious, that it is right, only right, for God
to rule all things absolutely as he will. It's only right for
him to be God. If ever we get a sense and an
awareness of God's greatness and glory as God, if ever we
are consumed with God. Oh, how I want to be consumed
with God. Consumed by him and consumed
with him. If ever we are truly consumed
with God, we'll worship him and serve him seeking his glory. I often wonder what God might
do with a man utterly consumed with his greatness and his glory.
I often wonder what God might do with the church, this church, if we were utterly consumed with
his greatness, his goodness, and his glory. If you'll open
your Bibles to the Gospel of Romans, I want to make one more
attempt at declaring the message of verse 36. As God the Holy Ghost will enable
me, I want to preach to you today about our great and glorious
God. I have no hope of expounding
the text or exhausting the subject. Our great and glorious God. For of Him, through Him and to
Him are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen. Now this is Paul's doctrine.
I suggest that you write it down. God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. God is the source, the constantly
working cause, and the end of all things. God is the source,
the constantly working cause, and the end of all things. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things. With that statement, the Apostle
Paul concludes the doctrinal portion of this epistle. Obviously,
it has immediate reference to all that he has declared in this
epistle. In chapter one, Paul tells us
that the gospel of God's grace is concerning his son, David's
son, and David's Lord, the incarnate God, our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The gospel is not about man. The gospel is not about the world.
The gospel is not about history. The gospel is not about the church.
The gospel is all about God's son. the person and work of God's
darling Son. And he tells us that this gospel,
the gospel of the grace of God, is the power of God under salvation. This is of God, through God,
and to God. The Lord God ordained that the
gospel of his grace be the power of God to salvation. By God speaking
through his word, he makes it the power of God unto salvation. And when God's done, he will
get the glory in the preaching of the gospel. And then the apostle
tells us that the whole world is depraved, corrupt, lost, and
undone. The religious world and the irreligious
world. The enlightened and the heathen.
The barbaric and the highly refined. The whole world is lost. And God Almighty ordained it. And God rules it. And God gets
the glory of it. Then in chapter three, the apostle
begins to discuss with us the marvelous wonder of free justification,
of how it is that God Almighty takes sinners, guilty, depraved,
doomed, damned, lost, helpless, and makes them perfectly righteous
through the blood of his dear son and by the power of his omnipotent
grace. Then in chapter 6 and 7, the
Apostle tells us that we, being justified freely by God's grace
and receiving this justification by faith in Christ, are His servants. His servants sanctified by His
grace. struggling all the time with
our own inward depravity, corruption, and sin. But nonetheless, His
servants made righteous in Him, and being given the very righteousness
of Christ in the new birth, made partakers of the divine nature.
In chapter 8, the apostle begins to explain to us the great marvel
of God's providence. God's great providence. He begins
with no condemnation. He ends with no separation. And
in between, he tells us everything, everything is grace, grace, grace. And God, in all the world, in
all history, in all time, is working all things together for
good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. chapter 9, Paul gives us this
declaration of God's great sovereignty, and he describes vessels of mercy
and vessels of wrath. It pleased God to make some men
vessels of mercy and others vessels of wrath. Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God saves some, but not all,
passing by others in just judgment, all because he says, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And then in chapter 10, he tells
us about God's free salvation. This great, great, great salvation,
purposed by God in eternity, accomplished by Christ Jesus
and purchased for us by his blood. This salvation that comes freely
to sinners by God's irresistible grace is free to anybody who
wants it. It's free to anybody who wants
it. Believe on the Lord Jesus and
thou shalt be saved. This salvation is free to anyone
who wants it. This salvation in Jesus Christ,
by which men and women are utterly, completely delivered from sin
and all its consequences into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. Paul says, if you call on the
name of the Lord, If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you worship God as he's revealed in his son, this is that which
God gives you and you'll never be ashamed. And then in the 11th
chapter, Paul is telling us how that God cast off the Jews, the
physical nation of Israel, and sent the gospel to the Gentiles.
And this was of him. and through him and shall be
to him in his everlasting glory. God cast off the physical seed
of Abraham that he might save the spiritual seed of Abraham
scattered to the four corners of the earth by his hand. He
said, I'll scatter you among the nations that I may gather
you. And now God's gathering his elect
by his grace in the wondrous mystery of salvation in Jesus
Christ our Lord. And of all these things, Paul
says, for of him and through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever. That is an absolute, unqualified
assertion of unlimited infinite sovereignty. Not only is the
Lord God supreme, he's totally sovereign. All things are of
him. He's the source. He's the source. Oh, Don Fortner learned this. Every murmuring thought Every
complaint, every sense of self-pity, every bit of whining at God's
providence is complaining and murmuring and whining at God. Is that right, Mark? Whatever
it is, pleasant or painful, prosperous or adverse, whatever it is, God's
the source. And you don't cuss the thing,
you cuss God when you grumble. You don't blaspheme the thing,
you blaspheme God when you murmur. Oh, God, teach me that you are
the source of all things. Well, pastor, what does that
include? If it comes to pass, God's the source. If it happens,
God did it. He's the cause. He is the constantly
working cause of all things. I place no limitations upon the
sphere of God's sovereignty. I place no restrictions upon
the works of God's glorious sovereignty. He's totally and universally
sovereign. Either that, Lindsay, or he's
not God. Just that simple. Either God
controls everything or he controls nothing. Either God rules everything
or God rules nothing. He rules everything. Observe
Paul's language again. For of him, through him, and
to him are all things. All things come from God as to
their source. All things are through God as
to the means of accomplishment. and all things are to God in
their purpose. All things come from God our
Father, through God the Son, our dear Savior, and redound
to his glory by God the Holy Spirit, our divine comforter.
Thereof him in the plan, through him in the working, and to him
in the glory they shall ultimately produce. You mean, Brother Don,
this is for the glory of God? a horrid, horrid display of man's
depravity in Las Vegas a couple of weeks ago. How on earth does
God get glory out of that? I don't know. I don't know. I won't attempt to explain that.
I don't have any idea how. How is that beneficial to anyone's
soul? I don't know. I won't pretend
to explain those things. I don't have that insight, but
I know That man couldn't have done what he had done had God
not purposed it. And God gave him breath and strength
to do it. And God Almighty ordered the
path of every bullet exactly to the place it landed. And when
God gets done, that too shall be to his glory. Of him, through
him, and to him are all things. Now let's look at this in three
or four directions, and I hope God the Holy Spirit will use
the word to be of comfort and strength, encouragement, and
peace to your soul. First, in all the works of creation
and providence, God is absolutely sovereign and always exercises
that sovereignty. This book begins with three,
four, four magnificent words. Four magnificent words. In the beginning, God. In the beginning, God. Charlie matters that means whatever
You experienced this morning. Are you experienced on your way
home from this meeting? Are you experienced tonight? It began
with God In the beginning God take everything
to its beginning take everything to its beginning in the beginning
God That's how the book opens and that's the principal message
of everything in the book. The Lord God Almighty is eternal. He doesn't just inhabit eternity,
He is eternal. He has no beginning, no end. He is before all things and by
Him all things exist. He is the creator. Someone asked
me this past week about the days of creation. How do you understand
that? Well, it seems obvious to me
that those first six days, the 24 hour days, but that's not
really the important thing. That's not really the important
thing. The important thing is God did it. God's the creator. Well, don't you recognize that
science laughs at that and teaches evolution? Yeah, I do. And science changes about every
10 days and has a different opinion about every 10 days about everything.
And the scientists are never convinced of anything. They speculate
about everything. The notion that Mr. Darwin started
with on survival of the species and teaching how that men Evolved
over time. Evolved over time. Isn't that
wonderful? That's just brilliant beyond
imagination. Just brilliant beyond imagination.
You see that from the various change in species. I have a very
dear friend who is a believer and a sharp, sharp gal. And when
she was 65 years old, went back and got a PhD in anthropology
and paleontology, and she had some real struggles with creation
because of all she was taught. And so on occasion, some couple
of three, four years ago, maybe more than that, more than that,
I wrote to her and I said, would you please do me a favor? You
have all the reference material to look these things up. Would
you go back through all the references of all the indications of change
in species and identify for me every change that science has
supposedly found, every change that was an improvement. Find
everyone that was an improvement. And I didn't hear from her for
better than three months. And I got a letter back. She said,
Brother Don, there were none that were improvements. They're
all mutations. That doesn't sound like evolution
to me. Doesn't sound like evolution to me. It doesn't sound like
man's improved in anything. Oh, no. God created this world. But it's so old. God created
Adam a full grown man just because he looked old didn't mean he
was. And just because God created the world to look old, much older
than it is to the eyes of men, doesn't mean it is. God does
things both to save His elect and to confuse the reprobates.
The Word of God declares that He created all things out of
nothing. God ordained the size and orbit
of every planet. He fixed the place of every star.
He appointed the flow of every river and of every creek. God
set the boundaries of the oceans and God determined the cycles
of the wind. God ordained it all. In his own glorious wisdom, God
mapped out the course of history and the course of every human
being in history. He ordained the heavenly host
to be our servants. The other day, Shelby and I were
driving back from Alabama, and a fellow just, you folks who
text when you're driving, please throw your phones away. He just
texted away and cut across three lanes of traffic, tried his best
to push us into a wall, and when he saw what he'd done, he cut.
quickly crossed the other three lanes, got off the road, and
I expect maybe he messed things up, but he scared himself to
death. And Shelby said, oh, thank God for those angels that watch
over those who are there as a salvation. Years ago, Brother Mahan and
I were traveling together, had what we call a near call, or
a close miss in an accident. He said, we'd be amazed if we
could see those angels sitting on the fenders of these cars.
God created the angels to be ministering spirits sent forth
to minister to those who shall be the heirs of salvation. God
divided the seed of man, all humanity, into the seed of the
serpent and the seed of the woman. And God ordained the course of
everything that happens with every man in time. In creation
and providence, all things are of God. So that our Lord Jesus
said, you don't have to worry about anything. Oh, wouldn't God I could learn
that Merle. You got nothing to worry about. The very hairs of
your head are all numbered. The very hairs of your head are
all numbered. When Faith was a baby, and you
mamas can identify with this, I'd see Shelby every time she'd
bathe that child, she'd count all the fingers and toes. That's
just 20. All the fingers and toes, that's
just 20. She never attempted, and bless her heart, Faith was
a bald-headed baby nearly, she didn't have much hair. She never
attempted to count the hair. That's beyond the scope of ability. But God before the world was,
numbered every hair on your head, From the day you were conceived
in the womb to the day that you go to the tomb. So minute, so
precise, so detailed is God's providence that the hairs of
your head are all numbered. Oh, how easy life ought to be
for many women who know God. How easy everything ought to
be received by folks who know God. How complacent, satisfied,
and delighted we ought to be 24-7 all the time. God rules, and this God, Rex
Bartlett, is our heavenly Father. This great and glorious one has
made himself our God. in redemption and grace, in salvation. All things are of him, through
him, and to him. It was God who devised, ordained,
and purposed the salvation of chosen sinners. It was God who
ordained salvation by a substitute in a way that is most glorious
to God and most beneficial to man. It is God who ordained our
redemption by Christ Jesus, who ordained the time when the gospel
would be preached to us, ordained the time when he would cause
us to believe. It was God who did it. It was
God, our Savior. who accomplished salvation for
us in time, would you see the greatness and glory of God? You must see it in the face of
Jesus Christ the Lord. Turn over to 2 Corinthians, 2
Corinthians chapter 5. Oh, if you would be utterly consumed
By the greatness and glory of God, live at Calvary. Live at the cross. Spend your
mornings and your days and your evenings at Mount Calvary. Beginning
verse 17, 2 Corinthians 5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. Now watch what it says. All things
are of God. This whole new creation of grace
by which God causes all your sin, all your iniquity, all your
transgressions to be gone and makes you altogether new in his
likeness. This is God's work. Read what
it says. things of God who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry
the service of reconciliation he's given us the blessed privilege
of carrying the gospel to centers around the world that they might
be reconciled to God in the experience of his grace who reconciled them
to him before the world was in Christ and at Calvary when Christ
died read on This is our message, this is our ministry, to wit
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world, that is, his people,
his elect, everywhere in the world to himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word,
the message of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you
in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, For he hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin. The Lord God Almighty ordained
it and he brought it to pass. He made him sin for us who knew
no sin. That we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. There's no other way it could
be done. But now, in Christ, He's a just
God and a Savior. Everything that transpired at
Calvary, everything that happened on that dark, dark day when God
turned day into midnight for three hours, as God forsook His
Son, everything, everything that transpired in the suffering,
in the crucifixion, in the death of God's Son, at the hands of
wicked men, by the hands of wicked men, men who hated him and wanted
him dead. God did it. It was determined
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. I'd love
to read the gospel narratives. We started on the book of Luke
today. When you get over to the end of the book, Be sure you
read carefully all the fulfillment of prophecy that transpired from
Gethsemane to the resurrection. It looks like those soldiers
and those Jews, the Pharisees looked up scripture. What did
God say we're supposed to do next? And did it exactly according
to God's purpose because it is through Him. And oh, What a day that will be when
it redounds to Him. And every knee bows and every
tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. At God's appointed time of love,
He sends His Spirit in the power of omnipotent grace for the glory
of His own great name and calls out His elect. He ordained the time and the place and the
years of our molding in his hand in prevenient grace. I was born at home in Bladen
County, North Carolina, June 10th, 1950. Born in a sharecropper's
shack. I don't remember it obviously,
but it's what I've been told. And I was a nobody born to some
nobodies who came from some nobodies. Raised on the streets of Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. And every event, every event,
every event, every occurrence Every experience of life is that
by which God graciously molded me into manhood. And those very
things he used sweetly to hedge me about with his grace, with
his goodness. If you could read my life's history,
nobody ever will. I never intend to give it. not worth giving. If you could
read my life's history, you would never imagine, Mark, that God
was hedging me about all those years. You'd think if there's ever been
a reprobate scoundrel out of hell on whom God laid the reins
on his back and said, all right, have it your way, Don Fortner
was the man. But all the while, grace, sweetly forcing me into
the arms of my Redeemer, where He would speak comfortably to
my soul, giving me life and faith in Christ, making Him to be of
God unto me, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. things are of Him, through Him,
and to Him. All things in creation and providence. All things in redemption and
grace. Three times over in Ephesians
1 and The Apostle describes God's eternal purpose and predestination.
He describes Christ's accomplishment and redemption. And he describes
the work of the Holy Spirit in calling and preserving God's
elect. And he says three times, this is to the praise of his
glory. That's why God does everything. And if ever you come to know
our God, you'll recognize that that's exactly how it ought to
be. God gets the glory. In the totality
of our lives in this world, in the totality of every believer's
life specifically in this world, everything is of Him, through
Him, and to Him. In every work, God graciously
enables a believer to perform for Him. He gets the glory. And in every trial and hardship
we endure, He teaches us that God is great and glorious, for
of Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. God ordained
the trial. You now endure the trial you're
just getting over. the trial you're about to face.
God ordained it, and God brought it to pass. Years ago, I read
about a lady, a poor, poor believer, But one day her cupboards were
bare and she'd had nothing to eat for some time and the window
was open and she sat at the table where she would like to be eating
a piece of bread and acknowledged to God her condition and asked
the Lord if he wouldn't send her what she needed for the day. And some little mean boys standing
outside listening to her pray, they thought they'd pull a trick
on her. And they went and got some food and brought it and
set it on the shelf right on the edge of her window. And she
walked back in and saw it and she lifted her heart and you
praise and thanks to God. And the boys just laughed. They
said, we brought that, not God. She said, you may have been the
hands that brought it. God's the one who gave it. God
often uses the devil to bring much, but God's the one who brings
it. And if God brings it, it's God's
gift for you. God's gift for me. And God will
turn the trial of your faith to his glory. Work for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory. For of him, through him, and
to him are all things. Paul then makes an inscription
of praise to our great and glorious God. An inscription of praise that's
echoed in every believing heart. To Him be glory forever. To Him be glory forever. Oh God, Set this in my heart. Set this in the hearts of your
people. Set this in the hearts of all
your own. To God be the glory forever,
forever, forever. And then he says something else. Amen. Amen. That's just the way I want it.
That's just the way I want it. Of him, and through him, and
to him are all things. God is the source, the constantly
working cause, and the ultimate end of all things. That's just
the way I want it. Him be glory forever. That's just the way I want it.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy and
for Thy truth's sake. Amen.