My message this morning is found
in 2 Corinthians 1. One old preacher said, I preach
as a dying man to dying men. I know that every day I live,
I'm dying. I'm dying. I'm not going to live
here forever. I don't know how long that's
going to be. He said the old must die, the young may. And I believe that. And I believe that I've come
to know something about that. I know that there's not a person
here this morning that has not been brought here by the providence
of God. Anybody here doubt the providence
of God? Anybody here doubt that God's
hand controls all things? The thoughts, the preparations
of the heart and the thoughts, all of God? And I know this, that because
the providence of God has brought you here, that I'm responsible
at least to warn you about things to come, at least in word to make you
aware that you're dying. And after death, the judge, it's
appointed unto man wants to die. And after that, the judgment. We're going to have to stand
before God. Before God. And it's my responsibility to
tell you that there's only one way to satisfy this one before
whom we all must appear. And that is to stand before Him
in His Son. He is Son. He that hath the Son
hath life. He that hath not the Son, whatever
else he has, hath not life. And there's a multitude of things
that you can have that men substitute for life. But he that hath not
the Son hath not life. Peter said, Neither is there
salvation in any other. That's all-inclusive, isn't it?
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must, M-U-S-T,
be saved. You'll be saved in Christ, or
you'll be damned forever. Listen to Paul's cry. This was
an old self-righteous Pharisee that God converted, a legalist.
Saw himself righteous before God because of his keeping of
the ceremonies and the holy days and doing all those things, his
religious commitment, his traditions, his birth, his bloodlines. Listen now to what he cries after
his conversion. Oh, that I might win Christ and
be found in Him. That's where you want to be found.
In Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Oh, He said that I might know
Him. not only be found in Him, but that I might know Him and
know the power of His resurrection to experience these things in
my heart, to experience these things in my soul, to understand
them, to apply them, to feel them, to know them. that I might
know Him and the power of His resurrection, and to know something
of the fellowship of His suffering, and be made conformable unto
His death. And there's some of you here
this morning, by the grace of God and the power of God's Spirit,
who have a genuine hope of these things in Christ. I believe that. Called out of darkness into light. brought under the conviction
of sin. Boy, I'll tell you, when a man
gets under the conviction of sin, he can't stand himself. He can't stand himself. He's upset. He's upset. I'm talking about the Holy Ghost
causing you to receive God's testimony of yourself. When you
begin to look at yourself through the eyes of God, and that reality
begins to set in, and you see yourself as He sees you, altogether
an unclean thing, all your righteousnesses as filthy rags before Him. Brought to an unconditional surrender
of yourselves to Christ, to do with what He sees fit. And some, having experienced
these things, now find yourselves forever indebted to His love
and grace. And these are just a few things
that define what the Scriptures call a good hope through grace. And to you who have experienced
these things and even now are experiencing these things, I've
got five words that ought to bring some comfort to you. Those of you who by the power
of God's Spirit are seeking Him in true faith and repentance,
my message to you this morning is the God of all comfort. Let me find my passage here.
I thought I had it wrote out in my notes, and I don't. But
in 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, verses 3 and 4. Blessed be God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies. Now listen
to this. and the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort, who comforteth
us in all tribulation, that we might be able to comfort them
which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
are comforted of God. The God of all comfort. That's my message this morning. If you're here and you ignore
the gospel of Christ, ignore the plain teachings of the Scriptures
concerning man's fall in Adam and his redemption in Christ,
I've got nothing for you. Because as I've just told you,
everything God has for sinners is in Christ. And He came not
to call the righteous, but sinners. I've got nothing for you except
a warning. He that being often reproved,
hardeneth his neck, suddenly shall be destroyed, and that
without remedy. There are no comforts for this
unbelieving world, not in your daily lives. Paul said they go about to their
own neighbors, crying, peace, peace, where there is no peace.
There's no peace here. There's no comfort for this unbelieving
world. Not in your daily lives. Not
in your troubles. Everybody has troubles. Troubles
come into everybody's lives. But for the unbeliever, troubles
come in. There's no comfort from God. Not in your troubles and not
in your death. Well, he's in a much better place.
Well, I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't say that. But for those of you who believe
this gospel, who submit yourselves to the Scriptures, submit yourselves
to Christ, here are five things that ought to give you some comfort
both in this life and in the life to come. And I hope you'll
listen to me this morning to what I have to say. The first thing that I believe
brings comfort to the hearts of all God's people, we're talking
this morning about the God of all comfort. And the first thing
that brings comfort to the hearts of all God's people is the love
of God. The love of God. The one thing
that gives a young bride, this bride-to-be, A willingness to
give herself to one man is a confident persuasion that he loves her. Huh? You're not going to marry
somebody until you're persuaded that he loves you. He loves you. That this man is willing to spend
and be spent for you. That this man is willing to dedicate
his whole life to you. to suffer for you, to defend
you against all your enemies, and to die for you if necessary. She's not going to give herself
to him until she's persuaded that he loves her. Now, won't you listen? In this
was manifested the love of God toward us. because that God sent
His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
Him. God commending His love to His
elect, and He takes the unspeakable gift of His Son and sacrifices
Him for His bride. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us. Here's love. Love not in That
you love God, that's not love. We sit back, well, I just wish
I could love God more. I do, too. But I tell you, that
ain't where you're going to find love. Listen to what he says.
Herein is love, not that we love God, but that God loved us. God loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. What makes love so special
is that love is particular. Love sets its affection on an
object, one object. Now, you men, you don't believe
in particular redemption. You don't believe that's what
the Bible teaches about this and teaches about love. Let me
tell you something. You go home and you tell your
wife, I love you, honey, just like I love all the other women
in this world. And you see how far you get.
But that's what this whole religious world says to God. Huh? What kind of love is that? What
kind of love is that? What makes love so special is
that it's particular. The bride of Christ is one body,
and she's beloved of God from everlasting. I find the most
interesting statement in Romans chapter 9 concerning Jacob and
Esau as God is establishing his election. That's why he did this. That's what he's doing here.
That's what he says he's doing in there. This is how this is
interpreted by the Holy Spirit of God. And what he has to say
about these two unborn children, Jacob and Esau, having not been
born, having neither done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God, according to election, might stand. That is, I'm going
to establish my election to you now. Now listen to what he says
about this election, this particular election. Jacob have I loved. He didn't say, Jacob have I chose,
though he did. He said, Jacob have I loved,
and Esau have I hated. Love is particular. It's particular. God's eternal particular love
is at the beginning of all the redemptive blessings of God.
And there are three things taught in the Scripture that describe
God's love. First of all, it's free and unconditional. There's nothing you can do to
bring about the love of God towards you. God's love is everlasting.
It's from everlasting. He loved you long before you
were born, if you're one of His. It's free and unconditional.
God's love does not begin in time as we give Him reason to
love us, but He loved us while we were yet enemies. That's what
He said. while we were yet enemies. God
commendeth His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. God's love is not the result
of our wills and works. The very opposite is true. It's
the love of God that constraineth us. God's love is free and unconditional. And secondly, God's love is eternal. Listen to this in Jeremiah. Verse
31, verse 3, He said, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. He loved us and gave Himself
for us. And then thirdly, His love is
unchangeable because God's love emanates from Himself It is like
Himself, unchangeable, immutable. God's eternal, unconditional,
immutable love for us manifests itself in all God's gifts to
His church. Listen to Ephesians chapter 2. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us to gather with Christ. Why
did He do that? Because He loved us. He loved
us. And He raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And then turn with me to Ephesians
chapter 3. There is nothing concerning the
elect of God that does not flow to them by His grace in time
that was not owing to God's love. You find that love is the fountainhead
of all these blessings. Watch this here in Ephesians
3, verse 16. Some of you will remember this
from our Sunday school lessons. That He would grant you according
to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by
the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ made well in your
hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in doctrine."
Wait a minute now, I ain't what that says. What's that say? Rooted and grounded in love. Hmm. May be able, that is those
who are rooted and grounded, in love may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth
and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." I'm
going to tell you something. We do not understand any doctrine
aright until we perceive in that doctrine the love of God in Christ. The love of God in Christ that
accomplished it, sent it, and applied it. And it's a great
comfort, a great comfort to the believer to know something about
the love of God. The love of God. He'll never
get over the love. How could God love a worm like
me? David contemplated about it in
the Psalms. And mulled it over in his mind
and his heart as he worshiped God. And he said, the Lord thinketh
on me. Can you imagine? In all the magnitude
and scope of God's work and the glory of His person that He thinks
on you. That's the love of God. All right,
here's the second thing that brings comfort to the believer.
The grace of God. The grace of God. In Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 5 through 8, we're told the story of grace.
Verse 5 tells us that by an eternal quickening We were made one with
Christ and therefore by grace ye are saved. When did that happen? When God quickened you together
with Christ. When He, as Paul said in Ephesians
1, blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus according as He had chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. By grace, ye are saved. And then in the remaining verses,
he tells us that in the ages to come, he would reveal this
loving kindness to us. For by grace are you saved. He saved you when he quickened
you together with Christ. He saved you when he brought
you to the knowledge of it. That's what he's saying in these
verses. That's the story of grace. That's the story of grace. The
whole story of the believer is a story of grace. His election, if you read about
it in Romans 11, verse 5, is an election of grace. Election of grace. Ephesians
1, verse 6 tells us that it is to the praise of the glory of
His grace that He made us accepted in the beloved. We didn't make ourselves accepted,
He made us accepted. How did He do that? In Christ.
Why did He do it? His grace. The glory of His grace. And then in 2 Timothy 1.9, He
tells us that the whole of our salvation and calling was not
according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. The grace of
God comes to us according as God has purposed it to in Christ. It said grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. And concerning our walk in this
world, listen to what Paul says in Hebrews 12, 28. Let us have
grace, grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence
and godly fear. Some of you, my wife and Nathan
and some of the other ones here, you've suffered illnesses and
things by the providence of God. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9, he
tells Paul, Paul prayed for those things that were put on him.
He wanted them taken away. He saw those things as a hindrance
to him. He couldn't preach aright. He
couldn't minister aright. He wanted those things taken
away. The Lord told Paul, He said, My grace is sufficient. It's sufficient. And then in
2 Peter 3.18, He tells us to grow in grace and knowledge of
Him. Grace is the story of the believer.
And according to God's revelation of Himself to Moses, His grace
is sovereign. He said, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. How comforting is the thought
of grace to a man who knows he can do nothing of himself. That's a comfort, isn't it? Oh,
for the grace of God. That's why old John Newton wrote
that hymn, Amazing Grace. It is to the believer. It's amazing. Amazing! All right, here's the
third thing that brings comfort to a seeking sinner. The full,
free, and complete justification from sin. I tell you, it's an awful thing,
an awful thing to see oneself before the holy law of God. when
the Spirit of the living God singles you out, narrows it down,
just you and Him. And that's what He does. And He brings you up before Himself
and before that holy law. Oh, I tell you what, it's an
awful thing to see oneself before the holy law of God. Non-righteous. None good, none that seeketh
after God, none that understandeth, ruined by the false, sinners
by nature, by choice and practice, angry at God without a cause,
despising His laws, His ways, and His character. I tell you,
it's madness for anybody in this condition to believe they could
ever justify themselves before God. This enemy, his every thought,
that's what the Lord said, he looked down to heaven to see
if there was any sought him, to see if there was any good. He looked down and he said there
was none. He said over in Genesis when
he looked down that every thought of the imagination of man's heart
was only evil continually. How can a man in this kind of
shape justify himself before God? It's madness. Solomon said,
the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness
is in their heart while they live. And after that, they go
to the dead. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. A careful study of this chapter
will show us that simply having the Word of God, quoting the
Word of God, and even teaching the Word of God does not constitute
a righteousness before God. I told you often about that man
I see when I was taking Katharine down for her radiation. go over to Plain Dealing and
go down that way. And he was out there and he just
sat on the hood of his car with a Bible holding it up. Having
a Bible or holding it up, that doesn't constitute a righteousness. Paul said the Jew had a great
advantage over the Gentile nations because they had the oracles
of God. They had the spoken word of God. They had the written word of
God. They had the oracles of God. But it produced no difference
between him and the heathen because of sin. They're both under sin. Didn't make any difference between
him and the heathen before the eyes of God because of his sinful
nature. Having a law does not make you
righteous. I passed by churches and they've
got this thing that looks like a scroll with the Ten Commandments
on it. And sometimes they even have
a little thing down at the bottom that said, Ten Commandments is
enough for us. It's too much for you. Too much
for you. Having a law does not make you
righteous. Understanding the law does not
make you righteous. Agreeing with the law does not
make you righteous. And defending the law does not
make you righteous. The law demands doing. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them."
To do them. Romans chapter 3, verse 20, therefore,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. That is, if you look to the law
of God, the holy law of God, you're going to find yourself
guilty. That's all you're ever going
to find in it. Guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. But, verse 21, now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest. being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
them that believe, for there is no difference. That is, there
is no difference between a sinful Jew or a sinful Gentile, no difference
between a law-breaking religionist or a law-breaking heathen. It
doesn't make any difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. What does that mean? That means
anything short of the glory of God is sin. That's what that
means. And we've all come short of it. Now watch this. Verse 24, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has set forth to be the propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness, both for the remission of sins that
are past, talking about all those Old Testament saints who by faith
brought the sacrifice. It declares at this present time,
same thing, God's righteousness for the remission of sins, that
God might be just and the justifier of them that believeth. in Jesus. No sincere God-convicted sinner
can find peace and assurance before a holy God except in the
righteous obedience and shed blood of God's dear Son. Hebrews 4, verse 10 says, For
he that is entered into his rest, that is, into the rest of Christ,
God's rest, He also has ceased from His own works as God did
from His. You can't rest and try to work
out a righteousness. You can't do it. You find no
peace, you find no rest. You find no comfort. But there is comfort in Christ
because He put away my sins. He bore my sins in His own body
on the tree. And I look to Him, and in looking
to Him, God imputes His righteousness to me." That's the only way you
can stand before God. Righteous is in Christ, in Him. All right, fourthly, a great
source of comfort in these troubled times is the mediatorial reign
of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has and
is right now showing Himself as the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has accomplished the redemption
of His people, and He reigns in glory right now to make their
salvation absolutely sure and certain. upon the throne of glory,
He's arranging everything that goes on. That's why I said to
you this morning, this little place over here in Walker Creek,
Arkansas, some of you have traveled here for miles and miles and
you're here this morning by the providence of God. Why? Because my Lord sits on the throne
and He's arranged for you to be here. He's arranged it. He's arranged it. My soul, what
a thought. What a comfort in this troubled
time when you can't drive down the street without seeing Antichrist
on every corner. The great harlot, she's got her
house and she's standing on every corner. Come into my house. Come into my house. Come into
my house. But by the providence of God,
He took you right past all them places and brought you here.
Huh? You find some comfort in that?
I tell you, I do. I got a letter from some folks
up in New York. Johnson City, New York. Somebody
had been listening to me on the Internet. Wrote me and told me
how much they appreciated the message. All those things. Nobody
anywhere near them. I think Clay is the closest and
he's three and a half hours. So, got another phone call this
time. I got an email and a phone call
from some folks out in California. Said they were going to be passing
through here in February and wanted to drive up and visit
with us. The providence of God. The Providence of God. Old John
the Baptist, he didn't preach in town. He didn't preach in
the synagogues. He preached way out there at
a creek somewhere. And you know what it says? All
Judea went out to hear him. Why? Why would they go clear
out there at that creek to hear some old man dressed in badger
skins? Why would they go clear out there
to hear him? The Providence of God. That's
why. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
15, verse 25. I find all kinds of comfort in
it. I don't know if you do or not. You believe in Him, you'll
find comfort in it. Listen to this. 1 Corinthians
15, verse 25. For He must reign, must reign,
till He hath put all enemies under His feet. Can you see yourself
in Him? Sitting together with Him, as
Paul said in Ephesians 2. Seated with Him in the heavenlies.
He must reign. That's the reason for His mediatorial
reign, John 17, 2. That He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given Him. And then Paul tells us,
for to this end Christ both died and rose and revive that he might
be Lord both of the dead and the living. The lady whose website, I'm not
sure if she wrote me or her husband. I think her husband did, but
it was her name on the site. But at any rate, she asked her
husband to ask me if there's any big snakes in Arkansas and
if we had tornadoes. And I said, well, we've got five
poisonous reptiles in the state of Arkansas, several poisonous
spiders, different things here, and we're tornado prone. But
what gives us comfort is I know that none of these things, none
of these things can touch me apart from His permission. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? Do you believe He sits on the
throne and rules over everything that is? Our victorious Redeemer, our
substitute, our Savior reigns. Reigns. His reign is not in question. He reigns. This whole religious
world has this world in a balance going back and forth between
Satan and God. His rule isn't even challenged. Not even challenged. When you feel the earth beneath
your feet shake with the power of His lightning and you feel
the force of the storm as it approaches, you really believe
that thing just out there wandering about aimlessly going wherever
it wants to go or do you think God has His finger guiding that
thing? I tell you, I believe He reigns.
He reigns. And there nothing can touch you.
Old Satan himself wanted to get a hold of Job, but he couldn't
because God had him hedged about. That's right. Who's in charge of this thing?
Nature? Mother Nature? I hear so much
on the news about Mother Nature. I get so tired of hearing that.
Who is in charge of this thing? Chance? Circumstance? The Word of God said, He worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. And there is
nothing more comforting to me in times of trouble than the
thought of my Redeemer ruling and reigning and arranging all
things for our good and the glory of His great name. And then,
fifthly, and I'll be brief, a great source of comfort to every believer
is the resurrection of Christ, that future resurrection at the
trump of God when the dead in Christ shall arise. Certainly,
this is a great comfort to those who are dying, and we all are.
A source of comfort. You know that's what Paul gave
them when he told them in Acts chapter 17? When he told those
heathens? He said, God hath appointed a
day in which He'll judge this world in righteousness by that
man. By that man. But He's given assurance
unto all men in that He raised Him from the dead. Huh? This is a great source of comfort.
You look out there in those last days and have to face that death
and face that old box. But do you know what he told
Martha? He came to comfort Martha with his resurrection. And Martha
said, well, I believe he's going to rise in the last day. She
limited the resurrection of Christ. Christ looked at Martha and He
said, I am the resurrection. It's not way out there some,
I am the, apart from me, there's no resurrection. Apart from me,
God would have destroyed this world at the fall of Adam. This
world was resurrected in Him when He was appointed. I am the resurrection. I am the
life. To know Him savingly is to be
raised from the dead. Just as Lazarus, he laid in there.
He couldn't do anything for himself except stink. And that's all
we can do. And they said, oh, don't take
the stone away. Don't roll the stone away. That's
why men don't like you preach on self-righteousness. Because
soon as you roll that stone away, all they can do is stink. They
know it. Why they don't like it. Why they
don't like it. But I tell you, he stood alone
before that grave and he said, Lazarus, if he hadn't said Lazarus,
every dead man on this earth would have come out of the tomb.
He said, Lazarus, come out of there. What happened? He came out of there, didn't
he? Well, what if Lazarus would exercise his free will? Huh? You see how foolish this stuff
is that's being free? You're dead. Dead in trespasses
and sins. There's no free will. You're
unbonded. You're free to sin. Free to serve Satan. To know Him savingly is to be
raised from the dead, to be called out of darkness. And the resurrection
of Lazarus pictures the spiritual resurrection of God's elect being
called out of death and bondage. There was an eternal resurrection
of His elect as they were quickened together with Him. There was
a representative resurrection of His elect as they were raised
up together, made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ.
And there is a spiritual resurrection of God's elect as they are called
of God and regenerated by His Spirit and brought to repentance
and faith. And there will be, because of
those things in that last and great day, a bodily resurrection
Of all those who sleep in Christ, the trump of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ will rise. Rise. Old Job, we don't even
know how old the book of Job is. There's no other reference
in Job of anybody else. They say Job is the oldest book
in the Bible. Job said, I know this. These
old worms are going to devour this body, but He said, in that
day, I'm going to stand on this earth, in this body, and see
Him. We thought these things were
just being preached in the last 2,000 years. These things were
gloried in, cherished by those Old Testament saints. What a comfort to know Him as
the Resurrection. I pray the Lord will be pleased
to make these things a comfort and a blessing to you today.