What a good morning we've had
already. Thank you, Pastor. Very shortly, it will be 40 years
since I began preaching the gospel of God's grace. And I'm beginning
to learn a little bit of what Paul meant when he spoke in his
latter day about carrying the care of all the churches. for some reason in God's good
providence and grace, he's given me the privilege of having an
intimate acquaintance with a lot of gospel churches all over this
country and all over the world. And you become very much part
of my life, my wife's life, and to a great degree a great part
of the life of our congregation. And the care of the churches
is a privilege. It's a care, but it's a privilege. Kind of like the care of a wife
or a husband or a mother or a father. It gets to be a heavy burden,
but my soul, who wants to give it up? The care of all the churches. Seldom does a week go by that
I don't receive a telephone call with someone brokenhearted on
the other end, or a letter oftentimes with the ink having dried after
being wet with tears, or a visit from someone who can hardly talk
because of the heavy, heavy, heavy trial God puts them through
at a given time. Shelby and I have just returned
from visiting some friends who are going through great, great
difficulty. Many of our friends, many of
our brothers, sisters in Christ, faithful, faithful men and women,
are enduring hardship, trial, Some of you God had been pleased
to put into the furnace. He will refine you as silver
is refined, and he'll bring you forth as gold. But while in the
furnace, he sustains you by his grace, comforts you in the midst
of great heartaches by the sweet knowledge of his wise, adorable,
and good providence, by the blessed assurance of his goodness and
grace in Christ, and by the peaceful confidence that he who is our
God and Savior has done all things well. Most of the time, when
the trial burst upon you, suddenly, and I say you, when I say you,
I'm talking about you and me. Suddenly you're in confusion,
full of fear, full of apprehension, full of unbelief. No other way to put it. No other
way to put it. Just recently we had a little
bit of a scare. Wasn't any reason for it. Never
is. Never is. I was real concerned
for my wife. Thought maybe she had had an
aneurysm. Turned out she'd been picking up rocks too heavy for
her. But my immediate response was unbelief and fear, confusion,
misunderstanding, failure to honor God. But after a while,
God gives sweet composure that honors Him and honors the gospel
we believe. He exposes our weakness and our
sin, and He gives us grace in time of need. And when I see
God's people enduring difficulty with that sweet composure of
faith in Christ, I'm encouraged. And others are encouraged. Some
of God's saints seem to have trials and temptations, one on
the heels of another. And usually, I'll tell you what
I've observed, usually those whose lives are just overwhelmed
with trouble, just seem to be constantly going into one furnace
and out of that into another, bear their trials with greater
contentment. and ease and peace and confidence
toward God than I can imagine. God gives them such great grace. And I get a little disturbed
when people get all bent out of shape and complain about hangnails
and dripping faucets. And I really do. I get a little
upset with folks who think the world is coming to an end because
they've got a headache. That's just ridiculous. But in recent months, I've been
compelled to think about and try to pray for and help friends
who are in trouble. And my heart and mind, I suppose for the last good many
years, not just the last few months, meditate almost incessantly
upon God's adorable providence. And I mean God's adorable providence. When trials and temptations assail,
nothing is more helpful, nothing is more comforting to God's afflicted
children than the knowledge of His all-wise all good, constantly
unerring providence on our behalf. We do not worship providence. Some folks think because our
forefathers, who were for the most part deists, they were not
Christians, they think that our forefathers, because they referred
to providence, We're talking about worshiping God. We don't
worship Providence, they worship Providence. We worship God who
rules Providence, and there's a huge difference. I thought
it might be profitable for us today to look at two words. Two words that are used together
220 times in this book. Two simple,
one-syllable words. They are words that are almost
always used together in connection with God's providence, His grace,
and His salvation. These two words are all things. All things. And whenever you
think about all things and think about God using those two words
to express Himself in any regard, understand this. Always understand
this, when God says all things, guess what he means? All things. He doesn't mean some things.
He doesn't mean the things you understand. He doesn't mean the
things you see. He doesn't mean the things that
are good. He doesn't mean the things that
you approve of. He means all things. Now, obviously, we can't
look at all of these verses of Scripture this morning. We can't possibly. I don't know
how to turn that thing off. There it is. We can't possibly look
at all these verses of Scripture this morning, but we're going
to look at a bunch of them. I'm going to ask you to look
with me at 19 texts. Now, you don't have to follow
and turn in your Bible if you find that difficult, but please
jot down the references. I've got a sermon with 19 points.
Scare you to death. Now I've got good news. I'm going
to do it in less than 45 minutes. So I'm not going to do much preaching.
We're just going to look at the text and let God speak to us
by His Word. Pray that God will speak to us
by His Word. This is a message I'm confident
will thrill the heart of every believer. Comfort your soul. Encourage your faith. Strengthen
your spirit. if God the Holy Spirit will give
you grace to hear and give you the ability to preach. It's a
message that I trust God may be pleased to use for you who
yet know not our Redeemer to give you life and faith in His
darling Son. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. God help you now to hear His
Word. We're going to begin in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18. The Apostle Paul is here talking
about God's salvation, most particularly. And in verse 18, he declares
this, All things are of God. What a statement. What a statement. All things are of God. He says in Romans 11, verse 36,
For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to
whom be glory forever. Now this is what that means.
The Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle to write with very distinct
prepositions. All things are of him as to their
source. All things. Behold, I make peace,
and I create evil. That's God's word, Isaiah 45,
verse 7. All things are of him as to their
source. Nothing in heaven, earth, or
hell rises or wiggles without God's purpose. All things are
of Him, as to their source. All things are through Him, as
to the means of their performance. Nothing comes to pass that God
didn't purpose. Nothing comes to pass that God
does not arrange, dictate, and control in heaven, earth, or
hell. In your heart, my heart, or the
heart of any man. Nothing. The King's heart is
in the hands of the Lord. Like rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. And blessed be his name. All
things are to him in their end. Everything. How far do you carry
this? All things are of God. Most of
the time you have warnings from preachers and folks who instruct
folks about the scriptures and say, you can't carry that too
far. I give you this promise, it's
not a warning. You can't carry that too far.
You can't carry that too far. You carry it just as far back
to eternity past as your imagination will take it. Carry it just as
far forward on to eternity future as your mind can imagine. Carry
it back through all your past experiences, through all your
present experience, and through all that you shall yet experience.
Carry it around the world and through the world to the end
of the world. Carry it as high as heaven. Carry
it to the lowest hell. And hear me, all things are of
God. Oh my soul, if that don't ring
your bell, your clacker's broke. Something's wrong. All things
are of God. Well, I wouldn't worship a God
like that. If you ever meet Him, you will. Well, what kind of a God is that?
That's my Heavenly Father. Now listen to me. Here's the
joy of it. Here's the joy of it. I am a
poor representation of humanity. I am a sinful man, a father,
and a husband, and now a grandfather, who made huge, tremendous, unceasing
mistakes. Things I regret, things I wish
I could do over. But I make you a promise. You
can ask my wife when I get done, and I'm not listening. She might
tell you the truth. I make you this promise, my wife, my daughter,
my grandchildren, my son-in-law, they would be tickled to death
if they thought I controlled everything in the world. They'd
be tickled to death. How come? Because they're convinced
I love them. They're convinced my heart's devoted to them. Devoted to them. Now will you
hear me? Our Father, whose heart is devoted
to us, is he of whom the book says, all things are of God. All right, let's look at the
scriptures again. Turn to Proverbs. Proverbs chapter
16, verse 4. Here the wise man tells us, the
Lord hath made all things for himself. The Lord hath made all
things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil."
Even the wicked for the day of the evil they perform? Even the
wicked for the day of the evil they bring against you? Even
the wicked for the day of evil when God cast them into hell?
The Lord hath made all things for himself, and he makes this
distinction with regard to the reprobate. They were made for
him too. They were made for him. All shall
glorify God. either in the experience of His
grace, to the praise of the glory of His grace, or shall glorify
God in the totality of their beings, because God will force
them to give praise to Him by even the evil they perform, and
in the end He will glorify His justice, indemning them forever. I know folks these days love
to talk about common grace. Well, God causes it to rain on
the just and the unjust. He sends his Son on the righteous
and on the wicked, and that's God's common grace. Let me ask
you something. You folks live in areas where
you have tornadoes and things, don't you? We had one sweep through
Kentucky last week. It didn't touch us much right
where we are, but a few miles below us, it hit down in Harrisburg
and did some damage. And I know a fellow who lives
right where it came by, a preacher, a grace preacher, as David called
him. He sent him off the other day.
That thing did a little damage on his property and did some
damage on his neighbor's property. I guess you'd call that common
judgment because God sent the tornado and his property is damaged
and his neighbor's property is damaged. God must be angry with
both for stupidity. No. In this world, God's people
often experience evil because of God's judgment upon the ungodly,
and we happen to live in their midst. If famine comes, we're
going to get hungry too. That's just the way it is. But
God sends the judgment because of the wicked. If God sends rain
and sunshine, and blessing of a temporal nature on this land,
on you, and those who live around you, it's for your sakes. And the wicked who live next
door to you, their corn grows pretty good too because they
live next door to you. But it was sent for you. Understand
the difference. God's grace is never common.
God's grace is always special, purposeful, and distinct. The
Lord hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked
for the day of evil. And he tells us plainly that
he does all things. You can read it in Isaiah chapter
64. He does all things to make himself
an everlasting name and to make himself a glorious name so that
everybody will know I am God. Turn to Ephesians 1. Here's the
third thing. all things are disposed of by
God in time according to his own purpose of grace in eternity. God does not just, with a sovereign
hand of omnipotence, seize things in time and force them to comply
with his purpose. But God Almighty disposes of
all things in time exactly as He purposed from eternity. So
that everything that comes to pass in time was predestined
by God in eternity, is arranged by Him in providence, and is
disposed of Him in providence exactly according to His purpose. Ephesians 1 verse 10, that in
the dispensation of the fullness of time, He might gather together
in one all things in Christ. Now watch how he explains that.
Both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him,
there's coming a day when everything that has come to pass in time,
being predestinated by God in eternity, For the salvation of
God's elect will glorify God Almighty. We'll understand it
better by and by. Quit trying to understand God's
providence by the little bit you see of God's providence.
I read years ago about a lady who was visiting India, and she
had gone over there just to visit, but she was real determined to
bring back one of those handmade rugs they're so famous for. And
she went down to the shop, or in the area wherever it was,
and was looking at the rugs. And she stood there and just
looked confused. She had heard about them, but
she had never seen one. And she just... And she'd look at one or another.
Finally, the fellow came around and he said, Ma'am, could I help
you? And she said, I just can't see the beauty of this rug."
And he smiled and he said, come this way. And he led her around. She was looking at it from the
back side. All she could see was knots and threads hanging
loose in a mass of confusion. And now she walks around to the
front side. Oh, what exquisite craftsmanship,
beauty. Precision and symmetry. That's how we understand God's
providence. When we view it through His Word,
by that faith you were talking about. And when we shall view
it on the other side, when we see the complete story. God's
providence is that by which He Sovereignly disposes of all things
in time according to his purpose in eternity. And in the end,
he will gather everything together, every event in history. Every act of every man, every
angel, every demon of Satan himself, everything we call good and everything
we call evil, everything we experience pleasant and everything we experience
painful, he will gather it all together in one massive gift
to himself and say, see here how I've glorified myself. Hebrews
chapter 2. Now understand this. The fourth
thing, all things are in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the God-man as our Mediator. Now please understand, all things
were always in His hands as God. But when the Lord Jesus assumed
all responsibility for our souls as our covenant surety, as our
Mediator, And when he ascended back into heaven, having accomplished
our redemption, God the Father put all things under his feet
and in his hands as our mediator for the saving of his people.
Hebrews 2 verse 8, Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet. All things. People get the idea
sometimes that Satan and Christ are rivals in this world, and
that Satan is somehow beyond the control of our Redeemer.
I love the picture John Bunyan draws of Satan, that roaring
lion who seeks whom he may devour in Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan
describes himself in his experience of grace, the pilgrim making
his way up to the celestial city, and he's going along the path
going in that direct way, but before him is a dark, dark valley. And he can see nothing, but he
knows this is the way he must go. And as he moves into that
dark valley, he hears the horrible, terrifying roar of a lion, and
he calls to pause in fear, terrified. But he says, I must go on. This
is the way. And he moves on, and the lion
roars again, and he's terrified, and he trembles, and he shakes,
but he moves on, because this is the way, and I must go on
in him the way. And he hears the lion roar, and
as he draws a little nearer, he sees on either side of the
path a black lion, fiery eyes roaring at him. And he looks
a little closer, and he sees that the lion has a chain about
his neck. and there are no claws in his
paws and there are no teeth in his mouth because our great Redeemer
says now is the prince of this world cast out and he is by the
angel of the covenant came down from heaven and by his obedience
as our substitute bound him with a chain and cast him out and
he holds him on his hands and all the lion can do roar. Did you hear me? All the lion
can do is roar. He's got no teeth. He's got no
claws. He's got no fangs. He's on the
chain. And the one who holds the chain
is Him who died for us. The Father has given all things
to the Son. Thou hast given him power, dominion,
authority, the right to rule, and as the God-man mediator,
the power to rule over all things, over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given him. Lift
your heart, child of God, yonder on the throne, the throne of
the universe. the throne of the eternal God. That throne is the throne of
grace. And on the throne sits Him who
loved us and gave Himself for us. And He has in His hands the
reigns of the universe all the time. Fifth, turn back to 2 Corinthians
again. This time, chapter 4, verse 15. Are you ready? All things are
for your sakes. The psalmist cried, I will cry
unto God Most High, unto God that performeth all things for
me. Oh, what a God! What a Savior! He performeth all things for
us. Can you imagine that? Can you
get hold of that? He performeth all things specifically
for me. Specifically for you. He performeth
all things for us. This is God's personal word. to every child of God in this
world, to every believing center, He performeth all things for
me. Just a little light that I have,
I look back over these past 58 years, and I could spend a good
while giving you illustration after illustration. of God just
stepping in and turning things around and performing things
for me. I'm talking about just the little
bit that I see, just the little bit that I see. But most of the
things we experience in life that give us difficulty, even
when we bring it upon ourselves, We look at those things and as
we face them, oh my God, why this? How did I get into this
mess? I can't take it. I can't. I can't. I can't. And you're
right, you can't. But He can. And His grace is
sufficient. And when you get on the other
side, you look back Oh my, look what God did for me in that.
He performeth all things for me and for my sake. Number six,
let's look at this very familiar passage, Romans 8, verse 28. Romans 8, verse 28. Most everybody
involved in any kind of religion can quote it. Very few folks
know it. First Baptist Church in Denver,
Kentucky has Romans 8.28 on their sign, and it says, Hope Copes. And they don't have any idea
what hope is, coping is, or Romans 8.28 is. But let's look at it. We. We. That is, we who are born
of God and taught of God. We know. We know because God
has taken His Word and taken His Spirit and put His grace
in us and taught us. We know. Not a matter of speculation. Not a matter of guessing. Not
a matter of science that we have studied this thing out and we
put two and two together and this just makes good logical
sense. We know because God told us in here. We know that all
things good and bad, prosperous and adverse, pleasant and painful,
work. present tense, all creation working. I sometimes think if we could
take a microscope and just put today under that microscope and
watch all the unseen things to the natural eye moving constantly,
just moving through this room right now, all the things moving.
All things in God's universe constantly are at work, but nothing
by itself. God's creation works as a team.
All things work together, like gears and cogs in a great piece
of machinery. And they all work together for
good. Nothing but good, temporal, spiritual,
eternal good to them that love God. Not to everybody, but to
them that love God. Who are they? To them who are
the called. How does it happen? According
to His purpose. His purpose of grace for the
saving of His people. Number 7, 1 Corinthians 3, verse
21. All things are of God. All things
for the glory of God. All things perform for you, all
things perform for your sake, all things work together for
your good. Now watch this. Therefore let no man glory in
men, for all things are yours. In verse 23, and ye are Christ.
Again, this is God's Word, and God's Word to you and me. All
things spiritual, all grace, All blessings, all privileges,
all ministry are yours. All things temporal are yours
to use and enjoy for the glory of God and for the good of one
another. All things heavenly, the angels
of God, the throne of God, the Son of God, all are yours. All
things eternal, the glory of God, all of it is yours. Now, I do want you to turn to
Matthew chapter 22. Here is a text designed and intended
specifically for the benefit of you who are yet under the
wrath of God. Listen to what our Lord says
in verse 4. The Lord Jesus here commands
saved sinners to declare to lost sinners, Things are ready. Again he sent forth other servants,
saying, Tell them which are bidden. Behold, I have prepared my dinner,
my oxen, and my fatlings are killed. A feast of fat things. You read about it in Isaiah 25.
A feast of fat things, of wines upon leaves well refined. He
said, I have prepared my oxen, my fatlings are killed, and all
things are ready. come to the marriage. The Lord
God has sent me here to you today to bid you come to the marriage,
the marriage of the Lamb, the marriage of His dear Son. But
this is an unusual marriage. This is a marriage at which no
guest with gifts will ever be admitted. At this marriage, all
the gifts come from the father of the groom and are bestowed
because of the groom, and the bride has no dowry. In this marriage,
in Christ Jesus, all things are ready for the salvation and eternal
bliss of meaty sinners. The Spirit and the bride say,
Come, and whosoever will, let him come. A friend of mine years
ago was preaching the gospel of God's free grace, and as usual,
when goats start getting upset with things, they start butting.
But you don't believe in whosoever will. He said, I sure do. Whosoever
will, let him come. I don't believe in whosoever
won't. If you will, you can come. You sure can. And if you come,
it's because the marriage was prepared for you. If you come,
it's because God chose you. If you come, it's because Christ
died for you. If you have the will to come,
it is because God the Holy Spirit gave you the will to come in
the new birth by the sovereign power of His grace. If you come
believing His Son, it's because He created faith in you. Here
is complete pardon. All things are ready. Here is
complete righteousness. Sure acceptance. Unconditional
salvation. Absolute security no matter who
and no matter what. Because all things are ready. Come to the marriage. Number
nine, Acts 13, 39. By Christ, all that believe are
justified from all things. You see that? By Him, all that
believe are justified from all things from which we could not
be justified by the law of Moses. Justified. Complete, irrevocable
justification from all iniquity, all transgression, and all sin
for all who trust Him. Free, full, complete justification
belongs to every believer irrevocably in Christ who is justified from
all things. Free from the law, O happy condition,
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission. Number 10, Matthew
19, 26. In the story of the rich young
ruler here, That rich young ruler heard the master declare, They
that are rich, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
And the disciples heard it. They were exceedingly amazed.
They had seen this young man come, rich. That's enough to
get most preachers' attention. rich and a ruler, that'll sure
enough get a preacher's attention. Any good soul would have him
in church baptized and preaching before the day was over. But
this young man heard the master's word and he went away. And the Lord Jesus says it's
easier for a rich man to crawl through the eye of a needle.
Now I know, I know the Bible scholars, they say, well in the
In the wall in Jerusalem, there's a place called the Needle's Eye,
where the fellows would come in and they'd get the camels
to squat down, almost get on their knees, and crawl through
it with no load on their back, because that's the only way they'd
get to the Needle's Eye. Now that might be pretty good, except
I think to myself, what fool would unload his camel and get
down on his knees and crawl through the Needle's Eye when there's
a gate wide enough to drive a truck through in front of the city?
No. What's he say? It's easier for
you, hear me, for you, I'm talking to you, to squeeze your way through
the eye of that needle you can't push thread through while you
trust in your riches, in your righteousness, in your goodness.
I don't care what you're on about. Your goodness for justification
or sanctification are your good works. If those things give you
hope, it's easier for you to squeeze your way through the
eye of a needle than for you to get into the kingdom of God.
And when the disciples heard that, they said, Wow! Who then
can be saved? Now watch this. Jesus beheld
them and said unto them, With men this is impossible. But with God, all things are
possible. Oh, what good news! The salvation
of your soul, if it hinges or depends upon any man, you, mama,
daddy, the preacher, the preacher's eloquence, the preacher's ability,
or his lack of them, it's impossible. But bless God No sinner is beyond
the reach of omnipotence. Look here. You're looking at
the proof. There's no filth the blood of
Christ can't cleanse. No spiritual deformity the grace
of Christ can't correct. No nakedness of soul the righteousness
of Christ can't cover. Number 11, Mark 9. Mark 9, verse
23. Brother Tommy had been talking
to us about faith just a little bit ago. Well, here our Lord
does, and he tells us that all things are possible to believers. Our Lord Jesus has this man who
brought his demon-possessed child, his speechless son, to the Master,
and this is what the Lord told him, If thou canst believe, all
things are possible to him that believeth. In a straight way,
the father of the child cried out and said with tears, I believe,
but my belief ain't much. Pastor didn't say if you can
really believe, he said if you can believe. He didn't say if
you believe with great strong faith, he said if you believe.
He didn't say if you can hold on, hold out! He didn't say if
you have mighty faith, he said if you can believe. Get the picture. We lived in West Virginia when
our daughter was a baby. And she'd be sleeping in her room.
In West Virginia, when there'd be lightning and thunder, man,
the lightning would flash through the windows, and the thunder
would rattle the floors. And she'd wake up in the middle
of the night, and she'd come running into our room. And most
of the time, if she woke up in the middle of the night, she'd
come jump on Mama's chest and just snuggle up to Mama. But
Buddy, when she was scared, you know where she ran? She would
run and snuggle up just as tight to me as she could get. And all
the time she's laying there while it's lightning and thundering,
she's just shaking. But she trusted me to take care of her. An ill-founded faith,
but a good picture of faith. How often I snuggle up to my
Redeemer, shaking in fear. But Lord, I believe. Help thou
mine unbelief. Help thou mine unbelief. And
do you know what happened to this fellow? speechless, demon-possessed
son, when the Lord Jesus looked at him and saw his faith, not
the son's faith, the father's faith, that son was made completely
whole because of a father who believed Christ for his son. I don't mean he believed Christ
instead of his son. His son could not believe and
would not believe, but he believed. And the Lord said, all things
are possible if you believe. See that full-grown sycamore
tree? Jerk it up by its roots if you believe. See the mountains
of difficulties and trials and sins and guilt that stand between
you and God? Jerk it up. and cast it into
the sea, if you believe. What's that talking about? It's
talking about faith in Jesus Christ. One of our men, Brother
Rex Bartley, like you, we have scripture reading prayer in the
office and out in the auditorium before every service. I call
on one of the men to take care of those things in all of our
evening services. Brother Rex read the scriptures. I think
he was reading this very passage. And when he prayed, he made a
statement. I wrote it down when he got done because I didn't
want to forget. 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 be merciful to them for Christ's sake. Is that all right? What can you
do with your children? Well, I can talk them into making
a profession of faith. I can get them religious, get
them baptized, get them in church, get them going to Sunday school,
and that will be all right. Yep, you can do that. You dead sure
can. And you can take them to hell
with you. Or you can commit them to the hands of God who delights
in mercy. Whose they are, and trust Him. I choose the latter. He does
all things well. Now, chapter 5, 2 Corinthians
verse 17. Here's the 12th thing. Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. I just met Jeff this morning,
saw him last night. Don't know a thing on earth about
you, so I'll pick on you. What would you give if you could push
the rewind button of your life and start all over with a clean
slate, with no sin, and no possibility of sin before God Almighty. Oh,
I'd give anything. Would you? Oh, preacher, I'd
do anything. I'd start all over. I'd start
all over with no sin, no guilt, no evil, with no possibility
of ever corrupting the record. I'm sure you'd give anything
if you could do that. I'm sure you'd do anything if you could
do that. Let me ask you, would you give nothing and do nothing? Would you simply cast your soul
on the crucified Son of God, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
trust in His blood and His righteousness, if right now, right where you
sit, You now find yourself believing on God's Son. When you walk out
that door and walk home today, or walk out that door and walk
into eternity to meet God, old things are passed away. And behold, all things are become
new. Jesus Christ has made you altogether
new. He's given you a new name, a
new nature, and a new record. And it can never be sullied. You can never defile it. You
can never corrupt it. You can never do it harm. In
spite of everything you are by nature. In spite of all the evil
you think and do by nature. You can never taint what Christ
creates new. It can't be done. Number 13,
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? I probably told you this, but
I like to brag on myself. My daughter, 16 years ago, was
dating a fellow, and he wanted to come to the house and see
Shelby and I. And I had a pretty good suspicion of what he wanted.
He wanted to ask my daughter's hand in marriage. And a father's
responsibility in those cases is to make the fellow squirm
a little and make him just as uncomfortable as you can, because
you don't want to seem anxious at all. And so I did my duty
and finally gave my consent. A year later or so, they got
married. Went on their honeymoon, I performed the ceremony. Tickled
to death to do it. Tickled to death to do it. First
visit back to the house, I had a package from my son-in-law.
Not from my daughter, from my son-in-law. And in it, I gave
him every legal paper we have with insurance. Man, if we die
in the air, they'll get a few bucks, otherwise it's hopeless.
But I gave him all the legal papers. We don't own any property. I'm thinking about buying some
cemetery plots soon, but Shelby and I don't own a thing, except
the clothes on our back, car we drive, furniture in the house.
But I gave him keys to the cars, keys to the house, keys to the
safety deposit box down at the bank. Gave him keys to my tool
shed. to the garage, to my toolbox,
showed him where my gun cabinet is, and I said, it's all yours. Do whatever you want to with
it. It's all yours. You're welcome to it. Anything
you need. I told that story one time, somebody asked Doug, said,
he really do that? Why shouldn't I? I gave him my
daughter. You think I wouldn't give him
a hacksaw? Our Heavenly Father gave His
Son for you and to you. And He will give you whatever
you need. All along the way, in time and
eternity, He will withhold no good thing from you. In Proverbs
28, 5, we read this 14th thing. They that seek the Lord understand
all things. You know all things because you
have an upsurge from the Holy One. Evil men understand not
judgment. You saw that tornado last week
went through Little Rock. I went through Memphis, Nashville,
up our way. I understand some down here were
affected by the same storm. And you listen to the commentators
on television, the liberals and the conservatives, the Democrats
and the Republicans, the religious commentators and the infidel
commentators. And they don't understand. They
don't understand. They can't get any hint of an
idea. It's caused by global warming,
or it's caused by the return of the ice age, or it's caused
by the devil, or it's caused by some freak circumstance that
we can't understand, or it's caused by faith or chance or
luck. You who know the Lord understand.
Don't expect them to. You know the origin of all things.
You know the means by which all things are performed, and you
know the end of all things, and that's good enough. Number 50,
Ephesians 520, teaches us here that it is both the responsibility
and the joy of believers to give thanks to God for all things,
giving thanks Always, for all things, unto God in the Father,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." What's he talking about? He's talking about walking in
the Spirit. He's talking about being filled with the Spirit.
And walking in the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, is not
jumping along, clicking your heels together in the air. It's
not pretending that you're floating on a mountain, floating on a
cloud in the sky, or living on the mountaintop all the time.
That's fake, it's phony. You listen to these health, wealth,
prosperity fools on television that preach and smile like possums
crunching on briars all the time, they're as fake as a three dollar
bill. No life for the believer is not a bed of roses. The life
of the believer is a warfare, it's a struggle, it's a fight,
it's conflict from beginning to end, and it never ceases till
this life in this world ceases. But walking in the Spirit is
living by faith in the Son of God, believing Him, trusting
Him, giving thanks to God our Father, for all things, understanding
he's doing exactly what needs to be done and ought to be done
and is best to be done. I recall shortly after God saved
me, I was going through what I thought was a heavy trial.
You know, when a baby falls and scratches his knees, he thinks
the world's coming to an end. And I was going through a knee-scratching
time. And I came to a passage of Scripture,
and I haven't forgotten it. God help me not to. In everything,
give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. in Christ Jesus concerning you.
I just found out my child severely handicapped, retarded, and not
likely to make it to adulthood. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. All of those things I've mentioned,
I have personal friends who've experienced them, to whom I have
said, and continually say, this is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning me. I don't care how it came to pass.
I don't care who you look at as being the secondary cause.
Even yourself, if you're His. This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus concerning you. And if it's your Father's will,
you have reason to give thanks. Acts 3.21, I'll just touch on
it, speaks of the restitution of all things. There's a day
coming when Jesus Christ will come again, and all things shall
be restored to Him. You remember back in the book
of Leviticus, God gave a law of restitution. And I know folks
who would have us live under the law, They said, we've got
to restore the law of restitution, make a better report, restore
that, and 20% more. The law of restitution was not
talking about your work. It was not talking about your
work. Like all the law, it was talking about Christ's work.
And the Lord Jesus restored that which He took not away to us.
And He thus fulfilled the law of restitution. And when He comes
again, He's going to restore all God's creation, everything,
everything, everything to God's glory and then some. This world and everything in
it will prove at last to be more beneficial for God's glory having
gone through the fall and the ruin and the curse and the accomplishment
of redemption by Jesus Christ than it possibly could have performed
for His glory had there never been a fall, and never been a
ruin, and never been redemption. Number 18. Turn to this, 1 Peter
4, verse 7. The end of all things is at hand. Behold, he cometh. And when he
comes, that's the period. That's the end of all sickness
and sorrow and death. The end of all temptation and
trouble and trial. The end of all pain and all misunderstanding
and all confusion. The end of all unbelief, of all
unbelief, of all unbelief. The end of all sin. Not even so much as the slime
of Satan shall be left upon God's creation. The end of all weeping. the end of all darkness, the
end of all night. Behold, the end of all things
is at hand." One more word, Mark 7, verse 37. This is the end of the story. Our Lord had been performing
wonders all day long, and when He got to the end of the day,
God the Holy Spirit gives us a final word by which The crowds
who observed what he had been doing all day summed up the day. And they were beyond measure
astonished, saying, He hath done all things well. When you lay me in my grave,
you can scratch this in the sand. Now, if you want to put a stone
over there and scratch something on it, He hath done all things
well. That's my life story. He hath
done all things well with me and with mine. And that's the
end of your life story, my brother, my sister. He's done all things
well with you and yours all the time. And that's the end of the
story of time in this world of time. He hath done all things
well. Oh God, teach us. Teach us by
your Spirit to trust you. I ask your blessings upon this
assembly. Thank you for them. Thank you
for their friendship and fellowship these many years. Thank you for
their dear pastor and his wife. Thank you for bringing the two
together. And I ask your blessings upon them. Keep them, sustain
them, and bless them and use them for the glory of your Son. and give us grace to walk before
You and honor You with blessed, sweet
confidence that You, our God, do all things well, performing
all things for us, for Your glory. Amen. Now, I'm not a singer. I wouldn't be a singer if I was
a sewing machine. But I'm going to try to teach
you a song. Delilah's going to come and help me. 147 in your
hymn book. 147. If you know it, you jump
in right at the start. Stand with me if you will. There'll
be no dark valley when Jesus comes. I heard a story once. I'll tell you that before we
sing. Read it. An old, old woman called her
pastor in, making arrangements for a funeral. And she told him
what songs she wanted sung, and what scriptures she wanted read,
and how she wanted to be buried. And she said, when they buried
me and started to close my casket, she said, before they do, have
them put my fork in my hand. And he said to her, he said,
why would you want a fork put in your hand? She said, well,
preacher, when I was growing up, we didn't have much, and
we didn't often have dessert. But when mama told me after lunch
or supper to keep my fork, I knew something better was coming. Something better is coming. I
promise you.