Turn with me, if you will, to
Psalm 21. Psalm 21. The Scriptures speak
of a day ordained by God from old eternity for every one of
His elect. And call it the day or the time
of love. There is a time set by God For
every sinner of whom it is written, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, when he will call that sinner in the time of love to
life and faith in Christ. I pray that this may be the time
of love for you who know not our Redeemer. And if God is pleased
tonight to call you by His grace I want to show you from the scriptures
that every experience of your life has been arranged, controlled,
and disposed of by our God to bring you to this place in this
hour. My subject is prevenient grace. We don't hear much about that
in our day. The old writers, preachers years
ago, spoke about it commonly and then John Wesley with his
heresy came along and perverted the doctrine and folks quit talking
about it. The word prevenient means preceding
or coming before. Prevenient grace is that grace
of our God that precedes and prepares the way for his saving
grace. The scriptures give us much instruction
about it, numerous illustrations of it. Let's begin in Psalm 21. At your leisure, I would urge
you to read at one setting Psalm 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24. The 20th
Psalm is a prayer, a prayer for the success of our Redeemer in
the accomplishment of redemption by the sacrifice of Himself.
Psalm 21 is a joyful song of praise and assurance, assuring
us of the certain success and the glory that would follow the
accomplishment of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm
22 describes our Savior's agony in heart in soul as well as in
body when He suffered in our room instead bearing our sin
upon the cursed tree, when He died for us and removed from
us the curse of the law by putting away our sins by the sacrifice
of Himself. When you read Psalm 22, always
have in your mind and in your heart the picture of Christ suffering
the wrath of God in your stead and hear his cries. Psalm 23
then speaks of the certain and blessed security of our souls
under the watchful tender care of Christ our Good Shepherd who
laid down his life for the sheep. And Psalm 24 declares His glorious
ascension, His exaltation as King, that which is the reward
of His obedience, because He did His Father's will, and He
redeemed us from our sins. Now let's look at chapter 21,
Psalm 21. In these opening verses, in verse
1, we read that Christ, the King, shall joy in thy strength O Lord,
and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice. This is a prophecy
of that joy which now possesses the God-man, our Savior, as he
sits upon the throne and disposes of all things according to his
will for the saving of his people. because of the joy set before
him for which he endured the cross, despising the shame. He sets in heaven today with
fullness of joy because our salvation is finished. He obtained eternal
redemption for us. All the agony it cost Him, all
the blood, all the sweat, all the life that He gave for the
redemption of our souls, He looks upon now as a delightful thing,
for He has obtained redemption for us. There is joy in the presence
of the angels of God over one sinner who repents. And that
joy that is His because of the salvation of His people exceeds
indescribably any joy that we can have in the experience of
His grace. Imagine that. The God of glory
joys because He saved you by His grace. Verse 2 Thou hast
given him his heart's desire, and hast not withholden the request
of his lips." His heart's desire. What can that be? Oh, I come
to do Thy will, O God. Father, glorify Thy name. Not my will, Thy will be done. What was the request of his lips?
Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am that they may behold my glory. Was it not the salvation
of his people that he asked the Father to give him as the result
of his obedience in John 17? The heart desire of Christ And
the prayer of his lips, which cannot be withheld from him,
was the glory of the Father in the salvation of his people.
Nothing is so dear to the heart of the triune God. Nothing is
so dear to the Son of God as the redemption of his people
by his blood. the regeneration of his redeemed
ones by his spirit, the consolation of his people in the midst of
trouble, their preservation in trial, their perfect holiness,
which he is before the Father, and their happiness forever in
his presence. And then we read that word sila.
When I read the Psalms, and I'm not suggesting everybody has
to do things this way, I never read that word out loud. Because
really, the word Sela, if I understand it correctly, is a punctuation
mark. It's just a punctuation mark.
It is a broad, long exclamation point. It carries with it this
idea. Stop for just a minute and consider
what you just read. Roll this over in your heart.
The King shall joy in thy strength, O Lord, and in thy salvation
how greatly shall he rejoice. Thou hast given him his heart's
desire and hast not withholden the request of his lips. Now
roll that over in your soul. the king of glory, joys in the
salvation he accomplished for us, his heart's desire, the request
of his lips is that we be with him in glory in the perfection
of his own being. Verse 3, For thou preventest
him, goest before him, with the blessings of goodness, thou sittest
a crown of pure gold on his head. I'll come back to that in a minute.
Verse 4. He asked life of thee, thou gavest
it him, even length of days for ever and ever. This of course
refers to our Lord's resurrection. Turn over to chapter 16, Psalm
16, you'll see it. Psalm 16, verse 8. Now there's
no question about whether this is our Savior speaking or not
because the Holy Spirit tells us in Acts chapter 2 that these
are His words. Psalm 16 verse 8. I have set
the Lord always before me because He is at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad and
my glory rejoiceth. My flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul
in hell, in the grave, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One
to seek corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand are
pleasures for evermore. Lord God now has given him life
again. Length of days forever and ever
and the pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand because
he has fulfilled the Father's will. Back here in Psalm 21 verse
5. His glory is great in thy salvation. Honor and majesty hast thou laid
upon him. Now we rejoice to worship God
in the trinity or the triunity of His holy persons, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. And the saving of our souls involves
the work of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But throughout the scriptures
We are told plainly and told repeatedly that it is the pleasure
of the triune God, Father, Son, and Spirit, to magnify, exalt,
and give all preeminence to Jesus Christ, the God-man, our mediator,
as our surety and our Savior. For in Him and in Him alone do
we see the glory of God shining in the face of the crucified
Christ. In him alone does God make himself
known to men. And so his glory is great in
God's salvation. Understand, salvation is God's. Salvation is God's. Salvation
is God's. It is that which God devised,
and God performed, and God possesses. And you don't have a right to
it. You don't have a right to it. It's God's to give or withhold
as it pleases Him. Well, I thought everybody had
a right before God. You thought wrong. Well, I thought
salvation was something that any man can have if he just chooses
to have it. You thought wrong. You thought
wrong. That's just not so. If God leaves
you to yourself, you're going to hell. Unless God does something
for you, you cannot and will not do for yourself, hell will
be your eternal portion. The only way under God's heaven
by which any sinner ever obtains God's salvation is if God in
infinite mercy reaches down from His throne in heaven and opens
your lifeless, dead heart and puts His Son in you! And you
will begin to seek his salvation when he's already put it in you
and not until then. Salvation is God's. And Christ's
glory is great in God's salvation. You recognize when God's salvation
comes to you that Christ alone is the Savior. that Christ alone
is righteousness, that Christ alone is sanctification, that
Christ alone is redemption, that Christ alone gives sinners acceptance
with God, that Christ is the sinner's only claim before God,
the sinner's only hope with God, the sinner's only savior. And
he crowns him with glory, sets a crown of honor and majesty
on his son. All the fullness of salvation
is Christ. Oh, how I love to meditate upon,
read about, hear about, and sing about the glory of Christ. Some
years ago I read about a dying woman, an old saint, and a friend
began to talk to her about the greatness and grace and glory
of Christ the Savior. And others standing in the room
urged him to be quiet and let her rest. And the old lady said,
Oh, speak some more. Let me hear more. Don't stop
telling his praise. I long to see him soon, but I
want to hear about him now. Surely on this blessed subject,
Christ crucified, nobody can hyperbolize. Jesus Christ crucified. There's the revelation of the
glory of God and there's the salvation of our souls. May God
the Holy Spirit give me grace to proclaim Him and Him only
and lay all honor and majesty upon Him upon whom the triune
God has laid honor and majesty. Verse 6, For thou hast made Him
most blessed forever. Thou hast made Him exceeding
glad with Thy countenance. Oh, would the eyes of your soul
look yonder through the heavens into the very presence of God
Almighty, and behold the Lamb that has been slain, the crucified
God in our nature, and behold His glory and His gladness in
the presence of God Almighty, with all His people seated with
Him in His throne." You mean, Brother Dodd, that's the way
it's going to be? No, I mean that's the way it is. And that's
the way it's going to be tomorrow. And that's the way it's going
to be forever. For when He was risen from the
dead, we were quickened together with Him. When He sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high, we sat down in Him. And His glory is great in this
salvation He accomplished. Now let's go back to verse 3.
For thou preventest Him, goest before Him, with the blessings
of goodness thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head this
word prevents has become corrupted by modern usage we tend to think
the word means to stop or to hinder or to hold back the word
means to precede or to go before so the meaning of this statement
is this The Lord God bestowed all the bountiful blessings of
goodness and grace in Christ upon us even before Christ came
to redeem and save us. Thou goest before Him with the
blessings of goodness. Indeed, He blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ before the world
began, the scriptures tells us in Ephesians 1 verse 3. But still
there's more. God's goodness toward his elect
goes out to his elect even before Christ comes to them in the secret
workings of his providence. This text speaks of that great
wondrous, mysterious, prevenient grace that goes before and prepares
the way for God's saving grace. Goodness and mercy precede Christ's
coming. Goodness and mercy come with
the Lord Jesus, and goodness and mercy follow His coming to
His own. Then, exaltation and glory are
given to Him. The Lord God, the triune Jehovah,
has set on His head a crown of pure gold, pure, everlasting,
precious, indescribably glorious is this crown. It is the reward
of His obedience and it's set on His head in the hearts of
every sinner who is made to experience His grace. God Almighty has come
into this heart where once the Son of God was despised. Where
once the Son of God was hated? Where once the Son of God was
looked upon as one who I would have crucified myself? Could
I have done so? And He set on His head a crown
of pure gold. Now let me show you a few places
in this book where prevenient grace is spoken out clearly.
Where it's described. It is described in three ways.
I will spend the bulk of my time talking about the first. God's
prevenient grace is that grace that preserves us, though ruined and fallen, children
of wrath by nature, just like everybody else. Prevenient grace
is that grace that God exercises in the disposition of his providence,
working all things together for the good of his own. And prevenient
grace is that grace by which God prepares the hearts of sinners
to receive the gospel. First, prevenient grace is preserving
grace. Turn to Jude, the epistle of
Jude, next to the last book in the New Testament. You can probably
quote it, but I want you to read it. Jude, verse 1. Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ
and brother of James, to them who are sanctified by God the
Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called. Now, Brother Glenn, folks, read
that. We might be tempted to read that and say, well, Jude
really means to them who are called and sanctified and preserved. But any time you're tempted to
think that the scriptures do not intentionally change the
order of things, be sure to understand you're thinking wrong. The order
of the words is arranged by divine inspiration as well as the words
themselves. But Brother Dodd, we're not sanctified
before we're called and we're not called before, preserved
before we're called. So surely Jude's saying called
and sanctified and preserved. No. Jude is saying sanctified,
preserved, and called. We were sanctified by God the
Father in sovereign eternal election when He looked upon us and chose
us in His Son and declared us holy in His Son, accepted in
the Beloved. And we were preserved from old
eternity in Jesus Christ unto the day of our calling. Preserved. Though we played with
hell and played with death, preserved in Jesus Christ unto our calling. God the Holy Spirit is here speaking
about God keeping His own. The word preserved means watched
over, guarded, kept from loss or injury. It's a passive verb. And the sweet message of this
is this, because God set His heart upon us, and set us apart
to himself in Christ in eternal election, we are absolutely kept
from any harm coming to us, because in Christ we are made the objects
of his unceasing care." The word might be translated,
kept for Jesus Christ. Set apart by God. Before the
world was, He kept you for His Son. Kept for Jesus Christ. I remember when our daughter
was a baby, and then later both of our grandchildren, I'd see
my wife doing what only mothers and grandmothers do. Those tiny
little babies, one of the first things she did, all three of
them, Count their fingers and toes. And as she counted them,
you know what she did? She'd pick them up and kiss them.
Everyone. Our Lord Jesus says concerning
you and your father's care of you, the very hairs of your head
are all numbered. He numbered the hairs of your
head not for any specific day. but for every day specifically,
before the world was. For the ray, he took you as his
baby in his hands and counted up your hairs and kissed them. preserved and kept for Jesus
Christ by God Almighty who says, I will be a wall of fire round
about them to protect and care for my own. Let all who trust Christ understand
and ever rejoice in this fact, in eternal sanctification we
were set apart by God the Father in sovereign election chosen
in Christ and as such we have a place in Jehovah's heart he
says I have loved thee with everlasting love we are from everlasting
in his hands and in his heart and in him one Oh, the more I study and meditate
upon the subject of the believer's union with Christ, the more utterly
overwhelmed I am by the thought of it. The scripture gives us
numerous, numerous illustrations, but never an explanation of it. A man leaves his father and mother
and is joined to his wife, and they too shall be one flesh.
But I'm not talking about just men and women. Paul says, by
the spirit of inspiration, I'm talking about Christ and His
church. We're bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, one with
Him. One with Him as a single man
or any group of men are one with that One who represents them.
One with Him is our surety. One with Him as a wife is one
with her husband and a husband one with his wife. One with Him
as a family unit is one. And He goes beyond that. He says,
read John 17 carefully, We are as really and truly one with
Jesus Christ, our surety, our mediator, our savior, as God
the Son is one with the Father. One with Him. And because we are one with Him,
we are preserved and kept in and for Jesus Christ. Secretly
preserved in Him from eternity. Preserved before we are called. Preserved unto our calling and
preserved after our calling. Preserved from condemnation and
the second death. We're not preserved from falling
We fell with everyone else in our father Adam. But we're preserved
even in the fall. We're not preserved from depravity.
Our hearts are just as corrupt and vile as the hearts of any
other by nature, but preserved even in our depravity. We're
not preserved from iniquity, transgression, and sin. We're
all by nature children of wrath, just like everybody else, but
preserved in Jesus Christ in spite of everything by God's
everlasting mercy. Even in those days gone by, the
fallen, depraved, hell-bent children of wrath, Jude and all the scripture
teaches us that we who now believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
all who shall believe on the Son of God were so completely
and absolutely preserved, watched over, guarded and protected by
our God by virtue of our union with His Son that it was not
possible for us to suffer any real loss or injury by all that
we experience in time. We suffered much apparent injury
and much apparent loss. We've heaped upon ourselves much
apparent injury and much apparent loss. But we are preserved in
Jesus Christ from any possibility of real injury. Now listen to
me. Listen to me. Real injury lasts
when this life is over. Did you hear me? Real injury
will be injury in eternity. And for God's elect, there's
no real injury. For there shall be no more sickness,
no more sorrow, no more pain, no more death, no more crying,
when God wipes away all tears from their eyes, for it is written,
the former things are passed We were, even in our wrathful
state of unbelief, so preserved that the law could not execute
its sentence of condemnation upon us. Sin could not damn us,
and Satan could not destroy us. Then, after being called, still
preserved in Christ. Not preserved from indwelling
sin, but in spite of it. Not preserved from temptations,
but in the midst of them. Not preserved from doubts and
fears and unbelief, but even in the midst of our doubts, our
God dishonoring fears and unbelief, still preserved. No, we're not
preserved from the sin that's in us, and the
commitment of sin. And anybody who wants to argue
with God about that can take it up with Him if they like.
But you who know my God know I speak the truth. And I don't
make light of it. I hate what I am, even worse
than I hate what I do. But I won't deny either. And
in the midst, in the teeth, of all that I am and all that I
do. The Savior says, I give to Don
Fortner eternal life and he shall never perish. Preserved in Jesus
Christ. In Christ, preserved in perfect
sanctification, perfect justification, perfect redemption, and perfect
grace, preserved as the sons of God and heirs of heavenly
glory, preserved in life and faith, preserved in absolute
indestructible safety and security. Once in Christ, in Christ forever,
none from Christ my soul can suffer. in Christ. What words! What a
wonder! What unspeakable blessedness!
Only in eternity will we be able to look back over the everlasting
hills of time and begin to see something of the wonder and majesty
and greatness of this declaration preserved in Christ from every
form, degree, and method of preservation. We are preserved in every state,
condition, and circumstance, and preserved from every danger,
every foe, and every weapon that would be formed against us. Preserved
in Jesus Christ. Turn to Isaiah 65 for a moment. Thus saith the Lord, as the new
wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not,
for a blessing is in it. So will I do for my servant's
sake, that I may not destroy them all. Back home, Shelby and I raise
about everything we eat. We raise large gardens, huge
gardens. We raise strawberries and raspberries
and blackberries and we raise blueberries and grapes. And just
about the ugliest thing out in the field is a dead, dried up,
withered grapevine. Not a thing on earth you can
do with it except cut it down and burn it. All you can do with
it, you see the picture here is the fallen race of humanity
in our father Adam. And the vine dresser goes out
and he sees this worthless, dried vine. And he says, cut it down! Get rid of it! But the owner
of the vineyard, the Lord God, says, no, I see something in
there you can't see. I see a blessing in that fallen
race. I see a blessing in the fallen
sons of Adam. I see a blessing there that I
put there. Don't cut it down. So will I
do for my servant's sake. Why didn't God destroy Adam in
the garden? He said, In the day thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die. But he didn't. Well, he died
spiritually. He's still walking around. Why
didn't he destroy him? Because there was in Adam's loins
a chosen race who must be called and saved by God's free grace
preserved in Jesus Christ. And he still preserves the race
because there is another race within the race for whom he made
this world. Who was I talking to today about
family treaties? I forgot who it was. I know too much about my immediate
family, so I try to stay away from the family tree, but every
time I bump into it, Adam falls out. And I'll tell you what I know
about my family, as far back as I know the family. I don't
know of a single Fortner who was ever known for making any
contribution to the society in which he lived. Not one. Who was ever known for doing
anything for anyone except himself. Not a one. Not a one. But for some reason, God Almighty
preserved that family line through all the wars that have ravaged
the land of Germany throughout history. and preserve that family
line right down to this very day. And I know one reason for
sure why he preserved it. He said, there's a blessing in
it. And there's a point in time of love when Don Fortner shall
be called by my grace. You mean, Brother Don, you believe
God would preserve a whole line of rebels just to save one? Well, sure I do. I believe he preserves our whole
race of rebels just to preserve his elect whom he calls one,
his seed, just to preserve them. The fact is all the blessings
that all men know in this world, the rain we had this morning,
the sunshine we had this afternoon, Do you know why your neighbors
got in on that? Because they live next door to you. Somebody
talked about God's common grace. There's nothing common about
it. Common mercy. Anytime somebody said, well,
don't you think God causes it to rain on the just and unjust
alike? Yeah. And he also causes it to hail on the just and unjust
alike. You call that common judgment? What nonsense. What God does,
he does for his elect. Your neighbors? would be at your
door bowing down and scraping every day if they had any idea
that you're the only reason they're still living. The only reason. God preserves the race of mankind
because of his love for the chosen race who are preserved in Jesus
Christ. There is yet a remnant who must
and shall be saved. A remnant according to the election
of grace. And therefore the Lord is not
slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness,
but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any of us should
perish, but that all should come to repentance. Let me show you
something else. Turn to Galatians chapter 1.
I'll be just a minute. Prevenient grace is preserving
grace, and prevenient grace is providential grace. The secret
operations of grace that precede and prepare the way for God's
saving grace. Let me call your attention to
just two or three aspects of this. First, it is formative
grace. God told Jeremiah, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. Before thou camest forth out
of the womb, I sanctified thee. And it tells, the Apostle Paul
tells us in Galatians 1.15, when it pleased God, watch this now,
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace. Well, brother Don, God separates
everybody from their mother's womb, that's how they're born.
Yeah, but that's not what Paul's talking about. God Almighty took
me in His hand out of my mother's womb. and kept me, kept me. My name is Donald Stuart Fortner.
Don't have any idea why I was named Donald or Stuart. Fortner
was my daddy's name. I don't have a clue. Don, you
can take choice, it means one of two things. A mighty ruler
or a little brown stranger, and I'm not either. Stuart, I got
no idea what significance is. But I'll tell you exactly why.
June 10, 1950, when this boy was taken out of his mother's
womb by the hand of God Almighty on a sharecropper's farm, she
told the doctors right on my birth certificate, Donald Stewart
Fortner, because God Almighty from eternity wrote my name in
the Book of Life of the Lamb before the world began. and on
that day brought me into this world, in the family, with the
family heritage, with the family genes, with the family corruptions,
with the family pitfalls, with the family advantages, all of
which I would experience growing up in the household on the south
side of Winston-Salem, all of those things, because he had
ordained a day called the time of love when Donald Stuart Fortner
must be called by his grace. Some are brought into this world
like Timothy in a household so that from a child they've known
the Holy Scriptures. Others are brought into the world
in a house full of rebels And God has His elect in both places. And He uses the evil for good
and uses the good for good equally. God's grace is seen as restraining
grace. Oh, He lets the wild ass's coat
run wild for a while. But he said, from old eternity,
hitherto shalt thou go in no further. And as we made our mad
rush to hell, living with our fist in God's face, God Almighty
restrained us from the evil that we would have committed, the
evil that might, sure enough, have destroyed us. You remember
how Abigail came out and prevented David from murdering a man? She
said, the Lord has restrained you from evil. The Lord told
Abimelech, I kept you from doing this evil. And so it is with
his own. He restrains us by his grace.
And then turn to Philemon. Philemon chapter one, or Philemon
verse 15. There's a story about this runaway
slave. by the name of Philemon. He was
in the house of Onesimus. He was a house slave, belonged
to Onesimus. Onesimus trusted him with all
of his goods. He was the steward over his house.
Being a slave in Onesimus' house, I cannot help but to presume
that he must often have heard the Apostle Paul preach the gospel
in Onesimus' house. But hearing it He could not hear
it under those circumstances. Couldn't hear it. One day Philemon
took all of his master's goods and took off. And as luck would
have it, he wound up in Rome and in prison just at the time
the Apostle Paul was in Rome, in prison. No, not luck. a secret arrangement
of divine providence. And now, when this slave is running
for his life and in fear of death, apprehended by the laws of the
land and certain to be executed, somehow or another he's a little
more willing to listen than he had been before. God got his
attention. I'm going to tell you something.
God knows how to get your attention. God knows how to get your attention.
God got his attention and he heard the gospel and believed. Now look what Paul says about
it. He sent in Philemon back to his
master, letter in hand. And this is the way Paul addresses
his master. Perhaps, we often say perhaps
this was providential. When we say perhaps it's providential,
understand you can ignore the word perhaps. This is providential. Perhaps. He therefore, that is,
this is the reason behind it, departed for a season that thou
shouldest receive him forever. Oh, wondrous overruling grace. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, but the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. Prevenient
grace gives charge to the heavenly angels. Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to them who shall be the heirs
of eternal life? David pledged you the angels
of God watched over you all the days of your rebellion Preserving
you while you despise God Watching you keeping you preserving you
Determined to save he watched or my path when Satan's blind
slave I sported with death The psalmist David saying of God's
prevenient grace in that familiar 23rd Psalm, in the very last
verse, he said, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me. The word does not mean goodness
and mercy are going to come along behind me wherever I go. I'm
going to leave a trail of goodness and mercy. No. The word is the
same word that you would use if you were speaking of a hound
following a trail. Speaking of a hound on the trail
of a rabbit following that trail, or on the trail of a deer following
that deer, or on the trail of a coon following that coon, and
he hits the trail and pursues the coon, pursues the rabbit,
pursues the deer, sure like goodness and mercy, nothing else! have pursued me all the days
of my life and will continue to pursue me until I am chased
at last into the house of the Lord where I shall dwell forever. Let me tell you about what I'd
change in my life if I could. And I can't tell you how embarrassed
I am to think of my life. And the embarrassment, Eric,
is nobody's fault but mine. Just mine. The wickedness, the
havoc, the evil, the pain, the shame, all mine. All the people I've hurt, the
injuries I've made, the shame I've brought, Let me tell you
what I'd change about it all if I had it in my power to make
a change. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing. No pain, no sorrow, no difficulty,
no embarrassment, no shame, no weeping, no rejoicing. Because
this, by the arrangement of the infinitely wise and good God,
is that which has brought me right here, right now. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain.
Either all things work together for good to them that love God
or they don't. It's just that simple. It's just
that simple. And if God has done good, we
will bow to Him and worship Him with thanksgiving. I'll tell
you one more thing about God's prevenient grace. I'll preach
to you about it another day. It's preparatory grace. See,
the gospel is so. Some falls by the wayside. Some
falls on stony ground and some falls among thorns, but the scriptures
speak of good ground. Good ground. I remember when
there was no good ground sitting there. But then one day the gospel
fell in your heart, fell in good ground. What made it good? What made it ready to receive
the seed of the Word? I'm going to go out just a few
months now. I'm going back to the middle of February, first
of March. I'll put my plow in the ground. I'm going to flat
tear up Jack. I won't be the least bit careful
about injuring or hurting anything. Any roots in the way, you tear
them out. Any stones in the way, you kick them out. Anything in
the way, in the path of that plow is flat cut to pieces. I'll come preparing the ground. preparing the ground to receive
the seed that will spring forth in life. And so our God, in His
prevenient grace by the power of His Spirit, just rips everything,
turns everything upside down, and prepares the heart to receive
the Word at the time of love, because you are preserved in
Jesus Christ.