May it please our Good Shepherd
this day to speak and cause you to hear His voice and run after
Him. There is a statement found at
the end of the chapter we read earlier in Mark chapter 7 that
has been on my mind and heart for many, many, many months. I have wrote it over and wrote
it over and rolled it over and come back to it again and again
and again, asking God to seal its message to my heart and give
me a message for you from it. This past Thursday evening, I
stayed at the office late, writing a letter to some friends who
had just buried a friend of mine. Brother Herman Machen was in
his 80s. I've known him for better than
30 years down in Sillicoe, Alabama. He was a faithful, faithful man
there in that congregation for a long, long time. And the Lord
took him after a rather lengthy illness. And his daughter and
son-in-law and his wife, Bessie, are dear friends. And I had put
off writing them little while, not because of neglect, but because
I wanted something to say to him. And this is what the Lord
gave me. He hath done all things well. He hath done all things well. And I try to get the picture
in the context in which these words are found. The Lord has
just come to Decapolis from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. He had
gone there after preaching, seeking some seclusion in a private house,
but his fame was such that he could not be hid. And a Syro-Phoenician
woman, a Gentile woman, came beseeching him to have mercy
upon her because her daughter was grievously vexed of a devil.
And the Lord Jesus put a squeeze on her faith. He
said, I'm just sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And he said, it's not right for me to take the children's bread
and give it to dogs. And she said, well, I'll take
the ground you gave me. It is right for the dogs to eat
the crumbs that fall from the master's table, isn't it? And
the Lord looked at her and said, I've never seen such faith. No,
not in Israel. And her daughter was healed of
Satan's power by his mere will. And now he comes to Decapolis
and multitudes are thronging around him. And they bring to
him one who is a deaf man, almost mute. He could speak, but his
speech was terribly impaired. And the Lord Jesus took him away
from the multitude, and He spoke this word, Ephrathah, be opened. Be opened. May he speak such
to you. Be opened. And immediately the
man heard. He touched his tongue and the
string of his tongue was loosed. And people beheld him. Here standing
before them is this prophet of Nazareth who has gained such
fame because of the miraculous works he's done and the doctrine
he proclaims and the way he proclaims it with authority, not as the
scribes and Pharisees, but one who speaks with authority. He
is the one who by the mere word of his power causes the blind
to see and the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak and the lame
to walk. This is he who cast out devils
simply by saying the word or by willing it. This is He who
speaks and the dead are raised. And they've seen His works performed
over and over again. And now they see this end of
the day, what's come to pass by His mighty power, His great
goodness. And the multitudes were astonished. They were astonished. And they
said, He hath done all things well. Now if these men and women
who had seen these things which are but the hiding of His power, not the revealing of His power,
the hiding of His power, if they have seen these things, and their
hearts were utterly astonished. They were amazed before Him.
How much more are we who have known the revelation of His power,
the marvel of His grace? How much more shall we who have
tasted and seen that the Lord is good be astonished and in
our hearts Cry out to Him continually, He hath done all things well. There was a time when these eyes
could not see. I was blind. Now I see. There was a time when these ears
could not hear. Oh, I heard the wondrous things
of God's grace and glory in Christ, but I couldn't hear them. I just
couldn't hear them. Now I hear. There was a time
when this tongue could not speak His praise. It was not possible. Sometimes I even tried, but it
couldn't be done. Now He's loosened the string
of my tongue to give praise to Him. I was dead. He gave me life. Oh yes, He has
done all things well. Looking over all the days of
my life, And everything I've experienced in these 54 years,
I lift my heart to heaven before you this day and to God on His
throne. And I confess, He hath done all
things well. Like you, I've had a few trials
and heartaches. Like you, I've experienced a
little pain and sorrow, a little hurt, a little bitterness. And I'm ashamed to confess I've
caused a great deal more than I've ever experienced. But God my Savior had been so
kind, so gracious, so good to me. that were I to die this day,
you can write these words on my gravestone. Here lies a man
who for 54 years was the benefactor of unceasing
special divine care. And my Jesus has done all things
well. Everything. Everything. I wouldn't change a thing. Not a thing. One of the old missionaries,
when he was an old man, he said, if I had my life to live over,
I'd weep the same tears, experience the same pains, kneel by the
same graves, and serve the same God I've served all these days. He hath done all things well. Now tell me, you who know our
God and Savior, will you not verify what I've said? Does your
life's experience not testify to this? I know it does. I know it does. You who know
my God. From the first to the last, from
the day of our birth to this hour, from the earliest pangs
of sin's conviction to the blessed thrill of sin's forgiveness,
from the cradle to the grave, from earth to heaven, from time
to eternity, this will be our testimony regarding all the way
our God has led us through this wilderness and everything along
the way, our gracious God has done all things well. Pastor,
do you mean everything? Everything. In providence and
in grace, in every truth revealed in His Word, in every token of
His love, in every stroke of His rod, in every sunbeam of
His goodness, in every cloud that has darkened our sky, in
every sweet morsel He's put into our lives, in every bitter thing
He's mixed in our cup. In all that has been mysterious,
confusing, painful, and humiliating, in all that He's given, and in
all that He's taken away, this is the sum of it all. He hath
done all things well. This is, it must be. By the grace of God, it shall
be our grateful acknowledgment through time and eternity. Our
great God and Savior, who loved us, chose us, redeemed us, and
saved us by His grace, who has kept us in all our ways, has
done all things well. He who is our God is too wise
to err, too strong to fail, and too good to do wrong. He cannot
do wrong. He has done all things well.
So I say to you, my brothers and sisters, and defy anyone
else to do the same. Study all his universe, all the
history of it. Study his creation, his providence,
his judgments, and his grace. View everything in the light,
in every light possible. Examine them in their most minute
detail. As you would, if you were examining
the wing of a tiny insect or the petal of a flower, you wanted
to see the details of, look at the most minute details with
the microscopic eye of faith. And this will be your glad testimony
to His praise. He has done all things well. Now, that's my one point this
morning. I've got a message with just
one point. I want you to get it. Oh, God,
seal it to your heart. He hath done all things well. Do you remember how the Lord
spoke after He had finished the creation of the heavens and the
earth? He looked at everything He had made, and behold, it was
very good. It was very good. Let us look
at everything He has made and understand, behold, it is very
good. He has done everything well.
Go back, if you can, in your mind's eye for just a little
bit to the old ages of eternity past, if I can use such language,
and behold God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. standing in
covenant mercy for us as our surety before the world was,
who stands as one who assumes all responsibility for our souls,
who takes upon himself all responsibility for our everlasting good in covenant
mercy. He draws near to the triune God
for us, pledges himself to redeem us, gives Himself as our substitute,
our surety, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
and the Father trusts Him. as our Good Shepherd, and gives
all His sheep into the Shepherd's hand. And having committed all
to Him, having trusted all to Him, there, before time began,
God Almighty blessed us, accepted us, and rejoiced in us, whose
delights were with us before the world was. You won't mind
turning one more time to Ephesians 1, will you? Ephesians 1. The Lord God has done all things
well for us. We read here in Ephesians 1 and
verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. And this is how he did it. according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. He chose us
because He loved us and determined to make us stand at last holy,
unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. Read on. In love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. Oh, in His infinite love, our
God predestined us, His adopted sons and daughters, to the blessed
full possession of all that is ours as His adopted sons and
daughters, according to the good pleasure of His will. What's
that mean? He did it, Rex, just because
He wanted to. Just because He wanted to. Not
because He beheld something good in us or saw something in us
that might win His favor. Oh no. Just because He wanted
to. Read on. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted. Accepted in His
grace, accepted in His Son, accepted according to His good pleasure,
accepted in His love, accepted eternally, accepted in the Beloved,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace. Then in the fullness
of time, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive this adoption. Not that we might
somehow by our faith or our obedience or our response to Him be made
the sons of God. No, no, no, no, no. But we might
receive the adoption of sons. Because we are His sons, He sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
And now God the Son has come in the fullness of time, made
of a woman, made under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. But Brother Don, if He purposed
it, predestinated it, and it was done from eternity, what's
the purpose of this? Because God has ordained we receive
it by faith in His Son. He's ordained that it come to
us in this way, and it could come only in this way, and that
is by the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world. and assuming
our nature to live in this world in perfect righteousness to God. I never cease to be amazed. This
is what God requires of you and of me. Perfect righteousness. Perfect righteousness. A good
intention won't do you any good before God. You think you've
got good intentions, you just deceive yourself. Your intentions
are anything but good. A good change of life and behavior
won't change anything before God. Your little decision for
Jesus won't change anything before God. A little religious commotion
inside you or outside you won't change anything before God. Not
at all. What does God require? Perfect
righteousness. Perfect righteousness. Well,
Brother Don, nobody can give that. You're wrong. There's one
somebody who can. And that one somebody came here
in humanity, God in human flesh, in that holy thing formed for
this specific purpose in the womb of the Virgin by God the
Holy Spirit. He came to perform righteousness
not for Himself, but for us. whom he loved with an everlasting
love. And by his obedience to God,
Bobby, he rendered to God a righteousness of infinite worth and efficacy
for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And he is the Lord our righteousness. Now we are robed with the garments
of salvation. with the robe of His righteousness,
a better righteousness than the angels have in heaven, a better
righteousness than Adam had in the garden, a righteousness that's
compared to fine linen, clean and white, before which we may
stand rightfully before the throne of God in glory. And this is
all our righteousness. He is all our righteousness. And we're made the righteousness
of God in Him. so that all the goodness we have,
all the worth we have, all the merit we have before God is Christ
alone, nothing else. We bring our gifts, these gifts
you just brought, the song you just sang, the praises we have
lifted with our voices, the prayers we offer, we bring our gifts
to God. And Peter tells us in 1 Peter
2, verse 5, they are acceptable to God by Christ Jesus. He accepts that which we give
Him and that which we endeavor to do for His honor only through
the merit of Christ's blood and righteousness. No other way.
No other way. He accepts these things. because
of him and accepts us because of him. But his righteous obedience
to God as a man, even his righteous obedience to God as the God-man,
though of infinite worth in itself, would be of no value to us. It
would be of no benefit whatsoever to our souls if he hadn't done
something else. Because God Almighty demands
not only perfect righteousness, He demands absolute satisfaction
for sin. The soul that sinneth, it must
die. Your conscience knows this. You
may scream and try to shut it up, but you know God Almighty
demands satisfaction. He must and shall punish sin. And He's going to punish it either
in you, in the everlasting torments of the damned, or He's punished it in a substitute,
who with one tremendous draft of love drank damnation dry. The Son of God took on Himself
our nature that He might live in righteousness. But more than
that, He took on Himself our nature that He might die under
the penalty of our sin, being made sin for us, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him, the just for the
unjust, that He might bring us to God. so that God Almighty,
in all His inflexible holiness, justice, and truth, may now come
to sinners in a way of grace and call sinners to come to Him,
saying, Come to Me, behold Me, a just God and a Savior. A just God and a Savior. Behold the incarnate Son of God,
He who came here. to live and die for us, hanging
on the cursory, as he says, it is finished. And understand now,
God can, in perfect justice, forgive me all my sins. Rhonda, no wonder like that in
the universe. Nothing to compare with this. I'll tell you a little what I
have experienced. I had my first little dose of
religion when I was about seven years old. Sitting in church and heard folks
talking about something. Preachers telling stories and
singing sad songs and folks getting scared to death, going to hell,
me included. And squeezed into making a profession of faith
when you don't have any idea what's going on. I came down
to the front of the church and helped in a doctor. They called
it a Baptist church, but it had altars like Catholics. And some
fellow told me, he said, no, you say this and do that, you're
all right. God save you. Don't let anybody
ever tell you otherwise. And I went on living like hell.
Preached a little bit. I was eight years old. If you
could call it preaching. It's foolishness, what it is.
Went on living like hell. And kept trying to tell myself
what that soul would have told me. Now you're saved, everything's
alright. And every time I get in real
trouble and get real scared, I go back to church. And try
to rededicate up. Get things patched up again.
Alright, I got it now. I got it now. But my soul was
tormented before God. Because in my conscience, even
as a boy, I knew God requires something I can't give. There's
something more to this thing called grace and salvation and
eternal life than me saying something and having a little experience.
God demands something more! He demands righteousness and
satisfaction. And one day, ten years later, The Lord God Almighty revealed
His darling Son in the obedience of His perfect life unto death. And in Him, I saw the Holy God fully satisfied
with perfect righteousness, fully satisfied with the full vindication
of His justice. And believing Him, my conscience
declares, God can't require anything more. God cannot require anything more. What does God require of me?
Only perfection. Only satisfaction. Only Christ. Yes. In the redemption of my
soul, He has done all things well. And in His grace, oh, in
the sweet experience of grace, I pause to reflect upon it as
often as God gives me wisdom to do so. He has done all things well. I spurned His grace, I broke
His laws, and yet He undertook my cause. At the appointed time
of love, He came to me and called me, convincing me of my sin, convincing
me of His righteousness, convincing me that judgment is over, that
He put away all my sin. He called me, He gave me faith,
revealing Christ in me, and He turned me. Surely after that
I was turned. I turned and called on Him. He
turned me to Himself. Oh, blessed is the man whom Thou
choosest and causes to approach unto Thee. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of Thy power. And He forgave me all my sins. Turn back to Psalm 32. Psalm
32. I sought the Lord and He heard
me. He delivered me from all my fears. This poor man cried and the Lord
heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. Gracious is
the Lord and righteous altogether. Yea, our God is merciful too.
Here David testifies to it, Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Someone asked me just recently
about these various descriptions of sin. Why are they used like
this? Transgression refers to our kicking
down the fences, kicking down the gate, breaking God's law.
Iniquity refers to our best deeds of righteousness coming short
of what God requires. Inequity is the word. Sin, that refers to the root of it
all. That's what's in here. That's what's in here. And David
said, Oh, hear me now. God Almighty has forgiven my
transgression. He's atoned for my sin. He does not impute to me iniquity. Blessed is the man in whose spirit
is no guile. He made me a new creature, made
me honest before him. Verse three. When I kept silence,
when I refused to acknowledge and confess my sin, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and
night Thy hand was heavy upon me." Oh, if God's hand laying
heavy on you, thank God for it. I pray He'll never take it off
until He has laid the hand of His grace upon you in omnipotent
mercy. My moisture is turned into the
drought of summer. Stop and think about this. Verse
five. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my
transgressions. I will tell you the evil of my
righteousness, the evil of my transgressions, the evil of my
heart unto the Lord. And as soon as I confessed, thou
forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Oh, the forgiveness was
done from eternity. The forgiveness was done when
Christ died at Calvary. But oh, my soul, blessed be God
when the sinner is constrained by Almighty Grace to confess
his sin. God speaks forgiveness to the
soul. Brother Ed Hale used to sing
a song he wrote, A Pardon in My Pocket. I've got a pardon
in my pocket. A pardon in my pocket. How can
that be? God put it right here in the
pocket of my heart. He said, You're forgiven. You're
forgiven. Faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
in His providence. Oh, His providence. Turn to Psalm 119 for a minute.
Psalm 119, verse 65. I can't think of a better way
to express what I want to say than to take David's words for
mine. Psalm 119, verse 65. I presume this 119th Psalm, written
by alphabet going from beginning to end, David has jotted down
by inspiration his diary in poetic praise to God our Savior. He
says in verse 65, Thou hast dealt well with thy servant according
unto thy words. Teach me good judgment and knowledge,
for I have believed thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went
astray, but now have I kept thy word. Thou art good, and doest
good. Teach me thy statutes. God my
Savior, has dealt well with me. What an awesome thought, God
has dealt with me. All the days of my life, the
angel of the Lord has pitched his tent round about me. Read it for yourself,
Psalm 34, verse 7. All the days of my life, He has pitched His tent. The
angel of the Lord has pitched His tent round about me. So that in all things, God in
glory has dealt with me personally, specifically, divinely, with me." If that doesn't ring
your bell, your clacker's broke. He's dealt with me. Not only
that, he's dealt well with me. He's dealt well with me. Those words don't begin to start
telling my astonishment. The word that David uses for
well, I just had to look it up yesterday. I thought that word's
got to have some depth of meaning that's not conveyed by that little
four-letter, one-syllable word. Well, and boy was I right. It's one of those real short,
little, simple words that's bursting with meaning. And I didn't get
all of it written down here. Let me just give you some of
what the word means. Thou hast dealt most favorably,
most kindly. most graciously, most lovingly,
most pleasurably, most sweetly, most prosperously, most finely,
most joyfully, and most merrily with me. Thou hast dealt well with me,
and particularly these last 37 years. God has dealt well with
me as his servant. Thou hast dealt well with thy
servant. Oh, he's dealt well with me as
his son, an heir of God, a joint heir with Christ. He's dealt
well with me as his spouse. whom He loves and cares for and
provides for in all things. He's dealt well with me as His
friend, to whom He's made known His secret things. But, oh, how
He's dealt well with me as His servant. He's called me, gifted
me, to preach the gospel and serve Him. He made you His servant,
His servant. And you know what a servant does?
A servant serves his master at his master's expense, never at
his own. He supplied every need, provided
everything required, always, always. Taking care of things,
always. Never had to go begging anybody
for anything, never. Never had any needs yet, but
I tell him about them. He's my master. I don't tell other folks about
them. He takes care of things. Takes care of things. He's dealt
well with his servant in the reward he's given to. Oh, how
good he is to use such things as we are for his glory. And he's dealt well with me as
his servant all the days of my life according to his word. Merle, he said he would, didn't
he? Before the world was, our God declared he would be our
God and do us good. He promised us over and over
and over again he would be our God and do us good. He pledged
himself in his sword. He would be our God and do us
good. Blessed us! He said to Abraham,
I'll bless you and I'll make you a blessing. My, what a blessing. Nothing but blessing. Nothing
but blessing. He says to the children of Israel
in giving His law, He says, you obey My Word and you'll be blessed
when you rise up in the morning, when you lay down at night, when
you go to the field or when you go to war. Blessed! Everything
shall be a blessing to you. Otherwise, everything a curse. Well, Brother Don, can you say
that you have obeyed His Word and kept His law and therefore
must expect to be blessed? Oh, yes. Oh, yes! Absolutely! Absolutely! Didn't you hear me? Christ, my
Redeemer, obeyed God's Word and kept His law for me in totality,
in perfection. And now, there is nothing evil
that happens to the just, but only good and good continually. In His providence, The Lord has
dealt bountifully with me. What a good word from God. The
psalmist says, return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord
hath dealt bountifully with me. I've read lots of commentaries
on those words, but I'll tell you what, I won't so much speak honestly.
Mark, my experience, expounds them better than any book I ever
read. Oh, the Lord has dealt bountifully
with me. Bountifully. He's given us all
spiritual blessings in Christ before the world began. At the
appointed time of His love, He comes and gives us His Holy Spirit,
God, our Comforter, to seal to us all the promises of the covenant
and seal us in Christ and convey to us all those blessings that
are ours, continually taking the things of Christ and showing
them to us. And of His fullness, Have we
all received grace for grace? Yes. In all the affairs of providence,
he hath done all things well. And that which he has done, he
is doing. And he shall forever do. until
He has finished everything He purposed to do, and time shall
be no more. And then, when our mansions are
prepared, and our God makes all things new, and He calls us in
that great day of the resurrection out of our graves into glory,
and says to you and me, his believing children, come. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. We'll look back over
all the mountains and ages and seas of time astonished, and confess, He hath
done all things well. Years ago, Samuel Medley wrote
this hymn, Oh, for a heart prepared to sing to God my Savior and
my King, with all the saints I'll join to tell, My Jesus hath
done all things well. All worlds His glorious power
confess, His wisdom all His works confess, but, oh, His love, what
tongue can tell? My Jesus hath done all things
well. Hail, sovereign, wonderful, and
free, is all His love to send for me. He plucked me as a brand
from hell. My Jesus hath done all things
well. And since my soul has known His
love, what mercies He has made me prove, mercies which all my
praise excel. My Jesus hath done all things
well. Soon, soon I'll pass this veil
of death, and in His arms shall lose my breath. Yet then, my
happy soul shall tell, my Jesus hath done all things well. And
when to that bright world I rise, And join the anthems in the skies,
Among the rest this note shall swell, My Jesus hath done all
things well. Amen.