Most of you, I presume, know
that Judy Estes found out today that the doctor says she has
cancer and she will be going for some more treatments Thursday
and Friday of this week. I want to talk to you about that. When Bobby called today and Shelby
told me what the doctors had said. I called him back and we
chatted a little bit, and several things had been going through
my mind. I finished preparing my message
tonight on the book of Hosea, and if God will give me grace,
I'll preach that to you another time. But I want to share my
thoughts with you and pray that God will be pleased to make them
helpful to you. family, some things I've learned
by experience, things I've learned from this
Word, by God's Spirit. But I learned a while back a
statement I heard Ralph Barton make when I was just a young
man. I heard it on tape, but I thought
That sounds so strange. Somebody asked him one time,
said, Do you believe the whole Bible? He said, I don't know. I haven't experienced it all
yet. And I understand exactly what he meant. Believing the
letter of the word is one thing, being convinced this is the word
of God is one thing. Experiencing what God says in
his word is another thing. And you will never believe God
at all. except as you experience what
he teaches you. Now let's begin tonight in Psalm
73. Psalm 73. I believe this is the first time
in my life I'm glad somebody's not here. I'm glad Judy's not
here now because I don't think I could preach this message if
she was sitting here in front of me. But of this I'm convinced. Truly,
certainly, without a doubt, God is good to Israel. Now get that, let God stamp it
on our hearts. What God is, is good. And what God does, is good. God is always good to Israel. Always. Always good to his people. He does not always give us insight. wisdom, and grace to perceive
his good purpose in the immediate. But God is good to Israel, and
this event in our family is but another stroke of God's goodness
to his people. A display of God's goodness to
our friends, a display of God's goodness in his own wise purpose
for his child and for his children. Now, having said that, let's
turn to another passage, very familiar. I'm really working
my way to a passage Larry mentioned in his prayer. Turn to Romans
11. Romans 11. in the slight experience of difficulty
I've had in this world, and I mean slight. At the time, I think,
you know, when I've got a hangnail, nobody in the world suffers like
I do, but at the slight experience of difficulty I've had in this
world, nothing comforts and sustains and strengthens my soul. like
the knowledge that God our Father sits on his lofty throne and
rules the universe absolutely, disposing of all things exactly
as he will. Here in Romans 11 and verse 36,
the Apostle Paul, as he gives this
doxology, this word of praise to God, He says in verse 33, O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. William Cowper put it this way,
God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants
his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep and unfathomable minds of
never failing skill, he treasures up his bright designs and works
his sovereign will. Ye fearful saints, fresh courage
take the clouds you so much dread are big with mercy and shall
break in blessing on your head." Now, verse 36, for Hathim, Hathim. We like to blame things. We like to look for blame. I
guess It's not so much the result of this call-me-let-sue mentality
that this generation has, but rather our desire to blame is
that which makes the call-me-let-sue mentality so popular. We like
to blame things. This wouldn't have happened if
you hadn't done that. This wouldn't have happened if
You hadn't done that. This wouldn't have happened if,
if, if, if, if. And we've got to blame something. Blame something.
Blame something. In reality, our nature wants
to blame God. Blame God. Well, let the unbeliever
blame God. We will acknowledge him and worship
him. Of him. He's the source. He's the source. The sickness
is not by accident, it is by God's purpose. Not by God's purpose
that somehow has come to pass that God looked at this and said,
now this is what I'm going to do. But rather, it is by God's
purpose which he purposed from eternity. Can you get hold of
that? This is what God Almighty purposed
for us. right now, before the world began,
of him and through him. He purposed it, and he's the
one who brings it to pass. And to him are all things. To whom be glory forever. Amen. When I spoke to Bobby this afternoon,
he said, Judy's doing a whole lot better than I am with this.
And I said, I'm sure she is. I'm sure she is. I had no idea what my wife went
through when she sat in the hospital for 12 hours while they were
operating on me and for the next several months when the doctors
were pretty confident that regardless of their treatments I wasn't
going to make it. I had no idea what she went through until a
few years after we came here I sat in the waiting room and
the doctor didn't know how bad the tumor was inside her but
he was just pretty sure it was bad. And she handled it pretty
good. I could have choked her if she
handled it so good. But the pain is watching someone
you love dearly suffer. That's pain. That's pain. And fear of losing someone you
love dearly. But not only has this come from
our God, it has come from our God because of his goodness to
Israel. Now let's look at that real familiar
text, Romans 8.28. Turn there and look at it. Don't just listen to me. Turn there and look at it. Now other folks quote this. Other
folks recite it. Other folks use it like a good
luck charm. Other folks use it like a piece of superstition
with which they can somehow make things better if they just recite
this often enough. But we who have been taught of
God know. Oh, how blessed. We know. We know. I don't have the slightest hesitancy,
not the slightest piece of doubt not the slightest thought of
uncertainty in this regard. We know, because this book teaches
it, because we look back through what little bit of time we can
perceive in our own experience and in the history of this world,
just that little, little bitty, tiny speck that we can perceive,
and it's proved it. We know that all things All things
work. I love the language. Not have
worked, not are working, not shall work, but work. Always
have, are now, and always will work. God's creation is never
idle. God's work is never idle. But God Almighty sovereignly
works all things together, not separately, not by themselves. Our terrible, terrible, terrible,
terrible unbelief constantly looks at one tree, and that's
all we can see. You stand there and look at that
one tree, just one tree. And that tree looks so bad by
itself. It's all marred and ugly. It's
been burned and charred. It's been marked up. It's been
hit with lightning. It's dead. That one tree is so
ugly. That's all we look at. We ought to stand back and look
at the forest of God's creation and God's providence. Not one
thing, Lindsay. We cannot understand anything
about God's good providence looking only at the present and at the
singular. It cannot be done. We look only
at the present and the singular and all we come away with is
misunderstanding, misapprehension, pain and turmoil and confusion. But all things work together. like a huge, indescribable piece
of machinery. A piece of machinery put together,
kept together, meshed together, and working together by God's
infinite wisdom and goodness. All things work together, look
what it says here, for good. For good. Somebody says, That's just talking
about eternal good. Yeah, but that's not just what
it's talking about. That's not just what it's talking
about. Which one of you fathers doesn't do the very best good
for your child you can at any time and at all times? Now you
cause them pain. If you're a good father, you're
going to cause them pain from time to time. You say no to them. If you're a good father, you
have to. You restrain them. You correct
them. Because you have a goal in mind
for them. But what you're doing is not
just doing something to them now to accomplish your goal in
the future. You're doing good now because
of the future goal. Our God is infinitely greater
and wiser and better than we are. He doesn't just do us good
in preparation for the future. But he has so arranged things
and so rules things that he does us good right now, the very best
good possible. And tomorrow and always. and forever. So my brother, this is the very
best thing that could happen to you and me and this family
and your wife right now. The very best thing. God could not do better. He could
not do better than what he does. All things work together for
good. Now watch it. To them that love God, and love Him we do. Lots of people talk about it.
God's people love Him. exactly as He is, because He
is who He is. We love Him. We love Him. We
love Him because He first loved us, but love Him we do. To them
that love God, to them who are the called. Oh, that's a good
word. The called. There came a time
when God Almighty called you by His grace. Because He had
redeemed you by the blood of His Son. Because He had chosen
you from eternity. I recall well the first time
you came through those doors. I recall it well. He came here
just because he was dating a girl who was faithful, who loved God.
Who had been called by His grace. And didn't have any more interest
in what was going on here than You would if it was going on
in Mars somewhere. No interest at all. Religious but lost. Religious but no knowledge of
God. But God in his good providence brought you into the life of
that lady and brought you here because he was determined at
the appointed time of love to call you by his grace. Some folks are, and some folks
aren't. You've been called. Called of
God. Called of God. Now watch this. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are thee called, and
this is the best part of it. According to His purpose. They don't just turn out good,
they're working together for good according to God's purpose. And you don't have to guess what
that is. Look at the next line. Verse 29. Here's his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, whom
he did love and foreordain and approve of and accept and protect
and care for, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, predestinated us to be made just like his Son,
that his Son, the Lord Jesus, might be the firstborn, the preeminent
one among many brethren. Now that's his purpose. Now turn with me if you will
to John chapter 11. You're very, very familiar with
the story. Martha and Mary, they've been
Bethany and our Lord's was away from them, but he often visited
this home. As a matter of fact, he seems to have frequented this
home more than any other as far as we have record of in scripture. Martha and Mary and their brother
Lazarus were dearly loved of Christ, and they loved him. Their brother Lazarus got sick,
and they sent word to the Lord Jesus, and I love the way they
put it. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." And you read on, you see that
Martha and Mary weren't any more perfect and no more near perfect
than you and I are. But here as they send their message
to the Master, they didn't send a word at all telling him what
to do. They didn't offer any instruction.
They didn't offer any counsel. They didn't suggest at all what
they desired. They just said, Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. And they left it there. Now,
later on, we see they clearly had some personal desires, and
they got a little frustrated when their desires weren't accomplished
immediately, just like we do. But they had their heart in the
right place, and they knew the source of consolation and joy
was not Lazarus' goodness and his love for Christ, but Christ's
love for him. Later on in this chapter when
our Lord Jesus went out, Martha and Mary were weeping. He came
to Lazarus' grave, and the scripture says Jesus wept. And the Jews
said, how he loved him. Oh, how he loved us. How he loves us with everlasting love. With love
that sent him here to live in our room instead to establish
righteousness for us. With love which he commends to
us by the sacrifice of himself, suffering all the horror of God's
holy wrath, indignation and justice, all the horror of God's fierce
anger in himself as our substitute, so that we might be forever delivered
from the wrath of God and brought into the glorious perfect enjoyment
of his infinite everlasting love in eternal glory. This sickness that Lazarus had,
our Lord sent back word to Martha and Mary, and he said, verse
4, this sickness is not unto death. The Lord's disciples said,
let's go take care of things, and the Lord said to his disciples,
He said, this sickness is not unto death. Now, wait a minute. Lazarus died. Well, sort of. Sort of. Sort of. But the Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Now let me tell you something.
This sickness is not unto death. It is not. Our Lord accommodates our feeble
unbelief when he speaks of a believer leaving this world and calls
it death. But he told Martha, he said, he that liveth and believeth
on me shall never die. That's what he said. This sickness
is not unto death. Now I have no knowledge and no
way of knowing what God's immediate purpose is for Judy, for Bobby,
for this family, for this family. This is our family. But I know
it's not unto death. I know it's not. She ain't about
to die. Not ever. Not ever. We may lose her for a while,
but she's not about to die. Not ever. You see, Christ died
for us, and rose again, and we're not going to die. We're not going
to die. One of these days, thank God,
one of these days, this my worst enemy. this body of sin, of flesh, which
has hindered me all the days of my life, this body which is
but a tent for my soul, this body which is just a tool to
be used temporarily, but it is wearing out hurriedly, and its
purpose and usefulness wearing out hurriedly. One of these days,
this body, bless God, shall go to the dust. But I'm going to
live forever. I'm going to live forever. This
sickness is not unto death, but rather, this has happened. So that God our Father may display
right now His glory in what He does and in the grace He gives
to His own. So that Christ our Savior may
be glorified. We talk about believing God. and we do. But sooner or later X the time
comes when God Almighty both gives us opportunity to honor
him by believing him and gives us grace to believe
him so that he's honored by our believing him before a world
that just can't begin to understand what it is that gives us comfort
and peace. Folks say, well, I'm not that
strong. Your problem is you are that
strong. That's your problem. The problem
is you're strong enough to lean on yourself, strong enough to
stand on your own, strong enough to handle things for yourself.
Strong enough to do for yourself. But the Lord God graciously takes
you and me who think we are strong and fixes it so we have no strength and we can do nothing. I mean nothing, except wait on
Him. And Brother Larry read back in
the office Sunday night, our strength is to wait on Him. That's
just it. And waiting on Him, believing
Him, trusting Him, we honor Him. Nothing honors God like faith. And God honors nothing as He
honors faith. Now look at chapter 11 of John,
verse 25. Martha comes and scolds the Lord
Jesus a little. And you shouldn't get too upset
with Martha, you do too, and I do too from time to time. She said, Lord, if you'd have
been here, my brother would not have died. And the Lord Jesus
said to her, said, thy brother shall rise again. Martha said,
I know that, I've got the doctrine right. Verse 25, Jesus said to her,
Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. I was working on a Sunday school
lesson in Galatians earlier this morning, and I kept going back
to this first scripture. Paul said, the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God that
loved me and gave himself for me. He said, I live, but not
I, Christ. He wasn't living in me. You see,
it is not just that we derive life from Christ. That's true. But that's not all. It is not
just that Christ sustains us in life. That's true, but that's
not all. It is not just that the Lord Jesus gives us life. That's true, but that's not all.
Bob, he is our life. Can you get hold of that? We
are so really and truly one with him. Bone of his bone and flesh
of his flesh, spirit of his spirit, soul of his soul. So really and
truly one with him. that our life and his life are
meshed together as one life. The Lord says, I am the resurrection. I am the life. Now read on. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live
again. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. These bodies, sown in corruption,
shall be raised in incorruption, and we shall live to the glory
of God. Now, look at verse 40. Judy's dad, Brother Hubert Montgomery,
years ago sat him back in the office, had scripture reading
one night, and he read this one verse. Tears ran down his cheeks, he
looked up at me and he said, I sure wish I knew something
about that. Our Lord said unto her, said I not unto thee, that
if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. Don Fortner, just to the measure that you
believe me, you will see the glory of God
everywhere, in all things, even in this. Martha, believe me and
watch. Believe me. Believe me, if you
believe, you shall see the glory of God. You're going to see the
glory of God in bringing this thing to pass at this time. And you're going to see the glory
of God as I call your brother out of the two. You're going
to see the glory of God in the resurrection of the dead. You're
going to see the glory of God in me, in my works, in my providence,
in my disposition of all things. Believe me! Behold me! And you shall see the glory of
God. Oh my God, teach me to believe. To believe. To believe Christ. and see the glory of God in the
face of Christ who accomplished redemption for us, to believe
Christ and see the glory of God in the hands of Christ performing
his good pleasure for us, to believe and soon to see the glory
of God. Now turn to one more passage,
2 Corinthians chapter 4. Moses, speaking about the brevity
of our lives in Psalm 90, the vanity of all things here,
he says, Lord, teach me to number my days. Teach us to number our days and
to apply our hearts to wisdom. It ought not take the kind of
shocking bad news that we got today concerning Judy and her
health to bring those things home to us. But we're so hard-hearted and
so sensual and so in love with life in this world, it does take
just those things to bring them home to us. Children of God, hold nothing dearer right now
than you'll hold it when God calls you to let it go. Nothing. Cherish nothing now more than
you will cherish it in the day of judgment. Set your heart upon nothing here
on this earth. Samuel Rutherford said don't
build your nest in any of the trees of this wood because it's
all marked for burning. Don't do it. Number your days. It's just a puff of wind and it's gone. Just
a vapor passes away. just as a ship passing in the
night, and it passes swifter than a weaver's shuttle. Some time ago I read a poem that's
put as an epitaph on a tombstone. Let me see if I can remember
it. said please view my tomb as you
pass by for as you are so once was I and as I am soon you shall
be so make your plans to follow me. Apply your heart to Christ into
eternity. This is what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 4. Verse 17, our light affliction.
Our light affliction. Now if you go back and read the
whole fourth chapter, you'll think, well Paul, what on this
earth are you talking about, your light affliction? You described
a whole life of misery. Yeah, our featherweight affliction.
Which is but for a moment. Ain't gonna last long. And it
doesn't weigh much compared to other things. Worketh for us. Isn't that blessed? Worketh. Worketh. Right now, for us, a
far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Again, earlier this morning,
I was writing that bulletin for next week. I referred to this very
text. Somehow, the trial of your faith
is more precious than gold that perishes. Not just faith, but
the trial. Because somehow, and I don't know how, our heavenly inheritance with
Christ in glory will be richer, fuller, more glorious, more precious,
more delightful, more satisfying than it could ever have been
without the trial. That's exactly what it says here.
Works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Now look at this, while we look not at the things which are seen
and the things which are not seen, for the things which are
seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal,
for we know And if our earthly house and this tabernacle were
dissolved, we have immediately, immediately a building of God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven.