And turn back with me to Job
chapter 23. Job chapter 23. About 15 years ago I come across a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon
on verses 13 and 14 of this chapter. He was a great blessing to me
and stirred my heart and soul a great deal and I borrowed some
from Brother Spurgeon and I preached a sermon on this about 1991 and
I was impressed this week I was talking with Aaron there on Wednesday
night and he had mentioned this verse of scripture and I felt
this morning a burden to speak to you on this verse verse 13
and 14 primarily verse 13 and I'll only be able to get about
half of the message in but maybe we'll get the other one in a
couple of weeks maybe but let me read verse 13 and 14 but he That is, the Lord is in one mind,
and who can turn him? And what his soul desireth, even
that he doeth. For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. The text says, But he, God, is
in one mind, and who can turn him, and what his soul desireth,
even that he doeth? For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. There are those in the religious
world who represent the Lord as wishing and trying and striving
to attain various and sundry goals. Yes, they say that God
has some plans which he wishes to be realized, but these plans
are dependent upon the will of men and the actions of men and
the cooperation of men. And frequently we hear people
speak of what God wants to do. Have you ever heard anybody say,
God wants to do this and God wants to do that? God wants this
and that and the other. God wants you to let Him save
you. Have you ever heard anybody say
that? God wants you to let Him save
you. Such language reveals the weakness
and the impotence of their God. What does the scripture have
to say about God and His ability to fulfill His plans and realize
His designs? Our text tells us plainly that
He is in one mind and no one can turn Him. It asks the question,
who can turn Him? and I certainly don't know if
anybody can. We know the devil is God's devil
and the devil can't blink his eye unless God grants him permission
to do so and so we know that all of God's creatures are under
his authority so who can turn him? And what his soul desireth,
even that he doeth. And in Isaiah 46 verse 10 and
11 says, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. And the heathen said to David
on one occasion, Where is your God? And Psalm 115 and verse
3, his reply was, Our God is in the heavens. He hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. Well, let those who are deceived
continue to set forth and trust in a feeble, powerless, anemic
God who requires human cooperation in order to fulfill His purposes
as for us. We will just believe His Word
by the grace of God. We will believe His Word by the
grace of God. It's a time to believe God. It's a time to trust in the Lord. Romans 3 and 4 says, Let God
be true, and every man a liar. Let God be true. And beloved,
we believe that every word that proceeds out of the mouth of
a holy God, that these words are true, and they cannot be
frustrated, and God's arm cannot be held back from doing and accomplishing
that which He's purposed to do. We have been taught by the Spirit
to bow to His sovereign power and to acknowledge His unlimited
dominion. We are fully persuaded that what
God is purposed to do shall be done. I say fully persuaded that
God will have His way among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants
of the earth and that none can stay His hand. We're fully persuaded
of that truth. There is no power in heaven or
earth or in hell that can effectually resist or in any way frustrate
the plan of our God. He will do as He pleases. He
is in one mind, and who can turn him? For I know that the Lord
is great, and that our Lord is above all gods, the psalmist
said. Whatsoever the Lord please, that
did he in heaven, in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. Psalm 135 verse 5 and 6. The God of the Bible, the Lord
of hosts, hath purpose, and who shall disannul or frustrate it? And his hand is stretched out,
and who shall turn it back? Isaiah 14 verse 27. Now it will do us a great deal
of good, I believe this morning, to consider what Job means here
in this text when he tells us that God is in one mind and who
can turn him. It will do us good because it
will enlighten and it will establish our hearts in the good old doctrine
which lies at the very basis of our faith, and that is the
doctrine of the absolute sovereignty of God. What are people going
to do, my friend, that do not believe in the absoluteness of
the sovereignty of God? We believe that God, that his
character has been revealed in the scripture and we believe
that it's a gross mistake that men make when they in any way
indicate that God is not in absolute control of the creation that
he's made. I believe the root and foundation
of all error in theology comes from ignorance of the character
and the attributes of God himself. Armenian theology makes God to
be less than he is. The basis and the groundwork
of Armenianism, or Armenian theology, lies in attaching undue importance
to man and giving God second place rather than first place
in their thinking. Let your mind dwell for a while
upon man as a free agent, upon man as a responsible being, upon
man not so much as being under the claims of God, as having
the claims of God upon him, and you will find springing up in
your minds a set of very crude doctrines that are contrary to
the whole tenor of the Word of God. We must keep our eyes upon
God as He's revealed in the Word, and keep our ears open to his
plain word and not be carried away with every wind of doctrine
concerning man. We must believe what the Bible
teaches about man, his weakness, his depravity, and the condition
that he's in since the fall, lest we say that man has so much
more strength and ability and control over the affairs of God. than what the Bible indicates. Now, brethren, a man will not
go far wrong in his doctrinal sentiments who thinks worthily
about the Creator, stands in awe of His adorable perfection,
and sees Him sitting upon the throne doing all things according
to the counsel of His own will. I say, if you have that kind
of view of God, you're not going to go wrong in your sentiments
about the God of the Bible. Men receive false doctrine because
they do not have a clear understanding of the omnipotence, the holiness,
the immutability, or sovereignty of God. Notice the greatness
and the importance and the power, my friend, of your religion depends
entirely upon the greatness, the glory, and the power of your
God. The depth of a man's worship
depends on the majesty and the greatness of the God that he
worships. Let me say that again. The depth
of a man's worship depends upon the majesty and the greatness
of the God he worships. Aren't you glad that we have
the God of the Bible to worship? Aren't you glad that we have
this majestic God who sits upon the circle of eternity, this
God who is the God of creation, the God of providence, and the
God of salvation, and we worship this God because he is truly
absolute God. Now the strength of a man's faith
depends upon the power and the ability of the God that he believes. If you believe in an anemic God,
if you believe in an impotent God, then of course you have
no strong faith. But if the object of your faith
is the God of the Bible, the absolute sovereign of the universe,
Then, my friend, there's some strength and power in your faith. Do you believe in the God of
the Bible? Do you trust fully in this God
who is in one mind and cannot be turned? Now, the peace and
the rest that a man enjoys, and this is very critical. Because
we all want peace. We all want some stability in
our lives. We all want some rest. We all
want to be able to feel a security in our lives. But the peace and
rest that a man enjoys depends on his confidence in the God
who controls the flight of an angel or the flight of a fly
and the flash of lightning and the glimmer of a glow worm. If
we're going to rest, we've got to depend on a God who is concerned
with the minute details of the earth and what's going on around
us, and in our lives we must believe in Him and trust Him
explicitly. Well, some of us run around in
circles until we get dizzy. Everything has been moving with
us, till perhaps as we came into this place this morning, we felt
as if the very promises of God had moved away from us, as if
everything was a floating mass, and nothing firm, and nothing
was fixed. Like a man who's been out on
a ship for many months or many days and he comes first to land,
he can hardly walk because he's been moving this way and that
way. Well, many, many of us feel that
way. And we may feel that way this
morning. You may say, well, things are just not fixed with me. I mean, I just feel like I'm
back and forth and up and down and very unstable. Well, my friend,
what we need is this text and we need to believe this text. We need this text. Brethren,
let us get a good grip on the immutability of God when things
all around us are changing and we cannot get them, as it were,
nailed down Let's get a good grip on the immutability of God. Jesus Christ said, I'm the same
yesterday, today, and forever. I'm never going to change. From
everlasting to everlasting, I am God. Let us stand still a while
and know that the Lord is God. It's time to stand still and
know that the God of the Bible is who He's revealed Himself
to be. Well, let's look at this text a little bit. First thing
that we'll say about it is the text may be regarded as teaching,
I think first of all, a general truth. Now then, at the first
clause of the sentence it says he is in one mind. Now the fact
that is taught here is that in all the acts of God in providence
he has a fixed and a settled purpose. Now get that, in all
the acts of God in providence he has a fixed and a settled
purpose. Now the decrees of God is given
birth to God's providence and God has a fixed and settled purpose
which he's working out detail in detail in the lives of men
in time. He is in one mind. It is very
comforting to us to know that God's creation, to know that
He did not make us without a purpose. We know God created us and we
know that He made us but it was not without a purpose. He had
a purpose behind us coming into the world when we did and coming
into the world he had a design that he's going to fulfill in
our lives and that now in his dealings with us he has the same
wise and gracious end to serve. What God decreed in old eternity
which providence is working out the design God intends to graciously
bring to pass in the end. We suffer many trials in this
world. We know something about suffering
trials in the world. Sufferings in the body. The brethren
have been talking about that just this morning. Trials of
the mind and trials with our human relationships and trials
with our goods and with our livelihood. Trials with your job, your employment. All kinds of crosses Well, they're
continual in our lives, burdens and distresses. We're seldom
long at ease and we're born into sorrow and certainly it is an
inheritance of which we'll never be deprived. We are certainly
going to have sorrow and grief and testing and difficulty. The people of God are a suffering. They are a poor. They are an
afflicted people. They're a tested people. But
it will reconcile us, I believe, to our griefs and our burdens
and our sorrows to know that they serve some end. That they serve an end. That
they serve, might we say, they serve God's end. There is a purpose. There is a cause for what's going
on in our lives. I believe it's a great comfort
and it reconciles us to the difficulties and the struggles and the problems
to know that there's a cause. There is a cause for these things
that God has a purpose. He is in one mind. He is still
carrying out his one great purpose and none of these come by chance. None of these things happen to
me out of order. But everything comes to us according
to the purpose of His own will and answers the purpose of His
own great mind. Now I'm saying nothing happens
that is not a part of the divine scheme of things. That nothing
happens outside of that area wherein God exercises absolute
control. Now to gather up all in one,
all that falls out to us, along with all the calamities and the
devastations that occur in this world, all of the earthquakes,
all of the wars, and all the storms that take place in this
wide world, along with the decay of nations, along with all the
strife and the troubles among the races of men, they have only
been co-workers with God. God has been ruling through all
the turmoil that has taken place on the face of this earth throughout
the generations of man. As one writer put it, We're just
slaves that we're compelled to tug the galley of the divine
purpose across the sea of time. You might have wondered, what's
God been up to all these years? Well, he has a scheme, and he
has a design, he has an end, he has his own mind, and his
own purpose, and he's working it out from every evil good has
come. Now you may question that. There
may be many of these things that we say this morning that you
will question. But I'm telling you that God
gets, that good comes from evil. God brings good out of evil. If he hadn't have done it, you
people and I wouldn't be where we are this morning. And the
good that he brings out of evil, we've often said, is better than
the good, many times, that he brings out of good. And so God
is in control. That is the point. And the more
evil has accumulated, the more has God showed himself off in
bringing out at the last his grand, his everlasting design. This, I take it, is the first
general lesson of this text. That is, in every event of providence,
God has a purpose and only one purpose, and that is His purpose. Now, for all history is but one. There are many schemes, but it
is one drama. There are many pages, but it
is one book. There are many leaves, but it
is one tree. There are many provinces, yes,
and there be lords many and rulers many, yet is there but one empire,
and God is the only potentate in that empire. O come, let us
worship and bow down before him, for the Lord is a great God and
a great King above all gods. Can you say amen? Can you say
amen to that? Second, very weak of course.
Second, notice that the second clause of the sentence says who
can turn him. Here we are taught the doctrine
that the purpose of God is unchanged. Now, nobody should do things
without having a plan. And we know that what God has
done, back in old eternity, that God had a plan. purpose and he
decreed that plan and purpose and none can turn him from that
original plan that original design. Here we're taught the doctrine
that the purpose of God is unchanged. We should I think first of all
he has we've said that he has a purpose and the second thing
here shows that it is incapable of change. who can turn him. He's not a man that he should
repent or the son of man that he should lie. God will not change. He's unchangeable. Beloved, do
not suppose that God has ever had to take down his book of
providence and erase or make an amendment to something that
he decreed in purpose to do in old time. Somebody said, well,
did not the fall of man throw God off? No, it absolutely did
not surprise God. Are you surprised at that? I
say to you that the fall did not surprise God. I say that
the fall could never have occurred if God had not allowed it to
be. And I tell you that the purpose
in my understanding of the Word of God of the fall is that God
allowed the fall in order that He might show Himself off in
liberating and saving a people from the fallen sons of Adam
by his marvelous grace and bring them into a state wherein they
had the righteousness, not of an innocent man, but the righteousness
of God down to their account on the books of God and so God
has shown himself off in the fall of man in order that he
has brought man those that he elected and chose in old time
he brought them out and he fixed them up so that not even he himself
could find they could find not a spot or wrinkle or any such
thing in them they're without spot or wrinkle or any such thing
God has fixed them up so you see that he overruled the fall
he allowed it but he overruled it and praise be unto God that
we are now restored to a state that is higher than what we were
before Adam fell. I don't have a human righteousness
down to my account. I have the righteousness of Jesus
Christ himself to my account. I'm as righteous as Christ himself. Now I don't know whether that
is interesting to you or not, but it's very, very interesting
to me. because there's no way on earth
that i could have ever been as innocent as adam was before he
fell uh... if the lord would have left me
to myself and there's certainly no way no way under the heavens
as he quoted the verse this morning neither is there salvation in
any other for there is none other name under heaven given among
men whereby we can receive this restoration that God only can
give to set us on a plane where we're level as it were with His
Son in righteousness. And I give glory to God. I give
praise to Him. And I'm not gonna argue with
God about why He allowed the fall. God has a right to allow
what He wants to allow. I'm no authority on what God
ought to do or what He ought not to do. I'm just glad He did
what He did on the behalf of those chosen in Jesus Christ
before the foundation of the world. No, the whole was written
from the beginning and he knew it all. Knowing unto God the
Bible says are all of his works from the beginning of the world.
One of my favorite verses in all the Bible. what he intended
the great picture to be, that it shall be in the end. Is that
alright with you? What God intended it to be, that's
the way it's going to be in the end. I don't have any trouble
with God seeing a people and choosing that people in his son
before the foundation of the world and that those are the
ones that's going to be in heaven at the last. I have no problem
with that. And I have no problem with God
seeing that and purposing that and determining that, ordaining
that before the foundation of the world. I have no problem
with that. And I don't know why anyone else would if they were
in their right mind. What He intended, the great picture
to be, that it shall be in the end. I'm glad for something that
you can get your hands on that's not changing all the time. I'm glad to be able to trust
in a God who is absolutely a sovereign. And when the end, God shall exhibit
the whole. He will. Don't you think He will?
I think he will indeed exhibit the whole. He will show why it
was that he did what he did. He will reveal the answers I
think to the questions, the secret things belong unto God. But he will exhibit the whole
because he had a definite, absolute purpose. He shall elicit both
from men and angels, I think tremendous shouts of praise while
they say, great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty,
just and true. King of Saints, thou only art
holy. All nations shall come and worship
before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. Now where
we have thought his government has went wrong, there shall it
prove most right. Where we thought that God had
lost control, as we read history books, and some people think
that back during the days of the Civil War that God lost control. Some people think that in the
First World War, Second World War, and the wars that have racked
this whole globe that God has lost control. But my friend,
it shall be proven that God's government was most right at
all times when you get the end picture, when you see it all,
when it's all exhibited in the end. where we dreamed he had
forgotten to be good, there shall his goodness be most clear."
It is a sweet consolation to the mind of the child of God
who studies these matters that God has never changed in any
degree from his purpose. Is that not a consolation to
you? that God has never changed and
the result will be notwithstanding everything to the contrary just
precisely in every jot and tittle what he foreknew and what he
foreordained it should be my friend rejoice in the Lord our
God is great now never varies God never varied in his plan
the Bible says he's without variableness or shadow turning that God never
casts a shadow by turning about, changing, and being this today,
that tomorrow, and having one plan today, junking it tomorrow,
and doing something else. God never casts a shadow. He
never, never turns. Albert Barnes said, it is when
properly understood, a matter of unspeakable consolation, that
God has a plan. For who could honor a God who
had no plan, but who did everything in a haphazard way? Who could
worship a God like that? Who could honor a God like that?
It is a matter of rejoicing that He has one great purpose which
extends through all ages and embraces all things, for then
everything falls into its proper place and has its appropriate
bearing on other events. My, my, what a statement. Why
should men murmur at the purpose or the decree of God? Are we
not so short-sighted that we would murmur at the decrees of
God and murmur at His decrees and His purposes? We are short-sighted
indeed. We just, you know, we're creatures
for an hour. You know what that means. We're
just here a very short time and the Bible says that our life,
what is it? It is even as a vapor. that appeareth just for a little
time, and then it is vanished away. But you know, we're questioning
Almighty God who is from everlasting to everlasting, and we're murmuring,
complaining that this God seems to be out of control. No, He
is not out of control. We are short-sighted. It's a
matter of joy that God does execute all of His purposes, for it is
good and wise and would be a calamity if it were not so. What a calamity
this world would be! Would you want to live in this
world if God wasn't in control of it? My friend, my friend,
people impute to the devil great powers and they impute great
power to men. But my friend, why don't we just
impute all of the power in heaven and earth unto God and let Him
manage it and rest in His management of all affairs. So it would be
a calamity if God did not work out His good and wise and holy
purpose. Number three, this text also
teaches this. While God had a purpose and that
purpose has never changed, the third clause teaches us that
this purpose is sure to be effected. Sure to be effected. Let me explain
this. What his soul desireth Job said,
that he doeth, that he doeth, what his soul desireth, that
he doeth. Now he made the world out of
nothing and there was no resistance there when he made the world.
He said let there be light and the light was and there was no
resistance. He said providence be and providence
shall be and when you come to see the end as well as the beginning
you will find that really and truthfully there's no resistance
there either. It is a wonderful thing how God
affects his purpose while creatures appear to be, while creatures
as we have been taught are free. Creatures are free. Now, I did
not say that man has free will. I did not say that because the
Bible teaches that he cannot will to do. Man cannot will to
do anything contrary to his nature, but that he is a free agent,
that he's free. It would not be a miracle for
God to affect his purpose if he was dealing with fence posts,
if he was dealing with rocks, if he was dealing with trees,
if he was dealing with granite, It wouldn't be, somebody said
it would be no problem, but man is running around here free and
he can mess up God's will, but this is the miracle of miracles,
my friend, that the creature is free and yet the divine purpose
stands. It stands. Now look at it a little
bit. I do admit this is deep water,
deep and unsearchable. Man walks without a rope around
his neck. Yet he walks in the very steps
which God ordains him to walk. Did you get that? Man walks without
a rope around his neck, but he walks in the very steps that
God ordains him to take, as certainly as though manacles had bound
him to the spot. Man does exactly as God has ordained. Man chooses his own way, by his
own will he chooses sin, or by divine grace he chooses right,
yet in his choice God sets a sovereign on his throne and his sovereignty
is not disturbed by man's so-called freeness. But still overruling
and proving himself to be able to deal as with free creatures
as with creatures without freedom. He could do either one. Now as
well, I'm talking about the the power and ability and the omniscience
of God, His knowledge and His ability to control. He could
control free creatures as easy as creatures, or what we might
say, that which is ineminent. Now, as well able to affect His
purpose when He has endowed men with thought and reason and judgment
as when He has to deal with rocks and trees and stones. This is difficult to fathom,
I'm sure, and certainly we can't fathom it. Oh, 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. My conscience
teaches me that man does as he wills. That's the way it appears
to me, that man does as he wills. But my faith teaches me that
God does as He wills. And these two are not contrary
to the one to the other, even though they may seem to be. And
yet I cannot tell how it is, and now I'm not up here to explain
all the ins and outs of it, but I know that man does as he wills,
but I know that God does as He wills, and I know it's God's
will that is predominant, and God will win out in the end. I cannot tell how God affects
His end in everything. I can wonder and admire and say,
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. Behold, God is great, O Lord,
how great are Thy works, and Thy thoughts are very deep. A
brutish man knoweth not, neither doth a fool understand this.
Now my friends, Do not think for a moment that God has in
any way lost control of his creation or that anything can happen against
his will. There is no such thing as luck
or accident or chance. Now that is difficult to persuade
people, but there is no such thing as luck, accident, or chance. These are words, and I like the
way this is put here, I like to say this this way, these are
words that have originated in the minds of men to describe
what was going on in a world that they did not understand. How do you like that? That, my
friend, tells it the way it is. Men don't understand what's going
on, therefore they say, for my luck, I've had good luck lately,
Or, you know, I've just, you know, just a good chance come
my way. Well, they don't understand that
God is running this world. There's no such thing. Now the
Bible declares that of Him and through Him and to Him are all
things to whom be glory forever. Now, think of that verse, Romans
11, 36. Think of it just a moment. of Him, through Him, and to Him
are all things to whom be glory forever. Amen! To whom be glory
forever! Alright, and again in Ephesians
1 and 11, in whom also we, meaning the elect, have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. In 1775, A.T. Ball wrote these words. He said,
National matters at present carry a very gloomy outlook. Maybe like our day. But it is
in things civil, as in things spiritual, God is on the throne. Now I want you to think a little
bit with me. The Lord reigneth. The Most High
reigns. We need to keep that in mind.
You remember in Daniel, he told Nebuchadnezzar, The Most High
reigns. God, the Most High God reigns
in the earth. And we need to believe that.
God is on the throne. And to illustrate that a little
bit, consider in myself as we look at ourselves and think of
ourselves, we're most unworthy of the mercy and grace of our
God. We're very sinful creatures.
And we're unworthy, we're unworthy that we should be included in
the plans of this great, glorious, majestic being. That he should
have a plan that affected our lives individually. That he should
that he should have included us and that we're in his purpose
we're in his purpose and in the outworking of his will we are
the beneficiaries it cannot be there is nothing that can be
in any way shape or form hurtful to men and women boys and girls
that are included in God's perfect plan in the Lord believe in the
outworking of his purpose considered in Christ but now we're very
unworthy people in ourselves we're unworthy but considered
in Christ we're without fault before God's throne without fault
now that's the way God sees it I know some people don't think
I'm so faultless I know there are people that don't think that
we're sons of God. You know the Bible says that
Beloved now are we the sons of God, the world doth not... what is it? Beloved now are we
the sons of God and the world doesn't see us
as that, towards that effect, doesn't see us as that, doesn't
see us that way, but we know we're going to be like Him because
we're going to see Him as He is. We're the sons of God right
now, but we're not recognized as such. that we're faultless before God's
throne. We believe that. We believe it. Now consider the
state of public affairs as they are in themselves today. Hardly anything is more cloudy
and unfavorable. The economy is down, they say,
and we're about ready to go into a war, possibly, and many terrible
things happen in the world. nightclub burnt down out in Maryland
or New Jersey it was I think 96 people people are a lot of
people suffering this morning from burns but as they are in
themselves hardly anything is more cloud and unfavorable as
they appear now but consider them in the light of God's purpose
and providence and whatever is is right I don't know what could give
anybody any more satisfaction than that statement. Whatever
is, is right. And this is the comfort of God's
people. If you're in Christ, I know that this will comfort
you. If you're outside the Lord Jesus Christ, I know that you're
going to have many, many questions about this and you're going to
wonder about it. But my friend, my hope for you is that you'll
come to be a believer. A believer. What is a believer? Well, it's somebody that believes
that God is God. And somebody that believes what
this book has said in holy testimony of Him and His character and
His attributes. That's what a believer is. If
you're a believer, then you cannot help but be comforted by the
things that you heard here this morning. He is in one mind who
can turn him what his soul desires that he doeth, that he doeth. Father in the name of Jesus may
you be pleased to bless and to encourage and to up build this
congregation. I pray that as we deal with the
things of this earth And as we deal with the things of mankind,
Lord, that we should have in our hearts this overwhelming
view of the greatness and the glory and the eternality and
the unchangeableness of our blessed God. Father, thank you this morning
for this text of Scripture, and we thank you that you are performing
all things that have been appointed for us, and we wait before you,
we wait before you, flesh and life fails without our God, and
we wait for Thee. Work in and through us, our Father,
that we may spread the glory of our God while we yet remain
in this world, and that we might be as we are brought to that
place, Lord, where our life as a old tent is being taken down,
that our faith would be strong and mighty in the ability and
ableness of our God, even to raise the dead. We pray it in
Jesus' name, and for His sake, Amen.