The preaching of the gospel is
specifically, distinctly designed of God to minister comfort to
God's elect in this world. In this world of sin and sorrow,
the Lord God commands his servants to comfort his people. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord. Now that's my aim as
I endeavor to I expound to you the glorious doctrines of the
gospel, as I endeavor to make known to you the glorious character
and gracious operations of our God. I want to comfort your hearts
in the knowledge of God. I realize that in this world,
you and I constantly stand in need of comfort. And with that
in mind, I want to draw your attention once more to my three
favorite texts of scripture. When I say these are my favorite,
I do not mean to imply and do not believe for a moment that
these are more important, more authoritative, or more inspired
than any other passages. You know better than that. All
Scripture is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is profitable
for reproof, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness. We understand that. And yet,
at the same time, as we make our pilgrimage through this world,
as we experience God's grace in different ways, there are
specific passages and specific texts themselves which become
personally favorites to us. And these, through these past
30, my soul, 32, 33 years experience, have become my favorites. The
first is found in Psalm 115. Psalm 115. verse 3. Here the psalmist David,
writing by divine inspiration, declares in the plainest possible
terms the great supremacy and glorious sovereignty of our God. Listen. Our God. Our God. Our God. You might say, I don't
worship God, you do. I know that. Our God. Our God is in the heaven. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Now that includes everything,
at all times, in all places, without exception. Oh God, how
comforting it is to my heart to know that you rule absolutely. rule well. All right look at
2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. You can quote it I know but look
at it. Here the Apostle Paul again writing
by divine inspiration declares to us the effectual substitutionary
atonement and sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ. He, God himself, holy, just, and true. God who
said the soul that sinneth it shall die. God of whom it is
written, the righteous Lord loveth righteousness. I got a letter
from someone last night, email that had read something I'd written,
said, you began your exposition by saying God saves sinners on
the grounds of justice satisfied and righteousness established
according to the law, and you end it by saying God saves sinners
by free grace alone. What do you believe? I said both. God's holy. He will not save
sinners apart from the satisfaction of justice. He will not have
mercy apart from the fulfillment of righteousness to the letter
exactly. And therefore, he provided his
dear son to be a substitute for chosen sinners. And at the appointed
time of love, he made him by divine imputation. That is, God
gathered all our dead. all our sin, and made it His sons. Made Him
to be sin for us. For who? For the people of His
love. For the people of His choice.
For the people He determined to save. The people for whom
Christ came into the world to save. He made Him to be sin for
us, that. That is, this is the only way
it could happen. This is the reason for it. that
we, who are by nature sinners, that we might be made by exactly
the same free imputation, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. Now listen carefully. Oh, God
help you to hear me. Jesus Christ was made to be sin
without ever committing a sin, without ever feeling an evil
thing, without ever experiencing a wicked thought, without ever
doing anything that could be properly called sin. He was made
to be sin by imputation because God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. He was made to be sin without
doing anything. Now that's the only way you'll
ever be made righteous. It's the only way. You can't
be made righteous by something you do or feel or think. We are
made righteous because God takes that righteousness which is Christ
and puts it to our account and says, you're righteous. Now then,
as God dealt with Christ when he made him to be sin on the
grounds of strict justice and forsook him and punished him,
poured out the hell of his wrath for us on his son, because that's
what justice demanded. So, having made us the righteousness
of God in his Son, on the grounds of strict justice, because justice
demands it, we have obeyed the law in him, satisfied the law
in him, and died in him, and now, God on the grounds of strict
justice bestows upon righteous sinners, made righteous by his
free grace, Every blessing of grace and glory because we deserve
it in Christ the Lord. Can you get hold of that? Because
we deserve it, not in ourselves, oh no, but because our master
deserves it, our redeemer deserves it. All right now, look at our
text for this evening. Romans chapter eight and verse
28. Romans 8, 28. Here the apostle declares to
us, that glorious fact of God's holy, wise, adorable, and good
providence. We know. I wonder if we do. I wonder if I do. I've got it
here. I've got it locked away pretty
good here. But do we indeed know? We know. that all things, all of them,
all of them, I wish you could write that word, all in letters
the size of the page, all things, all things work together, not
apart. We look through our microscope
vision at the little details, And all they see is the little,
small, apparently insignificant events of our lives in comparison
with everything else. And you say, how can this be
good? Don't miss the picture by looking at the details. Stand
back and look at the whole thing. All things, all these small things
work together. Not alone, not separate, but
together. good. Temporal good. Lindsay, whatever God brings
your way today is best for you today. That's exactly right. But more importantly, spiritual
good. And ultimately, eternal good. All things work together for
good to them that love God. Not to everybody. Oh no. This
is not a blanket promise to the human race, this is a blanket
promise to Christ's race. This is a promise to God's elect,
to them that love God. To them who are thee called.
Called by grace. You cannot lay claim to the promise
until you experience the call. And you're made to love God by
the power of His grace. To them who are thee called,
look at it now, according to His purpose. Yes, there's a people. foreknown, predestinated, called,
justified, and glorified in the purpose of God before the world
began. And those people are those whom He has purposed to save
from eternity. And that's what God is doing
in time in providence, fulfilling His purpose. That's exactly it. He turns the pages of the book
of His decree, and as He does He fulfills exactly that which
He purposed from eternity, the saving of His people. What is
God doing? What's He doing? We, a few years
ago, saw the Iron Curtain come down. We saw the Soviet Union
break up, and we saw God open doors, and the gospel just was
given opportunity to go quickly into that which used to be the
Soviet Union. Looks like now they're quickly closing up again.
What's God doing? He's saving His people. That's
what He's doing. What's God doing with the turmoil
and the topsy-turvy, upside-down mess that our world seems to
be in? He's saving His people. What's God doing in all the troubles
and heartaches and trials of your day-by-day existence? He's
saving His people. That's what He's doing. He's
saving His people. He's not only accomplishing good
for you, my brother and my sister, He's accomplishing good for all
His people according to His purpose of grace. Now as I prepared this
message, my own heart has been smitten. I pray that God the Holy Spirit
will let me share with you some of the barbed arrows that I find
right now in my heart. Turn with me to Isaiah 41 and verse 10. Here's the first point. We, you and me, we who profess faith
in our Redeemer. We have entirely too many fears. For a people to whom the Lord
God has said, you got it there, verse 10? Fear not. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteous. Why can't we just believe God? I struggle with lots of things,
lots of difficulties, lots of sin, but nothing like unbelief. Why can't I just believe God?
David did. David heard God promise His grace
and His mercy and His goodness and His protection, and he believed
Him. He said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death. And he's talking about right
now. That valley of the shadow of death is not walking through
death, it's walking through the valley of the shadow of death.
That's this world. And we walk through this deep
valley with the shadows of death all around us. But a shadow can't
hurt you. He says, Yea, though I walk Not
though I'm pushed, not though I'm drugged, not though I run,
but I walk. I walk with peace, with confidence,
and with purpose. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou
art with me, thy rod and thy staff. Your rod of correction
and your staff of protection. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. He said, I will both lay me down
in peace sleep. David Absalom, he's after you,
I know it, but God's after me too. And I will lay me down in
peace and sleep because the Lord my God only maketh me to dwell
in safety. The psalmist said, I believe
it was Bobby who read this one day last week, when my father
and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take Hasn't God proved his faithfulness
yet? He's faithful. He's faithful. Oh God, give me grace to trust
you. Secondly, look at Matthew chapter
6. Matthew 6, verse 28. We have far too much anxiety,
far too much worry about earthly, material things. What do you
mean earthly material things? I mean everything that's temporary.
Everything. Every possession, every relationship,
every experience. Earthly, temporal things. We
have far too much anxiety about the things of this world for
a people to whom the Son of God has said, why take ye thought
for your regimen? Why do you... worry about whether
or not you're going to have to run around naked. Why take thought
for your clothes? The statement is not, why do
you take time to iron your clothes and wash them? That's not what
he's talking about. Why do you take time to put your
clothes together so they match and look fairly reasonable? That's
not what he's talking about. He's saying, why do you worry
about whether or not you're going to have something to wear tomorrow?
Consider the lilies, how they grow, They toil not, neither
do they spin. Yet I say unto you that even
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like unto one of
these. Wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, which
today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much
more clothe you? Now, Bobby and Judas, he's talking
to you and me. Oh, ye of little faith. is written, my God shall supply
all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. That passage is found in Philippians
chapter 4 verse 19 where Paul is giving thanks to the saints
at Philippi because they had out of their poverty provided
for him while he was imprisoned and he wrote to them giving thanks
to those to whom thanks is due. They had acted in generosity,
just generosity that overwhelmed him. And Paul is saying to them
now, I'm humbled by the fact that you so care for me. But
I know that as you take of your necessity and give to those whom
God has called, you give to the cause of Christ and to the benefit
of his people, then God will supply your need. Notice the
words, according to. Not out of, but according to.
According to his abundance or his riches in glory. I heard
someone describe that one time like this, he said, for someone
to give you something, say you got Rockefeller and he says he's
going to give you something out of his riches. Well now he might
reach in his pocket and give you 50 cents. Now that's out
of his riches. But if he gives you according
to his riches, he doesn't give you 50 cents. Oh no, He got plenty
and He gives abundantly to show you His bountiful, bountiful,
bountiful care for you. And our God shall supply your
need and mine. All our needs. All of them. Temporal
and eternal. carnal and spiritual. My God
shall supply all your need according to His infinite eternal riches
in glory by Jesus Christ. That ought to teach us to trust
Him. Why should I worry, fret, and pace the floor by day and
by night when God, my Savior, has promised me that His Father
and my Father will, for His sake, provide me with everything I
need in this world? Why should I concern myself about
that which God, who cannot lie, has promised to me? Look at Matthew
6 again, if you're still there, verse 31. Therefore, since the
Lord God clothed the multis and has promised to clothe you, therefore
take no thought Take no, don't fret. Take no anxious thought
saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or wherewithal
shall we be clothed. Don't fret about that. God's
not gonna let you go hungry and naked either one. For after all
these things do the Gentiles seek. That's what everybody in
the world lives for. That's what they live for. See
into it that they can amass to themselves security to provide
for their clothing and their shelter and their food from now
until the day they die when they're 100 years old. That's all they've
got to seek after. Forget it now. Your Heavenly
Father knows that you have need of these things. Sammy's sitting back there with
his two babies and his wife. I suspect that he expects those
kids just to know, if I know you've got a need, your need's
as good as taken care of. If I know you've got a need,
and I'm able to take, it's as good as taken care of. Children
of God. My soul, my Father knows what
I have need of. Why can't I just trust Him to
take care of it? It's baseless. It's groundless. It's excuseless. But seek ye first the Kingdom
of God and His righteousness. Seek this. first and foremost
to the exclusion of all other things, the kingdom of God and
His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow. The morrow shall
take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day
is the evil thereof. I recall some time back my mother
saying, Something happened to us, we wouldn't have enough money
to bury us. And I said, you don't need to
worry about that. I promise you, after three or four days, we'll
figure out a way to get you in the ground. You just don't have to worry
about that. Why take thought for tomorrow? Tomorrow will take
care of itself. Set now to set your face to seek
the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Now look at John 6, verse 37. We have far too many doubts concerning
God's mercy, love, and grace. For a people to whom the Lord
Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said to you, my brother, my
sister, I give unto you eternal life and you shall never perish. I've preached about this so many
times. But I know that many of you have trouble right here,
and I acknowledge that I do. But I'm not going to attempt
to justify or excuse my baseless, inexcusable doubts. Upon what
grounds dare we call into question the mercy, love, and grace of
God? On what grounds? Mr. Spurgeon said, the scripture
says, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. I
believe the Son, I have life. What's wrong with that? I believe
the Son of God. I have life. What about your
unfaithfulness? I'm not going to let that bother
me concerning His faithfulness. What about your sin? My sin's
got nothing to do with His grace except that qualifies me for
it. What about your unbelief? My unbelief's got nothing to
do with His mercy except that He abides faithful and He's merciful
forever. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord? I know whom I
have believed. Not what I have believed, that
won't do you much good. You try to snuggle up to what
I have believed and you'll snuggle up to cold, empty, deadness. But I tell you what, you can
flat snuggle up to whom you have believed. I know whom I have
believed. And he's able. And he who is
able to keep what I've committed to him will keep what I've committed
to him. Fourthly, look in John chapter 16, verse 33. We spend entirely too much time
grumbling and complaining about our trials and troubles in this
world. For a people to whom the Lord Jesus said, here in verse
33, in the world you shall have tribulation. I don't know why
we're so shocked when it comes. While we live in this world,
we live in a world of sin and sorrow, of trial and trouble. And while we live here, we're
gonna have trouble. We're gonna have tribulation. We ought to
be shocked when it don't come. Now when it does come, in the
world, you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. Brother Mahan once said, every
ounce of gold that's ever been perfected and made valuable has
been refined by fire. And if God puts the gold of his
grace in us, he'll make us pass through the fire. You can count
on it. He said, I have chosen thee in
the furnace of affliction. That's where I chose you. He
said, I'll meet you in the deep waters. I'll hold your hand while
you pass through the fire, and I'll hold your hand and uphold
you with the right hand of my righteousness when you pass through
the waters. Trouble's not a strange thing.
It's just the common lot of God's saints. So Peter says, take it
not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as
though some strange thing had happened to you. This is just
the lot of God's elect, and it's a good lot. The hymn writer said,
God in Israel sows the seeds of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would else or spread the soil. Look at Hebrews chapter
11. We have entirely too much attachment
to this world and to this present life for a people who are looking
for a city whose builder and maker is God. In verse 8 we read,
By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place
which he should receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went
out, not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles
with Isaac and with Jacob. How come tabernacles? Because
he was a sojourner. It's hard to carry a house with
you. He was sojourning in this world. The heirs with him of
the same promise. For he looked for a city. Abraham, what you looking for?
I'm looking for a city. A city, God promised me. Where is it?
It's out yonder. Out yonder where I'm going. Well,
tell me about that city. This builder and maker is God. Nothing else much matters. Nothing
else much matters. We know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God and
house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. We know that
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
We who believe have a desire to depart and be with Christ,
which is far better. And yet, it's so difficult to
turn loose of this present existence called life. I don't understand
that. I can't explain that. But I know
it's so. I long to be with Him and I keep
holding on to this. I long to depart and be with
Christ, which is I know far better. And yet we keep holding on to
everything we've got in this world. I know this too. The only way for us to be delivered
from these carnal principles, the only way we'll ever be delivered
from the cares of this world, The only way we will ever be
saved from our fears, concerns, doubts, grumblings, and attachments
in this world is to find something better. And that something better
is Jesus Christ and His righteousness and His promise to us in this
blessed, blessed text of Scripture. We know, we who belong to Christ,
we know that all things work together for good. to them that love God, to them
who are the called according to His purpose. Amen. Amen.