I want to read extensively, for
our must needs do so, before we can come to the subject matter.
Let's begin reading there in Job 1, and hear what God has
to say at this moment about Job. There was a man in the land of
Uz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright,
and one that feared God and eschewed evil. Now, Job didn't say that,
that's said of Job, that's the Spirit of God, or possibly God
the Father, that's a credit to you. And there were born unto
him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was 7,000
sheep and 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses, and
a very great household. So that this man was the greatest
of all the men of the East. And his sons went and feasted
in their houses every one his day. and sent and called for
their three sisters to eat and to drink with them. And it was
so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent
and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job
said, It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in
their hearts. Thus did Job continue." Now there
was a day. when the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among
them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job?" Now, remember God said
to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job? He initiated
this episode, whatever it is. Hath thou considered my servant
Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and
upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then
Satan answered the Lord and said, Doth Job fear you for nothing,
for naught? Hast thou not made an hedge about
him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every
side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance
is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now,
and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face."
You need to stick with that verse right there. I'm coming back
to that for a first point of interest in just a moment. Put
forth thine hand, Satan doing the speaking. Now, you put forth
your hand and touch all that he hath, and he will curse you
to your face, says Satan speaking to God. And the Lord said unto
Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power. only upon himself,
but not forth thy hand. So Satan went forth from the
presence of the Lord. And there was a day when his
sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest
brother's house, and there came a messenger unto Job and said,
The oxen were plying, and the asses feeding beside them, and
the Sabaoth fell upon them, and took them away. Yea, they have
slain the servants with the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped
alone, tell you." While he was yet speaking, there
came also another and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven,
and hath burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed
them, and I alone am escaped alone to tail them. While he
was yet speaking," that would be enough of it, but God doesn't
deal the way we deal. There came also another, and
said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the
camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants
with the edge of the sword. And I alone am escaped, and only
one to tell this story." While he was yet speaking, there came
also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold,
there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the
four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young man, and
there dead, and I only am escaped alone to tell thee." And apparently from verse 20,
Job is down this time. That knocked him down, that got
him down. You've been along that line to some extent. I'm sure
maybe not to the extent that old Job had, but at least to
the extent that Job is down, brother. Then Job arose and read
his mantle. and shaved his head and fell
down upon the ground and worshiped." That's unusual, carrying his
own bundle. We talk about a worship service. We're here to worship
God. And that's fine that God so arranges a geographical area
and instills in people's hearts to come together from various
places to meet together as a corporate body to lift their voices in
praise and adoration, to hear and to know of the things that
are theirs in respect to the word being a lamp to our feet
and a light to our pathway. I'm thankful for that. But I'm
not so sure that's always a worship service, as you study the word
of God. Now, here is a time when Job worshiped God. And he said
he had something to say in a worship service like this. This is one
of those testimony meetings you hear, until it doesn't amount
to anything. It doesn't go much like this.
Listen to what Job had to say. Then Job arose from his mantle
and shaved his head, fell down upon the ground and worshiped.
That's down the second time. And it said, "...naked came I
out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name
of the Lord." In all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. I want to deal with the subject
matter this morning from these verses that I've read in your
hearing and other allied passages as well. And that is none other
than the sovereignty of God and the strategy of Satan and the
predicament of mankind, particularly Job's sufferings and trial. Now, we are living in an hour
as I guess never before. I didn't live back in the days
of the Andalusians or in the days of the apostles and days
prior to that time, but we are living in a day as never before.
when the fact that God is sovereign, he is sovereign, whether a person
believes that or not doesn't make any difference. God's sovereign.
We'll define the word sovereignty in just a few moments. But we're
living in a time when men strike at the sovereignty of God. We
have educated folks today who are, somebody said they have
academic standards, and some two-before-preacher like myself
tried to say that, and he said they were, instead of academics,
they were academaniacs. So he said these academaniacs,
they have so much training, you know, but when they come out
of school, nothing wrong with schooling, but we're in school
right now, we're in the school of grief. And you can't beat
that, along with other knowledge. But these academiacs who come
out of the seminaries today, they are taught the fact, as
they see it, that God is not sovereign. that God is subject
to man's whims, his wills, his prayers, his ways, and even to
the extent that God in his so-called infinite wisdom looked out down
through time, if you want to visualize this, looked out down
through time and saw what man would do, so he made him up a
program predicated on what man would do. Now, if God had ever
done such a thing as that, and I use this by assumption, if
God had ever done such a thing as that, he would have done one
thing. He would have confined every
human being to a lake of fire, for there is absolutely no good
in any man. Well, now, I was a good girl. Well, wait just a moment. There
are no good girls and good boys. Mama thinks all the boys are
good, and the girls are good, and Daddy thinks the same way.
There is none good by nature. I don't care whether you went
the way of the harlot or the whoremonger, the liars, the stealers,
or what not. As we speak of good moral people,
we are looking at it in a different sense. But God says there is
none good. Now that is his verdict. That
is his indictment. We come along today and we hear
these folks talking about, well now, if you do so and so, God
will come to your rescue. If you'll just meet God at a
certain place, well, he'll meet you. Well, if I can meet God,
if I can take one step toward God, how come I can't take 25?
And if I can take 25, how come I can't act like a man and go
all the way to meet him? But the truth of the matter is,
it's just not that way. Now, listen to this statement.
Man is either sovereign. and God subject to man, or God
sovereign and man subject to God. Now, both can't be sovereign. One is a sinner and the other
is an absolute perfect, no sin in him. Therefore, they can't
both be sovereign. God is absolutely sovereign.
And in these verses ahead of us, of course, today, along with
that, you have the folk who do not have too much education,
and I suppose, maybe, they just ignorantly Teach and preach,
you hear the preachers who are simply ignorant of what they're
saying, I suppose. I don't know, I'll excuse them
to that extent. But you have those folk, not only blind leaders
leading the blind, but you have those folk who know differently
in their academic standards and scholastic honors, they know
differently. They can read the Word of God, and they see from
a theoretical standpoint that God is sovereign. This is so,
whether they have experienced it or not. So they come along
with their great swelling words and personalities. They allure
the simple-minded person, and they simply preach to the extent
that that man is congenial to error, so he listens to it. And
you have a whole field full of professing Christians today who
not only are just ignorant of the fact that God is sovereign,
but they are absolutely obnoxious to the fact that God is sovereign.
They hate the fact that God is sovereign. And the only thing
under heaven will ever establish anybody to the extent that they're
responsible and responsible to God, and that's exactly right.
People don't maybe arrive at the place where they should do
so in services like that. They say, well, I called up the
preacher. No use to call up the preacher.
They're reporting to God and anything. Now, the thing that
establishes the absolute responsibility of a human being is that God
is an absolute sovereign. Well, go answer to him. It's
not a matter of whether God says a thing, he doesn't take it back.
It's not a matter of whether it's going to come true or not,
it's a matter of when it's going to come true. And that's pretty
sobering, brother, when you think that, well, I'm not going to
bow. I know you're going to tell God you're not going to do a
thing, but you're going to do it. I don't care what it is.
Anytime a man tells God he won't do a thing, he'll make him eat
that thing or send him to a lake of fire. I don't care who it
is, if it's a so-called Christian. If you're a Christian, he's not
going to send you there. But I'll tell you what he'll do,
he'll make you eat your words. I take that back, I'm sorry. I said
that because I had him view as sovereign. Now, a man who doesn't
believe that God is sovereign is worse than the devil. I'm
going to prove that from the Word of God here this morning.
Now, I'm going to deal with one point for a little while, as
the Lord gives me wisdom and strength to do so, and you listening
ears. The man who doesn't believe that
God is sovereign is worse than the devil. I don't know where
they got this theology, but really it's worse than the devil. Turn
back now to Job, if you haven't, and let's look at something here
just a moment. The devil simply believes that God is sovereign.
He knows God is sovereign. He knows that all power is in
his hand, in God's hand, and he knows the only way he can
ever lift a finger, if he has fingers, and I'm pretty sure
he does have, I don't think he's some winged fallen angel like
you picture little girls at the Christmas program or something
like that. I think I've met some of the family, maybe the devil
himself, and they kind of resemble me as well as you, you know.
And they look like wheat, but they're tares. You better watch
that, brother. We're not dealing with a figment
of imagination today. We're right out there and have
been, hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. You can imagine having
an aircast of the thing and say, well, I took counsel of my fears.
It just appeared in my head. It'll be in your hands and your
feet before God gets done with you. We're faced with an issue,
brother. It's got to come down to where
you live in everyday life. I just felt that my thinking
capacity was wrong. It will come on down to where
it works or don't work, brother. So we've got to get down there
somewhere in reality." Well, the devil believes he's God's
sovereign, and we're going to look at it right here in this
one particular verse this morning. Now, this is another thing I
want to inject, because I get ahead of myself preaching. I've
preached now for 25 or 30 years, but it so entices me. and entangles
me as well, and you I suppose, that leave me with that expression
of words. I want to get ahead of myself.
I see something out yonder. I used to work years ago for
the State Fair in West Virginia, and one thing I liked was, of
course they paid me to see them, that's a little different too,
was the fireworks. And oh brother, I'm telling you, we put the fireworks
off and I loved to see those fireworks and I could remember
one thing when the fireworks would go off, I said, look at
that, isn't that beautiful? But back of the fireworks, it lighted
up an area that I had never seen before in that night time, you
see? Now as God explodes the truth
to you, when you see a truth that's precious to you, about
the time you grab that, it opens up an area beyond you and you're
not getting anywhere. You're trying to reach out there,
so I sort of get ahead of myself lots of times in preaching, and
I apologize for that. But I want to say one thing here
before I forget it. Not only is Satan aware of the
fact that God is sovereign, but this thing of the children of
God forever saying, well, look what the devil made me do. Oh,
I've heard that so many times. Look what the devil made me do.
I'm almost persuaded that you're just about to bring your lips
to a place where you're attributing that of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Spirit of God, to that of the devil many times. Well, the
devil made me do so and so. And many times it's simply the
flesh. But the truth about this book
is, this is the place I want to lodge this morning for a moment,
the truth about this book And this character Job, not one time
in this book did he ever attribute anything to the dead. Here is
a man who doesn't have the light on the subject this morning that
I have. We have the written revelation. I don't know what he had. The
antiquity of this book possibly dates back behind all of them
some sort. But I know he didn't have the
light when it comes to written revelation, progressive revelation
that God has given us. But brother, he had some light.
He had some like, instead of saying, well, look what the devil's
done. He has tore down the barns, he has killed the sheep, he's
killed the asses, and so on and so forth. He didn't have anything
like that to say, brother. He said, the Lord giveth. and
the Lord taketh away." Now, I think one thing that will be possibly
consoling to you folks this morning, and that is to just tell you
that there is such a thing as the devil, and you believe that,
don't you? And there is such a thing as the devil, family,
and you believe that. Now, you listen to me. He's God's
devil. He's God's devil. I don't mean
salvation. I mean that God is using the
devil and has always used the devil in just as big a way as
he ever used the Apostle Paul to further his plan. He said
of old wicked Pharaoh down here on Egypt, for this cause I raised
you up. Who? You mean God raised up that
wicked potentate? Yes, he did. And he said, I did
it on purpose. I raised him up. And I raised
him up with a purpose in mind. Sometimes he gives you his purpose,
and sometimes he doesn't. It all belongs to him. Secret
things belong to God. He doesn't owe us anything. Therefore,
he keeps a lot to himself. But he said he raised old Pharaoh
up for this purpose. that in him, Pharaoh, he might
show God's power. And that along with that, listen
to it, by contrast, that he might show mercy to the vessel that
he had fitted for the purpose that we're talking about this
morning, to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now God's sovereign,
and the devil knows that. And I think sometimes it would
be consoling to us just to be brought to the place where we
say, well, maybe the Lord was in that. Maybe he was. I'd like
for you to mention something he's not in. I'd like for you
to mention something he's not in. I said just a few moments
ago here that he said in verse 8, and the Lord said unto Satan,
the Lord said unto Satan, he did that right in the beginning,
and he said unto the serpent, Genesis 3, 15, 16, and the Lord
said unto the serpent, he told the serpent what he was going
to do. God is not some God who's taking counsel with his fear
and afraid that the enemy's going to find out what he's doing.
He's instigating the whole plan and purpose. You say, well, I
just can't believe that doesn't make it untrue at all. Doesn't
make it untrue at all. I can't understand it doesn't
make it untrue at all. I don't understand God. I sure
don't understand God's way. His ways are not like my ways,
and thank God for it, brother, or we'd be in a terrible mess.
But I do know one thing, that everything is God's back. The back of him, first purpose,
cause, and everything is the devil. You say, well, he wasn't
a devil to begin with. Well, God knew all about him
now, brethren. It didn't take him by surprise.
So God always and forever instigates the purpose and the plan to the
extent that he says, I'm going to use the whole situation here,
and I'm going to do it. to my glory and to the good of
my people." Now, he does that. Now, here's what he says in verse
8. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant
Job, that there are none like him in the earth? Now, I just
said a few moments ago he wasn't an isolated character, but he's speaking
here in respect to the riches that Job had, and he picked a
man that he could actually say, Now, if this man would stand
there and watch everything go, well, then most anybody should.
You come unto that A-B-C. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job? that there is none like
him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth
God and escheweth evil. I wasn't perfect in the sense
that sinlessness doesn't necessarily come under that word, particularly
so at all, because he wasn't, he sinned, he is a sinner, but
God used this man to show us some truth, regardless of what
he was. He is a sinner saved by grace.
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, Does Job fear God for
nothing, or not? And here it is. Has thou not
made a hedge about him?" Now, if the devil is so powerful,
why is he seeking God now for power to take this stroke at
old Joe? Because all the devil's power
is delegated. He doesn't have any power whatsoever
unless God grants him that power. Now, he knows that. Common horse
sense, just good, stable thinking. He really is the devil. Asked
not thou, maiden, hedge about him and about his house? Said,
You've got a hedge around him. Well, why don't you just get
your electric chairs and cut it down? And go on in, Mr. Devil. He didn't have the kind
we use now. He had something he could wade
through with, a scythe or something. Why do you stand out there for?
You've got so much power. Why don't you just wade on in
and get Joe? I would if I could. Like old Negro years ago I told
you about, and I tell the same story, it always changes a little
bit more, like I said. And we were working out on the job,
and there was an Armenian out there, you know, and the Armenian
would go choke me down with a testimony from the old Negro. And he asked
the old Negro some questions, you know. After a while, he didn't
get anywhere, what tickled me, because they all say, those black
folk, Now they're mingling up with the white folk, and we all
supposedly say it is a mess, isn't it? So much for that. Not
helping matters any. But anyhow, this man said to
him, he said, well, tell us about it. And the poor fellow started
to tell about it. He said he couldn't tell us.
He couldn't tell us. You go to tell a story about
how God dealt with you, brother, you get down to where you crossed
the river, and you said, well, I remember being on this side,
and the next thing I woke up on the other side, and how I
got through there, I don't know. I just don't know. The Red Sea
was rolling the last time I knew anything of it. So after a while
I said, I just thought I'd inject the word. He looked over at me
and he said, why don't you ask him something. I said, did you
regenerate yourself? I want to ask him a question.
I said, did you regenerate yourself? And he said, no sir. No sir,
he said I didn't. Well, I said, why didn't you?
That's what the other man was telling him, you know. I said,
why didn't you? And he had the prettiest white
teeth. I covered the best of gifts, you know. And sometimes
you can see that in the black background. His teeth just stood
out, pretty white teeth. He just stuck those teeth out
and his mouth spread open and looked the whole like an alligator.
And he said, well, sir, I tried, but I couldn't. Oh, brother, he put everything
he had in that, but he couldn't bring life out. A man can move
himself horizontally, but he can't move himself vertically.
You can move backwards and forwards, but reach down and get your bootstring
and pick yourself up six inches and you can brag about not being
totally depressed. He couldn't. I'll tell you why
the devil didn't wait in here, he couldn't. He couldn't. He
keeps a tight line, brother. He keeps a tight line. He takes
up every inch that he can take up. But he's absolutely subject
to a sovereign God as well as everybody else. And this is the
most consoling thing to me in this hour of loose living and
lawlessness when I'd almost pull my hair and go crazy if I did
not know that God's in control. He is in control. I can't figure
it out. I reached the end as it were,
and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is on the throne.
He is on the throne of my heart, and somehow he is coordinating
those circumstances and bringing two things together to the extent
that there is some peace and some satisfaction in knowing
that God is sovereign. Men hate the sovereignty of God,
and so does the devil, but he is still sovereign. Hast thou
not made a hedge about him and about his house? And about all
that he had? On every side? On every side? I mean, he got it right, didn't
he, boy? He said, I've tried it all. He said, do you know
doors on the backside of this edge? Do you know holes anywhere?
I've looked around long enough to know. I'm stuck. I can't go
through it. I will go if you give me permission. And brother, it's just like God
to give him permission. You believe it or not. When the
struggle comes and you say, why? Why is all this directed my direction? It's just like God to try you
if you're a child of God. And the more, he says he's a
perfect man that's shoot evil. He's banking on the fact that
God has revealed his truth to this man here. Any time that
God reveals anything to you, he expects out of you in return
that you walk in that direction at least as he brings you to
a place where you yield to him. Therefore, as he gives you more
truth and more truth. The trial's coming, brother.
So I just got so much Bible in me. that I'm just running over,
and I think if a man knows enough verses of scripture and so on
and so forth, he can just cry out to God and God will come
to his rescue. That's just contrary to truth.
The very opposite of that is the more a man knows about God,
the more the trial is. He'll do it every time. He'll
do it every time. Now, why does he do that? I don't
think that ought to be that way. What difference does it make
what I think? He does. He doeth all things well. And
he asked a question over there in the gospel. He said, Is it
not lawful for me to do what I will with my own? One man coming
in at the eleventh hour, and the rest of them coming in at
the morning hour and walking right on through and toiling
through the hot, sunny day, and somebody else comes in at the
eleventh hour and sits down in the shade and forgets it and
draws the same amount of pay at the end of the day, and they
complain about that. And he said, Well, friend, I
do thee no wrong. I do thee no wrong. Is it not
lawful for me to do what I will with my own?" That's sovereignty.
It sure is lawful for God to do what he will with his own,
and he does what he will with his own. Thank God for that.
Now he's hedged in. You see the picture here. Now
holding the hedge, I've been around the whole thing. There
ain't no way for me to get in. Thou hast blessed the works of
his hand. God did that. If the works of your hand have
been blessed, it's God who did that. People say, well, like
a brother said this morning, my environment was bad, you know,
and I just didn't mount anything in life because of the fact that
I didn't get back yonder and so on and so forth. That's worse
than evolution. God moves on the scene. Brother, it doesn't
make any difference about your background. He picks you up right where he
finds you, and he finds all people in the same kind of a mud hole.
Therefore, God sovereigns what he does, all the glory goes to
him. I can't say, well, I helped out a bit. "...thou blest the
work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But
put forth thine hand now, and touch all that it hath, and he
will curse thee to thy face." Now, watch this closely. He doesn't
have any power whatsoever except as God gives him power to get
at Job. God is going to move, we know that, I've already read
it to you. God is going to move on behalf of that servant, and
he's going to, as it were, turn that monastery loose on him to
a certain extent, to a certain extent. And he's going to make
Satan eat his next words. He's going to make him a liar
out of that next verse. Now you watch it. He's nothing
but a liar, he's never told the truth. He's a liar from the beginning.
Every time that God squeezes him into a corner, he'll make
a liar out of him, and he'll do you and me the same way. Well, the devil made me do that,
and so-and-so really started it, and this, that, and so on
and so forth, and God gets done with it. I didn't do a thing.
I just passed the buck and lied about the situation. It was all
me. He does that. Now, I'm not sure of the devil,
but God uses that. Why? Because he's sovereign.
Because he's sovereign. He puts a squeeze on brother.
Put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath." Now,
I'm going to do that. God's going to do that. Touch all that he
hath. Touch all that he hath. Did you get that? That's not
your part of it. Take everything that he hath, and he'll curse
thee to thy face. But he won't. He won't. I'm going to make you out a liar. I'm going to show you that after
I turn you loose on him, he'll not curse me to my face. All
right, let's see what he does. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Behold, all that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself
put not forth thine hand." So Satan went forth from the presence
of the Lord, and it appears that you visualize this, he's actually
in the presence of God and seeking this sort of privilege, you'd
call it, to go over to Job's house. So he went forth from
the presence of the Lord, and things began to happen. And there was a day when his
sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in the eldest
brother's house. Now, no reflection on your children
or mine, but it's pretty nice, as Job did back here, to take
into consideration that you take them with a burnt offering, as
he did. That means just take them before
God. For they may be where you don't think they are. We reared
three children. Basically, human nature is the
same. There isn't any difference. It's been said this morning here.
And if you want to know more about your child, then the child
is going to tell you, get a hold of some of these associates.
They're associates. Just brag on the child. keep
bragging on them to their associates. You'll find out from the children
as they grow up together what's going on. This happens to be,
listen to this too, brethren, you don't have to leave your
own household. I don't have to leave my own household to find
problems. This is not some stranger coming in out here and causing
the kids to do the wrong thing. This is a household. This is
a household. And there came a messenger unto
Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding
beside them. And the Sabaeans fell upon them,
and took them away. Yea, they have slain the servant
at the edge of the sword, and I only am escaped long and tell
thee." Now, no use for me to read that again for you notice
there the repetition of that. The man, just one house falling
in on him, one story falling in on him, and by the time he
climbs out of that rubble and gets up where it looks like he
can live again, while the next one falls in, the first thing
you know, it's all fallen in. But the thing I want you to see
one time more is, under what kind of condition did that man
worship God? He worshiped God when it looked
like everything that could possibly be taken away from him was taken
and he brought to a place where he got to acknowledge one thing.
What a calamity! The thunder, the lightning, the
tornadoes and all this thing. How the devil does this and does
that. Oh, no God's back of this thing. He tore the house completely
apart and brought old Job to nothing, and there Job simply
got up from where he was to go right down again and worship
God. I just wanted to say that before
I go further in respect to the sovereignty of God. I guess you
could just use this word, power, right here this morning. For
God is sovereign. He is sovereign in the realm
of his power for most of the theologians. and ecclesiastical
arrangements that we have, would say that he is absolutely sovereign,
that he is all-powerful, and in turn write straight around
and deny when they preach it. Oh, yes, the school that I was
in, the college that I came through, the books carried this, that
God is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. It's three things wrong with
the statement. He didn't believe any of it. Now, listen, God is all-powerful,
and we've seen that right here for just a taste this morning.
He is all-powerful in creation. And sometimes you hear a man
come along and say, well, the good Lord sent me a rain. Well,
he wanted a rain. He thought he needed a rain.
He didn't give a hoot if the next man's hay drowned in that rain. He
needed to reign. So he said, the good Lord did
so. Man up above, you know. But it's not very long until
the same fellow will curse God if things don't happen exactly
the way he thinks they will happen. Now, I'm glad, and I want to
inject this, I'm glad that God is so sovereign that my prayer
life doesn't change God. You swallow that for just a moment,
and if I get back to it and you get back on the Word of God,
we'll prove from the Word of God that the prayer life of an
individual doesn't change God. It's only a revelation of the
will of God to your heart, brother. Now, if it did, look at this
now. Here's a man I hear today, these folk I hear just desecrating
today as big as they can. They say, Well, I've got to have
a pretty day now to run the race or to play the game or something
of the kind. And they actually, everything is religious today,
brother. They are actually crying to God, they say, and asking
God to send them a good day for that. Now, if God paid any attention
to that, why about the person out here who yesterday cut his
hay down and said, over the weekend if the Lord sends a dry day,
by Monday I'll be ready to put that up and we'll have something
for the cows to eat, and somebody else will have some milk and
some meat and so forth. If either one of those fellows
can pray and influence God, brother, they're going to get in a mess!
But one man goes and says, Lord God, don't send that rain until
after the weekend. Well, either way, both of those
are on the same track. But the other man says, here
is my crop, I need rain. Those two fellows pray, and one
of them says, you keep the tract dry, and the other says, you
keep the hay dry, and the other man says, Lord God, one more
day and I won't have any corn out there. Isn't that foolish
to think that one man praying here, one man praying yonder,
and one here? And that's just a taste of the
multiplicity of the millions and billions of prayers that
come up, and poor God, he's standing there with his hand raised in
despair, not knowing what to do. Listen, brother, God orders
your prayer line. I said I wouldn't get there,
but I've got to give that to you. Turn to 2 Samuel 7. Here
is one of the passages in the word of God that will give us
a little light on the subject. Now, here is David praying. And remember, this is not the
devil praying, this is a God-called man. This is a man who God inspired
to write the Word of God. And in the closing verses of
the 7th chapter of 2 Samuel, this is just a taste of what
real prayer is. David is praying down through
here, verse 25, he says, 2 Samuel 7. And now, O Lord God, the word
that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant, and concerning his
house, establish it forever, and do as thou hast said." Do
you think he's not going to get that answer? He's saying, Lord
God, you've spoken and you've said
you're going to do a certain thing, now so be it, Lord. He's going to get that prior
answer. and do as I said, and let thy
name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is the God
over Israel." That Lord of hosts is a good phrase you get a hold
of right there. Sometimes that word of host takes
in the battle strategy and the men who make up that strategy
and the battle, and other times it will take in the Heavenly
Host. It takes in everything. It takes in everything. He's
the God of the stars and the moon, and so on and so forth.
So when they spend a billion dollars to go to the moon and
somebody gets scared, afraid that the moon is going to move
out of its place or something will happen when they get there,
forget about that thing. That's what happened. People
said, I don't think man ought to go up there now. They're going
to disturb the whole thing. Some fool fellow down here somewhere
along the county said when they turned the time back, well, his
garden burned up. So that's about it. Isn't that
terrible? going to the moon disturbs the
situation. People are just foolish, all because they think that that's
something up there. My father used to tell me, he
said, you know what that is in the moon? I said, no, I don't
know, I haven't been up there. He said, now listen, son, none of
that sarcastic remarks. He said, I'm going to tell you
what that is. He said, that's a man that's put in there for
burning bricks on Sunday. Well, I don't know about that,
but I'll tell you what, I come to find out one thing, that the
God is not in the moon, that's not him up there, the moon is
in him. That's a little different, you
see. Your prayer life is pretty hard for you to digest if you're
here this morning and you think you prayed and God did something
that he had never thought of before, and you brought some
new idea to him, all the while somebody else prayed and God
don't do that. Now, who's God going to be partial to in here?
Neither. He's not a respecter of persons. He worketh everything after the
counsel of everybody's will. Now, he said he worketh everything
after the counsel of his own will. He saves you according
to his will. I'll get to that in just a moment.
I'm saying that nothing changes. God is absolutely sovereign,
and if God ever moves on my pathway and I know about it, it will
be because God intended to do so long before I ever came on
the scene, yea, in eternity. It's kind of like playing a record.
Let me inject this. I used to think I could pick
a 5-string banjo, and I learned later what was wrong with the
orchestra, and I quit. I learned one thing, though,
and this, that we've got to get in tune with this. Take a record,
for example. You think you can play an instrument. A brother back here, I'm looking
at him, he's a musical man. I suppose if you turn the old
record on, you know, and there that thing just takes off. And
some of those folks begin to really sing and play, and you
say, I'm going to play with and you hit the strings, and boy,
I tell you, you'd be better off getting outside somewhere. It
doesn't sound too good. You say, I'm not in tune. So you begin to tune up, and
you say, that sounds a little better, and finally they ask
you why. You say, well, if you don't soon get the thing right,
I'm going to leave home or something of the kind. And you keep on
until you get it tuned. After a while, brother, I'm telling
you, those voices are together, those strings are together, and
you are making music. Now, God gave you the ability
to tune the instrument, everybody in a sense knows that. But let
me ask you a question. Did you change the record while
you were getting it tuned? Did it change it a bit? Well,
no, it didn't scratch the record, it didn't do anything to it.
The old record would just go ahead and play. God is playing the
record, brother. That's what it is. It's a record
made in eternity. He's playing the record, and
if he gives you the ability to get in tune, it will be because
he did so sovereignly. And if he absolutely leaves you
out of the picture, it will be because he did so sovereignly.
It will not change the record, but you'll keep playing through
eternity. What a truth that would console
a person this morning, that back of this awful conglomeration
of society today that God is sovereign. You say, why does
God permit so-and-so? Well, don't go out there and
act a fool about some little thing on Saturday night, read
the word of God! Why did he permit this with Job?
Well, one thing, to prove Satan to be a liar and God absolutely
sovereign and a servant of him who would stand by him regardless
of what happened. "'Go and slay me, yet will I
trust thee!' That's it. for thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel." Now, listen to this. This prayer has to be revealed
to thy servant, saying, I will build thee a house, therefore
hath thy servant found in his heart to pray this kind of a
prayer. Now, how much more can you do?
You've got to eat that, that's all there is to it. He preaches
some hard things, but he preaches the Bible. Well, no wonder those
things are true, brother. Right there it is. What's my
prayer like? Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart, not put it in his heart. I've fixed this all up now, God,
and I got it from my friends, and you treated them like this,
and I've got it all typed out now, and this is my heart, and
I want to pour it out to you, and you sign your name at the
bottom of the menu. Oh, no, brother, God puts it
in your heart. Prayer is a revelation of the
will of God to the heart of a regenerated soul. And you say, so be it. That's it. That cuts our prayer
life short. It'll cut it short. But did you
have much prayer life anyhow? It's all said and done. Most
people that you ever prayed for, did they go the way you prayed?
Folks that you are interested in seeing go to heaven, if you
are on your way to heaven, folks that you are interested in that
prayer life, do you think they will all be there? I'll tell
you, most people that you prayed for went a different direction
the way you prayed. I'm going to tell you why. We got into
our head because we are sentimental of God sentimental. and that
our children are somebody we would rather see in Heaven than
somebody else's children. God is sovereign. He saves whom
he pleases, when he pleases, where he pleases, how he pleases,
and no man can stay there or even say to him, why do you do
like that? He is sovereign. I'm glad of that, because I would
have been left there. I would have been left there. My mother
was a Democrat and my father was a Republican. Those of them
professing Christians, I don't know where they went, I don't
know. Mom was a good old mother. She went on and there he wasn't
too hot. I don't know whether they are
in heaven or not. I'll tell you one thing, whether they are or
not, when I get there, when my life's work's ended and
I cross the swelling tide, and that bright and glorious morning
I shall see. I'll know my Redeemer when I
reach the other side, and his smile will be the first to welcome
me, whoever is not there." He's sovereign, brother. I wouldn't
be there if he wasn't sovereign. He told them, I have a chance,
have a chance, man's got a chance. Isn't that silly? Salvation is
not by chance, it's by God's sovereign mercy. I found in my heart, pray this
prayer to you, I found in my heart, O good thing that God
did. And now, O Lord God, thou art
that God, not one of the gods, but that God, and thy words be
true, and thou hast promised this goodness unto thy servants.
Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy
servant, that it may continue forever before thee." And that's
not just David's house over somewhere, that's the seat of the elect
right down through the ages. I'm still in that house that
he's talking about. Oh, Lord God, thou hast spoken
it, and with thy blessing, let the house of thy servant be blessed
forever. He says, that's Old Testament.
Is that right? As far as I'm concerned, it all
has quite a bit of antiquity to it. But I'll tell you what,
in terms of 1 John 5.14, let's get this one up to date. 5.14. I really think this is
the thing that puts confidence in a person today. I don't see
anything else that puts any confidence in a person in whom they I have
confidence in what I'm saying, that God is going to do his will.
Verse 14 of the 5th chapter of 1 John, and this is the confidence. Now, that word can be exchanged
for faith, trust, and what not. And this is the confidence that
we have in him. Now, what is it? That if we ask
anything according to his will, he hears us. Now, how much simpler
could that be to say, Lord God, thy will be done? Is that not
the prayer of the Son of God in the Gethsemane? That's the
way he prayed. He said, not my will, but thine
be done. He is praying like you would in the Garden of Gethsemane.
He is suffering the onslaughts of the devil there. and trying
to stop him short of the cross, and he'd pray just like you did.
He'd say, Not my will, but thine, be done. That's the way you get
your prayers answered. I tell you what, I'm going to get my
prayers answered. I'm going to see people saved that I don't
want to see saved. Do you know who they are? Every one of God's
lost sheep that ever did come out of the loins of fallen Adam,
I'm praying for. That God someday will let me
not only associate with them, but be there like them, and when
he calls a roll, It will be the full and the role corresponding.
Brother Grimm, you don't have any compassion. But he does. That's all right. I take that censure. I don't
have much compassion. I don't know what that is, if
you've got all that's left over and the message that doesn't
bring it to me. I'm going to tell you something. I'm preaching
to somebody who has got compassion. This generation has got so much
compassion, so-called, that they want to reach so much further
than God does, at the expense of tooth. Put everything under
heaven into what they call a sheepfold and wind up with a zoo. We've got goats and rhinoceros
and bears and everything else in what's called a sheepfold.
And when the sheep baa out about something and want something
to eat, why, the lion or Well, we'll gobble you up and won't
shut up." That's the so-called church of the day. I hope it's not this way if he
is one of these good preachers. This is the confidence that we
have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears
us. No prayer is complete, you listen
to me. unless you pray, thou wilt nevertheless." You're going
to wander, you're going to get in straight where you say, Oh,
Lord God, could it be some other way? Is it a fact that this is
my lot? Have I got to go this way? If
it can be your will that this be removed, remove it, if not,
thy will be done. Now, you go get an answer to
that kind of prayer, brother, and you'll get some peace and some satisfaction.
Secondly, in everything give thanks. In everything give thanks, 1
Thessalonians 5 says, everything give thanks, for this is the
will of God for you. You want to know the will of
God? Don't you never ask God for something without thanking
him and saying your will be done. Now, if you don't thank him,
you pray and unbelieve. Are you getting that? You petition
God for something. As Rob Barnard said years ago,
and here's where I stand, he said these folks are praying
today, and he's in a preacher's conference, and we need some
more of that kind of preaching in the preacher's conference. Preachers
need to be preached to. And he said, You preachers, Brother
Barnard, but you just missed the service. He said, Well, I
don't know what that is or how you do it, but I'll try. Then in
the first place he said, I've got a word. He said, You preachers,
you praying put me in the mind of an old farmer with a milk
cow. He said, The only time you ever tug at God is when you want
something, like milking an old cow. And that's the way he said
it. That's so, brother. And the preacher asked the little
boy, Well, son, are you doing a lot of praying this week? He
said, No. Well, what's wrong with you,
son? You said you didn't eat anything this week. Have you ever tried to praise God?
Calamity has just fallen, it looks like the sky has fallen.
I know something about that, and it hasn't been bad. And I
look over here at the contracts with Job, and I say, Lord God,
I thought I wanted Job's patience, but I don't want his cattle and
his trials and his wife or nothing else. I don't want anything he's
got. He says, you don't want his patience, do you? That's the way to get
it. Do you want Job's patience? Well, just try it for a trial.
Say, Lord, God, make a job out of me. Nobody will go after that. You're not courting martyrdom.
You hate to be hurt. You don't like the hard way.
I don't like that. Nobody likes it. But I'm going
to tell you what, there's only one way to heaven, and that's
that rough, stony road that knocks all the bumps and the wrinkles
off of us and presses us out in the presence of God looking
like something. That's it. You say, well, if that's the
way I've got to go, Lord, that's all right. No, brother, that's
not it. Say, Lord God, I'm kind of looking at the situation like
this. It's pretty rough. It's pretty rough. And I wonder
sometimes, I wonder why you sent that my way. It does look like
somebody else gets by pretty easy. I'm not complaining. I'm
just thinking it over, you know. But I'll tell you one thing,
brother, that will wind you up praising God. Now, you listen
to me, brother. When you get done talking to
God like that, you say, I don't mean to complain. But how come
you ever set your affection on me anyhow? How come you ever
came my way with this love and kindness to make me a recipient
for another world, instead of sending me to a lake of fire
to burn forever and forever and forever and forever? Tell you
what you do, you quit complaining about your life. I will, too.
This is a confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything
according to his will, he Now, God hears everything. You know
that. That's not what that's saying.
It's a factual answering of that prayer. And if we know that he
hears us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition
that we desire to have. People get on me, they say, Brother
Grimm preaches, he doesn't go to the pulpit and pray before
he preaches. Well, I'd like for you to take
the Apostle Paul's message and tell me when he's praying and
when he's preaching. You try that sometimes, see what
he's praying and preaching. That's like the invitation, so
you don't give the invitation. I'll have you take the Bible
and show me what the invitation is. God invites man to himself. Come unto me, all you that are
weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. How come rest for the
weary and heavy laden? Because I put that load on your
neck. Where God invites everybody,
he didn't invite everybody there, only those who are weary and
heavy laden. You invite somebody to Christ, and you ought to come
to Christ. And you can tell every human being, like was said in
the pulpit this morning, that you ought to. You ought to come
to Christ. You ought to repent. Certainly
every human being should do that, that's right, he ought to. But
I'll tell you what, he'll never come to Christ, he'll never know
Christ until the Good Shepherd comes to him. and reveals himself
to them. In so doing, the first thing
he does is let you know who you are, and you will soon find out
you are in need of a Savior. He takes that veneer off of a
person. One more scripture, and I can't leave it without
giving it to you. I'm not feeling too well this
morning. You excuse me. Maybe someday I'll have a chance
to preach like I ought to, and we'll both get on the other side
and won't have any air over there that's polluted and won't have
this kind of a body ever new. We'll sit down and favor him,
Isaac and Jacob, and put those folk in the shade sometimes as
we talk about some things that went on after they left. You
wonder if they don't know about that? They'll know when we get there. God is sovereign in his power,
brother. He has a purpose, and that purpose is to dispose, listen
to it, of every human being. Everything in heaven and under
heaven and under the earth and in the earth, he is going to
dispose of every human being. And don't get it into your head,
God doesn't have a place for you. Do you know where Judas went? He went
to his place. a place prepared for the devil
and his angels." Do you know where Paul went? He went to his
place, a place prepared for the Saints of God that God sets out
to make like himself. John 17, let's look at this,
and we'll close. These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hours come,
glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also, or also may glorify
thee. Is this glorifying to God, what
I'm fixing to read? It says it is. It's a thing that
glorifies God. "...as thou hast given him power
over all flesh." Now, you mean to tell me that God don't have
power over all flesh, he has power over the devil, the whole
devil family, he has power over the fallen angels, the good angels,
all of Adam's mongrel race, however they might be mixed up, he's
got power over everything or he's got power over nothing.
Unless God has an absolute hold and power and dominion over every
human being, it's impossible for him to give eternal life
to one of them. He's got to have power over all
flesh to deal with one piece of flesh. So it says that I've
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as I've given him. Now, I don't know. I don't know. I believe in total depravity.
When I read a verse like that and a man can't see it, I believe
in T-total depravity. He's just blind as a bat. He's
been blinded twice, twice lost, plucked up by the roots. That's
terrible. But a man can look at that and
say, now, read that again. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh." Now, you mean to tell me that that's a son
of God praying to his Heavenly Father and saying, he's talking,
that as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he might
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him? Well,
if that doesn't mean anything to me, what does the English
language mean to me? Why didn't he say he'd give him
power over all flesh and he might give eternal life to everybody?
Because it's not that way. God is sovereign in an eternity
past, if you want to speak like that. He simply set his affection
on a people for this purpose, that he might have a bride for
his son. And a man jumped right in my
face, I don't believe that! God is so sovereign, he just
picked certain people for his bride. Well, how come he didn't
let somebody else pick yours? I've heard many a man say, well,
I don't think God should do that now. Well, how come you picked
John? Instead of letting your father-in-law or some stranger,
somebody else, pick your bride. Do the very same thing God does
and then fall out about it. Furthermore, if you are married
today and love your wife, you didn't love all of her sisters
and brothers and fathers and mothers, some of them, far from
it. No reflection on in-laws, out-laws or anything else. My
wife just had one more sister, I didn't love her. She didn't
think anything was lost. I'm glad she's somewhere else,
and I'm married to this girl. I'm happy with that." She said, Amen. That's giving
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as that's given him. And this is eternal life, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ. whom thou hast sent." Now, how
are you going to know God? Well, I think Peter answered that question
in the 16th chapter of Matthew, when the Lord said to Peter,
he said, Peter, whom do men say that I am? Well, he said to the
disciple, and Peter was just spoken to. He said, whom do men
say that I am? Well, Peter said, some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, some one of the other
prophets, but whom saith thou that I am Peter? Ah, brother,
you're in a corner now. I'm talking to you, Peter. Whom
sayeth thou that I am?" They don't make any difference what
they are. What do you say? They are to
Christ, the Son of the living God. And he said to Peter, he said,
Peter, flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto you. How did
you get it, Peter? First place is the revelation.
And you didn't get it by flesh and blood revealing it unto you.
but my Father which is in heaven. And he said, I say unto thee
that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I'll build my church.
Now, you've heard a lot of what the Church is built on. It's
built on that word revelation right there, that God knows who
Peter is, and Peter knows who God is. That's it, brother, and
that's what the Church is built upon. Have you come to know God
this morning as an absolute Sovereign? I do believe now. with no question
marks attached after personal testimony after testimony. And
men tell me, he said, when first I come to embrace the Savior,
I couldn't quote John 3.16. I didn't know this glorious truth.
That's fine. That's fine. That only confirms
the fact that I'm telling you God's sovereign. He saves men
and he uses means if he cares to. And he saves people in spite
of the means. many times, going the wrong way,
it looks like. And then sometimes he just saves
people in periods. You say, why? I say, just cause.
And then God begins to teach. And you say, you know what, that's
the first time in my life, first time in my life I ever come to
see how come I got saved, and who saved me, and what kind of
a God it is that saved me. People today, by the multitude,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are as sincere as the preacher
who preached to them, but the Christ who has preached to them
is a nonexistent being. There is no God like that, brother,
you tell a man. We believe in the inspiration
of the scriptures and the virgin birth and the deity of Christ,
but don't you believe in that hated thing called election?
and the sovereignty of God, you might as well make up your mind
that if you get by like that, that God is not deified, he's
not the true God, he's not the virgin-born Christ, one just
as absolute as the other, and unless God teaches you he's sovereign,
you'll never make heaven your home. But I'll tell you what
will happen, if he teaches you he's sovereign. Forever and ever
he's going to bow, and every time he's going to confess. that
Jesus Christ is Lord, that Lord means king, sovereign over every
human being. And that's for the glory of God,
not when, but whether. Isn't it wonderful to hear this
morning, and you've got the slightest incantation, glory to his name.
I was just as wild as the rest of the folk going the wrong way,
and God in his sovereign good pleasure dropped the curtain
in front of me. And I ran headlong into a brick
wall. And I stopped and he said, and
who are you, and who are you? Ah, brother, now that's it, and
turned me around, and though I staggered and stumbled and
fallen many a time, I'm still going in the same direction,
that's it, that's it. Now, would you go back? Yeah,
you would if the bridges wasn't burnt behind you. Did you ever
try to put the puzzle together? Yeah, you have, but there's a
piece of it gone, brother, it won't work.