That's true. I know this goes without saying,
but what an honor and a privilege it is to be here tonight. A special
hello from the folks in Madisonville. This church means a great deal
to them as well as your pastor does. About three and a half
years, I guess, Brother Maurice was unable to preach, unable
to be in services. And this church, from your preacher's
class, sent man after man there to preach for them. And they'd
never forgotten it. And I'd never forgotten it. It was bread and a time of famine
for them. And hello from the folks there. They love you, as do I. If you would, turn with me to
Genesis chapter 2 to begin with. Aaron and Todd both asked me
before services if I had anything particular to read or what my
text was, and I said, well, this probably wasn't the best answer
to give, but I said, I'm just kind of all over the place tonight.
I hope that's not so in my message, but with the text maybe. Here in verse 16 of Genesis chapter
2, we read, and the Lord God commanded the man, that being
Adam, saying of every tree of the garden, thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. There was a program on television
for several years called Intervention. I'm sure some of you seen that
program. This show followed individuals
who were addicted to drugs or other type of devices. And I could say it this way in
watching the program is they could not not do drugs, just
like we cannot not sin. And this show followed individuals
addicted to drugs and having reached the lowest point in their
lives. It's just sad. They must agree
to be helped by an intervention, and that's what the show was
about. Most of those who agreed or decided upon treatment either
never finished the program, the intervention, and most of them
didn't continue in their sobriety. Every now and then one would,
but not many. Most of those went back to their
old ways and even perished because of their unwillingness and inability
to change. I can relate to that. You see,
tonight I want to talk to you, though, about another kind of
intervention. It's called a divine intervention. It's the only intervention that
really matters. when all is said and done. And
this is an intervention that every single one of us are in
need of. The sad thing is, is that many
will never know it. I speak of an intervention from
the addiction of sin. We've got a desperate disease. And it's called sin. such a small
word with such devastating results. And, you know, that's the kind
of intervention that I need. I need an intervention from God.
And what's so beautiful in this divine intervention, the undeserving
sinner has no decision or will in the matter. They would ask
these on the program, will you go to an intervention? And like
I said, some said no, and some said yes. But in this divine
intervention, we have no decision, no will in the matter. You know,
the chosen sinner cannot and will not come to God. So God,
the divine one, must come to us. And I'm so thankful that
he does. Now the words addict and addiction
are not found in the scripture, but Paul did say in Romans 7
very plainly these words. He said, I'm sold under sin. What is it to be sold under sin? He was a captive to sin. He was addicted to sin. And we
too have sold out to sin, all of us have. Every addict of sin
will tell you the same thing. They do what they shouldn't do.
They don't do what they should do. They wish they didn't sin. I really wish that I didn't sin,
but I do. They hate that they sin. I hate that I sin. How to perform
what is good? I find not. What hope then is, does any sinner
have of being saved? A divine intervention. What is
a divine intervention? Well, divine means godly. Divine means holy. So I know
that this must come from the divine one. This must come from
one who is holy. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sins, it shall
die. We know that. You've been well taught that.
And in order for the holy justice of God to be satisfied, God must
divinely intervene in our lives. He must reveal to us what we
are. A man who does not see his need, a woman that does not see
her need will never see their need of a savior. God must reveal
Christ to us. To intervene means to come between. Come between. Christ must come
between us and God. God must prevent or alter a course
of events. God must change our end result. You know, the word intervene
means to intercede. Christ must intercede. God must
involve himself. God must mediate. There's one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. He's our
divine intervention. It's called discriminating mercy. It's called distinguishing grace. The Lord said, I'll have mercy
upon whom I'll have mercy and whom I will, I harden it. That's
at his discretion. Many think that this salvation
that you and I cherish is an act of their free will. I'll
tell you this for certain. If God ever shows a sinner what
their free will is capable of doing, they'll beg God to take
their free will from them. A man that boasts about their
free will doesn't know God. God, show me what I am. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and you know what? It'll always be flesh. Never
be anything more. Flesh can be nothing else. I
heard a man recently say in a reference to his morality, he said, I think
I'm getting better. Well, you may think you are.
But you'll never be good enough. Never. No matter how much you
will to be, you'll never be any better. Because you have to be
perfect. Boy, that's a word I don't know
much about, perfect. Oh, we use the word a lot, but
we use it wrongly. A baby's born and we go, oh,
it's just perfect. We don't know much about it.
That's why the Lord told Nicodemus, marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. God must divinely intervene in
your life. God must interrupt. God must
come between. you and a thrice holy God." How did we get in this predicament?
Well, Romans 5.12 says, wherefore is by one man, that being Adam,
sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. In John 3, 19, you know
the passage, this is the condemnation that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because of their deeds
were evil. You see being evil, loving darkness,
we're condemned. By nature, we love darkness rather
than light. God must give us life. God must divinely intervene. And that's been the case since
sin came into the world. Turn over a page, you may not
have to, but Genesis chapter 3, you know the story well. Look
at verse 6. And when the woman saw that the
tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her,
and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig
leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God amongst the trees of the garden. Look at verse nine. And the Lord called unto Adam,
divine intervention. And he said unto him, where art
thou? And he, Adam, said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I
was afraid because I was naked. And I hid myself. And you know,
the rest of the story, Adam blamed his disobedience on his wife
and Eve blamed her disobedience on the serpent and both of them
blamed it on God. Men and women still do that.
We're good at playing the blame game. Men today say, well if God is
sovereign, if it's God alone that says, if God always has
his way and if God always has his will, then why and how does
he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
If I'm only doing what God willed, then how can he condemn me if
I don't believe? You know how Paul answered that?
Hey, but old man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Adam and Eve endeavored to cover
themselves with fig leaves by the work of their own hands.
Men still trying to do it. Men and women still trying to. Look down at verse 21, unto Adam
also and to his wife, Did the Lord God make coats of skins
and clothe them? You know what that is? That's
divine intervention. That was God involve himself.
That was God becoming between them and death, wasn't it? Divine
intervention is distinguishing grace. Divine intervention is
discriminating mercy. Divine intervention is the Lord
Jesus Christ. Who made the difference between
Abel and Cain? They both heard the teaching
of their father Adam. But to Abel it was made effectual,
but it wasn't to Cain. Who made them to differ? You
know the answer. Your pastor recently preached on that. It's
God that makes the difference. God would not accept the work
of Cain's hands. I've often thought about those
vegetables and fruit that Cain brought before the Lord. Don't
you know they were prized? They were probably the best and
the most fruitful fruit and vegetables you'd ever seen. But there wasn't a blood sacrifice.
God won't accept anything like that. He accepts only an offering
of blood and able believe God through a godly intervening. What about Enoch? Enoch walked
with God. You know why? Because God walked
with him. That's exactly why. Turn over
just a page or two to Genesis chapter six. You know these verses.
But I want us to consider them in the light of God's divine
interrupting in our lives. Verse five, and God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's
a familiar verse, but you stop and dwell on that for a while.
Every thought of a man's imagination is only evil. And it's only evil
continually. My, we're in bad shape. Verse six, and it repented the
Lord that he made man on the earth, and it grieved him at
his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man who I have
created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and
the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for it repented me
that I've made them, but Noah. found grace in the eyes of the
Lord. Grace made Noah to differ. God's
the only supplier of grace. God made Noah to differ. You know what that is? A divine
intervention. It was a godly intervention that
saved Noah. Noah was no less a sinner than
anyone else on earth. Noah found grace, where? In the
eyes of the Lord. Noah wasn't looking for grace.
How do I know? Well, there's none that seeketh
after God. None. You know what none means? None. None. What do you have that you
did not receive? What do any of us have that God
didn't give us? How did we receive the salvation
that we enjoy? By the mediation of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It always comes back to that.
That's what the gospel is. God in Christ doing for me what
I cannot and what I will not do for myself. Cannot and will
not. My. Salvation is not by works
of righteousness that we have done, but according to what?
His mercy. He saved us. Divine intervention can be summed
up in two words. You know what they are, but God,
but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. I bet you know what that is. And you hath he quickened. And you, have you quickened? No. And you hath he quickened,
God quickened. You and I were dead in trespasses
and sin. I've never seen a dead man do
anything. It's God who interrupts to give
us life. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That's God intervening. You know,
the church at Corinth, bless their hearts. I see myself in
them so much. They were preacher-worshippers.
You know, one said, I like Paul, and the other said, well, Apollos
is my man. And Paul told them they were
carnal, fleshly-minded, minding the things of the flesh. The
question then is not who Paul is. Who then is Paul, he asked.
Who then is Apollos? just ministers, just voices crying
in the wilderness, just voices that God used to preach the gospel
that you believe. That's all preachers are. If you know the gospel, it's
because God divinely revealed it to you. A divine revelation,
that's another message. Among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, divine intervention, who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Turn over a few
pages to Genesis chapter 12. Abraham called him the father
of the faith, you know, he was not always a man of faith He was an idolater he was an
idol maker He lived in an idolatrous country he didn't know God nor
did he want to Genesis chapter 12 look at verse 1 now the Lord
is had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and from thy
kindred and from thy father's house into a land that I will
show thee. Now look at this, and I will
make of thee a great nation. And I will bless thee. And I will make thy name great. And thou shalt be a blessing.
Verse three, and I will. Who will? God will. I'll bless them that bless thee,
and curse them that curseth thee. And in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed." So Abraham departed. Look at those
words, as the Lord hath spoken unto him. That's divine intervening. What did God do concerning Abraham? He budded in divinely. If Abraham had stayed in the
land of Ur, I'm convinced nothing would have ever changed. If God hadn't called him out,
if God hadn't called me out, I'd have never come. You will
not come to me that you might have liked. This was his hometown. This is where his family lived.
He had a thriving idol-making business. God told him to leave
without telling him where he was going. And Abraham believed God. I love
those words, Abraham believed God. Doesn't say Abraham believed
in a God. Doesn't say that Abraham believed
there was a God. It said Abraham believed God. And it was counted unto him for
righteousness. If I'm to have the perfect righteousness
of God that I must have, It's only gonna be found in one place
and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was made to be sin
for me that I might be made the righteousness of God in him. Abraham believed God and he departed
as the Lord had spoken to him. You know what that was? Divine
intervention. God divinely interrupting in
his life. He did so to do him good. The Lord divinely intervened
in my life, and he did it for my good. So did. God still divinely interrupts
in sinners life. Still does. You know how I know? Because the sun came up this
morning. God still got some sinners to save. He still got some sheep
to bring into the fold. Because when he's done, he'll
fold the four corners of this up and it'll be over. My, my. You know, when Abraham
left Ur of Chaldees, Lot left with him. Lot had a love for
the world. Lot pitched his tent towards
Sodom. You know what I've seen and experienced. If you pitch your tent towards
Sodom, it's not going to be long that you'll be living there. Lot moved to Sodom, but God divinely
intervened, didn't he? The scoundrel he was. God sent
the angels to bring Lot out. God divinely intervened in his
life. He did so in the life of Jacob,
or excuse me, Isaac, the promised son of Abraham and Sarah. Isaac laid upon that altar of
Mount Moriah. I've pictured this in my mind
so many times. The knife in Abraham's hand was
drawn back to kill his only son that God had given him. God divinely
interrupted and he said, lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither
do thou anything unto him. You see, the promised son is
from whom the promised seed would come, that being the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look down at verse 13 here in
Genesis, I'm sorry, Genesis chapter 22, I didn't turn you there.
Verse 13, Genesis 22. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son." Jesus Christ is God's intervention. Joseph's whole life. Joseph,
what an amazing life. HIS WHOLE LIFE WAS MADE UP OF
DIVINE INTERVENTIONS. ACTS CHAPTER 7 VERSE 9 SAYS,
AND THE PATRIARCHS, THE SONS OF JACOB, MOVED WITH ENVY, SOLD
JOSEPH INTO EGYPT. BUT GOD WAS WITH HIM, AND HE
WAS. It's obvious in reading the scriptures.
And God delivered him out of all his afflictions and gave
him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And
he, God made him governor over Egypt and all his house. And
Joseph's brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. From the pit to Potiphar's house,
from Potiphar's house to the prison, from the prison to Pharaoh's
throne, God was with him. That was the difference. God
changed each course and event. From that pit to Potiphar's house,
God was with him. From Potiphar's house to the
prison, God was with him. From the prison to the palace,
God was with him. You know what that is? And it's the same with you. Each
course and event in your life, child of God, God has purpose
and he works together for your good. Do we deserve it? No, it's discriminating. It's distinguishing. You can say it's not fair if
you want to, I'm thankful for it. It was God that gave Pharaoh
the dreams. It was God who sent Joseph to
interpret. It was God who sent the famine.
It was God who gave Joseph the knowledge to know what to do.
It was to save Joseph, his family, and much people alive, the scripture
says. Divine intervention. Years later, you know, a new
Pharaoh came on the scene, was upon the throne of Egypt. He
didn't care anything about the Hebrews. as it did the Pharaoh
in Joseph's day. He was intimidated by how big
Israel had gotten. He was paranoid. He was concerned
with Israel overthrowing them. He determined to kill all the
male children. Pharaoh told the midwives to
kill all the male newborns, but God intervened. Yet Pharaoh charged
all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast
into the river to drown. And there was a certain Hebrew
mother and father that bare a son and hid him for three months.
And when she couldn't keep him any longer for fear of his life,
she put him in an ark and she sent him flowing down the very
same river that he was supposed to be drowned in. You know, that's
only something God can do, isn't it? And you know the rest of
the story. Pharaoh's daughter found the
child, raised the child as her own in Pharaoh's house, and Pharaoh
paid for everything. Moses would become Israel's deliverer
out of Egyptian bondage. God delivered him from Pharaoh
on two different occasions when he was born. And again, when
he was grown and killed the Egyptian. And then 40 years later, we find
Moses tending sheep on the backside of the desert. God had made him
a shepherd. And what a shepherd. He became
he was a shepherd to his people and that's how God would deliver
his sheep And you know what David the Lord Jesus Christ is the
Good Shepherd and God sent him to take care of his sheep Dear lamb, do you remember when
you were lost? You remember when the Good Shepherd
found you Do you remember him putting you
on his shoulder and carrying you all the way home to the fold? What happened at the Red Sea?
Again, God interposed and delivered his people, didn't he? Moses
cried, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And they
did, and they saw it. And you know, they sung about
it for a while. They sung, I'll sing unto the
Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and the rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength. God
has become my salvation. He's my God. And soon after,
they went right back to their murmuring. God interfered. with Joshua,
and Caleb, and Samson, and Daniel, and the three Hebrew children,
didn't he? That was certainly the case with
Jonah. He himself said, salvation's of the Lord. And I've said this
before, maybe even here. You know what follows that? Period.
Salvation's of the Lord, period. End of the discussion. It's of
the Lord. The Lord Jesus Divinely intervened. That's what this book's about.
Divine intervention, substitution. Jesus Christ is God's divine
intervention. He intervened in the life of
the woman at the well at Samaria, the man at Bethesda's pool, Bartimaeus
and the man born blind in John chapter 9. He intervened. The man with the withered hand,
the woman with an issue of blood, the woman bowed over who could
not lift herself up. That's a picture of me. The leper and the man named Legion,
Mary Magdalene, Lazarus in the tomb, the Syrophoenician dog.
Yay, Lord! I'm a dog. But even dogs get
the crumbs from the master's table. What's that? That's divine
intervention. The list goes on and on. Lydia, the Ethiopian eunuch,
some of your names are on that list. God's still divinely intervening. Why does the Lord divinely intervene
in the life of the undeserving? Well, the scripture answers it
this way. It pleased the Lord to bless
Israel. It pleased the Lord to bless
you. It pleased the Lord to have mercy on you. Do I understand
it? No, it's beyond understanding. God's ways are past finding.
First Samuel 12, 22, for the Lord will not forsake his people
for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make
you his people. That's astonishing. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and earth and in the seas and all deep
places. And the Lord Jesus himself said, is it not lawful, is it
not right for me to do what I will with my own? No other reason that God saves
his people. It's lawful. It's right. It pleases him. He voluntarily
stepped in, butted in, intervened, however you want to say it, to
save his people from their sin. How does the Lord do that? Only
one way, in, by, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord
said, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh
to the Father, but how? But by me. That's why it's narrow. That's why, beyond words. Let me wind this down by having
you turn with me to 1 Corinthians 1, if you would please. This is the reason we're here
doing tonight what we're doing. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. For
the preaching the cross is to them that perish
foolishness it's called the foolishness of preaching not because it's
foolish but because the world thinks it's foolish not foolish
to you that believe is it oh it's the power of God but unto
us which are saved it's the power of God for it is written I will
destroy the wisdom of the wise and I'll bring to nothing the
understanding of the prudent Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. Here it is. It pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. That's divine intervention. For
the Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but
we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and
unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called. Are you called? Has God called
you? And to them that are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
Christ, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. How
does God divinely intervene? What is the divine revelation
of scripture you hear at every service? Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Paul said, I'm determined to
know nothing else among you. What do you think of Christ?
You know, you might ask, how does God, how do I know that
God has divinely intervened in my life? Well, the answer's always
revealed by that question. What do you think of Christ?
That's what it all comes down to. What do you think of him? He's God's divine intervention. Amen. Thank you so much. So good to be with you tonight.
I appreciate it.