I've asked Luke Coffey to preach
for us tonight. Luke, we're praying for you and
we're praying for ourselves that you'll be given a word and that
we'll be given the grace to hear. You know, it takes grace to preach. It's a supernatural thing. It's
not something somebody can just get up and start spouting out
the facts. But it takes just as much grace
to hear. May God give us a word. Luke,
come preach to us. If you would open your Bibles
to the book of Psalm, back to where Evan read in Psalm 145.
Psalm 145. Earlier this year, I went to
a funeral And the funeral was for a young
man who had taken his own life. He was a very nice boy and the
occasion was, as you'd expect, extremely sad. And during the
service, the man doing the funeral made a few comments, two particularly,
that I really have never been able to get out of my head. And
in the time after that, they bothered me a great deal. Now
the first thing he said when doing the funeral for this young
man was he said, God didn't do this. And that caught me off guard.
And even more off guard than the other things he was saying
because it was not, almost no part of it was very respectful
or true for that matter. But that could have been meant
a few different ways. But then the second thing he
said a few moments later, after he said God didn't do this, was
God didn't want this to happen. Now, I'm very sheltered when
it comes to false religion. I grew up in a gospel church,
and even during my more rebellious years, I never attended another
church or a non-gospel church. I've really been to very few
even gatherings that were not true word. Now, despite that, I've heard many
descriptions of false things. As many of you young people that
may have been going here since you were little, you've heard
people up in this pulpit say things that false preachers say.
But to actually hear someone else say it with conviction that
they believed it, that they would say God didn't do this and that
God didn't want this to happen, it just completely floored me. And I didn't know where to begin
to try to wrap my thoughts around it. I couldn't figure out the
confusion, the frustration, the anger that was going through
my mind. And the next few days, I realized what kept bothering
me the most was that there were only two reasons I could come
up with why he would say these things. Now, the first reason
was that he believed there is someone or something that wanted
this to happen to this boy, and God couldn't stop it. Now, if that's the case, it takes
away all hope that I've got. My only hope is that God chose
a people before the foundation of the earth, that the Lord Jesus
Christ came to the earth, lived perfectly, then died on the cross
bearing the sin of his people. Then he arose victorious, ascended
on high, and is seated on the throne right now. My hope is
in a holy and all-powerful and an omniscient God. Now, I'm not
just talking about a God that can't be beaten, that can't be
manipulated. My hope is in an almighty God
that can't even be challenged. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Now, the second reason, and The
one that I want to spend most of my time on this evening, that
this man would say, God didn't want this to happen. The second
reason was, if I were God, I wouldn't have
done it like this. If I were God, he was saying,
if I were God, this is not the way I would work things out.
I wouldn't have done this. Let me start out by saying I
don't understand the reasoning behind many of the things that
have happened in my life, or any of the things that have happened
in my life, especially the trials and tribulations. And I most
definitely can't explain the things that happen. And there's
nothing wrong with being heartbroken over a loss. There's nothing
wrong with being upset when something doesn't go your way. And it should
bother you when a friend or a loved one goes through a trial. It
should bother you. But I caution all of us not to
do one thing. Don't fall into the trap or the
temptation of questioning the providence of God. Look at verse
17 and 18 in Psalm 145. Verse 17, the Lord is righteous in all His ways. The Lord is holy in all His works. The Lord is nigh unto all them
that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. I'm going
to read verse 17 one more time. The Lord is righteous in all
His ways and holy in all His works. In these two verses, we
get a wonderful description of the Lord, of God. And the rest
of the message is going to be talking about the three attributes
that this says here, or characteristics of the Lord. The first being
the Lord is righteous in all his ways. The second being the
Lord is holy in all his works. And third, the Lord is nigh or
near unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon
him in truth. But before we give these three
attributes or characteristics, let me take just a second to
make sure everybody in here knows exactly who we're talking about.
When we give characteristics or attributes of someone, it
only matters if we all are on the same page of who we're talking
about. Turn to Job chapter 12. It's very important that we realize
that when I'm giving these characteristics, I'm not talking about the same
person that this man who was talking in the funeral. In Isaiah
9, 6, it says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And the government shall be on
his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God. the everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Now look here in verse 9 of Job
12. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the Lord hath
wrought this, in whose hand is the soul of every living thing
and the breath of all mankind? Doth not the ear try words and
the mouth taste his meat? With the ancient is wisdom and
the length of days understanding. With him, with the Lord, is wisdom
and strength. He hath counsel and understanding.
Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. He
shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening. Behold, he
withholdeth the waters, and they dry up. Also he sendeth them
out, and they overturn the earth. With Him, with the Lord, is strength
and wisdom. The deceived and the deceiver
are His. Look in verse 22. He discovereth
deep things out of darkness and bringeth out to light the shadow
of death. He increaseth the nations and
destroyeth them. He enlargeth the nations and
straighteneth them again. In Psalm 2410, it says, Who is
the King of glory? the Lord of hosts. He is the
King of glory. I want to read one more thing
from Revelation 4 here. Listen to these four verses.
And listen to what, speaking of heavenly beings here, and
what they do. And the four beasts had each
of them six wings about him, and they were full of eyes within.
And they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those
beasts give glory and honor and thanks to him that sat on the
throne, who liveth forever and ever, the four and twenty elders
fall down before him that sat on the throne and worship him
that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power. For Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
righteous in all His ways. Our God is a righteous and a
just God. And if we truly believe that
He is righteous, then that means everything He has done, everything
He is doing, and everything that He will do in the future is right
and just. Every single thing that happens
in this world, whether it benefits us, whether it has nothing to
do with us, or whether it's the greatest thing that's ever happened
to us, or maybe the worst thing that's ever happened to us. Everything,
everything is for God's glory. And to go on top of that, we're
reminded numerous times in Scripture that all things work together
for the good of His people too. Turn with me to Romans 8. Romans 8. In verse 28, And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren, Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called and whom he called,
then he also justified and whom he justified, then he also glorified. What shall we say then to these
things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. All things work together for
good to them who are called Now, we remember all of the worst
things that have ever happened to us. And if you are a child
of God, if you were elected before the foundation of the earth to
be conformed to the image of his son, then all those things
that you remember, those bad things, they were for our good. Now, when someone here is in
a trial, please don't go to them and say, this is for your good.
Nobody wants to hear that. They don't need to hear that.
But instead, have compassion on one another. Offer your support,
your time, your shoulder, or whatever it is that they need.
But before, during, and after all of that, pray for them. If
you can do just one thing for someone in this church, for a
brother or sister, ask the Lord to help them because he is the
only source, the only place to find grace, mercy and hope. So
why would someone think the Lord's way wasn't the right way? Or
why would someone disagree with the ways of the Lord? Now, I'm
going to give you a simple answer for this, and I'm going to use
an illustration. Now kids, if your parents ask me to come over
tonight after church for dinner. And I said, that sounds great. And I don't know where you live.
I don't know where your house is. I've never been there. And
so your dad or mom came up to me and said, Luke, you know how
to get to my house? No, I don't know. They said,
would you like me to tell you? Sure, that sounds good. So they
describe it, then they take a piece of paper out, write down the
address, write all the directions out, all of it, and they say,
you got it? I say, I got it. I fold it up, I put it in my
pocket, and then Tracy and I get in the car, and we get in there,
and she says, do you have the directions? I say, yeah. She
goes, well, are we going to get them out? No. No, I don't need
them. I'm going to go my way. Now,
why would I say something like that? I've never been there.
I don't have a clue how to get there. The reason I would do
that is because I think my way is better than your parents'
way. I think I'm smarter than your dad and mom. I think I can
get there without their help. Many people have come to this
decision that they want to take their own path. They want to
take their own way. They've decided their way is
good enough to get to salvation. Their way will get them to glory. They've decided that they are
smarter or they are better than the Lord Jesus Christ. But we
know, thankfully, the only way to be found righteous or the
only way to be righteous, I should say, is to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. As the children in Egypt, the
only people that were safe were those that were under the blood.
Now, the Lord is holy in all His works. The second characteristic,
the Lord is holy in all His works. The word holy here means merciful
or bountiful. It can be translated that way.
The Lord is merciful in everything He does for His children. And
we need His mercy. Psalm 41 says, Lord, be merciful
unto me. Heal my soul, for I have sinned
against thee. We need his mercy because we
are sinners. The only hope for the sinner is the mercy of the
Lord. And what good news it is that
the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. The
Lord is bountiful in all his works. A translation and definitions
that I was looking through this, I came across the word overflowing
fullness. Everything the Lord does is in
abundance or overflowing fullness. In this chapter, it talks about
the Lord being gracious, the Lord being good, the Lord being
full of compassion, the Lord being great. And in all of these,
the Lord has an overflowing fullness of it. An inexhaustible supply
that the Lord delights in giving His children. And what is the
greatest work of our Lord? The labor of salvation through
His life, death, and resurrection. Everything the Lord has done
is doing and will do. Everything can be summed up in
the words He said as a 12-year-old boy talking to his mother. I
must be about my father's business. Turn to Galatians 1. The Lord is holy in all His works. Galatians 1 verse 3. Very familiar verses of Scripture.
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver
us from this present evil world according to the will of God
and our Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord is holy in all his works.
Yet why does so many people try to present their works as a way
to salvation? Most churches present a God that
requires you to do your part. They require that you do something
if you want to get to heaven. And the simple answer to that
is, what could I possibly offer a holy God? And there are many
great misconceptions and misunderstandings in religion today. And almost
all of them can be proven false by simply understanding the relationship
between God and man. There is a great divide between
the two that cannot be exaggerated. When I first thought of how I
would illustrate the gap, the divide between man and holy God,
I immediately just went to trying to show it, just showing a level
or something. But it's just so... I can't do
it. I can't get my arms in a position
to even make it look reasonable. And then trying to explain the
perfection and holiness of God while at the same time my sinfulness
and filth as a man. To say that I can't be any lower
and He can't be any higher. And if I were to compare the
two, the only distance I could come up with would be greater
than infinity. I know a math teacher would then
look at me and say, that's impossible. There's nothing greater than
infinity. And without trying to be sarcastic, I'd have to
respond, if you knew yourself and you knew God, you know this
was not an exaggeration at all. False religion spends most of
its time doing two things. First, trying to make themselves
closer to God through their works. and trying to lower God down
to them, neither of which can be done. Turn over to Ephesians
2, a couple pages, Ephesians chapter 2. Religion always trying to bring
themselves up or bringing God down. In Ephesians 2, look at
the first three verses here are going to describe us, describe
us before the Lord did anything. And you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein
in time past you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversations in times past in the lusts of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and whereby nature the children of wrath, even as others." And
throughout those three verses, there's a lot of past tense,
who were, and all of that is because verse four, but God. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us. even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We don't have anything to do
with our salvation. And if you think your works are
necessary for salvation, then you will not be saved. Let me
tell a story, more experience I had, to try to give an illustration
of man's desire to find fault with God, to bring God down towards
us. When I was in college, I had
a religion class. And the professor started out
one of the classes by going to the first person, and he said,
I want everybody in the class, one by one, you can't repeat
it, to go up and write one word on the board describing God. Well, I was somewhere in the
25th or something like that, and I started writing down words
because I wanted to have a good one. And the first person went
up, and they kept going, and I was marking my words off and
going through. When it came to me, I walked up and wrote, all
powerful. And when we were done with 30,
32 kids, we had a pretty good list. And we didn't know where
we were going. We didn't have any idea. And
then the teacher started talking and describing the events of
the Holocaust, going through, talking about all the people
that died and innocent people that died and all these horrible
acts that took place during that. And this went on for at least
15 minutes. And it was very detailed and graphic and it was pretty
bad to listen to. And when she finished, she then
said, all right, we're going to go the other way now and start
with the other side of the room. And after thinking all of those
things I just told you, I want you to go up and write another
word on the board describing God. Well, at the time, I didn't have a heart knowledge
at all of the gospel. I had been taught a lot of things,
but I didn't believe. Well, I still knew enough at
that point that the first five or six people went up and wrote
words such as confused and odd and things like that. and I just
didn't understand it. And it came to me, and I went
up and went to the first person who had written the word holy
on there, and I went up and wrote S-T-I-L-L hyphen in front of
the word holy. Still holy. And in doing so,
I don't know why the Holocaust happened. I don't know many details
about it. I don't know those involved.
I don't know anything. But I do know that throughout
the entire event, before it started, while it was going on, after
it was over, to this day in the future, the Lord God was on the
throne. And I know the Lord is righteous
in all His ways, and I know the Lord is holy in all His works. Now, at that funeral for that
young man, there were a lot of people trying to make sense of
what happened. I've never gone through such
a trial. I can't begin to explain why it happened or anything like
that. I definitely didn't have the
words to say to his parents when I went through the line, the
receiving line. And after all these months, I still don't have
the words to say to them. I have no idea what I could say
to them. But if I were to endure such
a tragedy, I want to know and believe on verse 18 in our text. If I were to endure such a tragedy,
I want to know and believe verse 18. The Lord is near unto all
them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth. I find great comfort in knowing
that the Lord is near unto them that call upon Him in truth.
He says, As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort
you. One preacher described calling
upon the Lord in truth as this. A true call to the Lord is a
prayer that comes from a recognized need and is directed to one who
is able and willing to respond. Let me say that again. A true
call to the Lord is a prayer that comes from a recognized
need and is directed to one who is able and willing to respond. Now, I want to use a description
of four different people that approached the Lord Jesus Christ
in the scriptures to give four characteristics of how we should
call upon the Lord. And I'll do this quickly. Turn
to Matthew 15. four different people who approached,
who called upon the Lord, who cried out to the Lord. The first
is in Matthew 15, verse 22. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word,
and his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. But he answereth and said, I
am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It
is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs.
And she said, Truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which
fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole
from that very hour." The first thing The first characteristic
that we can learn from this woman is you have to know where you're
coming from. You've got to know that you're
coming from a place that cannot be any lower. You're coming empty-handed. You've got nothing to bring.
You have no place to barter. You've got nothing with you.
Know where you're coming from. Know you're coming from the lowest
seat. Secondly, in Matthew chapter 8, Our second person who cried
unto the Lord, Matthew 8 verse 5, And when Jesus
was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion. beseeching
him, and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy,
grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou should come under my roof, but
speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man
under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this man,
Go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, Verily
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many
shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the
children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto
the centurion, Go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour. The first thing was know where
you're coming from. The second is know who you're
coming to. It is of the utmost importance
that first off, we know who to come to, that we know who to
approach, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and we have something
we need. And in that same vein, we also in knowing who we're
coming to know who he is, know his position of authority on
the throne, know that he's the one he's the only one who can
answer your prayer. Third, the third person in Mark
10. Mark 10, verse 46. Mark 10, verse 46. And they came to Jericho, and
as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, a great number
of people Blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside
begging. And when he heard that it was
Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou
son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he
should hold his peace, but he cried the more a great deal.
Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still
and commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man,
saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise, he calleth thee. And he
casting away, the garment rose and came to Jesus. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto
thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy
way, thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received
his sight and followed Jesus in the way." The third thing
we need to know when we cry to the Lord, when we call upon Him,
is that we have to know that we have no other option. Blind
Bartimaeus, a blind beggar sitting on the street side, And it just so happened that
the one, his only hope, the one person who could give him what
he needed came walking by. Knowing that he had no other
option, and only for that reason, he would not stop asking. He
wouldn't stop crying for the Lord. If you have something you
need, You have to realize you have no other option but to come
to Him. And when you get to the place
where you realize you have no other option, then you'll realize
you have to call upon Him and you can't stop calling upon Him.
And then finally, in Luke 8, Luke chapter 8, in verse 43, And a woman having an issue of
blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians,
neither could be healed of any, came behind him and touched the
border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood stanched.
And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they
that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and
press thee and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody
has touched me, for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.
And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling
and falling down before him. She declared unto him before
all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how
she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter,
be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole.
Go in peace." The first thing we need to know is know where
we're coming from. Then we need to know who we're
coming to, and we need to know that we have no other option
And fourthly, we have to come to the Lord. When we cry to Him,
we should come with confidence. He's able. He tells us over and
over again, come to me. This woman thought that if she
could just touch Him, He was powerful enough to heal her.
But not only that, He had to have known what her problem was.
He had to have desired to heal her. All of these things she
had no doubt. She just wanted to touch Him. She came with confidence
that He would heal her. Now, go to our text one last
time. And in verse 17, the Lord is
righteous in all His ways and holy in all His works. The Lord
is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon
Him in truth. And read verse 19 with me. He
will fulfill the desire of them that fear Him. He also will hear
their cry and will save them. If we call upon the Lord in truth,
He will hear us and He will do the same thing He did to all
four of these people in the Scriptures. If you cry to Him, He will save
you. Amen. Bless His name.