I love that song. I hope you'll pray for me as
I attempt to bring this message. I fear, I fear bringing my own words
and not the words of the Lord. And I believe that's what Paul
meant when he said, I was with you in weakness and in fear and
in much trembling. And I hope that's my attitude
as I try to bring this message. I've entitled this message, The
Divine Order. The Divine Order. Would you turn to Hebrews chapter
five? Verse eight. Though he were a son, speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, though he were a
son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him called
of God and high priest after the order of Melchizedek not
after the order of Levi and the Levitical priesthood but after
the order of Melchizedek. Look in chapter six verse twenty. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest after the order
of Melchizedek. This was 400 years before Levi
came on the scene. For this Melchizedek, king of
Satan, priest of the Most High God who made Abraham return him
from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. To whom also
Abraham gave a tenth part of all. First, being by interpretation,
king of righteousness. And after that, there's the order. First, King of Righteousness. After that, also, King of Salem,
which is King of Peace. Without father, without mother,
without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of
life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth the priest
continually. Now, I don't have any question
in my mind that Melchizedek is the Lord Jesus Christ, a pre-incarnate
appearance of the Son of God. And I've heard people object,
well, it says he's made like unto the Son of God. It doesn't
say he is the Son of God, he's made like unto the Son of God. Well, when John had that vision
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, I saw one like unto the
Son of Man. And do you remember when Nebuchadnezzar
had cast the three men into the firmus? And he said, I see the
fourth, and the fourth one is like unto the Son of God. Doesn't
mean he wasn't the Son of God, that's just the language that's
used. Melchizedek is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what I want to point out
is this divine order that the Holy Spirit makes clear. First,
king of righteousness. After that, king of peace. First righteousness, then peace. You and I will not have peace
unless we first have absolute, perfect righteousness. Absolute beauty before God. Perfect obedience before God
without sinning. First, righteousness. After that, peace. Now, if I don't have the divine order,
I don't have the gospel. righteousness. Then, peace. If I do not have
the divine order, I do not have the gospel. God is a god of order. What does that mean? Well, Paul
said to the church of Corinth, god is not the author of confusion. He's not the author of disorder
or chaos and the church of Corinth was in chaos and Paul said to
them, let all things be done decently and in proper order. Now, he's not just talking about
sequence of events. This means more than that as
we're going to see. God's order is set forth in creation. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. First God, then creation. Can't mix that up, can we? First
God, then creation. Turn with me for a moment to
Luke chapter one. I want us to see the significance
of this in scripture. Verse one, for as much as many
have taken in hand to set forth in order, in order, a declaration
of those things which are most surely believed among us, even
as they delivered them unto us, which from the first. from the
beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. It seemed
good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from
the very first, to write unto thee how? In a word. Most excellent Theophilus, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. This is the order Paul was speaking
of in The book of Colossians when he said to the church of
Colossae, beholding your order and the steadfastness of your
faith in Christ. There's no steadfastness of faith
without this order that he is speaking of. In preaching, we
don't begin with men and the things God can do for man. we begin with God. If I don't
begin with God, I've started out in the wrong place, and I'll
never get to the right place. God, after that. And when we speak of God, we
have to begin with His eternity. God does not dwell in time. He makes time. But God is. I am that I am. Never He was, never He will be. I am that I am. The eternal God. And in the order of everything, has to begin in eternity or it's
false. Now, this is so important. It's
got to begin in eternity. Before there was any time or
it is false. Know that the god or all his
works from the beginning. Look in Hebrews chapter four
for just a moment. for we, verse three, Hebrews
chapter four, verse three, for we which have believed do enter
into rest. As he said, as I've sworn in
my wrath, that they shall enter into my rest, although the works
were finished, completed from the foundation of the world. All the works, whatever it is,
finished from the very foundation of the world, even speaking of
the death of Christ. And this is the early church.
They had only been converted for a couple of weeks in Acts
chapter four. And when we read of the church in prayer and in
praise, they said, for the truth against thy holy child, Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles, the people of Israel were gathered together for to
do. whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel
determined before to be done. This was all determined in eternity. You see, take that away and the
cross of Christ is meaningless. He's the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. And really the whole Bible is
interpreted in light of that verse of scripture, the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Now, order. Here's where we're going to begin.
Paul said, knowing this first, there's order. Peter said with
regard to the scriptures, knowing this first, that no scripture
is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. We have to begin with the scriptures.
We can't start anywhere else. Not my thoughts or your thoughts.
We begin with the Word of God. Somebody says, how can you prove
to me that the Bible is the Word of God? I can't. But I know it
is. I feel no need to. If you read
it, you'll find out if God makes himself known to you. Now, you
won't know it. You might say, I believe the Bible is the Word
of God. But you won't know it's the Word of God until God teaches
you who he is. Then you'll know. Now, somebody
says, do you expect me to believe that God inspired a book, Word,
word? Totally inspired just as he would
have it said? You expect me to believe that?
Well, do you believe God created the universe from nothing? Sure
you do. Everybody does. And if he can
create the universe from nothing, it's not difficult for him to
inspire men to write a book and keep it preserved throughout
the centuries. This is a supernatural book and we gotta begin here.
Knowing this First, what sayeth the scripture? Somebody says,
well, here's my truth. I don't care what your truth
is. I hate when people talk like that. This is the absolute truth
of God. There's nothing subjective about
this. This is God's word. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. All of our information, comes
from this book. Amen. Christ, the second person of
the Trinity, and I don't understand this, I just believe it, God
is one God and three distinct persons. And there's an order
to the three distinct persons, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And the only reason we know this
is because of the Word of God. No one woke up one day and said,
I believe God must be one God in three persons. This is not
something so much understood as believed. This is God's revelation
of Himself. And the Son of God, Christ, identifies
Himself, I am the Alpha and the Omega. The first, and the last,
the beginning and the end. That's God's order. I love the
scripture that says he is before all things. Can't take that too
far. He is before all things. Whatever it is, he's before it. Whatever it is, He is ultimately
the cause. I know there's secondary causes
and tertiary causes, but there's really only one cause. God said,
I form the light, I create darkness. I make peace, I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Christ is the first. Christ is
the last. It said of Christ, all things
were made by him. And without him was not anything
made that was made. And even in the creation account,
we have an order, don't we? What came first? Light. Light. What about the six days
of creation? Somebody says, do you believe
it was six literal days? Yes, I do. Yes, I did. That's
what the Bible says. He talks about the morning and
the evening. And somebody says, well, how
can you account for the billions of years it took for organic
matter to form oil and all that kind of stuff? Well, you know,
the Lord could have easily made the earth with all the oil. That's
just the way he made things. Is it four billion years old
or 13 billion years old or 6,000 years old? I don't know and I
don't care. But I do know this, there's an order. He created
the universe and he did so in six separate days. In Providence, God has an order. Now, Providence, what's that
mean? Everything that takes place in
time, healed or dead before time. Everything is God's providence. Everything. The Lord said, not
a sparrow falleth to the ground without your Father. Now that
seems so insignificant to us. Maybe somewhere over in some
other continent, a sparrow falls to the ground and dies. We don't
even know about it. He does. He's the first cause. He caused it. It doesn't say
without your father knowing it, it says without your father.
He controls all things and all events in providence. The sequence of events and the
outcome of the events are determined by the living God. With regard to everything that
takes place in the universe, Christ is before all things. And by Him, all things consist. This is who He is. This is the
divine order. It begins with Him. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
46. I know you're already familiar with Romans 828. We know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. Look at this
passage of scripture in Isaiah 46. Remember the former things of
the whole for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like unto me. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done saying
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executed my counsel
from a far country. Everything that's taking place
right now is God doing it. Stuff going on in the Ukraine,
in Israel, it's God doing it. Why is he doing it? I don't know,
but he does. And I'm just fine with that because
I trust his character. Whatever he does is right. I
might not understand it. I can't give you a reason, but
God is God. That's what that means. Let's
go on reading. He says, calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man that executes my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have
spoken it. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I also
will do it. God is absolutely sovereign over
the free and uncoerced actions of men. You see me and you do
what we want to do. We can't blame God for our sin. We do what we want to do. But
God is completely sovereign over all the free and uncoerced actions
of men. I was reading a book several
years ago, maybe some of you have read, it's called A Brief
History of Time by Stephen Hawking. He's a physicist of some kind,
but he was in this book and he goes back and forth, he's dead
now, but he goes back and forth between atheism and theism, supposedly
believing God, and he made this statement. He said, if there
is a God, if there is a God, he said, I'm not sure whether
there is, but if there is a God, there's no such thing as free
will. And that's just true, isn't it? If there is a God, free will
is foolishness. It's just not, it's not even
worth talking about. It's ludicrous. God is God. Somebody says, do you believe
in free will? No. No, no, I do not. God doesn't have free will.
God's will is controlled by his nature. He can't see him, can
he? He can't freely decide, well, I'm going to see him. No, he
can't lie. He's God. His will is controlled
by his holy nature. And every will is controlled
by what nature they have. Now, God's order. Verse this. After that, that's so true in
salvation. God has an order. David said
when he was dying, I love to, I hope this is what is on my
mind when I'm dying. These be the dying words of David,
his last words. He said, although my house Be
not so with God. Now, I think that that is a reference
to his house. It was a mess. His house was
a mess. Is your house a mess? His was
worse. I think that what he is mainly referring to is this house.
This house. Although my house, be not so
with God. That's the way things are in
the present. Yet hath he made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered, there's that word, ordered in all things and
sure. And this is all my salvation. Not 99%. This is all my salvation,
and it's all my desire. It's all I want. Though he make
it not to grow. Listen to this scripture, 2 Timothy
1.9. It says, he saved us, and he called us. What came first? He saved us, and he called us. He saved and came before the
covenant. He saved us and He called us,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. That's God's order. He saved us and He called us. Now if the salvation of my soul
did not begin in eternity, it's not real. I don't trace my salvation to
anything I've done. according as he has chosen us,
you just read that, according as he has chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame. Now listen to this, this could
rock. First a Savior, then a sinner. First a Savior, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world before there was ever a sinner,
there was a Savior. Savior, then a sinner before
there's forgiveness. Oh, I want forgiveness, don't
you? I want my sins to be forgiven, blotted out, made not to be. I'm so interested in this thing
of the forgiveness of sins. Like David said, my sin is ever
before me and I want my sins forgiven. Listen to this. Before
there can be forgiveness, there must first be justification. After that, forgiveness. God said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. Under no circumstance will I ever clear someone who's
guilty. For my sins to be forgiven, I
first have to be justified. Then he'll forgive me. And that's
exactly what was meant by first righteousness, then peace. First
Christ's righteousness, then, oh, peace. Paul put it this way
in Romans chapter 14, verse 17. He said, the kingdom of God is
not meat and drink, but notice the order. Righteousness, peace,
and joy in the Holy Ghost. That is the divine order. Turn with me for a moment to
first John chapter one. First John chapter one, verse nine. If we confess our sins, now,
hold up. What's that mean? Does that mean I have to confess
every individual sin? Well, let me tell you why it
doesn't mean that. Because most of your sins, you don't even
know you committed them. And here's another reason. There's
not enough time in the day for you to confess every individual
sin. When he says, if we confess our
sins, this word confession means speak the same thing. We agree with what God says about
our sin, and we take sides with God against ourselves. That's
what it is to confess sin. You take sides with God against
yourself. If, now look at the verse with
me, read this with me. If we confess our sins, he is merciful and gracious to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Now, did I read that right? No, I didn't read that right.
although he is merciful and gracious. No, I'm not calling him to question
that in any way, but that's not what it says. You know what? If I confess my sins, it's because
he's faithful to do what he determines for me to do. That's why I'm
confessing. That's why I'm taking sides with
God against myself, because of his faithfulness. Great is thy
faithfulness. He's faithful. and he's just. Do you hear that? The very justice
of God demands the complete justification of everybody Jesus Christ died
for. You see that order? If we confess, his faithfulness
came before that confession, didn't it? His justice came before
that confession. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive our sins. and to cleanse us. You know that word cleanse is
in the present active voice. I need to be cleansed all the
time, don't you? I need to be cleansed every second. The blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son cleanses us from how much sin? A whole
lot. Somebody may be thinking, you're
just trying to be logical. No, I'm trying to be scriptural.
There's nothing wrong with logic. I remember one time, this actually
happened. I was talking to a preacher,
he's a Southern Baptist preacher, and talking about the atonement
of Christ being only to be left, and how it would be ludicrous
to say that he died for somebody who could, and they wind up in
hell anyway. He said, you're just trying to
make sense. Well, I'm trying to be scriptural,
it does make sense. Only this makes sense. One time,
Brother Mayhem, we were meeting on American Avenue at the time,
and he brought a message. entitled Four Questions for Thoughtful
People. And he said, if God wills the
salvation of all men the same, Judas, Peter, what's will God
have to do with salvation? Nothing. If God loves all men
the same, Judas, Peter, loves them the same. What's the love
of God have to do with salvation? If Peter saved, Judas is not. If it wasn't God's love, Peter
didn't, Judas didn't do. If Jesus Christ shed his blood
for all men the same, Judas and Peter, what does the blood of
Christ have to do with salvation? Really nothing. If God the Holy
Spirit calls all men the same, What does the Holy Spirit have
to do with salvation? I remember he entitled that message,
Four Questions for Thoughtful People. And he said, brilliant
men check out their brains when it comes to religion. And that's
true, that's true. None of it makes, this makes
sense, doesn't it? The divine order, but we don't believe it
because it makes sense. We believe it because it's what
the word of God actually teaches. In gospel preaching, Paul said,
I delivered unto you first of all. There's the order. I delivered to you first of all
that which I also received. That's what I'm delivering to
you, what I first received, how that Christ died for our sins
according to the scripture. Now turn with me to Romans chapter
10. We're going to close up here. Verse 13, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord, shall be saved. I love that verse of scripture.
Whosoever, I love that. I love that because I'm one of
them. I fit into that demographic, whosoever. I'm one of them. You
know, if it said, if Todd calls upon the name of the Lord, it
might not have been this Todd. It might be some other Todd.
There's a lot of Todds walking the face of this planet. It might
not have been me, but whosoever. Oh, what a blessed eye. This
all I got. This all I got. Whosoever shall call. Not whosoever shall work, help
whosoever shall call. Here's the important part, upon
the name of the Lord. When you're calling upon His
name, it's not just verbally articulating His name. You're
calling upon the Lord, save me by your sovereignty, by sovereign
act of your will. Save me by your justice. Save
me by your omnipotence. Save me by your wisdom. Save
me by your grace. You're calling upon who he is,
all of his attributes. I need them all to save me. And
here's the sure word, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. I don't know whether I'm one
of the elect. If you call upon the name of the Lord, you shall
be saved. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. Verse 14, how then shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? You can't call on someone
you don't believe. It's impossible. You see, there's
an order. You've got to believe before
you'll call, don't you? Look at the next statement. And how
shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? You
can't believe what you've never heard. It's impossible. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? This is not talking about the
importance of the preacher. I hate any kind of clergy lady
like the preachers up here. No, that's not what this is about.
What this is about is it please God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. And this is God's ordained means
of calling out his people. The preacher tells the truth.
Now here, They BELIEVE they call, right? And what verse 15 says,
how should they preach except they be sent? So we see God's
order. In Philippians chapter 2, verses
12 and 13, Paul said, work out your own salvation. with fear
and with trembling. You know if that's all it said,
it scared me to death. You know what the next verse
says? For it's God that worketh in
you. There's the order. It's God that
worketh in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure. It began with his good. It began
with his good pleasure. And everything from there. First righteousness. That's the
order. First righteousness. After that,