turn there. Second Timothy chapter
one. The fear of the believer is that
salvation is not for them. That is the fear of the believer.
It's not that the Lord did not sufficiently put away sin, And
it's not that the Lord is limited in power, that he can't save
to the uttermost. That's not the fear of the believer.
The fear of the believer is, is it I, am I the one that's
going to betray you? That's the fear. I have good
news tonight for us because the Lord showed me that we can neither
constrain nor restrain the power of God, the grace of God, the
salvation of the Lord. The word constrained means to
compel or force someone to follow a particular course of action.
There's a lot of preaching going on today that believe that they
can compel God to do something, whether it be by lifestyle or
by prayer or by fasting or whatever it may be. But we can't compel
God to do anything, can we? And we can't restrain God from
doing anything. The word restrained means to
prevent someone or something from doing something. So we can't
compel or force him And we can't prevent him in anything. That's
good news. If you found yourself a center,
that's good news. If you see that you are the chief
of center, I can't mess it up. I can't restrain him from saving
to the uttermost and I can't constrain him or prevent him
to do something. It's good news. It's good news. Now we're in second Timothy chapter
one. And we're going to be looking
at verse 9 and verse 10. Whenever we first started meeting
together. I was asked questions such as what
is your articles of faith? What is your beliefs? What do
you preach? And I wanted to find something
that was very simple in the Word of God, something that was that
explained what we believe in. and had the gospel message in
it very clearly. And the Lord gave me second Corinthians
chapter one, verse nine and 10. My mind doesn't seem to want
to work right now. And I apologize for that. So,
all right. Second Timothy chapter one in
verse nine. Now you'll notice the last word
in verse eight is God. Verse nine, God who hath saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. There is eight things that's
found in these two verses that are good news to you and I. The
first one is, is the Lord did all the saving. He has saved
us. The second one is, is after he saved us, he called us. The
third one is, is it's not by our works. The fourth one is
that it's according to his own purpose and grace. The fifth
one is, it was done before the world began. The sixth one is
it's been made manifest by the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The seventh one is, is he abolished death for his people. And the
eighth one is he's brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel. Now I've titled this message,
Neither Constrained nor restrained." And I hope by looking at these
eight things that Paul's declaring unto Timothy, that we'll be able
to find rest tonight. Rest in the Lord's finished work.
The first one is that he hath saved us. I would ask us this
question, what is salvation to you? What is salvation to me? Now, many religions have a different
answer for that. Salvation means that you've done
this, or salvation means that you're doing this, or salvation
means you haven't done this or you have done that. Salvation
is a person. Salvation is not a doctrine.
Salvation is not theology. Salvation is none other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Lord's salvation,
Jesus Christ, how that he died according to the scripture. This
is salvation. And this is who saved his people. Now the. The issue that a lot of people
have. Is that they want something to
do? With this salvation, but I'm preaching on the fact that
we can not constrain nor restrain the Lord. It's he. It's he that
saved by grace and I'm hoping tonight this will be a very simple
gospel message I. shudder at the thought of complicating
it. Every time I stand up, my concern is that I would get derailed
or sidetracked on something that doesn't really matter. What really
matters is the preaching of the gospel. That's what my heart's
desire is tonight to you, is to preach the gospel. To tell
you that it's by grace that we're saved through faith and that
not of ourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. Men use terms, I was talking
to someone the other day and men use this term a lot and it's,
it's not a good term to use. They said they got saved. I got
saved. He told me salvation. is not constrained or restrained,
meaning that it's not something that we get. It is something
that's bestowed, certainly. It's something that is given.
It is something that's obtained, yes, but this obtaining is not
something that we have done. It's been bestowed upon us, therefore
we've obtained it. It's been given by the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord. And it was purchased by His own
blood. So when He said He saved us, this is how He saved us,
by grace, through His blood. He did all the work. He did all
the saving. He gets all the glory, doesn't
he? So we don't say that we got saved. We say, He saved His people. This is our hope. It's not that
we've gotten something, whether it be in thought or now we're
not doing what we used to do. We're not getting something in
order to please Him. It's something that is bestowed.
And if you're a sinner, that is good news. That means it's
not anything. Your salvation does not hang
upon one thing you do or one thing you don't do. That's good
news to me. I can't mess it up. Salvation
is of the Lord, and he gets all the glory. That's why we read
in Psalm 80, verse seven, turn us, O Lord, turn us, O God of
hosts, and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.
See, salvation is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It's his light
shining through darkness. It's him saying, live. This is
what the call is, live. He only reveals himself. He only
reveals this truth to his elect, and his elect's the only one
that needs saving. Did you know that if you're dealing with an
individual that is drowning and you throw them a life preserver,
they're probably gonna take that life preserver if they're really
drowning, because it's life-saving, is it not? See, the Lord's people
are the only one that see themselves as drowning. The Lord's people
are the only one that really sees themselves as dying. Lord,
I'm dead. Lord, I'm dead. I can't do anything.
You're gonna have to do the turning. You're gonna have to do the drawing.
You're gonna have to do the saving before I even existed. in order
for me to be saved. And that is exactly what 2 Timothy
1 is telling us. He saved us before time ever
began. He is the Lamb slain. Only those who are lost need
to be found. Only those that are leprous need
to be cleansed of their leprosy. If you've never seen that you're
a leper, you have no need of a physician. The Lord said, I
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They
that are whole need not a physician. It's they that are sick, isn't
it? Do you see yourself as sick? Do you see yourself as needy?
The Lord's the one that did that. And the Lord said, I will in
no wise cast out. I will in no wise cast out. He
that cometh to the Lord in faith that he's given him, the Lord
will not cast him out. First Thessalonians chapter five
tells us, for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ. I love the definition of that
word obtained when I looked it up, it said preserved. Preserved. I'm going to read it again. For
God hath not appointed us to wrath, but has preserved us unto
salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. That's good news, isn't it? We
neither constrain nor we restrain the salvation of the Lord. It's
God that works and no man can prevent Him. No man can say unto
Him, what doest thou? We can't constrain or refrain
the salvation of the Lord. He hath saved His people from
their sin. Now, the second thing we notice
here is that He called us. He called us with a holy calling. Isaiah tells us, but now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called
thee by my name, thou art mine. He's called his people with a
holy call. It's a call to life. The Lord
said, live. and we become alive, don't we?
It's not an offer. The Lord's only offered himself
one time, and that was to his father on the cross. He offered
himself unto his father one time. He doesn't offer himself to men.
He says, live, and we're made alive. He says, come, and we
have received the faith to come unto him, don't we? He reveals
his son to us, and this is why we come. Men believe that the Lord does
offer himself to men, and it's not true. They use verses like
Isaiah chapter one. Come now, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be
white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as
wool. They use the term, let us reason together, as if the
Lord is trying to negotiate. But what that word, it's one
word, reason together. When it was translated, they
had to break it into two. But the one word literally means
to show, to be right, or to prove. The Lord's saying, come, I'm
going to prove to you how your sin is scarlet and is going to
be made white as snow. I'm going to show you that it's
red like crimson, but it is going to be made as wool because it's
his blood. This is what the verse means.
The Lord shows that he is the sovereign, eternal King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. He says, I am. Just as he did
whenever the men, you remember the men that came to take the
disciples and they came to take the Lord, but the disciples were
there with him. And he said, Judas betrayed him with a kiss.
And he said, whom do you seek? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth,
He said, I am. And they fell backwards, didn't
they? That's the authority that our God has. He's not trying
to let men, He's not asking men to let Him do anything. He's
sovereign. He's sovereign in salvation. And He's sovereign
in this call that I'm speaking on. He calls His people and He's
effectual in this calling and successful every time that He
calls. You can't reject Him. You can't reject him. He makes
us willing in the day of his power. That's good news to me.
Lord, make me willing. Don't leave me to myself. I'm
drowning. I'm the sinner. Have mercy upon me. This is the
heart he gives us. We're made to see it's not of
him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but it's God that showeth
mercy. Is it good news to you to know
that you cannot constrain or restrain the mercy of God? You don't earn it and you can't
prevent it. That's good news, isn't it? I
can't earn it. Christ did. I can't prevent it. He's going
to bestow it upon every single person that Jesus Christ died
for. He saved them and then he's going
to call. The third thing we see is that
it's not according to our works. It's neither constrained or restrained,
is it? It's neither one. It's not merited
and it can't be prevented. It's not by our works. We can
take comfort in knowing that we cannot limit him nor earn
favor with God, no matter what we do or what we don't do. No matter what you do or what
you don't do, it does not merit favor with God. It does not earn
anything with God, and you can't prevent him from doing anything. We can't. Scripture is very clear that
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. You know, whenever
we're not in the flesh, there's only We're always in the flesh. I'm just going to go ahead and
say that. We're always in the flesh. But did you know we really worship
God in spirit and in truth? That's how he's designed it.
We have a new man that worships him in spirit and in truth. So
the only time that we're not in the flesh is when we're looking
to Christ. That's the best way I can put it. And the only way
we're looking to Christ is because he's called us. He saved us. He's revealed himself. He's turned
us again. This is whenever we're not in
the flesh, when we look to Christ, in all things pertaining to salvation
and everything else. We're looking unto Christ. We
can't produce worshiping in spirit and in truth. When the Lord was
talking to Nicodemus and had that conversation, Nicodemus,
his brain did a backflip. He didn't understand anything
the Lord was saying, did he? You know why? It's spiritually
discerned, isn't it? The Lord has to give life and
faith in a new man that looks to him or will never look to
him. It's all of him. And thanks be to God, that's
exactly what he does for his people. He causes us to bow. And no one worships the Lord
unless they're worshiping at His feet. He causes us to bow. He causes us to worship Him.
As I mentioned Sunday, worship is done in the heart, isn't it?
This is how we worship, in spirit and in truth, with the new heart
that He's given unto us. We cannot constrain Him or restrain
His sovereign grace. It is God that justifieth. Do
you know why? The fourth thing is because it
was according to his own will and purpose. That's why. We can't
constrain him or restrain him because it's according to his
own will and purpose. I have a question for us tonight.
Is salvation a choice? Did you know the answer to that
is yes? Absolutely. It's God's choice. It's absolutely
God's choice. Christ said, John 15, you have
not chosen me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain
that whatsoever you shall ask of my father in my name, he may
give it to you. See, it's the miracle of life,
isn't it? It's God's choice in salvation and in bringing life.
I mentioned this Sunday, but it's a good analogy, so I'm going
to use it again. We just started planting seedlings, and they're
sprouting. And it's amazing to me to see
this dead, dried up seed planted in this little thing that we
have, and just given sunshine. It's artificial sunshine, but
still it's what it needs is the sunshine, isn't it? And water.
And what happens? They call it germination, and
I don't understand how that works, but this thing has just popped
up. It's grew four inches in a week. I can't believe it. It
blows my mind. It's incredible, and that is
exactly exactly what the Lord does for his people. He gives
his son Esau in and the water of life freely unto them and
they bring forth life. And this little tiny plant that's
beginning to sprout up is one day I'm hoping it's going to
give forth fruit. I'm hunting some tomatoes and cucumbers.
And that's exactly when the Lord looks at you and I, he'll see
fruit upon us because of what Christ has done for his people.
In giving this new heart and giving this new life, we really
bring forth fruit, the praise unto him. We can't see it, but
the Lord can see it. That plant doesn't know it's
given forth fruit, does it? Plants alive, yes, but it doesn't
have a conscience or understanding of life. It just grows according
to the purpose of God through the sun and the water. That's
you and I, isn't it? That's you and I. We just produce it. We
can't see it. We don't know that we're producing, but the Lord
said you are. What a glorious gospel the Lord's given to us.
He's done all the work. He tells us in 1 Corinthians
6, and God hath both raised up the Lord and will raise up his
own. He'll raise up us by his own
power. Now the same. analogy I just
gave you of the resurrection of this little, this life that's
been given to this dead seed. That's exactly, we see our Lord
that was buried in the grave and the same exact power it took
to resurrect Christ from the grave is the same power that
resurrects you who are dead in trespasses and in sin. When the
gospel of God's free grace is preached through his spirit,
he comes and he causes us to be resurrected. The same power,
it's the same life-giving power that he gave unto his son when
his son was resurrected and all of us better than him. All of this is by his will and
his purpose. I can't explain to you how a
little caterpillar can eat a bunch of leaves and get into a cocoon
and come out a butterfly. I don't understand that at all,
but I know it happens. I've seen it. We don't understand
the Lord's creation, do we? But we see his work in the gospel
throughout all of creation, don't we? This life that's given over
and over again. I told my wife, I said, I appreciate
flowers now more than ever, because everything's been so gray and
everything's been so dead. But you know, there's life there
still yet. And the Lord's going to cause that life to burst through
at His appointed time. It might be earlier this year
than next year, but it's going to come around. There's going
to be seed time. There's going to be harvest. And is this not
what He does in the heart of His people? He causes that life
to come forth at His appointed time. It's by his own will and his
own purpose. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of
his creature. Aren't you glad God is sovereign
in salvation? He is sovereign, not just in
salvation in all things, but especially I'm thankful he's
sovereign in salvation. It's all by His choice. It's
all by His power. And we cannot constrain and we
cannot restrain God's power. Now, when was all this done?
When was all this done? He tells us here, number five,
before the world began. Before the world began, we've
been given, He says, the grace. His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. If there's any doubt of our obligation
to obtain salvation, if there's any doubt that it's all of grace,
we can take this verse right here, that exact line that says,
before the world began, that takes us out of the equation,
don't it? We were in Christ before the foundation of the world.
We had no knowledge, did we? We hadn't been created yet. We're
talking about an eternal God that has everlasting love. We're
talking about a God that doesn't change. So if he's seen us in
Christ, he's always seen us in Christ. This is what he did before
the foundation of the world. Christ is the lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. I wrote down right here to make
sure Every time you see that, before the world began, just
put a big exclamation point beside of it. Before the world began.
That's when salvation became so. That's how God sees it. How
he sees it is how it truly, truly is. This was all done by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, as mentioned in Acts
chapter two. He said, you've taken By the
determinate counsel of poor and all of God, you have taken and
with wicked hands have crucified and slain the King of glory. But it was by the determinate
counsel of God, wasn't it? When? Before the foundation of
the world. Jeremiah 31.3 tells us the verse
I've probably quoted more than any other, I think, but the Lord
hath appeared unto me old saying, yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. What a comfort it is to know
that we cannot constrain and we cannot restrain the love of
God. It is in Christ Jesus. That's what the scripture tells
us. Why does he love me? My hope is that I'm in Christ.
That's the only answer. Otherwise he doesn't love me.
My hope is that I am in Christ when, before the foundation of
the world was ever laid, that he would make us his first fruit,
says the scripture, which I just read. I can't mess it up. I can't constrain
God's love in any way, in any shape, or any form, no matter
what I do. I can't merit it, and I can't
mess it up. I can't obtain it because of
something I do, and I can't prevent it because of something that
I do. It's forever. It's everlasting love. It is finished. Number six. He tells us that
he has made this manifested, verse 10, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Brethren, there is no other peace
in this world other than the revelation of Jesus Christ. And
what sweet peace there is, whenever he appears, when he makes himself
known, when he shows us that it is finished, when we really
see his face truly through the eyes of faith, when we see that
there is nothing that can shake us at that moment, there is sweet
peace that surpasses all understanding. Our Lord in grace and mercy condescends
and illuminates these cold dead hearts and takes out the heart
of stone and He washes us with pure water and His own blood,
and gives us a heart of flesh that looks unto Him, and we just
rest, don't we? When we see that, we just rest.
This is the appearing that he's talking about, that he reveals
he's put away our sin. He's revealed that he said, peace
be still to the storm that we're facing, whether it's physical,
but especially spiritual, because really that's the storm. That's
the storm that troubles us the most is the spiritual storm.
Lord, am I yours? Lord, have you put away my sin? That's the questions we ask,
isn't it? Take comfort in knowing that you can't constrain him
and you can't restrain him in any way. He will reveal himself
in mercy. And you know what he reveals
whenever he reveals Christ? He reveals grace. He reveals
mercy. He reveals love. He reveals truth. There's nothing that the law
demands from you and I anymore. That's the only thing that the
Lord gives to his people now. It's goodness and mercy, isn't
it? It's just the goodness of the Lord. Every good gift comes
down from the Father of lights, the scripture says. That's God,
isn't it? That's the Lord giving his people
the light, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when he reveals himself in
this appearing, he shows us that he's abolished death. Number
seven, he's abolished death. Now that word abolished means
to pass away, to be done away with. To pass away or to be done
away with. He's done away with death. Let me show you that in first
Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians. We're going to turn
back to 2 Timothy in a minute, if you want to hold your place
there, but 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and look in verse 51. Behold,
I show you a mystery. Did you know that just about
everything, well, everything pertaining to the Lord's a mystery
other than what he's told us in his word. And yet it's still
a mystery, even though we read it, we don't understand, do we?
It's a mystery, but he says, I'm going to show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound. Is that your hope? That the trumpet
shall sound? And the dead in Christ, the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. What
are we gonna be changed? For we shall see him as he is.
That's what first John tells us. For this corruptible must
put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work
of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in
vain in the Lord. He said the sting of death is
sin and the strength of sin is the law. But Christ Jesus fulfilled
the law, didn't he? And he put away our sin. So there's
nothing left for the believer but the goodness of God, the
mercy of God, the grace of God. He conquered death for you and
I. We don't have to fear death. We don't have to fear death anymore.
The Lord Jesus Christ put away our sin. He died for his people. He now has the keys of death
and hell and the grave. He's abolished death. I love the thought that death
is a mystery. It certainly is. We see people
passing away. We see them dying, taking their
last breath. And it's one of the most fearful
things that we probably, it has everything to do with what we
do to survive is to try to avoid death. Think about what I mean
by that. I'm saying that when we go into, we feel like we're
in danger, we go into fight mode, don't we? There's a bear in front
of us. We're going to be afraid. Our
heart's going to start beating. We're going to produce adrenaline in a spider
flight. And the idea with that is, is our body's trying to survive,
isn't it? So death is a fearful thing to
the world, but to you and I, it's the greatest day of our
life. Because the moment we take our last breath, we see Jesus
Christ face to face in mercy and in love. And he says, enter
in thou good and faithful servant. I've bestowed everything upon
you, grace and mercy and peace that you ever need. Our faith
will be made sight. Everything required Christ has
given to his people. That is our hope, isn't it? That
this corruptible shall put on incorruption. When we die, Death has no claim
upon us. Death has been conquered by our
substitute. The one thing that we cannot
do, there's several things we cannot do, but one thing we certainly
cannot do is conquer death because left to ourself, we will still
have sin and death will lay hold upon anyone that has sin. But
for those who the Lord died for, he put away the sin and death
cannot say anything, anything to the believer, nothing. Death
has nothing to say, doesn't have a claim on them any longer. When
we die, death will not lay hold upon you. Death will not lay
hold upon you. The Lord Jesus Christ will. The
Lord Jesus Christ will because he put away, he conquered death. And at that very moment, the
glory that is within you, the glory that you can't see, the
faith that he's given you, the new man, the glory that Christ
has given you, his own glory, he said, John 17, it's gonna
come bursting forth out of you. Isn't that glorious? It's going
to be revealed in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory will
be made just like him. I am so thankful that nothing
we do or don't do, can ever change that Christ was successful, that
Christ was victorious. We cannot constrain it. We cannot
restrain it. Christ saved His people. Therefore, we don't have to fear
death. Now, the last point is found in verse 10 back in our
text, 2 Timothy 1. Says, but is now made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel. Paul said, I am not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation. I like the fact that it says,
to everyone that believeth. That gives me hope. Lord calls
me to believe. Lord calls me to believe, and
you and I both, all of us know that if it's not for the Lord
saying, come, we'll never come. If it's not Him saying, believe,
we'll never believe. But He calls us, His people, to believe. We
preach a whosoever will salvation. We do. We preach salvation's
a choice, but it's God's choice. I'm thankful for the gospel of
Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation. It's the
only thing that can take a dead dog sinner and make them make
them perfectly righteous before the Lord. No sin whatsoever anymore. It takes a dead dog sinner and
turns us into white sheep, white sheep, whiter than snow. This
is what the gospel does. I quoted first John a little bit
ago, but he tells us now are we the sons of God right now. Why? Because of the gospel of
God's free and sovereign grace to his people, because we can't
constrain it and we can't restrain it. We are now the sons of God
because of what Christ Jesus did. Now is our life hid in Christ,
right now. Now there is therefore no condemnation,
right now. Now are we kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation, right now. This is a right now
salvation that we believe every second that passes is now. And
this is how the Lord sees us right now, perfect in the Lord
Jesus Christ because of his finished work. By the declaration of this
gospel, his light shines forth and life is given to you and
I. Boy, we're in a dark world, aren't
we? We're in a dark world. Boy, there's light in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're in a dry and thirsty wilderness,
aren't we? But there's life giving water. The fountain of living
water himself says, come, take you of the water of life freely.
And we say, Lord, I want to help my unbelief. Lord, I believe
I wanna drink from this fountain. Lord, would you shove my head
in the fountain because I'm gonna not drink it unless you make
me. Make me drink it, Lord. He does this by his spirit and
by his purpose. The scripture tells us if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. But the believer
rejoices in this gospel every time that they hear it because
it is the power of God. unto salvation. It's the only
thing that saves sinners. Now, I'm going to read this two
verses again. First, Second Timothy one, verse
nine, God, who hath saved us and called us with the holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
in grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ. who have abolished death and
have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We cannot constrain or restrain
God in any way, but did you know he constrains and restrains us
every day? Aren't you thankful? We preach
a God that literally is sovereign in all purpose, in all things. And he constrains us and he restrains
us. He doesn't leave us to ourself
utterly. We know that we would make a bad mess of it if he did,
didn't we? If he left us to ourself, we certainly would. Oh, for the
grace that he constrains us and he restrains us, he keeps his
people. He keeps his people. He does
it by his gospel. He does it by his power. He does
it by his choice and his will. We can neither constrain or restrain
God's glorious salvation. Or his mercy or his grace, we
can't constrain or restrain his power. We can't constrain or
restrain his love or the revelation of Jesus Christ to his people.
He is successful. He is victorious. He is the sovereign
savior of His elected sinners from the foundation of the world.
It is all by Him. It is all for His glory. And it all is all through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we can't constrain Him or
restrain Him in any way. Thanks be to God. He constrains
us and restrains us and causes us to look unto Him as all. That's
our hope, isn't it?