I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said down in verse 11, Acts 23, verse 11. When the Lord stood with the
apostle Paul as he was imprisoned, beaten, hated, persecuted, the
Lord says to him, cheer up. Cheer up, Paul. I'm with you. For thou hast testified of me,
you have preached the gospel in Jerusalem, you must, you must
also, you must bear witness at Rome as well." Now, how is Paul
going to get out of prison? How is he going to make his way
all the way to Rome? Here's the key, must. You must. He must because God
says he will. I will and you shall. God has
ordained that through the means of the preaching of the gospel
to call out his people. The Lord had a multitude of sinners
there in Rome who must hear the gospel, who must be called out. That's why the Lord said go into
all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We as believers are not fatalist. We're not hard shells. We believe
God. We walk and live by faith. There's a difference between
faith and fatalism. God's people believe God. We
believe all things written in the word of God, how God has
ordained the means to accomplish his purpose. He said, I've spoken
it. Purposed it bring it to pass
and I will do it. This was God's promise to the
Apostle Paul And we know that every promise the Lord makes
must be accomplished must be carried out by the sovereign
wise good and absolute will of God Almighty every believer is
persuaded like Abraham of old you remember from Roman chapter
4 and BEING FULLY PERSUADED THAT ALL THAT GOD HAS PROMISED, HE
IS ABLE TO PERFORM. WE CALL THAT THE PROVIDENCE OF
GOD. THE GOOD AND SOVEREIGN PROVIDENCE
OF GOD. WE READ A MOMENT AGO FROM ISAIAH
14, THE LORD HATH PURPOSED, WHO SHALL DISANNOY? HIS HAND IS STRETCHED
OUT, WHO'S GOING TO TURN IT BACK? YOU REMEMBER FROM READING DANIEL
CHAPTER 3, were that king there declared by the will of God that
God doeth according to his will and the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of this earth and none can stay his hand. or
saying to him, God Almighty, what are you doing? His hand
is a hand of absolute sovereign power over all things. Now in this chapter, Acts 23,
all the way through the rest of the book of Acts, we see how
the Lord sovereignly works His wise, good, providence, and purpose
to bring the Apostle Paul to Rome, and there he preaches the
gospel for two years. Now, is this going to happen? God said, you must, and it will,
and it shall. The Apostle Paul, when he's there
in Caesarea, as he makes his way there by the will and purpose
of God, he's also kept there in prison for two years. If you
look over the last verse in chapter 24, But after two years, Anchorus
Festus came into Felix's room, and Felix, willing to show the
Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound. There is two years in Caesarea
before he goes to Rome. Don't get in a hurry. The providence
of God, the wheel turns, but it turns slowly according to
God's own purpose and will. We see this interesting story
here, how the Lord worked His sovereign will concerning the
Apostle Paul and how he ended up in Caesarea and how he went
on to Rome. Now, how do you describe or define
the holy providence and sovereign providence and purpose of God?
I must confess it is a deep and mysterious thing. What God has
decreed or foreordained from all eternity shall and will come
to pass in time according to His wise, holy, and sovereign
will. It will in all things. Now three
things we know about the providence and purpose of God. Three things
that we need to know. First of all, it's immutable.
And I mean by that, that it does not change. It cannot be altered. God never changes His character,
His will, His providence, or His purpose. He said, I am the
Lord, I change not. What He purposed from eternity
past will be the same purpose in eternity future. I am the
Lord, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. We read again in the book of
Hebrews where it says the Lord Jesus Christ is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. His will, power, purpose never
changes. It's never diminished. It's always
the same. So the providence and purpose
of God, number one, is immutable. Secondly, it's all inclusive.
It's all inclusive. We read in Isaiah 14, this is
a purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth. It involves
all things, says in Isaiah 45, I form the light, I create darkness,
I make peace, I create evil. He said, I the Lord do all these
things. In Job 42, when they came to
him finally and bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the
evil that the Lord had brought upon him." Remember what Job
said? The Lord gave, and the Lord taketh
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord,
Job 1, 24. I read something interesting
in the book of Amos 3, verse 6, where the Lord says, "...shall
there be evil in the city? and hath not the Lord brought
it?" What did we read? He said, I form the light, I
create darkness, I make peace, I create evil. The Lord rules
and controls all things. Thirdly, it's always effectual.
The Lord hath purposed, we read, who shall disannul? His hand
is stretched forth, Who can turn it back? No one. No one's going
to stay at the hand of Almighty God. I dug out a book here when
I was thinking upon this point. Another pastor had called me
Thursday morning when I was thinking about this message about the
providence and purpose of God. A pastor friend of mine, we've
been good friends for many, many years. 35, 40 years. And I asked him, I said, how
do you define the providence of God? He said, let me think
about it a minute. How do you define the providence
of God? Well, I pulled down a book out of my shelf and someone tried
to define it this way. This was written in 1742. God, the good creator, quote,
of all things in his infinite power and wisdom doth uphold,
direct, dispose, govern all creatures and things from the greatest
to the least by his most wise and holy providence to the end
for which they were created according to his free immutable counsel
of his own will to the praise of the glory of his grace. His
wisdom, His power, His infinite goodness, and mercy. That's a pretty good definition.
I'll go along with that definition. We must base our belief about
everything we believe based upon what God says in His Word. What does the Word of God reveal
about the providence of God? Well, here's a good scripture.
Let's turn, all of us, to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. What do we know about the providence
and purpose of God? Well, we know that he worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Romans 11 verse
33, O the depth to the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God, how unsearchable are his judgment and his ways past
finding out. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, who hath first given
to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again. Verse 36, for
of him, and through him, and to him are all things to whom
be glory. forever and ever. See that last
word? Amen. Amen. It's not like some fool said
the other day, a man and a woman trying to be general, what they call gender neutral.
How crazy. I think things are just... The Lord controls all things,
don't get me wrong. Some men have just gone, He let
them go. And they do wild and crazy things.
Of Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. We read in the book of
Psalms, Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven and earth
see, and all deep places. The heathen came to David and
said, David, where is your God? We know where our God is. He's
right over here in the temple. He's an idle, dead stone. David, where's your God? We don't
see him. We can't touch him. We can't
feel him. Remember what he said? Our God's in the heavens. And
he hath done whatsoever he pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleases,
that's what he does. What we think or what we believe,
what we No, our faith must be based upon,
thus saith the Lord. Not upon tradition, not upon
religious feelings. We must base our faith. Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Now, with
that introduction, let's take a look here. the Lord's providence
in this story, how the Lord preserves his servant and gets him out
of prison up to Caesarea and then on to Rome. In verse 12
down through verse 15, we won't read these verses again, what
we see is 40 men plus have taken an oath upon themselves that
they would not eat or drink until they killed Paul. I mean, they
said in their heart, either we're going to die or he's going to
die. You reckon what happened to him,
what happened to those 40 men when they found out Paul had
left town? You reckon the next day they ate? They probably did.
Their oath probably didn't last too long. Forty men took an oath
swearing never to eat or drink until this man's dead, God's
servant. How does the Lord stop their purpose? He just simply
took his servant and took him out of town. In verse 16 down
through verse 22, God put this young man, now how old he was,
I don't know, maybe the age of John over here, maybe he's just
11, 12, 13-year-old boy. The apostle Paul had a nephew. in this place and heard these
men, what their plan was, he was put there, just think about
it, was it an accident that this young man was there? Was it an
accident that he overheard what they said? With the absolute
timing of God Almighty, he heard their plot to kill Uncle Paul
and he runs and tells him. and warns him. And Paul sends
him to the chief captain. You go tell the chief captain
what these guys down here are cooking up. And he does, and
he gets the ear of that chief captain, and he takes immediate
action to get Paul out of prison. The apostle Paul was not a fatalist. He was living and walking by
faith. He didn't ignore that young man, his young nephew,
and say, well, I'm just going to sit here in prison. You know,
the Lord promised me that I'm going to be in Rome, and I don't
need to hear what you've got to say. Everything's going to
be OK. No, he acted upon the information that God provided
him. That's the means that God gave
to him. He was not a fatalist. He was
living and walking by faith, believing God's promise and purpose,
So he acted upon the information that he had provided by the providence
of God. He didn't sit still. He acted
upon God's truth. Now here's a lesson for us here.
Despise not the day of small things. Now I can look back through
my life and many things happened to me in my life to bring me
to one place at one time to hear the gospel of the grace of God. How do you take a young boy raised
up thousands of miles away from here in false religion in the
Rocky Mountains and bring him all the way to Ashland, Kentucky
to hear God's servant preach the gospel. I didn't do it. God did it. It was His purpose
and power for salvation is of the Lord. The point I'm making,
God uses means, and we use the means the Lord has given us in
his good providence, and put in our hands to preach the gospel. I'm not opposed to preaching
the gospel using the radio, or the TV, or the newspaper. Or the internet. People say,
well, the internet's evil. Yeah, there's a lot of things
on the internet that are. But we use it as a good means
to go preach the gospel. And gone, the Lord has used,
gone out of this place over three million sermons these last 15
years over the internet all over the world. 50, 60 foreign countries
every month. 6,000 or 7,000 sermons go out
of here every month. You see, the Lord has ordained
the preaching of the gospel to call out His people. That's why
we preach the gospel, to please God through preaching to call
out His people. The Lord from all eternity has
purpose to save and justify and redeem a covenant people, right?
By the grace of God through the redemption that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. For example, the Lord Jesus Christ,
as a surety of the covenant, was a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, right? What happened in time? The Lord
Jesus Christ came, took upon himself the flesh, humanity apart
from sin, and took our sin to himself and died for our sin
according to the scripture. So there was a lamb slain that
must come. You remember what our Lord said
in John chapter 3 verse 14? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. You remember He told His disciples
that He must go to Jerusalem, that He must die, that He must
be raised again? In the book of Galatians, we
read it in our Bible study this morning, but I quote it often
from chapter 4, in the fullness of the time. God sent forth his
son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law. Before Adam ever was created
or Adam ever sinned, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as a surety,
savior of the covenant people. But what God had decreed from
eternity will happen in time. The Lord came and fulfilled the
purpose of God. You see what I'm saying? Now,
God, what God decreed from eternity must come to pass in time and
will by His good, holy, wise, sovereign providence. And here's
this word, predestination. Don't be afraid of that word.
It's a Bible word. You remember back in Acts chapter
15? Turn there. Acts chapter 15. were the Apostle
James after that council was held about circumcision or grace. How does God save sinners? And then he says in verse 18,
Acts 15, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning
of the world. Now how does God know that? God knows all things because
God has decreed and foreordained all things. The foreknowledge
of God is not based upon seeing what creatures would do. The
foreknowledge of God is based upon His foreordination and decrees
of all things. God knows all things because
He decreed all things. Now, a good example of that,
turn back to Acts chapter 2. You remember in the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ? Acts 2 verse 22. You men of Israel,
hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, the man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God
did in him by the midst of you, as yourselves also know, him
being delivered. by the determinant counsel for
knowledge of God. You have taken, and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain, whom God has raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holding of it." So, turn to Acts chapter 4, verse 26. You see, even in the coming and
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, what God ordained from eternity
as a lamb slain must come to pass in time. In Acts chapter
4 verse 26, the kings of the earth stood up, the rulers were
gathered together, Herod Pontius Pilate against the Lord and against
his Christ, for of a truth against the holy child Jesus whom thou
has anointed both Herod, Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and
the people of Israel were gathered together for to do what? Whatsoever thy hand, thy counsel
determined before to be done. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was not an accident. Our Lord said, no man takes my
life. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received
of my father. So, we see in the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ, God purposed an eternity, and what happened
in time? He came and fulfilled God's purpose. Call His name Jesus, He shall
save His people from their sin. This is also true concerning
the calling out of God's elect with the gospel. Somehow, someway,
the Lord will cross your path with the gospel and call you
out of darkness into God's marvelous light. by His wise and holy sovereign
providence. That's what He does. God sends
forth ministers to preach the gospel whereby his people hear
the truth of God. Turn to Acts chapter 8. I'll
give you a good example that we're familiar with. You remember
in Acts chapter 8 when the church was persecuted and scattered,
they went everywhere preaching the gospel. Acts chapter 8 verse
4. Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching
the word, Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached
Christ unto them. Look down to verse 12. And when
they believed Philip preaching the thing concerning the kingdom
of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both
men and women. So here's Philip preaching the
gospel to the city of Samaria, and many believed according to
God's purpose, and according to His grace. Now, in Acts chapter
8, God removes Philip from that city of Samaria and sent him
down to a desert place. There was a man from Ethiopia
who had been to Jerusalem. He was a eunuch. He was a treasurer
of the queen in Ethiopia. And somehow he had a desire to
go to Jerusalem to hear something about the God of Israel. And
he went there and somehow he had a writing, some writings
of Isaiah, Isaiah 53. And when he was in his chariot
riding back home, THE LORD SENT PHILIP TO THAT ONE SINNER TO
PREACH THE GOSPEL TO HIM. YOU SEE THAT IN ACTS CHAPTER
8 VERSE 35, AND PHILIP OPENED HIS MOUTH AND BEGAN AT THE SAME
SCRIPTURE AND PREACHED UNTO HIM THE LORD JESUS CHRIST. NOW HOW
DID PHILIP KNOW TO GET ALL THE WAY INTO THAT DESERT IN GAZA
IN THAT DESERT WILDERNESS AND FIND THIS ONE MAN? HOW DOES THAT
HAPPEN? providence of God. It's no accident
you just didn't bump into the gospel. God sent you a gospel
preacher and God sent the Spirit of God to take the Word of God
to teach you the gospel of the grace of God. That's how God
works then and that's how God works now. In closing let me
give you this, the next thing we see in our story in verse
23 and 24 is The Lord protected Paul and sent
him 70 miles north to Caesarea with an army that marshaled together
470 men. You see that down there in verse
23. Make ready 200 soldiers, 3 score 10, 70 horsemen, spearmen,
200. and provide the beast to carry
the burden. And they sent him on to Felix.
Now, how is this army going to get marshaled? Paul didn't plan
this. He didn't know anything about
what's going on. You see, God is working all things,
even using horses army men, soldiers, to accomplish God's purpose. The Lord controlled all these
events according to his sovereign wise purpose. Lysia, the chief
captain, is a servant of the Lord, doing his purpose, and
he doesn't even know it. He doesn't even realize it. And
yet God is using him for his own sovereign will and purpose. Even in this letter that Lysia
writes in vindication of the charges against the Apostle Paul
in verse 29, "...whom I perceive to be accused of questions of
their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of
death." Here Elisha writes a letter vindicating any charges against
the Apostle Paul. You know what it reminded me
of? In John chapter 18, you remember
what Pilate, when he examined the Lord Jesus Christ, remember
what Pilate said? Three times he said this, I find
no fault in him. Even the letter and the words
that Lycia writes concerning the Apostle Paul is by the purpose
and providence of Almighty God. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord as the rivers of water, Proverbs 21, verse 1. He turneth it, whithersoever
he will. Now let us close the message
by reminding, let me remind you of three absolute truths about
the absolute sovereignty and providence of God. God is absolute
sovereign, and I've given these to you over the years many, many
times. God is absolute sovereign in
creation. How does all this that we look
at, the moon, the stars, the sun, the planet, the solar system,
how do all these things come to be as they are? In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. God is absolute sovereign
in all of creation. The Lord made all things out
of nothing and made all things exactly according to his design,
will, and purpose. He created all things by the
word of his power. Secondly, the Lord God Almighty
is sovereign in providence. We've seen that. I won't go back
over that. The Lord is also sovereign in
salvation. Right? He's sovereign in salvation. You remember back in Acts chapter
13, turn back over there, Acts 13. Who's going to believe the
gospel? Who's going to believe the gospel? In Acts 13, 48. And when the
Gentiles heard this, they heard the gospel and were glad and
glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. God is sovereign in salvation. He'll have mercy on whom He will
have mercy. Can we find that and read it
in the Scripture? I think we can. Turn to Romans chapter 9.
Romans chapter 9. Predestination is according to
God's sovereign will and purpose. In Romans 9 verse 11, the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of work, but
of him that calleth. It said unto her, The elder shall
serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob hath
I loved Esau, Esau hath aided. What shall we
say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but of God, of God that
showeth mercy. Now turn to Romans 8. Turn over
there and let me read this to you. You find Romans 8, and I'll
read it to you. 2 Timothy 1, 9. It's God who
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world.
There's God's eternal purpose. Romans 8, turn over there. Romans
8, 28. God is sovereign in all of his
attributes, in his love, his mercy, his grace, and his atonement
for our sin. Romans 8, verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God. to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Purpose. Get hold of that word,
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, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
What shall we say 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 justifieth. 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 makes intercession for us." God saves every sinner
whom He wisely saves according to His purpose. Purpose in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for his sovereign providence. May God give us grace to kiss
the hand of providence. I have a dear pastor friend.
He's dead and gone and with the Lord now. But he was a dear pastor
friend. This happened 35, 40 years ago. He had a young daughter, married
daughter, who had just had a child. and had raised that child, and
one day she decided that she'd take her life. And she went out
and took her life. Well, it broke the pastor's heart,
her daughter, his daughter, dying. And Pastor Mahan went down there,
along with Brother Fortner, and preached the funeral. But here's
what the pastor said, Rupert Reichenbach. He said, we're here
today to kiss the hand of providence. Think about it. We're here today
to kiss the hand of providence. That's so. May God give us grace
in our heart to bow and kiss the sun. He's working everything
according to his purpose, his will. There's nothing done in
this life outside the will of God. Period. I don't understand everything
that's going on. He does.