Well, Pastor, it is a delight
to be with you folks again. I try to think of you and pray
for you regularly, day by day, and have since God first calls
our paths to cross, when he first established his witness in this
place, and thank God for you. If you will open your Bibles
tonight to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. I want to talk to you about the
God you can trust. The God you can trust. I mean
absolutely trust. Confidently trust at all times
and in all things in the face of all evil and all difficulty. I don't pay too much attention
to the news. I deliberately try not to be
abreast of everything going on. But I'm aware of the many social,
political, economic evils in the world that we face all the
time. The terrorism, war, famine, disease,
pestilence. ungodliness on every side, things
that vex our souls. As Lot was vexed in Sodom from
day to day, things that vex our souls. And then some of you,
perhaps, and many of God's people that we know, dear friends, have
evils that are far more vexing, personal evils. I personally
know four faithful gospel preachers whose sons will spend the rest
of their lives in prison. That's hard to live with. That's
hard to live with. I know many whose families have
been turned upside down with one form of ungodliness or another.
It's difficult to live with. Our friend, Brother Donny Bell,
will soon be burying his wife after much suffering, as you
just buried your wife after brief suffering, relatively. And those
things are hard to live with, hard to deal with. Families disrupted,
divorce, runaway children. I have lots of friends all over
the world going through those things. But evil, evil in the
world, Augustus Toplady said, is perhaps the most difficult
and most mysterious aspect of divine conduct the human mind
can consider. The problem of evil. It's a real
problem, and we have questions about it every day. Every one
of us do. We normally don't raise them
as other people do, and that's good. We submit to God's providence.
But the questions are always there. In religious philosophy,
probably no question is more often debated than the problem
of evil. The questions go like this. If
God is so good, why is his world so bad? If a good, all-wise,
just, loving, all-powerful God is running the show, why is he
doing such a miserable job of it? Those questions arise. Why do these things happen? That's
the problem as men see it. Now, Brother Mahan, I've heard
him say a hundred times, no point in trying to answer questions
nobody's asking. Well, tonight I want to answer some questions
I know you're asking. And I have absolutely no interest
in indulging in the vain curiosities of depraved minds about sacred
things. But I do want to help you. through this evil world to live
with comfort and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. We'll begin
here in Isaiah chapter 45 and particularly I want to show you
the wisdom of our God in using evil. The wisdom of our God in
using evil for the accomplishment of his purpose of grace in the
redemption of our souls. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 5 I am the Lord. There is none
else. There is no God beside me. He said, I'm fixing to tell you
who God is, the only one who really is God. I girded thee,
though thou hast not known me. I put the clothes on your back,
whether you know it or not. that they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that they may know in every part
of my creation that there is none beside me. I am the Lord. There is none else. Now watch
what it says. Here's how you know that I'm
God. Here's how you know there's no God other than me. I form
the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Well, what does he mean by that? I form the light and create darkness.
Whatever light there is of any kind in the world, physical,
moral, or spiritual, God did it. Whatever darkness there is
in all his universe, physical, moral, or spiritual, it is God's
work. Whatever peace there is, political,
civil, moral, spiritual, God did it. Whatever evil there is
in the world, this is God's work. This is God's work. Now having
said that, we recognize and understand certain things clearly revealed
in the scripture. The Lord God says, he has made
all things for himself. Yea, even the wicked for the
day of evil. That's what he said in the pastor.
Well, let's talk about the Day of Judgment. I agree, it is.
It's not just talking about that, it's talking about anything that
goes on by the hands of wicked men in any evil day. He made
all things for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of
evil. Surely, the psalmist said as
he sang God's praise, the wrath of man shall praise thee. The wrath of man shall praise
thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. How did evil
arise in God's creation? How did sin enter God's lovely
world? If God is absolutely sovereign,
and he is, absolutely holy, absolutely good, if he created all things
good, how is it that pride was found in Lucifer's heart? How
is it that he led astray into rebellion against God, one-third
of the heavenly angels? How was Adam seduced into sin? Now I frankly acknowledge that
this subject is considerably bigger than me and when I'm done
preaching there's going to be a whole lot more questions unanswered
than there are answers. But the existence of evil is
a problem that vexes us continually. You've watched on television
these last few weeks, these barbaric Muslims. And what you see, the
reports you have, pay no attention to the politically correct jargon. What you see, those fellas slitting
fellas' throats and cutting their heads off, that's real Islam. That's what Islam really is.
That's Islam with no mask. It's not a religion of peace.
It's a violent religion determined to make converts by the sword.
It has been from the beginning, it is now, and it will be until
God destroys it. You see that, and you say, how
can this be? This horrible evil, how can these
things come to pass? Now understand this, because
we must clip the wings of curiosity immediately. God is not the author
of sin. He never tempts any to evil. James chapter one. We know that
nothing comes to pass without God's all wise decree. And this
matter cannot be more clearly resolved in a more God honoring
way than simply to use the words of our Redeemer himself. Even
so father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. God, give me grace. Every time I'm vexed with the
reality of evil in me and around me, to bow to my God. and confess even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight." God makes no mistakes. We often mistake things in our
judgment. God makes no mistakes. We bow
before our God in reverent submission and confess, Lord, we're darkness,
you're light. We're ignorance, you're wisdom.
We are but creatures, you're the creator. We see nothing,
know nothing, and understand nothing clearly. You see everything,
know everything, and understand everything perfectly. Before
Him, of whom are all things, we must acknowledge these things.
And we ought to be, we must be content to wait until our souls
are freed from all the influence of evil to understand God's ways. We will not understand God's
ways while we live in this world. We will not. He doesn't intend
for us to do so. We are to understand that he's
God and worship him as such. Let me make two statements and
then I'll get to my message and I'll be brief First understand
this 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18 declares all things
are of God That what I said brother Gary
all things are of God Not all good things, not all
happy things, not all pleasant things, not all peaceful things,
not all prosperous things, all things are of God. Turn to the
book of Romans, Romans chapter 11, Romans chapter 11. The Apostle
Paul began in Romans chapter 8 in verse 28 speaking about
God's providence in this world. All things we know work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And he declares that God's purpose
is that we, his chosen, the objects of his everlasting love, should
at last be conformed to the image of his Son. And then he declares
that nothing In heaven, earth, or hell is going to separate
us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus the Lord. And
then it comes to Romans chapter 9 and starts to talk about the
nation of Israel. Has God cast off the people whom
he foreknew? No, no, no, no, no. But Israel,
God sent blindness to Israel. God sent darkness to Israel.
God sent judgment upon the nation of Israel. God took the light
of the gospel away from that nation and sent it into all the
Gentile world. Not by accident, by divine arrangement. This is exactly what it purposed,
so that all Israel, not just the physical seed of Abraham,
all the spiritual seed of Abraham shall be saved, scattered among
all the four corners of the earth in all the nations of the Gentiles.
And Paul gives consideration to these things. He says, now,
how do we explain this? How do we deal with this? How
do we understand that God casts off a people? God sends darkness
to a people. God sends judgment to a people
and sends light to another. God throws away this people and
gathers those who were not his people. He has vessels of wrath. fitted to destruction by their
own evil works. Vessels of mercy aforeprepared
to glory by his free and sovereign grace. How do you explain these
things? Romans chapter 11, verse 33.
Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are his judgments,
and his ways past finding out. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, or who hath been his counselor, or who hath first
given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again. Now
watch this. For of him, and through him,
and to him are all things. Of him. That's talking about
the source, the origin, of Him. Explain that, Brother Don, I
just said, I just did, of Him. That's the source. No matter
what you're thinking about, that's the source, of Him. And through
Him, that's the means by which the thing is done, through Him. And to Him, that's the final
end of it. of him, that's the source, through
him, that's the medium, to him, that's the end, are all things,
now read on, to whom be glory forever, amen. I could stop there, but I believe
I'll go on. He works all things after the counsel of his own
will. in wisdom and knowledge. In Ephesians
1 Paul says he makes known to us the wisdom and prudence of
God by his providence. The wisdom and skill of God. The wisdom and skill with which
he works. We see it every day in every
detail of his providence. His wisdom ordains it. His skill
brings it to pass as the wise, infinite master craftsman that
he is. Wisdom and skill brings these
things to pass. The perfections of God, you see,
could not have been so gloriously revealed as they are now revealed
in Christ Jesus. Had evil never entered God's
universe? You and I could not know God
as we now know God had there been no such thing as sin and
evil. Had sin never existed, how could
the justice of God have ever been seen in punishing it? Had
evil never existed, how could the wisdom of God be seen in
overruling and using it? Had sin never entered into the
world, how could the goodness of God be made manifest in pardoning
and forgiving it? Had there never been any wickedness
in God's creation, how could the power of God be seen in subduing
it, ordering it, and overruling it? First thing, all things are
of God. Here's the second thing. Understand
this. All things. All things. Would to God I could
half learn what I'm telling you. All things. Work together. Together. You've been using machinery. It all works together as one
piece of equipment. Take one thing out and everything's
in chaos and the piece of equipment no longer works. All things work
together for good. For good. But that's not all
it says. All things do not work together
for everybody's good. All things do not work together
for the common good. All things work together for
good to them that love God. And who loves him? Them who are
thee called according to his purpose. The presence of sin in God's
universe either according to God's will or contrary to it. Can you think of another way
to explain it? It's either according to God's will or contrary to
it. It's here either because God wills it or because he can't
stop it. It's either here because he wills
it or he's unable to prevent it. The fact is the fall of our
father Adam and the entrance of sin into the world by Adam
was just one of the countless links The countless links, the
countless links. We only know a few. Who can imagine
all the various particles that are in this room now? I can count
a few. I can see your faces, but man. Things in this room. Things in
this room we never imagined. We never imagined. But there
are some things you can see. Well, the sin of Adam and our
fall in the entrance of sin into Adam is just one of the countless
links that was absolutely essential to the incarnation, life, and
death, and burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the God-man,
as our substitute. Absolutely essential. This is
just one of the links of God's providence by which he brings
to pass our redemption. So to suggest, as many do in
their ignorance and blasphemy, that the fall was not purposed
by God, is to assert that the incarnation, the birth, the life,
the death, the resurrection, and the glory of Christ the God-man,
and the salvation of God's people by our Redeemer is altogether
the result of chance, luck, and blind fate, nothing else. Contrary to that kind of blasphemous
reasoning, all evil in God's creation exists by the will and
purpose of God for the absolute everlasting good of all his elect
and the everlasting praise, honor, and glory of his name. Now let
me make three statements and I'll be done. Three statements.
First, I want you to see from the book of God. Now I want you
to follow with me in scripture. If you have difficulty keeping
up with the passages, jot down the notes, jot down the references.
These three things. All the evil that's in this world
is here by God's decree. by God's decree. I have in the
past said God permitted this, God permitted that. To permit
something sort of implies that you, well, I really don't want
this to happen, but I'm gonna let it happen. I'm not gonna
stop it. That's not what this book talks about. God doesn't
permit things. No, no, God's never backed into a corner. God
never has his arm twisted. All the evil that's in this world
is here by God's decree, number two. All the evil that's in this
world is designed by God, I mean controlled by God absolutely. It's absolutely under God's control. Number three, all the evil that
is in this world is designed by divine design shall bring
about God's glory and our happiness forever. If you get that it'll float your
boat through every storm. I promise you number one The
evil that's in God's universe is here by God's purpose God's
design and God's decree Now I know religious infidels, people who
imagine that they're smarter and wiser and holier than God,
hoot and holler and get all bent out of shape when they hear anything
like that. But that's just the way it is.
It doesn't matter whether we talk about moral Social, physical,
or spiritual evil are evil under any other name. It's not here
by accident, but by purpose. Either God rules evil or he is
ruled by evil. There's just no other alternative.
The book of God tells us plainly that our God is in control of
everything. You probably will not understand
this. I'm sure it'll come as a shock to most of you. Some
folks don't like me. And they express it with great
vengeance. And usually my first inclination
is, and then I try to think about David. David, King of Israel. God's anointed, the sweet singer
of Israel. The man after God's own heart. One day he's fleeing for his
life and one of Saul's kinsmen, a fellow named Meshemai, saw
David and he came out on the hillside and he's jumping up
and down like a man who's lost his mind and he's screaming and
cussing David. Man, he's cussing. He called
him everything under the sun but something good. I mean, he's
just cussing him. He cussed him like he ain't never
been cussed. And David's buddy Abishai said, why don't you let
me go over there and lift his head off his shoulders? That
was a polite way of saying, let me take care of him. And David
said, leave him alone. For the Lord has said to Shammai,
go cuss David. Is that what he said? The Lord
said to Shimei, you go curse David. Perhaps therefore the
Lord will requite me good this day for his evil. Saul, the king
of Israel, who was full of envy for jealousy. Envy and jealousy
toward David. Oh, he hated that man because
he couldn't be David. That was the only thing he had
against David. He couldn't be David. That's the only thing
he had against him. He just couldn't be David. And
he hated him. And the more he thought about
it, the more enraged he got. And he would sometimes try to
kill him. And you remember what scripture
says about it? An evil spirit was sent by the Lord to Saul. And Saul tried to kill David.
An evil spirit sent by the Lord to Saul. Lucifer, in his anger
and haughtiness and pride, lifted up his heart and said, I'm going
to take over the God business. I'm going to shove God off his
throne. I'm going to take over. Listen to how God responded.
You can read it later in Isaiah 14. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass. As
I have purposed, so shall it stand. This is the purpose that
is purposed upon the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched
out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,
and who shall disannul it? Hear the word of God. The Lord
do all these things I form the light and create darkness I Make
peace and create evil turn back to Genesis chapter 2 Genesis
chapter 2 God created Adam and put him in the garden And he
said Adam you see this I See this vast creation I've made? You see it? All the trees, and
all the birds, and all the sky, and all the grass, and all the
herbs, and all the animals, and all the sea, and all the fish
in the sea. All of this, it's yours. Do with what you want
to. If you want to kill the snakes,
that's all right. They're your snakes. Do what you want to with it.
If you want to eat the fish, that's all right. They're your
fish. If you want a lion for a house pet, that's all right.
It's your lion. Do what you want to with it. Except there's one
thing. Right here in the middle of the garden is a tree representative
of my right to be God. You don't eat this tree. You
don't eat the fruit of this tree. But listen to what it said. Genesis
chapter 2 verse 15. Of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it For if thou eatest
thereof thou shalt surely die If thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die now, I'll tell you what I'll tell you what I happen
to have one because my wife gave me one last week I got a hundred
dollar bill right here I got a hundred one one hundred dollar
bill And I haven't even researched it to find out. Have you got
one of them electronic Bibles on there? Pick up any version
you want to. If you can find me a version,
any version you want to, modern or old, that reads like that,
you got this $100 bill. That's not what it said. He didn't
say, if you eat thereof. Read what it says. He says it
with purpose. In the day thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. You mean, You mean God purposed
this? You mean God intended this? In
the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Back in
chapter one of Genesis, chapter one, we have a marvelous hint
and picture in the creation, ruin and recreation of the world
of God's purpose of grace. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. And the earth was. Now somewhere
you ought to make a note of this. That word that is translated
was, that's not an inaccurate translation, it's often translated
that way. But more commonly, that very same word is translated
became. The earth became without form
and void. God didn't create the earth as
a mass of darkness and chaos, but the earth by something, perhaps
by Satan's fall, I don't know, by something, the earth became
without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
That's exactly what happened with us in Adam's fall. God created
us in his own image and after our likeness, and something happened. called the fall and the whole
human race was void and dark. Chaos begins to reign in the
heart of man. Read on. And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the water. That's what happens in the new
birth. God, the Holy Spirit, the wind of heaven, the water
of grace moves upon the soul of man. And God said, let there
be light. God commands the light to shine
out of darkness to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ in our hearts. And there was
light. What a picture of God's purpose
of grace. Adam's fall. as the federal head
of all men, was designed by God to be a type of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Romans chapter 5 verse 14 says
specifically that Adam was a figure of the last Adam. The first Adam
was a figure of the last Adam. He was a type, a picture of Christ
our Redeemer. In order for the love of God
in Christ to be made known to us in his justifying grace by
blood atonement, Adam fell and we fell in him. And it gives
us a picture of our Savior's work. When Adam took the fruit,
whatever it was, the scripture tells us plainly Eve was deceived. Not Adam. He knew exactly what
he was doing. The serpent beguiled Eve. Adam
went in this thing with his eyes wide open. He knew exactly what
he was doing. Adam took the fruit and said, God, you've got no
right. You've got no right to be God. He took the fruit. He did it. Because of his love for his wife,
God had given him. And sooner than lose Eve, he
chose to be separated from God and plunge himself and all his
race into sin and darkness and death. So did our Savior. The last Adam,
with his eyes wide open, because of his love for his bride, God
gave him in covenant mercy before the world was, chose to be made
sin and plunge himself into sin and separation from God and death
rather than lose the wife of his choice. Which Adam did he
did as the representative of all his race and that which Christ
did He did as the representative of all his race all the chosen
race of God. All right. Here's the second
thing Psalm 76 verse 10 I've quoted it several times already.
Let's look at it again and understand this All sin and evil in the
universe is under God's total, absolute control, serving his
wise and holy purpose of grace in Christ Jesus. Surely the wrath
of man shall praise thee. The remainder of wrath wilt thou
restrain. What's in the heart of man? Murder,
adultery, blasphemy, lying, theft, covetousness, emulation, variance,
strife, maliciousness. Those are things described in
this book as being in the heart of man. All that's in man, all
the evil that's in man, all the evil that's in man that God will
use For our good and His glory men perform, but all the evil
that's in them that He will not use for our benefit and His glory,
He just keeps bottled up in them. He restrains. He won't allow.
Now let's see if this is not obvious. Just from the things
that you know by casual reading of the scriptures. I'm going
to presume that you're aware of these things. There are certain
things that are obvious if you just read the Bible and read
it for what it says. There was a fellow by the name
of Lot, Abraham's nephew. And Lot was not the kind of man
most people think he was. God says Lot was a righteous
man. God made him righteous. After
the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot's two daughters
on two nights enticed their father into a drunken stupor and in
an incestuous relationship brought forth sons. One became Ammon,
the other Moab. Oh, what an evil thing. You're
right. Nobody to blame but Lot and his
two daughters. Nobody else to blame. Their responsibility,
their work, did what they wanted to do in horrible, inexcusable
evil and should be rightly punished by any civil society for such
behavior. Was this somehow not ordered
of God? Was this not part of God's purpose? If you turn to the first chapter
of the Gospel of Matthew, you'll see that The first woman named
in the genealogy of our Redeemer in historic order was a lady
by the name of Ruth. A Moabitess woman who would never
have existed were it not for Lot's incest. So that she is
in the link of the coming of the Christ to redeem his people,
Joseph's brethren. hated him? They were like Saul
with David. Do you know why they hated Joseph?
Just one reason, they couldn't be Joseph. That's all. Joseph
was Joseph and they hated him for it. And they plotted to kill
him. And one of the brothers, I think
it was Reuben, said, no, no, no, don't kill him. Let's sell
him. And so they sold him into slavery. And finally, Joseph's
brothers all came down to Egypt, Joseph sitting on the throne.
And the old man, Jacob, had died. And they said, oh, man, we've
got to convince Joseph not to kill us. He's going to kill us.
So they went in and lied to him. They said, our daddy told us.
Now, don't hurt us. And Joseph looked at him and
he said, you meant it to me for evil, but God for good, so that
it might come to pass as it is this day to save much people
alive. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain.
God's servant David took Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. In an adulterous passion, she
was pregnant. David found out about it, and
he tried to cover up, calling her husband from the battlefield.
And her husband was more noble than David, and he refused to
go in and sleep with his wife while his companions were on
the battlefield. So David sent a letter to have Uriah murdered. What behavior could be more ungodly?
What could be more ungodly? And the thing David did displeased
the Lord. That's the only thing we're told
about. The thing David did displeased the Lord. And for God to show
that it displeased him, God sent the sword to David's house and
it's still there today. It's still there today. God said,
what David did displeased me, but David's mine. And God had
a purpose in all this. After Uriah was murdered, David
sent and married Bathsheba, that first son was killed. And Bathsheba
had another son, whose name was Solomon. He was one beloved of
the Lord. And if you read Matthew chapter
one again, you'll find another one of our Lord's great, great,
great, great grandmas, her name is Bathsheba. Oh, well, God just, this just
happened and God, he overturned that, and no! Do you have the
slightest imagination that everything involving bringing the Son of
God in human flesh into this world where God displays his
glory somehow is accidental? No, no, no, no. What David did
was evil. God purposed it for good. There's
a fellow by the name of Judas. He said to the soldiers, he said,
I tell you what, y'all give me $30, and I'll betray Jesus into
your hands. And he said, you follow me, and
you see the one that I kiss, seize him. Right there, that'd
be him. And Judas walked into the garden
and kissed the master on the cheek, because it is written
in the scriptures. so it was prophesied and so it
came to pass. Pilate. Pilate, the governor,
he was a typical politician. He was just exactly what you
have in politics everywhere. This is how he governed. That's the way the wind's blowing. He had the backbone of a wet
noodle. I mean, he was spineless, he
was cowardly. Every decision he made, he made
for himself. And he saw that the Lord Jesus
was a man without any just reason for even being arrested, let
alone put to death. No evil found in him. But Pilate
delivered Jesus to the will of the Jews to be crucified because
that's exactly what God ordained. and our Savior was crucified
by the hands of reprobate men. The fact is, it was the will,
or by the will of God-hating rebels, that the Lord of glory
was crucified. Crucified upon the cursed tree,
men by their wicked hands took and crucified Him, the Scripture
says, Acts 2.23, by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. Turn to Mark chapter 14. Let
me show you this. There's absolutely no greater display of God's total
sovereignty even over wicked deeds of men than the actions
of reprobate religious folks, politically powerful, and drunks
and harlots and thieves in crucifying our Lord. After two days, was
the feast of the Passover and of unleavened bread. And the
chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him
by craft, take him secretly, and put him to death. Now watch
this. But they said, not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar
of the people. David, they wanted to crucify,
or they wanted to put the Lord to death secretly. But God was
about to do this thing in the corner. God will have this thing
done publicly. They said, let's take up stones
and stone him. And he escaped out of the midst.
They said, let's shove him off the hillside, off the cliff.
And he passed through the midst. They said, let's stone him. And
he passed through the midst. Over and over again, they tried
to kill him by some means by which they would not call attention
to the crowds, to the multitudes of the people. But the Lord Jesus
was crucified by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God exactly as the Scriptures had said he would be. You remember
how often our Savior said this is going to come to pass because
the Scriptures must be fulfilled. He's got to be betrayed by a
friend. He's got to be crucified because the Scripture speaks
only of one death identified with the curse of God upon it.
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. But he's got to be
crucified and not a bone of him broken. Because the prophet said
not a bone of him shall be broken. Well, the man's crucified. It
was just a foregone conclusion. He's going to have his legs broke.
Because he would hang there for a long period of time and then
they would come along and break his legs so that suddenly his
life would be taken from him. And the soldier came with his
mallet to crush the Savior's legs. Well, he's already dead. No need hitting his legs. Because
he was sukkahed. Oh no, rather it looks like maybe
he come back here and the prophet said, oh, we're not supposed
to break his legs. They did exactly what God said
would be done, but he must be pierced. He must be pierced,
his heart pierced. Well, they didn't do that crucifying
anybody. They did the Son of God. That soldier in his vengeance
shoved his spear into the Savior's heart. And so our Lord Jesus
was crucified exactly as God had ordained. When they had fulfilled
all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the cross. I want you to know, I want you
to understand that our God is in control of this world. Absolutely
in control of this world. That means you can trust Him. That means you can trust Him. My wife trusts me. She really
does. She's expecting me home tomorrow
night somewhere between 5 and 6.30. And she can bank on it. Sorta. Sorta. Depends on whether or not the
truck turns over in front of me. Depends on whether or not that blue truck
out there breaks down. Depends on whether or not I stay awake
going home. Depends on whether or not Jim doesn't get mad at
me and shoot me on the way home. Depends on a lot of things that
I have no control over. I have no control over. There's not much I control. There's not anything I control,
nothing. Now she trusts me because I proved
myself to be trustworthy to the best of my ability to her. So
it's proper that she trusts me, but she can't trust me with absolute,
unwavering confidence, because I don't control my next move. Not so with my God. He who is God is in absolute control
of everything. You can safely trust Him. And
you're a fool if you don't. He rules. He rules. But there's another evil. Another
evil. that vexes me worse than all. And I'm either telling you the
truth or I'm lying to you. There's no in-between ground. The evil that's in me. I read this book and sometimes
my heart burns with love for my Redeemer. and joy in reading
the book. Oh, how God speaks to me by his
word. And then I'll continue reading and my heart runs in
a thousand directions of ungodliness, as cold as steel, hard and unbending
and relentless. Sometimes my heart is bursting
with joy in the anticipation of heavenly glory. And sometimes
I'm just in love with this world. Sometimes I fall on my face before
God and confess my sin and my heart's broken before him. And
before I get up from my feet to walk out the door, my heart's
full of ungodliness. Because in my flesh dwells nothing
but sin. The flesh lusting against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. Two men in me, one
Christ, the other Adam. The two men in me could not be
more opposite than I am to any man walking on the earth. Utter
opposites. And Brother Tom, God could stop
that like that. He could eradicate sin from us
like that. He could do it immediately, as
easily as he'll do it in the day of resurrection. Why, God,
have you left me in this shape so that my heart is as two armies
warring constantly? He does it that we might be poor
in spirit. broken, humbled before him. He
does it to teach us to be kind, gracious, and forgiving. Oh God, how kind, gracious, and forgiving
Don Fortner ought to be to other men. He leaves us as we are to keep
us looking to Christ. To keep us aware that salvation
is by grace alone. He does it to wean us from this
world. To set our hearts upon eternity.
And if you read 1 Peter 1, see that when God gets done, heaven
will be indescribably more glorious than it could otherwise be by
the trial of your faith. This is my third point. God's
design in all this is his everlasting glory and our everlasting blessedness,
our everlasting happiness in the fullness of redemption. We
won't turn to those passages in Revelation. You remember how
the scripture speaks about the fall of Babylon? And God says
that all the nations of the earth shall bring the wealth of the
nations into Zion. That's not talking about money.
That's not talking about silver and gold. Heaven's described
as the streets being paved with gold. That's not what it's talking
about. Well, it's talking about all the wealth of the nations.
Everything good and beneficial and profitable and useful that's
ever existed in all God's creation, He'll bring to His throne. to give praise to him and show
forth the everlasting blessedness of his people everything so that
when God gets done now listen to this he's going to wipe all tears
from our eyes that means Tom Harding among the redeemed When we look
back over the work of God's providence in the accomplishment of redemption,
among the redeemed, there'll be no regrets. Is that wonderful? No sorrow,
no wishing it had been otherwise, no regrets. He has done all things
well. That's the God you can trust. Amen. Let the throne be almighty.