I want you to give me your ears for a few moments. We've had asked numerous times
this week this question, why does God cause these terrible
things to happen to our country? And I have listened as they've
brought in the most illustrious and recognized religious leaders
to answer that question. None of them have answered it
properly and truthfully in scripture because they can't. When Pharaoh had a dream, he
called in, he knew it was a vital dream, and he called in his top
so-called spiritual advisors, wise men, seers. None of them could answer him.
Some fella said there's an Israelite down in jail. doing hard labor
for insulting one of our illustrious leaders' wives. His name's Joseph. I believe he can tell you what
your dream means. So they went and got Joseph,
and he told him. And when the mighty Emperor Belshazzar
saw that most awesome display of God's power on the wall of
his palace, the handwriting that said, Mene, mene tekel ufarsin. He didn't know what it meant,
and he called in all of his educators, wise men, intellectuals, and
they wrestled a long time with it, but they couldn't answer
it. God wasn't with them. But again, he said, there's an
Israelite, and one of God's chosen. that we have here that can answer
it for you. And he did. And I'm going to
answer it for you from the word of God. But I'm going to change
a word. Why does God, I'm not going to
use the word cause, I'm going to use the word allows. A sensible
man would use that because no man can answer why God does something. And when a man takes it upon
himself to answer why Almighty God does something, he better
say what his Lord said. When he rejoiced in spirit and
said, My Father, Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you. You've hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and you revealed it to babes. because it seemed good in your
sight. That's why he did it. Everything God does, he does
on purpose. There are no accidents with God.
Everything God does in time, he decreed to do in eternity.
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. That's right. But if you turn to Psalm 76,
verse 10, you'll find an answer for this question. In Psalm, chapter 76, verse 10. Surely the wrath of man shall
price thee. Even the wrath of man will praise
God. It will work God's purpose, accomplish
God's purpose, and exalt His name. The wrath of man will praise
the Lord. Starting in Eden's garden, when Adam and his wife said,
we're going to be like God. We're going to be like God. Well,
they failed. But in falling, they accomplished
the purpose of God. That's right. God permitted the
fall. God allowed the fall. God decreed
the fall, in a sense of the word. But their wrath against God worked
the purpose of God, worked your salvation. If there'd been no
fall, we'd all be in danger of falling right now. If there'd
been no fall, there'd been no song of redemption. If there'd
been no fall, there'd been no Savior. He died for sinners. If there had been no fall, God
Almighty's kingdom and covenant of grace would have never come
to pass. So the wrath of man, the wrath
of man shall praise the Lord. Now watch this. And the remainder
of wrath shall thou restrain. Let me tell you something. What's
happening in this world, the evil, the wickedness, I know
these towers fell and 5,000 people are missing. But there's that many people
killed every year on our highways by drunk drivers. Nobody's complaining
to God about that. By drunk drivers. 5,000 people
a year killed on our highways by drunk drivers. This world
is full of wrath. Full of wrath. And God's not
causing it, He's restraining it. He's restraining wrath. He's keeping it under wraps.
Let me show you another scripture. Now it says that the wrath of
man is going to praise God, it's going to work his purpose, and
the rest of wrath, he's going to put the wraps on it. These
fellows didn't do everything they'd like to do, or want to
do, or purpose to do. They did what he let them get
away with. That's true. He restrained Adolf
Hitler. He restrained. These men, he
restrains, he puts a lid on it. They do what they will to do,
but in doing what they will to do, they accomplish his purpose
somehow. And the rest of their wrath and
meanness, God hinders, he restrains. Let me show you that in 2 Thessalonians,
chapter 2. Preacher, you're taking a different
direction. I certainly am taking a scriptural direction. The rest
of wrath God restrains. The great extent to which wrath
and evil and sin could go, God puts wraps on it for the sake
of his church, for the sake of his people, for the sake of his
kingdom. There's people out there he's restraining right now from
coming here and robbing every one of you, or killing all of
us. He's restraining it. And then look at 2 Thessalonians
2, verse 7. The mystery of iniquity,
the mystery of, you know what iniquity is? It's the greatest
of evil, wickedness. The mystery of iniquity does
already work. It's working all over this world.
Only he that now letteth will let. He lets it. He hinders it. He hinders it. He holds it in
check. Only he that can hold anything
in check like that. You can't handle Satan, God can.
You can't handle demonic power, God can. You can't handle the
evil nature in yourself that God can restrain you, he does. Only he that letteth will let
until he's taken out of the way. The Holy Spirit of God has put
a lid and a damper and control on unrestrained evil in the hearts
of men, in the hearts of the terrorists, in the hearts of
the wicked. God's hindering it. God's restraining it. The rest
of wrath, he'll restrain. Till he be taken out of the way.
Till the day Christ is coming, the Holy Spirit's leaving this
world, the restraining hands run off this world, and all hell
is going to break loose. You ain't seen nothing. You ain't
seen nothing till he that letteth will let. Till he that hindereth
is taken out of the way. Listen. And then, when he's taken
out of the way, when the Holy Spirit, when God's purpose is
accomplished, when his church is complete, when he's redeemed,
his elect are all called in, When the Holy Spirit is taken
out of this world, then shall that wicked be revealed. Oh,
my soul, you don't want to be here then. Whom the Lord shall consume,
thank God, with the Spirit of his mouth, and destroy with the
brightness of his coming. Even him whose coming is after
the working of Satan with all powers and signs, he's going
to destroy all the Antichrist. But right now, who is the God
of this world? Who is the God of this world? Turn to 2 Corinthians 4, the
Word of God tells us who is the God of this world. I know who
my God is. Thomas said it partly, my Lord
and my God. You know who your God is. You
know who he is. We preach not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ our Lord. I have no King but Christ, I
have no Lord but Christ. You don't either. He's my Lord,
my King, my God, my God in whom I trust. But who's the God of
this world? 2 Corinthians 4, verse 1, verse
3, 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost. In whom? The God, little g, of
this world. that blinded the minds of them
that believe not." Who blinded the minds of the people of this
world? The God of this world. Well, who is that? Satan. Satan's
the God of this world. Isn't that right? That's what
it says. The God of this world blinds the minds of these people
lest the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. But we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, capital G, our God, who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give us the light
of the glorious gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The glory
of God in the face of Christ. That's the God of this world.
And God restrains him too. But he's still got power. You
just don't know. In fact, when the God of this
world tackled the angel Michael over the body of Moses, Michael
did not do battle with him. Michael said, Satan, the Lord
rebuked thee. I can't handle you. You're out
of my league. God will handle you though. Who's
the God of this world? Turn to Luke 4. Luke chapter
4. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, verse 1 through
8. Now listen to me. And Jesus, Luke 4, being full
of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit
into the wilderness, being 40 days tempted of the devil. And
in those days he did eat nothing. And when they were ended, he
afterward hungered. And the devil, Satan, God of this world, said
unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that
it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, It's
written. Our Lord, you see, is God. But this is not the time
of Satan's demise. This is not the time when our
Lord Jesus Christ will silence him and destroy him and put him
away. Our Lord Jesus is a man, a God
in human flesh. He's our Redeemer. He's our God-man. And he's answering the only way
we can answer, with the Word. The Word of God is our breastplate,
our shield. The breastplate of righteousness
is the Word to shield us from Satan, from his temptations,
his attacks. And our Lord uses the word. He
said it's written that man shall not live by bread alone but by
every word of God. And the devil taking him up into
a high mountain and show him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time. The kingdoms of the world now. Afghanistan, Pakistan, India,
Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain, England, Russia, United States
of America, kingdom of this world. Mexico, Canada, Australia, all
the kingdoms of the world. This world. Not God's kingdom
now. God's kingdom is not of this
world. It's not meat and drink. It's righteousness and peace
and the Holy Ghost. He showed him the kingdoms of
this world and he said, listen. And that all took a moment of
time, just a moment of time. show them all the kingdoms of
this world. And verse 6, and the devil said, all this power
will I give you and the glory of the kingdoms of this world. What does that next word say,
those next words? Have you read this before? For
that is delivered unto me, they belong to me. You know what he
said? Their mind, their mind to give,
their mind to give. This world belongs to Satan. World system, world attitude. It's an ungodly world, ungodly
without, it means without God. Ungodly world. Satan said their
mind to give. To whomsoever I'll give it. Why
hasn't he given it all? God's restrained him. Why didn't
he give it to Alexander the Great? He couldn't conquer the world.
God restrained him. Why didn't he give it to the
Caesars? They couldn't conquer the world. God restrained them.
Why didn't he give it to Hitler? All he had to do was cross that
channel. England would have fallen. But God turned him around and
sent him to Russia. And he whipped his fanny. That's right. God, he restrains things. Don't you see that? Satan's the
god of this world. God's restraining it. And verse 7 says, if you worship
me, it'll be yours. And that's exactly what men do.
They worship Satan, and he pays them off. But he pays them off
in counterfeit money. He pays them off in pleasures
for a season. He pays them off in acclaim here,
and applause here, and glory here. No glory there. What shall it profit a man if
he gains the whole world and loses his soul? Who's the God of this world?
John chapter 14. This is what the preachers, I
don't know why, I do know why but I'm not going to say, but
they're not telling the truth. John 14 verse 30, listen, this
is our Lord Jesus Christ speaking. John 14, verse 30. Said to his
disciples, verse 28, let's go back to verse 28. You've heard
how I said unto you, I go away and I come again unto you. If
you love me, you'd rejoice, because I said, I go unto my Father.
My Father is greater than all, and now I've told you before
it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, you might believe.
Hereafter I'll not talk much with you, for the prince of this
world The King of this world, the God of this world cometh,
and he hath nothing in me." But he came to Adam and found
something, and Adam surrendered. But our second Adam, he came
and Christ defeated him. And God is now calling out a
people for his name out of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue,
and people under heaven, out of these nations. But Satan's
still the God of this world. Let me show you one more scripture,
Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, verse 2. Listen
to this. Ephesians 2, verse 2. Let's read
verse 1. And you hath equipped who were
dead in trespasses and sin. Wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air." Who is that? That's Satan. Prince
of the power of the air. The spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we had our conversation
in times past, you and I, in times past. We did what he said
to do. Yes, we did. We did what Satan
said to do. We had our citizenship in his
kingdom. We had our conversation and behavior
under his control in times past in the lust of our flesh. Some of you look back, some of
us look back over our lives and see a lot of things we wish we
could change, but we can't change them because we was under a different
management back then. And we made fools out of ourselves.
And we did things disgusting, ungodly, and messed up our lives
and a lot of our children's lives because we were under the control
of that demon Satan. That's right, children of wrath,
fulfilling the lust of our flesh, the desires of our flesh, doing
what felt good, tasted good, that we wanted to do, and of
the mind. And we were by nature, not by
election, not by God's covenant mercy, but by nature, by birth,
we were children of wrath. God loved us, but we were unfound,
uncalled, unregenerated, unsanctified. He loved us even when we were
dead in trespasses and sin. But we were dead in trespasses
and sin. He loved us even when we were
following Satan, lock, stock and barrel. But he loved us. That's right.
But we were children of his judgment and wrath. That's right. That's
the reason we suffer. even as others. But the thing
I want you to see then is that he's the prince of the pie there,
Satan is. And he has control, control. You talk about Hollywood and
television, he controls that out there. You talk about those terrorists
who use the name of Allah and God. He controls them. They're
evil people who are controlled by Satan. You talk about everybody's God's
children. Everybody's not God's children. Christ said, if God were your
Father, you'd love me. People who don't love Christ
are not sons of God. They're not. There are the father
of the devil Christ said, didn't he say that in John 8? Turn to
John chapter 8. Let's look at this, John the
8th chapter. Our Lord is speaking to these religious Pharisees.
These religious leaders, these were Jews and see the sons of
Abraham. These are sons of Abraham that
blew these planes up. They're sons of Abraham, see,
still every one of them. Fleshly sons of Abraham. Arabs
are sons of Abraham, Muslims and Jews and all the rest of
them are sons of Abraham. And here they are talking here.
They say, verse 37, verse 36, Our Lord said, The Son therefore
make you free, you be free indeed. I know you Abraham said. But
you seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you.
I speak that which I have seen with my father. You do that which
you have seen with your father.' And they said, Now Abraham's
our father, Allah's our God. Christ said, If you were Abraham's
children, you'd do the works of Abraham, which were works
of faith and righteousness. But now you seek to kill me.
They seek to kill you. They seek to destroy this nation.
A man that told you the truth, which I have heard of God. This
Abraham didn't do. You do the deeds of your father.
They said to him, we're not born of fornication. We have one father,
even God. Jesus said to them, if God were
your father, you would love me. I proceeded forth and came from
God. Neither came I of myself, he
sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. You are of your father the devil. He's your father. The lustier father you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning. He abhors not the truth because
there's no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own. He's a liar and the father of
it. Because I tell you the truth. You don't believe me. The love of God, my friends,
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I told my class while ago, I love
my president. I pray for him. I believe he's
got some understanding. I believe the people around him
have some understanding. But he let me down and let all
of you down at that memorial service the other day. He quoted Psalm 23. So I walked through the valley
of the shadow of death, I have fear no evil with me, and my
heart bubbled. Thank you for acknowledging he's
my shepherd. And he came to Romans chapter
8, and he said, I'm persuaded neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature can separate
us from the love of God. And I said, go on, please. Don't
stop there. But he did, because he couldn't
offend the Islams, and the Muslims, and the Jews, and all the rest
of them. But the seven words that follow
that, no one can separate me from the love of God, not death,
not life, not angels, not principalities, not powers, no things present,
no things to come, from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ
my Savior. I'm sorry. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father. If any man will honor me, Christ
said, my Father will honor him. And that's sad. That's sad. You can't have God without Christ.
I'm just sorry. I say that to every one of you. I'm not sorry either. I'm glad
it's that way. I'm glad. What is God without
a Savior? He's a destructive force. What
is God without a Redeemer? He's a consuming fire. What is
God without a blood offering? He's an angry God. That's right. Thank God for Christ. Thank God
for Christ. But I'm telling you this, and
I'll say this if they'd let me, I'll say it to the world, that
this started in the garden. That's when this rebellion started.
That's when we chose Satan and said no to God. The whole world,
Adam's whole race, would be like God. It continued to the Tower
of Babel. Our forefathers, way back yonder,
said we're going to go to heaven so we can run everything. They
started building the tower. That must have been some awesome,
awesome undertaking. And God came down. and confounded
their languages and sent them scattered in every direction.
He restrained it. God's got something to accomplish
on this earth, and he could have destroyed them right there, just
wiped the whole human race out. But he's got a people to redeem,
a kingdom made up of every tribe, kindred, nation, tongue redeemed
by Christ coming up. And then the trial of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Here stands God before them.
His hands tied, crown of thorns on his head, blood streaming
down his face, redeeming a people. Pilate said, shall I crucify
your king? They said, listen, we have no
king but Caesar. God's not our king. Well, what
shall I do with your king? Crucify him. Now, let me tell
you something, my friends. The charge between this human
race and God is not because they steal watermelons, not because
they fight and fuss all the time, it's because they hate his Son
and nailed him to a cross. And then they said, let his blood
be on us and all our children. We asked for it. And the Lord God Let's man have
his free will and his way. We love free will. The people
out there love free will. This is the result of our free
will. We'll not bow to God. We'll not submit to God. We're
going to have our way. Our way is a sorry way. It's the way
of destruction. And so God hinders evil. He holds it in check. He said,
the wrath of man is going to praise the Lord. And the rest
of it, I'm going to restrain. The whole city of New York is
knocked flat down this month because God restrained it to
three buildings. Is that not right? You know that's right.
You know that's right. He said of Pharaoh, I raised
him up. I raised him up to show my power. Pharaoh, he was a bad
character. He mistreated God's people some
awful. But out of it all came the exodus. Out of it all came
the victory. Out of it all came the crowning
of David. That's my message for you this
morning. And that's my answer to all these questions. And I
want you to do what the noble Bereans did. I want you to take
these scriptures and these comments and the Bible and go home and
see if I'm telling the truth. The noble Bereans heard Paul
the Apostle, the greatest preacher God ever let live. And you know
what those fellows did? They went home and searched the
scriptures to see if these things are so. They're so. And my heart, my heart is overjoyed
and thrilled this morning that our God is not Satan. Our God
is not this world. Our God is our Lord Jesus Christ,
enthroned in glory, who's expecting that all these enemies become
his footstool. And one day, maybe soon, the
Spirit of God is going to let them have it. Let them have the
whole world. God's restraining hand is going
to be lifted. He's going to turn them over to themselves. And
I don't want to be here. And I don't plan to be here by
God's grace. He's going to take us home and
let them have it. I let him have it.