If you would like to turn back
in your Bibles to Psalm 103, my text is verse 19. The Lord hath prepared his throne
in the heavens, and his kingdom ruleth over all. Last Monday morning, I received
this text from Brother Drew Dietz. It is with a heavy and broken
heart that I request much prayer for Bonnie Terrell and Mary and
her boys. Brother Joe Terrell, pastor who
has preached here in this pulpit on several occasions, I've preached
in His pulpit in Rock Valley, Iowa, several times was killed
by his son-in-law. He requested prayer for Bonnie,
Joe's wife, and his daughter, Mary, whose husband had taken
the life of her father and her boys. I was overcome with grief, with grief and sadness. And I
was not necessarily overcome with grief for Brother Joe, for
I knew where he was. He was with the Lord. But for
his wife, his children, his grandchildren, and also four sovereign grace
churches that are affected in a great way by this. Well, since
then, I've had time to reflect on this, and today I want to
bring us five thoughts. And these five thoughts are for
those who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
those of us who know him today. I'm not talking about having
just made a profession of faith sometime in our life, but I'm
talking to those of us who know him. Christ is real. We walk with him and talk with
him. He walks with us and talks with
us. Five reflections. The first reflection
is this. How, as I sat there almost immediately,
I thought, how can we ever think lightly of sin? How can we? How can any of us
who know Christ today as our Lord and Savior, how can we ever
think lightly of sin? We know that if we were living
in this world as God created it, nothing like that could never
have occurred. We are living in the world which
God created, but we are living in God's world after man brought
sin into God's creation. And along with sin, of course,
the curse. How can we ever think lightly
of sin? You might say, well, what is
sin? What is sin? Well, the apostle John in his
first letter said, sin is the transgression of the law. When God created Adam and placed
him in the garden in a perfect environment, in a perfect and
a beautiful environment, not only perfect, but beautiful,
God wrote his law upon Adam's heart. Now you say, how do you
know that? Because all men, even after the
fall, even though that law has been drastically marred, yet
every person who lives in God's earth has the law written upon
their heart. They have a conscience that either
accuses them when they do wrong or excuses them when they do
right. Every man has a law written on
his heart. Adam had that law written on
his heart, and he had the ability to keep that law. He had the
ability. He was sinless, not immutable. Only God is immutable. But he
was sinless, and that law was written on his heart. And every
law, listen, no law is of any consequence that doesn't have
a penalty. What good is a law if it doesn't
have a penalty? You know, the state legislature
in Austin, they could pass law after law after law, but if there
was no penalty attached to the law, who would pay any attention
to it? No. With God's law, which was
written upon Adam's heart, there was a penalty. If he broke that
law, if he disobeyed God, yes, it was simple in our eyes. If
he were to eat of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, then he would die. And in dying, he would die. And we know there are three kinds
of death. There's spiritual death, and
Adam experienced that immediately. There's physical death. He experienced
that some 600 years later, I believe it was. And there is eternal
death for men and women, boys and girls who leave this world
without Christ as their Lord and Savior. There is an eternal
death that awaits all men without Christ. But with sin, now think
about it, with sin, came into this world, sickness, disease,
tears, sorrow, wars, rumors of war, misunderstandings, separations,
criminal activities of all kind, abuses of all kind, hurt feelings,
misunderstandings, and I could go on and on and on. How could we ever think lightly
of sin when we see what sin has done to God's holy and beautiful
creation? You know, there's a proverb which
says, fools mock at sin. Only a fool would mock at sin
when we think of what sin has done, not only to God's creation,
and this creation is under God's curse. Cursed is the ground for
your sake, God told Adam, and by the sweat of your brow you'll
earn your living, you'll earn your bread. When Adam was in
the garden before he sinned, yes, he was told to tend the
garden. He was given work to do. Work
is honorable. Work is good. You know, a society
that promotes laziness and when people don't need to work and
provide for themselves, that's not good. From the very beginning,
even before man fell, God told Adam to tend the garden, to work. We need to be busy as God's creatures. How can we think lightly of sin?
Fools make a mock of sin. And when we look at the cross,
now, when we look at our world, when we look at our bodies, they begin to wear out as we
get older. Sickness. old age and whatever,
you know. When we look at God's world,
when you watch the news, when you hear there's a war in Ukraine,
war in the Middle East and all over the world, all around the
world. If it's not in that place today,
it'll be somewhere else tomorrow. I've heard of wars and rumors
of wars as long as I've been in this world. I remember when
World War II ended Don't have a whole lot of recollection of
that, but I do remember that people were happy. And I remember
they sent my uncle's body home in a casket from Italy. Sin, look at what sin has done
to God's creation, what it's done to us. How can we think
lightly of sin? And then when we look at the
cross, In our mind's eye, when we see
the form, as the hymn writers say, of a dying man upon that
tree, blood from his head, from his hands, his feet, his sides
flowing down, look at what sin has done. How can we think lightly
of sin? But we do. Oh, that's just a
little white lie. Never heard anybody tell a little
white lie. God is a God of truth. Well,
I know I shouldn't have taken that, but you know it wasn't
that much money, it's not worth. God is a God of holiness. Look what sin has done. How can we ever think lightly
of sin? You know, Charles Spurgeon, in
one of his messages which I've read, back sometime in the past,
I don't remember when, but he said we have homicide, homicide
rather, when a man takes another man's life. We have fratricide
when a sibling takes a sibling's life. Matricide when a child
takes his mother's life. Patricide when a child takes
his father's life. But at the cross, We have deicide
when man, as the apostle Peter said, by wicked hands took the
God man and crucified him. Deicide. It was our sin. And that's the reason I said
at the beginning, I'm speaking to those of us who know Christ
today. My sin, your sin. It was our sin that day in Jerusalem
when Pilate said, what shall I do with the man? It was our
sin that cried out, crucify him, crucify him. My sin, your sin
if you know Christ today. When those Roman soldiers drove
the spikes through his hands and his feet and the spear through
his side, it was our sins that did that. if we know Christ. He died as a substitute for his
chosen people. And it was our sins that nailed
him there to the cross. But that was my first reflection.
How can we, how can I think lightly of sin? My second reflection
is How can we ever half-heartedly serve the Savior? Let that soak in. How can we,
who know Christ, how can we ever half-heartedly serve Him? Our brother, Brother Joe, like
all of us, he had a race to run. And in every race, there is a
finish line. We know that. And we know that
our days are numbered. And none of us is promised tomorrow. The same God who numbers the
hairs of your head has numbered the days of your life. Your father,
your God, if you're a child of God today. And the same God,
the scripture said, our Lord said, not a spare falls to the
ground without your father. Child of God falls to the ground
in death without your father. The Apostle Paul, when he was
approaching death in the second letter to Timothy, he knew his
time, as he said, the time of my departure is at hand. I like
that word departure, don't you? You know, you go out to go on
a trip at the airport, and you've got those screens of departing
flights and arriving flights. And you're going to take a flight,
and you look at that board, and your flight is supposed to leave
at a certain time. And it's near. They want you out there about
two hours before it's going to take off now. But anyway, it
gets closer and closer. Paul said, the time of my departure
is at hand. He knew it. He knew it. I fought a good fight. I've kept the faith. I finished my course. Monday
afternoon, Winna pulled up the last message on Sermon Audio
that Joe had preached the day before. He was preaching a meeting
for Brother Drew Dietz in Jackson, Missouri, and that's the reason
that Drew had texted me. He was there with them. But I
listened. We listened to his message, and
he was a faithful gospel preacher. When our church used to publish
a newspaper years ago, I remember several times we had messages
by Brother Joe Terrell. He was the kind of preacher I
told one pastor this past week. I said, you know, he was so profound. He really was. I've known a lot
of preachers. Joe was profound, but Chetty
was so simple. His message was so simple. But we listened to him, the last
message he ever preached. And as a preacher, you know,
we're always concerned about the last message we'll ever preach.
I remember many years ago, Brother Mahan called me early one morning.
You know, there's an hour difference between Kentucky and Houston,
and I was still in bed. And Henry called, and Pat said,
it's Henry on the phone. And he said, David, I just want
you to know, that Carolyn passed away last night on her way back
to Kentucky. The last message she ever heard
preached, she heard you preach. I remember Ralph Barnard telling
one time that he preached a message, what's wrong with the Southern
Baptist Convention? He said he found out later that
a young mother had walked to the stadium to hear him preach,
and she went home and cut both her wrists and went out into
eternity. You know, preaching is serious.
It's serious. I told someone one time, they
said, told me some woman had surrendered to preach. I said,
oh, God doesn't call women to preach. And they looked at me
so strange. I just believe in the Bible,
isn't it? God doesn't call women to be
pastors and preachers. And I made the comment, he said,
well, who does he call? I said, some people he lays a
burden on. And a man has to preach. If he
can do anything else, he ought to do it. He ought to do it. This is serious. But Joe, as
I listened to his message, I thought he gave such a clear testimony
to the truth of the gospel that salvation is not in what we call
tulip. He went through those five points
and pointed out you can believe every one of them and all of
them and still die and go to hell. Salvation is in a person. It's in Jesus Christ, our Lord. And he was preaching about the
children of Israel in the wilderness, and some wanted to go back. And
his exhortation was to the church there, a small group, I know
that, but not to turn back, not to look back. If you look back,
most likely you're going to turn back. Don't ever look back. But look to Christ, look to Him
always. I thought, my, I hope the last
message I ever preached, and this may be it, and I hope it's
full of Christ. I hope I point you to Him. My
third reflection was simply this. How can we not expect our faith
to be tested? And make no mistake, that's certainly
what something like that accomplishes. It tests our faith. We say, preacher,
you stand in the pulpit and you visit people whose loved one
has passed into eternity or who's in the hospital, and you quote
Romans 8, 28 to them. For we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. You believe that? We say that
we believe that all things are ordained of God, that He is God. He's not some wannabe God. He's
not some pygmy God. His kingdom ruleth over all. When we talk about the sovereignty
of God, as Arthur Pink said, all we are saying is God is God. He wouldn't be God if He's not
sovereign. We say we believe these things,
that he works all things after the counsel of his own will.
Now something we say is so great and so sad, yes. Doesn't take
away from the sadness. I'm not saying that at all. But
Arthur Pink said, the decrees of God relate to all future things
without exception. Whatever is done in time, was
foreordained before time began. God's purpose was concerned with
everything, whether great or small, whether good or evil. But, he went on to say, but with
reference to the latter, that is evil, we must be careful to
state that while God is the orderer and controller of sin, he's not
the author of it in the same way that he is the author of
good. Sin could not proceed from a
holy God by positive and direct creation, but only by decretive
permission and negative action. Now in the scripture, I believe
it's in the book of Amos, when God said, can there be evil in
the city? And I have not done it. And he's
not talking about moral evil. God cannot sin. James makes this
ever so clear. The whole Bible does. God's holy. God cannot sin and God will not
tempt men to sin. But yet God does control sin,
as Pink pointed out, by his negative action, by allowing, ordaining
it, yes. But that gives people a problem. I know it does. Some people say,
well, how can God ordain something and not be the author of it?
He can. He can. Man is a moral agent. He's responsible. You know these
two truths. Someone said, how do you reconcile
God's sovereignty and human responsibility? How do you reconcile those two
things? And the preacher said, I don't
need to reconcile those two things. The only people who need reconciliation
are people who are at odds. There's no problem here. God
is absolutely sovereign in all things and man is absolutely
responsible for all his actions. Now that's just so. You say,
I can't understand it. Can you believe it? If you believe
the Bible, you can. You know, two truths that I always
try to remind myself of when I feel like my faith is being
tested. First of all, I try to remind
myself, never forget that our God, my God, can bring good out
of evil. He's that big a God. He can bring
good out of evil. And we have that example in the
book of Genesis. You know, Joseph's brothers,
what they did was evil. It was wicked. They sold their
brother into slavery and he's taken off and spends his life
in Egypt. But you know, when his brothers
are brought there in the end, Joseph said these words to them,
as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. God, our great God, a God who
created the heavens and the earth, God who is sovereign over all
things. No one can stay his hand. No one can say unto him, what
doest thou? He doesn't stand at man's judgment
bar. God meant it for good, meant
it for good, to save much people alive. ordained what those brothers
did. He didn't cause them to do it.
They did what their evil hearts wanted to do. They sold their
brother off into slavery, and yet God had purposed that and
ordained that in the end to save many people alive, save the nation
of Israel. There was only 70 of them at
that time, but saved them. A second thing that I try to
remember is we should never forget that God has not given us a spirit
of fear. When we have fear, and sometimes
we do, we know that God has not given us a spirit of fear. Well,
if God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, who does? The God of
this world, Satan. Our God has promised us that
he would never leave us, never forsake us. The fifth of the
fourth reflection, how can we not thank God that living in
a world of constant change, constant change, the only thing constant
about this world is change. Living in a world of constant
change that our God and our Father changes not. that he is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. And what he has purposed is for
the good of his people and the glory of his name. How can we
not thank him, praise him? And the fourth, or the fifth
recollection are, how can we not show our love and concern
for those who are hurting? I thought about Joe's dear wife,
Bonnie, and I've called her, and I'm going to, I haven't spoken
to her, but I've called her two times, left messages. But isn't
that one reason these things happen, that we can show compassion
and we can pray to the God of all comfort, that he would comfort
those who are in any problem, any distress, God willing, I'm going to put
her address in the bulletin next Sunday. So if you would like
to send her a card, I think that would be good. Just let her know
that if you remember Joe, you remember him and his messages
here. And even if you don't, he was
a faithful gospel preach there. Always admired Joe so much because
you just have to visit Rock Valley, Iowa. to understand how much
I appreciate a brother that would go there and stay there for up
to 40 years preaching to a relatively small group of people. But they're
God's sheep. God's sheep. That's what makes
the difference, isn't it? When you're a pastor, when you're
preaching to God's sheep, If you're preaching to a bunch
of goats, it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference. But I believe
I'm preaching to God's sheep when I stand in this pulpit. And God loves his sheep. And
I love his sheep. After preparing those five reflections, I ran across this article written
by Brother Henry Mahan. The title is In the Midst of
Troubles. Any man or woman who claims continual,
uninterrupted joy, rest, and peace in this world is either
not telling the truth or has no connection with reality. True joy, rest, and peace are
things we enjoy in Christ in the midst of troubles, afflictions,
and infirmities. Paul's exhortation is, rejoice
in the Lord. When I am conscious of my weakness,
failures, and sins, I rejoice in Christ, my righteousness. When I am concerned about food,
clothing, shelter, I rejoice in Christ, my provider. When I am sick, Christ is my
healer. When I am grieved, Christ is
my comfort. When I am faced with death, Christ
is my life. So it's not necessary to put
on a false face and deceive others. We are still human, and our peace,
rest, and joy is in Christ. Amen. Amen. We're going to sing a hymn.