(Grace Baptist) Die to Self — Bill McLeod

Well, it's a lovely day. It's a good place to be. God is here. God will speak to your heart if you look to him. You sit there and don't expect God will speak. He won't speak. You have to have a heart that's open.

You have to be expecting God to shine in your heart. Why don't we just bow for a moment when you ask God to speak to your heart, not to speak to somebody else, but to speak to you. Would you do that just for a moment or two?

Oh, Father, we are asking you to be pleased to speak to us today. You know what our needs are. We're often totally blind to our own spiritual needs. God be gracious, we pray. Come, humble us, change us, and fill us, as Paul prayed, the God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

God grant that in us today. In Christ's name, amen. I'd like to read a few verses from 2 Corinthians 4, beginning with verse 5. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 5, Paul said, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake, for God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We are trouble on every side, yet not distressed. We are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

For we who live are always delivered unto death, for Jesus say that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then, death works in us, but life in you. We have in the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore have I spoken.

We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he who raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

For which case we do not faint, but to our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is only for a moment, works for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Why, we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Just that far. I want to give a little title to the message.

When Bad Things Turn Out Good

When Bad Things Turn Out Good. This is in scripture and also in contemporary life. In 1 Samuel 30, if you remember David, Saul was king. He hated David of the passion, constantly seeking for him. Finally, David decided to just run away, get out of the country, and live among the Philistines, who were mortal enemies of Israel, of course.

He went with some 400 men and he met King Achish. The King Achish liked him apparently and they became friends. He gave him a town to stay in, Ziklag it was called. David began making forays, military forays here and there.

Now and then Achish would ask him where he had been working lately. He would tell him. He didn't always tell the truth. Then the Philistines were getting ready to battle with Israel. David had a plan.

He thought, I'm on the right side of this guy Achish. I can go with the Philistines when the battle starts. We can turn on the Philistines and help Israel to win. This will put me back in favor. I don't know that he thought this, but he must have been thinking something like this.

It didn't turn out. The lords of the Philistines said to Achish, who is this guy David? Isn't he the one they sang about? Saul is three and a thousand and David is ten thousand. What's he doing here? Achish said, he's a good guy.

He gave him really a good testimony. They said, no, he's not going with us. So Achish had to tell David. Whatever David's plan was, it just fell flat on his face. So they had to start home. I suppose he and his men were very disappointed and angry and upset.

They had a plan that had fallen flat on his face. Then they got home to Ziklag. In their absence, some marauding band had come, destroyed the place, burnt it, taken all the women and children captive.

There was nobody alive in Ziklag when they got back. They began to weep. Matter of fact, David's men spoke about stoning him. David was in a tough place. But it says, David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.

An old translation says, David tried to David out of the dumps. He talked himself out of it. He encouraged himself in God. Surely something good can come out of this. So he prayed, asked God for guidance.

And God told him to go. And he would catch this marauding band. And he did. Came on them suddenly, surprised them, defeated them. And all the spoil they'd taken from their town and from other towns became David's.

And they wound up with more than they had before. Now, if they had not been disappointed in going with the Philistines to battle, when they got back to Ziklag, it would have been too late to find what happened to their family.

Paul's Storm and God's Deliverance

So God took one thing. It looked very bad. In the long run, it turned out very good. They had more than they had started with. And so God has ways of making good things come out of bad things. Paul and 276, I think it is, people in a boat.

Things were going well. Then they weren't going well. A storm broke. Now they're facing death. They're in a place close to shore. It was night. They took some soundings. They were drifting into shallow water.

The outlook was very bad, very bad. But they'd started off, a very soft wind at the beginning of the voyage, but now it's totally different. Euryclidon was called, a real wicked tempest. There was no hope of them getting out of this.

What was God up to? Well, Paul was not one to doubt. He prayed, which is the best thing you can do when you're in a difficulty, in a situation you can't handle or you can't change. Pray. Call on God. He is building his church.

The Bible says the church is subject unto Christ. Keep that in mind. Christ is the one in control of this church, of every church. And he will make the changes that need to be made. Well, the boat was wrecked.

But the night before it was wrecked on the shore, an angel of God visited Paul and told him this. The boat's going to be destroyed. Nobody's going to drown. You aren't going to lose one person. And I have given you all the people that sail with you, which meant they're all going to be born again.

The whole ship, everybody was going to be saved. And that's really what happened. So a bad thing turned into a good thing. Think of all those people on board ship being converted to Christ as a consequence of what they'd gone through.

No doubt, many people were making promises to God, which we often do when we're facing trouble. We find it easy to pray. And then they found on the island for some weeks, while they were stationed there waiting for spring, and Paul had a ministry praying for sick people.

And since he was such a preacher, I'm sure he was preaching night and day. So a bad thing, a storm, a shipwreck, danger of losing life and all of this, turned out to be a victory for God. And this does happen, bad things.

Israel's Captivity for Their Good

You know, Israel went into captivity, Jeremiah 24 and other places, for 70 years. Wasn't that bad? No. God said this captivity was for their good. Because one thing they learned when they were in captivity, they learned a lesson about idolatry.

They've been worshipping idols. They never worshipped idols after they came back from captivity. It seems like a long period of time, 70 years, but then they were tough and hard and doing their own thing, and they learned better.

The Quarrel Between Paul and Barnabas

God said they were going into captivity for their good. For their good. So no matter what happens, it's for our good as we pray and commit ourselves to God. In Acts 15, Paul and Barnabas had a quarrel.

Men of God, they had a quarrel. Did it turn out good? Yes, it did. Because they split, and Paul went with Silas, and Barnabas took John Mark. Now there was two teams.