8/26/18 Foundations for understanding Ezra- Jeremiah's prophecy

Jesus Christ, I pray and ask these things today.

Amen and Amen.

We're going to read a couple of passages of Scripture that we

read last week and lay in this groundwork for understanding the book of Ezra.

And Lord willing, if we get through this foundational work today, we'll be

starting into the book of Ezra next week if the Lord tarries His coming.

He don't change things.

But if we don't finish the foundation work today, we'll finish it next week.

But in any case, this morning as we are thinking about studying the book of

Ezra, we're going to be looking back at some prophecy that was given, some prophecy that was

made some 100 to 150 years before the children of Israel were ever

taken into Babylonian captivity, which in and of itself is a testimony

to the faithfulness and the goodness of Almighty God.

And as we look through these passages of Scripture, I want you to recognize, and I want you

to know, and I want you to see that God is sovereign in all things.

We said last week, we use this term quite a bit.

And some people, I believe, understand the sovereignty of God.

Some people may not have such a good grasp of the sovereignty of God.

Nevertheless, it is our responsibility as a pastor and as a preacher to try to help you

understand what these theological terms mean.

God's sovereignty is simply defined.

If you wrote this down last week, good.

If not, you can write it down this week.

God's sovereignty defined is this.

God's sovereignty is God's authority and right to govern all things.

God is sovereign over all things.

So when we say God is sovereign, we mean He has the right and the authority to govern all things.

And so when we speak of God's providence, we're speaking of how God governs all things.

And God governs all things by His providence.

And God's providence, rightly defined, is this.

Is God's governance of all things.

That's what providence is.

And how God governs it is by means of His omniscience, His

omnipresence, and His omnipotence.

Last week, I misspoke.

When I was defining omniscience, omnipotence, and

omnipotence, I gave you the definition when I kept repeating.

I listened to the message.

I kept repeating omniscience and saying, God, that means God's everywhere at all times.

No.

Omniscience means that God knows all things.

Does anybody have any doubts about that?

God does not need our assistance in anything.

Amen?

How many of you at any time has God ever came and said, I've got a question for you, can you help me with this?

Unless you're, of course, Jesse Duplantis.

And he boldly brags about how God asks him for advice all the time.

Friends, he needs to repent.

He needs to repent whether he's kidding or not, things like that ought not to be said.

God does not need our advice.

So God works all things by his sovereignty according to means of providence, which

means he does things according to his omniscience, him knowing all things, his

omnipresence, the fact that he is everywhere at all times, and through his omnipotence, that he

is the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords.

When we look through these passages of scripture today and as we move into the book of

Ezra, you'll see some things, you'll see some things that maybe you didn't realize were there.

And I'm not reading into the text anything.

And if you catch me reading into the text anything, say, hey, preacher, back up.

It don't say that.

The scriptures show us and the scriptures themselves reveal unto us that God has

two wills.

God has a permissive will and God has a restraining or a restricting will,

meaning this, that God permits things to happen for his

own glory.

Keep in mind, God is not the author of sin.

God does not make people sin.

People sin because we are sinners.

Amen?

The Bible says that the biblical definition and the biblical process for how sin comes about is

this can be found in the book of James in the New Testament.

We sin when we're drawn away of our own lust and enticed.

And sin, when it's finished, brings forth death.

The scriptures teach us that from the time of the very beginning when God made Adam and Eve and set them

in the garden, that God set before them the covenant of works and said, Adam,

if you perfectly obey me, you'll live forever.

And we all know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, right?

They sin and because of their sin, we are all under the curse of sin and therefore we all are

going to die.

Amen?

And we need the forgiveness of sins and the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Now, what's amazing about the sovereignty of God, the permissive will of God, is that God

permits men to do such things, but God is sovereignly in control

of all such things so that nothing gets beyond Him or out of His control.

We're all from the country.

We know what it means when things go haywire, right?

It means they just go crazy, out of control.

Well, even when it seems like things are crazy and out of control, God is so

sovereign that He not only permits things to happen, but He restrains things from

going further than they need to go.

We serve a sovereign God.

He permits and He restrains.

And so in keeping with that thought, in keeping with that understanding,

as we continue to look here into the book of Jeremiah, remembering 150

years before the children of Israel are taken into Babylonian captivity, the Lord,

through the prophet Jeremiah, sends His word to them for warning them

that their sin is going to cause them to be put into Babylonian captivity.

God is so gracious, and God is so kind, and God is so good, and God is so loving,

that He does so much that He warns people of their sin.

Amen?

How many of you wish to yourselves, you look back at times in your life, when you've been told and been made

aware of the truth, and yet you've ignored sound truth, you've ignored sound doctrine, and you

went about your business, and you went about your way, and your life has become a shambles, and you think to

yourself, if I would have just listened.

Right?

Have we not all been there?

And it is no different for that the children of Israel.

Listen, in Jeremiah chapter 25, beginning in verse 8, the prophet,

by the word of the Lord, says this,.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, Because you have not heard my words,

behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and Nebuchadnezzar the

king of Babylon, my servant, remembering this, we made reference to this last week, even

Nebuchadnezzar the evil king is called a servant of God, because God does with whom

he pleases, what he pleases, and how he pleases.

God is sovereign over all the creatures of the earth.

And he said, my servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations

all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing,

and a perpetual desolation.

Moreover, the Lord said, I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the

voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light

of the lamp, and this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment,

and these shall serve the king of Babylon for how long?

Seventy years.

God is true to his word.

Verse 12,.

Then it will come to pass when the...

How long?

The seventy years are completed.

Now listen to how good and kind God is.

Then it will come to pass when the seventy years are completed that I will punish the king of Babylon

and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, says the Lord,

and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

So I will bring on that land all my words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written

in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all nations.

For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also, and I will

repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own

hands.

If we turn over to the book of Jeremiah, the same book, chapter 29.

Chapter 29 in verse 10, and we'll read you verses 10 through

14.

For thus says the Lord, After seventy years are completed

at Babylon, this is what the Lord says, I will visit you and perform my

good word towards you and cause you to return to this place.

For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to

give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon me and go and pray to me, and I will listen to

you, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me

with all your heart.

I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity.

I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I've driven you,

says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I

caused you to be carried away captive.

Make no mistake, Israel, because of their sins, were carried away

into Babylonian captivity.

They were not without warning.

They were not without a kind rebuke from the Lord.

God warned them, God told them, and yet they chose to continue in their sin.

And God is so faithful and so loving and so kind and so true and so

just that if he says he will punish for an iniquity, then you be sure of this,

God will punish for iniquity.

There is no sin that goes unpunished.

It may seem as though in the world in which we live, people get by with murder as the old saying goes,

but nobody gets by with anything.

God is sovereign over all things.

And God, whether you think you're doing something sneaky and getting around on

God, you are not getting around on God.

God is full aware of where you are, of what you're doing and what you're up to and what

you're going to be doing and what you're going to be up to down the road.

So he goes on here, and let me say this, our aim today in trying

to communicate and trying to help us lay this foundation,

understanding for going into the book of Ezra concerning the sovereignty and the providence of God

is basically threefold.

I had three purposes in preaching this, I'm going to be honest.

Some may say you got an ulterior motive for doing what you're doing.

Yeah, I do.

Let me read you what my three aims are today.

Number one, my aim as we preach through these passages of Scripture is to exalt the name of the

Lord.

You can hear all about the world and you can hear all about self -help and you can hear all about

relationship advice and you can hear all about how to be successful in life and business out in the

world.

But when you're in the church, you need to hear that God is holy

and He is righteous.

There ought never to be a preaching message.

There ought not to be me getting up here and ever tell you this.

Let me tell you how you can get along better in your relationships.

Right?

You don't need my help for that.

You're handsome enough.

I mean, you don't look like Richard Gere like your brother, but you'll do.

You need to hear about the character and nature of God so that when you

live your life as a believer, you live in fear and reverence of the Lord.

How come it is.

I think so many times everybody is so comforted by the sovereignty of God.

Oh, I'm so thankful that God knows everything.

He knows everybody's business.

He knows how it's all going to turn out.

I'm so thankful until we start living in sin and then all of a sudden we get mad because God's all up

in our business.

That's kind of a double standard.

Don't be a hypocrite.

He's sovereign for a purpose because you can't handle your life and I can't handle my life.

We need God much more than He needs us.

Amen.

My aim is to exalt the Lord, number two.

My aim is to magnify the character and nature of God.

Any of you ever played with a magnifying glass?

Johnny, you ever seen somebody stand about from here to me to you with a magnifying glass and hold it up to their eye?

For me, it don't look like nothing but a blur.

But for you, it looks like my eyeballs expanded, right?

Right, that's what I aim to do in trying to stay in this text of Scripture when we preach to you about the

sovereignty and the providence of God that you recognize that the attributes, the characteristics and the nature of

God Himself according to the Scriptures become bigger and bigger and bigger because that completes

our third task.

Our third task is this, to help you and to encourage you to live a closer walk with the Lord

Jesus Christ.

And you cannot have a closer walk with the Lord except you know Him.

If April and I did over these last 25 years never got to know each other better, you think there'd be a problem with our marriage?

Amen.

I wouldn't know when to shut up or when to keep talking.

She's giving me that look and that's it.

I'm just walking off.

I'm cowering down.

Don't hurt me, dear.

Right?

Amen.

We must come to know who God is.

And the only way we can know who God is, is from the Word of God.

So, I think what A .W. Peake said once, he said this concerning the

sovereignty of God, God is God.

He does as He pleases, only as He pleases, always as He pleases.

His great concern is the accomplishment of His own pleasure and the promotion of His own

glory.

He is the supreme being and therefore the sovereign of the universe.

He went on to say this, the sovereignty of God is the truth revealed to us in scripture for the

comfort of our lives.

It's the comfort of our hearts, the strengthening of our souls, and the blessing of our lives.

That's what A .W. Peake said.

That's a good quote right there, by the way.

So, as we move forward here, let's think about, to consider when we do get into Ezra, that

the children of Israel are going to be delivered, just as God said, out of Babylonian captivity,

but some 150 years thereabout, before this even comes to pass, God, through

the prophets of the Lord, sends His Word to warn the people of God, and He tells them,

don't be disobedient, don't live in sin, don't do this, and if you do, you're going to be sold into captivity.

But He said this, but when you do find yourself in captivity, know this, that

I am going to come and deliver you.

Not that you're going to get out of it, not that you get a free ticket, it's not a get -out -of -jail -free card, but after that

you have suffered according to the will of God.

God is faithful and true and is still there.

That's wonderful.

So, one of the things in my mind as I began to consider this was this, what may have been

going on in Israel's mind, remind yourself and mind

the truth of the Word of God, that Israel, years and years and years before this, had

already been delivered out of Egyptian bondage, amen?

God delivered them.

God called Moses to go and to tell Pharaoh, let my people go.

God sent the ten plagues upon Egypt.

Pharaoh's heart continually got harder and harder, but eventually he let the children of Israel go.

He took off after the children of Israel after he let them go.

The children of Israel went through the Red Sea.

They didn't go around it.

They didn't go under it.

They didn't go over it.

They went right smack dab through the middle of it on dry ground, according to the Word of God.

And then when Pharaoh and his army tried to pursue them, the Bible says the Lord caused the waters to crash down on them

and destroyed the whole army.

God is sovereign.

He is sovereign over creation.

He is sovereign over the creature.

He is sovereign over man and He is sovereign over all.

So, has the Lord changed?

He has not changed.

And I know that beyond that you all just confirmed that the Lord hasn't changed.

I love that you can confirm it.

It's good.

But you know where my hope lies, not in your word.

My hope lies in the Word of God.

In the book of Malachi, the Lord said, I am the Lord and I change not.

Has the Lord changed?

Amen.

No, He hadn't.

Had His love for His people become any less in this context?

Thank you, Johnny.

No, His love had not become any less.

You may do things that make your mom and daddy want to wring your stinking neck.

Amen, mom and dad?

But guess what?

No matter how hard they try, they won't be able to love you any less.

Because they're your mom and your daddy.

The Lord is greater than your mom and your daddy.

The Lord's love never changes according to the Word of God.

How do I know this?

Because later on here in Jeremiah, I believe it's chapter 31 and verse 3, the Lord says this,

I have loved you with an everlasting love, an everlasting love.

Had He any less ability to deliver or save anybody?

Did He at this time have any less ability to save Israel?

No.

Does He at this time in 2018 have any less ability to save?

No, He does not have any less ability to save.

Matter of fact, the Word of God confirms that, gives us an answer to that question there.

In Isaiah, I believe it is chapter 59 and verse 1, the Lord's arm is not shortened

that He cannot save, or His ear so heavy that He cannot hear.

He is sovereign.

He is Lord.

He can be counted on when nobody else in this world can be counted on.

He is faithful and He is true.

Where does your hope lie?

Where does your hope lie?

Does your hope lie in your parents?

Friends, your parents love you, but they will fail you.

Does your hope lie in your mom and your daddy, your cousins, your aunts, your uncles, your friends?

Friends, they will all fail you.

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Lord said,.

My word shall endure forevermore.

Thank the Lord for that.

So had God become any less sovereign?

I need to calm down, don't I?

It would be great to be that.

Had God become any less sovereign?

Had He any less authority or right to govern?

No.

How do I know this?

Because the word of God tells me in Isaiah, I believe it is chapter 45, the Lord said, I am the Lord and beside me

there is none else.

Praise the Lord.

Let's try to move into this.

We're not going to get through the Isaiah passages today.

We're just going to look at the Jeremiah passages.

Let's move just to the 30th chapter of the book of Jeremiah.

And remembering what our focus is, our focus and theme is the sovereignty and the providence of God and how

God 100 to 150 years before this captivity ever took place is sending word to

the children of Israel.

And this is what it says in Jeremiah chapter 30 verse 1.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, thus speaks the Lord God of Israel

saying, write in a book for yourself all the words that I've spoken to you.

For behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will bring back from

captivity my people Israel and Judah, says the Lord.

And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers and they

shall possess it.

God giving them hope even in the midst of being chastened.

God gives hope to his people even in the midst of rebuke.

Ain't that good?

Some people will think, well, I've sinned and I've strayed and I've got away from God and I don't have that quote

unquote feeling that I used to have.

Thank God that God is true.

He is whether you feel it or not.

I love feelings.

I'm a feeling person.

You probably know that, right?

But feelings is not what my faith is based upon.

My faith is based on the unchangingness of God.

So he goes on here in verse 4 and he says, these are the words the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

For thus says the Lord, We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear and not of

peace.

Ask now and see whether a man is in labor with child.

So why, this is the Lord.

So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor and all

faces turn pale?

Alas, for that great day, for that day is great so that none is like it.

And it is the time of Jacob's trouble, referring to the Babylonian captivity of Israel.

But he shall be saved out of it.

Meaning God not only has saved them from it and put them in

that place, but he one day is going to bring them out of that.

For it shall come to pass, verse 8, In that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from your neck.

Speaking of the Babylonian kings, that I will break his yoke from your neck and will burst your

bonds.

Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God

and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

Know this, that deliverance is the work of God.

That salvation is the work of God.

Let not a man trust in his own self.

Let not a man trust in his own doings.

Let not a man trust in his own deeds of the flesh to be considered righteous in the

sight of God.

The only way that you or I will be saved as it is from sin is because of the finished

work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

And not only his death, but his resurrection,.

Because that is the gospel.

That Jesus died, was buried, and raised again the third day according to the

scriptures.

Ascended to the Father where he ever lives to make intercession for you and I.

Let's move forward, verse 10.

Therefore I do not fear, therefore do not fear, O my servant Jacob, says the

Lord.

Nor be dismayed, O Israel, for behold, I will save you from

afar and your seed from the land of their captivity.

Jacob shall return, have rest, and be quiet, and no one shall make him afraid,

for I am with you, says the Lord, to save you.

What a comfort it is to be a child of God.

What a comfort it is to know that I am a child of the heavenly Father who is

sovereign Lord of glory over all things.

Who everything answers to Him.

He goes on to say this.

I am with you to save you, says the Lord, though I make a full end of all the nations

where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you.

Though the nation seems like it's been destroyed, though the city of

Jerusalem had been literally wiped out to the ground, the temple of God was

going to be cast down to the earth, the walls of the city were going to be torn down, it was going

to be nothing, just as the Lord had said, but a pile of ashes, a desolation heap.

And yet the Lord said, know this, that I am going to deliver

you, and that one day it's going to be rebuilt.

But I will correct you in justice, verse 11.

Verse 11.

Yet I will not make a complete end of you, but I will correct you in justice, and will not let you

go altogether unpunished.

God is sovereign.

There is nothing gets by on the Lord.

There is a way that seems right unto man according to the Scriptures, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus

Christ our Lord.

And so God is sovereignly overseeing all these events and because God is sovereign, He has

the right and the authority to govern all things.

And how He governs all things is through means of providence, which means

this, God takes those things which take place in the natural world.

Most times, this is how God works through His providence, He uses natural means

to get us where we are.

Any of you ever been at a place, you might be here right now and you may be saying, how in the world did I get here

today?

I ought to be dead.

I tell folks, if my daddy had to live beyond me being seven years old, I probably wouldn't be here.

I'd see to beat me to death for the things that I did that my mama didn't beat me to death for.

I'd have probably been dead,.

But by the grace of God, here I am.

And by the grace of God, here you are.

We deserve nothing but the wrath and the punishment of God, but God is so kind and He's so good and

He's so loving that even in His punishment, we see this take place.

Moving over to about the 20th verse of that same chapter.

Their children also shall be as before and their congregation shall be established before me and I will punish

all who oppress them.

This is what the Lord says.

He's pleading their cause, He's defending them.

Their nobles shall be from among them and their governor shall come from their midst.

Then I will cause him to draw near.

We see the sovereignty of God.

When we do get into the book of Ezra, you're going to see that God, just as He put

Nebuchadnezzar in place, just as if you go all the way back in the early Old Testament,

God put Pharaoh in his place for a specific purpose.

And throughout history, God has specifically placed men and women in their place and the

things that have taken place in this world to bring us to one end that He might receive glory

and honor.

What is the chief end of all man?

To glorify God and to what, Kenan?

Amen.

That's the chief end of man.

That's why you're here.

You're not here to do just a certain job in this world.

You're here to glorify God.

God is going to get glory out of you one way or another.

Jeff quoted that passage of Scripture this morning.

He said this, that every knee shall bow of things in heaven, of things in earth, and that every tongue should confess

of things in heaven and things under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

God's going to get glory from your wickedness or He's going to get glory from the holiness that He has

given you in His Son, Jesus Christ.

But either way, He is going to get glory.

You mark it down.

And if you're saved, you are not your own.

You have no right to do as you please.

You have only right to submit to the will of God.

You're not your own.

You're bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body.

Verse 23, Behold, the whirlwind of the Lord goes forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind.

It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

The fierce anger of the Lord will not return until He has done it and until He

has performed the intents of His

heart.

God is sovereign.

He's not the author of sin.

Again, I want to keep reiterating this because so many times if people don't have a biblical

understanding of the sovereignty of God, they think that God causes sin.

No, God don't cause sin.

We sin because we're sinners.

He permits it.

And guess what?

We have to reap the whirlwind as the old saying goes.

Chapter 31, verse 3,.

The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying, Yes, I have loved you with an

everlasting love.

Therefore, listen to what the prophet says through the Holy Spirit to the people

of God,.

Therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn him.

Are you saved today?

Do you know that you're saved?

If you have been saved by the grace of God, it is because the grace of God has drawn you

unto Himself.

Not because you yourself have moved toward Him, but because He has moved you.

He has made us alive in Him.

Who were once dead in our trespasses and in our sins.

Oh, listen, the prophet encourages the children of God down in

verse 7,.

For thus says the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob,.

And shout among the chief of the nations,.

Proclaim, give praise, and say, O Lord, save your people, the remnant of

Israel.

Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth.

Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child, And the one who labors with child

together.

A great throng shall return here.

They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I will lead them.

If you would, make a mental note or make a physical note of that verse 9 there.

When we do get into the book of Ezra, you're going to see just as the prophet prophesied here

100 to 150 years before it ever took place.

This is exactly what God brought to pass for the children of Israel.

Calm down, preacher.

There's no need to get excited about this.

I can't help it.

I can't help you be excited about this.

Because this is my God I'm talking about.

It's my God according to the Word of God.

They shall come with weeping, With supplications I will lead them.

I will cause them to walk by the rivers of water In a straight way in which they shall not stumble.

Verse 10.

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, And say, He who

scattered Israel will gather him And keep him as a shepherd does his

flock.

When I read that verse in my study time these past few weeks here, Every time I read that

10th verse there, I think about the song.

And I know this is talking about the Lord, The Father leading the children of Israel, And how they are to

proclaim it.

But I think about that hymn song.

Jesus saves, Jesus saves.

Amen?

Shout it everywhere.

Shout it to all.

There's another song.

Tell it and sing it from day unto day while you are passing along.

Tell it to sinners who fall by the way.

Spread it in story and song.

It is the message of Jesus to men sent from the Savior above.

Tell it and sing it again and again.

Wonderful story of love.

Oh God said to them, I have drawn, I have loved you with an everlasting love.

And with bands of love I have drawn.

Is God drawing you to the throne today?

Is He speaking unto you?

Is He saying, be saved, friends?

You say, what must I do to be saved?

How can I become a believer?

My friend, I cannot explain it to you in a clear cut, One, two, three, step by

step illustration.

All I can say is this, If you have been made aware that you are a sinner, It is because God has

quickened you and made you alive.

So that you can trust and believe in Him.

So trust in the Lord.

Let's go on.

Verse 11, For the Lord has redeemed Jacob.

And remember, this is speaking 150 years beforehand as though it's happening right then.

That's because God is not limited by time and space like you and I are.

I can say, bye Cracky, when I get home, Johnny, I'll say this, When I

get home, I'm going to snap my fingers and April's going to get up and get in the kitchen and cook me something.

I can say that all I want, but that don't make it so.

Because I'm limited.

How about you?

Brad, how about, does that work for you?

No, I didn't understand.

God is not limited as we are.

God is omnipotent.

God is omniscient.

God is omnipresent.

So he says this, and what a word of comfort it is.

It's comforting because God is so faithful that not one of the words that he ever

said for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and

ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he.

Oh friends, today, sin is stronger than we are.

We cannot redeem ourselves out of the hand of sin.

We cannot remove ourselves or displace ourselves from the sting of death.

But my friend, Jesus Christ came.

He died.

He rose. He revived.

He ascended to the Father to give us hope of eternal life.

Verse 14, he said, I will satiate the soul of the priest with abundance, and my people

shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the Lord.

Verse 16, thus says the Lord, Refrain your voice from weeping and your

eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the Lord, and they shall come back

from the land of the enemy.

There is hope in your future, says the Lord.

That your children will come back to their borders.

And you know what?

I'm just going to stop right there today.

And I would ask you, if you would, stand with us this morning.

And as we stand this morning, as we consider

all that we have read just from these two chapters, these few verses from two

chapters, three, four chapters, I guess, maybe, ultimately, in the book of Jeremiah, as we consider

this child of God, be reminded that you serve a

God who is sovereign.

A God who, by means of no other but

then by Himself, has right and authority to govern

all things.

And that in His sovereignty, by means of providence,

by the outworking of the natural means and circumstances of our lives, works things

all together for the good to them that love Him and are the called according

to His purpose.

That's what the Apostle Paul was talking about, the sovereignty of God and God working by means of providence.

Are you trusting in Him today?

Or are you trusting in the arm of your flesh?

The arm of your flesh is going to fail you every single time.

It'll only hold up so long.

But God is eternal.

God is mighty.

God is strong.

He's not just stronger than some.

He is everlasting to everlasting.

Amen.

He is from eternity to eternity.

He is unfathomable.

See, that's one of the challenges.

And I'm glad that you said that.

And I'm glad that I'm going to be able to close with this statement.

That's one of the challenges about preaching on the sovereignty of God.

People think, well, He's going to try to preach us and tell us everything there is to know about God.

Friends, I do not know everything there is to know about God.

And preaching the sovereignty of God is not a man standing before you and telling you everything there is to know about God.

It's telling you what we can know from the Word of God.

But you've got to read on your own.

You've got to study.

You've got to test.

Listen to the message again this week from today.

Test what's been spoken to you.

If I've mistold you, if I've misrepresented or misspoken, you need to, Tim, you need to text

me or call April or do whatever and say, hey preacher, I remember in the message you said

this.

Now, this is what the Word of God says.

Listen, I'm not going to unfriend you if you do that to me.

I'm going to thank you when I go to the Word of God and I see that the Word of God is correct

and I was wrong.

That's the reason I made the correction about the defined terms that I gave you earlier.

It's important that you hear the right thing.

And it takes more than one time to hear it.

There was a lot preached today.

For some of you, it just went one ear and out the other way, as a boss of mine used to say.

But some of you are absorbing.

Some of you are taking in.

Some of you are making notes.

Look over your notes, study them, listen to the message, test the message.

Johnny, there will be a test next Sunday.

Man, I believe he will.

I love you all with all of our hearts.

Thankful to be in God's house today.

Thankful for the privilege and the honor that He has given unto us to worship

Him in spirit and in truth.

So, Lord willing, next week we'll be looking at some of the prophecies from Isaiah and

then possibly the next week after that, getting to the book of Ezra itself.

But it's very important we have this foundational knowledge, folks.

Very, very important.

But we can't go wrong as long as we stay in the Word of God.

All right.

Anybody got a word of testimony?

Anything good that you want to say for the Lord today before we dismiss?

I just wanted to share that the ladies group are coordinating a

mission opportunity for us for the holiday season.

We are going to be doing the shoeboxes through Samaritan's Purse.

And our goal is to do 10 of them.

And so the church has purchased 10 boxes.

And so just working on the list of what you can and what you can't.