Good October morning to you. It is time for us to consider the Word of God and to work on our memory verse of the month, October's verse. Matthew 16, verses 16 and 17. So, let's work on that together now. Ready, set, go. Matthew 16, 16 through 17. And Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 16, 16-17. Okay, we'll take a few moments out and see what we can do to learn. Matthew 16, 16-17. Come on. Okay, let's see what we can do now. Matthew 16, 16 through 17. And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said, Blessed art thou, Simon Barnona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. Matthew 16, 16 through 17. In this foundation of the testimony of Christ, how he is the son of a living God, God himself. There are people in our time who want to say Jesus is not God. In fact, time after time we read in the scriptures that he shows himself and he declares himself to be God by various works as well as words and teachings. and his understanding of the Scriptures. Well, a few weeks ago I spoke and threw out a challenge to you, and let's see if you got the challenge. Has anyone ever found anywhere in the Scriptures, God is late? So, it stands. God is never late. But now let's take a look. How do we know early, late, on time? We have our thinking set. We have our ways. We understand something of what we're doing. And we think, well, at least we think we've got it all figured out. And we look and we see, oh, well, this is the time this is supposed to happen. And this is the time this is supposed to happen. And we have everything all laid out. And then God comes along. His timing doesn't match ours. But keep in mind, God is never late. Many, many times he's right on time by what we see. As we look back, oh yeah, that was actually on time. So our understanding has to be improved on. Isaiah 55 lays it out, verses 8 and 9. God is dealing with His people. He established His everlasting covenant. He pardons the sinner. That alone is incredible, because He dwells in perfect holiness, and here we are, corrupt as we are, and God pardons us. And he says, seek ye the Lord while ye may be found, call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous men his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God. For he will abundantly pardon. And then he comes to this. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways. My ways saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways. and my thoughts and your thoughts. We can be trained. We can, you know, go to university. We can study. We can read book after book and listen to sermon after sermon and study like there's no tomorrow. But when it comes to matching God's thoughts, we depend on Him. My ways are not your ways. My thoughts are not your thoughts. As the heavens are higher than the earth, my ways, my thoughts, are higher. So, our dependency on God is made a definite thing. Let's also turn to 1 Samuel 16. So, back to 1 Samuel. Samuel, Kings and Prophets. We're going to take a look at chapter 16 Now if you know the story as it progresses through time after time Saul king of Israel Had rejected the word of the Lord and done his own thing He had gone his own way And the Lord said I'm going to choose my king. I I'm going to choose another man, one who will follow me. And he said, Samuel, I want you to go to the house of Jesse, and I want you to anoint the new king. So Samuel goes to the house of Jesse to do sacrifice. I will show you what to do. You shall anoint unto me whom I name. So it was God's choice. Samuel was the messenger. That was it. Did he know who was going to be king? No. In fact, this is an illustration of what I just read to you in Isaiah. Let's take a look at it. Starting at verse 6 and 16 of 1 Samuel, And it came to pass, one day were it come, that he looked on Eliab and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord's son, Samuel, looked not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature, because I have refused him." Probably one of the handsome guys in Israel. You know, you look at these people, man, he's handsome. The women should be chasing him down the street. Maybe he was tall, too. You know, these basketball players, they got the million dollar contracts. Eh, well, that's small anymore. But, you know, they go through their day, and they have all kinds of stuff going on in this world. But I have refused him. He's not gonna be the king. For the Lord seeth not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. Now, it can be comforting or it can be really scary, depending on how you are. But to realize God looks on your heart and he knows you inside out. Jeremiah 17, 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? On the human level, we look at ourselves. We don't know ourselves. God knows us. And we look at this and we see God rejected Eliab. Why? He saw things in Eliab that he did not want for a king. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. He said, neither hath the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammat to pass by and he said, neither hath the Lord chosen this. And again, Jesse made seven of his sons to pass before Samuel. Samuel said unto Jesse, the Lord hath not chosen these. Everybody come! We're gonna choose a king. Actually, we got a good sacrifice. You know. But he goes through. Nope. Not that one. Not that one. Not that one. Seven times! Okay, Jesse. Nobody here qualifies. Is there anybody else? Oh yeah, well, there's this young son of mine out there tending the sheep. Go call him, get him here. It seems the Lord knew David so well that he said, nobody else is gonna do this. And what's he doing? He's tending the sheep. Isaiah 53 comes to mind, right? All we like sheep. And here's David out here tending the sheep. It seems there are a great many lessons to be learned from tending sheep. People are like sheep. What? They can be stubborn. They don't know a lot. They can fall down a cliff and hurt themselves. Get caught between two rocks. Shepard! Shepard! Help! I'm stuck! And you gotta go down there with the staff and the crook and the staff and pull the sheep out of there. Maybe he broke his leg. You gotta carry him back home. Hell like us. Hell like us. Samuel said to Jesse, I hear all thy children. He said, there remaineth yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. Samuel said to Jesse, send and fetch him, for we will not sit down till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, rugged, maybe a little rough. And with all the beautiful countenance and goodly to look to, so it isn't always the less fortunate in the face your features. Sometimes he chooses those who have a good look. And the Lord said, arise, anoint him for this is he. There was no hesitation. As soon as he comes walking in the door, arise, he's the one. Anoint him. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brother. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. My job is done. I go now. God had chosen his man. He sees what we do not see. He understood. And what did Israel end up with? The sweet psalmist of Israel who wrote so many of the Psalms. And we see the spiritual journey of this man in the Psalms day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year, going through all kinds of opposition and difficulty. And yet, his faith was in the Lord. And we see that as we read the Psalms. And people have favorite passages. Psalm 23 seems to be a big one. A lot of people like that. But what is it? The sheep talking about the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He provides all things. And we also have the record in James, don't we? James 1. Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variable in us, neither shadow of turning. His thoughts are not our thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He is never late. Genesis chapter one. You take a look at the creation events and how it all came about. My Bible class, I teach a Bible class, and we went through this, right? Day one, what did he create? Life. Life. Day two? Affirmative. Affirmative. Day three? Life. Life. Day four? Now notice, between day three and day four, there's something weird. Day three, God creates the dry land, the herbs, the trees, the shrubs, the plants. And day four, he creates the sun, moon, and stars. You know, if I were an evolutionist, I would have a problem with that. That order looks backward, doesn't it? The sun comes after the plants. But you see, God's timing is perfect. And if we look at it and say, okay, these are literal 24-hour days we're talking about, not grand ages of thousands or millions of years, just 24 hours. The thing works. And you can have the plants. By the way, another argument is, Day. Well, what would be the definition of a day after all? Do you have to have the sun, moon, and stars to have a day? No, this word day is just the earth spinning one time. There's one day. There's another day. It's a day. The first day, God creates the light and the energy. The second day, he separates the waters from the waters. The third day, he creates the dry land. Notice the order. There has to be a planet there. Well, he puts that there first. Matter and energy. Without that, you're not going to have dry land or plants or any of that stuff. So matter and energy, and then separating the waters out, and then the dry land, and then the plants, that grow in the dirt. You gotta create dirt before you can actually plant plants in the dirt. So this order follows, and we have this. It's beautiful. It works. And Genesis 2, how he creates man in the midst of all this. He builds man a home, and then he puts man in it. Oh, you don't have a home yet? Hang on, I gotta make this home. No, no, no. God's order, God's timing is perfect. He builds the home, then He puts the man in it. He made the garden, then He put man in the garden. One, two. When you look at it, what else? This is it right here. Okay. 1 Kings 18. Another instance, 1 Kings 18. Yes, 18, 1 Kings chapter 18. Verse 1, God makes Elijah a promise. The background of this is, Israel has not had rain for three years. There is a mighty drought. The crops fail. The people are starving. Things are looking very, very bad. 1 Kings 18, when it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go show thyself unto Ahab and I will send rain upon the earth. You go show up before the king who hates you and wants to kill you. I'm gonna send rain. Now that was the promise. He's gonna send rain. This is the same atmosphere. in which Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal. You go to verse 21 of that same chapter, 1 Kings 18, 21. Elijah came unto all the people and said, how long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow him. But if Baal, then follow him. Notice the people didn't say a thing. The people answered him not a word. What are we going to do with this guy? He's challenging us. He's challenging our gods. They were worshiping Dale. He said, don't go back and forth. Make up your mind. Who are you going to worship? So Elijah said to the people, I, even I, only remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Here I stand. There are 450 of them. Now, God takes Elijah aside later and he says, by the way, Elijah, you're not the only one. Well, there was the servant of Ahab, who kept 100 prophets in the caves and fed them under threat of death because those prophets were opposed by Ahab and Jezebel, by the way, who was the motivator in all this. And he said, beside that, I have 7,000 people in Israel that have not bowed the knee to Baal. They're still loyal to me, 7,000. But at this point, Likely, Elijah said, I'm all alone. He didn't see this, but God saw it. Let them, therefore, give us two bullocks. Let them choose one bullock for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on wood and put no fire under it. And I'll dress the other bullock and lay it on wood and put no fire under it. Call you on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of the Lord And the God that answers by fire let him be God and all the people answered and said it is well spoken Yeah, that's fair Okay So the prophets of Baal They get out there And they pray to their God, maybe they're kind of quiet at first But they get louder And they get louder and more desperate and Bale is not answering. Perhaps he doesn't hear. Let's shout. Let's get louder. Bale! And they start shouting. And then, well, we have to get his attention. We'll take lancets. We'll take sharp knives. We'll cut ourselves. We'll bleed all over the place. Bale! And they're dying. Their blood is pouring out on the ground. He still does not hear. And Elijah gets up in their face and he says, call upon him louder. Maybe he's deaf, he can't hear you. Or maybe he went on a vacation and you need to call him back from vacation. Or maybe he's just sleeping and so awaken him, awaken your God. They couldn't do it. You know, for something that doesn't exist, you can shout all day and no one will answer. Santa Claus! Guess what? He didn't hear that. Why? I hate to burst your bubble, but Santa Claus really doesn't exist. But see, this is what they're doing. Bail! And bail is not there. There is no bail. He's not going to listen to them. He can't. He's not there. But here they go, loudly praying, shouting, cutting themselves. That was a sad, sad time for them. We get down to verse 36. I came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham Isaac and of Israel, let it be known this day That now our God in Israel and that I am thy servant and I have done all these things at thy word first Kings 18 36 37 hear me. Oh Lord hear me that this people may know that thou art the Lord God and that thou has turned their heart back again and Verse 38 Elijah prays After all the noise and blather and going on about this, about Baal, he prays. A short, simple prayer. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. Put yourself there. See that happening. The fire came down from heaven, and it didn't just burn up the sacrifice. It burned up the wood, the stones, the dirt, and licked up all the water. There was nothing left. God's timing is perfect. God's timing is perfect. He's never late. And when all the people saw that, they fell on their faces and they said, the Lord, He is the God, the Lord, He is the God. Yeah, you finally got it. What an event that was. In a way, I would love to have been there to see that. Because God says, enough. I will show my power, the people of Israel will know I am the Lord. And sure enough, when we get to the reaction part, and the people saw what God did. Now, these are people who are descendants of the people who crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. Who else does that? Nobody. Then they traveled through the wilderness. 40 years, and they come to the River Jordan at flood stage, and God says, you're gonna cross the river and go to the other side. And so they get ready, and the priest carries the ark, and they go across on dry ground of a river that's at flood stage, and should be sweeping them downstream, and they're walking on dry ground. People want to say, oh, that's just a story. Really? No, no, no. Why do you think he said, put these stones on the other side? When your children ask, what do these stones mean, Dad? This is how it goes. We came up to this river, and God said, you're going to cross it. And he opened the way, and we walked on dry ground. In that day, we understood. This is what God is. This is who God is. This is what he can do. His timing is perfect. Even at flood stage, when the river looks like there's no way we're crossing this thing, you're going to cross it now. Or the Red Sea. There are places in the Red Sea that are over 1,000 feet deep. But there's this one walkway, if you will, the sand built up right by Namibia Beach there in the peninsula. Yeah, Namibia Beach, right by on this peninsula, the Sinai Peninsula, where The water is only 150 feet deep. And if you know anything about sand, when sand comes into the wind, it dries out very quickly, especially in a hot climate. Sand can dry out really fast. So God sends the east wind and it separates the waters, dries out the sand and they walk on dry ground. 150 feet of water on one side, 150 feet of water on the other side. Can you imagine walking through that? Ah, this is none other than the work of a mighty one who is able to do these things. That's timing was perfect. Yeah, especially the saying that the Egyptian army was right back there about to devour them. God set himself in between the two camps and took Israel across on dry ground And they got to the other side and God said See close back up and the Egyptian army came after them. We're gonna haul them back They never did Israel kept on going and the Egyptian army was floating dead men on the surface. And the next morning they looked back and saw the dead people floating on the water. God's timing is perfect. When the sea shut back up, all the Israelites were across, and the Egyptian army was the only thing left. And God broke up their chariots and huffed their horses so they couldn't run. And they all perished because they were pursuing the apple of God's eye. They were going to bring a ruin. And God said, not today. God's timing is perfect. So in First Kings 18, when we go back, Elijah said to Ahab, get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. Elijah, by faith, saw this. So Ahab went up to eat and drink, and Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel, and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees. He's ready to pray again. He's going to pray for rain. He said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up and looked and said, there's nothing. And he said this again, seven times. Servant, go up there, take a look. Elijah, there's nothing. Seven times. You know, he could have given up. All right, well, so much for that. But remember verse 1, what did he say? I will send the rain. So Elijah knew this is serious stuff. He's going to send it. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, go up, say to Ahab, prepare that chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee now. This isn't just going to be a little shower. This is going to be a downpour. What some people might call a gully washer. This is going to be huge. Ahab, get in your chariot, and go look crazy. Because if you don't move, that rain is going to get in your way. You will not make it back. And it came to pass, in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black. Notice, it was just a little cloud, like a man's hand. But in short order, the whole sky was black with that cloud. Clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. I will send the rain. After the sacrifice, after the fire, after the prophets of Baal suffered at the hands of those who believed. After. And God's timing was perfect. He's not late. Galatians 4, 4 through 5. Let's take a look at that one. Galatians. Galatians New Testament So Paul is building the case up about The children of the king They're under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father and But verse 4 comes along and says, but when the fullness of the time was come, when it was time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons in the fullness of time. Tick, tick, tick, tick. Now, human history had been going on for thousands of years. Mankind sinned way back in the days of Adam and Eve. What transpired between then and this moment in the fullness of time? A whole bunch of stuff, including Genesis 6, where God said, Every thought of man is evil. I will destroy man from off the face of the earth. Noah built an ark. When Noah built that ark, what did he build? He built a symbol, an image, and a real vessel that showed God is going to save some. Many, many will perish. But God will save some. And who did he save? Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. And those eight people are our ancestors. Every person on the face of this earth can trace back to Noah and his wife. God's timing was perfect. In the fullness of time, God sent his son to redeem those who needed that redemption. And who doesn't? There isn't a human on earth that doesn't. So he died for all, that by some means all might be saved. And those who trust in Jesus will be, according to the promise of God. You believe this book, you believe when a person approaches Christ as a guilty sinner, that at that moment, he can have the salvation that God offers. Born of war, born of war, woman. Yes. Instead of true woman, woman is correct. Which means what? Instead of born of woman. That means virgin born. Yes. And the virgin birth of Christ is a very, very important doctrine. that people want to reject because it's unnatural. Yes. Born of a woman. Made of a woman, yeah. The Holy Spirit came upon Mary and she was with child. Matthew 1. Go back to Isaiah. The sign and the symbol before the king. Yes. Why not? But instead, take that and see what happened. Was Joseph involved? Only because he was the husband of Mary. Joseph was not the father of Christ. He was the father in law, but not the natural father. Why? The Holy Spirit of God moved, and Mary had the son. He worked. And so we have the virgin birth of Christ, which, by the way, sidestepped a curse. Jeconiah, Coniah, the king, had made God very angry, and he said, your throne will stop having sons to reign on the throne. And you shall not have anyone reign on the throne after this. But when he sidestepped that and worked through Mary, that curse was not upon Christ because he was not of that line directly. So the virgin birth of Christ is a very important thing for that reason. Yeah, good point. John 14. We see Christ's promise. If I go away, the Father will send to you the Comforter. When did he come? After Christ went away. Acts 1.8. He's carried up into heaven. And the Comforter came at Pentecost. You go to Acts 2. Okay? The promise of Christ is in John 14, 16-17. Acts 2. What do we have? Verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. Acts 2. 1, 2, 3, and 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. Acts 2, verse 1. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. The disciples were there. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like eyes of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. The Father will send the Comforter to you, and here he comes. Suddenly, rushing mighty wind, tongues as of fire, speaking foreign languages without studying in textbooks. And I'm sure there are some students of language that would love to have that happen today. Chinese, no problem. I don't get Chinese at all. I don't understand it. But the Holy Spirit of God was able to make these people speak foreign languages so that the people who spoke those languages could understand them. And what were they telling them? God's truth, the gospel, spreading it through language. How does the gospel get spread? Through language. There was God is never late and From that time to this the gospel has spread throughout many places on the earth and it's still making progress We have missionaries today doing Bible translation work God's gospel continues and it travels to the furthest regions of You shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and Judea, and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth." Think about some of these areas in the world where people are so remote. If you said the word internet, they would have no idea what you were talking about. Even today. And yet the gospel is able to reach to those regions of the world. Absolutely amazing. God is never late. And when the time comes that Christ himself said, I do not know the day or the hour, but my father only. But when that time comes, he will descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God, and those who are alive and remain will be caught up together with those who have died before, and all shall go up to meet the Lord in the air, right on time. Let's pray. Lord, we praise you for today. We thank you for your kindness. Help us to remember, you're never late. You're right on time. And by this method, you will build your church. The faith in the Son of God and the way of God being established by the God who is and alone is able to rescue his creatures. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus, who is God, Amen.