It is good to see you here this morning. I'm not going to be able to broadcast again today, and the Lord will help us to fix this problem. I know that there are many. I just received a letter thanking us for the messages that they're able to see online. We've had the last two weeks not been able to get it to work. We'll see what the Lord provides. We're going to see something about providence today. I pray God will teach us. I am just as perplexed as you are concerning providence. It is a constant struggle. And by grace and power of the Spirit, faith always must win over what we see, what we think, and how we feel. God's Word is true. And faith says, let God be true. And every man, including this one, be a liar. I do pray God would help us to understand something about providence. We are all facing A new year. We are all coming in from a year of great trouble, great fear. And now that it seems the political winds have changed and all of that, people have given somewhat of a hope. Listen, don't put your trust in men. Don't set your confidence in men. We're going to see in a minute, God's going to have His way. Whatever that is. And He's got a good purpose. And that is the salvation of His people. Whatever He's doing, that's what He's going to do. He's going to use whatever providence is at hand And He's going to use it for His glory and the salvation of His people. You can trust that. You can trust that. So now as we face this year, I've thought about this as a message to prepare for you in the coming months of this year. And if God, peradventure, give us the ability to live, I want you to have this principle of comfort. And that's the title of it, a principle of comfort. principle of comfort. Now, go to Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Ecclesiastes chapter 9. Our text will be found in verse 1. Scripture says, for all this I considered in my heart even to declare all this, that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God. Now there's your comfort. There's your comfort. It's going to be the first part of this. Your comfort. The principle of comfort. Now the second part of this deals with providence. Because this is what causes us to be uncomforted, doesn't it? Isn't what we feel or what we think and what we see under the sun cause us anxiety? Cause us to not be comforted? Well he's going to deal with that too. Listen. He said, no man knoweth either love or hatred. By all that is before you, you are not going to know either the love or the hatred of God by what you see." And notice that, he said, no man. I mean, that's very important, because you'll drive yourself mad trying to figure this out. Now, let's deal with this. This wise man Solomon who wrote this book, He declares something here. He says, for all this, I consider it in my heart to declare all of this. Now, in the previous chapter and the chapters before this, Solomon is dealing with everything under the sun. In all of his wisdom, he views folly and he views a wise man. He views a lazy man. He views a working man. And he comes to this conclusion under the sun. Since all die, he says it's vanity. Vanity and vexation of spirit. You want to know what's under the sun? Vanity and vexation of spirit. Yes, an industrious man is better than a wise man. That's what he said. You have a better life than if you're lazy. A wise man is better than a fool. There's no doubt about that. But notice what he says this concerning things under the sun. Look at chapter 8 and verse 4. Notice he is going to tell us who's ruling all things under the sun. He says in verse 4, where the word of the king is, there is power. And who may say unto him, what doest thou? Now he was king, so obviously he's not talking about himself. That was true in an earthly sense. Under the sun, when a king says something, who's going to say anything against it? But listen, Solomon is talking about the king. The king. He said, in the word of the king, there is what? There's power. And who's going to change it? Who's going to change it? God, who is king and sovereign over all the works of creation, and does all things after the counsel of His own will. Who will thwart His plan? Anybody? Nobody. Where the word of the King is, there's power and who's going to say anything against it? This thought of God of absolute sovereignty. This thought of God's absolute sovereignty, what it should do is lead men to bow. It should lead men to bow to God. Why? Because in His hands is life and death. Listen to what God says in Deuteronomy 32, 39. He said, See now, I am He, and there is no God with me. Got that? There's no God with me. I'm God and that's it. Listen, I kill and I make a life. Now who kills and who gives life? God says I do. I wound and I heal. Listen to this, neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand. Can you deliver anyone's life or death or wounding or healing out of the hand of God? Can you do anything about that? What do you have to do with that? Can you do anything? Seeing this truth that God, the truth of God, we must understand that all things that happen then in time and eternity are according to the will of God. Whatever is happening, it is according to the will of God. All things are decreed and happen in time according to the eternal purpose and power of God. God doesn't make things up as He goes along. You do. I do. Something, we're determined to go this way, we hit a roadblock, what do we do? We go another way. Why? Because we can't overcome it. We can't do anything about it. God does not see things that way. He cannot change. He said, I am the Lord, I change not. I change not. Why? Because all of His decrees are perfect. Everything He ordains is perfect. This should be a comfort to the elect, shouldn't it? In Ephesians chapter 1, the apostle, after giving the doctrine of election and redemption, he says this in Ephesians 1 and verse 11, he said, in whom? In Christ. We have obtained an inheritance. Isn't that good? You that believe in Christ, you've obtained an inheritance. Why? Being predestinated. Why did you obtain that inheritance? Was it you? No, you are predestinated to it. According to the purpose of him who worketh, listen, all things after the counsel of his own will. This is Solomon's wisdom that he found out under the sun. This is the wisdom that every believer knows, that God is king and his word alone has power. His word alone has power. His divine providence is for the salvation of His elect. So it is with the election of His people. So it is with all things that happen in time are according to His purpose. He is right now moving all things after the counsel of His own will to do what? When I say purpose, you know that that has an intention. God purposes something. He decrees something. There's a reason for it. And listen to His reason. The salvation of His people. That's what He's doing. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the great high priest said this, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Why? that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now what is he going to do? If that's his purpose, who's going to stop him from doing his purpose? Everything in the purpose of God is moving in perfect harmony with all of history and the present events and future events are moving together. We only see pieces of this, don't we? We only see it from our perspective. We don't see everything even that's around us. We only see a certain amount of things. So we don't see the whole thing. God's telling you the whole thing. I'm doing it to save my people. And yet as Solomon looked in this business under the sun, knowing that God is king, knowing that his word has power, look what he says in verse 17 of chapter eight. He said, Then I beheld all the works of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun, because though a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it, yea, further, though a wise man think he know it, yet he shall not be able to find it. Solomon is saying, look, God is sovereign. And in this matter of providence, nobody's going to know what He's doing. You're not going to be able to figure it out. No man can find out the work that is done under the sun. Man cannot, by searching or by his finite wisdom, understand the work of God. He's not going to do it. Solomon put all of his wisdom into it, and he said, you're not going to find it out. I didn't, and you won't. Now some people think they got this thing figured out. Solomon includes them there. He said, there's a wise man. He thinks he got it figured out. What's the end? Yet he's not able to find it. He's going to be wrong. He's going to be wrong. You ever been wrong trying to figure this out? See, oh man, this has got to happen now. Look at this. And it goes a different way. She's a strong man. And Solomon includes this in the book of Ecclesiastes. He said the race is not to the swift. You think that the race would be for the swift, right? I don't know, look at our leaders and see what happened. You know, you got the biggest bunch of morons running the place. And that, I mean, seriously, you'd think that that would be the most wise, the most noble, the most intelligent people should be leaders. And yet, what do you find? Why? It's the providence of God. Now, why would he do that? God's using it for his salvation of his people. I can't tell you. I'm not gonna be able to figure it out. We look at circumstances of time and we see chaos. How would you see? I see a tornado. I see a hurricane. Everything's blowing. You can't tell where it's going, where it's coming from. That's our life. That's how we see things. We see random events, unexplained tragedies, unexplained victories. Some are born poor and die rich. Some are born rich and die poor. The righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Isn't this vexation? If you're just honest, it's vexing, isn't it? It's vexing. The false gospel is well received and the true gospel is despised. Isn't that something? Mighty kings are overthrown by the weak. Wicked kings oppressed by the good. There seems to be no justice. Why are some children born with illnesses and others born healthy? Why do God's people labor in sickness while the wicked prosper in health and wellness? We can look for reasons, but it's utterly useless to try. We can apply ourselves to know this, but the wisest of men are not going to figure this out. So then let us learn what God will teach us concerning providence and what God gives us to comfort us in our confusion. And I know this, that this comfort If you are without comfort this morning, this should move you to find comfort. And I tell you, there's only one place to find comfort. It's in Christ. There is no place of comfort and rest and peace other than in Christ. And that's where he's going to lead us. Now Solomon in these verses declares to us divine wisdom concerning the providence of God. And he gives us first a principle. Look at this principle. He said, for all this I considered in my heart even to declare this. This is what the reason I did that was for this. Listen, this is what I found out. That the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of the king. The righteous, the wise, and their works are in the hand of God. First of all, who are the righteous? That's a vital question. If there's any comfort, if you were to have any comfort in this chaotic world, in this sin-infested, this upside-down, chaotic world, listen, you're gonna find that only the righteous are gonna be comforted. Now, who are they? What is it to be righteous? Simply put is to be without sin. You cannot be righteous unless you are totally, absolutely free from all sin. The comfort is to the righteous, to those who may be able to stand before the judgment of God without guilt. Only those who are holy. That's who are righteous. Now, is there anyone here who would confess themselves to be without sin? Who can confess that? Is there any among us who would say they have kept the law of God to perfection? No, the scriptures plainly declared to us that that is not true. He says there is none righteous, Romans 3 in verse 10. There is none righteous. No, not one. He tells us in Galatians chapter 3 in verse 22, all under sin. The scripture has concluded, this is what the word of the king has concluded. The word of the king has concluded this, all under sin. That's what the king has concluded. All under sin. But this principle of comfort is speaking to all who have righteousness. Now, how then may a sinner have righteousness? Since we are all sinners, how may we have righteousness? You can only have righteousness through Jesus Christ. There's no other way to be righteous. There's no other way to be righteous. In that same chapter in Romans 3, he tells us there's none righteous. Well, how then can we be righteous? By the law, he said, therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no place be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But he said, now the righteousness of God is revealed. How? That Jesus Christ, he said this, In Romans 3, 22, he says, the righteousness of God which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. How may righteousness be obtained? Only by the righteousness of another, of this man, Jesus Christ. He's the only one that can raise his hand and say, I've been righteous. He's the only one. He obtained the righteousness of God, how? By His faithfulness, by His obedience. And He being the eternal Son of God, He did not need righteousness, did He? Why would He come to be a man and obtain righteousness here? He did it for one reason. As I told you, God does all things for the salvation of His people. He came into this world to obtain righteousness for those that God gave to Him. Everyone He represented. Now listen to that. Everyone Jesus Christ represented. He by Himself obtained righteousness for them. He did that. He obtained righteousness by His obedience. Why? So that we may have that righteousness imputed to us. Imputed to us. That word means charged. Abraham, listen, Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, why was it imputed to him for righteousness? Listen, because he was righteous. You can't impute somebody to be righteous that's not righteous. This is the work of God the Holy Spirit in the heart of the believer, is to make us righteous. To create in us a new man that is holy and without sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to make us righteousness, even the righteousness of God, which is unto all and upon all them that believe. That righteousness He made is unto all and upon all, who? That believe. You believe? Listen, this verse is speaking to you. Now you have righteousness, Not your own. You did not merit it, you didn't earn it, you didn't obtain it. Yet it's mine. Why? It was given me. It was given to me by the Lord Jesus Christ who made it Himself. He gave me His righteousness. Therefore, when it says the righteous, He's speaking to me. But not only did the Lord Jesus Christ give us a merit force of righteousness, sin also must have been dealt with, right? We did sin. We did actually offend the holy God. We're not pretending we didn't sin. If any man say he had not sinned, he makes God a liar. The truth's not in him. So how does God deal with our sin? Our Lord Jesus Christ not only provided righteousness, but he himself provided redemption. He paid the debt for our sins. Righteousness would not be complete had sin not been dealt with because we are not righteous. We could not have any comfort except the justice of God for our sins be satisfied. There's no comfort in that. You can't have comfort unless you know that God's justice is satisfied with you. You won't find any comfort. Why? Listen to what Peter said. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. Is that not astounding? It's the most amazing thing in all the world that Christ, our Redeemer, bore our sins. Our sins were charged to Him. Why? For God hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin. God could not punish an innocent man. And so, yet, He was still the Holy Son of God. I don't understand that. I can't fathom that. I know this, that in Him, God punished all my sin. And He said this, He said, His soul, in Isaiah chapter 53, He said, and His soul shall, He shall be satisfied. By the offering of His soul, He shall be satisfied. God's satisfied. That's why we are righteous. You who believe in Christ, you are righteous. You are made righteous. You had no contributing factors to this, did you? What'd you put into it? What'd you add to it? You didn't even give it to yourself. Matter of fact, you were walking this earth not wanting it. And God gave you life. God gave you faith. And now then, when he says the righteous, he's talking about you. Is that not amazing? You're not gonna look in the mirror and find that. This is the work of God's saving grace. He said the righteous, now notice the second thing, the wise. This is not speaking of earthly wisdom. This is, again, speaking of spiritual matters. It is the spiritually wise. The spiritually wise. He said to the righteous and to the wise, those who are made wise unto salvation, you that believe, you are made wise. You may not be wise in anything else. You may not know anything else. You may be dumb as a box of rocks. I tell you this, if you know this, you know everything. Listen to the answer to this question. Tell me the answer to this question, you wise. How can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can God be just and you're ungodly, how can he do that? I know the answer. I got the answer that way. By Jesus Christ. That's it. By a representative man. That's how he can do it. Because he obtained, my representative man obtained my righteousness, and my representative man was punished for my sins. And God is just now to give me favor. And how were you made wise? You were made wise through the preaching of this gospel, weren't you? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Isn't that a wonderful passage? I love that. That's amazing. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How shall they call on Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. God's laid out the means. He chose His people. Christ redeemed His people. The gospel goes out. Says, Whosoever will, come to Him. And you know what His people will? They'll come. Thy people shall be willing when? In the day of thy power. That's when they're willing. That's when they call. You can't call unless you have life. Could you call on Christ without spiritual life? Is that possible? Except you be born of the Spirit of God, is that possible for you to call out? A lot of people believe that you got to call out to be born again. That's like saying you got to breathe before you're born. You've got to breathe before you're conceived. No, you can't breathe until after. When God gives you life, what are you going to do? You're going to call. You're going to call. And this is wisdom. I knew a lot about doctrine when I was young. I really understood it. I understood election. I understood total depravity, limited atonement, irresistible grace. I understood these doctrines. I didn't know him. I didn't understand him. I was a fool trusting in my knowledge. But when he came to me, it was not a doctrine to be grasped in the mind. It was a person. I was not coming to a doctrine. I was coming to a person. This doctrine was not just words on a page. It was real. I was depraved. He was sovereign. I needed him. I pleaded for him to come to me. And you know what he did? He did exactly what he said he was gonna do. He gave me rest. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will. I will give you rest. That's what I found. Somebody's come to Christ, listen to me. You are made righteous through that representative and you are wise. You have wisdom that the sons of this world will never have. Scripture says this, you know all things. Now man, If that's talking about earthly stuff, that's not true. That's talking about earthly stuff. I was looking up some doctor things the other day and they were just spouting off this stuff like he was... Like they knew exactly what they were talking about. And I couldn't keep up. At all. So it's not talking about that. I know all things that are necessary. I know Him. Do you know Him? Then you're wise. Notice this, and there works. And there works. Listen to me, everyone who is born of God will do good works. There's no doubt about that. Isn't that what the scriptures tell us? They plainly tell us that, that we are created of God in Christ Jesus unto good works. Listen, they're not even up for a debate as to what they're going to be. Now, I don't know what they're going to be. Listen, because God hath foreordained that we should walk in them. Even our good works are foreordained to what we should do. But believers will have good works. We will walk worthy of the calling that we are given. We will walk by the law that is given to us. And that law is what? Faith and love. James says, if we keep his commandments, he is in us. And what are His commandments? That you should believe on the name of the Son of God, and that you should love one another, even as He gave us commandment, 1 John 3, 23 and 24. That's our commandments. Those are our commandments. And they're not grievous, are they? Are any of those two things grievous? Is it grievous to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? No matter of fact, we want to believe more, don't we? Loving one another, is that grievous to love? To the flesh it is, not to the spirit. I love you. I love you. It's not grievous to love. Not to the heart of the believer, not to one who is made wise. And we know this, that none of our good works have anything to do with our acceptance. Listen, just like my righteousness and my wisdom, my works are of Him. Any fruit we bear, where does it come from? You got an apple tree, it sprouts up, grows limbs, and all of a sudden there's some apples on it. Where did it come from? Did it come from the leaves? Or the branch? or the tree and the root. What does the fruit have anything to do to bear itself? It doesn't. Where do our fruits come from? They come from God. They come from God. But notice here's the comfort. My righteousness is of God. My wisdom is of God. The fruit that we bear is of God. Listen, and that's exactly what he's, this is the comforting part. Listen, he says, go back to your text. He said, I considered all this in my heart to declare all of this, that the righteous, that you believer, the wise, that you and your works, listen, are in the hand of God. They're in the hand of God. If these things are true of you, this is the most comforting part of this. That my righteousness, my wisdom, and all the fruit that I bear is in the hand of God. Which means what? If God controls all things, and He does, All things work together after the counsel of His own will, and it does. And God has willed to give you righteousness. God has purposed to give you wisdom. God has decreed that you should worship and serve Him in faith and love. Listen, you will continue to be righteous, you will continue to be wise, and you will continue to bear fruit. Why? Because you are in His hand. In His hand. I like this, the definition of this word. It means open hand. Open hand. Believer in Christ, we that have been washed in the blood of Christ, have the imputed righteousness of Christ, we that have the wisdom of God given to us, listen, God receives you with an open hand. I thought of this illustration, if you had a A child. And the child's looking around and he sees his father. And he starts running to his father with his arms out. What would a loving father do? Would he punch him? Or receive him? This is what God does to the righteous and the wise and their works. What does he do? He receives them. He receives them. Isn't that not astounding? I'm preaching this morning, and I'll tell you what, the sin is so marred, anything in my mind, that there's no way possible that God could ever accept this. Oh, He does. Isn't that astounding? Why? Because it is through Christ. Through Christ. That's why we sing that hymn. God sees my Savior, and listen, Then He sees me. In the Beloved, accepted and free. This word means accepted. That's what it is. All your righteousness and all the wisdom that God has given you, all of the works that God has given you into doing this, they are received with open hands. With open hands. Why? Because of the faith of obedience of Christ. because of His blood that cleanseth us from all of our unrighteousness. Listen, I know my faith is weak. I don't have as much love as I desire to have. But because I am in Christ, listen, this is what it means. Here's your principle of comfort. You are forever accepted. Forever accepted. You're accepted in Christ Jesus. And Solomon says, now in this next part, Solomon's going to deal with providence, because this is what interrupts our comfort. I've given you some comfort. If you're in Christ, you're righteous, and there's nothing going to change that. You don't have anything to do with it? You can't mess it up? You can't mar it? It was done outside of you. It's something that God puts in you. And it's something God keeps in you. Now, your wisdom. You may lose your mind. You may forget your name. He won't forget you. He won't forget you. And your works, though marred with sin, are what? They're in the hand of God. They're received of God because of Christ. Now, providence often goes against what that says. And so Solomon will now turn and deal with providence. Look at what he says. He says, no man knoweth either love or hatred by all that is before them. He redirects now to the providence that we see. Believer, you will never know the love of God by what you see. An unbeliever, listen to me, you will never know the hatred of God by what you see. Surely we cannot know our salvation by looking at our works or our religious deeds. Isn't that right? You can't look at your fruit and say, oh, look at my fruit, I must be a believer. Look at what I've done. You can't do it that way. It is our nature to think that if all is well, God loves me. Now that's through your flesh. Our flesh is prone to see it that way. We must never strive to determine God's love or hatred based on outward circumstances. Or even our love or our faith. Why? Because your love and your faith are waning, aren't they? They're not constant. They're not steady. They fluctuate. So you can't base God's love on your faith or your love. Our experiences and our circumstances in this life may be good or bad. But whatever they are, listen to me. Here's your comfort. Therefore, you're good. We're gonna study this in coming weeks, Romans 8, 28. We know. You wise, you know something. Because you're in Christ, you know this. We know that all things, what work together for our good, to the good of them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. All things work together for our good. But things do not always appear to work to our good, isn't that right? The appearance of the thing may be good, or the appearance of the thing may be bad. But notice this, God says both are going to work together for your good. In Psalm 73, Asaph was struggling with this so much that his faith had failed. He said, my foot had nigh well slipped. I had almost lost all faith in God together. Why? Because he saw something under the sun. He saw that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Does this not vex you? It does. It's vexing to our soul. This is not, this is always, seems to be always the case. Believers, the righteous in Christ, suffer. But we are not to trust what we see, but rather to trust the word of God. So as you go through this year, you listen to me. Things are going to appear for your evil. They're going to appear as though that they are evil. You can't tell the hatred of God based on those things. You can't tell if God loves you if this year goes smooth and everything goes well for you. You shouldn't base God's love on what this providence has brought. Where are you going to know whether God loves you or hates you? You can only know that by what God says in His Word. Believer, trust His Word. The Apostle Peter was on the Mount of Transfiguration and he saw the Lord transfigured before his eyes. You know what Peter said? He said, yet we have a more sure word of prophecy. Isn't that something? Peter says, I don't want you to trust my eyes. What I want you to trust is the word of God. So you shouldn't trust your eyes. You shouldn't trust your feelings and the things, the providences around you. You should trust the Word of God. Why? All things, joy, sorrow, peace, war, famine, death, all things work together for good to God's elect. This brought to mind, it's now been almost 10 years, I think. Our brother Cody Gruber, missionary in Mexico, dear friend of mine for many, many years. At the very height of his ministry, I mean, at the very pinnacle when I just, you know, when he was being used so greatly at that time, I couldn't, you couldn't help but see it. Lord was using him in those churches there and in the United States. And then all of a sudden, God took him. I tell you, for a long time, I was in great confusion as to why that happened. I didn't understand. I couldn't figure it out. I looked around me, and there were so many false prophets and false religionists, freewill work religion preachers that have lived for, you know, 80 years, 90 years, spouting out lies. That time I was looking at Billy Graham, I was looking at him and saying, how in the world could that happen? There's a man of God preaching the gospel of God's free grace, and there's a man spouting lies, and he's popular and loved by everybody. This man's unknown, unsung, and died. But if I go to the Word of God, I can understand. He says, the righteous perish, and no man lay at the tart, that he escapes the evil. God didn't do it for his punishment. God did it for his good. And so as we see these things, where are we going to find any peace? The only place you're going to find peace is the cross. The only place you're going to find peace is the cross of Christ. Don't try to look at the tragedies or the joys of life to see God's love. Look at the cross. You want to know if God loves you? Look what He gave. He that spared not His own Son, how shall He not with you freely give us all things? You want to know if God loves you? Look what He gave you. You need any more proof? Listen to what Isaiah 46 says. He says, God declared, He said, I'm God and there's none else. Declaring the end From the beginning, from ancient times, the thing's not yet done, saying, I will do all my pleasure. What is God's pleasure? What is God pleased to do? God is pleased to save His people. That's what God's pleasure is. The pleasure of the Lord is saving us. Listen to Psalm 149, verse 4. He said, for the Lord taketh pleasure in His people. He will beautify the meek with salvation. What is He going to do? This year, what is He going to do? He will take pleasure in His people and He will beautify the meek. He will save His people from their sins. I've often given you that illustration, right? Of the Ezekiel 10, the wheel within the wheel. I read that just yesterday again. I read it through astounding the beautiful things The wheel is the providence of God. And these cherub were, he said there were four of them and they were all moving straight forward. And the cherub had their wings. You know, I didn't notice this before. And he said the hand of the man was under the wings of these. Who's that? That's Christ. He's the man in fine linen that Ezekiel sees at the beginning. He's the one directing this providence. And you know this, When you look at a wheel, you're not supposed to focus on the spokes. It'll make you dizzy. Don't look at individual providences and try to trace them back to God. Man, how's this evil thing over here going to bring about the salvation of God's people? You're not going to find that out. You're not going to find it out. Stop. Stop trying to trace it. What are you to do? You're to look at the hub, the thing that doesn't move. Look at the hand of the man who is guiding providence. It's Christ. It's Christ. So you don't understand. Neither do I. And you won't ever. It will drive you mad trying to find it out. And then again, all you'll get is just being mad. God already told you in his words you won't find it out. Why do you second guess that? You won't find it out. You won't ever be able to figure it out. Don't try. You don't have to. Be at peace. Why? The righteous and the wise and their works are accepted. What do you have to figure out all this other stuff for? You can't tell the love or hatred of God by what you see. We often sing that hymn, God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. He plants his footstep in the sea and rides upon the storm. You see footprints in the sea? Once you lift up your foot, it's gone, right? Can't tell where he's going, can't tell where he came from. That's provenance. Plants his footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. Deep in unfathomable minds of never failing skill, he treasures out his bright designs and works his sovereign will. Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. Do the things of the world and providence perplex you? Where is the comfort? It's found in this, the righteous. Has Christ made you righteous? Has he made you wise? Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ simply? Do you believe on Christ alone? It's not going to put any of my stuff to it. Leave him alone. And listen to this. Me and all my works are accepted with open hands. And I'm not going to figure out Providence. It's only maddening to try. bow in submission to the sovereign will of God, knowing this, that he works all things together for the good of them that love God, them who are the called. Are you called? According to whose purpose, yours or his? I'm called according to his purpose. Then I know this, all things work together for my good. I'm not saying you're going to be able to... This is a constant struggle within our minds and hearts, isn't it? Isn't it? You're not going to get to that point, a eureka moment, where everything's going to be... You'll get there, and then what? You'll go back down again. Then you'll get there, and you'll go back down again. I know this. I'm at the most calm when He's near, when I have Him in view. When I have Him in view, I'm the most calm in any providence. But let Him get out of my sight, and man, we freak out. God help us to keep Him in view. As we progress through this year, if God be gracious, keep Him in view the whole year. Oh, be merciful. I say deliver us from trouble. We don't want, we pray God keep us from trouble. I ask for no dark provinces. I don't, I'm not asking for any. If they come, keep Christ in view. Pray God bless this to you. Let's stand and be dismissed and pray. Holy Father, be merciful and gracious, please. Be kind. According to the righteousness of Jesus Christ that you've given to us and the wisdom of knowing Him, believing Him, I beg you, if there's anyone here without Christ, that you would move their souls to trust Him, to abandon their righteousness, and lay hold of His by faith alone. I ask you to do this for your own glory. Comfort your people in the midst of our troubles. Keep us safe as you promised to do. In Jesus' name, amen. Oh, 6 p.m. Brother Boots will be here at 5.30. 6 p.m. we'll have service and we'll eat after.