Colossians 1, I ask the older Sunday school class to join us in this Bible study because I want them to hear this. They need to know this just as much as we do. I pray that this will be an encouragement and a relief to all of us. I pray that this might come with a sincere heart of comfort and I pray that this will be a true relief to all of us. I wanna read the text and then I'm gonna give you the title of this. The text is Colossians 1, verses 16 and 17. It says, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him, all things consist." Now, let me give you the title of this Bible study. It's this question. Who controls the coronavirus? That's the title of this Bible study. Who controls the coronavirus? Here's the answer to the question. Verse 16, by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." God controls the coronavirus. It's His virus. It's His virus. The adversary is His adversary. All of the devils are His devils. This earth is His earth. These people are His people, meaning He made them. He controls them. He owns them. And that virus is His virus. God controls the coronavirus. Verse 16 says, for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth. visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Do you mean to tell me that God created the coronavirus? Yes. All things were created by Him. Why would God create the coronavirus? For Him. For Himself. For His will. For His purpose. For His glory. I do pray that it drives everybody home to turn on their TV to watch the television program this morning. I pray it does. All things were created by Him and for Him. He is in control. He is in absolute control of every speck and every particle and every cell and every atom on this earth. Not only does He control great things that happen in the earth, the greatest things that happen in the earth. A hurricane comes through and we say, God did that. Earthquakes, God did that. Not only does he control the greatest things, he also controls the absolute smallest things that happen on this earth. Nothing does anything outside of his control. Psalm 24 one says, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein. That means nothing does anything outside of his control. Nothing. Turn with me over to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew 10 verse 27. It says, What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. And what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops. And fear not them which kill the body. Them doesn't just mean people. People, things, germs, viruses, them. Verse 28 says, fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father? I used to think that meant that a sparrow couldn't die without the Father giving permission, and it does mean that, but that's not what it says. It says a sparrow can't even fall on the ground without the Heavenly Father giving permission. Verse 30, it says, but the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Next time you take a shower and you see all that hair at the drain, There's no need to wonder why that hair's down there. God said number 7, number 14,000, number 23,007, and number 64,000, fall. That's what happens. That's what happens. You say that's silly. That's the Almighty. That's what it is. That's the Almighty who is in control of us. Not general control, but absolute detailed control. Turn with me over to Job 36. Job 36, verse 26. Behold, God is great, and we know Him not. Neither can the number of His years be searched out, for He maketh small the drops of water. They pour down rain according to the vapor thereof. which the clouds do drop and distill upon man abundantly. He does that. When that happens, He does that. Look at chapter 37, verse five. God thundereth marvelously with his voice. Great things doeth he which we cannot comprehend. For he saith to the snow, be thou on the earth. Likewise to the small rain and to the great rain of his strength, he sealeth up the hand of every man that all men may know his work. Verse 10 says, by the breath of God frost is given and the breath of the waters is straightened. Verse 16, does thou know the balancing of the clouds, the wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge? How thy garments are warm when he quieteth the earth by the south wind. We turn the weather channel on and they say, well, a warm front is pushing up from the south and the temperatures are gonna rise over the next few days. And they say it's because of barometric pressure or something, I don't understand all that. That's not why. God says, rise up, south wind. That's the hand of God doing that. Chapter 38, God is talking to Job and he said in verse 34, Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings that they may go and say unto thee, here we are. He's the one who says lightning strike. And the lightning says, here we are. That's how it works. God is controlling everything. He's controlling the elements. There's no such thing as Mother Nature. Everybody says, well, Mother Nature's being really. There's no such thing as Mother Nature. There is only the Almighty Father. That's all there is. He is controlling everything. He's controlling you. He's controlling everything about you, everything in you, everything around you. If you shiver, He is the one doing that to you. Now understanding that, let's see how He deals with His people, right, those that are His people. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 5. Exodus chapter 5, verse 1. And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. And they said, the God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest he fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword. They said, if we don't obey him, he is going to send a pestilence to us. The word pestilence means plague, disease, virus. I looked up the word pestilence throughout the scripture. I can't tell you how many times I wrote down scriptures where the Lord said, I'm gonna send a pestilence upon you because of your sin against me. It really shouldn't be that shocking to us that God would send a pestilence throughout the whole world. Shouldn't be shocking at all. What we're seeing is, in what's going on, what we're seeing is no difference than what Israel, I mean Egypt saw. That's what all the plagues represented. Egypt, it was all because of sin. It all represented sin. Plagues and disease, it was all a representation of man's sin and the judgment of sin. But look how God dealt with His people who were right there in the middle of it. Look at Exodus 8, verse 20. Exodus 8, verse 20, it says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me. Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses. And the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen." The children of Israel were being held captive in the land of Goshen. That's where Israel was. Verse 22, I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which my people dwell. that no swarms of flies shall be there. To the end, thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth, and I will put a division between my people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be." And the Lord did so, and he brought that swarm of flies on them. That's exactly what happened. The Egyptians had flies all over them. I mean, they were covered in flies. The Israelites had none, not one fly. They all passed by. Look at chapter nine, verse one. Then the Lord said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me. For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle, which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous moraine, a disease. And the Lord shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt. And there shall nothing die of all that is the children of Israel. And the Lord appointed a set time saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. And the Lord did that thing on the morrow and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel did not one. And Pharaoh sent and behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened and he did not let the people go. Not one of Israel's cows died. Look at verse 22. And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch forth thy hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt upon man and upon beast and upon every herb of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven And the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. And the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smoked throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast. And the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field, only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail. Chapter 10, verse 21. And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Chapter 11 is where the Lord said, I'm going to send one more plague. I'm going to kill the firstborn male in every house. This is where we see that all of this was pointing to Christ. That's the reason for everything. Everything that happens is to point us to Christ. Everything that happens is to point us to Christ. He said, I'm going to kill the firstborn male in every house. Chapter 11, verse seven, he said, but against any of the children of Israel, as they go out, I'm gonna free them after this, and against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast that you may know how the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. He said, I'm gonna show you how I have sanctified my people. I've set my people apart in Christ my Son, in Christ my Lamb." They're going to take a lamb. And he said, that lamb is what's going to make the difference. In every house, the firstborn male is going to die. But for my people, that lamb is going to be their firstborn, and that's Christ. Christ is the firstborn. of all his people's house. Their elder brother is going to be the one who dies for them. The oldest brother died. That elder brother is going to die. They're going to slay that lamb. They're going to confess his blood over the doorposts of the house. And he said, when I see his blood, I'll pass over you. And he said, that plague will not come to you because it came to him for you. That's the reason why. That's what all of these things represent. That's what it all represents. This is all a picture of what we deserve. And it's a picture of the fact that God spared us from what we deserve through Christ suffering it for us, taking it for us. Everything that we are reading right here physically, this is puzzling. You think, why is this? What are you saying in this? Everything we're reading physically points us to something spiritually. God says, in Christ, my son, my people are a separate people. They are separate people. We are worried about whether or not the coronavirus is going to attack us, whether we're willing to admit it or not. We are. We are. Something in the back of our mind keeps saying, oh, I better not touch that. I don't want to get the coronavirus. We are. If we could only see the invisible principalities and powers of darkness and evil that are constantly trying to attack us. And they are attacking the Egyptians. They're all over them. They're swarming all over them. But if we could only see the invisible powers of darkness that are constantly trying to consume and attack God's people and how God has said, no, you're not touching them, not my people. If we could honestly enter into how God has separated us, sanctified us, protected us, set us apart from the spiritual plagues that come upon man because of his sin. If we could really enter into that, We wouldn't think twice about the coronavirus. If we really could enter into how He has totally put a wall of protection around us and hedged us about, we wouldn't give it a second thought. We would realize we are being safely kept in the hands of our God. Now, I'm gonna be brief, but go with me to Psalm 91. Psalm 91 verse 1 says, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. In Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. Now what does that mean? What does that mean? Here's what it means. God is in control of all of this. That's what it means. God is in control. Go with me back to Colossians 1, and I'm going to leave us here with some closing comments. Seeing what God did for His people in the plagues, And reading Psalm 91, it brings this puzzling question. When we read that, it brings this puzzling question. Here's the question. Are you saying that if I'm trusting in Christ and if we're among the ones that were chosen to be put under the blood of Christ, are you saying that we won't get it? Is that what you're saying? Are you saying that we're not going to get it? This great pestilence that's just sweeping the whole world, you're saying we're not going to get it? Is that what you're saying? Not unless God gives it to you. What we read in the plagues and what we read in Psalm 91 was what God purposed in His heart to do. He said it's not coming to them, and it didn't come to them. That's exactly what the Word of God says. This is what it says. You will not get the coronavirus unless the almighty, sovereign, all-powerful God chooses to give it to you. God's people are sinful flesh just like everybody else, subject to every disease everybody else can get. There's nothing about us that separates us from the weakness of sinful flesh. But nothing will come to us unless God Almighty sovereignly chooses to give it to us. The virus does not come by touching door handles. I'm not a doctor and I'm not pretending to be. I'm just making the statement that the virus does not come by shaking hands. The virus does not come by getting sneezed on. The Lord made purpose to use those means. But the virus does not come by any of that. The virus does not come by going to school and sitting in a classroom and learning. It doesn't come that way. It comes by God choosing to give the virus to a person. That's how it comes. If God chooses to give the virus to us, we are going to get the virus. Mark it down. If God chooses to give the virus to me, I'm not above anybody. If God chooses me and He selects for me to get the virus, there's nowhere I can run, there's nowhere I can hide. The virus will come to me. If that's His will and that's His work, none can let it. None can stop it. He does whatever He pleases. And if God chooses to give that virus to us, mark it down. We're going to get the virus. Let's just prepare ourselves. And if God does not choose to give us the virus, we're not going to get the virus. There is nothing in God's universe that's left up to chance. Nothing. Nothing. Now, are we going to tempt God? Are we going to tempt God by saying, well, I'm not washing my hands anymore and I'm going to go around and lick the surface of everything because if he's going to give it to me or if he's not, absolutely not. We're not going to tempt God. We're not going to foolishly, arrogantly say, are you going to give it to me or not? We're not going to do that. Are we going to break the law if the law imposes curfews? Are we going to break the law of the land by ignoring all that stuff and rebelling against all that stuff? Absolutely not. We're not going to do that. But by God's grace, here's what we're going to do. We are going to rest in the almighty power of the sovereign God. That's what we're going to do. That virus is His virus. He made it, He owns it, and He'll do with it as He pleases. For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things exist. And I know I've run long, but I'm going to give you this anyway. Before I moved here, I was in Rocky Mound and we used to meet in the study on Wednesday night just like we do here and a man would read and pray. And I always made it a point to sit by Henry. I wanted to sit by Henry. And every now and then he'd nudge me and hand me something. And he handed me this piece of paper one time. And I think he wrote this because normally he would credit it if somebody else said it. It says, the peace and rest that a man enjoys depends on his confidence in the God who controls the flight of an angel and the flight of a fly, who controls both the flash of lightning and the glimmer of a glow worm. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter how great it is. It doesn't matter how small it is. A man can enjoy true peace and rest if his confidence is in the fact that all of it is in the hand of the Sovereign God. All of it. We can truly rest in that. Alright, you're dismissed.