It seems like it has been a long time, and it has been several weeks, if not two months, since I last was with you during a midweek service. I want to continue that that we've been looking at and today concerning God's eternal decrees, our hope. We'll turn to scripture later on, a particular verse in Acts 13, if you would like to turn there now. And then I hope we get to those three or four different places in Isaiah. But before we proceed, would you join with me as we approach the throne of grace The one true and living God by whom in and through his son we have access. There in glory. To speak with this our God. Let us pray. Our father. We come again beseeching thee for mercy, grace, and thy spirit. Man's words, man's utterances will fall on deaf ears. Lord, if you do not give hearing ears. If you do not give a clear sound in the gospel going forth, as we consider thee thy great works from all eternity. Lord, man cannot rightly present these. We've messed them up now for a good long time. looking to the ability of man. My father, help us, help in preaching and help in hearing and glorify Christ in both. In his name we pray, amen. God's eternal decrees our hope. As I mentioned to you, it has been several weeks since I was here last. Sometimes the body does not cooperate in that that we would like to do, especially as you begin to age. Now you and I are living in possibly the most volatile times that we have ever seen. I know for us, I know in my lifetime, it seems that way. And you look around and you watch and you see, and it seems as though we're sitting on a powder keg with only needing one small spark to set it off. This is looking at the situation solely through the eyes of natural man. And to have our focus constantly upon things around us could very well lead to despair. We must get to God. We must ascend into the heavenlies. They hear what our God has to say, and there in Him and His Word, we find hope. Despair, it's doing that to a large number of people. They see no reason to go on living. Only in our sovereign Lord does a Christian have hope of anything certain out there in our future. You and I live in a world that is filled with uncertainties, and only in Christ and the eternal decrees of God Can we travel through this old world we live in keeping somewhat of sanity of mind? It seems almost like we could relate a little to Moses traveling from the land of Goshen Hail when you get outside those limits of that place, outside where the children of Israel are. Hail, destroying everything. Down there it's quiet and peaceful, and yet you must get back for Pharaoh wants to meet with you. Going from a quiet place to the throne in Egypt with hail falling all about, yet he was safe. He could go there and return in safety. Now a little later on, I will ask you to look with me to a few passages of scripture. But yesterday as I picked this up from several weeks back, and began looking over that that I'd had, and in considering the outline, it was almost as if I could relate somewhat to Moses, not as great as, but somewhat to Moses, as he looked over that valley of dry bones, and God said, can these bones live? Lord, only thou knowest. So I hope to bring maybe only a couple of loaves and a fish or two that our Lord Jesus might be pleased to bless and have a word for your heart. It seems that our little vessels these days have been caught in that tempestuous wind known as your Rock LaDun in Acts 27. Like a whirlwind, we're going around and around, accomplishing nothing. Around back to the starting point, we go. and seemingly everything continues on as it has. So we, as Paul and the sailors there, they took up their anchors, they hoisted the main sail, and they let the ship drive toward the shoreline ahead. Whatever direction you look, That's how it is. Yet these things ordained by God, the eternal decrees of God forever settled in heaven as is his word. And therein is our comfort and our safety. Around you, you find the foundations of everything in life having been corroded. Solomon said, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, in Proverbs 29. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. Used to be a time when government ruled for the well-being of all its citizens, or for the majority of them. But when government establishes rules, a corrupt society only increases. And all that God established now being corrupted and crumbling. Paul said in Romans 13, the powers that be are ordained of God. God ordained authority in the home, in his church, in government, all for the good of society. And then you look at schools. Was a time when parents could safely send their children off to school and have much trust that the students would be all right there that day. And they knew that the teachers were there, first of all, devoted to the education of their pupils, their students. And the parents didn't worry. They knew that the teachers had their children's good and well-being at heart. But now today in our land, many, many parents have grave concern and then you come to the church. There was a time when some biblical truths were taught all across our land, where there was this one true God as revealed in Christ, and He was the focal point in their worship. Today, in most places, worship is a fatherish notion in the minds of those that assemble. They do not assemble to worship God. They go for entertainment, for excitement. They go to quiet a conscience. And what better place to do that than sitting on a pew where the Spirit of God is not dealing with people, There is no authority anymore in the preacher's voice as it is sounded. We've become like Paul declared in Romans 1. We've changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man. But when man got God down to that level, they thought he's still too high for us. So they brought him down lower to birds, those that fly above this old earth, that God was still too high for them. And then they brought him down to four-footed beast, and finally to creeping things. And God gave them all up to a reprobate mind. I do not believe to be far from truth for me to say today that the largest percentage of churches in America now exist for the sole purpose of man being exalted. We gather to hear our good, what's for our benefit. Tell us these grand things that will help us in life or do not bring anything that might bring condemnation or we might leave with the least guilt upon us. And now the churches exist for the sole purpose of man being exalted and his natural senses stimulated rather than the true God exalted in our churches. In many places, it matters not that sin is open. Men and women are defiant against God, against God's word, against authority in the local assembly. And wickedness is abounding all around us and oftentimes it abounds within our very walls. And pastors today will put a positive spin on a message. For they don't want anyone to leave discouraged, but they want everyone sitting comfortably on the pews and leave feeling good about themselves. And no matter what is going on in their lives, they can rest assured that God loves them. and God intends only on their best. But I do not want to leave afflicted, downcast, oft times suffering Christians without any hope. So we'll turn to God's Word and herein, herein is our hope. There is support. There is a wealth of treasure from the very beginning in Genesis one to the closing out in Revelation 22. As we look at the true God. and the true Christ Jesus. But before we get there, the God presented today, there's nothing that has been carved out by pastors presenting this idol of what they want God to be, what they intend on God, the God being presented there. But that God and that idol can't lift one sight from the bottom pit of despair. It cannot provide hope for any. for their God. He has a degree of power, but that power is limited when it runs into direct contact with the will of man. God cannot force his will. All of us agree on that. But then we all that believe in scripture, we believe that all the people of God shall be made willing in the day of their God's power. So religion's God stops where man's power begins. And man has heard for a long time now, over a century, that it is his will that determines his outlook in life, that determines him being in glory after death. Men, now women in the pulpits are going to pay for lying to people. But no matter what's going on out there, the Christian can hold as an anchor for his or her soul in this turbulent sea that all of us are trying to cross. We can hold on to. Our God is in heaven and he doeth whatsoever he's pleased. Be it the army in heaven, or be it among all the inhabitants of the earth. This God today sets up rulers and kings and power and authority. And then he sets them down all at the good pleasure of his own will. Now, if you want to turn, you may already have in Acts 13, I want to use this one verse in starting off, that a Christian can forever hold as the anchor for his soul here in life's troubled sea. In Acts 13, 48, and when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life. I hope you get this now. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed. How could they believe? What must God do that those that he had ordained which means to appoint or determine. So before the world ever was created, the first man or the first woman ever formed, God had determined. to give his son a seed. That today is known as his bride or the church. As many as God determined to be with him in glory, all of them believed. They believed when the gospel came with power to their hearts. Now our confession, the one that we've adopted here, says, by the decree of God, for the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are predestined unto, are predestinated unto everlasting life. These angels and men thus predestinated and foreordained are particularly and unchangeably designed. And their number is so certain and definite it cannot be either increased or decreased. Most hate that. They will find reason to toss it out, if they ever would come in contact with that which our old forefathers, who knew God, who walked with God, who served God, holy men of God, throughout the generations, getting together and penning those words along with many more. Mr. Spurgeon, known as the Prince of Preachers said, if one of his chosen family, speaking of God, one of his chosen family should fall away, or one not be with him in glory, it would make an everlasting discord in the song of the redeemed. He well knew There is an authority with a certainty in all that God has ordained and appointed to be with him in glory. Jesus Christ died for a people that God gave him. Before the man, Jesus, was born, or the babe Jesus was born in that little stable in Bethlehem. For the Redeemer's glory, for His Son's exaltation, for His Son to have a people that He could manifest His heart to. God gave him these in eternity and in time through the preaching of the gospel and by a faith given by God and by repentance, which is also the gift of God, they would in time, in their lifetime somewhere, they would run across or have direct contact, be brought under the sound of the gospel and the workings of the Spirit. And these would bow to the Lordship of Jesus and receive Him as their Savior and their Lord." Mr. Spurgeon knew there's an absolute certainty in all God ordained for the glory of his name and the exaltation of his dear son. You and I can all rest well even though the sea becomes turbulent at times that our little vessel is trying to get across. Just remember, with our Lord Jesus asleep at times, as it appears to us, as long as he's in the boat or we're in the boat, he told us to get in and cross the sea. That man, that God-man has power over the wind and over the waves. And by just one simple command, that lake or that body of water can become as steel as glass. Like that in the book of the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has yet to lose one soul given to Christ in eternity. Has yet to lose and never shall lose one soul that was given to his blessed son. Now as God hath appointed the elect unto glory, so hath he by the eternal decree and most free purpose of his will foreordained all the means thereunto. That's a continuation of what I quoted to you concerning our confession of faith. All that the Father giveth me. When our Lord Jesus, at the close of his ministry, just a short time before Calvary, as he went there as the great high priest to speak to his Father, Father, I pray for those that thou has given me. Lord, what was a prayer for your bride for the church? I pray that those that thou has given me may be with me where I am. Now, of course, that has eternity. in mine, but there's far more there than just eternity. The prayer of our great high priest, there speaking to his father. Father, I pray, I pray that where I am, there they may be. So it is the duty of every Christian to find the path and the course on which the Lord Jesus walks this day. For there will be no one in heaven with Him that in life is not striving to walk with Him. I pray that they be with me where I am. My sheep hear my voice." Does the hearing ear in all the sheep mean? It means that every one of the sheep shall follow me. And he also said, all that the father giveth me shall come unto me. And a great promise to anyone that might be concerned somewhat of their soul and say, well, you closed the door of salvation when you said the number could not be increased or decreased. No, I did not. I swung the door wide open in Christ, all who come and all who repent. will find forgiveness and eternal life. All that the Father gave him, all of them shall come. Wherever the Lord Jesus is, wherever the foal is that he fences in his sheep for the night, there lying across the door of that sheep foal, they cannot be harmed. All will come. That's our hope in a world wherein there is little hope. Now, our Lord God did not choose one single individual to be with Him in glory. to be a member of the body of Christ or his bride based on what he foresaw what they would do. We've heard that all our lives, men that hate the doctrine of election or the doctrine of sovereignty. They cannot deny it for the number of times it occurs in the word of God. But they said, but election has to do with God seeing. what you would do. No, God knew what his power not could, but would accomplish. And our Lord said, or Paul said in Ephesians 2, not of works, Well, certainly God seeing what we would do would have to be our works. And by our works, God included us in the number that he elected to glory. No, not of works, lest any man should boast. That does not eliminate the child of God from good works. for the next verse says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto God, unto good works. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Salvation is of our God. Lazarus had no hope of getting out of that sealed tomb. No more than Jonah had any hope in himself of getting out of the belly of that fish. That's why that prophet had decided that he would not take the course or the path that God told him to. That's why he was swallowed alive by the fish. And as that fish descended into the lower parts of the sea, there Jonah said he was enclosed as if in an iron cage. No hope of getting out. I don't know if he began to feel the digestive acids of the fish beginning to burn his skin a little. I don't know. But I know this, at the bottom there in that cage, he said, salvation is of the Lord. And only in the Lord did he have any hope. Why should Lazarus hope? He's dead. His sister Martha said, well, Lord, I know he will rise in the resurrection as all God's children. No, Martha, all God's children in salvation shall be raised in Christ there to sit in the heavenlies. Sometimes we get our feet, our minds, and our hearts too planted down here in this old earth. Only above, looking back on the earth, only above do you see hope. and a way of escape from all the evils that are going on about us. If all the foundations of the earth are out of course, and certainly they are, then what hope can you and I have? Seated in the heavenlies with Christ Jesus, knowing that the God in great power raised us up from death to life, seated us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He forever is on the throne and will vacate it for no man, no government. There can be no power lifted against you, no voice raised. except what God intends on being for your good. I think Luther said many years, what he said many years ago is true today. Probably, if not more so, when writing to Erasmus and he told him, your thoughts of God are too human. Every song written seemingly in the last 50 to 75 years has to do with man, his wellbeing, and his exaltation. Every, well, let me rephrase that. In the majority of messages that will go across the airwaves or in fall Upon the ears of those sitting in the churches today, it will be about a God that has, by a human mind, been brought down to the level where that mind can understand God. That kind of God cannot be worthy of your time, your devotion, or your worship. God, the one true God, as from the very beginning, in the beginning, God. From that, throughout time, and all the way into eternity, when the church of God, the ransomed church of God, there, sings the great redemptive song, that God, is an authority, having all power. Well, when our Lord Jesus was raised, he said, in all power. As God, he had that. But now as man, having lived a sinless life, Having lived in everything he did for the glory of his father, and having lived as a dying man for the good of his bride, that man, all power under heaven and earth is given to me." And now you've got this great high priest. Now you've got the beloved. Now you've got the bridegroom of the church. There's no husband that would ever do wrong or harm to the wife he loves. He would try to do everything possible for her good well-being and for her benefit. Sometimes husbands fail. Our heavenly husband never has and never will. Although the true God is rarely known, that being so, pulpits cannot declare this God of all power And though the foundations of the world are out of course, and the people in the United States, the people in the world are all looking around. What are we gonna do? No political party is going to bring lasting help. None. Our God and only our God will be wherein you find lasting hope and help. Our God reigns over all and no man can do anything to harm except God grants permission and God never grants one permission to harm unless God intends on their harmful words or actions being for your good. the foundation upon which the Spirit of God is building Christ's church. It's that profession of faith that Simon Bar-Jonas, Simon son of Jonas said when Christ said, but whom do you men say that I am? Whom do you say that I am? And almost without any hesitation or thought, Simon said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And the Lord Jesus looked at him and said, upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. From the first moment of time when God said, let there be, until the mighty angel sets one foot on land and one foot on sea and says, time shall be no more. From that moment, from the very beginning, even every falling leaf to the action of the heads of mighty powers. governments and nations. Everything is under the sovereign control of the Creator. Not one atom can go astray. Those that are in the medical profession can explain this, but I'll just put it in simple terms because that's all I can understand. But cancer in the body is the development of abnormal cells that divide uncontrollably and have the ability to infiltrate and destroy normal body tissue. Society might be a cancer, but it can't affect the body of Christ. And the only effect it can have upon you is you giving too much attention to it and not focusing upon the Christ of God, the one that loved you enough that he would pay the ultimate price for you to be with him throughout time and eternity. No cancer in God's decrees. So in this one God, all power, sovereignly controlling all things, lies everything. Nations, worlds, angels, men, and the very movement of the tiniest, well now we know that the atom is not the smallest of matter. But the movement of the smallest of matter is all under the power and domain of the living God. So in the vastness of humanity, By the work of God, there is a people that has the heart of their Creator. There is a people, though we might be few and we might be scattered, there is a people that love Him. They mourn that they do not love Him more. and they mourn because they so oft fail. It is as stated in Acts 17 that about this God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation. before there was ever the first ray of light when God said, let there be. The course of billions upon billions of people have been determined. Though sometimes God's people seem lost in society, God determined when you'd get here, how long you'd be here, Where would you be while here and your very end and existence throughout all this? And all for one purpose, to make certain every member of the body of Christ would have an encounter with the gospel as it was sounded with power, not man's voice, But though God might take a man's voice and in power apply it to the hearts of every member of the body of Christ, thereby granting faith, they embracing their Savior. Matters not what nation they're born in, matters not when they're born, the counsel of the Lord that shall stand. So dear ones, lift up your heads. View your head, the headship of his church in glory, reigning in absolute authority. In this wicked and evil world we live in, The children are safe, you're secure. Like I paraphrased to you some moments ago, when Nebuchadnezzar had his sanity returned to him, and he saw God. He said, all the inhabitants of the world are reputed as nothing. And he, it is God, doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. That's Daniel 4.35. Do you think that there can be evil in the city and the Lord has not done it? Amos 3.6. Not that the Lord could ever be the author of sin. That's impossible. but God can just step back, step away from man as he did for me, removed her husband out of sight from her and leave her to be tempted by the wicked one. Our God cannot sin, neither can he ever become the author of sin. But there can't be two main powers, God and the devil, like most would have you think today. That evil wicked one with all his angels are under the power of a supreme being. But as to sin, God cannot tempt any to sin. He just gives Satan freedom and then to that one he gives man freedom. To our shame at times to follow our own sinful nature. but even God will take that and make it work for your good. Peter, though denied the Lord, stood boldly and in power on the day of Pentecost, looking all those men and women in the face when just a few days before he had denied Christ just because of the word of a little maid. And yet that same man now, God, will make his power abound. And he raised up that fallen disciple and said, ye men by wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory. God still giving the Amorites liberty, freedom, because their iniquity is not yet full. And it may appear that sin abounds all around and throughout our land, and that the wicked one is in control over everything, but that's far from true. Our God's given fallen man, fallen spirits, freedom to carry out their wicked scheme and plans only to darken the skies to enhance his return. God told Noah, he had just been through devastation. He said, now when you see the skies begin to darken, If you look, you'll see a rainbow there, and that's a sure sign, that's a covenant, that's a pledge, that's a promise. Don't get alarmed at the dark clouds all around you gathering. I just put them up there to manifest the mercy and grace. as can be seen in that rainbow. So dear child of God, fret not or become discouraged. Your God reigns. Now let me close out and I think I will only have time just to read these to you. So if you want to mark them down, if you'll turn with me to Isaiah. Well, let's go back before that to Psalm 33. And we'll look there and then we'll go to Isaiah. And I'll just read these and limit my conversation. Psalm 33, beginning with verse nine. Verse eight tells you it's talking about the earth here in the Lord. For he spake, verse nine, and it was. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to naught. He maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth forever. The thoughts of his heart to all generations. look with me to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 40, I'll get there hopefully. Isaiah 40 verse 12, Look at the power and the greatness of your God. Isaiah 40, 12, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. get away, sometime come back and meditate and think about that. Comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a scale and the hills in a small balance. Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord or being his counselor hath taught him. Verse 22, still speaking about God, it is he that sitteth upon the circle of the and the inhabitants thereof, or as grasshoppers, that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing, he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted, yea, they shall not be sown, yea, their stalks shall not take root, in the earth, and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither. And the whirlwind shall take them away as a stubble." I mentioned the whirlwind to begin with. Seems that we are going around and around. But to the wicked, the whirlwind shall take them away. Now Isaiah 46, I might ought to have, I'll go back to this though. Isaiah 46 verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure before any event Before there was ever anything other than God, the purpose of God had already been established. Satan nor any other power can frustrate his purpose and plan. So dear child of God, lift up your eyes. Your redemption draweth nigh. And in the meantime, your God rules. And you'll get to the end of the way. And it will be said of you, As was said of the children of Israel, Joshua, just that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake, all are come to pass. So dear troubled heart, look not at circumstances, but at God. Keep your eyes single as best as you can. looking unto the Lord Jesus, and knowing this, that as many as were ordained to eternal life, when they heard the gospel, they believed. May the Lord bless.