GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #541
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
Our God Rules Even The Wicked Devices And Deeds Of Men Mark 14:1
It is written, “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee:
the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” The chief priests and scribes
thought they would put an end to Christ’s kingdom by killing him; but they were
actually instruments in God’s hands for the erection and building of his
kingdom. When they did, with vile hearts, have the Lord Jesus crucified, they
thought they would vilify him and make him a laughing stock; but God used them
to make his name glorious. The Jews thought they would scare his disciples into
silence by killing our Master; but God used their wicked deeds to embolden his
disciples in preaching the gospel.
I
want you to understand that our God is in control of this world, absolutely in
control of it (Ps. 76:10). That God, and
that God alone, who is in absolute, total control of the entire universe, we
can and should trust with implicit confidence in all things and with all
things. The Word of God, the promises of God, the prophecies of Holy
Scripture are all utterly meaningless unless our God is the God who rules everything,
whose will is always performed, whose purpose stands fast, whose thoughts are
irresistible!
Here is the basis of our faith and the
foundation of our comfort - Our God is in control, as fully in control of
Satan, the demons of hell, and the thoughts and deeds of wicked men as he is of
the angels about his throne. We live in a world of woe. We are often tossed
to and fro in this world, confused and perplexed by many things. Let us ever
rest ourselves in our God. “All things
are of God.” All things are ordered by our heavenly Father for our good.
All things are arranged by God’s infinite wisdom and omnipotent arm for his
glory. Nothing is beyond his dominion.
Look to Calvary and laugh at those will worshippers who vainly imagine
that the events of this world are ordered not by the will of almighty God but
by the wills of puny men! I often hear preachers and others say, “God will never interfere with
the will of man.” Our text gives the lie to that notion. It was the will of
these men that Christ be put to death secretly. But God willed that he be
crucified in due time for the ungodly. Consider this and think. God would not
allow these wicked men to kill his Son when they wanted to, the way they wanted
to, or in the place they wanted. However, he did permit them to kill his Son
exactly according to the malice of their hearts. Yet, he used their sinful
malice to accomplish his purpose of grace in the redemption of his people,
exactly as he had purposed from eternity. Read carefully those things written
in Acts 2:22-23, 4:27-28, and 13:28-30.
If
the god you trust can be controlled, hindered, or even influenced by you, by
Satan, or by all the powers of earth and hell, then the god you trust is no God
at all, and you are an idolater. Our God is not a spectator or even a
competitor in this world. He is the Ruler of it. Salvation is knowing him, the
only true and living God as he is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ his Son,
the God-man, our Savior (John 17:3). He who is our God is the God, the only God
you can trust.
AMEN.