Voddie Baucham - You can't keep yourself in God Except God Keeps You

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
If you have your Bibles, open them to Genesis, I
mean Exodus, Exodus chapter one. I was thinking about the
connection between Genesis and Exodus, and how the paragraph that
we're looking at today is the bridge between Genesis and Exodus.

(00:30):
And if I were to title the message today, it
would be the Providence of God and the people of Promise.
As I thought through this passage of scripture today, I
couldn't help but be reminded of a recent experience. I
may have told you about before, but the church is

(00:52):
eight years old this week, and it must have been
at least five years ago, if not more of six,
that I made my first trip to Zambia to partner
with our friends there. And you all are no and
are very familiar with Conrad and Bayway and the Reform

(01:13):
Baptists of Zambia, and some of you have even been
on trips there to Zambia. I'll never forget the first
time I went to Zambia. One of the pastors there
in the Reform Baptist movement there as a physician by
the name of Grave Graves and Go Go, and I
think about him as as a physician and elder, he's
kind of there. Josh Lloyd, you know, like we have

(01:34):
a physician, physician and elder here with all the sort
of unique, you know, complications and contributions that that brings
with it. And I remember I remember doctor Grave very
vividly because on my second or third day there, I

(01:55):
met his father, and I just call him Papa, sing gogo,
I don't, I don't, just he's you know. When I
in fact, when I called and I asked about him,
when I'm talking to Conrad on the phone or through Skype,
I just say, you know, I asked, you know, how
I was Grave? And then I say, and how is
our father? Because one thing that some of you may

(02:16):
remember is that you know this we started eight years
ago this week, and eight years ago two weeks from now,
my father died, and so it was it was a
very interesting month for me. And so I'm there and
I meet Grave's father, who's eighty five years old, sharp
as attack, still driving himself around, still getting around, just

(02:40):
just sharp. And I walked up to him and he
greeted me, and he grabbed my face and he kissed me,
and he looked me in the eyes and he said,
is this your first trip to Africa? And I said, well, yes, sir,
it is. And he just grabs my face and he
pulls it close to him and he's just my son,

(03:01):
welcome home. And I lost it. I lost it. I
spent most of my life, you know, having friends and
you know, people around me who could say, oh, yeah,
you know, I'm Irish on this side of my family

(03:22):
and Scottish on that side of my family. And several
generations ago, my family lived in this little village over
in whatever European town, and my family is from this
part of you know, Mexico, South America, you know, Russia
or wherever, and people telling me about all those sort
of things, and then they look at me and go,
by the way, why do you have a German name?
Because my family was slaves to a German family here

(03:46):
in the United States, and I have no idea, no
idea what my heritage is beyond that. And so here
I was, first time ever in Africa. Papa asked us,
holding me by the face and saying son, welcome home,
and all of these thoughts flooded my mind at once

(04:11):
that several hundred years ago my ancestors were taken from
that land by force, sold into slavery, ended up here
on these shores, that God sustained us, and that God,

(04:32):
by his grace allowed me here in this country as
a free man to hear the Gospel, to be converted,
to be called to the ministry to preach the gospel,
and then all these generations later to go back there

(04:54):
and minister and serve and that same place, And all
of a sudden, I had this unbelievable picture of the
providence of God like I've never seen it before. Because
usually when we think about the providence of God, all

(05:16):
we think about is, you know, I'm driving down the
street and you know, something happens and I swerve and
I just missed the car in front of me. In
front of me, Oh that was providential. Or there's a
storm and a tree falls down, but it falls away
from the house and not on the house, and we say, oh,
that was providential. Never do we think this horrible thing happened.

(05:42):
And as a result of this horrible thing that happened,
I am who I am, I am, where I am,
I have what I have, I know God the way
that I know God, and I'm used of God the
way that I'm used of God. Because of this horrible
thing that happened that was providential. We don't think that way,

(06:03):
But on that day I learned how to think about
God's providence in that way. And as we look at
the Book of Exodus, we learn to think about God's
providence in that way. Usually when we think about the
Book of Exodus, we think about it starting in fact.

(06:25):
You know, I've dusted off the old you know, Cecil B.
De Mill movie the Ten Commandments as we were getting
ready to go through Exodus, and I said, let me
just let me just look at this again. Let me
just let me just see this again. And they don't
start where the book of Exodus starts. When you see that,
you start with the baby in the basket, and that's

(06:47):
not where everything starts. Where everything starts is connecting it
to Genesis, so that you remember the providence of God
that has created this nation. And you start off with
a very small band of people and then rather quickly

(07:10):
are informed that they have become something significant. But in
order to appreciate that, and in order to appreciate the
providence of God, you have to connect this to Genesis.
And it's precisely what Moses does in those first few verses.
Look beginning of verse one. These are the names of

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the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob,
each with his household. Reuben, Simeon Levi, and Judah, Issachar
Zebuln and Benjamin, Dan and Nafdalai, Gad and Asher. All

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the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. Joseph was already
in Egypt. Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and
all their generation. But the people of Israel were fruitful
and increased greatly. They multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so

(08:15):
that the land was filled with them. Ay been wey
a word. That's where Exodus begins. And if you don't
begin there, you don't understand what it is that we're seeing.
If you don't begin here, all you think is these
people have experienced four hundred years and they're being oppressed,

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and they're in bondage. Where is God? What is God doing?
What is God thinking? Why has God forgotten them? But
when you start with this first paragraph, you can't think
that way. You can't think that way. When you begin
with this first paragraph, you are confronted with the providence
of God. Now, in order to orient us again, we

(09:00):
don't think rightly about providence. I've said before that providence
has become the Christian word for luck. If you can't
say amen, you ought to say ouch. Okay, providence has
become the Christian word for luck. That's not what providence is,
or we confuse providence with sovereignty. God's sovereignty is his rule.
It's his authority. God's providence is the way that He

(09:23):
exercises that rule. This is the way our confession puts
it in Chapter five of Divine Providence in the Second
London Backs Confession, God, the good creator of all things,
in his infinite power and wisdom, doth uphold, direct, dispose,
and govern all creatures and things from the greatest even

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to the least, by his most wise holy providence, wise
and holy providence to the end for the which they
were created, according onto his infallible foreknowledge and the free
and demutable counsel of his own will, to the prayer
days of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite

(10:04):
goodness and mercy. The seventh paragraph of that same chapter
reads as the providence of God doth in general reach
to all creatures, so after a most special manner, it
taketh care of his church and disposes disposed excuse me,
disposeth of all things to the good thereof. This is

(10:29):
the way we understand providence. As far as a pointed definition,
I love Wayan Grudem's definition in his Systematic theology. We
may define God's providence as follows. God is continually involved
with all created things in such a way that he
won keeps them existing and maintaining the properties with which

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he created them. There's number one. God created all things,
and he keeps them existing, and he keeps them maintaining
their property. Okay, you don't just walk down the street
and lose your properties and turn into something else. You
don't wake up tomorrow, and the sky is not the
same sky, and the earth is not the same earth,

(11:12):
and you don't wake up tomorrow. And you know, dogs
me out and catch bark. They maintain their properties by
the providence of God. Two cooperates with created things in
every action, directing their distinctive properties to cause them to
act as they do. So, He causes us to act

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in a matter consistent with our properties. We maintain our properties,
and we act in a manner consistent with our properties.
And then three directs them to fulfill his purpose. This
is the providence of God. But how do we see
the providence of God here in these first seven verses

(11:52):
of Exodus. Well, first we see that the providence of
God preserves the covenant community. Look at me. In verses
one through five, he said, the names of the sons
of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with
his household, And then we have them named. Now, all
the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons. This is the

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providence of God. First of all, God kept his people
in a foreign land. God kept his people in a
foreign land. That's God's providence. You ever met a Hittite?
You ever met a Hittite? Anybody? Anybody ever met a Philistine?
I wanna say, somebody who acts like a Philistine? All right?

(12:37):
You ever met no nobody ever met at Philistine. No,
no amriits Amini, any of those Heites. No, absolutely not.
You've never met an individual from any of those people groups.
They're gone. In fact, you've never probably heard of a

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people group that went in to another land and another
culture and wasn't just completely absorbed into that culture. And
yet God in Egypt kept his people in the midst
of a foreign land, and he kept them as his
distinct people. Interestingly enough, there are very few ways that

(13:20):
this can happen. There are very few ways that you
can actually have a people come into another land, be
conquered by another land, or anything else, to come into
another land for whatever reason and maintain their own identity.
One way is you can have a people who conquer
another land, then they'll maintain their identity. They conquer another land,

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they wipe it out, and they live there now. They
maintain their cultural identity. That's one way, okay. The second
way that you can do it is you can have
those people conquered by another land and make them slaves.
That way, because they are a slave class, they will

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not inter marry with and be merely absorbed into the
other culture. There are very few ways for this to happen.
One way for it to happen is for people to
be considered slaves and providentially. That's exactly the way Israel

(14:27):
was considered by Egypt. He also kept his people from
premature death. This is an amazing thing. There is a
list here of Jacob's twelve sons. They live in a
rough place. They lived a rough life, and they were
preserved from death. Remember what happens. How do they convince

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you know, how do they explain themselves when they sell
Joseph into slavery. Well, they dip his coat in some
blood and they bring it back and they say he
was eaten by a wild animal, a lion or a bear.
We know that David had encounters with lions and bears
in this same region, so we know that there are
wild animals. So you're working with sheep and goats, and

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there are wild animals like bears and wolves and lions,
and you have twelve sons and they all survive. That's
not normal. That's not normal. But God did it in
his providence. He kept his people from separation. These twelve

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sons all went into Egypt together. They were not separated.
Remember Judah left. Judah left the family. In chapter thirty
seven of Genesis, we are introduced to the Totaldo of Jacob,
or these are the generations of Jacob. When we're introduced

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to the generations of Jacob, we're introduced to this son
of Hiss by the name of Joseph, who is his
favorite son. Were introduced to the enmity between him and
his brothers were introduced to how he separated from his brothers,
and then in chapter thirty eight, that chapter is all
about Judah and eventually about Judah and Tamar. But Judah
has left, He's gone away to establish his family. You

(16:21):
got twelve sons, and yet all twelve end up coming
into Egypt together. God's providence preserved the Covenant community. He
kept him from famine and starvation. Again, why did Joseph
go to Egypt when it's all said and done. Joseph

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did not go to Egypt so that we could learn
lessons about how to become the second in command and
the most powerful man in the world. Joseph went to
Egypt for one reason, and one reason only. There was
a famine coming and the promised seed needed to be
protected from the famine. God made a promise in Genesis
chapter three and verse fifteen. When the first Adam falls,

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he curses the serpent and he says to the serpent,
I will put enmity between you and the woman and
between your seed and her seed. You're gonna bruise his heel.
He's gonna crush your head. So God promises that a
messiah is coming. He promises that a deliverer is coming.
He promises that a savior is coming, and he promises
that this savior is going to be born in a

(17:23):
specific line. And then we begin to see that specific line.
We begin to see that after Cain kills Abel, another son,
Seth is born, and then in chapter five there's ten
generations from Adam to Noah through the godly line of Seth,
and this same line is carried throughout and ultimately we

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discover that Judah is the promise seed that continues the line.
But how is Judah going to survive the famine? Tell
you how he's going to survive the famine. God in
his providence will send Joseph into slavery in Potiphar's house,
and God in his providence will have Potiphar's wife approach

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Joseph and have Joseph not cave in. As a result,
God and his providence will have Joseph sent to prison,
not just any prison, but the prison where the pharaoh
sends his prisoners. So that God and his providence can
send a cupbearer and the baker to have dreams, so
that Joseph, the interpreter of dreams, can interpret their dreams

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and then God and his providence two years later, has
Pharaoh have a pair of dreams, and then Joseph interprets
those dreams. God and his providence has given those dreams
to Pharaoh so that he would tell Joseph that there's
going to be a famine in the land after seven
years of plenty, so that Joseph can become second in command,
store up all the grain, survive through those next seven years,

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and feed his brothers and keep Judah ultimately the father
of David, ultimately the father of Jesus, from starving to death.
That's the providence of God. And he kept his people

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in spite of their sinfulness. The providence of God keeps
us in spite of our sinfulness. Amen, listen. Polygamy, deception, incest,
mass murder, adultery, kidnapping. And that's just Jacob and his
first four sons. We don't have time to go through

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the whole list. These are sinful individuals. Jacob is a
polygamy and he's a deceiver. Reuben commits incest. You remember
Sameon and Levi, their sister is violated. Kill the Shekhemites,

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all of them. Do you remember that story? Yeah, you
can inter marry with us. All the men just have
to be circumcised, and they were. Two days later, when
there's not a man in that village who's even gonna
think about picking up a sword, they go through and
slaughter them all Judah and his adulterous relationship with Tamar.

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So when you read this, here's what you don't come
away with. You don't come away saying God preserve these
people because they were more righteous than the others around them.
God kept these people in spite of the fact that
they were not, and he did this for his own glory.

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Whatever we think when we come to the beginning of Exodus,
it should not be look at what can happen when
you are faithful to God. The men on this list
were far from deserving God's preservation. What they deserved was
his wrath. But God made a promise and he kept

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it in spite of their sinfulness. And if you ask, well,
why didn't God preserve some people who weren't sinful, you
know the answer to that question. There are none. Amen.
Why does God use sinful people in order to do
dot dot? Because there are no sinless people for him

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to use. Amen. Secondly, we see that God's Providence reunited
the Covenant community. That last line in verse five, Joseph
was already in Egypt. What an understatement, Amen, Joseph was
already in Egypt. That's why it's important that you read
Genesis and then read Exodus. You don't just come plowing

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into Exodus without understanding Genesis, because other words, you've missed
a whole lot. I just sort of explained the narrative
for you there and all we get here in verse
five is Joseph was already in Egypt. Well, yes, yes
he was. That's true. God sent Joseph to Egypt to

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preserve a remnant. In that very emotional scene where he
reveals himself to his brothers and Genesis forty five. Look
at Genesis forty five. Just a couple of pages to
the left, Genesis forty five. This is that scene where

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he just can't handle it anymore. Judah has revealed himself
as a changed man and as the head of the family.
Judah has offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin. Don't
take Benjamin, take me and send back this one that
my father loves. There is this picture of the Great exchange,
this picture of substitution, This picture of the Gospel, and

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then Joseph just loses it. He's crying, he's weeping, he
can't control himself, and he look at verse five. After
he reveals who he is, he says to them, I'm Joseph.
I'm your brother, Joseph, whom you sent into Egypt. And
he goes. And now do not be distressed or angry
with yourselves, because you sent me here. For God sent

(23:27):
me before you to preserve life. For the famine has
been in the land these two years, and there are
yet five years in which there will be neither plowing
nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve
for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive
for you many survivors. So it is not you who
sent me here, but God. He has made me a

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father to Pharaoh and lord of all the house, of
all his house, and ruler over the land of Egypt.
This man understood the providence of God. Don't be angry
with yourselves, because God sent me here. And God sent
me here to preserve your lives and to preserve the
lives of your children. Folks, Joseph knew the promise of God.

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Joseph understood the promise of God. He understood the promise
that God had made to his father and his grandfather
and his great grandfather. Think about this, Joseph, for all
rights and purposes again, there's two years of the famine.
There were seven years before. So he comes into the
service of Pharaoh when he's thirty. The seven years of

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plenty ends and he's thirty seven. Two years later he's
thirty nine, so he's almost forty years old. Let's say
he meets them again when he's forty years old. They
sold him into slavery when he was seventeen twenty three
years in Egypt. He probably thought God is going to

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fulfill his promise to my father. I'm just not gonna
be part of it, because it's gonna happen over there
in that land of promise. This is not part of
that land of promise. I'm never getting out of here.
He knows God's promise and he thinks he's just outside
of it. Now his brothers come and he realizes, I'm

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not only not outside the promise, but God sent me
here as part of his means of fulfilling the promise.
Don't be angry with yourselves, boys, God used you to
get something done. Twenty three years later, God brought brothers,

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Joseph's brothers to him. God kept Jacob alive long enough
to be reunited. Jacob's an old, old old men. His
sons are grown men. His sons have grandchildren and probably
great grandchildren by this time. Jacob is an old old man,

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and God preserved him all those years so that he
could see this promise fulfilled. He kept Joseph's heart turned
toward his family. That didn't have to happen. Joseph could
have just become completely Egyptian. He kept Joseph's heart softened

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toward his brother's. Joseph could have had him executed on site,
but he didn't. There is no mention of Joseph's status
in Egypt. Why because that wasn't the point. The point
was God's providence in preserving the people of promise. That
was the point. There's also no continuation of position. It's

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not passed on to another member of the Covenant community. Thirdly,
we see God's providence expanding the Covenant community. Look at
verses six and seven. Then Joseph died, and all his
brothers and all that generation. But Joseph died, but the

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people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly. They multiplied
and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled
with them. By the way, think about that in the
context of Genesis. What does God say, what's the first
command that he gives to be fruitful and multiply and

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fill the earth. Right, there's the promise that God gives
to Adam. Right, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
That happens in the beginning of Genesis. Now we're in
the beginning of Exodus. Let me read this for you again.
Joseph died, and all his brothers and all his generation.
But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly,

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and they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the
land was filled with them. This mirrors the dominion mandate
in Genesis chapter one. They were fruitful, and they multiplied,
and they filled the earth. Same author making the same point.
And there's a picture here of God expanding this covenant community.

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This is a fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham Genesis
chapter twelve, verses one to three. Now the Lord said
to Abram, go from your country and from your kindred
and from your father's house to the land that I
will show you, and I will make you a great nation.
And I will bless you and make your name great,

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so that you will be a blessing. I will bless
those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I
will curse, and in you all the families of the
earth shall be blessed. There's the introduction to that covenant.
If you remember later on in chapter fifteen, you know,
Abraham's having a problem. I don't have any kids. We're old.

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Eliaser of Damascus, is my only heir? God says, no,
that's that's he's not going to be your heir. Chapter fifteen,
verses five and six of Genesis. And he brought Abraham
outside and said, look toward heaven and number the stars.
If you are able to number them, then he said
to him, so shall your offspring be. And he believed

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the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
Here's a man who's almost one hundred years old, his
wife not able to have children. He's trying to believe

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God for just a son. That's it, just a son,
And God says, number the stars. If you can, is
your offspring what a promise. And then Isaac is born

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and it's a son. But in this one son is
the promise of a multitude. And then from Isaac there's
just Jacob and Esau. So now we go Abraham and
we got Isaac, and now we got Jacob and Esau.
And then they just have two sons, and then needs
two sons. There's this promise of a great multitude. Hey,

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one son, two sons. We gotta start doing better than this, right,
And then Jacob has twelve sons, and when they come
into Egypt, they number seventy. And now by the end
of the first paragraph of the book of this they

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are a great multitude. This is a fulfillment of God's
promise to Abraham. And yet it's only a drop in
the bucket of the fulfillment to God's promise to Abraham,
because however many people there are here, they're not so

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numerous that you would compare them to sand on the seashore,
or you would compare them to the stars of heaven.
And it's not many nations here. It's a fulfillment of
God's promise to Isaac. Genesis twenty six one through five.
Now there was a famine in the land. Amazing same theme,

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a famine in the land. How many times does God
use that besides the former famine that was in the
days of Abraham. So there's a famine in the days
of Abraham, there's a famine in the days of Isaac,
and there's a famine the days of Jacob. And Isaac
went to Garrar, to the king of the Philistines, and
the Lord appeared to him and said, do not go

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down to Egypt. Dwell on the land which I shall
tell you. Sojourn in this land, and I will be
with you and will bless you for the you and
your offspring. I will give all these lands, and I
will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham, your father.
I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven,

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and will give to your offspring these lands. And in
your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.
Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments,
my statutes, and my laws. There it is again multiplied offspring,
and a blessing to all of the nations of the
earth because of your offspring. By the way that blessing

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is because of a singular offspring, fulfilling God's promise to
Jacob Genesis thirty five nine to twelve. God appeared to
Jacob again when he came to pan An Aram blessed him,
and God said to him, your name is Jacob. No
longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall

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be your name. So he called his name Israel. And
God said to him, I am God Almighty, Be fruitful
and multiply a nation, and the company of nations shall
come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac, I
will give to you, and I will give the land

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to your offspring after you. Now there's a land, there's offspring,
and there's a nation with kings. This is also a
fulfillment of God's promise to the servent. There will be
enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and

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her offspring. There's one who's coming from her offspring. You're
gonna bruise his heel, but he's gonna cross your head.
This is a fulfillment of God's promise to the church.
How is it that you get from Abraham. You're going
to have this offspring and there's this promised one who's

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going to come from your line. From you and through
your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
You're going to be the father of many nations. And
this is true, by the way Ishmael and Esau. That's
true already with Ismael and Esau. But he says all

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the nations of the earth are going to be blessed
through you and through his offspring Romans chapter nine, verses
six through thirteen. But it is not as though the
word of God has failed. For not all who are
descendants of Israel belong to Israel, and not all are
children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through

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Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it
is not the children of the flesh who are the
children of God, but the children of the promise are
counted as offspring. For this is what the promise said
about this time next year, I will return and Sarah
shall have a son. And not only so, but also
when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our father Isaac,

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though they were not yet born, and had not done
and had done nothing neither good or bad, in order
that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works,
but because of Him who calls. She was told the
older will serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob,
I loved Esau, I heard it. I hate it. It

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is by faith that we become descendants of Abraham, children
of the Promise. So here's what I want you to understand.
I want you to understand that we see the providence
of God here fulfilling his promise to his people, this
promise that he made to Abraham and to Isaac and

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to Jacob. But don't miss the greater truth here. It's
the promise that God made to Abraham and to Isaac
and to Jacob that eventuates in the person of Jesus Christ.
And it is Jesus Christ who is the offspring of
Abraham and the offspring of the woman who crushes the
head of the snake. And it is through him that
all the nations of the earth are blessed, because it

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is in him that we become descendants of Abraham by faith.
This is your story. This is your story. Exodus is
your story. It is a story of God's providence that
brought about the people, that brought about the Messiah, who
is your savior and mind when we come to him

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by faith. This is our story. This is the story
that reminds us of what God has done for thy
thousands of years in order to bring about his plan
of saving his people. We serve the God who saves

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his people. You know what this says to you and me.
Regardless of my circumstances, I serve the God who works
all things together according to his will, even when it
takes thousands of years. I trust him. You know what
this says to you and me when we become afraid

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and we doubt whether or not we are still being
kept by God and his providence, whether or not God
can see us through to the end, whether or not
He can keep us until the end, whether or not
we can actually inherit eternal life. What it says is,
if God can keep Jacob alive, keep his sons together,
keep Joseph in Egypt, bring them back together, bring them

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all into Egypt, make them a mighty nation, Take them
through slavery, deliver them through the Red Sea, Deliver them
into their land, Deliver them into their kingdom, deliver them kings,
deliver them prophets, and ultimately deliver them the person of
Jesus Christ. He can keep you until you get to heaven.

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God can keep you. He's the only one who can
keep you. Dear one, how dare you presume to keep yourself?
You can't do this. I've quoted John MacArthur at this
point a number of times and I never get tired

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of it. Where he said, if you could lose your salvation,
you would, you know the height of arrogance. The height
of arrogance is a person who believes that theoretically they
could lose their salvation, but they haven't. How arrogant is
that if you could lose your salvation you would. You

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would all day, every day and twice on Sunday, you'd
lose it. Amen, But you don't keep yourself. God keeps you.
The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God
of Jacob. That's the God who keeps you. Here's what

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we know from Exodus. Though God keeping you does not
mean that you don't experience difficulty the trials. God keeping
you means that you can trust Him even in the
midst of difficulties and trials. Amen. And God keeping his

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people is something that he does from generation to generation
to generation. We don't have to worry about preserving Christianity.
I hear people talking about about that all the time
we're here. Talk people talking about, you know, your Christianity

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just one generation away from extinction. Yes, this is true.
But Christianity is not kept by you or me being
nervous about that. Amen. People tell me we have to
do this, and we have to do that, and we
have to get this law, and we have to get
that law. We have to fight the other law because
if we don't, we'll lose Christianity in this nation. Folks, Folks,

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if we could lose Christianity in this nation, we would.
If we can lose Christianity in this nation, we will.
But the Lord I serve says I will establish my
church and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.

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That's the Savior I serve. Amen. How many times have
we heard, oh, if this law passes, it's over. Really,
because I know some folks who are saved through four
hundred years as a flavor in Egypt. What law are
you afraid of? Amen? Oh, if this guy gets in office,

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we're done. Okay, sometimes that's no. But again, if God
can save his people from Pharaoh, the most powerful man
on planet Earth. God saved his people from a famine,

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and they weren't preppers. Amen, and God saved him from
a famine. Does this mean that we live our lives carelessly?
Absolutely not. Does this mean that we're not concerned and
engaged in every one of these areas, Absolutely not. But
what it means is, as we are concerned, and as

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we are engaged, we remind ourselves we serve a sovereign
God who, by his providence, protects and preserves and delivers
his people. That's what Exorcist is all about. That's what
this first paragraph is all about. Abraham wasn't alive to

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see this or hear it, but yet his descendants are.
And all of us who have come to Jesus Christ
through repentance and faith are the offspring of Abraham by faith. Amen,

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and we are reminded of the great deeds that God
has done. I don't know what it is that you're
wrestling with. I don't know what it is that you're
afraid of. I don't know what it is that you
fret over. But I got a pretty good idea. I

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don't have to know what it is because I know
the God who keeps us. I know the God who
preserves us. I know the God who saves us, and
we've seen him do it again and again and again,
because that's who he is. In fact, that's what it

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means to say the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
It's the God who keeps his covenant with his people,
and that's the God whom we serve saints. Hold on
to that truth. And if you are here today trusting
or holding on to anything other than that, may I

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say to you that there is nothing in this world
or in any world known or imagined, that is as
secure as this truth. You can't keep yourself and there's
nothing else out there that can keep you. There is
only one who has proven to be the keeper of
a people and preserver of a people, and that is

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the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and of our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Cast yourself on him, Believe
on him and be saved. Trust in him and in
him alone. Let not your hearts be troubled. Christ says,

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you believe in God, believe also in me. In my
Father's house for many mansions, I'm going to prepare a
place for you, so that where I am you may
be also. How can we hope in that? How can
we believe in that? Because He's the same yesterday, today

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and forever. Let's pray, and as we bow, would you
just take a moment to consider those things that trouble you.

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To consider those things that you fret about because they're
beyond your control. Consider those things that take up inordinate
space in your mind and inordinate time in your worries.

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Consider your children, whom you would love to just continue
to control in every way and in every aspect, but
whose lives you have to ultimately acknowledge are not in

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your control, but belong to the Great God who gave them.
Consider your work, your wealth, and how you fret over
those things, And consider the fact that it is God

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who has given you the strength to make wealth, and
it is God who watches over you and feeds you.
Consider your spouse their growth, their lack thereof, And how

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much time you spend fretting over that which is completely
and utterly out of your control. Consider this country in
which we live and all of the laws that are
just horrible, All of the blood and treasure that we

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are spilling all over this world. Young men whose lives
are being cut short every day it's enough to make
you despair. But before you despair over how far we

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have fallen and how awful things have become, would you
remember the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and
his faithfulness to his people. Consider your own soul and

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how you even fret over that, and remind yourself that
he who began a good work in you will be
faithful to see it through to completion. Remind yourself that
he is both the author and the finisher of your faith. Father.

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As we bow, we say to you that we trust you,
and we are grateful to you for reminding us again
and again that you can and must be trusted. That
you are the covenant keeping God, the God of Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob, the God who preserves your people

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of promise, and that you are our God, and that
we are your people. When we come to you in
repentance of sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
grant by your grace that we would rest in this truth.

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Thank you for the presence and power of your Holy
Spirit in our lives that reminds us and ensures this
great deposit. We pray all these things in the name

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of Jesus Our, save your lord Messiah. Amen.