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Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doin’ alright today? This is your friend, Bob Cook, and I’m glad to be back with you. Just been asking our Heavenly Father to put His wisdom, His blessing and His love and His power into what I have to say to you today as it comes from his inherent, infallible word, the Bible.

We’re looking at Ephesians chapter 2 where Paul says, “You hath ye made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.” And we have gotten to verse 2 and 3 where Paul is describing the condition of people who were dead in trespasses and sins. We talked about that for a while. Now in verse 4 he says, “But God.” You’re spiritually dead– but God. He’s always there. God makes the difference in the equation.

The great tragedy it seems to me of people who don’t know the Lord or who refuse to submit to Him, is that they are deprived of that factor which changes life’s equation, makes it different–but God. Joseph’s brother sold him into slavery, sold him to the traveling sales people who brought him to Egypt who again sold him as a slave to Potiphar. But God had plans for him. Then Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph which resulted in Joseph’s being thrown into jail, but God had plans for him. Later on when the pharaoh, the head of Egypt wanted someone to explain his strange dream, Joseph was ready and was brought out of prison, explained the dream and preceded to advise a procedure that would keep the nation from starving during seven years of drought. And as a result, Joseph became what we might call prime minister of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh. But God.

Now had you and I been looking on, on that day when the brothers cast Joseph into the pit and then pulled him up to sell him to the traveling band of sales people would we have said, “Well, God’s doing something.” I don’t know. I think probably I would’ve felt very discouraged at that point, but God had plans.

Daniel was the object of extreme jealousy and bitterness on the part of other people in his day. And they wangled it so that a law was passed that no one could pray to any deity except the king himself. And when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, said he went back and had a prayer meeting. And inevitably these people were watching and they found that — he had his windows opened. He didn’t close them, he had his windows opened so they heard him and then they reported on it and Daniel was brought before the king and subsequently was placed in the den of lions. And humanly speaking that would’ve been the end of Daniel–but God. God makes the difference. God shut the lions’ mouths. I can just see old Daniel pillowing his head on the side of one of those lions as he slept during the night. Got a good night sleep and in the morning was able to reply to the king who hadn’t slept a wink understandably. Oh, king, God sent his angel and shut the lions’ mouths. But God.

Jonah tried to run away from the Lord as you recall. He had been sent to Nineveh and said he bought a ticket on a boat that was going in the opposite direction because he didn’t want to be the instrument of revival and subsequent mercy from God to these people who in centuries to come were going to devastate the people of Israel with their cruel tactics. Jonah didn’t want any part of that. He wanted them out of the way so he ran away. There came the storm.

He was sound asleep. They woke him up, they said, “What meanest thou oh sleeper? arise call upon thy God if so be that we might be spared.” They cast out everything that they could from the ship to lighten it. Jonah finally said, Listen, I’m the cause of all these tempests. Throw me overboard. God is judging me and you’re getting the results of it. And so reluctantly, I think they were reluctant about it, but they decided to do it. They threw him overboard and that should have been the end of Jonah. But it said, “God had prepared a great fish.” He was there, he swallowed Jonah, carried him around for three days and then got sick of him and threw him up on the shore. Jonah now was willing to go to Nineveh as he heard the second time, “Arise and say unto Nineveh the preaching that I bid thee.” But God.

Listen friend, I don’t know what your circumstances may be today. I know mine and you know yours and I want you to know that the difference is the presence of God in your life. Let Him have a chance at your bills. Let Him have a chance at your heartache. Let Him have a chance at your loneliness. Let Him have a chance at the deep hurt that somebody has placed in your heart, something you can’t handle. People say you ought to forgive and you look at them and say, “I can’t.” Let God have a chance to work on these things. Let God have a chance to work on relationships with people in the family, in business and your job and the community and the school, in your profession, whatever it may be. Let God have a chance. But God. Oh let Him in. Let Him in to the circumstances. He works. The Bible says of God, “I will work and no man can hinder.” As is “God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith he loved us. The love of God.

Multitudes of verses that speak of God’s love and the love of Christ, just a few of them — Deuteronomy 7, God said to the children of Israel, “Because the Lord loved you, not because you are a might nation or you had anything to recommend you but because the Lord loved you. And because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.” Because God loved you not because you did anything about it, He just loved you. “Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His son to be the propitiation for our sins,” John said.

Over in Jeremiah, “the Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee.” Go over to John 13, “having loved His own, He loved them unto the end.” Unchangeable love. And then of course you got the classic verse that all of us know and love and quote now and again. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” By the way, when the holidays come, we’re little ways away from that now, this is midyear. But just put it at the back of your mind. Put it in your mental file. When the holidays come, you know that you can sing John 3:16 to the tune of Silent Night, makes a very nice change there at the Christmas season and puts Christ right into the middle of the Christmas celebrations. What you’d do is, you use the reference twice like this, John 3:16, John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” and so on. Remember to put the reference twice and then you sing it right on through to the tune of Silent Night and it’s a beautiful way to point heavenward at Christmas time. I’d throw that in free. No charge.

Romans 5:8, “God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Three things about us there are mentioned in Romans 5, without strength, sinners and enemies. These are the three descriptive terms that Paul uses in Romans 5, saying what our condition was before the Lord Jesus saved us. And God approaches us not waiting for us to be different but when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. “God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us. And if when, we were enemies through wicked works, Christ died for us.”

So God took care of redemption’s plan before you ever were aware of it, before you thought you needed it. And while you were still an enemy of His, God loved you so much that he did something about it. Hallelujah for that. Aren’t you glad? And so he says even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. Well you go over to 1 John 3, “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.” In one of your Greek New Testaments, you’ll find an extra phrase there. “And such we are,” it’s a lovely little touch there. “What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God and such we are. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.” Oh how God loved us and does love us.

Take a little time to experience the love of God. You don’t experience God’s love by dashing in to the laundry list of things and say, “God do this and this and this and this, amen.” And then run away. But if you’ll take time with your Lord, He’ll pour out upon you a consciousness of His love that will just simply flood your soul. Take time with your Lord and don’t bother saying anything to Him. Just wait before Him. Have your Bible open and look at some of the precious promises and speak to your Lord of what’s on your heart truly but then take time just to be quiet and let Him speak to you. Always have a notebook handy so that you can write down the things that God says to you through His Word and through the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit because some of these precious things will just linger with you like perfume all through the days that lie ahead. God’s love. Husband is in New York, it’s a hot summer, family’s at the shore. Husband calls up one hot night in New York says, “Hello is that you Mary?” “Yes. Is that you John?” “Yes.” And they talked, “How are the kids?” This and that. And then it’s time to hang up and he’s, “Well I got to say goodbye,” she says “Yeah, I got to say goodbye.” And then they wait just a minute. And he says, “I love you Mary,” and she says, “I love you too John.” Then they hang up. See, don’t hang up before you’ve had a chance for God to say, “I love you too,” because He will. Believe me.

Dear Father today we just worship thee and thank you for your love. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!