Daniel-Wayne Barber/Part 2
| By: Dr. Wayne Barber; ©2006 |
| What I’m going to be doing today is to try and give us a setting. I realize these messages are not the kind that makes you want to go to the mission field. I understand. This is just spade work. We’ve got to dig up some dirt here and we’ve to get ourselves ready so that we can see where Daniel fits in to the Scriptures that God has given to us. |
Our God is an Awesome God – Part 1
Turn with me this morning to the book of Daniel. I want you to start getting used to it. Put your marker there, we’re going to be there for a while. And I want us to look at chapter 2, at one verse. Don’t worry; I’m not getting into the text yet. We may not do that for awhile. I want you to be studying through it with me. Would you do that? Would you start reading through the book of Daniel? I know when you get into chapter 7 and you begin to go through this, it’s going to be a little tough. That’s alright. Relax; we’ll get there sooner or later. Don’t read a commentary, don’t read somebody else’s words, just start reading the book of Daniel. What I’m going to be doing today and possibly one more Sunday, is to try and give us a setting. I realize these messages are not the kind that makes you want to go to the mission field. I understand. This is just spade work. We’ve got to dig up some dirt here and we’ve to get ourselves ready so that we can see where Daniel fits in to the Scriptures that God has given to us.
But in Daniel 2:20-21, actually, verses 20 and 21 become the part of a real praise that Daniel is giving back to the Lord for God having answered his prayer. He says there, “Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and He establishes kings.” “He removes kings and He establishes kings.” Now, this morning I want to talk about the fact that our God is an awesome God. If I could sing, I would just sing, “Our God is an awesome God!” Only thing is, I can’t remember the words; I know that’s part of it! Boy! Don’t you love that song: “Our God Is An Awesome God!” Now, before I get into that, let me go back to what we did last time we were together. We said there were three requirements that one had to pass or nail down before Daniel could ever mean anything to him.
Actually there are three convictions. The first one was the inerrancy of the prophets. Now the Old Testament prophet, friend, was a unique individual. We’ve never seen anything like it. When God spoke to the people, He spoke through His prophet. He was a mouthpiece, he didn’t add anything to it, didn’t take anything away from it, just simply declared what God had told him to share. Now, if you don’t believe in the inerrancy of the prophets, you’re going to have trouble with the book of Daniel. Now, they came from all classes of people at random. God would pick them from the priestly class, from the poor class, from the aristocracy. We see prophets coming from all different areas of society. And God would use them as His men, His mouthpieces. They were holy men of God as we saw, they were servants of God, and they interpreted history in the light of God’s sovereignty.
You see, nothing happens in history, friends, that God is not behind. God is the author of all history. When there would be a famine in the land, a prophet would arise on the scene and tell why the famine was there. When there would be an enemy to raise up, a prophet would show up on the scene. As a matter of fact, they got to fearing the prophets, because everywhere the prophet would be, he’d usually have a judgment from the Lord because the people were very definitely rebellious and stiff-necked when it came to obeying God. So he was a man used of God to relay the judgments and the prophecies of what God was doing with His people. They spoke by inspiration of God.
Now, if they were ever wrong, they were disqualified from being a prophet. A prophet could never be wrong. You hear people in the 20th century trying to proclaim themselves prophets. Aw, that’s ridiculous! These guys were never wrong. Some people might get it three out of four times; that doesn’t qualify. You’ve got to be right every single time. You say, “Now, why is that important today?” I’ll tell you why! Because it’s one thing to say, “Well, yes, he must have been right. This has already taken place.” That’s one thing. But friend, if you believe in the inerrancy of the prophet, we’re going to see in the book of Daniel he’s going to say some things about what has never yet happened on the face of this earth. And if you don’t believe in the inerrancy of the prophet, you’re going to start doubting what the Word of God has to say through the prophet Daniel. So you must nail that down: the inerrancy of the prophets.
I was going to preach on the other two today, but I just changed my mind. I really believe we have hammered these things so hard into the floor, if you don’t realize them by now, you’re either in the wrong place or you just need to get saved.
The second one is the infallibility of the Word. I don’t need to preach on that again. Second Timothy 3:16 ought to suffice for all of us. “All Scripture,” and the word “all” in the Greek is a unique little word that means “all”. And the word “scripture” means that which is written down, not oral tradition, that which is written down. “All Scripture is inspired by God.” Now if somehow you’ve wandered into this church and you wonder where we stand on the Word of God, let me tell you real quickly: it is the inerrant, it is the inspired, and it is the infallible Word of God. Now if you don’t believe that, you’re probably going to be a little disjointed in this church. This is where we’re going, this is where we stand, and we make no apologies about it. As a matter of fact, the inerrancy of the Word of God has never been the issue to me: it’s the Lordship of Jesus Christ. When a person is bowed down to the Lord Jesus Christ, it is amazing how inerrant this Book suddenly becomes.
When I was in seminary I had the privilege of understanding what a liberal seminary was all about because I went to one for awhile. Boy, it will really thrill you, the JDE and P theory. Boy, it will really bless your heart. The first 11 chapters of Genesis were taught to me as myth. The only reason the 12th chapter of Genesis was literal was because they couldn’t figure out how Abraham could be a nation. So they had to make him a man and that sort of made it literal. Jesus didn’t really know that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible because He was just a little boy and that’s what He was taught at home, so when He said it, He was just saying it out of ignorance. That’s what everybody else told Him to say. Wouldn’t that bless you? Just makes you excited.
Anyway, when I was in seminary all the guys would sit around and they’d discuss with a cup of coffee. “Well, I wonder if this is God’s Word or is it not.” I’m telling you, it just made me so mad. I went over to another seminary doing a J semester, J term, and it was Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. I thank the Lord for that place. I don’t know what it’s like now; I know what it was like back then. I walked on the ground and it was almost like sensing the presence of God. So different. Liberalism, friend, never breathes life, it breathes death. But friend, when you honor God and honor His Word, you’re going to find the life you’re looking for. I saw kids sit out under the trees with the Word of God. And they didn’t even have a class in it; they were just studying it so they could meet with the Lord.
I went into my classroom with Dr. Robert Coleman, I’d never seen him before; I’d only seen his name on a book. I’d read his book and I was impressed. He wrote The Master Plan of Evangelism and several others, so I wanted to take him as a professor for that course. Here I am sitting there in the class and I heard somebody walking down the hall singing, “And can it be…,” I can’t remember the words to that one either, but it’s a good song. That’s the one that says “my chains fell off and I rose to follow him.” And I heard him singing. I said, “Who is that?” And it was Dr. Coleman. He walked into the classroom, and I want to tell you something, the class broke into a four-part harmony, I could have shouted! He walked up to the front of the room and I got cold chills all over me. I’d found the place! And he got to the front of the room and he said, “Now, gentlemen, let’s stand together, raise your hands to a Holy God!” Got up, he prayed us right into the throne room. This guy could get it done with the Lord!
We sat down and he said, “I want to make a statement to this class.” He said, “If anybody in this class ever dares for one second to question the inerrancy, the infallibility, and the inspiration of this Book, there’s going to be a holy hush in this class.” He said, “Some of you from other seminaries, because see, we’re going to realize if you’ve had the audacity to step across the line of the sovereignty of God.” I want to tell you, he’d start teaching in that classroom and I would weep to the point that sometimes my notes on the blood of Jesus, I couldn’t even see them on the page. And I thought to myself, “This is what seminary is supposed to be.” Life that comes from a Book that God has inspired.
I’m going to tell you something. If you’re going to study Daniel with us, you’d better nail something down. First of all, the inerrancy of the prophets; secondly is the infallibility of the Word of God. Don’t you even question it if you’re going to be a part of this group, friend. We’re all going a different direction from you if you don’t believe this is God’s Book. And thirdly, is the illumination of the Spirit of God. None of us are smart enough to put it together. God the Holy Spirit is going to have to reveal truth. And 1 Corinthians 2:10-14 very clearly states we did not receive the spirit of this world, but we receive the Spirit of God who reveals the deep things of God.
There’s no way in the world that somebody intellectually can study Daniel apart from that revelation of God’s Holy Spirit. And so when we come to this book we’re not coming because we’re so intellectual and we’re so smart that we can get it. No, we’re bowing down before God for the Book that He has God-inspired and we’re asking the Holy Spirit to give us understanding as we go through the book of Daniel. So there are the three requirements and that’s the message I was going to preach. Now this message: our God is an awesome God.
Our God is an awesome God
He’s the God of history. Now, as we saw in Daniel 2:21, He raises up kings, He establishes kingdoms. He’s the One who changes the epochs and the times. Do you realize that the center point of this world, the actual center of all geographical places on the face of this earth is what? A little country called Israel. With Jerusalem, does that remind anybody of anything? You have that as the center point of our world and do you realize that’s the center point of all history? Boy, secular historians cannot figure it out, how one nation was raised up one day and was taken down the next day. And how another nation could come in and be raised up and put down, and another nation. But if you’ll study the Word of God, this Book tells us that God is the God of history. Man, if anything comes out of this message at all this morning, it ought to be the absolute sovereignty of God. He is in control. He’s the One who changes history. He’s the One that’s causing what’s going on over in the Communist countries right now. God’s in control. We can go through free elections in America and we can elect a president, but my friend, it is God who is the head of the nation. And it is God who puts men into places. It’s God who gives power, it’s God who tears down power, it’s God who establishes nations in this world.
And if you don’t see that, you’re going to miss the whole point of Daniel. And when He would speak to His prophets, friend, they would tell you exactly what was going to take place, and I mean it happened right on the day. You could set your watch by it, because God has been in control of history. And the center point of all history is that little nation called Israel. So many of us don’t understand that. It’s amazing, and I want us to see this morning how Israel came about and to give you a short, brief history of Israel, bring you up until they split into ten tribes, the ten northern tribes split away, how they were taken into captivity, and that’s going to be our message this morning. You can think to yourself, “Oh, boy, here we go!” Now, listen, I think it’s exciting. I think perhaps it will help some of you. To some of you it will be a review, to others of you, you’re going to say, “My goodness, I didn’t know that!” That’s the ones I’m preaching to right now! Have you ever asked the question or been asked, “Where did Israel come from? What’s a Jew all about? Who are these people?
Friend, do you realize that Israel is the only nation that is in covenant with the living God? You can’t find any other nation like that. There are Christians today who say, “Oh, no, brother. When Jesus came on the scene, He did away with Israel. Now it’s just the wheat and the tares side by side until Jesus comes again.” My friend, that’s hogwash. If you understand the Word of God, Israel is in covenant with God, God’s not finished with Israel, they have a land that He’s given to them, and, brother, watch that land, watch that country, it’s the center point of all history even today.
Now, let’s go back to Genesis 12. Stay with me now, don’t draw pictures, stay with me! We’re going to get through this thing. This is the spade work, we’ve got to do it if we’re going to understand where Daniel fits in, who he’s dealing with, and what’s going on. Now you know the background of Genesis chapters 1-11, or you should. Genesis 1: God created this world. It didn’t just happen, it wasn’t two little cells floating around in space and bang into each other and now we have interstate highways and airplanes that fly. God spoke and it was created. I mean, that’s as clear as all you need to know. When God speaks, He creates, and when He creates, it’s good in His sight. And He created this earth.
Now, He created man, and we see Adam and Eve in the garden. And He told them, “Now, listen, don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Well, they sin in chapter 3 of Genesis and you begin to see the downfall of man. Romans tells us that sin entered the world and death by sin. This is the beginning of the depravity of man. No one of the liberal schools try to deny the first eleven chapters of Genesis, because if you do you take away man’s depravity and you make Adam a representative man and everybody has the same chance. Well, that’s not the Word of God. When Adam sinned, sin entered this world and from that point on every man born of woman was born into sin. That’s the beginning of sin in this world.
And you see the separation as man is ripped away from God. You see Cain killing his brother Abel and you begin to see a downfall. And in chapter 7 of Genesis you see God flushing the whole thing in the flood and just absolutely in disgust of what’s going on in this earth. But He saved one man and his family, and that man was Noah. And in Noah’s life, the first time covenant is ever mentioned in the Word of God, it’s with that man Noah, as He covenanted with Noah, because He found a man who would honor Him and He spared that man. Well, of course, after the flood was over you see them trying to build a tower to make a name for themselves and how God wa angered again, and He scattered them and changed their languages, and that’s the 11th chapter of Genesis.
And then you come in to the twelfth chapter of Genesis. We see a redemptive God here. Oh, folks, if you can understand this. It’s not man looking for his God, it’s God looking for His creation. Man has never sought after God, there’s “none righteous, no not one.” It is God, the all-powerful, loving God who in His redemptive part begins to speak out for man. And we begin to see Him unveil His plan of redemption as He chooses a man by the name of Abram. He pulls him out. He’s a Chaldean now, there wasn’t anything on this earth known as Israel, He chooses him out from the land of Ur, he’s a Chaldean, and He chooses to make covenant with that man. Isn’t it incredible? Picked a man out! Friend, in chapter 12 watch this: He says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land’” to the land, to the land, underline that, “which I will show you; and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will also curse. And in you, Abram, all the families, nations of the earth shall be blessed.’”
Well, Abram does what God tells him to do, and in the 15th chapter of Genesis, we see God cutting covenant with Abraham. Now you must understand that covenant is an agreement. Covenant cannot be broken. This covenant is an everlasting covenant as Genesis 15 tells us. You see, Abram believed God. Look at verse 6: “And he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” And so he becomes the father of faith. What did he do? He believed God, and because of his belief in God, then God reckoned that unto him as righteousness. That was his day of salvation. And, folks, something that Galatians has to help us with that we don’t see here is that on that day, somehow, the gospel was preached to Abram. Can you believe this? And Jesus said in the book of John, Abraham rejoiced to see My day and he rejoiced and he was glad. Abram understood what God was doing; Abram understood the covenant that God was making with him. And my friend, when they would cut covenants, the two would walk in together, but in this covenant in Genesis 15, He put Abram to sleep and God Himself walked between the pieces of animal that had been separated. In other words, there was no way that man could ever break this covenant. It’s an everlasting covenant that God has made with Abram.
Now what did He promise Abram? He promised him three things and the Jews can only see two, and many Christians can only see one. He promised him three things: He promised him a nation—and my friend that nation is here today in the 20th century and it’s called the nation of Israel. He promised him a land—and that land is over there today. They have more right to their land than you and I do to the property that we have that we pay mortgages on every week. God gave it to them and it’s not going to change. But He promised them one more thing: He promised them a seed. And that’s where the Jew messes up. That’s where the Jewish mindset cannot see it. Galatians 3 brings this out. The Seed is the Lord Jesus Christ! Through Abram—that’s why Isaac had to be born to Abram and to Sarah—because through them there was going to come a Seed and the Seed would be the Lord Jesus Christ. The Messiah! And it was going to be through Him that all nations, including Israel, would be blessed on this earth.
But, oh, how the Jewish mindset has missed that. Oh, they see the nation, they see the land, but they’ve never recognized the Seed. The problem is on both sides. We have the Jewish people not recognizing the Seed; we have the Christians not recognizing Israel nor the land. But, my friend, they’re all three a part of a covenant that is everlasting. He promised all three of them. Then He changed Abram’s name to Abraham in Genesis 17, and Sarai became Sarah, and they took upon themselves God’s Name and they were in a bound covenant with God Himself.
Now, we begin to watch how Israel progresses. Where does Israel come from? So far, only a promise: nation, land, and a Seed. You see, this is why so many people think, like I said earlier, that when Jesus came that Israel was done away with. That only the wheat and the tares grow side by side. That’s not right, folks! Israel is still in covenant with God. Yes, He’s closed the door on them right now. That’s why Jews can come to the Lord Jesus Christ as individuals, but as a nation you’ll not see Israel repent. But there will come a day that they will. There’s going to come a day; God’s not finished with them yet. These people who don’t understand Israel are people who do away with the tribulation period; they’re people who do away with the rapture of the church. They don’t seem to understand where that little parenthesize there between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel—and, boy, did I blow that because we haven’t got there yet! We’re right in there: we’re the church, right in the middle of that thing. And nobody really knows now when the Lord Jesus is going to come because we don’t have a time on that. But when He comes, there’s going to be a time of tribulation on this earth. The tribulation is so that God can now redeem His people and He’ll call them back to Israel, and it’s the last part of the tribulation that you’ll have the Day of Atonement for Israel. They’ll fall down, recognize the marks in His hands and they’ll surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ and He’ll bring them all back in. He’s not finished with Israel!
Now, when did Israel happen? Well, He passed the covenant from Abraham to Isaac. Do you remember when He told them that they were going to have a son, and Abraham and Sarah laughed? So they named him Isaac, which means laughter. God got the last laugh. Then they passed the covenant on to Jacob. Jacob was one of the two sons of Isaac: Jacob and Esau. Esau never would have turned his heart toward God, the New Testament tells us that, but Jacob cheated his brother out of his birthright. Therefore, Jacob was a deceiver and a conniver and a slanderer. God had to change him; change his name. So He wrestled with him one night in a dream, and God touched him on a thigh and crippled him, and he walked with a limp from that point on. And God changed his name and his name became what: Israel. Prince of God!
And he had 12 sons, and the twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel; a nation that is in covenant everlastingly with the living God. Now, what happens to them? Well, look in Genesis 15:13. “God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that you’re descendents will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’” The interesting thing to me about history is how Israel is in the land, out of the land, in the land, out of the land, in the land, out of the land, protecting the land, enemies coming in on the land. Well, we’re going to see them leave this land that Abraham had gone to, and they’re going to leave that land and be oppressed in captivity.
What happened? You remember Joseph—and if I gave you all these scriptures, folks, we’d be here for three weeks, so just hang in there. It is in the Scriptures, I promise—Joseph had a coat of many colors, remember that? And, oh, how his Daddy kind of liked him. And Joseph had a dream. He probably made a big mistake sharing it with his brothers, about the fact that he’s going to rule over them. They didn’t like that a whole lot; his brothers wouldn’t. And so they decide to get rid of Joseph. And so they sell him into slavery to the Egyptians. And so he’s taken off into captivity. Now, they think that’s the end of Joseph, but God, the very God, who changes epochs and seasons and raises up kings and establishes kingdoms, brought a famine into the land of Canaan. And so they had to have grain, so they went over to Egypt. And when they got to Egypt, guess who they ran into? The guy who was the number two man in the country, the guy who was head of all the selling of grain was their brother Joseph. Oh, dear!
And so they ran into him face to face. He loved them, he said, “You meant this for my harm, but God meant it for my good.” And he brought them over there and so they settled in the land of Egypt. Now for 430 years, now you see the nation coming about that had been promised to Abram. Now you see the people multiply. As a matter of fact, they multiply so fast, and after 30 years a pharaoh came on the throne and he said, “You know, these people are going to cause problems. We better put them into captivity.” And so they did. And for 400 years, just exactly as God said it to Abram, they were in captivity. But they grew and grew and grew and grew and grew and grew. And when Moses came on the scene they probably numbered around a million and a half. What a nation God had raised up under a captive flag over in Egypt.
Well, Moses was a deliverer of the people. And Moses, you know the story of Moses and how he takes them out, got them to the Red Sea. Somebody said when they crossed the Red Sea it really wasn’t the Red Sea, it was the Reed Sea, only six inches deep. Doesn’t that make a miracle even better? The whole Egyptian army died and drowned in six inches of water! Whatever happened, they crossed the Red Sea. God got them over into the wilderness, and, buddy, I want to tell you something. They could have gotten into Canaan in a matter of days, but because of their disobedience, because of their rebellion, they walked and walked and walked. And finally they came to Mt. Sinai and that’s where God brought in another covenant.
Now don’t misunderstand this other covenant. Some people say it replaces the Abrahamic Covenant. No! It’s a temporary covenant. It’s not going to last long. There’s another coming, the Seed who will bring an even better covenant, an extension of that Abrahamic Covenant. What is the covenant He put on them? The covenant of law. Now, what is that all about? It was a fence. That’s about all you can say about it. He put a fence around them. He hemmed them in. Galatians 3 says it was a tutor, a babysitter to watch over them until the Seed could come. I mean these people, friends; I’d have hated to have been Moses and pastored the First Baptist Church of the Wilderness. These guys were absolutely the worst you can find. So He gave them the law and all of a sudden they were bound now to the law. Now what does the law do? It condemns them apart from what God will give them in grace when the Lord Jesus finally comes.
Well, they had to parts to the law: if you obeyed the law you were blessed; if you disobeyed the law you were cursed. And part of the curse of disobeying the law was, and He says, “I will take you out of your land.” That’s the thing they hated: this was God-given land. “This is my property! God gave it to me!” He said, “You keep on disobeying Me, I’ll take you out of your land, friend!” Well, what happened? They kept on disobeying, they finally got tired of listening to a prophet, and they didn’t want a prophet anymore. They wanted a king, and so they elected a king name Saul. Boy, they really did a good job, didn’t they?
Saul was a fleshly-minded king. You remember what happened to him? God had to put him down and, of course, after Saul was David, a man after God’s own heart. But look at the atrocities that happened in his immorality and immoral way of living. And finally it was Solomon, David’s son. And it was under Solomon that finally there was sort of a civil strife and the nation of Israel split. This is what I’m bringing you up to this morning. They split. Ten tribes went to the north; two tribes went to the south. The ten tribes to the north kept the name Israel.
That’s why, when you’re studying scripture, make sure if He’s talking about all of Israel or the ten northern tribes of Israel. It was prophesied by Hosea and Amos that Assyria would come in and capture them. Remember Jonah? God told him to go to Nineveh, the capital of Assyria. He said, “Not me, brother! They’re going to take our people captive. I’m not going over there and do a revival for them if they’re going to take our people captive!” And just like God said, set your watch by it, Assyria moved in and captured Israel. They had one bad king after another. There’s never one good king came from the northern ten tribes whatsoever. At least we have Josiah in the southern kingdom that had a little credibility during the days of Jeremiah.
So they moved in and they took over Israel. What happened? They had an interesting way of capturing an area. What they would do is move in and what they would do is take the young, the good looking, the handsome, the smart, the healthy. They took them all out. And what they left was the others and they would bring in foreign nations. And they had an idea, which was incredibly smart, they got these foreign nations to co-inhabit with the Israelites, who were told never to do that, by the way. And by intermarrying, what happened was they would lose their identity as a nation and disappear into other cultures. That’s exactly what happened to Israel, friend.
Do you know what the capital of Israel was during that time? Samaria! You know why there was hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans in the days of Jesus? Because these people of Samaria dishonored their covenant with God and intermarried with other nations and became a half-breed nation. And that’s why it was so dangerous for a Jew even to look at a Samaritan, much less to talk to one. They were hated because they had dishonored God’s covenant.
Now if you’ve got a pencil handy, write this down: the date that the ten northern tribes was taken captive was 722 BC. Now, you say, “Big deal!” It’s going to be a real big deal when we get into Daniel. You’ve got to understand these dates. Now, it’s not hard. For all you guys that won’t study the Scripture unless it has pictures on the page, now listen: you stay with me. We’re going to make it simple. Everybody in this congregation is going to understand these dates; you’re going to even get to like these dates! 722 BC, Assyria takes over Israel.
Now, you say, “What happened to Judah?” I’ll tell you tonight. I’m going to cut this message in half and do the other part tonight. The most incredible thing to me though, is how every bit of this was prophesied. So if you believe a prophet, you better believe a prophet. You’re going to see Babylon, the Medo-Persian Empire, and Greece. You say, “What’s that got to do with anything?” Wait until you get to chapter 2 of Daniel. It’s going to light your fire when you find out what those nations mean and what it all has to do with the end of time, the latter days. God is the God of history. Don’t ever, ever forget it.
Well, you say, “Brother Wayne, you’re right. I don’t want to go to the mission field, so what else can I get out of this message this morning?” Years ago we used to go catfishing. I’ve probably told you this story before, but I’ll tell it again because it’s the best illustration I know.
We would go catfishing. We’d get a big old truck tire and we’d cover it up in kerosene or something and we’d light it. And it would burn, and, of course, you always wanted to fish upwind. Rough smell if you get in that smoke. And we’d sit there all night long and we’d put our old bait out there. You had to get rotten bait, stink bait. What you do is you get you a little forked stick, stick it down in there, throw that thing out there, big old heavy weight, and it’d go down to the bottom, because they’re on the bottom, down there where all the junk is. So you throw it out there and you just let that rod sit there.
Don’t worry about it. And if they hit the bait, don’t worry about it, they haven’t got enough sense to check it out. They’re going to eat it and go. Whatever is there, whoop and it’s gone! That’s kind of the way it is: they have that kind of appetite. And when they hit it, you don’t have to worry about them chewing on it to see what it tastes like. Nah, they’re gone. Just push that little button on your reel and just let them go. Just let them go, finish whatever you’re doing. And then, when you get ready, go ahead and crank it. Oh, those fish are so dumb! So arrogant and so proud. They think they’re getting away with something. They think they have really done something, but they don’t know that there’s a pair of unseen hands in a world they have never seen, completely controlling their destiny. And buddy, when they find out is when God sets the hook!
Friend, that’s the way it is. If you’re here and you say, “God doesn’t know about my life. You don’t know what I’m going though,” friend, God knows everything about your life. God not only knows about it, He’s controlling it step by step by step. “I don’t believe that.” Well, friend, you need to come back and study the Word over again. And it is God, if you’ll turn to Him, that causes all things to work together, for what? For good, to whom? To those who love Him and are called according to His plan. Young people, hear me. God’s got your life. He’s got it. And you can’t do anything He doesn’t know about. If you disobey you will reap a consequence of sin, but if you’ll turn back to Him, God will weave it back and cause it even to be good in your life. God is an awesome, awesome God. And He is in control.
