Understanding Divine Timing and Christ's Mission

In this house of God at a time of very great and very grave crisis the news in a sense cannot be very much worse than it is while we are meeting here quietly there are thousands perhaps even more of people whose all countries in a state of turmoil there are terrible things happening there are men and women being killed at this very moment probably and the whole future seems to be shrouded in uncertainty. [00:01:42]

Every time of Crisis and of trouble in the world causes a number of people to look in the direction of the Christian church when everything else has failed people remember God there were many stories about that whether or not during the war many men were honest enough to confess and to admit that though they hadn't prayed since they were children when their boat was torpedo during the war and they'd spent a number of days in a little boat or on a raft and everything seemed to be lost they be and to pray to God. [00:03:25]

There are many who always ask that kind of question why does God allow War why does God allow these things to happen now I'm not concerned tonight to deal with those statements in detail and to show their inconsistencies with themselves and even on their own suppositions I'm rather concerned to look at the whole thing in a more General manner as it is dealt with in this particular incident. [00:05:15]

Mary becomes aware of that whether it was that she was in general superintendence because she was a relative I don't know but somehow or another they told her now then you see where the parallel comes in there they are in this marriage Feast suddenly confronted by a problem here are you and I in life confronted by the tremendous problem that is facing ing us this evening now then what's the next step what's going to happen. [00:10:30]

She obviously is in a certain amount of confusion in her mind she looks at him and she looks at him as her son Jesus the one who was born of her she seems to say to herself he is Jesus my son and yet at the same time it's perfectly clear isn't it that she obviously is expecting something unusual from him because she turns to him and by her very statement to him she is making the suggestion that she believes that he has it in him he has the power and the ability and the capacity to solve the problem. [00:11:37]

The first error she falls into is that that she presumes on the fact that he is her son he's Jesus he is the child that was born of her womb he's the one who was once a little babe that she funded in her arms and whom she fed he's the little boy that she'd clothed and taught he's the young man Jesus her own child she presumes upon it and she presumes upon it as I say to the extent even of triing him and of speaking almost harshly to him. [00:16:00]

He is saying to her Mary in effect you've got to look at me and approach me from this moment in a new and in a in an entirely different manner I've been obedient to you I've always done everything you told me to do I've been a beautiful son you've said Jesus do this and I've always ran to do it and I've never failed you nor disobeyed you the end of that has come I am now entered into the office I've been anointed as the Messiah of God. [00:24:47]

While that is your approach to God and to Christ you will will never get a reply never that approach is absolutely fatal as long as you are in the position of thinking that you can come to God and present your orders and say now the world is in trouble why don't you God will not hear you as long as you think Christianity will give you benefits but you come to it demanding and standing upon your dignity and standing as an equal and ordering practically and insisting and commanding nothing will happen nothing whatsoever. [00:25:51]

He hasn't come from Heaven into this world at our request he came though no man had asked him to come he's come in spite of it he has not come simply to do what we want God and the Lord Jesus Christ Are Not Mere agencies to which we can apply when we want help and then forget them no no he has a plan and a purpose as I'm going to show you he's come because he's sent he's the Lord and until you and I and all others realize that he's to be approached in one way and one way only I say we shall never know his bettering. [00:27:11]

He has come into this world to carry out a specific program you read through this Gospel According to St John and you'll find that he goes on saying it everywhere he says I came not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me the works that I do I do not of myself the words that I speak I speak not of myself those are his words whatsoever the father has shown me that I do the words that I speak have been given to me I speak the words that my father has spoken first my father worketh hi to and I work he's always saying it. [00:32:10]

He has come to Bear the sins of men he has come to die he came into the world to taste death for every man that is why he said in that prayer that he wasn't going to ask God to deliver him out of that hour he said he could command 12 Legions of angels and Escape it but how then he says should all righteousness be fulfilled no no this is the program this is God's plan not this or that or the other he's come to do this why well because this is the only way whereby any one of us can ever be reconciled to God and have our sins forgiven. [00:40:03]

Repent recognize that the world is as it is because it's turned its back upon God recognize that you are what you are because you've done the same get down acknowledge your sin confess your iniquity don't defend yourself because you know there's no defense expose your heart to him let him search you go to him repent and believe the gospel believe that though we have so sinned in the whole world in our Folly and in our shame that he nevertheless came into the world in order to rescue us and to deliver us out of it. [00:47:36]