Original: January 23, 2008
McMinnville, OR
91 Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you. Psalm 119: 91
I once preached a sermon out of 2 Corinthians 4: 18 that I delivered while struggling with a cold virus. God chose to bless the messages and many lives responded to the Word of God. Afterwards one of the pastors approached me with, “Isn’t it funny how often you are sick before you preach? It’s like Satan attacks you.”
I responded, “Maybe, or maybe God wanted me sick in order to bring Him glory. Or, maybe I got sick from being around so any teenagers who had a cold.”
I do not want to sound like a jerk or arrogant, but here is what I believe. Too often we give Satan the credit instead of the options to accept responsibility or give God the glory. Think about this: Why in the world would Satan (who is not omnipresent, remember) ever take the time to attack you? Who are you in the grand scheme of eternal warfare anyway? Really, why would Satan take the time out his busy schedule to harass you? Are you really than big of a threat to him?
Maybe you are. Maybe you are not!
Let me propose what I believe is a more realistic scenario. God has established certain providential laws of nature that keep our universe in order. Such as, if you kiss your wife while she is sick you may get sick through the exchange of germs. If you drive from sea level to 8,000 feet in elevation your body needs time to acclimate. If you neglect your family because work is the priority it will fall apart.
Galatians 6:7-8 helps us to put life into perspective when it says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
Here is what struck me from today’s passage.
Here is what struck me from today’s passage.
"Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you" (Psalm 119: 91).
It does not matter who you are or what you believe in. The human race is subject to certain providential laws of the universe. These laws, of course, have been set up and established by God, so whether you follow Christ or not, in some way, shape, or form you are a bound to Him by providence (Colossians 1: 1-16).
Now let’s follow this thought to its logical conclusion. If we are subject to God’s providential laws on earth, then what happens when we die? Won’t there be providential laws in the infinite just as there are in the finite? Won’t the same God who has established laws in a temporal/physical realm do so in the eternal/spiritual realm?
Of course He will, and does.
In fact Philippians 2:10-11 gives a clue into this as we read that, “At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven (angles and those already with Christ), and earth (all living creatures) and under the earth (Satan and his army), and every (yes, every) tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father”.
Just as all men either willingly or unwillingly serve Christ under these providential laws, all will one day succumb to his eternal laws, either to everlasting life or to condemnation.
