Octavius Winslow: Time is in God's Hands

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[00:01:08] This is Troy and Joel and you're listening to Revived Thoughts. The life I live is a life of faith in him. I fly to him in the confidence of a loving friend and I reveal to him my secret sorrow.

[00:01:30] Every episode we bring you a different voice from history and a sermon that they deliver today. Sermon comes to us from Octavius Winslow. This sermon was preached in the year 1867. And if we do a little bit of investigative journalism here,

[00:01:44] which we're known to do from time to time here on Revived Thoughts, we can pretty accurately assume, determine that this was preached. If not New Year's Day, then very close to it. It is a New Year's sermon.

[00:01:57] And we'll get into the significance of this sermon at this point of his life later on in the episode. But first, Troy, I have a new baby in my house. You do. I was going to say, don't ask me how I'm doing

[00:02:09] if you were about to say that. You're the one with the new child, new family member. Tell everyone about the about the new little one, Joel. Yeah, baby who was not supposed to be here yet. Thankfully, praise the Lord. She's very happy. She's very healthy. Everything went great.

[00:02:23] And honestly, at Lord's timing, it all worked out a little bit better this way anyway. But yeah, a few weeks before her due date, we woke up in the night to the startling realization that baby is coming early. So we we sorted with some things,

[00:02:42] sorted with the in-laws, you know, to take week because we have a three year old son as well. And praise the Lord, labor came on and baby came out. And it honestly could not have gone to other than us not being quite physically prepared, like at home,

[00:02:57] just as far as things being set up and things being staged. The delivery process was perfectly smooth and baby is happy and healthy. So it's it's pretty great. But all that to say, I'm tired. We are and my house is chaotic.

[00:03:10] So there might be you might hear crying. You might hear garage doors opening and closing. You might hear pots and pans being moved around. We're going to just we're just going to roll through it. We're going to press on.

[00:03:23] So the baby is already opening garage doors and playing with pots and pans. Wow. She she really is. She came out ready to go. No, I'm kidding. And Joel, this is funny because for me, this is Christmas break.

[00:03:34] So like this is probably as rested as I ever feel. I mean, this has been great for me. The kids are sleeping in late like our children in my entire time of having them, which has been a long time, I feel like at this point

[00:03:47] they never sleep in there. They have always woken up crazy early on every break, too excited to sleep. It's been a curse. This is the first break in my entire life where as I teach and as a teacher, the first time I've ever had a break

[00:03:59] where my kids are sleeping in like till like 730. It's amazing. And so I 30 will get too carried away. Troy, it's big. It's big. And and I got to say, it's been really nice. And so I'm sure you're feeling the same way with a newborn in the house.

[00:04:13] You're probably getting lots of sleep. And so you and I are on the same page well rested together. Yeah, it's it's strange to talk about sleep because I I have to caveat there has to be an asterisk next to everything,

[00:04:26] which is I understand I am not able to complain about any of this because my wife gets far less sleep than even I do. So when people ask me how I'm doing, how are you struggling with your sleep?

[00:04:37] I'm obligated to be like, you know, it's not that bad. It could be worse. My wife, she's the she's the real trooper. She's the real one that is functioning on probably half the sleep

[00:04:48] that I am half the sleep of like my four hours of night that I'm getting, which is which is crazy to think about. So shout out to my wife. She's a real trooper. Well, awesome for you guys.

[00:04:58] I'm very happy that everything went well and that the newest member of the family is here, but that you also are able to be on with us for this episode, Joel, so we didn't have to swap you out again as we did just a few weeks ago.

[00:05:10] I wish to jump into the episode. We're here with Octavius Winslow. And I know I mean, I know that everyone listening is a big Winslow fan. So they're like, come on, guys, get to the get to the Winslow stuff.

[00:05:20] No, he was a really famous guy back in the day, but he's maybe not as well known today now. Before we dive in, though, one more thing we're going to do, we got to say some thank yous to people because we've received

[00:05:32] a lot of really positive messages, specifically one to mention Judith, Mike Avery, Steven Ryan and Cliff, who reached out to me on X. These are just some people who've sent us recent messages that were specifically tied to the show, some different things they sent us.

[00:05:49] I didn't want to I'm not going to read all the messages, but they were really good. That was really great to hear from you on. You had a lot of things I was very encouraged by. I don't know if it's just the end of the year

[00:05:58] always makes me feel a little sentimental as you close one chapter and move to the next. But I was really appreciative of all the personal, you know, reach outs people were doing over on Spotify. We tried to read a review over there, and this one comes from Nick

[00:06:10] that says, thanks for the shout out. He was the guy who read the sermon, Peter Kierkegaard, that a lot of you really enjoyed. And he says, thanks for the shout out. Very kind indeed. I was thrilled to read this one. So he read that for us on Spotify.

[00:06:22] And then this one comes to us on Twitter. I don't know what I'm supposed to call it. I don't think anybody does. But over on Twitter, Ad Fontes says, I highly, highly recommend both of these podcasts to you.

[00:06:33] He was talking about our episode where we did a crossover with martyrs and missionaries. If you appreciate church history and being encouraged by great heroes of the faith, you will love these shows. So grateful to Revive Thoughts for their careful and faithful ministry.

[00:06:45] Thank you so much for sharing that with everyone. And Joel, we also have a new Patreon that joined us this month. Yeah, Seth, big thanks to Seth. We are very thankful for all of our Patreons. And it's always a huge encouragement to see people still going out

[00:06:58] of their way to support us and tell us that they like what we do. It really means a lot to us. Today, we're talking about Octavius Winslow. Octavius has quite a bit of similarities to D.L. Moody, you're going to find out when you're just looking at

[00:07:17] just his family environments and he was raised in a large family like Moody. Kind of lived in a similar era ish to Moody. His father died when he was young, like Moody, and his mother was left

[00:07:28] to scramble to figure out how to care for a large family like Moody. He was the eighth out of 13 children. So huge family, right? Born in the year 1808. Their family traveled quite a bit, and it seems that that seems to be a trend

[00:07:43] in their family going back very far. In fact, what must have been his great-great grandmother was on the Mayflower headed to America and is sometimes attributed as the first woman to enter America from the Mayflower. So that's that's a pretty cool lineage to have.

[00:08:03] Definitely a lot better than being second. Yeah, I don't even know who that person was. You know, we know first, but we don't we don't know who a second exactly. Octavius's mother was born and raised in Bermuda. And although her family itself was Scottish, when she was 17,

[00:08:19] she married an army lieutenant who turned out to be Octavius's father, Thomas Winslow. But it wasn't until after they got married that she became a believer. She went through this conversion process, and she says that it's from this inkling to seek out and understand

[00:08:36] this promise of God, ask and you shall receive is how she puts it, which is a kind of a beautiful picture of the Holy Spirit leading her to him. And this faith would end up having a huge, important role in the 13 kids that they have.

[00:08:50] Sadly, only 10 of which would survive past their first birthday. And again, her husband would end up dying as well. So Octavius, will it end up being one of 10 children and no father, essentially, as he's being raised up in his family?

[00:09:06] Which is crazy to me that that's the exact same story as DL Moody has that we just covered a month ago, this mom with a bunch of kids that she's having to deal with. But let's talk quickly. The family itself was already suffering before they lost the husband,

[00:09:20] the father here. They had a large fortune when Octavius was younger. However, due to several financial disasters that kind of hit England in a short period. And if you know your history, this is the same period that Britain is fighting a war with America

[00:09:32] and that the Napoleonic Wars are going on in Europe. There's just a lot of change going on. And just kind of through circumstances outside of his power, his fortune was crushed during that time. He now he had always had poor health,

[00:09:43] but he said he was going to send his wife and kids to New York and they were going to relocate to America to do business there. He thought he'd have a better time kind of regrowing, recouping his loss outside of Europe.

[00:09:54] So he sends the wife and kids ahead to New York while he ties up the loose ends of the business. But he doesn't end up making the voyage to America. He dies over in Europe. And not long after Octavius, his family gets the news,

[00:10:07] her husband, that his mom gets the news that her husband had died. Her youngest child, you know, around the age of one years old, dies as well. So now Mary is a widow. She's 40 years old, a widow in a new country

[00:10:19] that she had moved to with the plans of starting a new life. She has no money, no husband coming to, you know, help get things going. Grieving the loss of a child, grieving the loss of her husband and 10 children to feed.

[00:10:33] This just I mean, the reason we actually know so much about this story and what happened is because it meant a lot to Octavius. He actually wrote his family life story in a book called Life in Jesus. And he wrote the story from the perspective of his mom.

[00:10:47] He basically told his family's kind of life story of how she came to Christ, all this stuff, what he went through as a kid. But through the perspective, he was writing as if, you know, this is what mom was doing.

[00:10:57] And so he says that not long after that, there was kind of a spiritual darkness that covered the family for a while as she was recovering through this. But her faith let her out of that dark time. And I'm not surprised there was some darkness during that time.

[00:11:09] I think it would be pretty impossible for anybody to not feel some despair after having gone through all of that. Yeah. So, you know, being raised up, he recounts these realities that him and his siblings lived in. It was all hands on deck, right?

[00:11:25] Every one of the siblings had a pitch in to help make ends meet for the family. One historian said, Mary had the youngsters out on the street of New York selling matches and newspapers as soon as they were old enough to do such tasks.

[00:11:40] She set them to any job that they could tackle, gathering them around her at night for scripture reading, followed by good sound evangelical teachings and prayer. Eventually, they were able to get back on their feet and slowly begin to kind of start recovering their fortunes.

[00:11:56] When Octavius was 16, he stumbled into a revival that was happening at the time. And Octavius attributes this moment to his conversion time, his getting saved along with his two brothers, Isaac and George. And kind of a neat situation there.

[00:12:15] They were able to get baptized in the Hudson River. And after that, they began to regularly partake in ministry there in New York City. His mother wrote of him, My children are earnestly engaged in bringing sinners where the Holy Ghost is displaying his mighty power.

[00:12:30] They visit from house to house, dealing faithfully with all they meet who know not God. So you can see that this gave his mother much, much comfort later in life, knowing that their children are walking with the Lord.

[00:12:42] You can really see how she recovered from what happened before. And also, what better praise if you can say, if you're a parent and you can say your children are out evangelizing and faithfully taking care of people.

[00:12:52] I feel like it's what we all want our kids to grow up to do is, you know, to be faithful followers of Christ. It's kind of a little bit unclear what happened from there. On the other hand, he began to write and preach,

[00:13:02] and he became kind of one of those classically super busy guys from this era where he we know that he got ordained at a Baptist church in 1833. But we can't really tell.

[00:13:11] And it kind of it was unclear whether he if he went to London to go get trained, if he stayed in New York to get trained, because he received honorary degrees from different places. And that's the thing, too.

[00:13:21] He received honorary degrees from different places, but not actual degrees. So it was a little bit murky for me. My research is kind of figuring it out. Winslow also, but he would work at a church. He kind of basically planted a church after leaving home

[00:13:35] around the area where he was. It did OK for a time. But Winslow actually struggled with what he called were trials of depression. And I noticed that I was like, that's kind of interesting because he's a contemporary of Charles Spurgeon, who also was very famously

[00:13:49] somebody who struggled a lot with depression during that era of just being overwhelmed by life's problems. We've covered that on some of our episodes of Charles Spurgeon if you want to go check those out. But the two men also knew each other, and they actually had a controversy

[00:14:02] over baptism regeneration. They kind of wrote back and forth on it. So there were some they had a tiff over that at one point. Now, Winslow in the late 1830s, after some successful ministry, moved to England and he was really successful in England.

[00:14:16] He was seen as passionate, earnest, just one of the great preachers of that era. And in the 1860s, he ended up pastoring a church that had both Paedo-Baptists and Credo-Baptists. And this is, you know, people who believe that you should be baptized

[00:14:29] as an infant, people who believe you should, you know, get baptized when you confess your belief in Christ. And this he had up that point always been a Baptist. So he'd always been, you know, saying you need to get baptized after you confess your need for Christ.

[00:14:42] However, having a lot of these other guys in his congregation kind of started to soften his views. And the very rare turn of events, he actually left the Baptist camp and went and got ordained in the year 1870 as an Anglican,

[00:14:54] someone a part of the Church of England who would then now be baptizing babies. I think this is probably the only example in our show's history of a guy going from the Baptist camp over to the Anglican camp.

[00:15:05] We've covered people who've gone the other way, and it's much more common, I think, historically to go the other way. This is the first time I've seen it go kind of reverse, reverse here. So he bucks that trend.

[00:15:16] It didn't seem to affect him in like how faithful he was to God or anything. He just he changed his mind on that. He continued in that until he died in 1878. Now, he also did some other things. He wrote a hymn book for his congregation.

[00:15:29] So he's got a lot of different things he had going on. Back to Spurgeon, though, I kind of left that note where it sounded like they were controversial enemies, but they were not. They were friends. They respected each other. In fact, in 1861, when they had the Metropolitan Tabernacle,

[00:15:43] the official building that became Charles Spurgeon's church, when it had its very first kind of opening service, they had remodeled it and stuff made it bigger. When they had their opening service, it was Spurgeon had invited Octavius Winslow to be the guy who preached its opening sermon.

[00:15:58] So they clearly they clearly were friends and got along and cared for each other. So don't think that just because they had a disagreement, that was the end of things as it were.

[00:17:05] So the time that this sermon was most likely preached was around New Year's time of 1867. And the way, the reason that we think that is because there's a few different things that are kind of referenced in this sermon that kind of date it,

[00:17:26] kind of tie it into a specific time, which is always neat to see in these old sermons. First of all, we understand it to be a New Year's sermon that's being preached during that time. You'll hear him talk about that.

[00:17:38] Also fitting for our air date for this episode, you know, it's around the New Year's time. This will be the first episode of 2024. Secondly, he speaks about his wife who at this time would have passed away about two months before this.

[00:17:54] And so we can see him reflect back on his wife, Hannah, who he loved dearly. And he talks about and reflects about, you know, the impact that she had on his life. And unlike a lot of the speakers on this show, he never remarried.

[00:18:09] He stayed single the rest of his life. Him and his wife had 10 children together in a lot of ways. Kind of is similar to his mother's story in the fact that she lost her husband. Here he is losing his wife with 10 children, 10 mouths to feed.

[00:18:23] But at this stage in their life, thankfully having to provide for them wasn't as dire a situation as it was when they were growing up. They had, they were much wealthy in this stage than he was when he was growing up.

[00:18:36] But after his wife died, he created a pamphlet called Instant Glory. And it has to do with her sudden and instant death, right? It's kind of a play on words. He wrote this sermon that we're about to listen to, this New Year's sermon.

[00:18:50] And he also wrote a pamphlet that has a short eulogy of her. And this pamphlet talks about how her unexpected and quick death led to her getting to glory quicker.

[00:19:00] And the fact that he said, he says this quote, he says, quote, instant death for the believer means instant glory. So listen to Octavius's thoughts on a new year in his new perspective on life.

[00:19:13] You know, knowing that his beloved wife likely passed away just two months before this. Psalm 31, 15. My time is in your hands. What evidence will we find of the precious truth contained in these words from the personal experience of the man of God who penned them?

[00:19:49] Reviewing the past of his eventual history, he could trace the guiding and overshadowing hand of his heavenly father in all circumstances of the checkered and diversified scenes of his life.

[00:20:04] And as memory recalled the strange and momentous events of his life with what overpowering seriousness would the conviction force itself upon his mind that for the form and complexion of that life, how little was it indebted to himself?

[00:20:25] Circumstances which chance could not originate events, which human wisdom could not foresee and results which finite experience could not determine.

[00:20:38] It would at once lift his grateful and adoring thoughts to that God of infinite foreknowledge and love whose overruling providence had guarded with a sleepless eye each circumstance and whose infinite goodness had guided with a skillful hand each step.

[00:21:00] With this retrospect before him, with what intensity of feeling would the aged king exclaim, my time is in your hands.

[00:21:12] But if David felt this truth that all his interests were in God's care under his supreme direction, so warm a thought as life drew near its close, then how much more cheering may it be to us just to enter upon a new year of life?

[00:21:33] All whose history to our view wisely and beneficially enshrouded in obscurity and all whose events from the least to the greatest are happily beyond our control. My times are in your hand.

[00:21:55] Who can give us this heartfelt, soothing influence, this precious truth but the Holy Spirit by whose divine inspiration it was uttered? May he now unfold and apply with his sanctifying, comforting power this portion of his own holy word to the reader's heart.

[00:22:17] The declaration that our times are in the Lord's hands implies the future of our history is impenetrably and mysteriously veiled from our sight. We live in a world of mysteries. They meet our eyes, awaken our curiosity, and then baffle our investigation at every step.

[00:22:41] Nature is a vast carnival of mysteries. Science is a mystery. Truth is a mystery. Religion is a mystery. Our existence is a mystery. The future of our being is a mystery. And God, who alone can explain all the mysteries, is the greatest mystery of all.

[00:23:04] How little do we understand of the inexplicable wonders of our wonder-working God, whose thoughts are deep as the ocean depths and whose ways are past finding out? To God, nothing is mysterious. In purpose, nothing is unfixed. In forethought, nothing is unknown.

[00:23:28] In providence, nothing is reliant on something outside of himself. His glance pierces the future as vividly as it beholds the past. He knows the end from the beginning, and all his dealings are parts of a divine, eternal, and harmonious plan.

[00:23:49] He may make darkness his secret place, his pavilion round about him in dark waters, and thick clouds of the skies, and to human vision his dispensations may appear gloomy, discrepant, and confused. Yet he is working all things after the counsel of his own will.

[00:24:11] And at the brightness that is before him, his thick clouds pass, and all is transparent and harmonious to his eye. And why does God invest so obscurely in the future? Wouldn't it make it for our present well-being?

[00:24:29] And wouldn't it be a satisfaction and a blessing if we could pull back the mystic veil and gaze with the foreseeing eye and undimmed eye upon what waits on the other side of the grave, remembering times in past where you might be ready to say,

[00:24:50] if I could have foreseen, I would have for arranged. Had I anticipated the result of such a step, or have known the issue of such a movement, or have safely calculated the consequences of such a measure,

[00:25:05] I might have pursued an opposite course and averted the evil I now struggle against and have spared me the misery I now feel. But hush this vain reasoning. God, your God, O believer, had in wisdom, faithfulness, and love hidden all the future from your view.

[00:25:30] You will remember all the ways which the Lord your God has led you these forty years. How he has guided, counseled, and upheld you. He has led you the right way. In perplexity, he has directed you. In sorrow, he has comforted you.

[00:25:48] In slippery paths, his mercy has held you up. And when fallen, he has raised you again from seeming evil. He has made a positive good. The mistakes that you have made, and the follies you have committed,

[00:26:04] in the blindness of your path, and in the sinfulness of your heart have only led you to a closer acquaintance with, and to a stronger confidence in God. They have opened up to you new and more glorious views of his character and his works.

[00:26:23] While in leading you closer to the feet of Jesus in self-knowledge and self-abhorrence, they have unlocked to you a spring of spiritual blessings, fresh, sanctifying, and indescribable. Beloved, God has placed us in a school in which he is teaching us to lay our blind reasoning

[00:26:49] at his feet, to cease from our own wisdom and guidance, and lean upon and confide in him as children with a parent. The goodness of God to us, combined with a jealous regard to his own glory,

[00:27:07] constrains him to conceal the path along the way which he conducts us. His promise is, I will bring the blind in a way that they knew not. I will lead them in paths that they have not known. I will make darkness light before them and crooked things straight.

[00:27:28] These things will I do for them and not forsake them. Could the scenes of this year's history rise in their shadowy outline before us? Or, if it were permitted for an angel to divulge a single page in the momentous volume of events

[00:27:45] that will happen, then how might we shrink back from the revelation? We may close the book again, calmly wait until he should unfold its leads in whose hands our times are. How unfit should we be to discharge our duties, to sustain our responsibilities,

[00:28:08] to meet our trials, cope with our difficulties, and bear with our sorrows, were they all to confront us this moment? Oh, how kindly, wise, and tenderly does our Father deal with us! And in no part, no part of his providential dealings is his goodness more clearly seen

[00:28:35] in veiling all our future from our reach. Let us now sit at Jesus' feet, thanking him that the life which we now live in the flesh, we live not by sight, but by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us.

[00:28:57] But our times are all wrapped in impenetrable mystery and are yet in the Lord's hand. The words are emphatic. Our times are not in the hands of angels, still less our own hands. They are in the Lord's hand. It is an individual truth, my times.

[00:29:22] We deal too timidly with our individuality, with the truth of God as individuals, with Jesus as individuals, with the covenant of grace as individuals, with our own responsibilities as individuals. What, you exclaim, I, a poor worm of the dust, not worthy of his regard,

[00:29:48] too insignificant for his notice, who have a heart so cold, a nature so depraved, and a will so perverse, are my times in the hands of the Lord? Yes, dear listener, you may humbly adopt these words as your own. And exultingly exclaim, my times are in his hands.

[00:30:15] How comprehensive too is the truth, my times are in his hands. Diverse as they may be, whatever the shape in which they are developed, or the complexity with which they assume, attractive or repulsive, bathed with light or draped with gloom, all are there.

[00:30:37] Exclusively and safely lodged in the Lord's hand. Let us specify a few of these times. Our time of prosperity is in the Lord's hand. There are no circumstances of life in which we are more sadly prone to indulge in self-complacency than those times of earthly prosperity.

[00:31:04] Industry is enriched and perseverance rewarded. Wealth increases and blessings accumulate, and the heart grows fat and kicks against God. The merchant's ship returns burdened with treasure. The acres of the tiller are fruitful, and his barns are filled with plenty, or prosperity in some form smiles upon our path.

[00:31:29] And then, oh no, God has forgotten. We give to ourselves the praise of our success. My hand and the might of my power has gotten me this. But what is the language of God's word?

[00:31:47] Beware that you forget not the Lord your God, or else when you have eaten and are full and have built beautiful houses and lived inside, and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold is multiplied,

[00:32:03] and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God. But oh, let us remember that all our past and all our coming prosperity, if indeed he will appoint it, is in the hand of God.

[00:32:25] It is his wisdom that suggests our plans. It is his power that guides, and it is his goodness that causes them to succeed. Every flower that blooms in our path, every smile that gladdens it, every mercy that bedoos it, yes, every good and every perfect gift

[00:32:47] is from above and comes down from the Father of lights. Oh, for grace to recognize God in our mercies, for a heart lifted up in holy returns of love, gratitude, and praise. How much sweeter will be our sweets, how much more blessed are blessings,

[00:33:08] and how endeared are endearments, seeing them all dropping from the outstretched, magnificent hand of a loving, gracious, and bountiful Father. But there are times of adversity, and they too are in the Lord's hand. Just as every sunbeam that brightens comes from God, so does every cloud that darkens.

[00:33:36] We are subject to great and sudden reverses in our earthly condition. Joy is often succeeded by grief, prosperity by adversity. We are on the pinnacle today, tomorrow at its bottom. Oh, what a change may one event and in one moment create!

[00:33:56] A storm, a fire, a slight swing of funds, the morning's mill, the casual meeting of a friend may suddenly clothe our life with mourning. But beloved, all is from the Lord. Affliction comes not of the dust, nor does trouble spring out of the ground.

[00:34:17] Job 5.6, Sorrow cannot come until God allows it. Health cannot fade, wealth cannot vanish, comfort cannot decay, friendship cannot frost, loved ones cannot die until He in His sovereignty permits it. Your time of sorrow is made by His appointment.

[00:34:37] The bitter cup which may please the Lord for you to drink this year will not be mixed by human hands. In the hand of the Lord is that cup. The cloud that may lower on your path will not fall at a creature's bidding.

[00:34:52] He makes the clouds His chariot. Some treasures that you are now pressing to in your heart that He may ask you to surrender, some blessings you now possess, He may ask you to relinquish, some fond expectation you now cherish, He may desire for you to forgo,

[00:35:14] some lonely path He may design that you should walk. Yes, He may even take everything from you, and yet all, all of it is in His hand. His hand, a Father's hand, moving in the thick darkness, is shaping every event and arranging every dispensation of your life,

[00:35:36] sickness laid you on a bed of suffering, has bereavement darkened your home, has adversity impoverished your resources, has change lessened your comforts, has sorrow in one of its many forms crushed your spirit to the earth. The Lord has done it.

[00:35:57] In all that has been sent, in all that has been recalled, and in all that has been withheld, His hand noiselessly and unseen has moved. Ah yes, that hand of changeless love bends something sweet with every bitter.

[00:36:17] He pencils a bright rainbow in each dark cloud, upholds each faltering step, shelters within its hollow, and guides with unerring skill His chosen people safe to eternal glory. Dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses, your losses, your sorrows, all,

[00:36:40] all are in your heavenly Father's hand, and they cannot come until sent by Him. Bow that stricken heart, yield that tempest-tossed soul to His sovereign disposal, to His calm, righteous sway in the submissive spirit and language of your suffering Savior.

[00:37:01] Your will, O my Father, not mine be done. My times of sadness and grief are in your hand. There are times of soul distress. Spiritual darkness and conflict are in His hand. There are many times like this in the experience of the true saints of God,

[00:37:24] many hard-fought battles, many fiery darts, and many desperate wounds and momentary defeats in the Christian's life. Taking advantage of the spiritual mist which may hover around the mind in the time of confusion and gloomy providences, the foe with stealthy attack may rush upon the

[00:37:46] soul like a flood. And when to this surprise is added the suspension of the Lord's manifest presence, the veiling of His smile, the silence of His responsive voice, oh, that is a time of soul distressing indeed, but it is in the Lord's hand. No spiritual cloud shades,

[00:38:10] no mental distress depresses, no fiery dart is launched that is not by Him permitted, and that there is not a provision by Him arranged. There is nothing which the Lord has taken more completely and more exclusively into His keeping than the redeemed, sanctified souls of His people.

[00:38:37] All their interests for eternity are exclusively in His hand. In the infinite fullness of Jesus, in the inexhaustible supply of the covenant, in the exceeding great and precious promises of His Word, He has anticipated every spiritual encounter of the believer. How precious is your soul

[00:39:03] to Him who bore all its sins, who's exhausted all its curse, who suffered for it in suffering, and who ransomed it in His own most precious blood, guarded too by His indwelling Spirit

[00:39:20] in His kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace within you. Oh, work to realize that whatever your mental exercises are or the spiritual conflicts or doubts or fears, your times of soul despondency

[00:39:39] are in the Lord's hand. Lodge there safe are your spiritual interests. All His saints are in His hand and He, to whose care you have confided your redeemed soul, has pledged Himself for its eternity.

[00:39:57] Of His own sheep, He says, I give to them eternal life, and they will never perish, nor will any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father who gave them to Me is greater than all, and no man is able to

[00:40:13] pluck them out of My Father's hand. With precious faith and humble assurance, you are privileged to say with Paul, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I

[00:40:29] have committed to him against that day. No member of his body, insignificant though it may be, will be removed. No temple of the Holy Spirit, frail and imperfect though it is, can be destroyed.

[00:40:44] Not a soul to whom the divine image has been restored and the divine nature has been imparted, upon whose heart the name of Jesus has been carved, will be involved in the final and eternal

[00:40:59] destruction of the wicked. Nothing will perish but the earthly and the sensual. Not one grain of precious faith is lost. Not one spark of the divine light is extinguished. Not one heartbeat

[00:41:16] of the spiritual life can die. Oh, think of this! If you have fled all sins, trembling to Jesus, you who cling to Him as the moss grows on the rock and as the ivy to the oak, never will you

[00:41:33] lose that hold of faith you have on Christ. And never will Christ lose that hold of love that He has on you. You and Jesus are one, indivisibly and eternally one. Nothing will separate you from His

[00:41:51] love, nor remove you from His care, nor exclude you from His sympathy, nor banish you from His heaven of eternal blessedness. You are in Christ, the subject of His grace, and Christ is in you,

[00:42:06] the hope of glory. All your cares are Christ's cares. All your sorrows are Christ's sorrows. All your needs are Christ's supply. All your sicknesses are Christ's cure. All your crosses are Christ's burdens. Your life, physical, spiritual, eternal, is hid with Christ in God.

[00:42:31] Oh, the unutterable blessings that spring from a vital union with the Lord Jesus! The believer can exultingly say, Christ and I are one. One in nature, one in affection, one in sympathy, one in fellowship, and one through the countless ages of eternity.

[00:42:49] The life I live is a life of faith in Him. I fly to Him in the confidence of a loving friend, and I reveal to Him my secret sorrow. I confess to Him my hidden sin. I acknowledge my heart

[00:43:05] backsliding. I make known to Him my needs, my sufferings, my fears. I tell Him how cold my affections are, how reserved my obedience, how imperfect is my service, and yet how I long to love Him more passionately, to follow Him more closely, to serve Him more devotedly,

[00:43:28] to be more holy and in holiness His. And how does He meet me? With a listening ear, with a beaming eye, with a gracious word, with an outstretched hand, with a kindness and a gentleness all like Himself. Share then, dear listener, your spiritual and deathless interests

[00:43:53] in the Lord's hand, careful only to work out in the holy fire the grace He has wrought in your soul, so manifestly a living epistle of Christ known and read of all men. At the time of death,

[00:44:11] to those who depressed with a painful foreboding of their final end are all their lifetime subject to bondage. How comforting is the reflection that the time of the believer's death is perfectly

[00:44:29] in the Lord's hand, for it is true that there is a time to die, an overwhelming thought, a time to die, a time when this mortal conflict will be over, when this heart will cease to feel, no longer able to

[00:44:46] feel joy or sorrow, when this head will ache and these eyes will weep no more. Best and holiest of all, a time when this corruptible will put on incorruption and this mortal will put on immortality

[00:45:04] and we will see Christ as He is and be like Him. The world we have left will move on then as now. Life's light and shadows will gather in blended hues around our grave, but wrapped in death's sleep,

[00:45:21] dreamless sleep, we will be unconscious of all that once distressed or charmed us. The frown of anger and the smile of love forever with the Lord. If this is so then, O Christian, why the anxious trembling fear? Your time of death, with all its attendant circumstances,

[00:45:46] is in the Lord's hand. All is appointed and arranged by Him who loves you and redeemed you infinite goodness, wisdom, and faithfulness, consulting your highest happiness in each circumstance of your departure. The final sickness cannot come, the last enemy cannot strike

[00:46:11] until he bids it. All is in His hand. Then calmly, carefully leave life's closing scene with Him. You cannot die away from Jesus. Whether your spirit wings its flight at home or abroad amid

[00:46:30] strangers or friends, or by a slow process or by a sudden stroke in brightness or gloom, Jesus will be with you. And upheld by His grace and cheered by His presence, you will triumphantly

[00:46:46] say, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Bearing your dying testimony to

[00:47:01] the faithfulness of God and the preciousness of His promises, my time to die is in your hand, O Lord. And there I calmly leave it. There is a special emphasis on a truth within the beautiful words we have been discussing worthy of some special attention.

[00:47:25] In whose hand are the believer's times? In a father's hand. Be those times, whatever they may be, times of trial, times of temptation, times of suffering, times of peril, times of sunshine or

[00:47:42] gloom, of life or death. They are in a parent's hand. Is your present path lonely and dreary? Has the Lord seen fit to recall some fond blessing, to deny His earnest request, or to painfully

[00:48:00] discipline your heart? All this springs from the love of a father as fully as he had unlocked his treasury and poured its costliest gifts at your feet. Can you enter upon the unknown history of this year? There may be troubles looming in the shadowy distance, uncertainty

[00:48:28] hanging over your future paths. You may not be able to forecast a single probability of what your future will be. But what could be a firmer, sweeter truth for faith to lean upon this?

[00:48:43] My times are in a father's hand and all will, all must be well. Next, in a Redeemer's hand too are our times. That same Redeemer who carried our sorrows in His heart, our curse and transgression on His soul, our cross on His shoulders, who died, rose again,

[00:49:10] and who lives and intercedes for us, and who will gather all His ransomed around Him in glory. He is your guardian and your guide. Can you not cheerfully confide all your earthly concerns, all your spiritual interests to His keeping and control, casting all your cares upon Him

[00:49:34] for He cares for you? Oh yes, faith replies, in that hand that still bears in its palms the print of the nail are all my times and I will trust and not be afraid. In whose hand, sinner, unconverted

[00:49:53] listener, do you ask in whose hand are my times? I answer, in that infinite sovereign's. In whose hand your life is and whose are all your ways? I confront you standing upon the threshold of a new

[00:50:12] year with the solemn truth your times are in God's hand. In Him you live and move and have a single thought or a single step. From His government you cannot break. From His eye you cannot hide.

[00:50:30] From His power you cannot flee. He holds you responsible for all your privileges, all your possessions and actions, and before long will say to you, give an account of your stewardship.

[00:50:47] Oh, that this may be a year of new spiritual life to your soul, of living to the Lord, a new year then that will someday be your history, one unlike any you have ever lived before. Oh, that this year

[00:51:03] your stubborn will after so long a resisting, your rebellious heart after its years of closing and hardening against the requesting, pleading Savior, you may be sweetly surrendered to bow to the gospel of Christ. You will be born of the Spirit, a child of God, an heir of happiness,

[00:51:26] which the revolution of time and the ages of eternity can never terminate. Oh, how many who hear these words has the decree already gone out. So says the Lord, this year you will die.

[00:51:43] Oh, dismal sentence to those who have no union with the Lord Jesus. Dear listener, are you preparing to spend this year as you have all the previous years of your life? What? Another year in hating God, abusing his mercies and despising his son in neglecting his salvation,

[00:52:05] in hardening your heart in sin, in living for the world and yourself and in treasuring up wrath against for the day of wrath. Aren't you worth more than such a life? This year will you sit in church and pray great author of my being, father of all mercies,

[00:52:26] righteous judge in the world, grant me another year of rebellion and impiety, more time to waste, more mercies to abuse, more means of grace to neglect, more property to squander, more influence

[00:52:41] to oppose and fight against you? You shudder at the thought of praying this. You could not for your life breathe such a prayer of blasphemy. And yet entering upon this year in an unconverted state, aren't your thoughts, temper and goals far more reflective than saying those words,

[00:53:02] insulting God with your actions than language which you would dare not utter? Oh, that gently, persuasively drawn by the Holy Spirit, you may now take yourself to the Lord Jesus as a self-destroyed yet humble, repentant sinner. Oh, that this may be the happy hour of your

[00:53:26] spiritual confessions, of your true unreserved surrender to the Lord, to be his child, his servant forever. True happiness, joy and peace will forever be strangers to your heart until it tastes the love of the Savior. Nor will you be able to give yourself comfort

[00:53:51] to the high and noble duties of real life or to contemplate death with calmness and the eternity that stretches beyond it with hope until you are reconciled to God through the one mediator between

[00:54:06] God and man, the man Jesus Christ. In presenting these thoughts for your attention with equal and earnestness and affection, I would encourage you to come to Christ without excusing your sinfulness or hesitating on the ground of not being good enough or worthy enough to plead.

[00:54:26] Jesus saves none but sinners. Approach with money in your hand to purchase your salvation and you will be indignantly rejected. But approach the life-giving waters without money and without price and receive salvation as a free gift and you will be kindly received.

[00:54:46] The atoning work is finished. The great salvation is purchased. The mighty debt is paid, all perfected and secured by the blood of God's incarnate Son. And now it is his good pleasure and delight to confer this priceless, precious love upon everyone who is of a contrite and humble

[00:55:10] spirit as an act of his most free favor, no matter how vile, undeserving, and poor the recipient might be. By grace you are saved. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace before the majesty

[00:55:29] and splendor of this precious truth, all human glory must fade, all human pride must fall. Were a crown to be on your head or had you lived the life of the most rigid philosopher monk or

[00:55:44] were you possessed of all the spoils of ancient legend, yet if you are to be saved you must be as was the humble tax collector. Approaching in his spirit and breathing his prayer, God be merciful to me a sinner. That proud rebellious self-righteous heart of yours

[00:56:07] must be laid low to the dust. Oh descend from the babble of your own works, from the towering summit of which you have profanely hoped to build your way into heaven. Tear from off you the fig

[00:56:20] leaf of righteousness with the covering of which you have vainly sought to veil the moral deformity of your soul and come and base your hope of heaven upon the only name given under heaven,

[00:56:34] which a sinner might be saved. And wrap yourself believingly in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be accepted being justified freely by his grace through redemption that is

[00:56:49] in Christ Jesus. It is written by the deeds of the law there will be no flesh justified in his sight and by the same inspiration it is also written but to him that works not but believes in him who

[00:57:05] justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness. And then from this act of most free justification follows the precious holy result therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh then by all the deathless interests that are at

[00:57:30] stake, by the desire for a holy life, a happy death and a glorious immortality cease from yourself. Relinquish all reliance upon your sacraments, religious duties and charitable works and under a spiritual deep conviction of the desperate sinfulness of your fallen and corrupt nature,

[00:57:52] the plague of your own heart, your entire inability to save yourself and your utter unpreparedness to stand before the holy Lord God. Flee to Christ and avail yourself to the great salvation which

[00:58:08] he has effectually wrought and most freely bestows. And what will be your reception by the Savior? Does it admit a doubt? Oh no not one. He came into the world to save sinners and he will save you.

[00:58:25] His compassion inclines him to save sinners. His power enables him to save sinners. His promise binds him to save sinners. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ

[00:58:41] Jesus came into the world to save sinners and oh how easy it is to be saved when the Holy Spirit draws the heart to Christ. It is not great faith nor deep experience nor extensive knowledge that

[00:59:00] are required. The dimmest eye that has ever looked to Christ, the feeblest hand that has ever taken hold of Christ, the most trembling step that ever traveled to Christ has salvation, has in it life

[00:59:15] eternal. The smallest measure of real faith will take the soul to heaven. Yes there is hope for the trembling penitent. Jesus suffered to the uttermost and therefore he is able to save to the uttermost

[00:59:33] all that come to God by him. Let us in conclusion trace the practical influence which this truth should exert upon our minds. The present aspect of our times as a nation is gloomy and depressing

[00:59:54] to a degree. It is a time of war. The scourge which our hearts fondly hoped would be held back has fallen upon us with more than expected terror and destruction. The nation is clad in mourning.

[01:00:12] Scarcely is there a family from the highest to the lowest that has not felt some vibration of the terrible shock. Abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is death. Who can paint the anguish

[01:00:29] or describe the desolateness at the present time of many homes? We turn to you who are suddenly and deeply bereaved. Your present hour of pain is in the Lord's hand. He has made you a widow that he

[01:00:45] might be your God, a fatherless one that in him you might find mercy. Won't the judge of all the earth do right? I wound and I heal. Oh that this the time of your deep inconsolable grief may be the time

[01:01:02] of prayer, the seeking for him who has smitten and who alone binds up. Acquaint yourself with him and be at peace and then in deep trusting submission to the divine disposal you will exclaim,

[01:01:19] the cup which my father has given me, won't I drink it? He has done all things well. Don't be anxious about anything. Let this precious truth, my times are in your hand, remove from your mind all needless

[01:01:43] anxious care for the present or the future. Exercising simple faith in God, don't be anxious about anything. Be content with such things as you have for he has said I will never leave you

[01:01:58] nor forsake you. Learn to be content with your present lot, with God's dealings with and his disposal of you. You are just where his providence has in its inscrutable but all wise and righteous

[01:02:13] decision placed you. It may be a position, painful irksome, trying, but it's right. Oh yes it's right. Only aim to glorify him in it. Wherever you are placed, God has a work for you to do, a purpose

[01:02:32] through you to be accomplished in which he blends your happiness with his glory and when you have learned the lessons of his love, he will transfer you to another and a wider sphere for whose nobler duties and higher responsibilities the present is, perhaps but disciplining and preparing

[01:02:55] you. Work then to live a life of daily dependence on God. Oh it is a sweet and holy life. It saves from many a desponding feeling, from many a corroding care, from many an anxious thought,

[01:03:13] from many a sleepless night, from many a tearful eye, and from many an imprudent and sinful scheme. In a letter addressed by Luther to Melanchthon at Augsburg, there occur these striking remarks which from their appropriateness to the present subject I venture to interweave with my own.

[01:03:35] Grace and peace in Christ. In Christ I say and not in the world. Amen. I hate with exceeding hatred those extreme cares which consume you. If the cause is unjust, abandon it. If the cause is just, why

[01:03:53] should we doubt the promises of him who commands us to sleep without fear? Can the devil do more than kill us? Christ will not be lacking in the work of justice and truth. He lives, he reigns.

[01:04:07] What fear then can we have? God is powerful to raise back up his cause if it is overthrown. To make it progress, it remains motionless, and if we are not worthy of it, he will do it by others.

[01:04:24] For our cause is in the very hands of him who can say, No one will pluck it out of my hands. I would not have it in my own hand, and it would not be desirable if it were so.

[01:04:38] I have had many things in my hands, and I have lost them all, but whatever I have been able to place in God's, I still possess. All in his hand. Oh yes, beloved listener, thank God that your times,

[01:04:57] your interests, your salvation are all out of your hands and out of the hands of all creatures supremely and safely in his. Forward in the path of duty, of labor, and suffering. Aim to resemble

[01:05:13] Christ more closely in your disposition, your spirit, your whole life. Soon it will be said, the master has come and calls for you. He is coming. Prepare to meet your God. Let your motto for this year be forward, patient in endurance, submissive in suffering, content with God's

[01:05:35] allotment, zealous, prayerful and watchful. Be found standing in your lot at the end of the days. Trust God implicitly for the future. No sorrow comes, but which will open some sweet spring of comfort. No necessity transpires except that which comes from a father's care. No affliction

[01:06:00] falls except what will be attended with the savior's tenderest sympathy in him. All meet confluence of grace for your hourly momentary need. Let your constant prayer be, hold me up and I will be safe. Let your daily precept be casting all your cares upon him for he cares

[01:06:26] about you and then leave God to fulfill as most faithfully he will his own gracious, precious promise. As your days so will your strength be. And so walking with God through this veil of tears

[01:06:43] until you exchange sorrow for joy, suffering for ease, sin for purity, labor for rest, conflict for glory and all earth's checkered gloomy scenes for the changeless, cloudless happiness and glory of heaven.

[01:07:22] The sermon was actually, it's a new year's sermon but it's titled time is in your hands and there's even a part where he says dear child of God, your afflictions, your trials, your crosses,

[01:07:31] your losses, your sorrows, all are in your heavenly father's hand and they cannot come until sent by him. Bow that stricken heart, yield that tempest-tossed soul to his sovereign disposal, to his calm righteous way and the submissive spirit and language of your suffering savior, your will oh

[01:07:47] father not mine be done. My times of sadness and of grief are in your hand. I mean that is a powerful statement when you know, when you remember that it was very, very likely that this sermon was preached

[01:08:00] only two months after his own beloved wife whom he never remarried again. He loved her, had 10 children with her, had just passed on and he's able to say these hard times are truly in your hands and he

[01:08:13] says all, I mean the whole sermon I think is just a powerful praise to how God is truly in control of everything. Our frustrating times, our spiritual depression times, everything is truly in the hands

[01:08:25] of your God. I think that what better way to start the new year? Winslow had the right idea when he preached that sermon 150 years ago. This is a good way to start the new year. Let's think about how

[01:08:36] everything is in God's hands and I think it's also a good time, good way for us to remind ourselves at the beginning of a new year as well. If you're not listening to this currently as it is the year

[01:08:44] 2024 at the time this is coming out, well wherever you are, start new and remember that God has all of your time in his hands. Thank you for listening to today's episode of Revived Thoughts. Today's sermon was narrated by

[01:09:07] Adam Parker. Adam runs the Bold Apologia podcast and Troy was recently on this as a guest. You can go over and find that episode. Bold Apologia, the podcast and the website that Adam run. They were

[01:09:19] created with the intention of pointing unbelieving people in the direction of Jesus Christ and giving proper materials to unbelievers, both young and old, for the purpose of equipping them to grow in their faith and help them effectively reach those around them for the kingdom of God.

[01:09:35] Joel, we heard at the beginning of this episode, we have heard from many of the different listeners that we've had. We've read your messages and we've been hearing from you and I think I'm just going

[01:09:43] to say we'd love to keep receiving them. It's very encouraging and if you have listened to this show, if it has been encouraging to you, if you've enjoyed the church history, if you've enjoyed the sermons, if you've enjoyed listening and learning, we'd love to keep hearing from you.

[01:09:55] Please write us another message, even if your message is something as simple as, hey, we've enjoyed the show or hey, thanks for, you know, short and fine. Don't worry about how

[01:10:04] long it is, but that's my encouragement is if at the beginning of this year we'd love to hear from you and what you like about it, what you're thinking and keep hearing from it because it's a big

[01:10:14] encouragement. It really helps when you're working hard on these episodes and stuff and you're going, man, it's a lot of work. There are people listening to the answers. You are and we really appreciate that. This is Troy and Joel and this is For Five Thoughts.