In this sermon, the speaker shares a story about his friend Billy Bray, who was in Bangkok, Thailand to serve the Lord but also worked as a writer for Time Magazine and Newsweek. One night, Billy accidentally left his attaché case at a hotel where they were having supper. Interestingly, Billy always signed his name as "Billy Bray, Phil-121" which refers to Philippians 1:21 in the Bible. Miraculously, the teller who found the attaché case asked Billy about the significance of "Phil-121" before returning it to him. The speaker emphasizes God's perfect timing and providence in arranging this situation, highlighting that God is in control of all things and works everything together for good. The sermon also touches on how God guides and protects his people, listens to their prayers, and fulfills their desires. The speaker concludes by emphasizing the righteousness and graciousness of the Lord in all his ways.

Psalm 145, verse 10. Psalm 145, verse 10. All your works shall praise you, O Lord, and your saints shall bless you. They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and talk of your power, to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and the glorious majesty of His kingdom. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations. The Lord upholds all who fall and raises up all of those who are bowed down. The eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hands and supply the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, to all who will call upon Him in truth. He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him. He also will hear their cry and save them. The Lord preserves all who love Him, but all the wicked He will destroy. My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. All flesh shall bless His holy name forever and ever. In the past Lord's Days, this month, we've been talking about the wonders of God in creation. And we said that our purpose in giving these messages was so that we have great thoughts of the Lord. And we saw that everything in God's creation speaks of what a wonderful God He is. Well, today we want to think about the providence of God, the providence of God. What do we mean by the providence of God? Well, not how He created the world, but how He runs the world, really. I think the best way to think about it is to picture yourself in heaven, and God is there, the Lord is there, and He's looking down over all the world. And He's doing billions of things, all at the one and the same time. And we're going to think about some of those things He's doing. What a great, great God He is. God is not only the creator of the universe, but He's the sustainer of the universe as well. We read in Colossians chapter 1 that in Him, or by Him, all things consist. And do you know what that means? It means that God is holding matter together all the time. And incidentally, that solves a question that psychicists don't know the answer to. I asked a physicist once, what holds matter together? And he laughed. He said, I wish we knew. Well, Paul knew. Paul wrote the answer down in Colossians chapter 1. It's God who holds all things together. And as the God of providence, one of the things He's doing all the time is providing food for all His creatures. We read that, didn't we, in this psalm? It says, the eyes of all look expectantly to you, and you give them their food in due season. Well, that's really tremendous when you think of all the creatures that God has in the world. It's quite a job to provide food for them all. I think some of us were a little bit aware of that during the fighting desert storm, and you saw all those troops going over there to Italy. Had to provide food for all of those people. That's a big job, providing food for all those soldiers. God has a bigger job than this all the time. Providing food for every creature in the world. I tell you, maintaining a universal food chain like that is no mean accomplishment. But that's only one of the things He's doing. All of these things we're going to be talking about today, He does it one and the same time. Babies are being born into the world all the time. And people say, well, the father determines the sex of the baby. Well, God determines the sex of the baby. And God provides for an even balance in the world. Good thing they're not all born men or boys or girls. There has to be a balance in the world. And God maintains that balance as part of the providence of God. You wouldn't think He'd be interested in the details of our lives, but He really is. And God directs the course of history. Because He is the sovereign of the universe, it follows that history is His story. And God ordains human governance. And God sometimes raises up men that don't know Him at all. Exalts the basest of men, we read. But He ordains human government just the same. And you know, the ruler's heart is in the hand of the Lord. The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, He turns it with us however He will. He allows man a certain amount of wickedness, but God triumphs over it just the same as we will see. God is the divine chess player. And He's moving men on His board. And we're going to see later on how He moves men on His board. It's absolutely breathtaking. And while He's doing all of that, God is guiding people in answer to prayer. All over the world today, the people of God are looking to Him for guidance. Lord, what do you want me to do? And in a marvelous way, without any voices being heard, God is showing people exactly what He wants them to do. While He's providing food, while He's holding matter together, while He's doing all of these things, He listens to the prayers of people as they seek His guidance. And while He's doing that, He's protecting His people from dangers seen and unseen. And you know, that's a marvelous thing that nothing happens to a child of God without being filtered through His wisdom and love. That's always seemed that way, I know, in life. But nothing happens to the child of God without being filtered through His love and wisdom, protecting His people. And that's not just when you're awake, it's when you're asleep. He isn't asleep. He that keepeth Israel, the psalmist said, will neither slumber nor sleep. I think that's wonderful. He that keepeth Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Somebody said, we are kept by the insomnia of God. And so we are absolutely true. And then it's wonderful to know that no evil comes from God. And I like to emphasize, no evil comes from God, whether it's sickness, accident, tragedy, no matter what it is, it doesn't come from God, it comes from the evil ones. But God harnesses it. God harnesses it and overrules it for His glory, for the blessing of His people, and as lessons to others as well. You have that in connection with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Wicked men took Him and nailed Him to a cross, Him being delivered by the determinants for knowledge and counsel of God. You have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, Peter said. Men by wicked hands crucified and slew the Lord Jesus, but I said, all right, I'll make Him the Savior of the world. And history really is a record of God allowing wickedness, a certain amount of rain, and then showing how He is greater than that and how His grace can triumph over it all. He outwits Satan and demons and evil men and brings His purposes to bear in the long run. And in that way He makes the wrath of man to praise Him. And He's doing all of this while He's providing food for us and guiding us and caring for us, protecting us. All at one in this. How can you do that? He's God. That's how we can do it. The Lord charts the course of every virus, every germ, every allergy, every sickness that comes through a human being. He charts the course of everything. It doesn't come from Him, but they have to be under His dominion just the same. And I often think in times of war over the history of the years, there wasn't what you might think of as a random arrow or spear or missile or bullet. How can He be in control of all of that? But He is. He really is. I remember so many stories of fellows in the Second World War and they had a Gideon Bible here, you know. And the bullet came and hit the Gideon, the Gideon New Testament. Never got any further. We heard a lot of stories like that. I mean, could God guide that bullet? Amazing when you start to think of it. The Word of God tells us that not a sparrow falls to the ground without your heavenly Father. I think that's marvelous. You and I don't stay awake worrying about sparrows. I mean, when you think of something that's insignificant, how could a thing be more insignificant than a sparrow? God, not one of them falls to the ground without your heavenly Father. Just remember that when you're traveling along 580 or 80 or 880 and you see that dead animal on the pavement and you just pass on, you know. God knew all about it. And God was there. His perfect knowledge and His universal presence says He numbers the hairs of our heads. And think of how God faithfully ordains day and night and the seasons of the year. We sing that all the time, don't we? Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father. And we extol Him for His faithfulness in the seasons of the year and for the wonderful way in which He controls weather. You know, we've been without rain for six years and now the rain comes in abundance, I believe, in answer to the prayers of God's people. But you know, it's a wonderful thing that God is the one who ordains the weather and not man. Because if man controlled the weather, there'd be civil war all over the world because the farmers would want the rain and some other people wouldn't want the rain and how could they please everybody? I'm glad it's in the hands of God, aren't you? The winds and the waves obey Him. William Cooper said, He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. And while God is doing all of this and looking down upon the earth, He makes sure that His moral laws operate. He maintains certain moral laws in the universe. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, God sees to it that you can't sin and get away with it. Well, that's amazing, isn't it? And I'm talking about individual people. You can't sin and get away with it. Sin has its toll in this life and it has its toll in the life to come if it's not forgiven by God. God judges evil and He rewards righteousness. This is what I mean when I say He maintains His moral laws. Sometimes He punishes sin like that. Other times He's really merciful, you know, and He waits a long, long time. Christians are not exempt from pain and illness and suffering and sorrow. We're made of the same dust as all the others. Christians drop dead suddenly, just like others. But we shouldn't conclude that accidents and sickness and suffering are the result of a person's own sin. When Jesus was on earth, He talked about a tower in Siloam falling and He said, no, don't think those people were sinners more than all the rest. He was saying that, well, I think Spurgeon said it well. He said the visible providence of God has no respect of persons. The visible providence of God has no respect of persons. And then, of course, there are the spiritual laws of God. And you say, what do you mean by that? Well, God, you know, this book is just filled with promises. Somebody said that the road to heaven is paved with the promises of God. And God sees that they're all fulfilled, spiritual laws of God. And He has other spiritual laws. God has said, look, if a person comes to me, repents of his sin, believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll save him. He's doing that all the time, all over the world. When people come to the end of themselves and are willing to take sides of God against themselves and say, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Save me for Jesus' sake. He does. He saves me. He maintains His spiritual laws all the time. Nothing escapes His notice. I tell you, this makes me realize what a wonderful God He is. Nothing escapes His notice. Not just outward acts, but it says the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Wow. Just think of God knowing what every person is thinking and intending all the time. And He really does. And you know, God keeps accurate records. God keeps a record of the works of the unsaved. And if they don't get saved, the books are going to be brought out, as you read in Revelation 20. The books are going to be all brought out. The files are going to be opened. And there are the works of the unsaved. And God keeps records of believers, too. He keeps a record of every cup of cold water that's given in His name. You wouldn't think that, would you? That's what it says. And anything that's ever been done as unto the Lord, it's all recorded. And He's going to bring out those records. In that great day of review and reward, when the kindness of God will recompense the kindness of His people. That's wonderful, isn't it? The first judgment, the judgment of the wicked dead, is known as the judgment of the great white throne. This judgment, the judgment of review and reward, is known as the judgment seat. But just think of that, that God has a record of it all. And that nothing escapes His use. And God has control of other things as well. You know, every once in a while, man comes out with some marvelous new discovery. Well, do you know, it was God who timed that discovery. It's God who revealed, okay, now is the time for this to come into the history of the world. And of course, the scientist struts himself, you know, and thinks he's the great discoverer. It was God who gave it to him. I don't care whether the man's saved or not. I don't care whether he's a believer or not. It's God who allowed him to discover that. God has His own time schedule, and that has to do with cures for diseases too, doesn't it? It's remarkable, really, the progress that has been made. He discovered a vaccine for polio. It's a wonderful thing. It was all part of God's timing and His control of the universe. And then think of the Lord while He's doing all of this, and we're not even scratching the surface today. He's listening, He's hearing and answering prayer in all the languages and dialects of the world. It's marvelous, isn't it? Some languages you never heard about. I think I might have mentioned before, there's a Christian man named Robert Dick Wilson, and he could speak 45 Eastern languages. Forty-five. That's the most I ever heard of any man doing. That's a lot. But God hears and answers prayer in all the different languages of the world. And because He never sleeps, this is going on without interruption. And you know, He not only hears our prayers, but He prays for us too. That's wonderful to know that there's somebody in heaven who's praying for us, and doubtless we wouldn't be able to go on if that weren't so. And the psalmist says that His thoughts toward us are more numerous than the fans of the sea. That blows my mind. The thoughts of the Lord toward us are more numerous than all the fans of the sea. And God is doing all of these things at one and the same time. The Bible is filled with illustrations of the providence of God. Here's a young fellow back in Genesis named Joseph. And his brethren aren't getting along too well with him. And they throw him in a pit. Everything wrong happens. It seems that everything wrong happens. But God is in control. Joseph prays, and a Midianite caravan comes along, takes him out of the pit, takes him down to Egypt, where exactly where God wanted him, in Egypt. It's just that that Midianite caravan provided free transportation, that's all. And then he served as a servant, first of all, and rose and rose, and cream rises to the surface. And pretty soon he's the prime minister of Egypt. That's the providence of God, you know. From a pit to a prison to the palace. The story of Joseph. And then you have the story of Ruth in the Bible. The providence of God, you know. She was of a cursed race, really, Moab. And yet she loved the Lord. And she renounced her native religion, shall we say. The religion she was brought up in. She said the God of the Israelites is the true God, and I'm going to trust in him. And God moved things on his chessboard, and pretty soon she came back to Bethlehem, and she went out into the fields to glean grain in the fields. And, I was going to say, by coincidence, there are no coincidences. Why did she go to the field of Boaz? That's the way she went. She went to the field of Boaz. Because there's a God in heaven who's superintending the affairs of men. And some way or other he controlled her emotions and intellect and will. So she went to the field of Boaz, and next thing you know they're married. And she becomes an ancestress of the Lord Jesus. The providence of God. If you ever want to see the providence of God, read the book of Esther. With its plots and counterplots and its cliffhanging suspense, you know, when the Jewish nation is on the verge of being exterminated. And God is moving the men on his chessboard. Pretty soon a decree is made that the Jews can defend themselves. That's a marvelous deliverance for the Jewish people. And here's an unsaved ruler, and he makes a decree that all the people have to be taxed. And that brings a Jewish maiden named Mary down to Bethlehem. It's just the right time. It's just the right time. So that her baby is born in Bethlehem. The prophecy is fulfilled through a tax decree. What it was, the providence of God. And of course, as we said, in connection with the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, you see it very, very vividly. Man has his wickedness, but God has his way. And then I think it's beautiful to see it in the case of Philip. The Lord works on Philip to go down to the road leading from Jerusalem to Gaza. And there's a chariot there, and it's going back to Ethiopia. And talk about God's timing and sequence of moves. Philip just gets to that chariot at the right time. And why did the man sitting in the chariot have to be reading Isaiah 53 of all passages? I mean, what could be better? Who has to lead our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord? The whole gospel there in Isaiah chapter 53. When you think of all the chapters in the Old Testament Scriptures, why did he have to be reading 53? He did. Philip says to him, you understand what you're reading? He said, how can I, unless somebody explains it to me? And so Philip opened his mouth and told him about the Lord Jesus. And Paul, the apostle Paul, he's thrown into prison. Thrown into prison. He's a man that's so effective for the Lord. We owe so much to Paul, he's thrown into prison. And what good could come out of that? Four of the letters of the New Testament. We call them prison epistles, don't we? Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. And then, of course, John, exiled to the Isle of Patmos. Wicked men take him and banish him to Patmos. And what happens? The book of Revelation. I was in the Spirit when the Lord stayed on the Isle of Patmos, he says. And he gives this marvelous revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're not just talking about history, we're talking about current events, too. This is going on all the time. It's just that we don't always see it. Some of you may have heard some of the instances that I'm going to tell now, but I'll just ask you to bear with us because they're worth repeating. Billy Graham and his wife are down in Vero Beach, Florida, some years ago. Their son is taking flying lessons. Franklin is taking flying lessons since his instructor is there with him, Calvin Booth. And Franklin and Calvin Booth are going to take off from Vero Beach and fly back to where Franklin is attending school in Longview, Texas. They take off, and when they take off, they hear that there's thunderstorm activities along the route between Vero Beach and Longview, Texas. So they follow a different route. Instead of going due west, they decide to go north toward Jackson and then west. If they had gone west, they would have flown over an awful lot of rural areas with no well-lighted airports at all, no big airports on the route they originally had planned to go on. But they get this report of thunderstorm activity, so they go north and then west. And that takes them over a route where there are a lot of airports. And as they're flying, before they get to Jackson, the generator fails on their plane. The generator fails. And that means they have no radio communication. It means they have no lights on the plane. They can't communicate with the control tower or anything else. The navigational system is out. But they're able to find the airport, Jackson. And they line up to go down the runway. And all of a sudden, the lights go on in high intensity, lighting up the runway. And then they see a green light from the control tower. And a green light means okay to land. Now remember, they hadn't been able to call into the control tower. The lights go on in the runway and the green light goes on telling them that it's okay to land. And so they pull in and they have a safe landing and get the generator fixed. It wasn't until four hours, four years later that they found out what had happened. Four years later they found out what happened. One of the control tower operators had some visitors. And he was showing them the control tower and how it worked. And he said, now this switch here controls the lights of the runway. And he turned them on to full intensity, runway lights. And then he had a gun, a tri-colored gun. And he showed them. He turned on the red there in the control tower. He turned on the yellow. And then for some reason he didn't know, he held his arm out the window and turned on the green. And he didn't know why he did that. And after he turned on the green light outside the window of the control tower, somebody said, there's a plane coming in for a landing. And he said, there's no plane within 50 miles of Jackson. And Franklin Booth and Calvin landed there at the airport. That's what I call the providence of God. How can God do that? How can God be so interested in us? Later, Calvin wrote, it renews our awareness of God's role as the guardian of our lives. Wonderful, isn't it? That's an illustration of the providence of God. Another one has to do with a young fellow named Steve Saint. See, years ago, five men down in Ecuador were martyred because of their, they were going into the Warani Indians to carry the gospel, and the Indians didn't know, and they speared them to death. And now Steve Saint was the son of Nate Saint, the pilot, and he's over in Africa. And he's going through real spiritual problems. Why did my father have to die? Did any good come out of my father's death? I wish he were alive. I've got so many questions I'd like to ask him. And Steve is just kind of wandering around at loose ends. And he's in Mali. And one day he looks at a map and he sees the word Timbuktu. He said, I didn't know Timbuktu was a real place. I thought it was just a fictional place. He said, I think I'll go to Timbuktu. So he was able to get a seat on a UNICEF plane to fly from Mali to Timbuktu. But he was told before he went, look, there are two doctors there in Timbuktu, two of our doctors, UNICEF doctors, that have to come back. And if they come back, if they need that space to come back, you can't come back on the plane. But he still went. He got there and he began to think, how am I going to get back? So he tried to contract with a truck driver to drive. He said, look, you don't want to drive across a desert in a truck. He said, anything could happen in the desert and you'd be finished. So that was that. Although he could send a message, the equipment was not working to receive messages. Then he remembered. He remembered something about a Christian church in Timbuktu. Funny, right at that moment he remembered. Of course, he couldn't speak the language of the people very well, but he was able to make it clear to people that he wanted to find a Christian church. And some of the boys and girls started to lead him along. And pretty soon he came to a building, and it looked like a church building, and there was a house at the side of it. And on the front of the house, at the side of the church building, there was a sign, a poster that said in French, By his stripes we are healed. And he knew he was at the right place. So as he was standing there, a young black man came along and tried to talk, of course he couldn't talk. So the black man went and got an interpreter, a missionary interpreter. And the black man introduced himself. His name was N-O-U-H. I don't know how you pronounce it. And they talked, and they talked, and they talked. He said to him, how did you come to know the Lord? Well, he said, there was a missionary here, and he said, I went into his garden and stole some carrots. And he said, my parents had always told me that if the missionaries got a hold of me, they would eat me. But he said, he didn't eat me. Instead of that, he gave me some cards with verses of scripture, and he told me if I would memorize them, he would give me a big pen. So this young fellow started memorizing, and he stayed in touch with this missionary, and pretty soon he trusted the Lord. And when he trusted the Lord, the opposition broke out in his family. In fact, his mother put poison in his food, and his brother ate some of the food, became terribly sick, and is paralyzed to this day. He ate some of the food, and it didn't affect him. And he told of the opposition and persecution he had received from people, just because, for no other reason than he had trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. And Steve said to him, well, no, he said, what was it that enabled you to stand firm, he said. And of course, the missionary's interpreting all of this back and forth. What was it that enabled you to stand, well, he said, the missionary was giving me books to read all the time, and he said he gave me a book to read about five missionaries that went down to Ecuador to take the gospel to the Indians there, Stone Age Indians, and he said they lost their lives, he said. And he said, you know, that's what enabled me to stand in the face of all that opposition. And the missionary interrupted and said, yes, he said, one of those missionaries had the same name that you have, he said to Steve. He said, yes, I know that was my father. Wasn't that marvelous that God would leave Steve Saint all the way to Timbuktu to meet a young fellow who got saved and who was supported in his Christian stand by the story of Steve's father. And Steve said that confirmed his faith. You know what I mean? All his questions were done away with at that time, and he went back to the airport and he found that the two UNICEF doctors hadn't showed up, and he got his flight back to Mali on the plane. He said the Holy Spirit gave me the assurance that God had used Dad's death for good. Dad, by dying, had helped give New a faith worth dying for, and New, in return, had helped give Dad's faith back to me. The providence of God. Dr. James Gray was the head of Moody Bible Institute years ago, and he had planned an ocean voyage to help him recuperate from a long illness. And just when the sailing date arrived, he was smitten with another malady and had to cancel his ticket. You know, why would God allow that? This man, he was worn out. He needed that ocean voyage just to get away from it all and to recuperate from his illness, and now he's stricken again. He really needed the change that this trip would have afforded him. And then he got an answer to his doubting questioning. He turned to the newspaper and he found that the ship that he'd been scheduled to sail on had gone into a reef in St. John's Day, and it sunk almost immediately. So it was the Lord controlling events. His work wasn't done yet, was it? James Gray, his work wasn't done yet, and the Lord controlled all things. I've told most of you this, I'm sure, but when I was down in Bolivia a few years ago, I was with two missionaries named Ned Meharg and Frank Hagertine. One day after lunch, we just sat at the table and they were in a talkative mood, and they started telling me of some of their experiences in the early days down here in Bolivia. They were doing work out in the boondocks. In fact, when Ned Meharg went to Bolivia, he said, Lord, I don't have any education. He said, just send me to the most illiterate people here in Bolivia. That'll be okay for me. And God did. God sent him to the jungles, really, and to very isolated places. Well, anyway, Frank and he were going from village to village with the gospel, telling people how to be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And one time they came to a town, I guess it was a town, and they were very tired and very hungry. So they pitched camp outside, and then they thought, we'll go in and see if we can get something to eat. And they went in, sure enough, there was a hotel there, and they went into the hotel, and they said to the manageress, would you give us something to eat? Well, she knew they were evangelicals. She knew who they were. She said she didn't have anything. So they went off to the police station, and they said to the sergeant, could you tell us where we could get something to eat? And he said, well, he said, there's a hotel back there with a restaurant. They said we were just there, and she said she didn't have anything. Well, he said, come with me. And he went back to the hotel, and he said to her, get these men something to eat. And she said, come back in 15 minutes. 45 minutes, sorry. Come back in 45 minutes. So they went back to their camp and came back in 45 minutes. And she had cooked a mess of potatoes and lungs. I never heard of people eating lungs, but I did it myself this summer in Austria. I just wish they hadn't told me what I was eating. Anyway, when Frank started to eat the lungs, he said to Ned, I don't like the taste of these. When Ned was starving, he said, you give me the meat, I'll give you my potatoes. So they started to eat, and pretty soon, Ned's stomach began to burn, burn, burn. She had put rat poison in the meat. He got terribly sick. He began drinking water, and he couldn't get enough water down. And he got sicker and sicker and sicker. They had to leave the hotel, and they went back. And he started to lose consciousness. Before he became unconscious, he said to Frank, he said, just send my Bible back to my father in Australia. And then he lost consciousness. Frank is there with a dying Ned. A tall man appeared and seen. And he said, your friend is sick. And Frank said, my friend is dying. This man said, I'll be right back. And he came back, and he had an earthenware vessel with goat's milk in it. And he said, get your friend to drink it. He said, my friend is unconscious. He said, force it down. So Frank started to force this goat's milk down Ned's throat. And he forced it, forced it. Pretty soon, Ned opened his eyes. And Frank said, here Ned, drink this. Drink this as much as you can. And he started to drink it. And after a while, he said, the burning's gone. The burning's gone. And he steadily improved, so much so that the next day, they were able to leave and continue on their missionary journey. But before they left, they thought, we'd like to leave a little money for this man that left the goat's milk for us. And so they left that earthenware vessel, and underneath they put some money for him. They went on their way. Months later, they were back in that area. And they said, well, we would like to find that tall man who showed us that kindness. So they went to some of the people there, and they told them about this, about how they had been sick. One of them had been sick, and how this tall man, people said, there are no tall men here. That's true, if you were in Bolivia, there are no tall men there. We look like giants to them. They're short. Well, they said to the people, this tall man brought us a container of goat's milk. They said there were no goat's milk here. There are no goats here. Sometime later, Ned and Frank were talking to a missionary doctor out there. His name was Dr. Brown from New Zealand. They told him this story, and he said to them, She put white phosphorus in the meat. And he said the best known antidote for white phosphorus is goat's milk. Amazing, isn't it? Amazing that God would provide the best known antidote out there in the jungles. But I should stop here and say the more, I think the more we're cast upon the Lord, the more we see these marvelous things happening in our lives. In our society here, we have so many cushions and pillows, you know, and social security and all the rest of it. We're really not dependent on the Lord, at least we don't think we are. And we don't see these miracles in answer to prayer that these people who really, if the Lord doesn't intercede for them, intervene for them, they're sunk. I ought to tell you the story of my friend Billy Bray. He was out in Bangkok, Thailand. I visited him there. One night we went to the Oriental Hotel and had supper there at the hotel. While we were sitting there, he told me a story. Billy Bray was there really to serve the Lord, but he also had a job writing news dispatches for Time Magazine and Newsweek, and he got income from them. And one night he went into this hotel where we were, and he had his attache case with him, and he had his supper, and when he left, he left his attache, he forgot it, he left his attache case there. And I should stop here and tell you that when Billy Bray signed his name, he always signed it, Billy Bray, Phil 121. That is Philippians 121. He always put that verse of Scripture after his name. Billy Bray, Phil 121, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. One day he went into the bank, he always went to the same teller in the bank, and the teller looked at his check and he said, by the way, he said, why do you always put Phil 121 after your name? And Billy said, well, that's my life verse. He said, for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But anyway, he had left his attache case here in the Oriental Hotel, and the waiter got it. The waiter looked in and Billy Bray's checkbook was there, and it had a nice balance in it because he had just received a payment from one of the news magazines. So, the teller filled out one of the checks, he signed Billy's name to it, and went down to the bank. In other words, of all the tellers in that bank, which one do you think he went to? He went to the teller that Billy Bray always went to. And the teller looked at the check, it looked good. Even Billy's signature looked good. But there was something missing. Phil 121. The waiter didn't know about Phil 121. Didn't know to put that after the name. So, the teller called Billy, and when Billy entered the bank, the waiter fled. And Phil 121 saved him $2,000. Now, you say, isn't that marvelous? Of all the tellers he could have gone to, he went to the right one, didn't he? From his standpoint, the long one. He went to the right one. God arranged it. How could God arrange it for an unsaved man, stealing money, to go to that bank? And why did the teller ask Billy, just before that, why he put Phil 121 after his name? He didn't. God's perfect timing and sequence of means. Really so. Just think of God looking down over the world today, controlling the affairs of men, and working all things together for good to those who love him. What a wonderful God we have. Our time is gone. We'll go on with this next week, Lord willing, and give some other illustrations of God's wonderful providence. And if we have time, we'll move on to God's, the wonders of God in redemption. You know, we're all saved in the same way, that is, by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but the way God brings it about is different in every case. No two testimonies, in that sense, are exactly alike. And we'll hear some very remarkable cases of the wonders of God in redemption. We're going to pray, and then I think John is going to have a closing hymn for us. Let's pray. Father, we just worship you today. We get only these glimpses of your greatness. Our poor little minds aren't big enough to take it all in, but we see enough to know something of your greatness, your wisdom, your love, your power, your omniscience and omnipresence. So, Father, we just bow today. Thank you. Thank you for your wonderful ways in our lives. Thank you, most of all, for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you that we can know in the authority of the Word of God that we have passed from death unto life when we accept the sinner's Savior. We give thanks for the Savior's name.