September 6

Acts 15:18
 
“Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world”— Acts 15:1818Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world. (Acts 15:18).
GOD does nothing at haphazard. He is never taken by surprise. He works according to a plan, the purpose or counsel which He has had in His heart from all eternity. From Moses to Christ He was dealing with Israel as His covenant people, while in large measure He overlooked the ignorance of the Gentiles (Acts 17:3030And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: (Acts 17:30)). He taught His earthly people by laws and ceremonies, which prefigured good things to come. Now He is taking out from the Gentiles a people to His name (Acts 15:1414Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. (Acts 15:14)). These saved Gentiles and the believing Jews are thus united in one Body (Eph. 3:66That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: (Ephesians 3:6)). When this work is completed, Christ will return and “build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down.” That will be the time for the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies in regard to Israel, when the Gentiles shall come to their light and be blessed through them. Failure to see this led many of the early Hebrew Christians to look with suspicion on Gentile converts if they did not submit to legal regulations. The gospel of grace frees the soul from all such bondage, when God’s orderly plan is clearly understood.
“I’m glad my times are in Thy hand. It is so sweet to know
That everything by Thee is planned for me where’er I go;
The Hand that holds the ocean’s depths can hold my small
affairs,
The Hand that guides the universe can carry all my cares.
I’m glad I cannot shape my way, I’d rather trust Thy skill;
I’m glad the ordering is not mine, I’d rather have Thy will,
I do not know the future, and I would not if I might,
For faith to me is better far than faulty human sight.”