Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 223. Arise, my soul, arise. And let's
all stand together. 223. Arise, my soul, arise, shake
off thy guilty fears. The bleeding sacrifice in my
kneecap appears. Before the throne my surety stands
My name is written on His hands My name is written on His hands
He ever lives above For me to intercede His all-redeeming love,
His precious blood to drink, His blood atoned for all my sins,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace, And sprinkles now the
throne of grace. Five bleeding wounds the heirs
Received on Calvary, They pour effectual prayers, they strongly
plead for peace. Forgive them, O forgive, they
cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die, nor let that ransomed sinner
die. The Father hears him pray. His dear anointed one He cannot
turn away The presence of His Son His Spirit answers to the
blood And tells me I am born of God And tells me I am born
of God My God is reconciled, His pardoning voice I hear. He owns me for His child, I can
no longer fear. With confidence I now draw nigh,
and father of a father cry. And father of a father cry. Please be seated. You go. Good morning. Let us start with
a word of prayer that the Lord might be with us and may he send
his blessing on this service. Father God, we come before you
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by his merits alone. We
come before you thankful that we have a place where we can
come and worship and listen to the word of God. Father, listen
to the gospel. We now pray we recognize our
need of you. especially in these moments where
we need the Holy Spirit to teach us, we need the Holy Spirit to
open our understanding of the scriptures, and so that we might
see Christ more clearly. Father, we pray that you do this
for us during the entire service, during this Bible study, as well
as during the sermon, the second sermon father be with us send
your spirit to us in a special way that he might point to christ
in jesus name we pray amen um we're going to do a bible
study this morning a short bible study and the topic of the bible
study will be more answering of what pleases god what pleases
God? That's the question, and this
Bible study, we are looking at the scriptures to see what the
scriptures have to say regarding what pleases God. And not by
implication, but directly, the text is going to say that this
is what pleases God. We're going to start, the first
thing, obviously, that pleases God is faith, our faith. We're going to look to Hebrews. Mostly we're going to be looking
at chapter 11, and then we're going to be looking at other
scriptures. We're going to look at the context of chapter 11. We know that that's a famous
chapter where we find many of our Old Testament burning numbered
in this chapter and they are commended by their faith. The
context of this chapter we find, I'd like to bring your attention
to Hebrews 10, 23. This is a certain exhortations
that the pastor Paul gives to the Hebrews and also to us. 23 says, let us hold fast the
confession of our hope, without wavering. Let us hold fast to
that confession of faith that will be the gospel to Christ's
work, his person, and his work. In verse 35, we also see another
citation that if the Apostle Paul wrote this, we're not sure,
but we know that it is the Holy Spirit who wrote Heroes. It is
inspired by God. Therefore, do not cast away your
confidence, that is, In other words, we are saying our faith,
which has great reward. And in verse 38 says, now the
just shall live by faith. This is the continuous way the
believer lives. He lives by faith. But if anyone
draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him." Notice how it does not
please him, meaning this particular portion of the scriptures, towards
the end of chapter 10, it talks about apostasy and people who
leave the faith, people who no longer are listening to the gospel. It says, but if anyone draws
back, my soul has no pleasure in him." Meaning that he has
pleasure, implying that God has pleasure in those who live by
faith, right? That verse 38 says. Then we go
to chapter 11. Chapter 11. Verse 1 says, now faith is the
substance of things hoped for for the evidence of things not
seen. So that, it gives the definition
of faith a little bit, that is the substance of things that
are for real, evidence of the things not seen. We usually have
faith in things that we don't physically see, like God the
Father, heaven, the sacrifice of Christ, Christ himself, we
don't physically see him. but it is not by sight, but it's
by faith. And God, of course, is the giver
of that faith. Verse two says, by the elders
for by the elders obtain a good testimony, meaning in the elders,
meaning the Old Testament saints is gonna start listing several
Old Testament saints in this chapter. And they obtain a good
testimony by who? By faith, by believing, by believing
what God said, right? So in verse three, it says, by
faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word
of God. so that things which are seen
were not made of things which are visible. So here, by faith,
is that we believe Genesis. We believe the account that the
Lord gives us of creation. We don't believe what scientists
say. We don't believe what the world says about creation. We
believe only what the scriptures say, because the scriptures are
the only infallible word. And it is by faith that we understand
how creation took place, right? And we understand that it was
by the Word of God, not by Big Bang, not by any coincidence,
but it was by the Word of God, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Genesis
tells us it's by His Word, spoken Word, and John gives us further
revelation, tells us it was the Lord Jesus Christ who created
everything, not only the earth, but the heavens. everything that's
been created was created by the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is
created by the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's sustained by the power
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So all these things I believe,
they are believed by faith, and that that faith that God gives
the elect, that faith that God gives to the believers. But nevertheless,
it is faith that God gives us. In verse 4, We start seeing,
I'm going to only begin, I'm not going to go through all the
chapter 11. It is quite lengthy, and there
are other parts. other scriptures that talk about
God being pleased. So faith is the first thing,
the basis of how God is pleased. Everything else comes from faith,
is a result of faith. So faith, by faith Abel offered
to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. Why was it a more
excellent sacrifice? It was by faith, because it was
done in faith. Possibly Adam taught both of
them that the sacrifice should be a blood sacrifice, that's
what we believe, and we believe that it had to be a blood sacrifice
to point to Christ. the real sacrifice that this
sacrifice was pointing to because those sacrifices in Old Testament
did not take away sin, but they look towards that sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ which does take away sin. So he was faithful,
God gave faith to Abel, and by faith he offered God a more excellent
sacrifice than Cain. Why? Perhaps Cain, we know that
Cain, by implication here, Cain's sacrifice was not by faith, right? It was by obedience to perhaps
what Adam taught him, but he thought that his sacrifice, his
labor, and his fruits were sufficient. that the blood was not necessary,
but the blood is always necessary. It's the only thing that takes
away sin is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, he says that through which he
obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of
his gifts, through it He being dead still speaks, meaning that
able sacrifice still speaks, even though he was killed. It
still speaks to us today, his sacrifice of blood, of looking
to Christ. And how was this? Again, by faith. Faith is the motivating factor
that brought Abel to do this. So in verse five, we find that
by faith, Enoch was taken away, so he did
not see death. So we know, going back to the
Old Testament, that Enoch, what we got, right? I'm gonna read
this in Genesis 5, verses 21 through 24. Genesis 5, verses 21 through 24, it says,
Enoch lived 65 years and he begot Methuselah. Methuselah was, I
believe, the longest living being, living 969 years, I think. After he begot Methuselah, Enoch
walked with God. 300 years and has sons and daughters. So that's when it sounds like
he began walking with God after he begot Methuselah. So all the
days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and
he was not, for God took him So here we see that God actually
took him. He spared him from death. And
why did he walk by God? Why does it say that he walked
with God? Hebrews tells us, this verse
tells us, how does it start? By faith. By faith he walked
with God. God had given him faith, and
his faith was such that the Lord took him without experiencing
death. So he pleased God, it says that
particular passage there. And here it says, for before
he was taken, he had this testimony. This was his testimony, that
he pleased God. God was pleased with him. And
how was he pleased by it? By faith, that the verse tells
us. And verse six, verse six, it
says, but without faith, what does it say? it is impossible
to please him, for he who comes to God must believe that he is
and that he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek him."
So here we find that faith is necessary, it's not an option,
it's not an added thing that you must have is necessary. Without faith, you cannot please
God. So everything else, all the other
points of the Bible study regarding what pleases God, without faith
is impossible. So faith is the basis. Faith,
and it's not just blind faith, but it's faith now in the New
Testament, in the covenant, especially in the New Covenant. It's faith
in what the Lord Jesus Christ did and in His person. his work,
faith in that he paid for our sins, faith in that he's fulfilled
the law for us, faith in a person of the Lord Jesus Christ, not
just faith, because many people have faiths. I could have faith
that I can fly, but no matter how much faith I have, I'm not
gonna fly. So it's not just faith, but it's
faith is the object of of the what i have faith on but that
is given in this chapter is given that is faith in god and his
faith in the lord jesus christ so faith in god and faith in
the lord jesus christ and he it says that he rewards those
who deal in seek him we see that in for instance we're going to
see a couple of passages that talk about that in psalm 9 10
psalm 9 10 It says the following, it says,
and those who know your name will put their trust in you. Those who know your name are
the believers. Those who know your name are
the elect. And what will they do? They will put their trust
in you. So it's the same, this is saying
that anybody that really knows who God is, the God of the Bible
and the Lord Jesus Christ, will go ahead and put their trust
in him. For the Lord, for you, lord have not forsaken those
who seek you those who seek you of course we we read in the scriptures
also that no one seeks after god so we must conclude here
that god has done a work right god has done a work in this person
in order for him to seek but he does seek we and jeremiah
29 i'm gonna go to jeremiah 29 we're gonna see another instance
where he talks about seeking god Jeremiah 29. Verses 11 through
13. Jeremiah 29, 11 through 13. This is God saying, for I know
the thoughts that I think towards you. For I know the thoughts
that I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and
not of evil. He's talking to the believers
to elect these are God's thoughts towards us. They are of peace
and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope. Then you will call. Notice the order, of course,
he first has talks of peace towards us. because we are the elect
before the foundations of the world. So he has thoughts of
peace towards us. And then you will call upon me
and go and pray to me and I will listen to you. This is a promise
of the Lord listening to us. And you will seek me and you
will find me. When you search for me with all
your heart, this is not the heart that you were born with. This
is the new heart. This is the heart that you receive
upon being regenerated, the heart that you receive that you're
born again. That's why that term is used. It's born again. We
need to be born again to have this heart that will seek God.
It's not our Fleshly heart is not the heart that we born with
is the regenerated heart and Hebrews going back to Hebrews
7 19 and Hebrews 7 19 He was 7 19 Says for the law Made nothing
perfect. This is the law of Moses Never
made anything perfect. No, I didn't make any anyone
righteous. I On the other hand, there is
the bringing in a better hope. This is the new covenant. The
law being the old covenant, and the better hope is the Lord Jesus
Christ, our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, through which we
draw near to God. We do draw near to God, how? Through the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the better hope. The better hope is the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we see that he does make us
draw to him. We seek him as a result of his
regenerating work in our lives. Verse seven, we go back to Hebrews
11, verse seven. And it says, by faith, Noah,
being divinely warned of the things not yet seen, Noah was
told by God that there was going to be a judgment coming. The
flood, of course, we know that that's a flood. He warned Noah
of the things not seen. So Noah, of course, by faith,
believed God. And he moved with godly fear. prepared an ark for the saving
of his household. Moved with godly fear is another,
it's a result, it's a fruit of his faith. It's what faith brings
him to do, right, to obey the Lord. Which he condemned, meaning
God condemned the world and only him and his family survived this
judgment. Of course, this judgment, they
had no excuse because Noah is the first preacher of righteousness
mentioned in the scriptures. And he preached for a long, long
time. A lot of years, decades, he preached righteousness. Yet
people did not hear, did not believe. And they suffer the
consequences. They suffer condemnation of the
world. And it says that He prepared. an ark for the saving of his
household. And we know, of course, the ark pictures the Lord Jesus
Christ, doesn't it? It pictures the Lord Jesus Christ.
As we are in Christ, we are saved. As all the animals and Noah and
his family were in the ark, they were saved. And that's the only
place where we avoid judgment. The only place where we're saved
from the judgment that's coming by fire is through being in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he became an heir of the
righteousness, which is according to what? According to faith. So faith, righteousness, is through
faith and according to faith. We, in Matthew 8, also in our
example, we notice how the Lord is pleased with faith. In Matthew
8, we're going to see the story. We will read quickly the story
of the centurion. Where we find in Matthew 8 verses
5 through 13. It says, Now Jesus had entered
Capernaum, and a centurion came to him, pleading with him, saying,
Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed. dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but
only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am
a man on the authority having soldiers under me. And I say
to this one, go. And he goes. And another, come. And he comes. to my servant do
this and he does it and Jesus heard it and he marveled he marveled
and he said to those who followed I surely I say to you I have
not found such a great faith not even in Israel and I say
to you that many will come from the east and the west, and sit
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the sons of the kingdom," I think he's talking about the
Jews, right? Because he said that not in Israel,
right? And the sons of the kingdom will
be cast out into utter darkness. They will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And then Jesus said to the centurion,
go your way. and as you have believed, so
it will be done for you." And his servant was healed in that
very same hour. So the Lord Jesus Christ here
doesn't marvel because of the centurion's position, doesn't
marvel due to the centurion's knowledge of God, but does marvel
at his great faith. He had great faith and he marveled
at that, that pleases God, the faith that God gives us. And
why does faith please God? Why does faith please God? Number
one, it is given by God because this is his gift to us in Ephesians
2, 8, 9, 2.8, a very familiar passage. We probably
know it by heart, but it's a reminder of where this faith comes from.
2.8 says, by grace you have been saved, through faith, faith is
the means, And that not of yourselves, but it's a gift of God. This
is not the faith of your flesh, not the faith of the one that
was born of your mother, but faith of that new man that is
results of regeneration of being born again. So this faith is
given by God and that's why he's pleased With the faith and number
two it glorifies the Lord It glorifies the Lord because our
faith is not based on our faith is not in ourselves our faith
that God gave us Glorifies the Lord but because it's looking
at him looking at the personal of Jesus Christ and looking at
his work his work meaning our salvation his work meaning our
payment of sin and our justification of sanctification of Everything
we have is all wrapped inside the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual
blessings are in Jesus Christ. There are no blessings outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ, not spiritual blessings. And those
are the everlasting blessings, and it glorifies the Lord Jesus
Christ. Hebrews 12, the very next chapter, 12-2, says, looking
unto Jesus. the author and the finisher of our faith. He gave us the faith, he's the
author, meaning it comes from him, and he's the finisher of
our faith. Author, finisher is kind of like
saying alpha omega, isn't it? The beginning and the end. He's
the beginning of our faith, he's the end of our faith. So looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the cross, that's what we look
into, we look into his work, despising the shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God. That means it
was acceptable to God. The resurrection is proof that
his work was acceptable to God for our salvation. So that's
why it says, and he sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. You only sit down when the work
is done. when there's no more things to
do, right? That's when you sit down. He sat down at the right
hand of the throne of the Father. So that's why faith pleases God,
because it's given by God and because it glorifies the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, continuing, what else pleases
God? Well, there are other portions
of scripture that talk about pleasing God. For the children,
I don't know, there's not too many of them here, but in Colossians
3.20, if we go to Colossians 3.20, and this scripture is towards
the children, or young people that may be still living at home.
In Colossians 3 20 we find something else that pleases God and that
would be children obey your parents in all things for this is well
pleasing to the Lord well pleasing to the Lord this is going to
be looking at every every scripture that talks about pleasing God
and when in relation to us because we know that Lord Jesus Christ
pleased God fully, completely, and that's what we have faith
on, isn't it? That's what our faith is based on. Our faith
is looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, and God says, this is
my son, my beloved son, and who I'm well pleased. And when he
says he's well pleased, if he's well pleased with him, He's well-pleased
with every believer because we are in Christ and that's the
base of our faith. So there it talks about the children
obeying God. There's another in first John. We're going to go to first John
3 22 through 24. It's also another scripture first
John 3 22. It says, and whatever we ask,
of course, this is Apostle John speaking to believers, of course,
not to unbelievers. And whatever we ask, we receive
from him because we keep his commandments and do the things
that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another. as he gave us of the commandments.
So this is not, he's not talking about the Ten Commandments here,
he's not talking about the Mosaic Law, he's talking about the Law
of Christ. because he goes on and explains what that is. The
law of Christ is that we should believe in Christ, right? Love
God, meaning that's a way of loving God, and loving one another,
and loving the burden, all the brothers. So he gave us this
commandment. He's talking about the law of Christ. It pleases
God according to the scripture to look to Christ, believe in Christ
that is obeying, obeying the commandments, and love one another.
Of course, the Lord Jesus Christ gave us a summary. He says the
law is love God and love our burden, our brothers. And we
find that in first John there. And in verse 22 there, it talks
about what is pleasing on his sight, verse 22 it says keep
the commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight
verse 22 defines what the commandment is the main commandment is that
we should believe on the name of the lord jesus christ and
verse 23 tells us he defines the commandment uh and 24 it
it gives us more definition of how is it
that we obey it says verse 24 now he that keeps commandments
abides in him right we abide in the Lord Jesus Christ and
he in him and the Lord Jesus Christ abides in us and this
is this we know that he abides in us how do we know by the spirit
whom he has given us. The spirit is the one in our
lives that allow us to abide in him, right? It is the spirit
that abides in us that makes us to abide to the end. We persevere,
not due to our strength, but we persevere. It's really the
perseverance of the Holy Spirit in us, isn't it? It's him keeping
us, keeping him, keeping looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And regarding this commandment,
Matthew 11, if you go to Matthew 11, we find the following. Matthew 11, 28. Matthew 11, 28.
We find this regarding his command. Come to me. All you who labor and are heavy
laden, those who are following the law, those who are trying
to please God by following the law of Moses, and I will give
you rest. He's going to give us rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn, it doesn't say the commandments,
it doesn't say the law, it says learn from me or learn of me,
meaning the Lord Jesus Christ, for I am gentle and lowly in
heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy
and my burden is light. The Lord of Christ is easy and
his burden is light because it is the Lord who obeys that in
us. Christ obeying the law of Christ
in us. And Christ is not looking for
us to obey perfectly. Because that's not a requirement
for the believer, because we are in Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ has fulfilled the law for us. He has made us right. He has given us his righteousness.
So that's not a requirement, never, of the believer. It is
a requirement of those who are not in Christ. They will be judged
by the law. The believer is not judged by
the law. The believer has already been judged in the cross of Christ. He has already believed. So the
yoke is very easy. The burn is light because we're
not obeying to become safe. We obey as a fruit of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We look to Christ He obeyed in
Christ is how we obey. And the burden is light because
the law has been filled in Christ. So we're not looking to that.
We look into Christ. Our faith is in Christ and Christ
alone. And number four, if we go Colossians 1 9, we see another
thing that God is pleased with. Colossians 1 9. This will be covered later by
Greg, Pastor Greg, later on, because we are in Colossians.
But Colossians 1, 9, 9 is the context, right? The context says,
for this reason we also, since the day we heard of it, we do
not cease to pray. This is Paul speaking to the
Colossians. And when he says we, he's talking
about Paul and probably Timothy, right,
which are according to the cautions, the authors of the letter. So he says, for this reason we
also, since the day we heard, do not cease to pray. For what
reason? For you, pray for you, to ask that you may be filled,
number one, filled with knowledge of his will. The meaning of his
will will be the scriptures, no? That is how we learn of his
will. In all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
he's praying for us, for the knowledge as well, for wisdom,
for spiritual understanding, all these things God gives to
us, and that's why he's praying for God to give to the Colossians.
Purpose, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him,
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge
of God. Straightened will all the might
according to His glorious power for all patients among suffering
with joy. So the context is that he's praying
for them. And what is he praying for? For
us to be fruitful in every good work, right? Fully pleasing him.
And again, fruitful is a result, isn't it? Fruit comes from a
tree or comes from a plant is the result of the Holy Spirit
of the new birth. And he's saying that that is
fully pleasing to him. So another thing that's pleasing
to him according to this is that when you make work worthy of
the Lord and therefore being fruitful in every good work.
And then the next verse tells us the source of this. The source
we are strengthened with all the might according to whose
glorious power. That is where it's coming from.
That is the strength behind this. That is the source of that growth
because it is a growth because it says that increasingly in
the knowledge of God. In Hebrews 13, we see that. We
go back to Hebrews 13. In Hebrews 13, 15 through 16, we
read the same thing. Therefore by him let us continue. This is a new point, actually. and something new that pleases
him. And I think we read this about
a week or two ago. Greg covered this. Therefore,
by him, let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise. That's
number one, right? The sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of our lips.
It describes the praise, the sacrifice of praise. Giving thanks
to his name, we're thankful of his name. but do not forget to
do good, doing good meaning doing what's right, and to share, to
share meaning possibly sharing of our goods. For such sacrifices, God is well
pleased. So this is another thing that
pleases God, the sacrifice of our lips, sharing and doing good. And this is in Hebrews 13, 15
through 16. So all those sacrifice are well-pleasing
to God. So those are the things that
I found that the Lord has told us that pleases God. All of course,
the first thing is based on faith. Because faith is the beginning,
faith is the basis. Because faith, we have faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ that he has saved us, that he has
provided a righteousness for us, that he has fulfilled the
law, and that he has died for our sins. And that faith we saw
is a gift of God, comes from God. And based on that faith
is where the rest of the points are. working worthy, the sacrifice
of praise, those are all byproducts or results of that faith. And that concludes the study
regarding pleasing God. And this, of course, is based
on our faith that God has given us, and the faith is on that
the Lord Jesus Christ completely pleased the Father in our behalf. In our behalf, it was not on
his behalf. It was not on his behalf because
he gave it up at the cross. If it was on behalf of Jesus,
the man, he could not be sacrificed and punished for our sins. He
gave that up to us. Everything he did is on our behalf.