Alright, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Psalm 115. As we consider this portion,
first part of verse 3, Psalm 115 verse 3, in our last message,
but our God is in the heavens, And then David made these blessed comments, and he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Now, if there's anything that
a believer wants to know, it's this. What pleases God. You see, we know by regeneration
that man is a totally depraved, sinful creature. We know that. And we know that
God is holy. God is just. God is good. But Almighty God created man. He made man out of the dust,
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man became a
living soul. God gave him dominion over all
the garden. One stipulation. You can eat
of all the fruit of all the tree except one. Three of the knowledge of good
and evil. In the day you eat of that fruit, you're going to
die. And man died. He ate of the fruit. And God
expelled man, mankind, just Adam and Eve, there's only two, they
were mankind. And expelled them out of the
garden, out of his presence. And now man comes forth from
his mother's womb, drinking iniquity like a man drinks water, All
of mankind, the scripture declares, is filthy. There's none that
doeth good, not one, for all is an unclean thing, and all
of our righteousnesses, everything that we've ever thought that
we were doing for God or for ourselves, Eternally. Everything that we've ever thought
that we did for ourselves. This is what the scripture reveals
that to be. Filthy rags. And you know what that is. We all do fade as a leaf. All
of our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. Now I'm going
to ask you a question. How can creatures such as we
please God? Well, let me tell you, in ourselves,
we can't. There's just absolutely no way.
Well, Scott summed it up beautifully with this statement. God must
first do something for Himself before He can justly mercifully
do something for us. God's gonna have to please himself.
So with that thought in mind, let's ask ourselves this question.
What do the scriptures declare that pleases God? David said, our God's in the
heavens and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Well, I know
that Almighty God, whatever He does, pleases Him. That's what He does. He hath
done that which He hath pleased. So what He does, He's pleased
with. So I believe that the foundational truth is set forth concerning
God's pleasure. Here's what it is. Whatever God
does, He hath done that which pleases Him. And I haven't. According to this scripture,
He is the absolute sovereign. Where's your God? Our God's in
the heavens. He's done whatsoever pleased Him. Here's the heart
of a believer, verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. That's what a believer says.
Lord, we don't deserve, we haven't merited, we haven't done anything
to give ourselves glory. Not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. Concerning the Lord's people's
resentment toward the attitude of the heathens' hatred of the
God of all grace, David asked, and we looked at last time, Scripture
says, wherefore, or what right should the heathens say, where
is now their God? What right does anybody have
to say that? Why should the nations be allowed speak with contempt and to question. We don't have a right to question
God, questioning where he is or what he's doing. Scripture
says he gives no account of himself to his creatures. He doesn't
owe us anything. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. So here's what I want to know,
and I'm going to just tell you right now, I'm just going to
touch a few points. I mean, I could, we could just
start, we'd never end things that God's done, that pleases
Himself. I mean, you look around, His
creation, everything He's done pleases Him. Go back in Genesis
1, 2, and look at the creation. God saw it was good. He made
this, he made this, and God saw it was good. He was pleased with
it. But what can we look at this
morning concerning our salvation that is pleased? That's what
I want to know. I need some hope right there. Here's the first thing I know.
And while I'm reading this, turn to 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel chapter
12. I know this. It has pleased the
Lord to choose a people from among the inhabitants of mankind
for himself. God Almighty, now here's the
mass of humanity, and here's what God has to say, and this
is what I want, this is what I need for me, for you, for us,
this is what we need. Let's let God be true, and let
every man be a liar. And no matter what we've heard,
what we've thought, what someone's told us, let's just see what
God has to say. And whatever God has to say,
let me tell you what. That's going to stand. That is
going to stand. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't
matter. What does the scripture say concerning
God's right to choose to show mercy to whomsoever He will? That's what Moses said. Show
me your glory. Here's what the Lord said. I'll
cause all my goodness to pass before you. I will proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee, and I will have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. I'll show compassion on whom
I'll show compassion. Then the Apostle Paul in Romans
9, quoting that, under the inspiration of God's Spirit, wrote these
words, So then, it is not of him that willeth, or of him that
runneth, but of God that shows mercy. Now that just, that's
the truth. And in that day, in that day
of judgment, let me tell you what word is going to stand.
God's. 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 20,
22. And Samuel said unto the people,
Fear not, ye have done all this wickedness, yet turn not aside
from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your
heart. And turn ye not aside, for then should ye go after vain
things, which cannot profit nor deliver, for or because they
are vain, they are empty. For the Lord will not forsake
His people for His great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you His people. So what does the scripture say
concerning what pleases God when it comes to any hope that I would
have? Here it is. It pleased the Lord
to make His people His own. It pleased Him. Did they deserve it? No. They were cut out of the same
lump of clay of all the rest of mankind. The Scripture says
in Deuteronomy 7, 6, "...for thou art an holy people unto
the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth." Has it pleased the Lord in electing
grace to choose a people? According to God's Word, yes. Well, what about everybody that
says that that's not so? Well, they're deceived. They're liars. What can I say? God is truth. And man is a liar. I'm a liar, you're a liar. God's
true. 1 Corinthians 1 26-27, For you
see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God
has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things that are mighty, and base things of the world which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things that are not,
to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory
in his presence." Nobody is going to stand before God and say,
I did this for myself. Nobody. Because then we would
have some glory. We'd done something. And no flesh
is going to glory in his presence. It's going to be by the grace
of God or it's not going to. 2 Thessalonians 2.13, I read
this, quote this so much, but we're bound to give thanks all
way to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth. It was not that His chosen
were any different than any other member of mankind. He chose whom
He would, this says, Ephesians 1, 4, and 5, to the praise of
the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. We're saved by the grace of God. God Almighty was not pleased
to allow mankind to perish. And had the Lord not chosen a
people in electing grace, we would have all perished. Because
He's just. You say, but doesn't He leave
it up to man to make a decision? We fail in this point. Man is spiritually dead. I drove past a dead deer about
a week ago. Shouldn't I stop and try to pick
up that rotting carcass, a picture of man by nature? and try to
hold it up in the middle of the road, and while I'm holding it
up, why don't I just give it a chance to, you know, come back to life?
You say, well, that's ridiculous. He's dead. I know. Can I convince
him? Can I talk to him? Can I encourage
him? Can I sing some extra songs and
maybe he'll change his mind? Maybe I can show him some kind
of good food to eat or something. He's dead. He's dead. He ain't coming back to life
on his own. What's he gonna take? He's gonna
take a miracle. That's what he's gonna take.
If Almighty God had not chosen to show mercy, mankind would
have perished. So you can say all day long,
everybody needs to have a chance. We're dead. We're dead. God was pleased to not allow
mankind to perish in trespasses and sins. Therefore, He determined
to show mercy and compassion to a people that He chose before
the foundation of the world. I'm not going to let you die. I'm going to show mercy to you.
I'm going to give you life. I'm going to redeem you. Secondly, it pleased the Father
that the accomplishment and the revelation of His eternal will
to show mercy and compassion to His elect should be totally
in His Son. that He might receive all the
glory. Not me, not you, not us. Colossians
1 18-19, And He is the head of the body, the church, who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things... Now how many things does that
entail? All. All things He might have the
preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in Him should all fullness." Fullness of what? Of the completion
of redemption and salvation. That in Him should all fullness
dwell. The Lord in His high priestly
prayer, John 17, 1 and 2, these words speak. Jesus lifted up
His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him." Listen, Jehovah, from all eternity,
has been pleased to reveal himself, to reveal his will, to reveal
his purpose, to reveal his thoughts toward men, toward his people.
through the mediator, through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord
of glory. And all of God's will and all
of God's promises and blessings and mercy is bound up in Christ. Therefore, the Father has declared
from heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. But He has pleased the Father
that Christ be glorified, that is, that Christ might be shown
to receive all the glory for. Before the foundation of the
world, eternally, there was an everlasting covenant of grace.
That's what the scripture says. And the Father, who chose a people,
the Son, according to that everlasting covenant, was set forth to be
the surety, willingly, willingly, I will pay, I will redeem them,
I will. And when the Lord said, Father,
glorify thy son, what he was saying is this, Father, do to
me what we, according to the everlasting covenant of grace,
have been in agreement with. Glorify me as the Lamb. As he laid down his life, For
the sheep, John 10, 15, here's what he was saying. Do to me
that which is right in your sight. Do that to me. Show forth me
to be the lamb, which brings me into my third point. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. and not His people. Isaiah 53
10, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him in the stead of the sheep. It pleased the Lord to bruise
His Son for the sheep to go free, for me to have life, for you
to have life. Here's what it's going to take.
Sin's going to have to be dealt with. See, by nature we just
think God is a merciful God, so therefore He's just going
to sweep it under the rug. It ain't going to happen. It
didn't happen. It would never happen. Why? He's
just. How can justice be satisfied
and a sinner be justified, be declared not guilty? How can
that be when we're sinners? How? Christ is going to have
to be made us. Hanging on that cross was sin. The person, the glorious person
of the Lord Jesus who knew no sin was made sin. And it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. that we might go free. He made Him to be sin for us
who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. For His people, the Lord Jesus willingly submitted
Himself to the wicked hands of men and went to the cross and
died as the bearer In his own body, he was made what we are. That's a mystery that I cannot
explain. Like I said, there is no possible
way in this world that if I did something, if I had broken the
law, that you can actually be made me and become me. You might say, well, I'll pay
the debt. Well, you might pay the debt, but I'm going to tell
you something. If you didn't do it, you still didn't do it.
But if you could become me and actually die as Marvin, that's
what the substitute did. He became me, me. They say, well, he just went
over there and died for everybody's sins. That's not what it says.
When He says He was made sin, He actually became them for whom
He was dying. That's what He did. We find now, here is the Lord
bearing the sin of His people, His elect, being made what they
are, and sin being found on the cross. The law demanded justice. I'm a just God. And it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. I'm telling you, if he was not
made the guiltiness himself, then God was unjust. You say,
well, he was an innocent man. I understand that in himself.
But when he was made sin, judgment was spewed out on him who was
made guilty. and it pleased the Lord, not
to just bruise Him at attempting universal redemption. Ah, well,
He'll just die for everybody's sins, and somebody died, so therefore
now anybody that accepts, uh-uh, uh-uh. That's not what the Lord
was pleased to do. He was pleased to bruise Him
who died specifically for the sheep. And what pleased the Lord
was the result of His suffering, the redemption and salvation
of His people. That pleased the Father. Fourthly,
having been pleased to choose a people unto salvation, having
the fullness of His will disclosed in the person of His Son and
to bruise Him in the stead of His people, The scripture says,
it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. 1 Corinthians 1.18 declares this,
the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing. It's foolishness. The preaching
of the cross. They hear the message of sovereign
grace, message that gives man no glory in himself, and they
say of that message, that's foolishness. That's nonsense. Now this is
what men call foolishness. What we've been talking about
right here. God has an eternal covenant of grace. That He chose
a people, that he was going to save. That Christ died only for
the elect. The Lord said that. I lay down
my life for the sheep. He prays only for the sheep.
Who said that? Christ said it. I pray not for
the world. John 17, 9. I pray not for the
world, but for those that thou hast given me out of the world.
The Lord said that. Therefore, it's true. And man
hears that. They hear that all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. And men call that, that's the
preaching of the cross. That's the preaching of the cross.
Not that there was merely a crucifixion. Everybody believes that. Demons
believe that. No one would say that the declaration
of Christ going to Calvary was nonsense. Everybody believes
that there was a crucifixion, but it was what was accomplished
at the cross. That's the preaching of the cross.
The preaching of the cross is the declaration that salvation
is totally, by the grace of God alone, excluding Everything that
a man can contribute, that's the preaching of the cross. The
preaching of the cross declares justice before the law to be
satisfied. Righteousness, peace, and reconciliation
has been established through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
for all that God has everlastingly loved and chosen in Christ to
have with Him eternally. That's the preaching of the cross.
And Scripture declares that men by nature call that foolishness. It's pleased God by the foolishness,
what men call foolishness, of preaching to save them that believe. But let me tell you what 1 Corinthians
1.25 declares in closing. The foolishness of God are what
men declare foolish. You know God's not foolish. But
the foolishness of God, what men say, that's foolishness.
That's sovereignty stuff. That election stuff. That predestination
stuff. And all we're doing is repeating
scripture. That's all we're doing. We're just saying what God said.
That's foolishness. Well then how are you going to
get it out? How are you going to take it out? Are you going
to mark it out in your Bible? Well, you didn't mark it out of everybody's and you
didn't mark it out of the purpose of God. I can tell you that.
The foolishness of God is wiser than men. And the weakness of
God, what do you mean the weakness of God? God's not weak. No, it's
what man would consider weak. The preaching of the cross is
stronger than men. False religion does nothing more. Now you listen to what I'm saying
because I'm telling you this is so. False religion. What do you mean false religion?
I mean anything that's not according to this message that we're preaching.
I'm telling you, God's going to get all the glory. He's going
to get all the honor. We're not going to get any of
it. If we're going to glory, we're going to glory in Him.
We're going to glory in the cross, what was accomplished there.
It's not going to be to us, it's going to be to the Lord. All
fullness is going to dwell in Him. False religion does nothing
more in its man-centered, so-called free will, impotent gospel than
uselessly attempt to appeal to a spiritually dead sinner. That's
what I was talking about, about the deer. All day long. It's not going to happen. When false religion tries to
woo a person to come down, make a decision, God wants to save
you if you'll give him your heart, and he's wanting to save you
if you'll let him, and stuff like that. When he thinks that
he's created a child of God, Scripture declares he's done
nothing more than make him two-fold more a child of hell than himself. But when the gospel is preached
in the power of the Holy Ghost, when it pleases God to reveal
His Son in His people. That's what Galatians 1, 15,
16 says. The Holy Spirit imparting life
irresistibly calls that sinner to Christ and gives him a new
heart, gives him faith to believe. And in the day of God's power,
that former rebel against God is now quickened. spiritually
alive by grace. And now he's made willing in
the day of God's power to come to the God of his Bible in Christ. And all that come to him, he
said, I'm not casting you away. They come to him for mercy. They
come to Him for salvation. They come to Him for peace. They
come to Him for reconciliation before God because they know
they can't do it. I cannot do it. I pray that the
Lord be pleased to do so today. What pleases God? Everything that God has done
in the salvation of His people pleases Him. May the Lord bless
the word to our heart today and to our comfort for Christ's sake.
Amen.