Well, I appreciate the invitation
to come be with you tonight and bring you a gospel message. Whenever
we stand up to preach, may we be enabled to preach the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and be as determined as Paul to know
nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He is enough. He is enough. He is all I need.
Christ is all and in all. Everything to the believer. He
is just not something. He is everything. He is all of
my salvation, all of my righteousness, all of my redemption. He is everything
to the believer. Now, if you take your Bible and
go back to Psalm 135, And put your marker there in Psalm 135,
and then I want you to find Psalm 115. So put your marker there
in Psalm 135, and then turn over to Psalm 115. And we have the
same statement basically made in both Psalms. We know that
all Scripture is given of God, and all Scripture is to teach
us how God saves sinners through Christ. Psalm 115 verse 1, Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, that name
which is above every name, unto thy name, that name which is
forever. We give glory, we give you all
the honor and glory for your mercy and for your truth. You shall know the truth, and
the truth will set you free. Whom the Son set free, He is
free indeed. Look at verse 2, Wherefore should
the heathen say, Where is now their God? Where is your God,
David? We know where our God is. It's
over here in the temple, Baal. Mere idols, dead, cold, have
no eyes, no ears. But our God, David said, our
God now, our God who is God, who is the living and true God,
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. But our God is
in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Now what has it pleased the Lord
to do? Okay, find Psalm 135 now, back
over there. Psalm 135. Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Now, this
is not a meaningless religious statement. A lot of people have
this phrase and this slogan, and there even used to be a religious
program years ago, You remember that PTL club? Praise the Lord. But this, when he says, praise
the Lord, this is really the heart desire that God has placed
within every believer who is made a new creature in Christ.
Our desire is to praise the Lord. It's just not a meaningless religious
slogan. We really do desire, those who
know the Lord, Notice it's capital, or rather it's not, capital L-O-R-D,
the Lord, Jehovah God. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O ye servants of
the Lord. We usually think of being a servant,
being a lowly title, but really when you think about it, being
a servant of the Lord, Jehovah, Almighty God, the Everlasting
God, to be His servant is a privilege, is it not? It's a high privilege
to be the servant of the Lord. As a matter of fact, the Lord
Jesus Christ It describes Him in Isaiah 42, 1, "...Behold My
servant, in whom I delight, My elect, in whom My soul does delight. The Father speaks from heaven
and said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. O ye servants of the Lord." The
Apostle Paul called himself how many times? The servant of the
Lord. Jesus Christ. You see, it is
a high title to be the servant of God, who is the almighty,
true, and living God. O ye servants of the Lord, don't
turn, you're familiar with this, but I often think of this psalm,
when I think of David and praising the Lord in Psalm 103. Bless
the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His
holy name. Bless His holy name. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of His benefits, who forgiveth
all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Now, if you've
been healed, if your sin's been forgiven, What are you going
to do? Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord,
for mercy. Thank you, Lord, for redemption.
Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercy. Bless the Lord. Praise the Lord. Oh, my soul. Oh, ye servants
of the Lord. Look at verse 2. Ye that stand
in the house of the Lord. Now, this is another great privilege
and honor to be in the house of the Lord. David said, I was
glad when they said to me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
to hear His Word, to worship the true and living God, that
we may stand in His presence, dressed in the robes of that
righteousness found in Christ, ye that stand in the house of
the Lord. How can we stand in His presence?
Only by being one in Him, in Christ, in the courts of the
house of our God. Verse 3, praise the Lord, for
the Lord is good. Everything about Him is good. There is none good but God. His name is good, His character
is good, His salvation is good, and everything He does is good. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? Praise the Lord, for the Lord
is good. Sing praises unto His name. His name declares who he is.
He said, I am God. Beside me there is no other.
He said, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth. I'm the only just God and Savior. Sing praises to His
name. I like what Peter said to that
council that day, it's recorded in Acts chapter 4. Neither is
there any salvation, there is no salvation in any other name
than the Lord Jesus Christ. God has highly exalted Him and
given Him a name. You remember Philippians 2, which
is above every name? That at that name, every knee
will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. Praise the Lord for the Lord,
He is good. Everything He does is right and
it's good. Sing praises unto His name, for
His name is I like what it says there. His name is Pleasant.
Pleasant. When we think about our eternal
God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, everything about Him
is pleasant. We have sweet and pleasant thoughts
of Him, for He is altogether lovely to you who believe. He is, what? Precious to you
who believe. His name is pleasant. Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. His name is wonderful. His name
is pleasant. Tell me who He is, that I may
worship Him, praise Him, and honor Him. Look what He says
in verse 4, For the Lord hath chosen Jacob. Now why would he love Jacob?
The Lord hath chosen Jacob. Jacob have I loved. This is the
amazing, sovereign love of God. God took a Jacob, a supplanter,
a cheat, a sinner, and He chose him and He made him Prince of
God. He made him Israel. He did this
by His sovereign choice. Turn back to Psalm 65 for just
a moment. Psalm 65. Look at verse 4. Psalm 65 verse 4. Blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee.
That's the blessed man whom God has set His everlasting, eternal,
loving kindness upon Him, and has drawn Him to Himself. Blessed is the man to whom Thou
choosest and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell
in Thy courts, and we shall be satisfied with the goodness of
Thy house, even Thy holy temple. Remember what the Lord said in
John 15? You didn't choose Me. I chose
you. Had he not chosen a people unto
salvation, we never would have believed the gospel. We would
never approach the Lord by way of faith. He causes us. He said,
no man can come to me except the Father which sent me. Draw
him. Aren't you glad that He draws
us, He chooses us, He draws us to Himself, and He makes us one
with Him. Look at verse 5. The last part
of verse 4, let's not forget this. For the Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. We are bought with His precious
blood. You're bought with a price, therefore
glorify God in your soul and in your body. We are His peculiar
treasure. That is, He purchased us. He
bought us. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things, but with the precious blood of Christ. We are His peculiar
choice and treasure. Now, Look at verse 5, I know
that the Lord is great. How great is He? How great is
He? There's none beside Him. He's
greater than all. For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods. David, where is your God? Our God is in the heavens, and
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Now look at verse 6.
Whatsoever, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven,
the earth, in the seas, in all deep places. The Lord our God
is great and He is above all. He is our great Savior who gives
us so great salvation. He is our great Redeemer, for
He has obtained eternal redemption for us. He is our great Mediator,
is He not? One God, one Mediator between
God and men, that is the man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did He in heaven, earth, seas, and all
deep places. You see, there is none like Him. Turn back to Psalm 71. Psalm
71 verse 19. Psalm 71 verse 19. Thy righteousness
also, O God, is very high, who hath done great
things, O God." Who? Is there anybody like our God?
Who is like unto thee? Well, there's none besides our
God. Many times in Isaiah we read
that phrase, I am God, beside me there is no other. He keeps
repeating that over and over and over again. There is none
like our God. He is worthy of all praise, honor,
and worship. Our great God and Savior does
as He pleases. when He pleases, with whom He
pleases, and He is accountable to no one but Himself. That's right. He does all things
and He works all things after the counsel of His own will.
He works His sovereign will and purpose everywhere, in heaven,
All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing, and He
doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among
the inhabitants of this earth, and none can stay His hand, and
none can say unto Him, Lord God Almighty, what doest Thou? He
works His sovereign will in heaven and in the earth, He works His
sovereign will. He said, I've spoken it, I've
purposed it, I'll bring it to pass, I will do it in heaven,
in the earth, in the seas, in all deep places. That covers it all, doesn't it?
Is there any place where our God does not reign? Is there
any place where He is not the great and eternal God Almighty? He does according to His will,
and His will will be done. A God whose purpose is frustrated,
whose will is resisted, whose decrees are altered by puny creatures
of the dust, That God is no God at all. Our God works all things
after the counsel of His own will. He said, "...of Him, and
through Him, and to Him are all things to whom be glory, both
now and forever." Now, having worked our way down to verse
6, I want us to consider this question. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, that did He. What does the Word of God say
that it pleased the Lord to do? His pleasure will be done. What
does the Word of God say that the Lord is pleased to do? Now,
I'm interested in that. I want to know what the Lord
is pleased to do. Well, let me give you five different
places where it's said in the Scripture what it pleased the
Lord to do. First of all, let's find 1 Samuel
22. 1 Samuel 22. Excuse me, 1 Samuel chapter 12
verse 22. That'll work much better. Sometimes
I have trouble with numbers. My favorite number is 333. That's
a number I can't mess up. 1 Samuel chapter 12 verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
His people. We are His people by His choice,
for His great namesake, because it pleased the Lord to make you
His people. God Almighty elected a people,
we call that the Bible doctrine of election, God from all eternity,
out of Adam's fallen, ruined and sinful race, chose in that
eternal covenant of grace to choose a people unto salvation
and give them to the hand of the surety and mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now it pleased the Lord to do
that. Turn to Ephesians chapter 1.
Ephesians chapter 1. Very familiar scripture. when
it talks about God's sovereign electing choice. It pleased the
Lord to choose a people unto salvation. Look at verse 3, Ephesians
1 verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us. Now who chose
who? According as He chose us. Why
did He do that? Was there something in you that
caused Him to choose you? Absolutely not. We call that
unconditional election. He did the choosing according
as He had chosen us in Him, in Christ, and He did so before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, He didn't
choose us because we were holy, that we should be holy without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will." Why did God elect the people unto salvation? It pleased Him to do so. It pleased
our God to do so. The Lord our God, in sovereign
mercy, has chosen a multitude of guilty sinners from the beginning
of the world and determined to save them in Christ. And again,
we call that God's electing love. I love that statement. God's
electing love. God's electing grace. We are bound to give thanks.
Here's another scripture. If you'll find 2 Thessalonians
2.13, I know you're familiar with these things. I trust that
you are. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We are bound to give thanks.
Did you always notice when you read about God's electing love
and God's electing choice that you always find close by praise
the Lord, giving thanks unto the Lord, but we are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the
Lord? Because God has, from the beginning, chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit. What is that? That's
regeneration, that's a new birth, which causes us to believe the
truth, whereunto He called you by our Gospel, He called you
by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn back to 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1. You don't mind looking at these
references, do you? 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse
4, Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. God elected a people unto salvation. Your election that is of God. How do we know anything about
our election? How do you know that you're one of the elect?
How do you know that you're chosen of God? I preached a funeral
back years ago. And my text was Ephesians chapter
1. And I went down through those
verses, and most of the people I was preaching a sermon were
a dear brother, a friend, whose father passed away. Most of the
people there I didn't know. But the brother told me, he said,
I want you to tell the truth, preach the gospel. And of course
I was going to do that anyway, but he encouraged me to do so.
And I took my text from Ephesians chapter 1, And preached down
through that and of course I had many frowns and grumbles and
some people got up and walked out. But when the meeting was
over and I walked through the parking lot out to the car, I
noticed behind me a lady came running after me. And I thought,
boy, she's going to let me have it. She's going to give me were
to go, and so on. She came up to me and she said
this, How can I know if I'm one of those elect? She heard something. Well, right here's the answer
to that. Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God, for our
gospel came not unto you in word only, Oh, it came that way. We're going to see that in a
minute. But also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much
assurance. God gives assurance of hope and
saving faith that is granted always looks to the Lord Jesus
Christ. So it pleased God to choose a
people unto salvation and give them to the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in another scripture,
don't turn, let me just read it to you. In John chapter 6
verse 37, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will never cast him out. Those who
were chosen of God, they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. You
only know Your election by your calling. God calls us out of
darkness into His marvelous light. Here's a second thing that it
pleased the Lord to do. If you'll find the book of Isaiah,
and then that chapter that tells us about our substitute who made
satisfaction for us, that would be Isaiah what? 53, wouldn't
it? Isaiah 53. He was wounded for
our Transgression, he was bruised
for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Verse 6, all we
like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord laid on him, made to meet on him our
iniquity. That is, the iniquity of those
who were chosen, God's sheep. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, as a sheep before shears is dumped, so he opened
not his mouth. He was taken from prison, from
judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression
of my people. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He was stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. Although, because, or although
he had done no violence, he had no sin, he did no sin, he knew
no sin, neither was there any deceit in his mouth, yet it pleased
the Lord. It pleased the Lord to punish
the Lord Jesus Christ as the sinner's substitute. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
that's the elect, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure, the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now, think about
the Lord Jesus Christ as He bears the sin of God's elect, He bears
our sin in His own body on the tree, and it pleased God in that
eternal covenant of grace to punish the sin of God's people
in that substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul put it this
way, God made Him to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ also suffered once for
our sin, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us unto God. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him." Now think about this. We know it pleased Pilate to
turn thumbs down on Him. We know it pleased the Pharisees
to see the Lord Jesus Christ crucified. But what we must see
and we must understand is that the Lord Jesus Christ is God's
sacrificial Lamb that's offered up on behalf of God's people
and His atonement is toward the Lord. You see, the atonement
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not offered to men. This is God's
atonement. This is the Lamb of God that
taketh away our sin. It's the only way it can be taken
away. By that designated substitute. By the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God who is a substitute for God's people. He said, I lay
down my life for the sheep. He made complete. satisfaction
to God's law and justice for His people, and it pleased God
to do so. We would have no salvation without
Christ and Him crucified, would we? We would have no righteousness
before God that would justify us without the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It pleased God to bruise Him
in our room and in our stead, as our dear brother Scott used
to say all the time. I remember the first time I met
him, Brother Scott Richardson. I remember the first sermon I
heard him preach. I got the cassette tape of it
and I listened to it over and over and over and over again
from Romans 14 verse 9. To this end, to this purpose,
Christ both died and rose and revived that He might be Lord
of the living and the dead. He's Lord. He came as Lord. He died as God, our Savior. He bought the church with His
own blood. Aren't you glad it pleased the
Lord to bruise Him in our room and in our stead? The death of
the Lord Jesus Christ was not a universal atonement. We don't
believe in such nonsense. We believe in a definite atonement,
a particular redemption for His covenant people. And it is definite
and it is effectual. That is, what does that mean?
It means it got the job done, didn't it? The Lord Jesus Christ
said, It is finished. How do we know His sacrifice
satisfied God? Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God, He was delivered for our
offenses and raised again because He justified us. It pleased God
in Christ to do that for us. Now here's the third thing. What
did it please God to do? Find the book of Colossians.
The book of Colossians. The book of Colossians chapter
1, verse 19. Well, let's read verse
18. And he is the head, he is the
head and husband of his body. He is before all things, and
by him all things consist. He is the head of the body, the
church. He loved the church and gave
himself for the church. Who is the beginning? who's the
Alpha, the Omega, He's the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
He might have the preeminence." That's a pretty big word, isn't
it? Preeminence? That simply means He has all
the honor and glory, the chief place, the right place. Look
at verse 19 now, "...for it pleased the Father that in Him should
all fullness dwell." Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, he is
a real man! But my friend, the Word that
was with God and the Word that was God, the Word was made flesh
and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, who
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of God manifested
in the flesh. Well, preacher, can you explain
that? Absolutely not. I don't need a God I can explain.
We just simply proclaim the truth and His people believe it. Without
controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest
in the flesh. God who inhabited eternity, inhabited
a body of a man, a real man, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see
what it says there? It pleased the Father that in
Him should all fullness dwell." The Lord said, you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. I am the Father, we are one. Having made peace through the
blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself,
by Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
the heaven, And you that were sometimes alienated, enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
unreprovable in His sight. Aren't you glad and pleased,
God, that in Him should all fullness dwell? You see, what gives merit,
value, and power to the atoning blood of the Lord Jesus Christ?
What gives it such virtue and such glorious, everlasting dominion
and power? It's who died! That's the difference. It's just not a mere man died.
This one who died is the God-man mediator. What does that really
mean to us? Look over in chapter 2, Colossians
chapter 2, look at verse 9. For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and you are complete in Him. We have the completeness of all
salvation. There is nothing lacking in God's
salvation. Is there? We're complete in Him. I'm completely justified. I'm
not going to get any more justified. We're justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm not going to get any more justified than I am right now.
I'm completely justified. I'm not going to get any more
redeemed than I am right now. I'm completely redeemed. He fully
and totally put away all my sin. He appeared once in the end of
the age and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. You are
complete in Him. Now whatever salvation is, I
think I know what it is, but whatever it is, it's in Him.
Salvation is in a person. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son, he
doesn't have life. Whatever else he has, if he's
not one with Christ, by that union of God-given faith, he
doesn't have life. He doesn't have salvation. He's
not complete. He's incomplete. Is that right? Sure it is. It pleased the Father
that in Him should all fullness dwell. Every blessing that the
Lord our God has for His covenant people, it's found in Christ. Listen to this scripture. John
1, 16. Of His fullness have we all received grace for grace. Grace upon grace. Of His fullness
have all we received grace for grace. Now here's what I'd like
to say about that verse. We see in that verse the reason
for grace. Grace because of grace. God delights to show mercy. The Lord is gracious. He is gracious. He is merciful. God who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sin. Grace for grace. We have salvation
by the sovereign, eternal, effectual, irresistible, electing grace
of God. My God shall supply all your
need. according to His riches in glory
through the Lord Jesus Christ." So much so that he says, for
as much as you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you
through His poverty might be rich. That's the grace of God
that saves a wretched sinner like me, like you. What does it take to save a sinner?
Grace. Almighty grace. Not grace that's
frustrated. Not grace that wants to and can't.
But almighty, effectual grace. Now, number four. What did it please the Lord to
do? Well, let's find 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians, it won't keep
you much longer. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. What did it please the Lord to
do? Well, what does He say in the Word? 1 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 18. Verse 18. For the preaching of
the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which
are saved is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God, Here it is, verse 21. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ
crucified. Unto the Jews a stumbling block,
unto the Greeks foolishness, unto them which are called, both
Jews and Greeks. Christ the power of God. That's
why Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's
the power of God unto salvation. Christ crucified is the power
of God. Christ crucified is the wisdom
of God. And it has pleased God to call
out sinful men. sinful men, and to make them
new creatures in Christ, and to send them out with this gospel
message. And God uses the preaching of
the gospel. Now, not the preaching of the
lies and foolishness of men. God has ordained a preaching
of the gospel to the calling out of His people, His elect,
with the truth, not with lies. But with the truth, the truth
of salvation in Christ Jesus, the truth of who God is, the
truth of who the Lord Jesus Christ is, God our Savior, the truth
of how He saves sinners by His grace. It pleased God to call
men to preach the gospel of God. I'm thinking of another verse
over here, find 2 Corinthians chapter 4. He said, My sheep, they hear
My voice, and I give unto them eternal life. They follow Me,
and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. minimize the necessity of true
gospel preaching. Now, we don't make much of the
preacher. Not this one, not that one, or any other. But we make
much of the means that God has ordained to call out His people. The preaching of the gospel,
the preaching of the gospel. Every time we come together,
what do we do? We take this Word and we declare
this Word. I remember something Scott said
years ago. What is preaching? You remember
the question? What is preaching? You remember
the answer? Simply repeating what God has already said. And that's what it is. And that's
what we do over and over again. Look at 2 Corinthians 4 verse
5. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5. We preach not ourselves. Now
I could tell you a lot about myself. I could tell you a lot about
myself, but I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about
Him, my Lord. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants. There's that servant again, the
servant of the Lord, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God that shines
in the face of Christ, in the person of Christ. We have this
treasure, there's that peculiar treasure, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us." It's not the power in the preacher,
it is the power in the gospel that's the salvation, that's
the power of God unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. So never minimize, faith come
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Truth, the Word of God. I've got one last, you got time
for one more? Okay. Galatians chapter 5, excuse
me. Well, I like Galatians chapter
5. We could go there, stand fast in the liberty with Christ that
set us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
But let's find Galatians chapter 1. That'd work better. Because
we find out here what it pleased God to do. When will a sinner
be saved? Now, I know what this religious
world says. Oh, when you walk an aisle, when you come to the
mortars bench, When you pray through, when you turn over a
leaf, oh, when you make a decision, oh, you do all this thing. You
see, everything has to do with what you do, what you do. You
see, salvation is not do, salvation is done. He done it. The Lord Jesus, that's not good
English, but a good theology, He did it all. He did it all,
the saving. He did the choosing. He did the
dying. He did the redeeming. He did
the calling. He did the saving. When will
a sinner be saved? Galatians chapter 1 verse 15.
But when it please God. when it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace." This
is Saul of Tarsus. You know his story. A proud religious
Pharisee who said at one time, I kept the law. Concerning the
law, you remember what he said? I'm blameless. I'm blameless. Till the law came and it killed
him. He said sin revived and I died. God called me by His grace, look
at this, to reveal His Son in me. You see, salvation is a revelation
of the glory of God that shines in the face of Christ. Salvation
is not by education, it's by revelation. God the Holy Spirit
must reveal Christ to your heart, convict you of your sin, and
make the glory of Christ shine in your heart to reveal His Son
in me. that I might preach him among
the heathen, and immediately I didn't confer with flesh and
blood. When Saul of Tarsus had that
revelation of the Lord, Lord, who art thou? I'm Jesus, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what would you have me do?
He bowed to the sovereign claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
he did not confer with flesh and blood. Now here's the point. When God reveals Himself to a
sinner, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but it's God that shows mercy. In other words, it takes God
to reveal God. That's right. And that's what
happens when God saves a sinner. When he's pleased to do it, I
tell folks this, and I know you do too. Preach the gospel and
leave Him alone. Just preach the gospel of God's
saving mercy in Christ, that effectual atonement, effectual
call, preach that we're sinners, preach that Christ is the effectual
Savior, that there's salvation in no other, and to look to Him
for all salvation, and then leave Him alone. God will in due time
do His work. I'm not afraid to preach the
gospel and leave folks in the hands of Almighty God. And He
will reveal Himself unto them, if they're His, in due time.
Remember in Matthew 11 He said, He's hid these things from the
wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes, revealed them
unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed, good in your
sight. I've been doing a study through...
Luke, and I ran into this verse over here in Luke chapter 12.
Don't turn, let me just read it to you. Fear not, little flock,
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom
of God. Everything we have is by God's
good and sovereign pleasure. Thanks be unto our great God,
who is pleased to save sinners in Christ. This is the faithful
saying. worthy of all acceptation, that
the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. For when we were yet without
strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Can you identify with that group?
Well, I can. Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? Pretty good question, is it not?
What's the answer? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that's what He did. And that's what He's doing. And
no one can stay His hand or say unto Him, why are you doing it
that way? Pleased Him to do so. Okay. Thank you. God bless you.