I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Proverbs. Let's
look in Proverbs 14 this morning. I would like to look at one verse. Proverbs 14 and verse 28. Proverbs 14.28 says this, In
the multitude of people is the king's honor, but in the want
of people is the destruction of the prince. Let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you for
this day. This is your day, the Lord's
day. And Lord, in the coming together
that we have, we thank you. Lord, I ask you this morning,
would you bless the Word? Help us to hear. Lord, bless
it, I pray, for the salvation of sinners, the comfort of your
people. For Christ's sake. Amen. I want to tell you, just to sum
up what this verse of Scripture says. And then we're going to
look at it and show how these things are solved. This is what
Proverbs 14, 28 says. Almighty God does what
He purposes to do. Almighty God gets his work done. He gets the job done. That's
what it means. And he's honored in doing that
which he purposes to do. And for that, we're thankful. Now, this morning, I want us
to start in proving that point right there. I want to make good
on that statement. God gets the job done in honoring
Himself, glorifying His Son, and drawing His people to Him.
You know, we've considered this marvelous request that was made
by Moses when he asked the Lord in Exodus 33.18. Here's what
Moses said. I beseech thee, I ask you, Lord,
I'd like to make a request. Show me your glory. Show me your
honor. Show me your abundance. Show
me your splendor. Show me your dignity. Show me
your heaviness. And in the New Testament, we've
looked at this before. That word glory. The glory of the Lord. That unchanging,
incorruptible nature of Almighty God means this. What do you think? I want to
know. Lord, would you bless us this morning in the question
that Moses asked you. Show me your glory. What do you think? What's your opinion? Lord, what
have you determined to do? Would you show us that? Well, the answer that the Lord
gave Moses One that should stomp every mouth of pride and cause
every sinner. That's us. That's us. All of us. To bow in reverence
before Him who alone is worthy of our praise. This is what He
said. I will make all my goodness,
all of my benefit, all of my favor, all of my pleasing pass
before you. This is what I'm going to do.
This is what I think. This is my opinion. I'm going
to make all my goodness I have passed before thee and I will
proclaim the name of the Lord. I'm going to set forth the authority
and the character of myself before you. And I will be gracious." I looked that word up again.
I'm going to stoop. I'm going to stoop in kindness
to you. I will be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious, and I will show mercy. I'm going to pity those
that I'm going to show mercy to. Now, from that revelation,
I know this. When the Lord said, when Moses
asked Him, show me Your glory. Lord, I want to know what You
think. Would You tell me that? And the Lord was pleased to tell
him, I'm going to have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll
be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. Whosoever I'm pleased to show
grace to, that's who I'm going to show grace to. Whoever I'm
pleased to show mercy to, that's who I'm going to show mercy to.
Lord, that's what you think. That's what I think. But from
that statement, I know this, that God has a people. I know
that He has a chosen people. I know that He has a people that
He has chosen according to Ephesians 1-4. And that's a statement that
cannot be successfully debated. I do understand. I understand
men will argue with Him about it. But it's not going to hold
water. Almighty God has set forth that
before the foundation of the world, He chose a people. And in Him choosing those people,
He chose them in Christ. And Almighty God's choosing them
in Christ. In choosing His Son. to be their surety, His chosen,
His elect, the one that He first trusted in. He chose them in
the Lord, and those people chosen in Him were chosen to be holy. They're holy in Christ. Holy. And without blame, before
Him in love. Lord, if that's what you think,
that's exactly right. Now those chosen have been redeemed
in time and absolutely made holy by the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Those who out of every nation
and kindred and tribe and tongue that the Lord Jesus Christ has
represented, they're going to come to Christ by faith. Lord,
this is Your opinion based on Your Word. You chose a people. Gave them to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, as their
surety, came into this world and answered for every one of
them. And God accepted what Christ did in their state. He lived for them and God Almighty
counted His obedience to them for righteousness. That's exactly
right. And in time, I'm telling you
based on God's Word, Almighty God, under the preaching of this
truth, this truth right here, that God does what God wants
to do. And Almighty God is going to
call them and He's going to give them a new heart. They had a
stony heart that they were born with in Adam, a heart of rebellion. And Almighty God says, I'm going
to take that stony heart out of them. The corruption of that
old heart, they're going to go to their grave with it. The presence
of sin. But I'm telling you, that old
heart does not rule anymore. The Lord said, I'm going to remove
it. And I'm going to give you a new heart. A willing heart. A heart that loves God. A heart
that vows to God. A heart that's going to struggle
with that old nature that's still there. The corruption. Sin. Paul says, in my flesh, God Almighty
has promised, I'm going to keep you. I'm not going to forsake
you. I'm not going to let you perish.
I will not let you perish. Lord, that's your opinion. That's
your opinion. God is honored in bringing all
of his people to himself. And knowing that, Proverbs 14.28
says this, in the multitude of people is the king's honor. in the multitude of people. The
King's honor and glory and praise of the King of kings and Lord
of lords is bringing to glory all that the Father has entrusted
Him with. That's how He's going to glorify
Himself. None of them will be lost. He
has everlastingly stood for them, everlastingly answered for them
as their representative. and their husband. And He's going
to have them. He's going to bring them to the
Father. I know they fell. I know they fell in Adam. I know that they fell. And when
they fell, they spiritually died. They died and had absolutely
no ability to commune with God, to love God, come to God, They
had no heart to praise Him. They were children of wrath,
even as others. That's how they were born. And
God always loved them. He always saw them in Christ.
He ever beheld them in His precious Son. And all of them, all of
them, by nature, were like every other person that fell in Adam. But Almighty God, who would have
mercy and be gracious to whomsoever He would, said, You deliver them
from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. When did He
find him? He always found him. He's everlastingly
found him. The Lord Himself, who was ever
before him, Almighty God does what God says He's going to do.
The Scripture says, For God so loved the world, the arrangement,
the order of man, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God's got a people. They're in
this world. But they've been chosen out of
this world. And they're not of this world. And when He calls
them out of darkness, they know they're not of this world. They
don't feel comfortable in this world. They don't feel comfortable. They're not comfortable with
this world's religion. They're not going to worship
this world's little G-God. They're not going to bow to Him.
They will not. God is going to keep them. The
Lord of glory and the fullness of time sent forth, made of a
woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law, that they all, that is all that the Father had given Him,
might receive the adoption of sons. God's got a people. God's got a people. God gets
the job done. The Lord Jesus Christ, He went
to Calvary. He was going to be forsaken of
His Father. And the Scripture sets forth in knowing that, in
knowing that His Father would forsake Him. The Scripture sets
forth in that garden He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. in the anticipation that He would
be forsaken. That His people would not be
forsaken. The shedding of His blood, 1,500
years, that's what I've told you, 1,500 years of the blood
of bulls and goats could not do what one offering, the Lord
Jesus Christ, by one offering have perfected. forever them
that are sanctified. Listen, you that love Him, you
that know Him, you that struggle. And I'll tell you this, a believer,
he's the one that's struggling. He's the one struggling, striving
to make his calling and election sure. A believer wants to hear
As I've said before, you tell me one more time. Tell me one
more time. I know you've told me again.
I know you've preached this before. I know I've heard it before.
You tell me one more time. Tell me how God is not going
to forsake His people. Tell me one more time. Tell me
how a believer thinks. Tell me what the Scripture says
concerning God's opinion. Tell me one more time. I want
to hear it again. Don't trickle my ears. Don't
tell me things that don't matter. I want to know this. Tell me
that God gets the job done. Tell me how He keeps His people. Now according to the power and
the majesty of Him, for whom are all things and by whom are
all things. in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. The Scripture says that in the
multitude of people is the King's honor. Here's the honor of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He saves His own. There's His
honor. Lord, show me Your honor. Lord,
show me Your glory. Lord, show me what glorifies
You. How are You honored? How are
You glorified? Tell me, Lord, how You are. I
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on
whom I'll have compassion. Oh, how great is the honor of
our heavenly King in the redemption of those that He's purposed to
save. Glory. That Almighty God would
say, state, here is my glory. This is it. This is it. I'm going
to save my people. Oh, how little do we think of
the glory of salvation wrought out by God's choosing, by Christ's
redemption, and by the Holy Spirit's regenerating grace and power. Oh, in that day when we stand
before the throne, accepted in the beloved, I think of Hebrews
2, think of this glorious day, and listen to the words of our
Savior, On that day, Hebrews 2 verses 11 to 13. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church, will I sing praise
unto thee, and again I will put my trust in him, and again behold
I and the children which God has given me." In that day to
come and to stand before God Almighty, in that great day,
the day of judgment, and to hear Him say, behold I and the children
that you gave me. Lord, thank You. Thank You. Thank You for Your
mercy. Thank You for Your grace. What
a reunion! All of God's family shall be
there. Nobody missing. No empty places. This is the King's honor. All
of His people shall be with Him. In the multitude of people is
the King's honor. But in the one of people is the
destruction of the prince. In the decline of wealth, the
want. The decline of wealth. That's
what it means. In the want of the people is
the destruction. That means to take hold of and
to seize. This last phrase right here is
setting forth the God, the little g God, that man and his false
religion Now let me tell you what that
last statement right there said. I told you, you know what the
first part says. Here's what the first part says. God gets
His job done. God does what God wants to do. What He desires to do. But you
know what that last part says? That last part says right there, that the little G God of this
world, that people say, He wants to say that He loves everybody. He desires for all people to
be with Him. But He can't have them. He can't
have them if they won't let Him. If they're not willing to give
Him their heart, oh, He sent His Son into this world and His
Son lived perfectly. And He went to the cross and
He died for everybody's sin. That's a lie. That's a lie. He did not die for everybody's
sin. Go look at John 10 and 15 and
tell me who He died for. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep. Here's this little God desiring
to save. Hoping that somebody will give
him a break, and give him some honor, and come to him, and exercise
their free will that the scripture says man doesn't have. In the want of people. In the
decline of wealth. He died for them, they say. And he had to send him to hell.
He shed his blood in vain. God Almighty forsook him. God
Almighty sent him to the cross. He laid down his life willingly
and paid everybody's debt. And because a little impotent
man, because a man that has no ability to do anything, wouldn't
give him his heart, God Almighty had sent him to hell and disgraced
his son. Christ shed his blood in vain. That is the most horrible, most
disrespectful thing that I'd ever hear. Let me tell you something. You want to know what the glory
of God is? God does what God purposes to
do. And anybody that tells you that
man wants to do something and he can't do it, or your arms
are the only arms that he has, or hands, or your eyes are the
only eyes that he's got, that's a lie. That's a lie. The God
of this Bible He does as He will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. He absolutely is going to save
His people. Now let me tell you how you know
that Almighty God has had mercy on you. Here's how you know. You believe God. You don't put
any trust whatsoever in yourself, in your ability. You don't look
back to when you decided to walk down an aisle and think that
that was when Almighty God was able to show mercy on you. No confidence in the flesh. Salvation
is today. Right now. Today. All things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according to God's purpose. If Almighty God has given you
a heart to believe this, to trust Him, to forsake all other, you
bow to Him, which you will. You confess Him in baptism. according to His Word, His command. Almighty God has mercy, compassion,
grace on whomsoever He will. Amen.