Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Exodus 15. In Exodus 15 and verse 6, We read, Thy right hand, O Lord. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
is the right hand of God. When He had by Himself purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on
high. His position at God's right hand
shows us He's the right hand of the Lord. He's the right hand
of the Lord. Psalm 17, 7 says, Show thy marvelous
lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand. And God truly
saves by Christ Jesus, His right hand. According to thy name,
O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. Thy right
hand is full of righteousness. And Christ is all the righteousness
of His people. Christ is the glory of God. It
says in verse 6, Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious. The
psalmist said that the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, is the brightness
of God's glory. The express image of His person. If we want to see God, we look
to Christ. The fullness of the Godhead bodily. Christ is the power of God. He
says there in verse 6, Thy right hand, O Lord, is become glorious
in power. Christ is the power of God. He
is the power whereby God could be just and the justifier of
His people. He is the power whereby God could
establish His holy law and justice, pouring out justice upon the
guilty and at the same time justify His guilty people. and that was
in Christ. By the power of our Lord Jesus,
God is a just God and a Savior. He's the power of God. Christ
accomplished the work, all the work that the Father sent Him
to do of saving all His elect from the enemy. Christ accomplished
the work of saving His people from the enemy. He says in verse
6, Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. Christ, the right hand of God,
has dashed in pieces the enemy of all His people. He said in
verse 12, Thou stretchest out Thy right hand, and the earth
swallowed them. By laying down His life on the
cross in the place of His people, our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered
Satan, sin, death, and hell for his people. Scripture says the
sting of death is sin, the strength of sin is the law, but thanks
be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's conquered all our enemies.
And so the Lord Jesus is the greatness of God's excellency. He says in verse 7, In the greatness
of Thine excellency, Thou hast overthrown them that rose up
against Thee. Christ person and His work is
the greatness of God's excellency. He is the greatness of God's
excellency because He is God's firstborn son. Do you remember
what Joseph said to Reuben? Reuben was his firstborn. And
He said this, My firstborn, My might, and the beginning of My
strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power.
That's who Christ is to God the Father. He's the excellency of
His greatness. The Apostle Paul said, Doubtless
I count all things lost for the excellency of the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I
count those things but dung, that I might win Christ and be
found in Him. Now all of this is so. All of this is true. It's the
will of God the Father that His Son have all the glory in the
salvation of His people. because all this is so, because
the Father is well pleased with His Son and the finished work
that His Son has accomplished. It has pleased the Father that
Christ Jesus, His Son, have all the glory in the salvation of
His people. And so the enemy of God, the
enemy of God are those who oppose the will of God by worshipping
their own will, by claiming that by their will they are saved
or that they add to the salvation that Christ accomplished. Look
here in Exodus 15 and verse 9. The enemy said, here is the enemy
and here is what they say. This is why they are the enemy.
The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I will draw my sword and my hand
shall destroy them. This is the lust of the natural
man. My will. My will. I will. I will. The most foolish thing
a sinner can do is worship His own will rather than bowing to
the will of God and worshiping God's Son. That's the most foolish
thing a sinner can do, is put confidence in our own will rather
than bowing to God's will, which is that we worship and glorify
the Lord Jesus, His Son. I want to show you today the
folly of will worship. The first thing I want to show
you is that all who truly put confidence in their will, in
any shape, form, or fashion, God calls it will worship. It's the worship of our will.
Now a man may be very religious, he may call on God, he may say
he's worshipping Christ and say he believes the doctrine of grace. But if he puts any confidence
in his will and his ability to do anything of himself by his
will, then he's worshipping himself. He's worshipping his will. His
will is his God. Let me show you this. Turn with
me over to Colossians 2. We're going to turn to some scripture
during this hour. I want you to see some things
here. Colossians 2. Look at verse 16. He just spoke
about Christ, how He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances
that was against us, which was contrary to us, took it out of
the way, nailing it to His cross. He's talking about the law of
God that was against us. Christ came and fulfilled it.
And he says, verse 16, let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon,
or of the Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. These
were all types and shadows, but the body is of Christ. The body that which they pictured
and typified was Christ himself. So when Christ came, the picture
was done away with. We didn't need to meet and drink
and holy days and new moons and Sabbath days because Christ is
what those things picture. Let no man beguile you, trick
you of your reward in a voluntary humility, in a worshipping of
angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen,
vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind. vainly puffed up, proud
in his fleshly mind and not holding the head, not beholding Christ
the head from whom all the body, every believer by joints and
bands have nourishment ministered and are knit together and increased
with the increase of God. All of that is from Christ. He
is the one that fits us together and cements us together and increases
us by growing us in grace knowledge of Him, in His grace and in the
knowledge of Him. And He says here, Wherefore,
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, if
you're dead to the law, why, as though your life is in this
world, why, as though your life is in the things that you do,
are you subject to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, and handle
not. Which all are to perish with
the using. All those works are going to
perish when your flesh perishes. And all of those things are after
the commandments and doctrines of men. Look at this. That's what men teach you. You
have to go back to the law. You have to go back to the law.
And then men make up their own commandments and their own law.
Now watch what he says, verse 23. Which things have indeed
a show of wisdom. They're not wisdom. But they
put on a good show of wisdom in will-worship. In will-worship. That's what it is. It's will-worship. It's a false humility and it's
a neglecting of the body. But it does nothing to honor
the satisfying of the flesh. It does nothing in honor to mortify
the flesh. by telling men don't do this
and do that and don't do the other and do the other. That
doesn't mortify the flesh. It only puts on a show. And all
it is, is will worship. It's a worship of a man's will.
Let me tell you what the Lord said to the will-worshipping
Jews. On one occasion He said, you are your father the devil
and the lust of your heart, I mean the lust of your father will
you do. You have your father the devil,
you're doing the lust that he does. He said, he's a murderer
from the beginning and he abode not in the truth because there's
no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
of his own because he's a liar and he's the father of it. And
he said, and because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Now let me show you, go over
with me to Isaiah 14 and let's see what this devil's, what his
chief lust is. What is his chief lust? Whatever
his chief lust is, that's going to be the chief lust of those
that are under his power. Whatever the devil's lust is,
that's going to be the lust of those that are under his power.
This is what they think salvation is. Because they're under the
power of Lucifer, of the devil. Look here, Isaiah 14, 12. How
art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning?
How art thou cut down to the ground which did weaken the nations?
For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend unto heaven. You
see there? I will. That's the lust of His
heart. I will. I will ascend unto heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. I will. I will. God says, yet
thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit.
So Christ shows us here when He said to the will worshippers,
you are of your father the devil and the lust of your father you
will do. And then we see here what the
lust of the devil is. Salvation by the will, I will,
self-exaltation, I will exalt myself, I will be as the most
high God. That's the nature of every sinner
that comes into this world. We're all by nature will-worshippers. We worship our will by nature. Now, the will-worshipper is God's
enemy. Why is that? Why is the will-worshipper
God's enemy? Well, it's because the salvation
that God accomplishes is by the will of the triune God and not
by the will of man. Salvation is by the will of God,
not by the will of man. Now let's see that and let's
just start at the beginning of salvation and go through salvation
and let's see. First of all, election. Salvation
begins with God's electing grace. Election is not by man's will. It's not by man's will. There's
some that will tell you, the will worshippers say, God elected
a people based on Him knowing who would believe on Him by their
will. That's will worship. To say God
chose me based on Him foreseeing that I would believe on God,
that puts the whole thing in my hand. It makes me to be the
reason God chose me because of my will. But that's not the electing
grace of God. Let me tell you what the purpose
of God in election is. It's first to choose His Son
and give His Son all the glory. He said in Isaiah 42, 1, Behold
My servant whom I uphold, Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. He'll bring forth judgment to
the Gentiles. A bruised reed will He not break,
and the smoking flax He won't quench. When He comes to broken
sinners and sinners who are obnoxious, smoking like flax, He won't put
them out. He won't turn them away. He's
going to save them by His grace. He shall not fail until He has
set judgment in the earth. And all God's elect will wait
for His gospel. It comes from Him. He's the first
cause of God's selection. He saved, He elected His Son
and chose His Son to get all the glory and the salvation of
His people. And then go to Romans 9 and I'll show you the purpose
of God in choosing His people. Romans 9, the purpose of God
in choosing His people is this. It says clearly what it is. Romans 9.11. I want you to just
read there what's in the parentheses. He says, look at the purpose,
the word purpose. He chose Jacob and passed by
Esau when the two were not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand. Here it is. not of works, but
of him that calleth. Our election's not of works,
our salvation's not of works, it's of God that calleth. Look
at verse 15. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth. It's not of your will. It's not
of my will. It's not of him that runneth.
It's not of our works in any way. But it's of God that showeth
mercy. God said, I will choose whom
I will choose. You see, we're going to have
to be brought to submit to God's will. God didn't have to choose
you or me. God can do what He will. And
you and I can't do a thing about it. We have to bow to His will. And if you see yourself as you
are, as you truly are, to be a rotten, helpless sinner, God
choosing by His free mercy and His free grace will be the best
news you ever heard. Because without Him choosing
us, we certainly would not have chosen God. It's not of Him that
will us. not of him that runneth. The
purpose of God according to election is that it would not be of works,
but of God that calls. And then the predestination of
God's elect. Not only did He choose His people,
He predestinated us to the adoption of children, to be adopted into
His family. So that one day He would send
the Spirit of God to us, the Spirit of Christ, and make us
to cry out, Abba, Father. Well, how is that predestination
done? Ephesians 1 verse 5. If you want
to just mark these down or if you want to turn to them either
way, but I want you to see these. Ephesians 1 verse 5 says, Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. It was
according to the good pleasure of His will. Now in verse 11
it says, In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. God predestinated His
people to be adopted as His children by His own will. according to
His own will. And He worked everything to bring
it to pass according to His own will. And then will-worshippers
say, well, at least the new birth, at least being born again is
partly according to my will. What part did you have in your
first birth? What part did you have in conceiving
yourself the first time? Absolutely nothing. And we don't
have any part in our conception in the new birth, in being born
again. John 1.11 tells us this, Christ
came unto His own, His own received Him not, but as many as received
Him, to them gave He privilege to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name, which were born. Here's how they
were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. They were born of God, entirely
of God. Somebody say, and this was popular
for a long time, was, well once you're born of God, now then
it's up to you to either choose Him or reject Him. Sinners say,
oh, you take ground away from a sinner and he's going to grasp
for a straw to try to give glory and honor to his will somewhere.
You take away him being born again, he's going to say, well,
now once I'm born again, now it's up to my will to either
choose or reject him. No, no, no, it's not of the sinner's
will. Willingness to come to Christ
is due to the will of God our Father. Christ said in John 6.65,
No man can come unto Me except it were given him of My Father. No man can come to Christ except
it be given him of God the Father. We come to Christ and have a
willingness to come to Christ by the Holy Spirit of God. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13 says,
We are bound to give thanks always 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. Everybody God chose, He's going
to sanctify, set apart, and bring to believe the gospel of Christ
Jesus. He's going to bring them to believe
on Christ. And He says, whereunto He, the
Spirit of God, called you by our gospel to the obtaining of
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. God predestinated us to be sanctified
and brought to believe the truth by the Spirit of God, and it's
by the Spirit of God that He calls you and brings you to believe
on Christ and gives you the glory of Christ. A sinner's will to
come to Christ is by the power of the Son of God as our High
Priest. He said in Psalm 110.1, The Lord
said unto my Lord, The Lord, Jehovah, God said unto my Lord
Jesus Christ, Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine
enemies thy footstool. And let me tell you something,
all the enemies of Christ are going to be made His footstool.
And you and I who are His elect, who were enemies in our minds
by wicked works, we're going to be made to kiss His feet in
grace. And those who are enemies in
opposition and hatred and rebellion against God who leave this world
hating God, they're going to be made to bow and confess He's
Lord of lords and King of kings too. But all His enemies are
going to be made His footstool. How is He going to do it for
His people? He says, The Lord shall send the rod of thy strength
out of Zion. Zion is where Christ is seated
right now in Heaven's glory. Zion. And it's His church in
the earth as well. Because we're one. There's no
division between us as far as God's concerned. Zion is His
church. It's where Christ dwells. And
he sends the gospel, which is the rod of his strength, out
of Zion, out from his church. That's where he sends the gospel.
And by that, he says, he rules in the midst of his enemies.
He rules in the midst of his enemies. And here's what he accomplishes. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. His people are made willing in
the day of His power. In the day of His power. He has
the dew of youth from the womb of the morning. He's the one
that gives life, the moisture of life. Remember how we saw
dew pictures life, that dew coming down unnoticed, unseen? Christ
is the life that comes unnoticed, unseen and gives you life from
the womb of the morning, regenerating you anew. And this is His high
priestly glory. He said there, As soon as he
said that, he said, the Lord hath sworn and will not repent,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Not
only does Christ go to the Father and make intercession with us
in the holiest of holies, but just like that high priest pictured
Christ in the Old Testament, that high priest would come out
then and he would minister to the people. He was the go-between
between God and the people. And he would go and minister
to the people and apply the blood to the people. And Christ comes
as our High Priest and He makes you willing in the day of His
power by applying His blood and cleansing us in the heart. This
is what Christ does in spirit through the preaching of the
Word. That's why it's blasphemous and it's a stealing of His glory
to deny or to say that a sinner comes to Christ by his own will,
by teaching himself apart from the gospel of Christ because
that's Christ's high priestly glory to work that. And then
the fulfillment of the law. the fulfilling of God's will
and righteousness from a holy heart, that's not by the will
of man. The fulfilling of God's will,
which is the fulfilling of the law and perfect righteousness
from a holy heart, that's not by man's will. That's by Christ. Go with me to Hebrews. Let me read this while you're
going there. What I'm going to read you in Hebrews is quoted
from Psalm 40, verses 6 through 8. He said, Sacrifice an offering
thou didst not desire, mine ear hast thou opened, burnt offering
and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I
come. In the volume of the book it's
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. You remember Moses come down
from the mountain and When he came back down, Aaron and the
children of Israel had already made him an idol and was dancing
around a golden cat. And Moses took that law and tablets
and he threw it down on the ground and broke it. And that all pictured
the fact that even while God was giving us the law, we had
already broken the law. We had already broken it. We
had already transgressed against the will of God. But then the
Lord said, told Moses, come back up here and He made new tablets
of stone. And He said, now take these tablets
and put them where? Put them within the ark. Don't
you even touch them. You just put them inside the
ark. Christ said, I am that ark because God's law is in my heart. I came to fulfill the whole law
of God. And over that ark is the mercy
seat where the blood was applied, where God said, I'll meet with
you. And Christ is that propitiation who fulfilled the law entirely
for His people and the one where God will meet with His people
through faith in Him. Look here in Hebrews 10 verse
8. Above, when He said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin, thou wouldst not neither hadst pleasure therein
which are offered by the law. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. Christ, He, Christ, taketh away
the first. He takes away that first covenant
of all those works and all those Ceremonies and tithes, He takes
that away. That He may establish the second,
the everlasting covenant of grace. That covenant which is completely
fulfilled by God apart from any of our works. Watch this, by
the witch will. He said, I come to do thy will,
O God, thy laws within my heart. And he says, and by that will,
by Christ's will, we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all time. It's by Christ coming and
fulfilling the will of God that we're sanctified, that we're
perfected forever. It's by Christ doing it, not
by our doing it. It's by His will. Scripture says
He gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father. That's what He was doing. He
was fulfilling God's will, saving His people from our sin by fulfilling
the whole law of God for God and for His people. Well, what
about a believer's works? We've taken all the ground away
from him now on how he's brought to Christ and believes on Christ.
Now what about his works once he's brought to Christ? What
about good works? A believer's works, his good
works, and his persevering in faith, even the works of the
whole church together, none of it is by our will. It's by the
will of God. Listen to this, Philippians 2.12.
My beloved, as you've always obeyed, not as in my presence
only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. I've told you this often, that
word salvation is the same word used in chapter 1 when he says
your affairs. Let me hear of your affairs.
It means, let me hear of all your daily doings and all of
the things that you do as a church together. Let me hear of all
this salvation that youíre working it all out with fear and trembling. Why? Because itís God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Itís Godís will thatís working
in His people. to bring to pass His good pleasure. Listen to Hebrews 13, 20. Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of
the everlasting covenant, now the God of peace make you perfect
in every good work to do His will. Working in you, that which
is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom
be glory forever and ever. Amen. He gets all the glory. He works every good work in His
people. Does that mean that He does it
against my will? He does it against your fleshly
will. But He does it in perfect harmony with that new will He
has given you in that new heart. That's so. It's against our fleshly
will. Every time you've ever done a
good work, there's always been a part of you that didn't want
to do it. Isn't that so? It's against your fleshly will,
your sinful will, but there's a new willingness He put in you
where He worked His will in you and you were willing to be worked.
That's right. So salvation is so completely
the will of God that you know what the gospel is called? It's
called the mystery of His will. That's what it's called. Everything
is of the will of God. So any sinner that's worshiping
His will rather than submitting to God's will and confessing
salvation to be of the Lord, that sinner is going against
God's will and he's the enemy of God. I don't care how many
people say it. I don't care how many people
in religion and how impressive they might be to you that say
that we're saved by our will, they're liars. Scripture says
if they speak not according to this word, there's no truth in
them, no light in them. Alright, look here. I'm not going
to get any further. I'm going to stop right here
and we'll come back to this point next time. I do want to end with
something though. I want to show you something
here. I want to just read this to you. God's going to get all the glory
for leading His people. Redeeming us and leading us.
Look at verse 13. Thou and Thy mercy has led forth
the people which Thou hast redeemed. He's going to get all the glory
for that. He's going to get all the glory for guiding us, each
one that He's purchased, to His holy dwelling place. He said
in verse 13, Thou has guided them in Thy strength into Thy
holy habitation. The people shall hear and be
afraid, that is, all the enemies. He says there that verse 16,
Fear and dreads are going to come upon them by the greatness
of thine arm, and they are going to be still as a stone till thy
people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over which thou
hast purchased. He is going to bring every one
of them over. And look here, He is going to get the glory
for planting us in His sanctuary. Verse 17, Thou shalt bring them
in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance in the place,
O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. They're
going to get all the glory for planting us. That sanctuary is
His holy place, His church where He abides. They're going to get
the glory for planting us there. He says, in the end, He's going
to reign for all eternity and this is what we're going to praise
Him for. We're going to praise Him for all eternity. Look at
verse 18. The Lord shall reign forever
and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and
with his horsemen into the sea and the Lord brought again the
waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went
on dry land in the midst of the sea. Just like He destroyed Pharaoh
and that army, He's going to completely annihilate every enemy
that we face and cast them into outer darkness where they'll
be gnashing and wailing and gnashing of teeth forever. And yet He's
going to bring every one of His people into glory and we're going
to praise Him. He's going to reign forever and
ever and ever and we're going to praise Him forever and ever.
So here's what I want you to get concerning your will and
mine. Scripture says all flesh is grass. All flesh is grass. The goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field. What does it do? What do you
look out there and you see that field grass and you see it bloom
with some flowers? And it looks real pretty one
day. And you look back out there and the grass witherth and the
flower fadeth. That's your flesh and mine. That's
all your works and my works. That's all your will and my will.
And why does it fade? Because the Spirit of the Lord
blows upon it. Surely the people is grass. The
grass wither, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God shall
stand forever. It's the living Word and where
He's made you to be born again of His will, you have eternal
life as eternal as the Word of God and you'll abide forever.
Concerning our will, we're flesh, we're grass. But concerning our
God, Thy God reigneth. Salvation is of the sovereign
will of God. And you know what I pray? I pray
He reigns in your heart today. I pray that He takes up ownership
today within you and starts reigning in you. I tell you what you'll
do when He does that. You'll bow to every word I've
been speaking and say, Thank you Lord that it's so. I'm thankful
that it's this way. You saved me from myself. Thank You, Lord. Let's stand
together. Father, thank You for this Word.
Thank You for Your blessings upon Your people. Pray today,
Lord, that You'd meet with us and really give us a time of
worship together. Make us behold Christ Jesus,
our Savior and our Lord. It's in His precious name we
pray. Amen.