I guess make a couple of notes. Remember the fellowship lunches this weekend, is that correct? My date's right? Okay. So remember that, if you will. And I had a call yesterday. It was a very wonderful call. A lady I had been talking to now for, I imagine, over 10 years she had been just calling and talking. She lived on the south side of Louisville and was never able to meet with her or anything like that, but the Lord has It moved everything and she seems to be living just a few miles down the road now from me. So I was really overjoyed by that. And I do pray the Lord would be gracious to allow us to spend time together. I've only seen, met her in person probably one or two times. But it was really great to hear from her and she sends her love and thanks for the messages and things she receives. Her name is Marsha Winters, so pray for her if you would.

Ask your prayers for me tonight as I strive to preach to you. Text is gonna be on worship. And the more I went over the message, I feel like I, You know, sometimes you don't feel things like you suppose you should. And I'm thankful the gospel is not about how I feel. I'm thankful that that's the truth. And it is the gospel, I learned this as I went through this, the gospel is the means and the cause of worship. And that'll be the message. If you don't get anything else, that's it. The cause of worship is always the gospel. It is always the gospel. And Isaiah is here gonna exalt the Lord and he's gonna tell you why. And he tells you why, it's the gospel. That's what stirs the heart of the believer to worship. And I desire to worship him. I desire to have those feelings, those things that come along with worship. But I know this, the only thing that's gonna stir it, is the Spirit using the Word. And I pray well. I pray it stir my heart and yours this evening.

You take your Bibles and turn with me to Isaiah 25. Isaiah 25. I've entitled this message, The Cause of Worship. The cause of worship. Isaiah begins this chapter and he says, Oh Lord, thou art my God. He makes a bold statement, a statement, which is necessary if we're going to worship. And this has to be true, that God must be our God. And he makes this bold statement. He said, Lord, you are my God. And so regardless of how I feel or what I think, this is truth. The Lord Jehovah is my God. If you're a believer in Christ, listen to this. He is your God. Regardless of anything else. Doesn't matter. Nothing else matters but this. Is the Lord your God? Well, if he is, look at the result of this. He said, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name. The psalmist rightly said in Psalm 147, praise ye the Lord, why? For it is good to sing praises unto our God. For it is pleasant and praise is comely. It's beautiful. That's how God sees your praise. Isn't that astounding? We see our praise and you look at, if you were to take a video of us praising, what would you see? Would you see anything worthy of being called beautiful? And yet that's what it is if you're in Christ. This is how God sees our praise. It's comely, it's right, it's good.

Now the world, the world promises happiness and peace but And it always tries to appeal to the flesh. If you found that to be true, the world is always trying to appeal to the flesh. And to our shame, we are by our flesh drawn after those things. But haven't you found this to be true that the promises of the world are empty? You found the promises of the flesh to be empty. Every time you want something, and there's nothing wrong with these things, if you get something and the Lord gives you something, you can thank him for it, but have you found that it just disappears? Whatever that thing was that made you so happy, and then all of a sudden, it's gone.

But for the righteous, there's only one thing that is good and fills the heart of the new man with joy, and that is worship. This is what excites the new man, not the flesh, the inner man. The praise of God comes from the heart, by the power and grace of the spirit, and it is to us pleasant. This is why we come here. This is why we assemble together.

Please, don't come just to hear me. That won't last. You should come with a heart of worship, a desire. You may not have it in you. I know many times I've come to a worship service and I've not had it in me. I find empty. I come empty. But I know this, when the gospel is preached and the spirit moves, I go away full. I go away full.

Now, This idea of worship is to most people a confusing thing, especially to religion. Religion confuses worship with emotionalism. Emotionalism. You see, religious people, they get a nice band together. You know, beautiful music. They get the lights just right. I mean, they spend hundreds of thousands of dollars just seeking out which is the best color, which is the best. There's a psychology in it to find the best colors to display. So it makes people feel some kind of emotion. And they have nice music and everything like that. And they have this concert mentality. And you know what they say? That's worship. That's worship.

Well, I'll tell you this, as a believer in Christ, I know this, if I could, if we could have more music, I would have it. I don't think, there's nothing wrong with music. It's wonderful, it's beautiful, it's what God made for us to sing. I would love it to have so many people singing that I can sing at the top of my lungs and not worry about what people thought. I would love that, wouldn't you? I'd love that, that'd be wonderful.

But how do you know? Believers want to feel. And there's nothing wrong with that. We desire to feel those things. Believers weep over our sins. We have emotions, and we desire that they come. When we worship God, we desire it to pour out of us and be so full that it just overflows. That's what we desire.

But how can you tell which is emotionalism, which one's worship? One thing, the message. What is being preached? That will tell you if it is the Spirit of God or the Spirit of Antichrist. Not the sounds or not the beautiful music. None of that will tell you whether it's worship or not. What will tell you is worship is this. What is being preached? Is the gospel of Jesus Christ being preached? The saint of God desires to hear the gospel. Why? Because this is the cause of our worship.

Look what he says in our text. I will exalt thee. He's determined. He is determined. Are you determined? Because that it does take determination, friends, because anything and everything will come in when you want to worship. Guess what? Anything and everything will try to disrupt you from worship. Have you found that to be true? You go try to get a loan, now you could be alone all week and nobody call you. This happens all the time. I could be alone doing silly things all week long and nobody bothers me. When I get a loan with this, my phone seems to ring off the hook or the family's in crisis, somebody needs something, could you get me this? Without fail. You see that Isaiah here, he said, I will exalt thee. That is a determinant factor. Why? You're my God. You're my God. Now notice why? For he gives a cause. He gives a cause. That's what I'm going to do tonight. I want you to see that worship comes only from the preaching of the gospel. This is the cause. And from this point on, he's going to tell you why he's worshiping. What's the cause? What stirs my heart to exalt my God are these things. And he says, for thou has done wonderful things, thy counsel of old, our faithfulness and truth, the cause of worship.

Listen, to worship God. Our Lord mentioned this at the Woman of the Well. When she came and the Lord exposed her sin, do you remember what she did? She went right to religious questions. She said, well, now I've got some confusion about this religion thing because you Jews say you worship up here and we Samaritans say we can worship down here. What do you say about that? He said, look, you guys don't know what you're talking about. You Samaritans don't know. And the salvation? Correct. It's of the Jews. This is where God said He would worship. But let me tell you something else. He said the hour is coming and now is when they that worship the Lord shall neither worship Him here or there. But they that worship the Lord shall worship Him, how? In spirit and truth. Without these things you cannot worship God. Without the spirit You cannot worship God. You need both. You need both. He said, they that worship Him must worship Him with the Spirit and with the truth.

Now let me tell you this. You can't worship God without the Spirit. Except you're born again of God. I don't care what you do. You can jump up and down. You can holler. You can cry. You can scream. You can have all the emotions you want. If you're not born of God, you cannot worship God. Your worship is empty. It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter how much money you spend. It doesn't matter. Like I said, you can cry rivers. If you're not born again, you can't worship God. That's what the Lord Jesus said. Without the Spirit, you can't worship God. You that believe. What do we have? We have the Spirit. We have something essential to worship, the Spirit. And what else is essential? Truth. Truth. Well, we know who that is. Our Lord Jesus said, I am the way, the truth. You can't worship the spirit and you can't worship God without me. Without Christ, we cannot worship God.

So as we come to worship God, we must do what? We must preach Christ. Without that, there's no worship. preach the truth, but if you don't have the Spirit, it's not worship. We must have both. We must have both. And this is none other than the Gospel. This is what the Spirit uses, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, I've got three things in this text. Three causes for worship. Three things that should stir our hearts to exalt our God.

First of all, the eternal counsel of God. This should move every believer to exalt him, his eternal counsel.

Secondly, the fulfillment of his eternal counsel. It's one thing to have a counsel. It's another thing to fulfill it. The fulfillment of this counsel is by who? Who fulfilled it? Jesus Christ. He's the one that fulfilled it.

And thirdly, the revelation. Now, what's good is a counsel and the fulfillment of it if you don't know anything about it. We can't worship if we don't know anything about it. And so the revelation causes us to worship. Now, first of all, the eternal counsel. Look what he says here. He said, for thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels of old are what? Faithfulness and truth. Faithfulness and truth. Let us remember that all the works of God that he has done. This should stir your heart. Listen to this. If God is your God, listen to who he is. Listen to his counsel.

Everything that God has done. That's a lot of stuff, isn't it? Consider from this point back to the beginning. How much has God done? Everything God's done and everything that God is doing right now. And everything that God is going to do is according to his eternal counsel, his will, his will. Everything that is done is the express and exact fulfillment of his eternal will.

You know what separates a false God from the real God? Sovereignty. You can take a God, you can make him and he can have feet, he can have hands, he can have a mouth. You can impose things on him, you can make him say, well, my God is like this. You can write a big book about him and everything. What's the problem with that God? Can he do anything? He can't do anything without you. You take him, you pick him up, you move him over here, and he'll stay right there until you pick him up and bring him back. That's what's missing. Sovereignty. Sovereignty. Any God that is not sovereign is not God. Period. I don't care what name you put on it. You can put the name Jehovah on it. You can call him Jehovah. I can call that bottle Jehovah. That doesn't make it Jehovah. God says what distinguishes me from every other God is this, sovereignty.

Isaiah chapter 46, look at that. God separating himself, defining himself from every other God. He says in Isaiah 46 in verse 9, he says, remember the former things of old. Man, that's a lot of stuff. I told you, it's a lot of things. Remember everything that has already happened. For I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me. You understand that? There's only one, me. And every other God is not like me. What's the difference? Declaring the end when? From the beginning.

Manifest don't stir your heart to praising because he is absolutely sovereign. He's a God you stand in awe of. He said everything. declaring the end from the beginning from ancient times of things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do what? What will I do? All my pleasure. That's what I'll do. I will do all my pleasure. Everything God determines to do in eternity will take place in time. Why? Because he's God. Isn't this the defining factor that you that believe, who's carrying who? Who's carrying who? Do you carry your God? Or does your God carry you?

I remember seeing this video online, this Catholic priest holding this big cross or something like that. And he's crying, he's just going, he's just full of tears and emotions. and he's just walking down the aisle with this big thing and he sets it down and he starts telling him why he's crying and he said, I was holding God. Your God's too small. Your God is nothing. I can take that God, if I can get past the guards, I can take that God and I can push him down. Why? Because he's not God. He's not God. God said, I'm God, and there's none like me, and this is the defining factor, sovereignty. I am God, and I will do all my pleasure, and he proved it. He said, I'm gonna take a man, I'm gonna take a man that doesn't know me, I'm gonna call him by name Cyrus, and he's gonna come out of the east, and what I'm gonna do with him is I'm gonna use him. I'm gonna use him to deliver my people. Did exactly that. Did exactly that. Why? Because he's God. He's sovereign. So God's gonna do whatever he decrees to do.

So the question is, what has God decreed to do? What moves the believer to worship God who is sovereign? Well, because we understand what he decreed to do. You that believe, you know what he decreed to do. From eternity, God decreed to save an elect people. That's what God did. Paul calls it a mystery, even the hidden things of God. that were not known to anyone. Before the world began, God in a covenant of free mercy and grace chose a people and set his love upon them as vessels of mercy and decreed that he would save them. That's God's eternal decree.

So that Isaiah said, I will exalt thee for what? For your eternal decree, your counsel of truth and faithfulness. She was God who purposed to make sinful children holy sons. I know we read it often in Isaiah 1, but it's the same thing. Paul is exalting the Father there, isn't he? He said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. According, here's why he's praising it. Here's why he is blessing the Father according as he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. Chosen us to what? To be holy. And you that believe, doesn't this excite you to praise him that he chose us to be holy? Holy and without blame before him. and in love predestinated us under the adoption of children.

And he didn't make any bones about the means, how he's going to do it. It's not going to be cooperative effort. This is the best part, isn't it? About an eternal decree. It's not a cooperative effort. God says, I'm not going to do my part and then have my people going to do their part. Not what he said. He said, I'm going to do it by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. According to His eternal counsel, He chose a people and predestinated them to be saved by Jesus Christ according, here's the root cause, of His electing love and His purpose salvation of the elect according to the good pleasure of His will.

You want to know why God's doing this? According to the good pleasure of His will. Why I don't like it? I don't care. God doesn't care if you like it or not. It is according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in Christ." Who made you accepted in Christ? When were you accepted in Christ? This is glorious, isn't it? God chose them in Christ before the foundation of the world. How could they be not acceptable? They were in Christ. They were in Christ.

So in the Old Testament, these people here, these people of Israel, they were a picture of this. All of the Old Testament types, they're pictures, aren't they? These people, Isaiah and the people that he was talking to are a picture of the elect. Here the prophet tells of a coming bondage. Look at this. He's praising God for his eternal decree, but notice this. Go back to your text. He says, for thou hast made of a city a heap, of a defense city a ruin, a place of strangers to be no city. It shall never be built. Now, wait a second. This happened before Babylon took Timbuktu. You see, before they were taken captive, God already said, I'm gonna make that city eat. I'm gonna destroy them. Before they were captive, he determined to deliver them. You got that? Before you and I were captive, and we were captive. Just as Israel was captive to Babylon, even so we were born into captivity. We were enslaved to sin. It was a strong city. It was a ruined city. It was a defense city. There was no way we could work our way out of this captivity. No way we could liberate or save ourselves.

You who believe on Christ, let us worship God. For even before the bondage of our sin, God determined not only the ruin of Adam, but our deliverance. He determined all of it. Behold the ruined condition that we came in. We were in a ruined condition, born dead in trespasses and sins, ruled by our lusts. But God declares victory even before captivity. Isn't this a wonderful decree? That your victory, liberation is according to the determinate counsel of God. The city of bondage, the city of our captor, of sin, of Satan and death and hell, God's eternal counsel determined it shall fail. Isn't that wonderful? That none of those things were going to come on you. God determined that none of those things would come on you. That you would be delivered. He would deliver all of his elect.

Now that he then describes them. He says, therefore the strong people glorify thee. The people, the city of the terrible nation shall fear thee. Who are these strong people that glorify and worship God? Is that how you see yourself? Man, strong people, that must be talking about me. That's not how I see myself. But listen, what God sees, what God has decreed, he decreed that his people shall be the strong people. But notice how he finds us. He doesn't find us strong. Look at verse four. For thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat when the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against the wall. Behold how God had chosen Jesus then to be our refuge. He chose us who are poor and needy. But how did he make us strong? How did we endure the storm? How did we endure the wrath of God? Only in this, God puts you in a refuge. This was his decree. His decree was to save you, and how he was to save you was to put you into Christ. Who was what? A refuge. A refuge.

I've got a picture of this lighthouse. It's a painting. But it was a real live picture. This guy was taking pictures in a helicopter over the lighthouse. And he was taking a picture. This wave, he saw this wave coming to hit this lighthouse. And just as that wave was about to hit the lighthouse and he took the picture, this guy stepped out of the front door of this lighthouse. He didn't know it, but this wave was over that lighthouse and you see that the lighthouse saved that man's life. It was a refuge. It endured the impact of the storm and God had determined, listen, God had determined before that you should abide in a refuge. You that are poor, you that are needy, you that are sinners, God determined that you should have a refuge and that refuge is Jesus Christ. This was always God's determination that Christ be your refuge.

Look at Isaiah 42, what God says about our refuge. He said, behold, my servant. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect and whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up or cause his voice to be heard in the street. Bruised reeds shall he not break, and smoking flax he shall not quench. Look, he said, look at my servant.

Now, how many years was this before Christ came into the world? Isn't this the eternal decree? That my servant, my son, should come and even determine what he's gonna do. He's gonna bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. And he's not gonna do it in the way normal men do it.

We have rulers now, and every time they do something, they gotta brag about it. You notice that? If they do something that's really good, or if they do something really bad, they still gotta get on television and tell everybody about it. You know our Lord never did that? Isn't that astounding? The most well-known man that ever lived had more books written about him than any other living human being ever. And you know what? He never promoted himself.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in humility, simply preached the gospel everywhere he went. And listen to what he says. Listen to God's decree about your refuge. Listen to this. Verse 4, He shall not fail or be discouraged. This caused you to worship God, that God not only determined to save you, but He determined to give you a Savior. And this Savior He determined would be successful. He shall not be discouraged. Is this not the foundation of our hope and the cause of our praise? That God determined to save us and determined that Jesus would be our savior. He determined this. This is the foundation and source. of the salvation of all sinners, even the free grace and determinate counsel of God.

Let us therefore praise him for his determinate counsel. Every time we desire to worship him, we have to remember his counsel. We have to remember his covenant. Without that, we cannot praise him.

Secondly, we must remember that Christ has fulfilled all that God decreed. I will praise thee, go back to your text, look at this, he said, I will praise thee for thy wonderful works, for thou hast done wonderful things. He's praising him for the fulfillment of this counsel. Listen, what good is a determinate counsel if it can't be fulfilled?

Now this is religion. Religion tells you God's got a plan. They'll say it. They love to hear it. God's got a plan for your life. They'll say it. That's one of the catchphrases they use. God's got a plan for you. Well, is he going to do it? Well, we don't know yet. That just depends on you. Yeah. I want to say something colorful, but I don't know. I'm going to hold back. That's just the dumbest thing I think I've ever heard. God's got a plan, but he don't know. He don't know if it's gonna work out or not. No. That's not gonna bring any worship.

But our God not only decrees what's going to take place, but Christ came into the world and actually fulfilled everything God determined to do. In Numbers 23 and verse 19, Moses said, God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. He's not like you. Man, you and I determined, did y'all determine to do anything today that didn't kind of pan out? Anybody else besides me? I had a lot of determined things I was gonna get done. And I mean, I got zero done. And that happens quite often. I mean, I really want to get things done. And I just, something comes up, and I can't, or it interferes, and I'm not able. Oh, friends, God's not like you and me. He's gonna lie. He's not gonna tell you he's gonna do something, not do it. Listen to what Moses said. He has said, and shall he not do it? He has spoken, and shall he not make good? So now let us let our hearts be fixed then upon Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of all God's salvation. God determined to save you, and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that salvation. This one who was promised to be our strength, to fulfill our need, to be the strength of his poor people. He was promised to be the refuge of the saints. He alone came down and destroyed all the enemies of God.

Look at verses two again. He said, for he hath made the city a heap, a defense city, a ruin, palace of strangers, to be no city. It shall never be built. Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee, for thou hast been strength to the for thou has been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy, in distress, a refuge from the storm.

All the people of God were born captives, but Jesus Christ came to do what? He came to deliver the captives. He came to destroy those things that separated us from God. Sin, Satan, the world, the flesh, the justice of God. All those things were divided us. But God said this, I'm going to ruin him. I'm going to ruin him. Christ came down. That's exactly what he did. But we were chosen of God purpose to be saved. Yet we were born in bondage. We could not please God or free ourselves. We lived in the darkness of the shadow of death.

But now look and see that the Son of God came down to earth, and in His humility, in His humility, He saved us. That's what He did. Go to Hebrews. Look at Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 10. Probably one of my favorite passages of Scripture is Hebrews 10. Great passage of Scripture. In verse 7, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will. See that determinate counsel of God's right there. He said God had a will. God determined to do something. And Jesus said, Lo, I have come to do thy will by eternal decree.

Above, when he said, sacrifice an offering and burn offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldest not neither have pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. What does that say? God is not pleased by offerings of the flesh. God is not pleased by the works of man, by their obedience to the law. So then, he said, lo, I come to do thy will. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second, the first covenant, which is by order of the law. But really, the second covenant was first. But he established the second covenant by the witch will. We are what? Sanctified. Isn't that what God decreed? Didn't God decree to make you holy? Well, here it is. This is the will of God. You are made holy by the will of God through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ.

How many times? How many times did Christ have to offer himself? Once. Any religion that tells you he had to offer himself again and again is a lie. It's anti-Christ. He offered himself once. Why? Because he fulfilled the eternal decree of God to save you. Friends, I preach a successful Savior. This is cause to worship. You have every right to worship because your Savior is completely successful. Look what he says. Every priest stand at daily ministering, offering the same time sacrifices that can never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering he hath perfected forever, who? Them that were sanctified. Those sanctified by the will of God, Those sanctified through his blood, listen to me, they are perfected forever.

You that believe, isn't this good news? That you are perfected forever. It don't matter what you see in the mirror. That had nothing to do with it. It don't matter at times how you feel about it. Man, I stress about it a lot. I worry a lot. Man, circumstances come in and they don't seem to match the promises of God and I get confused. I get spun around. I try to trace the providence back up to God and I can't. What does that have to do with anything? That has nothing to do with my perfection. He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.

What's the cause of our praise? Everything God decreed to do, Christ did.

Now, man's salvation is a big topic, isn't it? We talk about justification, we talk about sanctification, we talk about righteousness. We can talk about holiness. We can talk about all of these things. All of these things are incorporate reconciliation. All of these words are what? Salvation.

You know what he did? He did all of it. I like to think of where was I? When he did all this, where were you? What do you have to do with it? Did you did you have a hand in it? You couldn't. You weren't physically there to help. No, he said, I tread the winepress of the wrath of Godlessness alone. I did it all by myself.

Who is worthy then to be praised and exalted? It's not Christ. Christ is worthy to be praised. I like that scripture that says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed for longest days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and be," what? Satisfied.

You know God's satisfied. God's completely content. With who? With him. With his son. And listen to this. Everyone that his son represented God is pleased with you. Everyone. Everyone.

I like the way Paul puts it to Timothy. He said in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, he said, God hath saved us, and then what? Called us. Which was first? What did he do first? Did he call you first? And then save you? No, he saved you and then he called you. Then he called you.

Which brings me to the last point of our cause of worship and that is the revelation of it. Now listen, all of these things have been true for eternity. God's eternal decree has been true from eternity. And in the eyes and purpose of God, Christ had already fulfilled it. He was a lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. And before we were born, Christ had already fulfilled this. You know what the problem is? I didn't know anything about it. I didn't have any clue until when? Until he revealed it to me. He revealed it to me. How can we praise God except God reveal these things to us? I'm not talking about an academic revelation. That's easy. You can buy a systematic theology book and you can learn all of these things. You can learn them in your head. You can even acknowledge them to be true. That's not revelation. Revelation is the spirit of God giving you a new heart. A new mind, a new will, what we call a new nature. When he saves you, he gives you a new heart, doesn't he? What is the heart? It's the seed of the emotions. It's the seed of everything. It is the innermost being of a person, is his heart. And he gives us a new one. We had an old one, and that ain't worth anything. And then God gives us a new heart. And then it gives us a new mind. Now we don't see things and we don't think things the same as we once did. We have a new mind. And then we have what? A new will. Once we willed only to please ourselves. But now, by grace, we willingly believe.

Any believer not willingly believe? Is anybody forcing you? I've seen people try to force themselves to believe. Have you seen it? It's miserable. I mean, I've seen people be so miserable sitting in church, trying to believe. They'll just hang on with all this in them, and it just doesn't last. They don't have enough strength. They hang on, and it presumes they're gone. It's the opposite with a believer, isn't it? When God reveals these things to you, you want to believe more. You don't believe enough. You believe, but it's not enough.

You don't have to force a believer to love the gospel. You notice that? You don't have to force a person to love the gospel. You don't have to try to convince them to love the gospel. I'm not trying to convince you. I'm just telling you the gospel. I'm not trying to convince you to love it. That's when God gives you a new heart, you love it. Why? Because you love him. The gospel is not Doc is a person. When I preach the gospel, I'm describing him. Describing a person that you love. Love him. And you know within your own soul you don't love him enough. And if you could love them with everything you've got, still wouldn't be enough.

And you that believe, you have a hope. You have a confidence that is not natural. You believe in things that you've never seen. And you believe them more than if they were sitting in front of you. You believe in more than miracles and signs and wonders. You believe on Christ because God hath revealed it to you. That's what Paul said, didn't he? He said, we preach the gospel in a mystery, a hidden mystery of the wisdom of God, but God has revealed them unto us. He gave us a new heart. He gave us a new mind. He gave us a new will. You know when I say new nature, that's what I'm talking about. I just don't like saying it, mind, heart, will, every single time I talk about it, because it's just too long. When I say give you a new nature, that's what I mean. He's giving you a new being that's created after God in true holiness.

Therefore, when I talk about the determinant counsel, it means something to you. Why? Because I'm involved in that. When God chose a people, he's talking about me. And this stirs my heart to what? Worship. When I tell you that Christ has already saved you. You know that parable of the wedding feast? Sent that to someone this past week. What was the message of the wedding piece? All is ready. All is ready. You know who that means something to? It means something to a person that has nothing. Have you got something? And I say, all is ready. Nah. No, I got something. I don't need all that. I got things. But who is it meaningful to? It's meaningful to the person who has nothing. That's me. All is ready. And when God preached that message, it stirred in my heart a sense of need to worship, to bow, to praise, to honor God.

Go back to your text real fast. I'm gonna close with this. Look at this. Look what God does to those he reveals it to. I hope I get the right text. He says, verse six, he said, and in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wine on the lees, well refined.

Now I had to look, I don't know anything about wine. I guess I know how to drink it, but I don't know anything else about it. So I had to look it up. What are these leaves? Wine on the leaves, well refined. You know, the leaves are the skin of the grape. And as it encapsulates the grape, it encapsulates all of the benefit of the wine inside of it. What a picture of Christ in the flesh.

Now, every other place in scripture when it talks about leaves, it's talking about man's works and it's horrible. Now, if you were to crush the grape, that's the only way the wine comes out. You got to crush it. What a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, all of the benefits, all of the joy of our salvation encapsulated in Christ. And it wasn't poured out until when? Until it was crushed.

The difference between his body and a man's works, his works and a man's works is this. A man's work will only defile the wine. It'll only make it curdle. But when you're talking about Christ, it's well-refined wine. There are no dregs. There are no dregs in this wine. It's perfect. God has made the perfect salvation in Christ.

And he says, look, these are feast of fat things. I know this, people are healthy people, they're opposed to fat. Well, fat's the best part. You know that? It's the best part. It gives it flavor. This is the feast that God has made. Christ is the feast. Blood is the wine, and his flesh is the meat. And we eat and drink of this by faith.

And he says, look, I will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering, cast over all people, and the veil which is spread over all nations. Isn't that exactly what he did? There was a veil. There was this darkness. And then what did he promise to do? He promised to remove the veil. Isn't that what he did with your eyes? You had a veil, and you could not believe. You could not come. You did not understand. Until when? Until he moved the veil.

And then it's like, well, duh. I think Joanne said that. She believed a lot longer, a long time before that she heard the systematic view of doctrine. And she said, when she first heard it, she was like, yeah, well, that's right. That's right. That's all. And God moves the veil. The gospel is like you hear for the first time, you go, well, that's just right. God's sovereign. Yeah, of course. Well, God chose the people. Well, that's the only way it could have been. I never would have come. Christ is all my salvation. Well, you bet. There's no hope in me contributing into this. The spirit called me. He quickened me to life. Well, that's the only way it could be. I was dead in sins. There was no way I would come until he called me, until he saved me.

See, all these things just make sense to someone who has the veil removed. And so then faith is natural to you. You that believe, is it not natural to believe? It is. He removed the veil. And he also removed the veil that separates us from God. You have access to God. Why? God decreed, Christ fulfilled, the Spirit now reveals it to you. You have constant access to God.

We were saying that a minute ago, pray without ceasing. What if you had somebody falling behind you asking for things all the time? Would you get kind of perturbed? Pretty soon you'd be like, man, leave me alone. Stop, stop, stop asking me. You know, God never says that. You'll get tired of praying before God gets tired of hearing. Isn't that astounding? Because I don't know, I need a lot. But it's true, I get tired of praying long before he gets tired of hearing.

And look at this. He said, and I will destroy In this mountain, I'm sorry, in verse eight, he said, I will swallow up death in victory. Isn't that what Christ did? O's death, where is thy staying? O grave, where is thy victory? Death is swallowed up in what? Victory. How do I know? Because Christ rose from the dead. My representative who died rose from the dead. So what's my hope? That I too shall rise. Death is swallowed up in what? Victory.

Is that not cause to praise? Is that not cause to worship? That death to a believer is nothing more than a shadow and a veil? It's just a channel by which we are ushered into the presence of God. And look what happens when the believer dies. He said, and the Lord will wipe away tears from all their faces. You found this place here a veil of tears. Man, this place is full of them. Have you ever cried so much that you just can't cry anymore? Now that's not wiping away tears, that's just the fact that you're exhausted. Don't worry, you'll gain strength and you'll cry some more. But God says this, one day I'm going to take every tear from your eye and you'll never cry again. Never cry in heaven again. Impossible. God says, I will wipe it all away. Every pain, every sorrow, every grief, every heartache will be gone forever. Never be felt again.

You know what? In heaven, there's nothing but one emotion, joy. All the time. Perfect satisfaction with adoring Christ forever. Is that not cause to praise? Man, I know we find reasons in this life to not praise. We do. We find so many reasons to complain. I feel often like a complaint factory, that that's all I do is complain. And yet the scripture says, why did the living man complain? What do I have to really complain about? I hate myself that I do. I do. I have so much more reason to worship than I do to complain.

God decreed in love to save me. The Son in love saved me. The Spirit in power and love called me. And you know what? He promises me all of these good things. He promises joy and peace. He promises understanding and access. Don't I have cause to worship more than I have cause to die? Again, I felt shame before you did. May God help us to worship.

Thou art my God, I will exalt thy name. His eternal counsel, Christ's fulfillment, and the Spirit's revelation, keeping, sustaining us, I pray God will help this. Let's stand and be dismissed and pray. Our Father, dismiss us with your own blessings and pour out your spirit to each one of us. Help us. Keep us. Stir our hearts to worship and praise because of the great things that you've done by Jesus Christ. In his name we ask.