It is good to see you. I ask
for your prayers for me as I desire to preach the gospel to you.
I was preparing a message last week for Sunday, and by Friday
I remembered that Brother Walter was going to come preach. So
I had a message, and then, you know, now I had to wait. And
usually if I have to wait, that message kind of goes away, and
I usually don't get to preach it. I believe the Lord's given me
a message for you tonight, and I ask for your prayers in the
delivery of this message, that it be in the power of His Spirit,
and intended with the heart, that God has concerning this
matter. The title of the message this
evening, Pleasing God. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Chapter 4 and verse 1 says, Then we beseech you, brethren,
and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you have received of
us how you ought to walk and to please God, so you would abound more and
more. This last week I was talking
to someone regarding this matter of pleasing God. A believer was
having trouble with conduct and as to what pleases
God. She desired to do those things
that were pleasing. And upon doing those things that
were pleasing to God, she got a different outcome than she
thought. She thought that if she would do those things that
are pleasing to God, that the outcome would be something good
or something manifestly good. And this is a problem we all
face. We do things wisely. We want to be wise in our actions. We want to do those things that
honor God. And yet we know this, that that does not always end
in the way that we suppose that it would. And so I got to thinking
about this matter of pleasing God, and this text came to my
mind concerning the Paul here beseeching the brethren to walk
and to please God as they received it, as they were taught. And
so that's going to be my subject this evening, pleasing God. Now
this question, how can a man please God? This is the question
of religion, any religion. The question of religion is how
may a man be pleasing to God? How can I be accepted? How can
I be loved? How can I be forgiven? have my
sins atoned? How can I become righteous? How
can I become holy before God? Because to please God you would
have to be without sin, you'd have to be holy, your sins would
have to be atoned, they'd have to be redeemed. And so all these
things take into place. And as we consider this question,
how may I please God? This answer always divides religion
into two distinctly different camps. There are two answers
religion has. One is the truth and one is a
lie. Now there's many who believe
that they are able to please God by their works. They take
scripture like this and they say, see, you can please God.
The Apostle Paul is exhorting these people to please God, what?
By their works. And so they take that and they
mean this, that by my obedience to the law, by my obedience to
church ordinances, church traditions, church rituals, church ceremonies, that I can by some cultural norms,
morality, this is a morality, that's a cultural norm, isn't
it? Morality. You say the word and that means
something totally different. 1800 than it means today in it
Morality is shifting with the culture yet. They say whatever
morality is That's a means by which a man may please God And so they what they mean is
by the works of the flesh They're able to somehow please God in
order to be accepted So then they believe that by some cooperative
effort. They're in churches for a reason
because they know they can't do everything. They acknowledge
that they're not really going to be able to. So they need God
in some areas. Some cooperation needs to be
done here. That this matter of pleasing
God is a cooperative effort. Some of it they need Jesus for,
and the rest of it they can accomplish on their own, by their own obedience. That's
one camp. That's one answer to how to please
God. The second answer is this, those
that believe that they can only please God through a representative. that in order to be accepted
of God, to be pleasing to God, it must be through the perfect
righteousness and obedience of another. We know that that other is Jesus
Christ, that he is the only means by which a sinner can please
God. Now, one of these is true and
one of these is a lie. The Apostle tells us in Romans
plainly, salvation is either of grace or it is of works. It is never a mixture of both. He said it's of grace and not of works, otherwise grace
doesn't mean grace. Or if it's of works, then it's
no more of grace. Otherwise, work don't mean work.
So one of these is the gospel, and one of these is the doctrine
of devils. Now how do we know? Now listen,
I know what you believe here. I mean, you know That the second
one is the gospel. Many people don't. So how do
you know the truth? Are you sure about this? How
are you so sure? What's our source by which we can know this to
be true? The Word of God. The Word of
God. Now if you come to me and you
say, well, the Word of God and something else, then you've already
been in the first camp. You're in the first one. You're
in a work salvation because you have to somehow disregard the
Word of God. The Word of God is the only standard
by which we may know how to please God. Don't you think God is the best
source of information on how to please Himself? I mean, I
wouldn't ask Pope so-and-so or theologian so-and-so how to please
God. Don't even ask me. God tells
us how He is pleased and what it requires to please Him. We
don't have to guess. You don't have to guess what
pleases God. God tells you what pleases Him and how to please
Him. Now, I've got three points tonight
concerning pleasing God. and all of them according to
scripture. First of all, no man in the flesh can please God.
That's what God said. Now you want to know, how can
you please God? I'm going to give you the answer
God said, you can't. That's the word of God. The second
point is this, there is only one man who has ever pleased
God, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only one that
has ever pleased God. And so how then would one be
able to please God? Only if you're in Him. I'm going
to explain what that means in just a minute. Because I know
that's the only hope we have. We cannot please God in the flesh.
How then can we be accepted? What's our hope? Look, He's the
only one that did please God, and the only way you can please
God is to be in Him. That's the only way. And the
third point is this. All who are in Christ long to please God. Let's go with the first one.
What does God say about you, your ability to please Him? You
can't. You cannot please God. Now the Word of God is going
to be very clear about this and it's unmistakable. You can't
miss it unless you really don't want to hear it. The Word of God is clear that
by nature we are born dead in sins and trespasses so that we
cannot in the flesh ever please God. You see, we do not become sinners
when we're born. We're born sinners. We are born
sinners incapable of pleasing God. This is evident, isn't it? With
children it's evident. No one ever taught us to lie
or steal. This is something innate in the
very core of our being to sin. I didn't know anything about
the law of God, but I knew how to lie. I knew when I wanted something,
I was going to take it as a kid. You didn't have to tell me. I
wanted it and I took it. I didn't know anything at all
about the word stealing. Nobody taught me the word stealing.
I just grabbed what I wanted. Why? By nature, I'm a sinner. Go to Romans 3. I'll give you
plain words. plain words that can't be misunderstood. Romans 3, look at verse 10. I know this is familiar to you,
but it is vitally important to understanding our nature. Verse
10 says, as it is written. You know what that does? That
does away with all doubt, all opinions. It just doesn't matter
what you think. It don't matter how you feel.
It doesn't take into account your status in society. I don't care if you're a doctor
of theology or what you think is written. That's it. That settles it. And if you don't
like it, you're nothing but a little dog barking and scraping at the
heels of this. People that do this, they despise
this matter of total depravity so much. They just keep barking. They just keep barking. It's
like, it's written. You keep barking all the way to hell.
It doesn't matter. It's not going to change. It's
written. I didn't write it. God did. And you know what? When you die, it's still going
to be written. All your yapping, what did it
do? Nothing. It's written. What's written?
There is none righteous. And in case you didn't understand
what that means, know not one. How many? Not one. There's none that understands.
Isn't that astounding? There'll be not one human being
that ever was born in this world by a nature that understands.
Won't know God, can't know God, ever know God by searching. He
doesn't understand. There's none that seeketh after
God. You know what? You realize that? That nobody by nature ever
seeks God? You can bark at that. It's written! God said nobody seeks me. They're all gone out of the way.
How many of them are out of the way? All of them. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.
No. Not. One. So what is God saying? Everybody's unrighteous. Everybody's
ignorant. No man has the ability to seek
Me. That's what our Lord said in
John 6, verse 44. No man can come to Me. It's exactly
what He said. You hear the free will jump up
and down and they get mad and their face turns blue and they
said, I was. Okay, I don't care. You're just
like that little dog barking. It's written. I don't care what
you think or what you feel. God said nobody seeks after him.
And I know that to be true. I didn't seek after him. He found
me. He sought me. In time he gave
me the ability to come. And how did this happen? How
did this happen? How did we all become unrighteous? We became unrighteous by a representative
man. The scriptures are very clear
about this. Wherefore, as by one man, what? Sin entered into
the world. This is why. This is why none
of us are righteous. This is why it's written that
none are good. This is why none of us can come
to God. This is why none of us have any understanding. This
is why. Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world. How
did sin come into the world? By one man. Wherefore as by one man sin entered
into the world. And what? Death by sin. So, death passed on all men for
all have sinned. They can bark and they can jump
up and down and say, you know, Adam didn't do anything to me.
Yes, he did. You were a sinner by the sin of Adam. And that
death passed upon all men by a representative man. Therefore,
we are unrighteous because of Adam, our representative. And so we're born in this world
not at peace with God, but at enmity. In other words, I didn't
want to know how to please God. I want to know how to please
me. That's how we're born. Pleasing
me. And I make a God that is pleasing
to me. Now the God of this religious
age nobody hates. He's like a Santa Claus of sorts. The God of this age is really
to be pitied. He's just a weak, effeminate
God. The God of this age is waiting
for man to do something. He's like a beggar. Got his hand
out, hoping that man gives him a couple of alms. Man would just, I made salvation
possible if man will just avail himself to it. But the God of Holy Scripture
is nothing like that. The God of Holy Scripture is
omnipotent. You know what that is? That's
all powerful. How much power does God have?
All of it. Anything at all that has power
belongs to God. He is omnipotent. He is sovereign
in all His deeds, in all His actions. He is absolutely sovereign. He rules all things, He says,
after the counsel of My own will. I like that scripture in Isaiah
46. He said, I'm God and ain't nobody
else. One time he said, I'm God and
there's none beside me. It's as though God looked to
the left and looked to the right and said, I'm it. I'm all there
is. I'm God. There's none other God.
Listen, declaring the end, when? When do you do that? From the
beginning. From ancient times saying, my
counsel shall be done and I'll do all my pleasure. I preach
a God like that, and men hate a God like that. Naturally, men
hate a God like that. Why? Because that's what the
Scripture tells us about ourselves. This is why you can't please
God, because this is who you are. Go to Romans 8. Look at
Romans 8. The Apostle tells you who you
are. He says in verse 5, for they
that are after the flesh, what do they do? He's talking about
the natural man. What does the natural man do?
They do mind the things of the flesh. But they that are after
the spirit, what do they mind? They mind the things of the spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God. or it is not subject to the law
of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh, what are the words? Can not please God. Is that my word? Is that my opinion? God says, they that are in the
flesh, listen, cannot please me. They, there in the flesh, can
never please God. Why? Because they always mind
the things of the flesh. They always mind the things of
the flesh. In other words, men use fleshly means to please Him. They use ceremonies, rituals,
outward works of humanity. They suppose that these will
please God for some measure of His salvation. Either all of
it or part of it. They believe that their works
can, in some measure, contribute to this matter of pleasing God.
And God said they that are in flesh can do what? You add your
flesh to it, what do you do? You contaminate it. You can't
please God. So who can please God? In their
flesh, who can please God? What does God say? In the flesh you cannot please
God. By nature, we are barren of any
fruit of any life. We are born corruptible. So all then who will turn to
the law. Now then, a man says, well, you
know, what about the law? Isn't that what the law is for?
No. I'll tell you flat out, that's
not the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is simply
to expose you. That's all it's there to do.
It's not there to help you. It's not to give you a pat and
a push in the right direction. That's not what the law does.
Now, if you want to please God in the flesh, the law is the
standard. Is there any greater standard?
Can you think of any better standard than the law? I can't. It's perfect. The law is perfect in every measure.
What do men do with the law when they hear it? Well, they start
whittling it down, don't they? The law is way up there. 613 commandments. You don't know
half, you don't know, you can't, I can't name them all. Can you? That's the standard. If you want to be pleasing to
God, okay, obey all of them at all times for all of your life. What men do is they start wheeling
that law down and say, well, that one doesn't count. Well,
that one's not talking to me. And they wheel it down to ten,
and then they start arguing about the ten that they can read, and
come to find out they never obeyed any of them. They've broken every
single one of them. What does Paul say about the
law in pleasing God? He says, as many as are under
the law are under the curse. Here's this word again, for it
is written. I like that. Man, that just puts
a nail in it to me. I'm not going to debate with
you. I'm not going to argue with you. It's written. Now you go
to hell if you want to, but it's written. Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things. Written in the book of the law
to do them. You get their little, their theology books and they'll
say, you know, all things don't mean all things. No. It's written. Whosoever continueth not in all
things, written in the book of the law to do them, shall be
cursed or cursed, damned. And woe to any man that teaches
the law as a means of pleasing God. That man is a, you know, the
apostle said that his ministers appear as angels of light. They're very beautiful in all
their robes and attires, and they're eloquent in their speech.
But any man point you to the law, he said, yeah, you've got
to believe in Christ, but afterwards you need to go to the law. That
man is preaching doctrine of devils. Don't listen to him. So what does it require to please
God? What it requires is absolute
holy perfection. You want to know what it requires?
That's what it requires. Absolute holy perfection without sin. Otherwise, there can be no peace
with God. You know, on the Day of Judgment,
when the Lord separates all men, the goats will go on His left
hand, and you know, they're going to say this, Have we not in thy
name done many wonderful works? And in thy name cast out devils. Did we do good things? Did we do things that are pleasing
to you? What are his answers? Depart
from me. Listen to what he said about
their wonderful works. You that work iniquity. I never knew you. You never pleased me. Never. So how may we have peace with
God? Well, our Lord says this in Luke 14,
He says, When a king goes to war with another king, doesn't
he first sit down and see how many men he's got to see if he
can go out against the other guy? Isn't that just wise? If you got 10,000 and the other
guy's got 20,000, what do you need to do? You need to go try
to make peace with that guy, because you're going to lose. What are the terms of peace?
Listen to this. Absolute surrender of all your
own righteousness. There's a term of peace. If you
ever going to please God, you got to realize this, you can't
please God. If you'll ever be pleasing to
God, you have to realize that you have nothing to please God
with. There is no other term for peace.
Absolute surrender is the only terms of peace. We must forsake all our works,
count all our deeds as dung. That's what Paul said about his,
right? He said in Philippians chapter
3, he said, doubtless I count all things. And what he was talking
about, it was his good stuff. He wasn't even talking about
his sin. He was talking about all his righteousness. He said,
I count them as dung. Why? That I may win Christ and
listen to this, be found in his righteousness. Now he's talking,
now he's speaking to you as to how a sinner might have peace
with God, how a sinner might be pleasing to God. He said,
I know this, I'm never going to be pleasing in my own righteousness.
So that's done. My religion, my works, my birth,
my status, all of that is meaningless in this matter of pleasing God.
You got that? All of this is meaningless. that I might be found in his
righteousness, not having my own, but the righteousness of
God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. I need a righteousness
made for me by another. What he's saying. And so in order
to please God, we have to have a righteousness. What? Made by
another. And this is a second point. There's only one man that's
ever pleased God. You can't ever please God. But there is one man that has.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the only one who has ever pleased
God. As we were all made sinners,
I told you this, we were all made sinners by a representative
man. Let me tell you this, if you're
ever going to be pleasing to God, you have to be made righteous
by a representative man. That's the only way. That's how
you became a sinner. This is how you're going to become
pleasing to God, is that one pleased God for you. Therefore, we who cannot ever
please God by our works, I'm going to show you one that has
pleased God. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
baptized in Matthew chapter 3, when He was baptized, When He
come up out of the water, the Spirit of God descended on Him
like a dove. John witnessed this. He heard
this. And he saw the Spirit descending on Him like a dove, and he heard
a voice from heaven. It's astounding. It's as though
God could not refrain Himself from speaking. He said, This is My beloved Son. Now He told you exactly who He
is. That's my son. Listen to these
words. In whom I am well pleased. Now our Lord had just begun his
ministry. He hadn't even finished it yet. And God says, I'm already pleased
with him. I am well pleased with him. I am well pleased Go to Proverbs chapter 8. This
prophecy of wisdom is the speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ who
Paul says is the wisdom of God. In Proverbs chapter 8, look at verse 22. The scripture
says, The Lord possessed me, the Lord begat me. That's what
the word means. He begat me in the beginning of His way.
When is that? When? Can you say there was ever
a beginning of His way? We have to use words like that
because we can't really conceptualize. Eternity? Yes, that's what it
means. From eternity I was His only begotten Son. As a matter
of fact, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that. That He is the
only begotten of the Father. Through John, he says, John said
that, he's the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Notice what he says, I was set
up from everlasting. In other words, I had a position.
I had something that God set me up to do. I was set up from
everlasting and from the beginning, wherever the earth was, set up
to what? To be the Savior of His people. He was set up, determined
by God. Look at verse 30. Then was I
by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily His delight,
rejoicing always before Him. You see, Christ was always the
delight of the Father. He was always pleasing to God.
This is something that I know, wrapping our minds around this,
is very difficult for us to understand. But I want you to see how long
Christ had pleased the Father. He had always delighted in Him.
Always. There's never been a time that
God was not pleased with His Son. Why? Because He's one with
the Father and the Spirit. Equal in will and all the attributes
of God. That's why God could delight
in Him because He's God. He's the Son of God. And notice this. What did Jesus
delight in? Now, God delighted in him, but
notice this, look at that in verse 31, rejoicing in the habitable
part of the earth, and my delights with the sons of men. He delighted
in his people. His delight, his pleasure was
in his people. Our Lord came to the end of his
ministry, the scripture says, and having loved his own. He
loved them to the end. Behold what we could not do in
the flesh. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was
the delight of the Father, came in human flesh and pleased God
for us. He did what none of us could
do. He pleased God. I read that in Isaiah before
the beginning of the service. Scripture says that he who's
blind is my servant whose death is my servant. I was he didn't
hear sin He didn't see sin. He was righteous and he said
this that the Lord is well pleased well for what? His righteousness
sake His righteousness sake See Christ was set up and appointed
to be our Savior Now there are many words for this in the Old
Testament. Surety is one of them. Surety
is one that guarantees. Remember how Judah was surety
for Benjamin. He said, if I do not bring the
lad to you, let me bear the blame. That's what Christ was for us.
Father, if I don't please you, let me bear the blame. If I don't
please you for them, let me bear their blame. kinsman Redeemer
there's another term for our Lord Jesus Christ remember Ruth
and her family she was she was that line of her husband was
dead she could no longer have a husband that could bear any
child but along came a kinsman Redeemer Boaz remember she came
to him at night and she begged that he cover her and he said
I will, but I first have to deal with your near kinsman. And he
went and dealt with that man, and he took her, and what? Life
came from that. She bore a son, and that line
was restored. What a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our kinsman redeemer, who bore, who took care of the
law for us! who satisfied the demands of
God and His law for us so that He might marry us, that we might
be pleasing to God, that we might live. What a picture of Christ.
Another one's a high priest, isn't it? Our Lord Jesus Christ. He was set up to be our high
priest. Remember the high priest? The high priest was a man ordained
of God for who? Israel. Nobody else. That man that was ordained out
of the tribe of Levi, he was representative of only that nation
of Israel, wasn't he? He didn't represent the Hivites
or the Jebusites or the Canaanites. He didn't represent them. God
anointed him to make sacrifices for Israel. And that priest took
the specific sacrifice God told him to. He offered that sacrifice
and atonement, and the Scripture says, and the atonement was for
Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ was set
up to be our High Priest, to offer gifts and sacrifices that
are pleasing unto God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, when He
came into this world as our High Priest, Those old high priests were only
figures. He was the chosen priest of God
to offer himself for the sins of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ was determined
to obey the law for righteousness for his people. And what did God say? This is
my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Now, you want to
know how to please God? I'm going to tell you there's
only one who's done it. There's only one who's done it.
And I'm going to tell you this, only those who are in Him have
pleased God. Now, Scripture never makes mistakes. The words are very clear and
they're plain for a reason. Why did He not say, this is my
beloved Son with whom I am well pleased? Why did He have to say
in whom? What is the purpose of that?
Why? Because God is only pleased with
those who are in His Son. In other words, those that were
represented by His Son. Now, I want to ask you this question. Is there anything more important
than pleasing God? Now, we've got a bunch of things
going on. I know you've got a bunch of
things in your life, a bunch of things that are happening.
They all seem important. Our children, our jobs, our relationships, you know, will so-and-so forgive
me or can I forgive so-and-so? And these things are very, very
important to us. But can you tell me that that's
more important than pleasing God? Why? Because all this is going to
end. You understand that? Every relationship you have is
going to end. Every trouble you're facing now will end. Every difficulty
you're facing right now will end. It will be over. Soon we'll
all be dead. And it will end. What matters
then? It matters this, have you pleased
God? That's the only thing that will
matter. All of this means nothing if you don't know how to please
God. Well, who are those that please
God? I told you, only those that are in His Son. Go to Ephesians
chapter 1. Now, I'm sure people wonder why I go to this
passage so often, because it is one of the plainest passages. I can go anywhere and prove this.
It's not that I can't find this anywhere else. I think it's succinct,
and I'm not preaching on this text, so I need to get something
really quick for you. Notice this, and he said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings, all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. Where are they? Where are all these blessings
in heavenly places? Where are they at? Where's the location that
they're found? In Jesus Christ. That's where they're all found.
Why? He's the only one that pleased me. He's the only one that merited
all this. He is Christ, my son. Yet it says He blessed us with
all these spiritual blessings. Now how's that? Since we can't
please God in the flesh, how in the world did He bless us
with all these spiritual blessings that are in Christ? According
as He had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. I know people who would rather
burn this book than believe that. They'd rather burn this book
and never read it again than to believe that truth. That God chose and elect people
before the foundation of the world. And again, anybody that's
opposed to that is nothing but a barking dog. That's it. It really don't matter
what you think or how you feel about that. According as He had
chosen us, what? in Christ. Now look at this.
According as He has chosen us, where? In Christ. Where are the
elect chosen? Well, they're chosen where all
the spiritual blessings are. In Christ. Before the foundation
of the world. That they should be holy and
without blame. See, I told you, you can't please
God in the flesh because you're not holy. Well, guess what? God's
elect are determined to be holy and without blame. Why? Because of love. In love. in
love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children.
Then he tells you how. By Jesus Christ. That's how. According to the good pleasure
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted, where? In the beloved. People that will ever please
God are those chosen in Christ in the beloved That's only people
ever pleased God in the beloved First Corinthians 130, but of
God are you what in Christ Jesus? God is made unto us wisdom righteousness
and sanctification and redemption now Jesus having come has for
these accomplished peace with God. How? By pleasing God. He pleased God. That's how He
did it. He did it for us. For every one
of His elect, He pleased God by His own righteousness and
obedience. By His blood, He has accomplished
the atonement, the redemption, and sanctification of all He
represented. Yet, that's not how we were born,
is it? I told you how we were born.
We were born with the inability to please God. We could never
do it. But God also purposed that in time we would experience,
experience what it is to please God. Look in Ephesians 7, in
whom having obtained redemption, through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of grace, wherein He abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known the mystery
of His will, according to the good pleasure which He had purposed
in Himself." Now how did He make known that? That's His Word.
His redemption and His Word, all of that was given to man
before we ever experienced it. He's still talking about things
before we came to Christ. purpose in the dispensation of
the fullness of times he might gather together all things where
in Christ both which are in heaven and earth and on the earth even
in him in whom we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated
according the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will that we should be to the praise of
his glory who first trusted in Christ Now comes the experience. All
that was before our experience. Now here's your experience. In
whom you also trusted. When? After you heard the word
of truth. After you heard the gospel. What
did you do? You trusted. You saw in yourself
that you could not please God. And you saw that He did. And
where did you want to be? I want to be in Him. And so you trusted him. After
you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
listen, in whom also after that you believed, listen, you were
sealed. Marked. That's like a king would
take a seal and seal up a letter. When it was sealed, nobody would
open that on penalty of death. And that's what God's done to
you. He's sealed you. When I thought about that today,
I thought of Noah. When Noah looked at that ark,
he trusted it. You know how I know? He went
in. God said, build an ark. He trusted
God. The ark was built. God said,
go in. He trusted God. And when God shut that door,
he sealed him in. When the judgment of God fell,
and the rest of humanity was killed, he was safe, where? In the ark. This is where I'm telling you,
you have to be in order to please God. You must be in Christ. How is one in Christ? The means
is faith, isn't it? After you heard the Word of Truth,
what did you do? You believed it! And believing, you were sealed. And I want you to know this,
if you are in Christ, you are pleasing to God. Man, that's a... You can only take that by faith.
You can't take that any other way. You can't take that any
other way. You can't look at your life and
say, yeah, OK, I know what he means. But this is how God sees you.
It's not how you see you. It doesn't matter how you see
you, does it? Remember, you can't please God.
You can't do anything. The only way to be pleasing is to be in
Christ. And what does God say about someone
who's in Christ? Now, I want you to get this for
your comfort. Go to Jeremiah chapter 50. I want you to see
how God sees you in His Son. Jeremiah 50 and verse 20. You
don't have this mark, you should. It is one of the most profound
scriptures ever. In those days, and at that time,
Talking about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Sayeth the Lord, the iniquity
of Israel shall be sought for. Who's looking for it? Who's looking
for iniquity? God is. He's not talking about
you looking for iniquity, He's talking about Himself. Thus saith
the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. What will
He find? None. How much is none? How much is none? Quantify none
for me. How many sins is God going to
find when He searches Israel? He's elect. None. Zero. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found for, this is why, I will pardon them whom
I reserve. That's why. What does that have to do with
you? What does that have to do with
your works? You're striving to please God.
What does that have to do with it? Not a thing in the world. This is what God sees because
of Christ. He sees that you are holy. Why? Because He's given you a
holy nature. John said that in John chapter
3. I think it is in verse 23. He said, Those that are born
of the Spirit of God sinneth not. Isn't that astounding? You please
God. Even when you fail, Which is
all the time. When have you ever succeeded? What can you hold to say that
this is perfect? Nothing. See, my pleasing God
doesn't have anything to do with me. It has everything to do with
Christ. And listen, those who seek to
please God by their works will never be accepted. Never be accepted. Paul said
if you be circumcised, you can plug in anything you want there.
Baptism, church membership, church attendance, reading your Bible,
studying, praying, sincerely looking to do good things, whatever
you want to do that. If you try to add that to the
work of Christ, listen to what Paul said, Christ will profit
you nothing. You know what believers do? We
never want to put our work with His. Ever. I do not want to add one thing
to Him. Ever. Not one work. You know
what my preaching does in this matter of pleasing God? Nothing.
Nothing. Why? Because Christ pleased God. And the only way I please God
is to be in Christ. Are you in Christ? If you believe, listen to me, you're
in Christ. This is the glory of the gospel. If God has given
you faith to believe in Christ, and listen to me, you are in
Christ. And you are pleasing to God. Not because of you. Oh, don't get confused. Don't
get it backwards. You're not pleasing to God because
you're something special. You're pleasing to God because
of Christ. Therefore, we give glory to who? Give glory to Christ,
who has pleased God for us. Now, my third thing, and I need
to hurry. I know this. Those who are in Christ still
desire to please God. Because we have a new nature,
we have a new heart. That new nature and that new
heart is in constant need to honor God. One person quoted this week.
I'm going to have to move on from these. I'm just going to
paraphrase it for you. Don, I think somebody contributed
to Don Fortner, and I don't know if Don got this, or he stole
it, or if it's his. I don't have any clue, but it
was good. He said the believer's conduct matters. It's important. Your conduct is vitally important.
There's nothing saying in Scripture that your conduct doesn't matter.
It does matter. Your conduct matters in the furtherance
of the Gospel, so that God's Word is not profaned. We desire
to abstain from the things of the world and from the sins of
our flesh. We desire to serve Him, to honor Him, to please
Him. We do. Our conduct matters, but it doesn't
count. It doesn't count toward my righteousness.
It doesn't count toward my sanctification. It doesn't count toward my redemption.
It doesn't count at all! It matters, but it don't count. Therefore, the apostle here exhorts
them to do those things that are pleasing to God, as you've
been taught. And so, this is in many places. In Titus chapter
2, he says, For the grace of God that bringeth salvation teaches
us. What? Denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. Grace teaches us that. You know what?
The law don't teach me that. Grace does. Does grace teach you to sin?
Is that what grace teaches you? No, grace is the sole motivating
factor that we would abstain from it. That we would seek to
do those things that honor God. What are some of the things that
are pleasing to God, according to God? That's good, important,
isn't it? You don't want to make up something.
You don't want to say, well, you know what, I'm not going
to eat this certain meat on a certain day. Well, you just made that
up. You just made that up. Where'd
that come from? Nowhere. You just popped out
of thin air. Don't worry, the Jews did it too. The Jews were,
they were captive 70 years, and they made up that fast on that
anniversary of their captivity. And when they started crying
and saying, God, why are you making us fast? And God said,
I didn't make you fast. You did that on your own. So
I want to do things that we know are pleasing to God. Listen to
me. Because you are in Christ, your
prayers are pleasing to God. Why would you neglect to pray if your prayers are pleasing
to God? Listen to what he says, Let me
hear thy voice, Solomon 2, verse 14. Let me hear thy voice, for
sweet is thy voice. Do you ever consider how sweet
your voice is to Him? I tell you what, when I don't
pray it breaks my heart. Because He said, my voice is
sweet. Should you not pray? Worship is pleasing unto God.
Worship. The Lord seeketh such to worship
Him, who worship Him in spirit and in truth, with the Spirit
and the truth. Those of you who believe, who
have the Spirit, you believe the truth. What are we doing
here? Is it not to worship God? You suppose that all your worship
tonight is pleasing to God. You don't feel that way. But because you're in Christ,
it is. It's pleasing to Him. Brotherly love is pleasing. I
want you to get this. I love you. I love you because He loves you. We love one another fervently,
Peter said. Let us love one another without
hypocrisy and fervently. Don't just love in word but in
deed. It's one thing to... platitudes
are nothing. You got that? While our thoughts
and prayers are with you. Man, I'm hungry. No, no, my thoughts
and prayers are with you. And say he's gonna give you any
food. That's hypocrite. You know what's pleasing to God
is when you love one another. When you forgive one another. The preaching of his gospel is
pleasing to him. Why? Because this is the means
he's chosen to save his people. I'm going to close with this.
Henry used to say this, he said, tell them what you're going to
tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.
So I told you what I'm going to tell you, now I told you,
now I'm going to conclude it by telling you what I told you.
You can't please God. In your flesh, you can't please
God. No matter what you do, you can't please God. The only ones
ever pleased God is Jesus Christ. And only those in Christ please
God. And they do. And because of his
perfect work, everyone who is in Christ desires to do those
things that pleasing to God. Someone asked me again, how does
that work? And I said, well, you have a
son who loves his dad. and he seeks to do honor to his
dad. Now, if he honors his dad, does
that make him a son? No, he honors his dad because
he is a son. You seek to honor him because
you are pleasing to God. You don't seek to honor him to
be pleasing. You already are. And so what
do you seek to do? You seek to brag on him. And so then in conclusion, two,
you got two men. Two men. One in Christ and one not in
Christ. Both men are moral men. Both men may be zealous men for
religious purposes. They may give all their time,
both of them, all of their time, all of their money, They may
both sincerely want to please God. Yet the scripture is very clear
that the only one of those two men is pleasing to God, the one
in Christ. And the other is not pleasing
to God and never can be. Remember Cain and Abel? They both desired to please God,
didn't they? Cain brought the best of the
fruit. Abel wanted to please God and
he brought the sacrifice of blood. And God had no respect to Cain's
offering. Why? Because it was the work
of his own hand. Abel was pleasing to God because
the Lamb pictured Christ So you that are in Christ, we boast
only of Christ. He has made me pleasing unto
God. What part of it? All of it. And
because of it, I want to do those things that are pleasing to God. My conduct matters, it just don't
count. I do hope God would comfort you,
because I know you face things all the time. Am I doing that
which is pleasing to God? Listen, you want to please God
because you are pleasing to God in Christ. And yeah, you're going to do
things that are not pleasing. But does that disrupt anything?
No, because that's not the merits of your pleasing God. Christ
is. I pray God will bless this to
you. Let's stand and be dismissed
and pray. Father, thank you for this time
that you've given us together. Father, thank you for the blessings
of your word. I do beg you that you would make
it applicable to the hearts of your people, that you would be
gracious to show us the glory of the perfections of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and at the same time, the total imperfections
of our own selves, so that all the glory belongs to you. Give
us grace to do those things that are pleasing in your sight. For
your own glory and the furtherance of your gospel, we pray in Jesus'
name.