Verse 1. The title of my message this morning
is Pleasing God. Pleasing God. The scripture says, furthermore
then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus. that you as you have received
of us how you ought to walk and to please God so you would abound
more and more. Pleasing God. This morning I
want to preach to you on the subject of pleasing God. that the gospel of God teaches. You remember, in Titus it says,
the grace of God which teacheth us, teacheth us, denying ungodliness
and worldliness, living soberly, righteously, and godly in this
present world. That's what the gospel teaches
us, doesn't it? We as believers in Christ, we
know this. Grace abounds. Salvation is by
grace. Yet it abounds Shall we sin that
grace may abound? No! God forbid that we should
sin. Why? But rather we should please
God. This is our purpose as believers
in Christ. And so, that's what I want to
talk to us this morning about, pleasing God. But is this not
the question of religion? I mean, if anybody has religion
at all, it should be concerning this message. How shall I please God? How shall I find favor with God
so as to be loved of God, received of God into eternal glory? The answer to this divides all
religion, doesn't it? It divides. It divides all religion
into two groups. I don't care what you put on
the door. People are so concerned. I had a lady the other day, she
asked me, she said, are you Baptist? I'm not going if you're not Baptist. They're concerned about what's
on the door. Don't be concerned about what's on the door. Be concerned about what's being
preached, what's being declared. Try the Spirit. Don't try the
doors. Don't try the name on the door.
Try the Spirit to see whether it be of God or not. And this
message of peace with God divides into two sections, two religions. The first is those who believe
to please God by their works. By something they do. Either by some ceremony they
perform, by some religious act they do, or by some volition
of their will. That's how they determine to
please God. That is one division. The other
is those who believe that salvation, that pleasing God, is by grace. Pleasing God is not something
that we have done, but rather is something that someone else,
a substitute, has done for us. To please God is to be accepted
of God must be accepted through a perfect, righteous, and obedient
representative man. And we know that this one is
the gospel. We know that that is the truth. And we'll see this
in just a minute. That's my whole point of this
is to show you that this message is salvation by the grace of
God. That pleasing God is something,
not something One of these is the true gospel,
the other is the lie. One is the doctrine of devils,
the other is the gospel. And the gospel truly is declared,
not by my opinion. I'm not going to tell you, I've
already told you what my opinion of this is. It's the gospel according
to the grace of God, salvation by grace. You're not here to
hear my opinion about this, are you? You should not take my opinion
about this. I want to show you by the Word
of God, how is it that man pleases God? How can you be pleasing
and accepting of God? What does God's Word say about
this? Not what I say, what you say,
what somebody else says. What does the Word of God say
about this? What does God say? Because if
what they say contradicts what God says, they're a liar. And I don't care who they are.
God's Word is truth. And if I were to contradict the
Word of God, then I would be a liar. You see, God's Word stands
on its own. Stands on its own. And there's
three things about pleasing God the Word of God is very clear
about. There are three points in my
message. First of all, no man in the flesh
can please God. The Bible is very clear about
this. No man in the flesh can please
God. The second point is this, only
those in Christ are pleasing to God. And third, all who are in Christ
long to please Christ. They long to please Christ. And listen, they do please Christ. You know what, this is pleasing
to them. To please Christ, to those who are in Christ, to please
Christ is the greatest joy that we have. And so let's say these
together. First of all, no man can please
God in the flesh. is the natural, carnal man, that
man that you were born with, that nature that you have, it
can never, ever, ever please God. Ever. This is because we are all born
dead in sin. Dead in sin. You see, we did not become sinners
by our own works. You are a sinner by your own
works. There's no doubt about that. You've seen it. And you
are a sinner. There is no doubt. No question. You have broken the law of God.
And you are a sinner. But I'm here to tell you that
your sin came long before you ever did anything. See, we did not become sinners
by our own works, but we became sinners by birth. By birth. We never... You never need to
teach a man to sin. We had the incidents in that
car this morning. You did not teach that girl to
scream and yell and kick. You did not do it! That is innate. That is natural. That is exactly
what she has been programmed by her nature to do. Sin. Self. Me. Me. Me. Me. That's it. And man, we have to do good. Why? Because that's not natural.
You're forcing them to do something against their nature. Some fools
out there, they're asking their children for permission to change
their diapers. I'm serious. These are fools. They're letting their children
do what is natural. And they're bowing and scraping
to their children and not teaching them to do good. How do you think
that's going to turn out? Got any question as to how that's
going to turn out? If left to themselves? Why do you think we're in the
condition we're in as a nation? There's no doubt about that.
Children are being left to themselves. And they're doing what is natural
to them. You see, you think murder and
rape and all this is unnatural. It's natural. That's just natural.
And if God take his hand off you for one minute, that's exactly
where we would be. We'd be, well, we're all born
the same. I don't care where you came from. I don't care who
your parents are. We were all born with the same nature. Evil nature. David said, in sin
did my mother conceive me. Job says a man drinketh iniquity
like water. How natural it is to drink water.
That's exactly how natural it is for you to sin. Again, you don't want my opinion.
The easiest place to go is Romans 3. That's just one place to go. Romans 3, it says, add this in
verse 10. The apostle spent two chapters. He spent a whole chapter about
dealing with the heathen nations, the Gentiles. And he spent another
chapter dealing with the Jews. And you know what he found? He
found this, I don't care where you come from, this is true of
every one of us. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. You think, well, man, this person
is pretty good. No, he's not. What about this
guy? He's a really good guy. He eats
the hungry. He clothes them. He goes and
does mission trips. He's got to be a good... None.
None. None. Righteous. There's none that understand
Him. There's none that seeketh after God. They're all together
going out of the way. They're all together become unprofitable. There's none that do good. No,
not one. Not one. I like this. One man said the
Bible was a great leper. I don't care if you're born in
a rich family, poor family. I don't care if you're born in a drug
house. I don't care if you're born in
a palace. One thing about them, they're all the same. Unprofitable. Incapable. Pleasing. This ignorance of God, this unwillingness
to seek God, this lost condition is found and rooted in one man. The cause of our death, the cause
of our unrighteousness, See, Adam was not only our biological
father of us all, I'll tell you this, he was our spiritual father.
He was our spiritual father. He represented us. The whole race. He, himself,
was a representative man. God made him perfect. God gave
him the perfect environment. Isn't that a fallacy that people
think, well, if you just put a man in a perfect environment,
give him everything he's wanted, It doesn't matter what the best
of us he was. He was the best of us. And he was. So when you don't
look down your nose, you don't get to look down your nose at
Adam. Again, we're level. Because we're
all in him. The scripture tells us in Romans
chapter 5, very clearly, verse 12, Wherefore, as by one man, the
world. What was the result? that I sinned, I wasn't there. Yes, you were. You were there
in your representative man. And when he sinned, so did you. When he died, so did you. When he became unrighteous, so
did you. When he became incapable of pleasing
God, so did you. I don't like that. I don't care. I mean, you're not kicking against
me. You don't like it, you're not taking it to me. This is
God's Word. I suggest you take it up with
me. This is just the facts of the case. No man by nature can
please God. I don't like that about you. Well, of course you don't. That's just natural. That's just
part of your nature. Go to Romans chapter 8. Romans
chapter 8. You that don't like this God,
who sent us to be a representative of Adam, look at what God says
about you. He says this, because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That word is enmity. Your mind
is, your mind hates God. I don't hate God. Listen, you don't hate your God.
The God of your imagination you love. Why? Because He's like
you. The God of the natural man is like Himself. He's movable. You can bribe Him. You can manipulate
Him. You can move Him. You can twist
His words. That's not the God that's God.
That's your God. You love that God. But an immovable,
immutable, omnipotent, and sovereign God the natural man cannot stand. You know this. The carnal mind
is not subject to the law of God. Have you been subject to
the law of God? Anybody here? Anybody here been
subject to the law of God? You obey that? Never have you
obeyed the law of God. Why? Because your mind's not
subject. And listen to this. Neither can
be I don't care how hard you try to subject yourself to the
will of God, the law of God, you can't. Why? You've got a
carnal mind. Your mind is an enmity against
God. It's not going to be subject, and I don't care how hard you
try, you can never subject yourself to the law of God. Therefore,
you can never please God. See, in order to please God,
you must be God is not like you. He does
not allow His standard to be lower in order to accept men. His standard is infinitely righteous. And unless you are infinitely
righteous, you cannot please Him. This is the God that is healed
by the Word. And listen to what it says in
Romans 8 and verse 8. Because you have a carnal mind,
because your carnal mind is enmity against God, because you're not
subject to the law of God, neither be with all your striving can
you be, listen, so they, here's the conclusion, so they, they
that are in Flash button. Cannot please God. Now tell me,
am I giving you my opinion? Is any of this my opinion or
is this the word of God? Man cannot please God ever. To
please God, one must be holy. And because you are guilty, Therefore,
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His
sight. What are you going to do? You cannot please God. Make no mistake, if you do not
please God, you will suffer in eternal damnation. There is no
doubt about that. You will be judged according
to your works and found By nature, friends, we are barren
and cannot provide fruit that is acceptable unto our God. So where will you turn? Where
will you turn? I tell you, loa to you if you
turn to any religion that demands you earn your abatement with
God. It's a lie. It's a refuge of
lies. will not stand in the Day of
Judgment. Now, it may stand today, and you may feel comfortable
with it, and you may love it, and you may nurture that little
refuge, and you may embrace it and say, Oh, I've got a refuge! But in that day, when God comes,
your refuge will fold up. It'll burn up. It won't stand. So what will you do? Our Lord
says this in Luke, He says, What if a king, going to make war
against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth
with the other, if he is able with ten thousand to meet him,
that cometh with twenty thousand? Should you not consider this?
You're going to meet God. You're going to meet God. Should
you not consider how you're going to meet God with your works,
with your religion? I'm not going to sit down first
and count the calls. Can you meet God with what you've
got? What do you got? What do you
have? What do you have to meet God
with? Is it enough? If it's not, or else, while he is
yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassadage and desire Anybody need peace with God? You better send an ambassador. As a matter of fact, God has
sent you an ambassador. And I'm here to negotiate peace. And it's one-sided negotiation.
You want to know what it is? Absolute
surrender. You must give up every work you've
ever done. You must count it as nothing. And listen. Believe on His Son. Believe on His Son. So likewise,
those who ever he that hath not forsaken all that he hath cannot
be my disciples. In other words, to have peace
with God, to please God, you must have someone do it for you. You must have someone reconcile
you to God. And this one is Jesus Christ.
The terms of peace are surrender. You must count the works of your
nature dumb and look by faith to the only one who has ever
ever pleased God. I want to tell you the second
point. Peace with God is found only in one man. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. The Son of God. As we were all made sinners by
a representative, we all became an infanty against God, we all
died, and we all were at war with God by one man. God is also determined that we
should also please and make peace with God by one man. You see,
death came by one man. Even so, God says salvation comes
by one man. By one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore,
you who cannot please God, I will show you the one who has. I want
to show you the one that has. It is Jesus Christ, Son of God. Over to Matthew chapter 3. This
one that I'm talking about, He is the only one that God has
ever said this to. This is the only one God has
ever said this to. Matthew chapter 3, you remember
our Lord, He He has just now been baptized. He's just now entering into His
ministry. And you remember, as He was coming
up out of the water, the Spirit of God descended on Him like
a dove. And out of this, a voice out
of heaven prayed this in verse 17. And, lo, a voice from heaven
said, This is My beloved Son, They said, in whom I am well
pleased. In whom I am well pleased. Now normally, we would say something
like this. You know, I'm pleased with my
son. My son does something, and I
say, you know what, I'm pleased with my son. God didn't say that. He said this, I am well pleased
in my son. In my son. Not with. but in. If anyone has the desire to please
God, then I'll tell you this is the only one in whom God is
well pleased. And I want you to understand
that God is just not well pleased with him here. God has always
been pleased. His pleasure with His Son chapter 8. This is a prophecy
of Christ who is the wisdom of God. Look at this in verse 22,
Proverbs chapter 8. The scripture says, The Lord
possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of
old. I was set up from everlasting
from the beginning wherever the earth was. When was this? This
was before anything was created. This was when God dwelt alone
in His eternal trinity of His sacred persons. He dwelt alone. And He said this, God possessed
me. In other words, I was one with
God. This is the Son speaking. He's
saying I am one with God. for his people. And then now
look, down in verse 30. He said, then, before anything
was made, when we were alone, he said, then was I by him, as
one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight. Always rejoicing, always before
him. Listen, rejoicing in the inhabitable
part of the earth. sons of men. See, Jesus always
pleased the Father. But listen to this. He said,
I was set up to be the Christ and my delight is with the sons
of men. You see, Christ always pleased
the Father. He always loved his people. He
always loved those that he was set up to save. Therefore, he was appointed to
come into the world as a representative of all his chosen race. He came
to do what we could not, what could we not do? We could not
please God. What did he come to do? He came
to please God. To please God. Well, why would
he need to? He already pleased God. He was
already daily in eternity God's Delight. Why should He have to
come and please God? He did not come to please God
for Himself. He came to please God for us. Because His Delight was among
the sons of men, because His love was set on some of Adam's
race, He came into the world to please God. This is pictured,
you remember, by the high priest. That high priest, he would go
in and he would make offerings. He was one chosen from among
the people to represent the people. And you remember on that great
day of atonement, he would be dressed in that white linen robe
with all those beautiful jewels on him. You see, Jesus Christ
came into the world as our representative high priest and he came out as a righteous man, as a holy
man, as a man that obeyed the law of God perfectly. And what
was he to do? As a high priest, the next thing
he was to do was offer that sacrifice for sin. And that's what Christ
came to do. He came to offer a sacrifice
for sin. See, God is holy. He cannot just
let sin go. You and I do that all the time.
God cannot do that. He cannot just let sin go. You
didn't please God. You disobey God. What should
God do to you? He should punish you. But yet
here I'm telling you of one who received the punishment as a
representative. Christ bore the sins of His people
in His own body on that tree. When He was crucified, He was
crucified for our sin. Our sin. When He was made sin,
Whose sin was he made? It was our sin. Our sin. And when God, the Holy
God, saw our sin in His own Son, He killed it. He killed it. You know what God says about
that sacrifice? You see, salvation, pleasing God, is something not
done by us, but rather something we do only through a representative. You see, God put us in Christ. Before the foundation of the
world, when He set Him up, He put us in Christ. He hitched
our wagon to Christ. So everything Christ did, He
did as our representative. When He was righteous, so was
all His people that were in Him righteous. When He died on the
cross, so did all of His people die in Him on the cross. And when He rose again from the
dead, which is proof of God's satisfaction, we all rose from
the dead in Christ, our representative. Scripture says in Ephesians 1,
in whom we have redemption, through his blood the forgiveness of
sins. Why? According to the riches of his
grace, where he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will according
to the good pleasure of his good in heaven and earth, even in
Him, in whom we have attained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after
the counsel of His own will." Listen to that. We should be
to the praise of the glory of His grace first trusted in Christ. Who first trusted in Christ to
redeem us? God did. God said to Christ,
You're my representative man. You're the one going to save
my life. I'm putting them all in you. It's all on your shoulders. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The government
shall be upon His shoulders. His kingdom shall be upon His
shoulders. He is responsible for the salvation
of His elect. And listen, when He died, He
pleased God. And so all those in Him Now then,
how do I know I was in him? If he's the one that pleased
God, how do I know I'm in him? Paul says this, in whom you also
trust. After you've heard the word of
truth. Listen, I just told you the word of truth. You heard
it. Are you still trying to make
peace with God? When I told you that there's
someone already in you, why would you go back and continue to do
something impossible? After you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after you believed,
you were sealed I like that. Teens used to have rings with
insignias on them. They'd take hot glass and they
would put the ring into the insignia and that letter was sealed! And
no one was to open it except for the one it was intended for!
You are sealed! Saved! Why? You pleased God! That's a lie. Who? You who believe on Christ.
You have pleased God. in Christ. Through faith in His
Son, you have peace. Believer, God is imparting to
you a holy nature that cannot sin. In the new birth, when a
man believes, you believe because God's put something in you that
wasn't there before. It's a new nature. This is what
it is to be born again. To be born again is to have a
created nature. You see, that God that I used
to hate, I love. The Christ I used to despise,
I now embrace. Why? Because God has given me
a new nature. And that nature cannot sin. Now
this old man, it still sins. It can't do anything but sin.
And I hate it. I despise it. I love Christ and
I deserve to be seen. Why? Because I have already pleased
Him. In Christ. In my substitute. Do you please God? Listen, you
do if you're in Christ. Why? Because He's your righteous.
Because He hath made an atonement for your sins. And God has accepted
His work. Listen to what Hebrews chapter
10 verse 14 says. It says that He hath, I'll read
it to you, Romans 10 verse 14, for by one offering He hath perfected
forever. Now then, my third point is this. Those who are in Christ seek
Jesus Christ. What do I mean by that? That's
what our text is talking about. The brethren, this won't have
any effect if you're outside of Christ. If you're still trying
to please Christ by your words, it's not talking to you. Because
this kind of pleasing God is not for salvation. This is pleasing
God because you are saved. This is your desire to please
God and do those things that are pleasing to God because you're
saved. Not to be saved. So he's talking
to brethren. The same thing Paul said, he
said, I beseech you, read in Romans 12, by the mercies of
God, because of the mercies of God, because of Jesus Christ,
because of His great atonement, because of His great love, because
of His perfect salvation, I beseech you to do what? Present your
bodies with living sacrifice. Hold it! Get that? Hold it. And accept it. that his people present themselves
as living sacrifices. What is that? That is to be counted
for the slaughter. You know that's pleasing to him? It's pleasing to him. He had used an illustration of
my son. You see, my son doesn't please me to be my son. He should
please me because he's my son. You see, we're not pleasing God
to be his son. We're pleasing God because we
are his son. Which Paul says is what? Your
reasonable conscience. Is it not just reasonable? Is this too much to ask of God's
saints? to do those things that are pleasing.
What things please God? Faith. Is that not pleasing? Without faith it is impossible
to please God. Is faith in Christ not pleasing
to God? Is that not reasonable then for
you to believe in Christ? Is that not reasonable for you
to trust Christ? When the world is spinning and
chaos is surrounding you, is it not reasonable for us to just
trust God? You sin and you fall and you
feel the guilt and weight of your sin and you confess your
sin to God. Is it not reasonable then to
trust that He's faithful and just and forgive us our sin instead
of moping all the day long? I think we think that sometimes I think that if I'm
not weeping I'm not pleasing God in some ways. If I'm not
doubting We doubt, and sometimes we even hold up our doubt as
evidence of our salvation. No, doubting is wrong. It doesn't
please God. Believe Christ. That is pleasing
to our Father. Not doubting. Prayer, is that not pleasing
to our Father? In Song of Solomon, it says this. Let me hear thy voice for it
is sweet and I count it as love. Do not think it is not pleasing
to him to bring your cares before me. Is it not reasonable then
for you to bring it? Bring it. I beseech you. Do those things that are pleasing
to God. Love of the brethren, is that
not pleasing to God? It's pleasing to God for us to
love one another, to care for one another, to visit one another
when we're sick. These things are pleasing to
God. And is it not reasonable for Him to ask these things of
us? Worship. Worship. Is it not just reasonable
to worship God? It's reasonable. Because it's pleasing. I know that you have
needs. But should it not be because
it's pleasing to our God? We love Him. We want to be with
Him. And He says, I'll be here. Should
it not be pleasing to us to please Him? Paul said this about soldiers. He said, if a man's chosen to
be a soldier, should he not then Did He just do away with all
the world that He might please Him and call Him to serve? We're
to endure all things as soldiers chosen of God to fight the good
fight of faith. Preaching the Gospel. Witnessing.
Is this not pleasing to God? You bet it is because this is
the only means God's chosen to save sinners. Listen. God by the foolishness of Bridget. Isn't Bridget pleasing to God? It is, because this is how he
gets his sheep. This is how he calls his prodigals
to the same. And is it not pleasing when the prodigal
comes along? It's not our desire to see others
go. Didn't all the servants rejoice
when the prodigal came home? Didn't the father rejoice? So should we. It should be pleasing to
us because it pleases So then how does a man believe
God? He can't do it by himself. The only one pleased God is Christ.
And the only way you please God is to be in Christ. Are you in
Christ? Are you in Christ? Then we should please Him by
those things. This subject came up in a conversation
about pleasing God. And a man was saying, he said,
well, we can't please God, so I guess I should do nothing. He was using it as an excuse,
as not to serve God. There is no excuse for us not
serving God. in Christ. You've already pleased
God in Christ. And all you do is please God. It's amazing. It's amazing. You're excited. Why should you
not do those things that become possible?