Turn with me, if you would, to
Psalm 115. Psalm 115. This morning, our message came
from this same chapter, and we saw the difference in
their God, the false God of man's imagination,
and our God, the true and living God of the Bible, the God as
He has declared Himself to be in His Word. We saw that their
God can't do anything, but our God does whatever it
pleases Him to do. Tonight, I want us to look at
what it has pleased him to do. He does whatever he pleases to
do. And tonight we're going to look
at what it has pleased him to do. Every time I look at this,
I think how amazing, how amazing this is. John Newton wrote a
song called Amazing Grace. We just sang it. Amazing grace. Grace is amazing. You talk about take something
for granted. God's grace. Grace is so amazing. His grace is what it has pleased
Him to freely do for His people. That's His grace. What He has
just freely chosen to give to His people and do for His people.
His grace. And it's so amazing. It's overwhelming. Honestly, to a child of God,
whenever a sinner has his eyes opened and he sees what Christ
has done for him, what God has done for him through Christ,
it's overwhelming. And it makes God's people cry
the same thing that David cried in verse one, not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us. but unto thy name give glory
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake." When a sinner truly sees
God's grace, me, religion, goes out the window. And all of a
sudden it's, oh, not unto us. It just stops every man's mouth,
doesn't it? unto thee alone. Now, verse 3
starts by saying, and this is what we looked at this morning,
the same verse, but it starts out by saying, Our God is in
the heavens. Our God is in the heavens. And that makes me think of a
verse of scripture in Ecclesiastes 5. Turn over there and let me
show that to you. Ecclesiastes chapter 5. Ecclesiastes 5 verse 1 says,
Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more
ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools, for they
consider not that they do evil. Be more ready to hear than to
speak. Verse 2, Be not rash with thy mouth, And let not thine
heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven. Our God is in the heavens. God
is in heaven and thou upon earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. Oh, what wise advice. That's
not just advice, that's a commandment from God to us. Our God is in
the heaven. God is in heaven and thou upon
earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. That's that's the the desire
of every man who has to stand and speak. That's the desire
of a true preacher. I don't want to say anything
that he has not said in this word. He's in heaven and I'm
on earth. Let my words be few. With that
being said, we're going to let his word declare to us what it
has pleased him to do. He's in the heavens and we're
on the earth. So we're just going to let him
declare to us what it has pleased him to do. And with each declaration,
may we cry with David. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. All right. Our God is in heaven
and he has done whatever he has pleased. What did it please him
to do? Here's the first thing. Turn
with me to 1 Samuel chapter 12. First Samuel 12, verse 22, it says, for the Lord
will not forsake His people for His great names sake, because
it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. It hath pleased the Lord to make
you his people. Every time I read a verse of
scripture like that, the question that comes to my mind is, you
who? Who are the you? Am I one of his people? It pleased the Lord to make you
one of his people. How can I know if I'm one of
his people? Clearly from His Word, He did
not choose everybody. He said, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. He didn't choose everybody. He
told whole nations of people, I'm against you. Whole nations
of people, I am against you. Hold your place right here and
go with me over to John 10. John 10 verse 24, Then came the
Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou
make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. but you believe not because you
are not of my sheep as I said unto you my sheep hear my voice
and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them eternal
life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand not every person is one of his sheep Not every
person is one of His people. He didn't choose to make every
soul to be one of His people. How can I know if I'm one of
His people? Who did He say He chose to be
His people? He chose sinners. He chose sinners. Flip back over to 1 Samuel 12,
verse 20. And Samuel said unto the people,
fear not. You have done all this wickedness. You've done all this wickedness. You are a wicked people. That's what he said to, to God's
people. You are a wicked people. You're all sinners, but that's
who God chose. That's who God chose. God chose
to make sinners his people. Are you a sinner? I mean, a true, true sinner.
I love how brother Todd Nybert made the statement one time.
He said, I am so thankful for the fact that first Timothy 1
15 does not say. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save Todd Nyberg. He said, if it said that, I'd
have to think maybe there was another Todd Nyberg in the world.
And maybe that's not me. But it doesn't say that. It says,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And he said,
I know I'm one of those. No doubt in my mind. There may
be another Gabe Stoniker in the world, but I'm a sinner. And
if he came for sinners, he came for me. I'm a sinner. That's wonderful. It pleased
the Lord. How amazing, how amazing this
is. It pleased the Lord to make sinners
like us His people. All right, so now He has a particular
people. And all of them are sinners.
All right. He's chosen this particular people.
They're all sinners. And he's a holy God who must
punish sin. He will by no means, he cannot
clear the guilty. He cannot. And that's all that
we are. Every person He chose to be His
own. That's all we are. According
to His holy law that He gave to us, He must bruise with the
mighty blow of His wrath whoever bears the iniquity of sin. He
must. So what does He do? with justice
demanding, holy justice demanding that sin be chastised and the
one bearing it be bruised, what does he do? What did it please
him to do? Turn over to Isaiah 53. This chapter describes our sin
and the punishment that we deserve because of it. That's what Isaiah
53 is describing. Our sin and the punishment that
we deserve because of that sin. Based on what we are by nature,
what we've done in the flesh, the wrath of God should have
come down on us. It should have come down directly
on us. Verse 10 says, But yet pleased the Lord to bruise
him, who is him, the one who stood in our place. The One who
came to deliver us, Christ Jesus the Lord. Call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. Verse 6 says,
All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every one to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all. Most everyone has heard this,
but this is just too amazing to not mention it in this moment. We've heard the story of that
missionary, Parris Readhead. Is that his name? Parris Readhead.
Missionary to Africa. And he was back in the 20s, a
long time ago, walking through the jungle with some men, and
he heard that faint voice crying, somebody help me. And they followed
the voice until they walked up on a man who was laying there
in the last stages of leprosy. All of his flesh was just rotting
off of his bones. You could literally see his bones.
Just moments from dying. Just laying there saying, somebody
help me. looking at that leper, said if
there was a way that I could pick him up and put all of his
flesh-eaten, rotten, decayed body up next to mine, and put
his face up next to mine, and take everything that he is into
myself, and put all of the health that I am on Him. If I could
do that, I would have some understanding of what it is that my Lord Jesus
Christ did for me. He did not just pick up the tab. Here, I'll pay that. He didn't
just pick up the tab. He made Himself to be the rotten
death that I am. And He gave to me everything
that He is. Verse 5 says, He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we're healed. That's amazing.
That's amazing. Holy, pure, spotless God who
needs nothing, does not need any of us. It's amazing He would
do that. Amazing love, how can it be that
Thou, my God, would die for me? Become what I am and die for
me. Now, a couple of weeks ago, we saw how a man named Manoah
and his wife saw the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
saw how Christ entered the fire and offered himself as a sacrifice
to God. And Manoah said to his wife,
we are going to die because we've seen God. And his wife said,
by the Spirit of God, she said, no, if the Lord were pleased
to kill us, if He were pleased, what did it please the Lord to
do? If He were pleased to kill us, He never would have told
us such things as these. He never would have shown us
our salvation through the sacrifice of Himself. Meaning, because
He told us these things, because He notified us of these things,
clearly killing us is not what it has pleased Him to do. Go
with me over to 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 17, it says,
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. The
apostle Paul said, Christ gave me a direct commandment to preach
the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness."
They think it's not necessary. It's not necessary. The preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God, it pleased God." What did it please the Lord to do? It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. For the Jews require a sign. And the Greeks seek after wisdom,
but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them, which are called
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Thank God he was pleased to save
his people from themselves. He saved us from ourselves. We're our own worst enemy. in
every way. And He saved us from ourselves.
He has saved us from the clutches of this world. He saved us from
the lies of false religion. He saved us from the fear of
wrath for sin. And he did all that by notifying
us of our Savior. He told us about Christ and totally
delivered us. One God-given look of faith. If we have a look of faith, God
has to give it. And one God-given look of faith
on the Lord Jesus Christ that brings light out of darkness. It brings life out of death,
sight out of blindness, hearing out of deafness, liberty out
of bondage. Just one true look on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 3 it says,
But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your
servants, for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. It pleased the Lord by the foolishness
of preaching to do this, to do all of this. And that's amazing. Not only has it pleased the Lord
to reveal Christ to us, turn with me over to Galatians chapter
1. Galatians 1 verse 13, For you
have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me." Not only has Christ been revealed
to us, it pleased the Lord to reveal Christ in us. When it
pleased God, He revealed Christ in us. We see our hope of glory
to be Christ in us. Christ in us. Us in Him. Him in us. One with Him. One with Him. Is there any other
way you would want to approach the throne of God than being
one with Christ? Totally united with Him. His
righteousness in me. That's my hope before God. His
blood on me. His righteousness in me. Our
God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. And it pleased him to make sinners
like us to be his people. It pleased him to bruise his
own son in our stead. It pleased Him to tell us of
all these things. It pleased Him to quicken us
to all of these things through the preaching of His Word. It
pleased Him to reveal the perfect righteousness of Christ in us. It pleased Him to make us one
with Christ. And our Lord gives us one more
verse that it pleased Him to do. It's in Colossians chapter
1. Go with me over there. Colossians one, speaking of Christ,
verse 19, it says. For it pleased the father that
in him should all fullness dwell. All the fullness. All the fullness,
all the blessings in heavenly places. all of the love of God, all of
the choice of God, all the favor of God, all the mercy of God,
all of the adoption, all of the acceptance, all of the forgiveness,
all the fullness of the Godhead. It pleased the triune God to
put all of it in Him. God said, that's my beloved son. That's who I'm well pleased with.
Hear him. It's all in Him, Jesus Christ
our Lord. Everything is in Him. If we have
Christ, we have it all. If we have Christ, we have all
the doctrine we need. He's our doctrine. If we have
Christ, we have all the hope we need. If we have Christ, we
have all the work we need. We have all the payment we need. We have all we need. It's all
in Him. Every bit of it. Now go back
to Psalm 115 and let's see if we can say this with David. Psalm 115, verse 1, He said,
Not unto us, O Lord. We're going to cry this for all
eternity. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us, but unto thy name
give glory. For thy mercy, because of your
mercy, because you did not give us what we deserve. You're worthy
because You were slain and redeemed us to God by Your blood. Not
unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. For Christ's sake. It's
all for Christ's sake. How unworthy we are. Not unto
us. All glory be to you because of
your mercy and your truth. Thank God. Our God is in the
heavens, verse 3 says. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. And how thankful we are. Once
we find out what it pleased Him to do, how thankful we are. He
is sovereign. He's on His throne. He does whatever
it pleases Him to do. And this is what it pleased Him
to do. And all His people cry, thank God. Thank God. Alright, Brother Eddie, you come
and lead us in a closing hymn.