I was asked earlier this week
by one of the gentlemen at work, have you got it all ready? Have
you studied hard and got the message all ready for Easter
Sunday? Man, I've been studying about the Easter Sunday and the
death and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ ever since
the Lord brought me into this ministry. You cannot talk about the Gospel,
the Good News, which is the only message God's preacher preached.
You cannot talk about the Gospel without talking about the death
and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Jesus is the Gospel. His love for His people, the
love that He has had for His people before the world ever
was, is the gospel. Everything else you can attribute
to whatever you want to. But if you do not talk about
our Lord and Savior, then you do not preach the gospel and
you are not one of God's preachers. I cannot confine that message
to one Sunday a year. And I know people who only go
to church one Sunday every year just so they can hear whatever
it is they want to hear, so they can dress up in their best Sunday
clothes, so they can go out with their children and look for Easter
eggs and play around with chocolate bunnies. Now, I love chocolate
bunnies and chocolate eggs. Those are great, just fantastic
things to eat. Not good for my body, but very
good for the taste buds. That's not salvation, folks.
That's not the gospel. When I first came to this pulpit
as your pastor, interim, I told you then, my position is not
to tell you how to live. God will do that. My position
is only, and I hope that the Lord will give me the ability
to continue this message for as long as He allows me, as He
did with Pastor Gene. to speak the same message every
Sunday. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The One who was made to be sin
for me. He died on that cross. His blood
was shed. The blood of God paid the price. There's nothing left for me to
do. That's the message that should be preached every Sunday. This
is the message that sinners need to hear. Because we walk around
in this world every day, and we see the sin in our own bodies.
The sin of our flesh before us. It's a story that I need to hear
over and over and over again. It never gets old. Just as manna
was a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, Israel had to have something
to eat every day, didn't they? And they were out in the desert,
in the wilderness, the picture of the world, the valley, the
shadow of death. They had to have something to
eat. Christ is my manna. I'm here to feed on Him. I need
to hear about Him on Friday night Bible study. I need to hear about Him Sunday
morning's Bible study. I need to hear about Him in the
message. God helped me to continue preaching
Easter every Sunday. And I'm going to purposely turn
away from that word Easter today, right in front of you, because
I don't want to be like the world. You want to be like the world?
There's a thousand churches out there. There's a thousand people who
call themselves Christian, religious. When they show up for church
one time a year on Sunday morning on a day called Easter so they
can hear something. And then they go right back into
the world doing everything they've always done. Turn to the Psalms if you would.
Turn to Psalms number 4. I got up this morning at 3 o'clock
and I had notes put down for this message today. And I went
through and erased everything. Yeah, it just didn't seem right. I had to do something. I had
to look at it differently. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever struggled with
what it is that God may be leading you to do in this world? Have you ever thought, you know,
Lord, what am I here for? I want to do something. What is
it you want me to do? If you've ever asked that question
of your Savior, I pray. I pray that our Savior will speak
to you this morning. In our Friday night Bible study,
we are looking into the grace that God has for his chosen people.
Grace that even was there before they knew what it was to be called
from darkness. Before they'd ever even heard
the gospel preached for the first time. You know, God has been
gracious to us since before the foundation of the world. That's
what he says. He says, I predestinated you
to be my people from before the world was. We were chosen in
Christ before the world ever was. The grace of God didn't
start the very first day that you heard the gospel preached.
The grace of God started before anything was ever created. God
knew that Adam was going to sin, and the day that you eat thereof,
You shall surely die. He didn't say this. He said,
you know Adam, if you eat of that, you're going to die. No,
He said, in the day that you eat of that, you shall surely
die. Our Lord is called the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world because God knew that He
was going to have to send His Son to become a man. He knew
that his son was going to have to establish a righteousness
for a wicked and sinful people. He knew that John Reeves was
going to be a fool and unworthy of his righteousness and unable
to stand in front of him in heaven forever because John has no righteousness
of his own. So he knew he was going to have
to send his son to establish that righteousness for me so
I could be with him for the rest of eternity. so that I could
stand in praise and honor, so that I could be as Peter did and fall, fall at the knees of Jesus. Depart from me because I am unworthy
of you. It's called Provenient Grace,
is what it's called. That's very simple. It means
it precedes the life-giving call. The very call that God's people
receive the day of His choosing. Not ours. Not the day that we
decide. Not the day that we've made a
decision to stop doing the foolish things that we used to do and
start doing all the righteous things that we think we should
do, but the day that our Lord decided, this is the day I will
call my people out of darkness. This is the day that I will deliver
my people, the people of Israel, from the bondage of sin. This grace, or favor as you may
call it, It could relate to almost anything,
could it not? Is it not the grace of God that
this country is what it is today? As I said in last week's message,
this country was brought about, if you believe that God is sovereign
over everything, and He is, if you truly believe that God rules
all things, then that means this country was put in place so that
you and I could hear the gospel preached and come out of that
darkness that we once walked in. That's prevenient grace. Prevenient grace is what kept
John Reeves from flying off the road when he stole his mother's
car and did 90 miles an hour down a street that goes like
this and flew Instead of going off into a tree or something
like it has with others, what kept John Rhys from dying? Prevenient
grace. The grace of God. It wasn't my
time to go. When it is my time, it doesn't
matter whether I'm stealing somebody's car or whatever, I'm going to
go because that's the way God rules over everything. God is gracious to his chosen
even when we don't see it. He who has loved this people
from the foundation of all creation is gracious to us even when we
don't see it. Are you with me in the fourth
Psalm? Hear me when I call, O God, of
my righteousness. Thou hast enlarged me when I
was in distress. Have mercy upon me and hear my
prayer. O ye sons of men, how long will
ye turn my glory into shame? How long will ye love vanity
and seek after leasing? Selah. David, a man after God's own
heart. Do you hear his cry to God? How long? How long, Lord,
must I walk in this path that I'm on? How long must I endure
the problems of this life that I must go through? Paul asked
that three times of our Lord, and our Lord said, my grace is
sufficient. We're only here for a very short
time, folks. And I know it doesn't take anything away from the troubles
that we have. I know. I have to deal with those
very same things. Verse 3, but know that the Lord
hath set apart him that is godly for himself. God has set apart
people for himself. The Lord will hear when I call
unto him. Stand in awe and sin not. Commune
with your own heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of the righteousness
and put your trust in the Lord. The people of God have no confidence
in our flesh. Why? Because we know that our
flesh is weak. You know it better than anybody
else does. All you gotta do is get up in
the morning, look in the mirror, and you see it, huh? That's why I need
the manna every day. I need to hear about my Savior
all the time. There may be many, verse 6, that
say, who will show us any good. Lord, lift thou up thy light
of thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my
heart. more than in the time that corn and their wine increased. I will both lay me down in peace
and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me to dwell in safety. The older will serve the younger. The sons of Esau will serve the
sons of Jacob, even when we can't see it. Now turn over to the
8th chapter of Romans, if you would. We can't see the good from this
disease called cancer, can we? And I tell you here, this very
time, right now, there are many among us, many, that we're praying for
in Friday night's prayer time. We have a little bit of a prayer
time before we jump into the study on Friday night Bible study.
And we have a list of those that we pray for, and then we talk
about those that need to be added to that list. And I'm telling
you folks, there are many sitting right here in this very room who have very close loved ones
that are dying from cancer. Those of you who may remember
a name by the name of Ray Bennett. A dear brother, still a dear
brother. Bill, don't go too quick. He's still a dear brother. He
still lives. But he has incurable cancer.
Incurable cancer. My wife's sister. has sick cancer
for the second time. There are others in this room
who have very close relatives that have not long to go either,
or who have already lost. We all know our brother Roger
Deaver. God, that broke my heart to see, to watch him go through
that. What good, what good is in this
disease called cancer? Yet our loving, all-knowing God
has told us that all things are for our good. Has he not? Has
he not told us that? Are not all the promises of God,
yea? Folks, this promise applies to
all things as they relate to our little world. the little
bubble that we live in. Have you ever heard the phrase,
get the big picture? There's a lot of stuff going
on in this world that we don't see. There's a lot of things
that happen. We see all the big stuff, like
9-11, things that are close to us in this world, but there's
a lot of things going on around us that we don't see. The sons
of Esau, And who knows, maybe one of those sons of Esau will
discover the cure for cancer. Oh, I pray the Lord will lead
somebody to do that soon. But for now, thy will be done. That's what our Lord said. When all of our sin was laid
upon Him, He who is perfect in every way,
He who is righteous in everything that He did, everything that
He said, everything that He thought. When all of our sins were laid
upon Him, O Father, isn't there somebody else who could take
this cup? He who has all power, The power
in just the thought to create all it is said, couldn't there
be somebody else to take this cup? The cup that you and I deserve? Yet what did he say? Nevertheless,
nevertheless, I will take that cup because this is your will. When I was being trained for this position, and I assure
you, I really did not believe I was. Kathy kept telling me,
oh yeah, you are, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you are. I should
listen to my wife a lot more than what I do. I really did not believe I was.
I thought God would show me that this is what he wanted me to
do and guide me in that path, but he didn't. The Lord didn't show me until
it was, boom, instant. This is the way it is. That guy's
got to go and you're in it. All those years, I watched. I
watched very, very closely. Not knowing that the Lord was
teaching me what I needed to do to be able to stand in this
position and preach to His children. What I needed to know to tell
people about the God that loves me. How to speak. You know, when I first stood
up here just to sing one time a special song, Judy thought
there was a drummer going on. I'm not kidding. I shook so bad. Ask Kathy, I almost got sick.
I had to get up and leave the room afterwards because I thought
I was going to throw up. That's how nervous it made me. Yet the Lord began training John
Reeves, who couldn't speak in front of anybody, let alone a
mirror, how to speak in front of His people so that when His
people would come into this room, I could tell them about a Savior
who shed His blood and perfectly saved them from their sins. Salvation
is of the Lord. I was sure that God would be
plain and open with the path that I was to follow. And He
was. It just wasn't my time to know
it. It wasn't when I thought He should
show me. I watched and carefully studied
the ways, the messages, the graciousness our pastor had for the matters
of the church. And yet we were all so sure that
that position was to go to another. My point in sharing this with
you is this. When it pleased God. Not when it pleased John. Not when John made some decision
to come to the front. But when it pleased God. Our God rules over everything. He's sovereign in all things.
As he asked Job, did I seek your counsel when I made the world? Our great God doeth all things
well, and sometimes we can't see the end results of the way
He is leading us. But we do know this, all the
way my Savior leads me, doesn't He? You see, this is our hope. The things we can't see are His,
as it is with all things. Are you with me in Romans 8? Look at verse 22. For we know that the whole creation
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. These pains we've been going
through aren't just our times, are they folks? They've been
going on ever since the beginning of time. Cain killed Abel. You tell me
that wasn't painful for Adam or Eve. They were humans. They had feelings just like you
and I do. The world has been in a curse
ever since the day Adam ate of that fruit. I had to remind my, I had to
remind a close friend, close relative of mine. Everything we see is going to
be burned up. I love to go to the mountains.
I love to see all the wonders that God has created. But this
is all cursed. Everything about this world is
cursed and is going to be gone. When the Lord Jesus comes back,
everything will be burned up. All of those who are in wickedness
and do not have the righteousness of Christ will be cast into the Fiery pit. But those, but God, who is rich
in mercy, those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, that curse
has already been paid for. That curse has already been removed.
He was made a curse for us. Everyone who hangeth on a tree
is cursed. Our Lord Jesus Christ went to that tree, yet death
could not hold Him. He's God. Who's gonna hold God? If you're thinking of a God that
could be held by anything of creation, then you've got a very
weak God. And not only, verse 23, and not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to the redemption of our body. For we are saved
by hope, but a hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth,
why do they yet hope for it? But if we hope for that we see
not, then we do with patience wait for it." When It Pleased
God is the title for this message. Not when it pleased us, but when
it pleased God. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. He that searcheth
the hearts knoweth what is in the mind of the Spirit, because
he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will
of God." Oh, what it is to have God pray for us! I don't know about you folks,
but I'm always praying for myself, because I see myself doing wrong
more than I see anybody else. I'm always right there at that
top of that list that we have on Friday night, because my sins are ever before
me. And the Spirit's making intercession
for me and praying to the Lord when I don't even know what to
pray. How much does He love us? How
much does God love His people? That He sends His Spirit to pray
for us. Isn't that wonderful? You talk
about amazing grace. Oh. And we know that all things,
verse 28, work together for the good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to His purpose. when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his word. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified."
There's our Easter right there. That's an Easter that we celebrate
every day. He called me. Just as He called
Peter. With the effectual call. With
the voice of God. A voice that reaches right in
and grabs a person and says, you're mine. I paid for you. and you will be mine forever. What shall we say then to these
things? If God before us, who can be against us? This is the hope that all of
God's called have. It's a hope established by God. Turn over to Galatians chapter
one if you would please. Paul, who is declared in Scripture
to be an example to all of God's elect, he points us to this truth,
a truth that I'll read with you in Galatians in a moment. Before
I get there, in Psalms 145, 15, it says, the eyes of all wait
upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due seizing. Thou givest us our meat in due
season when it pleases God. In Isaiah 40, 31 it says, But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with the
wings as eagles. They shall run and not worry,
and they shall walk and not faint. What do they do? They wait upon
the Lord. They wait when it pleases God. Until that time, Lord, give me
the power and the ability to endure. When it please is God,
then I'll walk and I'll fly as an eagle. In Jeremiah 14, 22, he says,
are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause
rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord,
our God? Therefore we will wait upon thee,
for thou hast made all things. Are you with me in Galatians?
Look at verses 15 and 16 of chapter 1. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, When it pleased God, the very
One who called me by His grace, when it pleased Him to reveal
His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen." When it pleased God to reveal
His Son in us. That was the message last Sunday.
in Christ. When it pleased God, He reveals
His Son in all of His people, and not a moment before. When was it for you? As I shared with you in Bible
study, it was a long time after Mike was born. He walked a very
long path through the righteousness of the men before God was pleased
to reveal His Son in Mike. I walked for 40 years in my own
righteousness, thinking of myself as the one who creates my own
destiny. Forty years before the Lord was pleased to reveal His Son
in me. That eliminates free will completely. Because it pleased God to reveal
His Son in His people. It didn't please God that you made
a choice to follow Him. It didn't please God that you
all of a sudden got smart and decided to stop doing the things
of the world. No, it pleased God to reveal His Son in you. It was in God's time that Paul
was called, just as it is His time for all things. He is the
ruler of time. We've got these little teeny
brains that think of time as this big thing. No! Time is God's
creation for us. His ways are not our ways. Turn
over to Philippians chapter 2, please. I won't be much longer. Why must we watch? Why must we
suffer while we watch a loved one die? I watched Lamar Garner go through
a year and a half with a woman that he was married with for many, many, many, many years.
His best friend, as he would say, many times over, as she
suffered through old age. It took a year and a half for
her body to finally give out. And that's a sad thing to watch
somebody go through. I watched my own dad. Calvin Samuel Ellis. And I call him dad because God
gave him to be a dad for me where my dad was not one. I have to
say that. Because I want you to know what
Calvin Samuel Ellis meant to me. But I watched the Lord. I watched him, his dad's body
deteriorate for 10 years. He built that house on the mountain
up there that mom lives in, on a rock, and then he got sick. Took 10 years for him to die
before his body finally stopped working anymore. Why do we suffer? Why must we suffer while watching
a loved one die? Why do I not see any fruit of
my struggles? Am I on the path that God would
have me go? I'm here to tell you this morning,
folks, that if God has given you faith to believe His Word, then you know that you are on
the path. My goodness, did I forget? I
apologize. That'll never happen again. Don't
ever let me bring that into my church again, if you can help
me remember that, please. If God has given you faith to
believe His Word, then you know that you are on the path that
He has given you to follow. If you know who God is, If you know who the Lord Jesus
Christ truly is, then you know that everything
is on the path that God has for you. Even if it's a path of sorrow.
Even if it's a path of frustration. Even if it's a path of prosperity. If you're a child of God, you
are on the path that God has you to be on. Simple as that. He rules over everything or He's
not God. We look not on the things of
the flesh. We look to Christ our Savior,
our King, our God. The very fact that I am looking
to my Savior The very fact that I believe His Word, the very
fact my only confidence is in Him, is fruit of the Spirit. We have no confidence in our
flesh. Don't let yourself fall in that
trap of, am I doing the right things? I'm not telling you to
go out and do the wrong things, that's just foolishness. But if you know the Lord, all
the rest of that stuff will follow. He won't let you go out there
and sin willfully. He won't. He just doesn't do
that. Oh, you may think you are, but He's just pulled His hand
away from you for a little bit, and He's going to let you fall
flat on your face for a few seconds, and it's going to hurt. I know. And some of you here know exactly
what I'm saying, don't you? Yeah. It hurts. The very fact that we look to
our Savior, the very fact that we believe His Word, the very
fact that our confidence is in Him and Him alone is the fruit
of the Spirit. Are you with me in Philippians? Look at verse 10 of chapter 2.
Yes. That at the time of Jesus, Every knee should bow if things
in heaven and earth, and things in the earth, and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord. to the glory of God the Father,
whereof, wherefore, wherefore, my beloved, because we know that,
because we know that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father, wherefore, my beloved,
as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you both to do, to will, and to do of? Exactly. Not our pleasure. Because it pleases God. Everything I've said to you so
far this day has been this. Our God rules. and he rules everything,
or he's not God at all. We're in vain if we don't believe
that God rules all things. And to do of his good pleasure
do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be
blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the
midst of the crooked and perverse nation. among whom ye shine as
lights in the world, holding forth the word of life, that
I may rejoice in that day of Christ, that I may not run in
vain, neither labored in vain." I think I shared this with you
last week, but I had a conversation with a man who said, I cannot
stand my son who is cursing all the time, using such foul language. And I'm not trying to tell you
that you should go out and curse all the time, but that's not
what should be offensive to you. There's a lot of people who declare
themselves to be Christians who go out and say, I don't cuss
anymore. I don't smoke anymore. I don't
do this anymore. And what does the world look
at them? What did you used to look at them like? Oh, you're
holier than me, Mr. Righteous over there. And I looked this man right in
the face and I said, this is the difference between God's
people and the people of the world. I look to my Lord and
Savior who is perfect. Don't look at me. Don't try to
look at what John's doing and see whether he's a Christian
or not. If you see me being a Christian, it's because I'm looking to my
Lord for everything. I know that when He is pleased
to do so, He will work those things out in me. We trust in the Lord, do we not? That's what it's all about. Folks, if our walk in this life
is to abstain from sin, and it is, which means to restrain,
by the way, abstain. That means to restrain. That
means try your best. Do what you can. Turn away from
it if you can. Don't sin. If you sin, there's going to
be trouble. Not death, but there are consequences of it. If you
go out and kill somebody, you're going to spend the rest of your
life in prison. If you cheat on your wife or husband, you
may get a divorce. There's consequences to sin.
Try not to. Do everything we can, but when
we fail, oh, the blessedness of God, we have an advocate.
Lord, help me to turn away from those things. But thank you. Thank you for taking those that
I can't turn away from upon yourself. restrained from at least, or
at least restrained from enjoying the act. And to trust in He who
is God in the flesh, our labors are not in vain. If we are children
of God and we trust in our Lord, we are, our labors are not in
vain. It says in the word of the Most High, In John 3, 14,
and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. Now notice what it says next. That whosoever believeth. It doesn't say whosoever stops doing
this and starts doing that. It says whosoever believeth.
Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal
life." Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you thankful? Aren't you thankful that God
has given you the gift of faith? Because if He hadn't given it
to you, you wouldn't believe. You sit here today and you hear
the Word of God and you say, I know that's true. The reason you know is because
God has done a work in your heart. You are on the path. The reason
you know is because it pleased God to reveal His Son in you. I'll close with these last words.
Turn over to the 17th chapter of John, if you would. I can tell you from experience You, this very day, are exactly
where our Savior wants you to be. You are doing, this day, exactly
what the God of the universe is directing you to do. Or He's not God. And all that
we are is vanity. Folks, we're here on this world for one purpose and one purpose
only. Every one of us. John 17, verse
13. Our Lord Jesus Christ is crying
out to his father from the garden. And now come I to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but thou shouldest keep them from
the evil. out of the world, sanctify them,
set them apart, make them holy through thy truth. For thy word
is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone."
Catch this, folks. This is important. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is interceding to God on our behalf, right here. And
He's telling us He's not praying just for us. No. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also, which shall believe on Me through their word. What did I tell that man? Quit
looking at people and what they're doing in the world and look to
Christ. That's the difference. You want to hear the difference
between John Reeves and all the rest of the men and women who
walk this earth? I believe God. I trust in my Savior. Because
He has given me the ability to do so. that they all may be one as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, and that they also may be one
in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the
glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be
one, even as we are one. Why are we here? What is our
purpose? What is our path that we should
be walking? We're walking the exact path
that the Lord has us to walk. And everything we do is giving Him all the glory. You want to know if you're hearing
a preacher preach the truth to stand before you? Ask yourself
this question, is he preaching about the glory of God or is
he preaching about the glory of something else? There's only one who gets glory,
folks. There's only one. And there's no one else gonna
get it, no matter how much they think they are. All glory belongs
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and three days
later arose, showed himself to many to prove who he was. And then he went on to be in
heaven where he belongs, sitting on his throne, working all things
out according to counsel of his will. Amen.