Psalm 115. I don't try to solicit and garner
sympathy, but there's a great magnitude that comes with great
responsibility, a heavy burden that comes with telling eternity
bound men and women. Who's that? Every one of us in
this room individually We're going to meet God one day. For
me to stand in the name of the Lord as His servant and tell
you who God is, who man is, what God has done. That's a historian,
really, isn't it? What God is doing. That's a very
observant person. What God's going to do. That's between me and the Lord,
isn't it? He gave that to me. That's an immense responsibility.
But what a great privilege. He gives me the words to speak
to comfort your hearts, to save his people by his word and his
power. What a great privilege. That's
why our brother had a wonderful message this morning out of Luke
20. And those Pharisees and elders and, ugh, Why would somebody
in any sense in their right mind stand in our day and say, look
at me. I'm a Pharisee. I'm a theologian. You want to do that? The Lord
fixed that hot in a hurry, didn't he? But they were after him. They asked him some questions.
They said, who gave you the authority to do these things? To do these
things? What was he doing? He was in
the temple. He was teaching. Who gives you
the authority to tell me what I don't know? Who can you teach
me? What can you teach me? I know
everything. He was teaching and he was preaching the gospel.
If a man's taught anything, there has to be some authority. If
the gospel is preached, It will be in authority and in power.
It will not return to him void. Now, it may be a saver of death
unto death, because I don't like what Kevin Thacker said. Well,
if I'm telling you what the Lord said, you don't like what the
Lord said. It's got nothing to do with me. I'm just the trumpet. He's the trumpet player. But I can take it. They always
go after his prophets, his preachers, and their families. That's all right. There's great
magnitude in telling us. But here in Psalm 115, we read,
our brother David writes, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God? Where's your God? but our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. David wrote these same words
about those heathens, those people that hate God and do not know
God, that came to him and said, where's your God, David? Where's
your God? He told us that in Psalm 42,
Psalm 79. Those that troubled him He's sitting in a cave. Saul's
about to hunt him down and kill him, doing everything he can.
And they come up and pick on him. Where's your God, David?
Where is your God? Doesn't look like he's with you,
David. You're hiding in a cave. Saul and all his men, his army's
out to kill you. We don't physically see your
God with you, David. Our God's physically with us.
I wear him around my neck. I put him in my pocket. He's
in my car. He's on my dash. He's on a bumper
sticker. That's their God. They carry
their gods around with them because they're their own gods. Where's
your God, David? You don't look like a child of
God. How so few a child of God looks like a child of God. Oh, the apostles. You know, apostles
were commercial fishermen. They had tattoos and scars. They
smelled like fish. They didn't dress right. And
they'd probably whoop you real good out behind the woodshed
if you crossed them. John and James. Lord, they don't
believe you. Let's call down thunder on them.
He said, sons of thunder, where's your God? You know where
my God is? He's omnipresent. That's some
big old heady person that's got a bunch of brain cells in him
that means God's everywhere all the time. That's what omnipresent
means. He said, Lo, I am with you always. Always. What about if I don't feel like
He's with me? He's omnipresent. He's with you always. You're
His people. He is, isn't He? He's with us.
As opposed to the people that say, Let Jesus into your heart.
Oh, he's knocking on the door. Poor little Jesus. You've got
to let him in. When the Lord Jesus Christ, not little J-Jesus,
the Lord, the King of kings, comes to your heart's door, there's
a knock. He hits it, and it hits the ground,
and he goes in. He said, this is mine. Oh, don't push God away. He wants
some things. That's someone you can move away
from you. That's not omnipresent. That's not everywhere at once,
is it? Where's your God? My God is omnipresent. He said
in Jeremiah, he spoke to the prophet Jeremiah. He said, am
I a God at hand? Am I up close to you, saith the
Lord, and not a God afar off? Where's God? Oh, way that way.
He's somewhere other than here. He said, ain't I at hand? Can any hide himself in secret
places that I shall not see? Saith the Lord, do not I feel
heaven and earth? You want to hide from God? And
that day, it says, those people, they're going to cry for the
rocks and the mountains to land on top of them. That ain't going
to get them away from God, is it? Where's your God? He's everywhere. He knows your heart. Where is
your God? Is He a few steps behind you,
David? Is He playing catch-up? Is He reactive instead of proactive? Are you doing something and then
He's reacting to that? That's what those miserable comforters
came to Job and said, wasn't it? Job, buddy, you lost your
family. All your kids are dead. All these
great wealth that you had, the cattle and the sheep and the
camels and everything, all these houses and property, it's gone.
What did you do? Where's your God, Job? You've
done something and it made God react. Is that the way it happens? No, it's not. He is omniscient. That's a fancy, big old brainy
way of saying God knows everything. He is all wise. He's everywhere
and He knows everything. All of His providential grace
that is given to me is in absolute perfect wisdom. All of His providential
grace in giving the trial that Job had was in perfect wisdom,
pre-planned, premeditated wisdom and grace for His namesake, for
His glory of the thrice holy God. and for my good, for his
people's good. Turn over to Psalm 139. Psalm 139 verse 1, O Lord, thou
hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and my uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Before you even show up, you
know what I'm thinking before I know it. When it's still afar
off to me, you know it before I think it. Thou compass my path
with my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all
together. Thou hast beset me behind and
before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it. Lord, you know me, not the way
my wife knows me, not the way everybody at church knows me,
not the way everybody at work knows me. You know me, and you
know me better than I know me, and what I know of me ain't much.
I have the heart of a beast like Nebuchadnezzar. I'm seeing within
and without the noun. That's what I am. That's not
something to do. It's something I am. A man don't murder somebody
and become a murderer. You're a murderer. That's why
you murder. That's what I am. And with the knowledge of that,
you have set behind me, before me, on my left side, my right
side. You've hedged me about. You've brought me to you. You've
showed me Christ, who willingly laid down his life for me. And such knowledge is too wonderful
for me." Oh, that's high. How could somebody get tired
of hearing that? Well, we know those things. I've
attained that knowledge. I will now move on. That voice
changes, don't it? Oh, how could he get over that?
Isaiah 53. I cannot attain unto it. A Hebrew
writer told us, for the word of God is quick and powerful
and sharper than a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of the soul and spirit. and of the joints and marrow,
and of the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, of
the heart, the motive. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in His sight. But all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Who do you
have something to do with? Every one of us. This is who
we have to do with. I'm telling you. I'm warning.
I'm calling the trumpet out. Here's who you're going to meet.
omniscient God that knows everything. An omnipresent God, you ain't
going to hide from Him. That's who we have, men and women,
born of Adam, going to deal with. Plug your ears, walk out of here,
and go start playing foosball. It don't make a difference. I
told you. You're going to meet Him. That's who we have to do
with. If He's everywhere, He's always
with His people, whether we know it or not. He's in the hearts
and sees the minds of every man, woman, and child whether you
want Him to or not. He's everywhere. And if He's all-knowing and all-wise,
does that just mean He's observant? Does that mean He's everywhere
and He sees all these things and He knows enough that He can
kind of tell what's going to come to pass? God forbid. No. That's not the case. He's not
a fortune teller. He's not a soothsayer. That's common in our society.
It's a lie on God. He didn't look down through the
halls of time and see what you was going to do, and that's how
a man in his wicked conscience tries to explain election away.
No. He's all powerful. Do you know
that? Where's your God, David? Look
here at Psalm 115 again, verse 3. David, where is this God? But
our God is in the heavens, and He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. He is in the heavens. He is ruling
and reigning and doing whatsoever He pleases. He is performing
His all-wise will, His omniscient will everywhere. He is performing
His will omnipresent all the time as it pleases Him. Not us. Not us. Him. How often do we do that? How often do I pray the Lord
for something I want? and I thinks right. In my wisdom,
I'm not omniscient. I think I've got a handle on
all that's going on around me. I'm not omnipresent, am I? You
ever ask for something? You ever call someone on the
phone and say, hey, dude, and you ask a question, you say,
oh, and you answer it as you ask it, and you're like, never
mind. Act like I didn't call. You hang up. You ever prayed to the Lord?
Oh, Lord, make it this a way. Make it that a way. I want this,
I need that, you need to do this." And as it comes out of your mouth,
you bow. Not my will, Lord, but your will be done. Not my power,
my doing, your power. Not my knowledge, my wisdom,
your wisdom. That's called praying. It's called
submitting to a holy, almighty, sovereign God. It's what His
people do. He trains us that way. The Lord
said, I'm going to do every bit of this for Israel. You hear
me? Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to do it. It's going
to be my knowledge, my power, my presence that's going to make
this happen. But you're going to inquire of me. You're going to ask me
to do it. This omnipresent God, this omniscient
God, this omnipotent God, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, all-present,
what He wills, He does, and He does what He wills. He has the holy power to do so. That's why He is God. Our God is God. He's the sovereign
of the universe. If your God isn't that way, your
God isn't God. That's by definition who God
is. He does what He wants. And He's able to do what He wants.
And He has the wisdom to do what He wants. And He's holy. That
makes Him God. He is God. In England, they have
a sovereign in name only. be successful at something, you
make a poor carbon copy of one tiny aspect of the Lord. And
as far as men go, it'll probably work for a long time. But they
have a queen in England. They have a sovereign. Our Lord
is Alpha and Omega. He is the beginning and the end.
That's what the scriptures tell us, right? You know, for her,
this woman that's a queen over in England, whenever everybody
gets together at her place to go eat, she hangs her purse underneath
the table. And when she starts eating, everybody
else can start eating. She begins the meal. Whenever
she's done eating, she stops eating, and she sets her purse
on top of the table. You stop eating. You're in her house.
I would give you good advice if you're ever at her table eating.
You eat when she starts eating. And whenever she's done, don't
cause a scene. You just quit eating, too. If
you're hungry, go stop at McDonald's on your way home. That's the
right thing to do, isn't it? How much more so should a worm
like me, a maggot that feeds on trash, that feeds on dung,
be in subjection, contingent to an all-powerful, all-present,
the all-wise God of heaven and earth. If I've got enough sense
to do that over in England, that's just common humanity, common
respect to somebody else. Oh, this is your house. I'll
play by your rules. We're walking on His earth and the bodies He
gave us and the breath we're breathing, the air is what He
gave us. We should be in subjection to him. The Lord asked Isaiah.
He said, Has thou not known, hast thou not heard that the
everlasting God, the Lord, Lord of hosts, the creator of the
ends of the earth, fainteth not, he wearieth not? He doesn't get
tired. There is no searching of his
understanding. Job was brought to declare that. He said, I know
that thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden
from thee. Christ told those disciples,
He said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they
were astonished out of measure, saying among themselves, who
then can be saved? Was that those wealthy disciples?
Were they billionaires? Were they rich? No, they didn't
have a place to lay their heads, did they? This all-powerful God
can take somebody that's self-righteous, pride, What did Nebuchadnezzar
say? He's able to abase that pride.
Man can't do that. But Christ told him, he said,
Jesus looked upon them and said, with men this is impossible.
It ain't possible. You can't do it. But with God,
for God all things are possible. Even salvation. Not just making
the rain come or go, the snow come or go, frost, natural thing. Salvation of sinners. That's
impossible with us. Oh, if the world could hear that.
But with God, all things are possible. There in Psalm 115,
it says in verse 1, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but
unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. We have a sovereign,
almighty, holy God, and we are to give glory to His name, to
His name, because of His mercies towards us. That is how we have
a heart to glorify. How are you going to praise God?
How are you truly going to worship God? He's going to have to give
you a heart to worship Him. He's going to have to show mercy to
you. And because of His truth's sake." What's truth? Christ is
truth. So the Lord told us that's His namesake. I'm my grandfather's
namesake. I'm Kevin Bailey. He was William
Bailey. And every time he'd see me, he'd
say, that's my namesake. I was named after him for his sake.
If I give you my word, I'm going to do something. That's all I
have to give you. What did the Lord swear by? His name. His
holy name. Because He could swear by no
higher. and His namesake has crossed our Lord, our Savior,
the One who willingly shed His blood and gave up His ghost for
His people. Where is your God? He's with
me always. Where is your God? He's my armor.
I saw that in Ephesians, didn't I? Head to toe. He is all and in all. He's all-powerful and He's on
His holy throne right now. Make an intercession for His
people. That's something, isn't it? That's
an amazing thing. How do we know this? Because
His servants praise Him. Those that He's done a work in,
they praise Him, because they've been given the faith to look
to Him. They've been given the understanding
to know Him. Remember Ananias? The Lord came
to Ananias and said, you go down, Paul's down there in that house,
you go talk to him. He said, hold on a second, I've
heard of this fellow. He's killed a bunch of people I know. A bunch
of the brethren. He persecuted the church. And
he said, it's all right. You go down. He's praying. And
I'm going to show him everything. He's going to have to suffer
for my name's sake. And I said, OK. Down on that straight street,
didn't he? True street. Look at verse 17. The dead praise not the Lord.
They separate themselves. They don't praise him. Neither
any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from
this time forth and for forevermore. Praise the Lord. When the Lord
does an act of mercy in a sinner, when he saves somebody, when
he gives them faith, his faith, the faith of Christ, saving faith,
he doesn't work in them. You retire from that? You stop
doing that? Like, oh, I'm going to serve
him. I'm going to look to him. I'm going to praise him. I'm going to meet
with his people. I'm going to further the gospel for about 20 years. And boy,
as soon as I hit 20 years, I'm going to Hawaii. You going to
go to Hawaii and stop praising me? I married my wife. I'm one with
her. She is my bride. Whenever I get
all them children raised and I don't have to work no more,
I say, honey, that's it. We're done. See you. No, that's being
made one with Him. Christ said, I'm with you always.
If He ain't left me, I can't leave Him. And you ain't going
to have a desire to, are you? Not His people. If you ain't
His people, you don't care. You can be separate. You can
quit praising Him. Don't need to hear nothing. Don't matter
to me. I can do that once in six months. It's like a booster
shot or something, every 10 years. No, not if you're one with Him.
His people praise Him. That's who God is. Where God is has everything to
do with who He is and who He is has everything to do, the
right and the power and the holiness of where He is. On His throne
ruling and reigning. That's who God is. Now what's
He doing? I've declared to you who God
is. Now comes the touchy part of mine. What's God going to
do? What has He done? What's He doing
right now in and for His people and what's He going to do? What's
he going to do? Turn over to Psalm 135. Almighty God, the triune God,
the thrice holy God, He's on His throne in glory. That is
who we worship. And we have come into this building
today, and we've gathered in the name of the Lord, our King,
and we are here to worship Him because of who He is, where He
rightfully is now, what He has done, what He's doing, and what
He has promised He shall do. That's why we're here. We don't
just go to church. If this is where God speaks to
His people, do you just go to church? We don't just go to church. We come to worship the true and
living God. To teach people and to preach
the gospel to them. That's what He did, didn't He?
To truly worship and praise God, you must know who He is. You
must be taught of God about His holiness, His power. You must
be taught of God that God is God. There will be a reverent
response to that when He works in His people. There won't be
any flippant modernism like we have nowadays, mediocrity, and
just, oh, I go to church sometimes. God shows you He's God, there's
going to be a response to it. John told us in Revelation 1.17,
And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. Talk about
getting prostrate before the Lord. Fall down in front of Him,
who He is. Job said, I've heard of thee
by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore,
I abhor myself, and repent, and dust and ashes. When you see
Him, you're not kind of bad. So when that Holy Ghost comes,
the first thing He does is convince us of the world of sin. That's
all we are. And you are shut up to sin. And you fall down before Him.
Daniel said, therefore I was left alone, and I saw this great
vision. It was one-on-one. It wasn't
a group effort. God comes to His people individually.
He said, I was left alone, I saw a great vision, and there remained
no strength in me. I saw God. I had no strength. For my comeliness, all the good
things about me, was turned in me into corruption, and I retained
no strength. When you saw God, you think,
everything I thought was good, all those good times of donating
stuff to the poor, and the pharisaical times, and the preaching, and
the teaching, and the reading, and I memorized all the scriptures
just like the scribes. I wrote them down every day,
and I went and washed my hands every time the Lord come up. I was ever bit corruption. It
was deadness, because I see Him. I see a person. Not a doctrine,
not a theology, a person. I see Theos. That's who you see.
And now you've studied something. You've got to know Him first.
Isaiah said, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
sitting upon a throne. Where's your God? sitting on
his throne. And he's high and he's lifted
up. We reverence him. And his train fills the temple.
There's a lasting effect to his glory and his might. There's
only one place that a man will truly worship and that's before
the throne of a sovereign, almighty, holy God who does what he pleases,
when he pleases, with whom he pleases. If that ain't who you're
sitting in front of, you ain't worshiping God. That's the only
place you can worship God. That's the only God to worship.
Psalm 135, verse 1. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye
the name of the Lord. Praise Him. O ye servants of
the Lord, ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts
of the house of our God, praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.
Sing praises unto His name, for it is pleasant. For the Lord
hath chosen Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. For I know that the Lord is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods. We have seen who God is,
where He is. What has He done, what's He doing,
and what will He do? What's going to be His will to
come? That's my job to tell people. And I say, who's sufficient for
these things? You want to get up and do it?
I'm always shocked. I shouldn't be, because the Lord
said this would happen. I'm always surprised, though, when men that
do not sit underneath a faithful preacher, they don't support
the furtherance of the gospel, they don't praise God in His
house with His people, they find it necessary to correct and to
henpeck God's preachers. I find that shocking. It's laughable
to me. It hurts, but it's laughable.
They bark. They don't lovingly correct in
private. They bark. They don't tenderly
instruct in moderation while they're just waiting on the Lord
to teach His child, like Priscilla and Aquila did to Apollos, right?
They don't do that. They bark. They tell what they
know with much speaking, and Solomon called that the sacrifice
of fools. They keep thy foot when thou
goest into the house of God, and be more ready to hear than
to give the sacrifice of fools, for they consider not the evil
that they do. Be not rash with thy mouth. And let not thy heart
be hasty to utter anything before God, any old thing, because you
know who He is. For our God is in the heaven,
and thou upon the earth." That's an almighty God you're talking
to. That's an almighty God whose house we're gathered into today
to worship. We don't just come in here popping off at the mouth
and barking and telling everything we know, do we? We're on the
earth. Therefore let thy words be few.
That's the wisest man that ever walked, born of Adam. Pretty
smart, isn't it? It's not an allot thing that
we tell others what God will do. This is not on a blog, on
the internet, of what we think. We have no repercussions. We
can just open our mouth like sepulchers and pop off at anything
we think. And it ain't just, oh, turn it
off. I don't have to hear what response people have to say.
That's not it. Jonah was so mad because he spoke of what the
Lord gave him to speak. He said, 40 days, and Nineveh
shall be overthrown. And you know, that's why he's
so peevish. That makes him look like a false prophet. He went
into this town of millions and said, in 40 days, God's going
to overthrow this place. And he went kicking rocks. He
said, I knew you was going to save them. He was mad, wasn't
he? But did the Lord overthrow Nineveh? He sure did. Did you know that? The Lord overthrew Nineveh. He
went into their hearts and He overthrew all their wisdom. He
went into their hearts and overthrew all their strength. He overthrew
their righteousness and He conquered them. They weren't His people,
now they was, wasn't they? He overthrew it. He sure did.
Jonah did not use weak words when he proclaimed what the Lord
gave him. He came out plainly and told
it. God does not want. God does not try. We need to
remove that from our vocabularies. What are you and I to tell people
today, right now in our day? What are we to tell? Look at
verse 6, Psalm 135 verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that
He did in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places. The mighty God of heaven and
earth, He sits on His throne in the heavens. And that's not
like a man. He's not like us that He should
lie. If He was hungry, He wouldn't ask us. What has He done? What's He doing? What's He going
to do in the future? Whatsoever He is pleased to do. Whatever
He pleased Him, that's what He's going to do. Whatever He's pleased
to do tomorrow, that's what's going to come to pass. I want
to look at five things He told us He's pleased to do. This holy
God, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. He's pleased to do
some things. Did you know that? And that's
what's going to happen. Turn over to 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel
12. First Samuel 12, verse 22. For
the Lord will not forsake His people for His great namesake,
because it hath pleased the Lord to make you His people. The Lord's
chosen some people before time was. In that covenant of grace,
He chose a particular, peculiar people. Why did He do that? Well,
I don't think. You don't have to think. It don't
matter what you think. It pleased the Lord. He chose
a people. What kind of people was it? The
real good folks? Look at verse 20. 1 Samuel 12,
20. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not, ye have done
all this wickedness. Oh, you've done plenty of wicked.
But it's pleased the Lord to make you His people. That's what
He pleased. How can this holy God that cannot
have sin in front of Him. Sin can't be in His presence.
Wicked men and women, enemies of His, they can't be in His
presence. If they have the ability to sin, they can't be in His
presence. How can these be His people? What else did it please
the Lord to do? Turn to Colossians 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in Him, in Christ, in the Son of God, should all fullness dwell. You know what's going to happen?
All the fullness of those people that it's pleased the Lord to
save, all of their fullness is going to be in Christ our Lord.
That pleased the Father to do that. Does a man have the boldness
to say, well, salvation dwells in me, but everything else can
be in Christ? What does the fullness of everything encompass? Salvation
is of the Lord. Where does it dwell? It dwells
in Christ. Why? It pleased the Father. Where
does sanctification dwell? It makes itself holy. He is our
sanctification. It dwells in Him. What about
our regeneration? What about anything that involves
the saving of His people? It dwells in Christ. What about
our assurance? Is that something I've got to
conjure up? That's something we all want, isn't it? You know
what assurance is? That's a guarantee. You want a guarantee on your
salvation. You want a receipt for it. You know it's got a warranty
on it. Where is that going to be? It's
going to be in Christ. He can save them to the uttermost.
It's going to dwell in Him. Why? It pleased the Lord to be
that way. It pleased God to choose a people
to make them full and make them complete in Christ. But now how
can the Father remain just and do that? Does He brush our sin
underneath the rug? Does He just pretend? These horrible accounting
terms of legal transactions that men try to snuff over so they're
understanding getting offended. Turn back to Isaiah 53. We read
it earlier this morning. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. When the Lord shall
make Christ a propitiation, a bloody sacrifice, an acceptable blood
sacrifice, what's he going to see? What's he going to see? He shall see his seed. You. Me. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see the travail of his soul, and see that payment made, what
he suffered, that's just, that's equal, that's appropriate suffering
for his people. And he shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities."
That's not possible with man. If my children, when my children
kill somebody, I can go to the judge and say, put me in jail.
I'll serve a life sentence for them. I'll go to the electric
chair for them. Now that, with man, that may physically happen,
but the guilt hasn't changed. They still did it. I still didn't
do it. That's impossible with man. People
argue about, well, what's impossible with man ain't impossible with
God. Remember who we're talking about? I had a man ask me that one time.
He said, that just seems so cruel. Well, it was wise, and it was
in power, and it pleased God to do so. Who are we? We're on
earth. Who are we to say something?
That's how he saw fit to make himself just and the justifier. Fourthly, what else does it please
the Lord? Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. It pleased God to make some Jacobs,
some supplanters, deceivers, His people. It pleased God to
put the fullness of everything concerning His elect in Christ.
It pleased the Father to bruise Him for our justification. And
it pleases God to reveal Christ in His people. Could the Lord put somebody in
Christ, and they come to this earth, Christ paid for their
sins, He gave them a holy nature, and they never hear of Him. Could
He still do that? It pleases Him to reveal Christ
in His people. Is that what it says? Look here,
Galatians 1 verse 15. But when it pleased God, what
God? The one that separated me from
my mother's womb, and He called me by His grace. When it pleased
God, verse 16, to reveal His Son in me, The same God we're
talking about. He was pleased to reveal Christ
in His people. How's He going to do that? It
pleases Him to do it. How's He going to do it? What's
the means? Are you going to do it yourself? Are you going to
start digging all that dirt, that red dirt of Adam, escaping
it? Oh, we've got to cut this off and cut that off and quit
going here and doing this and saying that and thinking this?
Are you going to do it yourself? Are you going to shovel it away?
He's going to do it. It pleased the Lord for Him to
reveal His Son and His people. Lastly, turn over 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. People don't like that the Lord
chose a people. They don't like that everything's just wrapped
up in Christ, that He's all and in all for His people. They don't
like that He chose to do the revealing. They want to find
it themselves. And they don't like the means that the Lord
chose and pleased to reveal Christ in His people. Look here in 1
Corinthians 1 verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God, what
it pleased Him to do, by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. For the Jews require a sign,
the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. Who gives you the authority to
go into them temples and preach and teach? We preach Christ crucified,
that's the gospel. To the Jews, a stumbling block,
to the Greeks, foolishness, but unto them which are called, those
purposed before time, pleased by the Father, those put in Christ
before time, Those that Christ was bruised for, for all the
fullness of everything is in Him. That's who is revealed in
His people that the Lord preaches to. Those that are called, both
Jew and Greek, no matter what you're from. Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. God's on His throne. Where's
your God, David? Where's your God? He's in the
heavens, and He's doing anything He pleases. Whatever pleases
Him, that's what's going to happen. What does it please Him to do? To make you His people. To make
Christ your surety. To bruise Him in your stead.
To stop you on that Damascus road to hell and reveal Christ
to you. Reveal Him in you. And He did
it by the preaching of the gospel. That's what the Lord is going
to do. I can be His prophet with full assurance. God's going to
save His people. Why? It pleased Him. And He's powerful
enough to do it. And He's going to keep them forever.
And you know what we're going to do? Praise Him. We're going
to praise Him. Straddle a fence. You're going
to come down on one side or the other. On the Titanic, whenever
that sank, there's all kinds of people on it. There's people
that worked down in the bilge. There's people that drove it.
There's rich folks, there's those rich folks' servants. There's
white, there's black, men and women, children, young people,
old people, a whole mess of people, good wide variety. There was
great diversification on the Titanic. When it sank, you know
what the numbers in the newspaper said? This many saved, this many
lost. That's a God that saves His people,
one or the other. Amen.