And it says there, whatsoever
the Lord pleases, that did He in heaven, in earth, in the sea,
and all deep places. You know, when we preachers preach
all the time about how we ought to please the Lord, walk well-pleasing to the Lord.
And we do. We don't want to dishonor God,
don't want to embarrass God, don't want to shame God, don't
want to shame our perfection, don't want to shame what we believe
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Because what about God Himself? What about God Himself? What
pleases Him? What pleases God? What satisfies
God? That's what the word please means.
What satisfies Him? And God, in His Word, allows
us to see, to some degree, what pleases Him. He tells us. In this psalm, there is God's
description. He said, the gods of the heathen
are silver and gold. They have eyes, but they don't
see. They have ears, but they don't
hear. They have mouths, but they don't speak. They can't do anything. But David made a difference here. That's their God. But our God
does what He pleases. God of the Bible does what He
pleases. And I'm grateful that He does. If He tried to satisfy
me, or I tried to satisfy Him in any way, I'd fall a million
miles short. So I want to know what pleases
Him. And if I find out from His Word what pleases Him, then I'll
know something about God. And I tell you, it says here,
Whatsoever pleased Him. And He's talking about where
it pleased Him to do something. In heaven. In heaven. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven, and no man can stay his hand and
say unto him, What doest thou? And then it says, Whatsoever,
and on earth, whatever he does on this earth. There's nothing
on this earth that's out of the control of God. If there's one
thing, one tiny atom out of the control of God that happens on
this earth, then that person has more power than God and God's
out of business that quick. You understand what I'm saying?
If there's the tiniest molecule in this universe and on this
earth that God does not please Him to do it, then that thing
is God Himself. And there's nothing on this earth
that happens that God said it doesn't please Him for it to
happen. And then look what He says, and then He goes down into
the seas. He goes down to the bottom, you
know, they say they got mountains under the ocean that's bigger
than any mountains on the face of the earth. They got depths
and great depths up down there, big mountains, and they're showing
how much stuff is under the ocean. Great big whales and great big
fish, little bitty fish, and everything that goes on in the
sea, God does as He pleases. If He wants waves to come up
15 foot high, they come 15 foot high. If He wants it calm, it's
going to be calm. God does what He pleases in the
sea. And then in all deep places, what deep places? So where it
pleases Him, when it pleases Him, and when someone truly has
freedom and power to do as they please, they can do what they
please and when they please. And He's got the freedom and
He's got the power. And then He can do it for whom
He pleases. Look what it said up there in verse 4. For the
Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar pleasure."
So I tell you what, God's not governed. God's not governed
by emotions as we are. We're governed by emotions. But God is not governed by emotions. His pleasure, what He does, is
according to His nature. So everything God does is right,
because He's holy, and He's righteous, and He's good, and He's merciful,
and He's gracious, and He's omnipotent, and He's all-wise. So I tell
you, when He does things according to nature, His nature, it's got
to always be right. You and I, we act according to
our nature, up, down, in, out, happy, sad, laugh, cry. We're governed by emotions, but
God's not. So let's see what the scripture
says about the pleasure of God. First of all, I want you to look
with me over here in 1st Samuel. 1st Samuel 1.22. No, excuse me,
1st Samuel 12.22. 1st Samuel 12.22. You know, it says that God worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will. Known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the foundation of the world.
And look what it says here. Here's the first thing it says
that it pleased God to do. Look down here in verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake, because it hath pleased
the Lord to make you his people." Why you God's people? Why you
one of God's people? It pleased the Lord. That's all
you can say about it. Here's God's electing one. Here's
God's gracious election. This is electing love. He's electing
grace. He passed by other nations and
he chose Israel. Made them a nation. They didn't
deserve it. They didn't desire it. But God
made a covenant with them. Look with me in Deuteronomy.
That's the fifth book in the Bible. Deuteronomy chapter 7. Look what he says over here about
it. Oh, that's God's electing grace.
It pleased the Lord to make you His people. It pleased Him to
do it. And as no one, no one has ever
sought God without God first seeking Him. Israel, Jacob was
nobody until God said, I love thee. Abraham was an idolater
until God chose him. And I'll tell you, look what
it says here in Deuteronomy 7, look down here in verse 6. Look
what God says. For thou art an holy people unto
the Lord. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that
are on the face of the earth. Listen to this, the Lord did
not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because you were
more in number than any people, for you were the fewest of people.
But because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the
oath which you had sworn unto your fathers, the Lord brought
you out of the house of bondage. So there's God, that's what He
said, I chose you, I made you a peculiar people. And we're
God's people, we're God's elect because it pleased Him to do
it. There was a time we weren't the people of God as far as our
experience goes. Peter said it like this, you
were not the people of God, now you're the people of God. You
have not had gained mercy, but now have you obtained mercy.
And we had no merit, we had no worth, but I tell you that God
for Christ's sake, for the covenant that He made with His blessed
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that covenant that He made with our
purity before the world ever began. God chose His people,
set them apart, set His love upon them, not because they was
good, not because they... Listen, the Scriptures tells
us all that the Father gives Him. What did He give them to
Him? In this blessed covenant of grace, all that the Father
giveth me. What did he say? Because I loved
him, because I set my affection on him, because I chose him,
they shall come unto me. Huh? Oh listen, he loved Jacob. And they say, well, it just means
that he loved Esau less, but that's not what it says. I loved
Jacob, and I hated Esau. And people say God can't hate.
Well, He hates the workers of iniquity. He's angry with the
wicked every day. And all nations just forget God.
He turns them into hell. But here He says He loved Jacob.
And the Scriptures tell us we're the sons of Jacob. And loved
of God, if we are loved of God and chosen of God just because
it pleased Him to do it. Huh? You can't give any other
reason. It just pleased Him to do it. And then look in Isaiah
53. Look in Isaiah 53. Oh my, here's something. Talking
about what pleased God. Look in Isaiah 53. Look in verse 10. Look what it
says now. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. What? Pleased the Lord to bruise him?
Well, Peter says that you with wicked hands took just one and
crucified the Lord of the glory. Our Lord said He'd be delivered
into the hands of sinners and be delivered up into Jerusalem.
But what caused it to happen to start with? Why was He come
into this world? Why did our Lord Jesus come?
Because it pleased the Lord to take Him and bruise Him, and
look what else it says, to put Him to grief. When our Lord Jesus
dwelt down in the garden of Gethsemane, oh, what grief was in His heart! He prayed till His sweat became
as drops of blood, and He was sorrowful even unto death. And
this is why. Please the Lord to bruise Him,
put Him to grief, when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for
sin. Oh, my, sin's so bad! Sin so
awful, sin so dark, that it took the Son of God to come here and
to be bruised and to be put to grief by the God of heaven Himself. Then He says this, He shall see
His seed. See the seed of Christ. See His
seed that's in Christ. And oh my. And I tell you, look
back down here in verse 4. Oh my. To say, you know, there's
the Gospel according to Isaiah. To save those who God sent his
neglecting love upon, the Lord Jesus Christ became their substitute
and their satisfaction. Look what it says here. It says,
but he was smitten. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carries our sorrows. Yet we said God stricken him. God smote him. God afflicted
him. But why did he do it? Wounded
for our transgressions, all them nails that went into his hand,
that spear that went across his side. Wounded for our transgressions,
all the bruises that was upon him, all the beating that he
took was for our iniquity. And when they chastised him,
slapped his face, our peace was upon him. And with his strife
we're healed of this awful thing called sin. But look what we
did when all this was going on. Oh, we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. But oh, while we was doing that,
the Lord laid on him, laid on him the iniquity of the soul. Just you think about just us
in this service today. God just took our iniquity, our
iniquity, just in this congregation, and laid them on Christ. Can
you imagine what a burden that would be? Just us. If He just took mine, it would
be an awful burden for Him to bear. But all the people of all
the elect, of everyone for whom Christ died, For every one that
God bruised Him and made His soul an offering for sin, every
single one of them, every sin, every iniquity, everything that
they ever thought, said, or done, or ever will do, our Lord Jesus
Christ, God said He laid them on Him. And how did He lay them
on Him? He took them off us. Lifted them
off us. He took them off us. And that's
how glorious God is. That's how wondrous God is. That
He can take a multitude that no man can number. He can lift
up all the sins and all the iniquities that all of His people have done
and take up, pick up every one of them and lay them on His Son. And it pleased God to do that.
It satisfied God to do that. Huh? Ain't that what it says
there in verse Verse 11, He shall see of the burden, the trail,
fail, the agony of his soul, and shall be satisfied. And look what else it says, And
by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. Now when
he says by my knowledge, what's he talking about? He's not talking
about what we know about Christ, he's talking about what he knows
about us, and him making himself known to us. He's got all the
knowledge. We're the ones ignorant. He's
got all the power. We're the ones that ain't got
any. He's the only one that could give us any knowledge at all
about himself. And the fact that he gave us
knowledge of what he's talking about here. And my righteous
service shall justify many. And look what he says here. How's
he going to do it? He shall bear her iniquity. He was numbered with transgression.
And as our Lord Jesus Christ, as His people substitute, this
is the only way God could satisfy all of His holiest and glorious
attributes, to please them, to satisfy them. And Hebrews 6 says
this, in sacrifice and offerings, in burnt offerings, you had no
pleasure, you had no satisfaction. And then I said, Lo, I come. Christ said, Lo, I come. In the
volume of the book, it's written of me. Lo, I come. What did you come for, Lord Jesus?
To do thy will, O God. To do thy will. What was your
will? What was your will? That I sanctify
many people. That I perfect many people. Well,
how are you going to do it? Because you prepared me a body.
a body to live in and a body to die in, a body to be crucified
in. But he says that he shall bear
their iniquities and that this just man, this perfect man, this
glorious man, because he come to do the will of God, by which
will we're sanctified, by which will We're saved, by which we
are, we're accepted of God. And it says, and this man, this
man, at the offer of one offering for sin, sat down on the majesty
of God. Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you now. God can show mercy. Let me back up. Can God show mercy and leave
off justice? Huh? Can God express His love
to us and leave off the broken law unpunished? Leave off sin
unpunished? The only way this can be done,
that God can show mercy and express His love and satisfy justice
and honor and magnify His holy law, is for Him to take the innocent
and put them in the place of the guilty. to take the just
and put him in the place of the unjust. And when he does that,
he's able to clear, clear justly, justly, able to clear justly
the wicked and clear them of all guilt. And how did it happen? His soul was an offering for
our sins. And it says He poured it out,
poured it out unto death, unto death. And I am so thankful,
so thankful that our Lord, that's the way God can be just and holy
and righteous. You know, Psalm 85 and 10 says, and mercy met together. Where'd they do that? In the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Huh? Righteousness and peace at his
feet. Where'd they do that? On the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? And oh my, let me show you
another in Galatians 5. Look over here with me in Galatians
5. Look at this. When's a man going to be saved?
Look at Galatians chapter 1. Galatians chapter 1. What did
I say? I think I said it. Did I say 5 times? I thought
Galatians 1. When will a man be saved? When
he pleases God. Look what he said here in verse
13. Paul is talking here, he's teaching. You have heard of my
conversation or my manner of life in time past in the Jews
religion. And how that beyond measure,
you couldn't measure how I persecuted God's blessed people, God's church.
And I wasted it. I mean I thought it was nothing
but garbage to be wasted, something to be wasted. And I profited
in the Jews' religion above many my equals, in my own nation,
in the Jewish nation, being more exceedingly yet zealous of the
traditions of my fathers. Oh, I love my worships, I love
my laws, I love my fastings, I love my praying, and I hated
Christ's people. But now watch what it says. But,
when it pleased God. Who separated from my mother's
womb and called me, Christ Christ. When will a man be saved? When
it pleases the Lord. Paul was separated from his mother's
womb. But you say, didn't he hate Christ?
Oh, he did. Didn't he persecute the Lord's
people? Oh, he did. But yet, yet, when he was doing
all those things against Christ, against his people, he was loved
of God, he was elected of God, he was chosen of God, he was
called unto God, and he was separated unto God. How? By his grace.
Would it please God who separated me from my mother's womb and,
listen to this, called me by His name? Huh? If God has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world ever began. There's no other explanation
for salvation of any sinner other than being chosen of God. You look back on your own life,
there's no other explanation for the salvation of any sinner
as to the time they're saved other than it pleased God. There's
no other explanation of the salvation of a sinner as to the place that
they'll be saved. Other than it please God. You
know, look over here in Ephesians 1. I quote this all the time.
Look at it in Ephesians 1. You know, why was Noah separated? By grace. God chose him. God ordained him. Why was Abraham? How did he? Jacob, Israel, you,
me. Other than it please God. Look
what he said here in verse four. According as he hath chosen us
in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of Jesus Christ, Adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to himself. Listen to this now. According
to the good pleasure of his will. Why did he do that? According
to the good pleasure of his will. And I tell you, beloved, I know
this, I know this. Paul, on the way to Damascus
that day with the warrants in his pocket, If the sheriff ever
comes to you with a warrant to arrest you, he's going to arrest
you. Take you downtown. Take you to
wherever you take. And if he comes with a warrant,
a search warrant, any kind of warrant, they can, you've got
to take that, you've got to pay attention to that warrant. Well, Paul had warrants in his
pocket. You know what the warrants were
for? To go get people like me and you. accuse them of being
blasphemers, accuse them of being fallen of false god, fallen of
an imposter, that Jesus Christ was an imposter, He was not the
Messiah, and they started taking them people, and He had some
of them slain, He had some of them put in jail and put in prison
and put in dungeons, but on that day when He was on His way over
there, He had them warrants in His pocket. Now, if a sheriff
walked in here with a warrant, he can take you out of here.
Well, he walked in there with a warrant and said, I want this
one, that one, this one. And he said, I want all of them
brought out of here. But there's something happened
to him before he got there. Before he ever got there to keep
your warrant. God said, it's time. It's time. And this is the place. For what? to put him down, to
put him in the dust, to make him know who I am, to make him
understand that I am who I said I was and that I separated him
from his mother's womb and called him by my grace and now it's
time for grace to be manifested in this rebel. I tell you what, and if it's
religious time, When the time and the place is right, He's
coming after you. That's right. I'm telling you.
I know that for a fact. I know that without a doubt in
my mind. There's a time and a place. People
say, well, I can tell you the time and I can tell you the place.
Well, Paul could have probably done that on Damascus Road, but
I can't do that. But I know there was a time and
I know there was a place that God crossed my path with the
gospel. And when did He do it? When He
pleased Him. It wasn't going to happen any
sooner. It wasn't going to happen any later. Why didn't it happen to you?
We all was in religion. We all was false. We was like
Paul. We was Zed and Zed of the traditions
of our fathers. We wouldn't have known God from
a goat had not God made Himself known to us. Oh my, when did
he do it? When did he do it? All right. Then look over in
Colossians chapter 1. It's not over to your right.
Colossians chapter 1. Let's show you another. Look
in verse 19. Look in verse 19. For it pleased the Father that
in him, in his Son, should all fulness be. Oh my, it pleased God to put
all fulness in his blessed Son. You know it said all spiritual
blessings are in heavenly places in Christ. When you talk about
the fullness, God, please God, have all the fullness dwell in
Him. What's the fullness He's talking about? Well, I do know
this, that when you saw Christ, you saw God. The fullness of
who God is. God who would have His eternity. Who called the stars by name,
put them all in heaven. that God came down and dwelt
in His fullness, in all of His attributes, in all of His glory,
in all of His power, in all of His grace, in all of His love,
in all of His wisdom, all of His everything that God is, dwelt
fully in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was
full. All the fullness that God has
for anything and anybody is in His blessed Son. No man has seen
God at any time. No man. But the Son, who's in
the bosom of the Father, came and closed Him, brought Him out,
declared Him to be. And I tell you, you know what
some of the fullness that's in Him? The fullness of all redemption
was accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does that
mean? That means that He paid the debt
that we owe Him. He redeemed us from all iniquity. He redeemed us from the curse
of the world. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. And redemption means when God
redeemed Israel out of Egypt. Well, how did He do it? He did
it first and foremost by blood. Christ shed His own blood without
the shedding of blood, no remission of sin. And then He brought them
out with power, caused the Red Sea to part, destroyed
all of their enemies, and so He redeemed us. That means to
pay the price and then rescue and then let them go. And then the fullness of reconciliation. We were at enmity with God. And
God is holy. How are we who have enmity in
God, how are we going to be reconciled to God? How can we be a friend
of God? And how can God be our friend?
The fullness of reconciliation is in His blessed Son. He reconciled
us to God. by his own blood. And so here
we are, we're friends with God and God's friends with us. Our
sin debt has been paid and where did it all come from? The fullness
of it's Jesus. Do you reckon, let me ask you,
do you reckon that our Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood and redeemed
somebody that he's not going to have? Do you reckon he reconciled somebody
to God and they're not going to have God as their friend?
And they're going to be friends with God? They're going to be
made one? Huh? Oh, my. You see, beloved, a lot
of folks think, you know, the fullness dwells in what they
can do. Well, I think I heard, listened to a psalm yesterday.
It said, Jesus, and the first line of it was, Jesus, don't
cry. You can depend on me. Jesus don't cry. He can depend
on me. He never read this verse that
all the fools are filled with Christ. You know, then let me
say yes. And we're filled with His fullness.
It says over in Ephesians, we're filled with His fullness. So
if all the fullness of God dwells in Christ, And then Christ dwells
in us. The Scripture says we're filled
with His fullness. And the fullness of grace with
Him, full of grace. So here's what, and I've used
this illustration before. If I took this glass and I walked
into the ocean, and I filled this ocean, this glass, full
of the ocean, It would be full of the ocean, and yet there would
be nothing taken out of the ocean. That's what God does for us.
He puts us in Christ, and we're filled with His fullness, and
yet, as if we never took anything, He's still as full as He was
when He started. Here's how full He is. That it's
going to take eternity. Eternity for us to learn just
a little bit about Him. Huh? Oh my. It's not in our hands, redemption
and fullness. It's not in our hands. It's not
in our wills. It's not in our powers. It's
not in our rights. It's not in angels. It's not
in Adam. but in our Lord Jesus Christ
by the sovereign will and power of God. You see, it's His merit,
not ours. It's His power, not ours. It's His faithfulness, not ours. It's His righteousness that He
gives to us. It's not our goodness, but His
grace. It's not even our badness, but
His goodness. All fullness. is in His blessed
sign, and God put it there. God said, this is my beloved
sign in whom I'm well pleased. And it pleased God that the fullness
of salvation and redemption and everything that a sinner needs
is in His sign. And the reason being because
He's the only one who has the Word. He's the only one who has
the merit. He's the only one who has the
power. He's the only one who has the ability. He's the only
one that has it. And look what it says there in
Colossians 2 and verse 9. For in him, in him, again it
says in him. Dwell all the fullness of the
Godhead in his body. And oh my, look what it says
next. And you are complete in him. That word complete, same
word as perfect. And you are perfect in him, which
is the head of all principalities and powers. And then let me show
you another one. In 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look
at this one. Look at this one. Look in verse 21. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, God in His blessed wisdom, looked at the world and said,
the world don't have any wisdom at all. The world buys wisdom. God chose it to be that way.
Do not lie. Yes to this, it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save the undeserving. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. Not foolish preaching and foolishness
of preaching. There's plenty of foolish preaching,
but it's through the foolishness of preaching. Let me see if I
can make this understandable. Here I am. I am no different
than you are. Absolutely no different than
you. Take your hands off. There's
a difference in us. But here I am. You sit there
and listen to me. No different than you. Sinner
saved by grace. And I stand up here. And God's
pleased by preaching. And the world looks at it. I
heard a fellow say the other day that few souls get saved
after 20 minutes in a sermon. Listen, I'll tell you something,
beloved, and not only is the foolishness of preaching, and
why is it called the foolishness of preaching? Look down there
in verse 22. The Jews require a sign. They want a sign. Well, what sign are they going
to have? Give us a sign. The first sign that was ever
given, God gave it to Moses when he threw down his rod and it
became a snake. Put his hand in his bosom and
it came out leprous. Those were signs and ever since
then the Jews said, I want a sign. And the Greeks, they said on
Apollos, and they said on Mars Hill, seeking to hear some new
thing or something else. They were always after wisdom.
But oh, listen, look what he said. He said, we preach Christ. We preach Christ. What do you
say about him? That he was crucified. Nailed
to a tree, crucified. Well, the Jews, they stumble
over that. And they still stumble over that. Greg told me about
a Jewish woman that he run into down there, and they were talking,
and they began to talk, and she said, you know, the difference
between me and you is, is that you believe He's come, and I
believe He's yet to come. Because He has witnessed the
truth. And that's what the Jews, you preach Christ unto the Jews,
and they stumble over Him. My Messiah's not come. Christ
has not come. We're looking for Him to come.
And the Greeks, who's looking after wisdom, oh, listen, give
me some philosophy. Give me some explicit words.
Let me hear some big words. Let me hear something about transubstantiation. Let me hear something about supra-lapsarianism. Let me hear something about shoulderology. Let me hear something about...
And so, you know, anybody here knows what shoulderology means?
That's the only fellow in this building that knows what it means.
Yeah, that's right. You know what I mean? So why
here would it be able for me to tell you that? Huh? How about some eschatology? You
want some eschatology? That's what he said. We preach
Christ to folks that think they're the smartest fella in the room. He said, that's foolishness.
That's foolishness. How many times has somebody told
you, said, don't preach to me. Your kid, when he was growing
up, when they grow up, they say, don't preach to me. I've had
enough of that. I'm going to leave the house
if that's what you're going to do. Well, listen to what he said
to him. Oh, under the Greeks' foolishness, the Jews are stumbling,
God. Oh, my. But under them that God
calls by the foolishness of His preaching, both Jews and Greeks, Christ,
that's the power of God. We're not stumbling over that.
God, in His power, saved us by the gospel and the wisdom of
God. Oh, my. And it's the preaching
of faith. Saves them that believe, not
them that work. And this is the means by which
God effectually calls out His people. Look back up here in
verse 17. Paul talking now, he said, For
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. not
with soteriology, and eschatology, and any other ology, lest the cross of Christ should
be made of not a fragment. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that are perishing, that's foolishness, but unto
us which are sanctified, it is the power of God. Shirley and
I was on our way to service this morning, and there's a little
old cart pulled up. I told Shirley, I said, that guy, he stenciled
a cross on the back of his cart. Stenciled a cross. He says, I
said, you see it? And he pulled out and I said,
there it is. You know the only reason why people wear crosses
and put crosses on their church and put crosses on their cart?
Because they don't know anything about the cross. And that's why
preaching Christ is food for sin. Food for sin. How many people
have said, I don't have to go to church to be saved? You don't. You don't. You don't have to
go to church to worship God. Well, you don't. But I do know
this, that God will not save you apart from hearing the gospel. It's not going to save you without
you hearing the gospel. Now if you've got somebody on
your boat when you're fishing and there's a preacher on that
boat preaching to you, God may save you. But if you're out there
and you're not interested in it, well unless you hear the
gospel, you're not going to be saved by the grace of God. It's
not going to happen. Ain't that right? That's a fact. And oh my. And I tell you what,
if you can think it's foolishness if you want to, this is the way
God is pleased to save His people. Let me show you just a couple
more and I'll be done. Look in Luke with me. Luke 12.
Luke 12. We're finding out what pleases God. I'd rather God be pleased with
me, because whatever pleases Him makes me happy, makes me
thankful. So look what He said here in
verse 32. Fear not, little flock, for it's
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's the Father's good, He's
got a kingdom. He said, listen, it's the Father's good pleasure
to give it to you. It pleases Him to do it. And the first thing
He says, fear not. Don't fear the world. Don't fear
your weakness. Don't fear old age. Don't fear
trials. Don't fear death. Because I have
a kingdom. And you know when this kingdom
was prepared? Before the foundation of the
world. And Paul says, you know, there's a kingdom that can be
shaken. America's shaken right now. I mean, we're split. This country is shaken. This is a kingdom. There's so
many kingdoms in this world. And they get shaken. The Middle
East is shaken. But God said, I've got a kingdom,
that everybody's in it, and this kingdom, you can't move it. You
can't budge it. It's solid. It's powerful and
it can't be moved by any president, any king, any power in this heaven
and in earth to not move this kingdom of God. And then I want
to show you this. Ezekiel 32 and then I'm done.
Ezekiel 32. Verse 11. Oh, I tell you, the pleasure
of the Lord is a glorious prospect for us. Fear not, little flock. It's your Father's good pleasure
to give you a kingdom. Oh, we've got a glorious, glorious
future. And then look what he says there
in verse 11. Say unto them, as I live, saith
the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It
doesn't please me that men die in the wickedness. But I tell
you what does please me, that the wicked turn from his way
and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, why will you die? God is your God. And how do you turn? Turn to
Christ. Our Lord said, look unto me,
and be ye saved. All the anger is from a just
God and His anger. A just God and His anger. There's
no reason for a man to die and be driven, not with such a Savior,
not with such a gospel, not with such glory, not with such salvation
that's so free, not with a salvation that's so pure. No reason for
a man to die and be driven. None whatsoever. Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done, on earth as it is in heaven. what glorifies you and what you
do in heaven, in earth, in the sea, in all these places. You
do just exactly what pleases you. And Father, we're thankful,
thankful that you're satisfied. Lord, help us to submit ourselves
to your will and your pleasure and your glory and your honor
in our lives. Bring glory to yourself through
this body of believers. Forgive us of everything that
is so unlikely. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its words. It sounds like music in my ears. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. O how I love Jesus, O how I love
Jesus, because He first loved me.