Carla, my message today, is please
the Lord. Please the Lord. Please God. We often hear and often say ourselves how we ought to please the Lord
or seek to please the Lord, and we want to be well-pleasing to
the Lord. And we know that Christ satisfied him, but yet in our
lives, in our conversation, in way we treat people, we want
to please the Lord, we want to manifest His character. But what
about God Himself? What about God Himself? We talk
about pleasing Him, but what pleases God Himself? What pleases God? What's His
pleasure? What does He do that pleases
Himself? He tells us several things in
His word that pleases Him, to some degree that pleases Him,
and the word please means to satisfy. And here in this psalm,
we have gods described, little g, and then we have God. Look down here in verse 15. These
are these gods described. The idols of the heathen are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not, eyes have they, but they see not. They
have ears, but they hear not, neither is there any breath in
their mouths. And they that make them are like unto them, so is
everyone that trusteth in them. Now look here, we find out what
the difference in God's. Look back up here in verse five. For I know that the Lord, Jehovah,
is great, and that our Lord is above all gods." Now listen,
those other gods couldn't do anything. Couldn't see, couldn't
hear, couldn't breathe, couldn't move. And look what it says here,
"...whatsoever the Lord pleased." He did. He can hear, He can see,
He can act, He can do. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven, and in the earth, in the seas, and all
deep places. And what does it say that he
does? Whatever pleased him. Whatsoever pleased him. That
did he. Where did he do that? Whatever
pleased him, he did it in heaven. Whatever pleases him to do in
heaven, that's what he did. And then look what else it says,
whatever he pleased to do in the earth, he does. Whatever
it pleased him to do in the seas, he did. And in all the deep places,
wherever it pleased him to do something, that's exactly what
he did. Whether it's in heaven, whether it's in earth, whether
it's in the seas, whether it's in all deep places, wherever
it's at. And look what that says here about Him. Not only that,
but look what else whoever pleased Him. Then it says, this is some
things that pleased Him. He caused the vapors to ascend
from the ends of the earth. He made the lightnings and the
rain. That's the time you see all this lightning. God makes
that lightning. What's this? He brings the wind.
Oh, I mean, we've had some wind. Liam's tore out a tree. He has
some wind. And we tell our children, we
tell Rod, that's God doing it. That's God causing that wind.
And he brings it out of his treasure. Look what else it pleased him
to do. You say, well, listen, but he smoked the firstborn of
everybody in Egypt. What? You mean God kills men? He does. He smoked the firstborn
in Egypt. And oh, he spoke great nations,
flew mighty kings, and then gave their land as an heritage unto
his people. So you see, whatever pleased
him, where it pleased him, when it pleased him. And when someone
truly has the freedom and the power to do as they please, they
can do what they please, when they please, and for whom it
pleases. Look who it pleased him to do
things for. Look back up there in verse 4. And not only what
pleased when he done it, where he done it, who he done it, how
he done it, but for whom he done it. For the Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto himself in Israel for his particular people. And
so you see, beloved, not only does he do what he wants to do,
but he even says who he wants to and shows his mercy who he
wants to. And it pleased him to do that. And oh, a man that's
got all the power and the freedom and the power to do what he wants
to, he can do what he pleases to do. I can't do what I please
to do. I very rarely get to do what pleases me. Do you? Very
rarely get to. But God's not governed by emotions,
as we are. God's not an emotional God. We're
emotional creatures, but God does not govern by emotions.
When you talk about what pleases Him, it's not like what pleases
us. But everything that God pleases God is according to His nature.
And see, His nature, He's good. So He does what pleases Him because
He's good. And He's holy. He does what pleases
Him because He's holy. And He's righteous, and He does
what pleases Him because He's righteous. And He's all-wise,
and so He does everything according to His wisdom. So everything
that He does according to His player, He does it according
to His nature. And oh, what does the Scripture
say about what pleases the Lord? Well, He said He works all things
after the counsel of His own will, and known unto God are
all His works from the creation. Let me show you the first thing
that says it pleased the Lord. Look over with you at 1 Samuel
12. Just look at a few Scriptures today and see what pleases the
Lord. 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12. Look what it says
here in 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." Why are we his people? He pleased
him. Here's God's electing grace,
here's God's electing love. He passed by nations, He passed
by great kingdoms, and He chose Israel. And He took that little
group of people and He made a nation out of them. And then God says
that you were not a people, now you're the people of God. You
have not obtained mercy, you have now obtained mercy. And
you're a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show
forth the praises of Him that called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light. They didn't deserve to be made
God's people. They didn't desire to be made
God's people. But God made a covenant with
them. Look in Deuteronomy 7 with me just a moment. God made a
covenant with them, and God made, and Gary sang it this morning
about that covenant, assurity in that covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But God made a covenant, Deuteronomy
7, verse 6. They didn't deserve to be made
God's people. Did we deserve to be made God's people? Did
I deserve to be chosen of God? Did you? No, but it pleased God
to do it. And listen, here he said he'd
done it by covenant, and in verse 7 it says this. Excuse me, verse 6. For thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. And you go to 1 Peter
chapter 2 when you get home and you can look at this exactly
what he says about his church, his people. For thou art an holy
people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself. above all the people
that are upon the face of the earth. Now, you know why folks
despise people who believe the gospel. You know, as long as
you just use certain words, people will get upset to you. But when
you tell them that I have not chosen Christ, but Christ chose
me and made me one of His people, chose me to be one of His people,
And he loved Jacob and he hated Esau. Now that's when they'll
get mad at you. They don't get mad at you for
claiming to be a Christian. They don't get mad at you for
going to church. They don't get mad at you for believing the
Bible. But they'll get upset with you when you start saying,
I'm one of God's elect. I'm one of God's chosen. And
that God passed by nations and people and every people. He passed
by my whole family and chose me. And you can't explain that,
but for only one reason, it pleased the Lord to do it. And people
automatically, they'll say, well, that ain't fair. We're not talking
about God being fair. We're talking about what pleased
God. And then he goes on to say here,
and listen, the Lord did not set His love upon you or choose
you because you were in more number than any people, for you
are the fewest of all people. God said, fear not, little flock. But because the Lord loves you,
and because He would keep the oath which He hath sworn unto
your fathers, if He brought you out with a mighty hand, and watch
this, redeemed you out from the house of bondage from the hand
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And you see, beloved, all that
speaks about us. And we're God's people because
it pleased Him. We weren't the people of God,
and we aren't the people of God because we haven't merit, because
we have none. But we're God's people for Christ's
sake. The covenant that God made with
Christ, an everlasting covenant. He says, the great shepherd of
the sheep, the Lord Jesus Christ whom He brought again from the
dead. What? Through the blood of the everlasting covenant.
And He's called the surety of His people. And He said, all
that the Father giveth Him, What's going to happen to them? They
shall come to Him. And, oh, beloved, and the Scriptures
tells us over and over again that we, He says, you've not
chosen Me, but I've chosen you. And having loved His own, He
loved them to the end. And He chose Jacob, and He loved
Jacob. And He says, we're sons of Jacob,
and He's the God of Jacob. And He loved Jacob just because
it pleased Him to do it. What else are we going to say?
And then look at Isaiah 53. I'll show you another thing that
pleased the Lord. Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Everybody ought to be familiar
with this verse's picture. It says here, in verse 10, Isaiah
53, verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
his son. Now, look what it says about
him. Look what it says. And here's the gospel. It pleased
the Lord to do it. Now, what does it mean? Do you
mean that God had enjoyment, had great pleasure in bruising
his son, making his son to be wounded for our transgressions?
making Him to carry our sins in His own body on the tree?
Did God stand back with great delight in His face and laughter
in His heart? No, no, I told you that God's
not a God of emotions. When it says it pleased Him,
this is the only way that He could satisfy Himself and save
us by His blessed mercy and grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ
being bruised by God Himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world knowing, knowing. He told his mother, he says,
my hour has not yet come. And oh, beloved, and then he
finally told his disciples before he went into the garden, he says,
now is my time come. What time? The time that the
Father appointed me to be wounded for their transgressions, to
be bruised for their iniquities, to have The Lord to lay on me,
and it says in the margin, to meet on him the iniquity of us
all. And all beloved, those whom God
said He's electing love upon, the Lord Jesus Christ came to
become our substitute, to become the one to stand, as Scott said
10,000 times in his ministry, to stand in their room and to
stand in their stand. And oh beloved, when God called
my name or your name from eternity and says they're going to be
born sons of Adam, going to be born in sin, going to be born
in rebellion, going to be born in disobedience, going to be
born sinners, I'm going to give you a number, a number that no
man can count. And I'll tell you what, I'm going
to charge you with those people's salvation. And you know what
it's going to cost you? The son of my love? The son that's
in the bosom of my heart and soul? You know what it'll cost
you? It'll cost you your life from the day you're born. It'll
cost you obedience. It'll cost you perfection. It'll
cost you your life's blood. You'll have to become a sinner
and regard it as a sinner, treat it as a sinner, and take all
of their iniquities, all their rebellions, and all their sins
to yourself. And then I myself, you my son,
and I love you, I myself will turn against you. And I will
treat you as I would treat anybody who sinned against Me. I Myself
will come and punish you to the utmost. I Myself will pour My
wrath upon you until there's none left. I Myself will take
My justice and put it into your heart and it will not come out
until it's not got anything left in it. And I'll do that, and you'll
cry out to me, and you'll say, why, oh why, oh why have you
forsaken me? And I won't answer you. I won't
answer you. I won't say a word. And then I'm going to send you
to hell, but I tell you what, I won't suffer your soul to see
corruption. for your body to see corruption,
and I'll bring you out again on the third morning. And all
the people for whom you do this, I'll never charge their sins
ever to them again. I'll justify every one of them.
I'll declare every one of them righteous, and I'll call every
one of them To look to you, to trust you, to believe you, embrace
you, bow to you, own you, as their whole salvation. That's
what I'll do. Huh? Oh, my goodness. Oh, Jesus, this is the only way
that God could satisfy Himself. Can God show mercy and leave
off justice? Can God express His love to us
and leave off the broken law unpunished? Oh, God said He made His soul
an offering for sin, and it says that He poured out His soul.
What did it say there? Verse 10, Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him. He, God, put him to grief. When
God made His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, and we know that.
What's this? And he shall see of the travail
of his soul. And oh, you never hear such sweeter
words than this right here. And he shall be satisfied. And by his knowledge, by the
knowledge that he gives of himself, and by the knowledge that we
have of him, shall my righteous servant justify many. How come? Because he shall bear their iniquity. And oh, look what it says down
in the last part of verse twelve. Because he hath poured out his
soul unto death. And watch this, and he was numbered
with the transgressors. And he just bared the sin of
many, not every one. And he made intercession for
those transgressors for whom he bore their sins for. For whom
he bore his sins for. You're talking about a gospel.
What a gospel! Now look with me in Galatians,
chapter 1. It pleased the Lord to bruise His Son. It pleased
the Lord to do it. And that's the only way in the
world that God can save us, is what He did to His Son and barren
our sins. And, beloved, if Christ and His
is the long and the short of it, If Christ bore your sin,
then you will not never bow. If Christ was punished for your
sins, God will never punish you for them. Not one step. If Christ
satisfied the justice of God, God's justice would be unjust
to come and require anything from your hand. And if God ever loved you, He
loved you because He would do it. And there's nothing you can
say or do or any way that you can ever act to cause God to
ever, ever stop loving you. Now, we hear all the time, well,
I don't love them anymore. I don't love that anymore. I'm
done with this one and I'm done with that one. God's not that
way. If God could stop loving one
of his people, How many times would he have stopped loving
you for what you thought, for what you said, for what you did,
for where you went, for how you acted? How many times would he
have stopped loving you? But he ain't going to do it. Did you give him a reason to
love you? Did you give him a reason to die for you? Can you give
him a reason to undo it? Bless His holy name. Oh, bless
His holy name. Now, look over here in Galatians
1.15. And I ask this question. When will
a man be saved? We talk about Christ bearing
our sins. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. Well, when will a man be saved? Look what Paul says here
in Galatians 1.13. He said, For you have heard of
my conversation or my manner of life in time past, in the
Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church
of God and wasted it, and I profited, I mean I was somebody in the
Jews' religion above many of my equals in my own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's
womb, and called me by his grace to reveal his Son in me, that
I might preach him among the heathen." When's a man going
to be saved? When he pleases the Lord. You
say, well, Paul, here he was, he was separated from his mother's
womb, just like you and I was. And he told Jeremiah, he said,
before you was formed in your mother's belly, I knew you, and
I ordained you to be a prophet. Before Jacob was ever born, before
the children were ever born, having done neither good nor
evil, God said, Jacob hath a love that he shall have hate. And
so here is this man who persecuted the church of God, wasted the
church of God, was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Oh, how he hated Christ. But yet, beloved, he was loved,
he was chosen, he was called, and he was separated. How? By the grace of God. How come? Because it pleased the Lord.
When he was raising his hands against Christ himself, Christ
said, I've got a day I'm going to cross his path. I've got a
day that I'm going to unhorse that fellow. I've got a day that
I'm going to put him in the dust. I've got a day. He hates me now,
but I've got a time and a place that I'm going to cross his path,
and he's going to turn from hatred to love, from darkness to light,
from death to life. From disobedience to obedience,
and he's a chosen vessel unto me, and I'm going to use him
for my glory, in spite of himself. And I'll keep that and look with
me a second. I quote this all the time, 2
Timothy 1.9, but let's just look at it again. Oh, there's no other
explanation for the salvation of any sinner. after the time
and place that they're saved by the grace of God, except it
pleased the Lord. When was you separated? When
was you called? When it pleased the Lord. I sat in legalism and fundamentalism,
really thought I was just a Pharisee of Pharisees. I was just like
everybody else. And one day it pleased God and it crossed my
path. And I'll bless him for every
day. I'll bless him every day for the day that he crossed my
path. Why didn't he do it a year before
that? Why didn't he do it five years before that? Why didn't
he do it when I was 19? Why didn't he do it when I was
15? Why didn't he do it when I was a legalist and dishonoring?
Why didn't he do it when I was out as a Pharisee of Pharisee?
Why did he wait? After I told all the lies, believed
all the lies, and done all the things that dishonored Him, and
took the glory to myself, because it didn't please Him. But one
day, one day, sitting in my own house, He put me down. Put me
down just like He did Paul, and I laid prostrate before Him.
Ah, look what it says here. In verse 8 of 2 Timothy 1, Be
not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, let's always tell about our
Savior's blessed work. nor of me his prisoner." You
just be a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God. Now listen, "...who hath saved us," and you notice
this again, like Bruce said the other last Sunday morning. Everything's
in history. This is historical. This is things
that's already been done. "...who hath saved us," that's
in the past tense, "...called us," that's in the past tense,
"...with a holy calling," and watch it now, "...not according
to our works." but according to His own purpose and grace
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world ever came." What other explanation are you
going to give? What reason can you give for
when God saved you? Others say, please don't have
to do it. In Ephesians 1, 4, and I'll read
it to you, you don't have to look, "...according as He has
chosen us, in Christ, in Him, before the foundation of the
world, that we should behold Him without blame before Him
in love, having predestinated us under the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself," listen now, according to the
good pleasure of His will. When is a man going to be saved? When it pleases God. Why was
Noah saved, and nobody else in those days, his family? Why Abraham,
out of everybody's in the earthly counties? Why Jacob, and not
Ishmael? Why Israel, and not other nations? Why you? Why me? Because it pleased the Lord.
And then look with me over in Colossians, chapter 1, verse
19, talking about what pleases God. What pleases God. Colossians 119. I love this. I love this. Colossians 119. For it pleased
the Father that in Him should all authorities In who? In His Son, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when it says, all fullness,
what do you think that means? I think it means all fullness.
I think it means, and I believe it means, all the fullness that
God He Himself is. All that God He Himself is. All that God He Himself is. dwelt
in our Lord Jesus Christ. All the God that in heaven's
eternity came here and dwelt in all the fullness of His power
and His wisdom and His grace and His righteousness, His holiness,
His mercy, His love, His patience, His will, His purpose, His forgiveness,
His justification, everything that God is dwelt in that man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He himself said, if you've seen
me, you've seen my Father. If you've heard my words, you've
heard my Father's words. What's your Father's will? It's
for you to believe me. And everything that God is, oh,
no man has seen God at any time save the only begotten Son. And
He has revealed Him. He has told Him out. And he says,
the fullness and the brightness of God's glory dwelt in his blessed
Son. And I'll tell you what else,
not only is the fullness of God's person, and that's why when we
get to glory, the only God you and I will ever see is the Lord
Jesus Christ Himself. No man hath ever seen God. God
dwells in a light that no man can approach unto. And since
we couldn't approach Him and He dwelt in that light, He came
here as the light of this world, as the one who takes us out of
darkness, and as long as we follow Him, we don't walk in darkness.
He came as the light of this world. He came here as the light
of God. and made God visible, and a place
where we could approach Him, and call on Him, and trust Him,
and give everything that God has for us, and that's in His
Son in whom all fullness dwells. Does that make any sense to you? That makes all the sense in the
world to me. If you go to somebody that's
got everything that you need, why would you not go to them? I'm not a person that... Everybody
in here has got something that can do something for me. But
all of you couldn't do everything for me. Some of you can do some
electrical work or car work for me. Buy or give or sell me some
insurance. Put some tires on my car. Fix
me a meal. Buy me a suit of clothes. You
can do a lot of things for me. The one thing you can't do, you
can't do everything. But Christ can do everything.
He's my meal. He's my food. He's your food.
He's that bread which came down from heaven. He's got me a suit
of clothes that makes me stand before God just spotless and
sinless. He takes care of everything there
is in me. I need redemption. It's in Him. I need forgiveness. It's in Him. I need justification. It's in
Him. I need to be reconciled to God.
He reconciled me through the blood of His cross. I need the
ability to approach God and talk to Him. Our Lord Jesus said,
Come unto me. Come unto me. No man comes unto
the Father but by me. Oh, Lord, I'm coming in Your
Son. I'm coming in Your Son. Oh, beloved, salvation. And redemption'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 any angel what they can do for us. It's
not in Adam, but it's in our Lord Jesus Christ by the sovereign
will and power of God. Look what it says down here in
Colossians 2.9. In Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily." Since all fullness is in Him, what's
this? And you are complete in Him. If all fullness is in Him,
and it pleased God to put it there, and you are complete in
Him, which is the head of all principalities in power. Now, when something's complete,
what are you going to do about that? You see, it's His merit, not
ours. It's His power, because we're
impotent. His faithfulness, not ours. His righteousness. You see, it's
not our goodness, but His grace. It's not our badness, but it's
His blood. And all fullness dwells in Him,
because it pleased the Father to do it. God Himself said about
His Son, this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And
it pleased the Father that the Lord, all the fullness of salvation,
redemption, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and everything
we need is in His Son. And I'll tell you a few. If you
want something from God, come to Christ. You want to speak
to God, speak to His Son. If you want salvation, you're
going to have to come to Christ. If you want God to have anything
to do with you, you're going to have to come to Christ. You
say, well, preacher, I tell you, I don't know what to do. I tell
you, I know exactly what to do. Come to Christ. That's what He
said Himself. That's what the Father said. Huh? Because He's the only one with
the Word. We don't have any worth, but
He does. We don't have any merit, but He does. We don't have any
power, but He's got it all. We are not even willing, but
He makes us willing. We don't have any ability, but
He's got all the ability. And then look over here in 1
Corinthians 121. Let me show you a nice one. What
it pleased the Lord to do. It pleased God. 1 Corinthians
121. 1 Corinthians 121. For that in the wisdom of God,
the world by wisdom do not know God. God pictured it in such
a way that the world, with all the wisdom that it has, cannot
know God. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believed." It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching. Now, you think about this. Milton
mentioned it the other night. He said, here's people from the
West Coast to the East Coast, from the Canadian border all
the way to the Gulf. People was here. What would bring all them people
together? For a man to stand up and tell
them that they're nothing, that God counts them as nothing, and chose them in Christ, brought
them to Christ, teaches them of Christ, and He does it live,
one word telling another word, how God saved them. And how many times have I heard
somebody say, well, I just hate being preached to. I just hate
being preached to. I don't know how many people told
me, and I was just thinking of a fellow yesterday, and I tried
to talk to him about his soul and about his need to come here
to the gospel. You know what he said? He said, I feel I'm
all right. I believe I'm okay. You know,
I don't see, I think I'm all right. I never said another word
to him. I said, well, That's because
you don't know the rest. God's got to make you know. And
how does He make you know? By preaching. The world says,
oh, I'm good enough. I'm smart enough. I can handle
my own life. I can make my own decisions.
I go where I want to go and do what I want to do. But for God chose for men and
women to come here and sit down and listen to another man tell
them, Not an angel, but a man. And it's not the foolishness,
it's the foolishness of preaching, not foolish preaching, which
there's plenty of. And look what Paul said about it. He said here,
he says the preaching is, what is it? Verse 23, it's the preaching
of Christ. It's the preaching of Christ.
Not some things about Christ, but Christ Himself. Christ in
His person, Christ in the fullness of the Godhead, Christ as that
sinless One who came and lived His life on this earth, Christ
the Beloved of the Father, Christ Jesus the Lord, who bore our
sins in His own body. And then look what is following
Christ, but Christ crucified, Christ dying, Christ being made
a sin offering, Christ being made a substitute. And look how
many different effects it has upon something. The Jews, they
stumble over that. We've got the law, we've got
the sermons, we've got the rituals, we've got the prophets, we've
got the Bible. Then they stumble over that.
And the Greeks, the people that are smart, they said, that don't
even make sense. This fellow, this man who's just
sitting in a wheelchair, and he's just brought up, and he
ain't no bigger than 70, 80 pounds, and he's supposed to be the smartest
man in the whole world, Stephen Hawking. And I mean people hang on these
words. And he come to the conclusion
that there's no way in the world I can be a god or an afterlife. And the next thing today he said
that it was headline news. Does that make the gospel even less
special? I just hang on to that. God take
a place. God laughs at him, mocks him,
and what a shock he's going to get. God brought this world out of
a black hole? Oh, the smartest, that's
what he says, the foolishest of it. They call it foolish. People on television just mock
God. Call it foolish, I'm not, I'm
too, you know, we've got too smart to believe God anymore.
They said the Greeks, it's foolishness to them, but watch what it says
here. Back up in there, verse 21. It
pleads God by the foolishness of preaching, listen to it now,
to save them that believe. They're going to stumble over
it, that's their problem. They're going to count it fools
if that's their problem. God saves them that believe.
Do you believe? Do you believe? I believe. Not them that work, but them
that believe. And this is the means by which
God effectually calls out His people. Look what He said in
verse 70. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach
the gospel. Not with wisdom of words, lest
the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. Oh my, for
the preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness,
but listen to it, but unto us which are saved." That cross,
that preaching of Christ, that's the very power of God by which
He saves us. And oh my, and how many people
have said, I don't have to go to church to be saved or to worship
God. Maybe not. Maybe not. But I know one thing
for sure. You'll have to hear the gospel
before you'll be saved. You're going to have to, if you
know, somebody's going to have to preach the gospel to you,
whether you go to the hall, on your boat, somewhere, somebody's
going to have to preach the gospel to you. Huh? And, oh, beloved,
and that's why Oh, we can't trust. As we said, we can't trust an
unknown Christ. And it's the gospel that makes
Christ known. And then let me show you in Luke chapter 12,
verse 32. Here's another one. If that is
pleasing. Let's please the Lord by the
foolishness of preaching. And if you want your loved ones
converted, and we keep asking our kids, come hear the gospel.
Come hear the gospel. Come to the services. Come to
the services. Just keep aggravating them until
they tell you, quit aggravating me. or if they've come with you. But oh, if they're going to be
converted, it's going to be through the preaching of the gospel.
Look what it said here now in verse 32. Fear not, little flock,
for it's your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Fear not, little flock, God's
got a kingdom, and He's pleased Him to give it to you. He said,
fear not. What in the world would we fear?
Well, we'd fear the world. But he said, don't fear the world.
Oh, I'm afraid of my own weakness. He said, don't fear your weakness.
Oh, I'm afraid of getting old. Don't fear your old age. Oh,
I have great trials coming. Don't fear your great trials.
You see, we're receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved. Now, this
world's being moved to and from. I mean this political world all
right now in America. We're so concerned for it. It's
just moving here and it's moving there, and these kingdoms are
moving, and kings are going, and they're being deposed, and
nations are being uprooted and all that. And this world's being
moved around, but God said, we receive a kingdom which cannot
be moved, which cannot be moved. And it's been prepared for us
from the foundation of the world. That's what He said. And then
let me close with this right here, and you pay attention to
me now. Pay attention to me now. Ezekiel
31, verse 11. The pleasure of the Lord, what
pleases God, is the only hope, the only refuge, the only remedy
for the wicked, for the lost. Look what God said here in Ezekiel
33, 11. What pleases God is the only hope, refuge, place
of hiding, remedy for the wicked. God says this, saith unto them,
As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, for why wilt ye die? O house of Israel, why will you
die? Why will you die? Why will you
die in your sins? Why will you die in your rebellion?
Why will you die in your wickedness?" He says, turn to Me, and says,
you'll live. Turn to Me, and you'll live. God helped you to turn to Christ.
If you never have, do it now. Do it now. Turn to Him.