You can't, as a believer, you
can't let the world get to you too much. Try not to anyway. Because we preach the sovereign
God. Father, Son, and Spirit are one,
and God is sovereign. So what do I mean by that? Well, I don't always know what
others mean when they say that, but this I do know. God reigns. God rules in this world. I wanna turn to Psalms 115, just
gonna read three verses, and then we're gonna travel some
today. Psalms 115, and I wanna begin in verse one. It's a very
familiar passage of scripture, or at least it should be. Verse
one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory. For thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? Verse three, but our God is in
the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. We preach a sovereign God. And God is sovereign, whether
we know it or not, whether or not we like it or not. God is
sovereign, the scriptures are clear. The scriptures are abundantly
clear. It is man that is abundantly
unclear. Now, I have an answer to a question
today, I believe. An answer, I'm not saying it's
the answer, but an answer. So what question is it? The question
is this. Why does God save sinners? I know why. At least partially,
I know why. It's right here in verse three.
It pleased God. That's the title, Paul. It pleased
God. Like I said, whether we know
it or not, whether we like it or not, God is in control and
in complete charge on this earth. Now everyone will agree God can
be in charge in heaven. Everybody's fine with that. They're
actually probably pretty fine with God being in charge in hell.
It's where you bring it down to where we live that the world
won't have it. But that's not what the scriptures
say. Very simply, To put it this way,
God has done and is doing whatsoever he hath pleased to do. Put it another way, God does
absolutely nothing that does not please him. He works everything according
to the counsel of his own will. He doesn't ask me, he doesn't
ask you, he doesn't ask the Pope. Don't ask anyone. God's will
is supreme. And our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Isaiah 46. And verse 10, because
he's done everything from the beginning, before the
beginning of this world, and he's doing his will, his pleasure
until the end. Isaiah 46 and verse 10, declaring
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times the things
that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Where's this God today? You won't
hear him on TV. You won't hear him on the radio.
You don't hear him in pulpits. But this is the God of the Bible.
Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth,
my counsel, from a far country, yea, I have spoken it. And if you want to leave out
the word it there, it works just fine. I have spoken. I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Now, is there any qualifications
in there about what it is God does? Not one. Not one. Our God's in the heavens. He's done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now, that was written a few hundred years ago. I wonder
what's going on with God now. The exact same thing. Our God
is still in the heavens and he has done whatsoever he hath pleased. The scripture's clear. God does
as God pleased. Now if you wanna say that's all
in the past tense, well, read Isaiah 46, 10, and 11 again.
That's future. I know it's written in the Old
Testament, but God hasn't changed. I am the Lord. I change not. and also realize from the beginning
he's declared the end. And guess what, the end hasn't
happened yet. But it's going to. He's purposed it, he'll do
it. I've spoken, I'll bring it to
pass. Present and future tense, I purposed
and I will. I know the way man thinks, because
I have thought and still think sometimes the same way. But I
can tell you this, from the authority of the scriptures, from the authority
of the word of God, God is doing now exactly what he has pleased
and God shall always do exactly what he pleased until we reach
his declared end. And after that, he will too. Now today I wanna speak of the
pleasure of the Lord. And what I wanna be specific
about is as you look through the scriptures, Old Testament
and New, there are several passages. You can get a concordance and
look up pleasure and it pleased God, it pleased the Lord. You
can look it up. I have a computer program that
does that for me. I like that a lot better. Because then I
can copy and paste onto a piece of paper. But as you look at
these, I'm gonna show you several of them here, and what it tells
us is the story of the salvation of sinners in Christ Jesus is
according to that being what pleased God. It has pleased God
to save sinners. Isn't that amazing? You can actually
sort of see the complete story of salvation, I think. And it
shows that the salvation of sinners is a direct function of God's
good and gracious pleasure. It's revealed. Our Lord told
a parable about a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. And at the end of each part of
that parable, he said this statement. There's rejoicing in heaven over
a sinner repents, it pleases God to save sinners. It pleases
God to save sinners now. I think that's just a glorious
thing. All of salvation can be attributed
in this place here. It pleased God. So let's look at it. First Samuel
12 and verse 22. First Samuel 12 and verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great name's sake. Because it has pleased
the Lord to make you his people. I love that verse. I love that
verse. That's Old Testament. Ain't no
different now. It is no different now. Because
in this one verse, you'll see the preservation. He won't forsake. You'll see the choice. It's for
his namesake. And then you'll see the reason
given here. Because it pleased God. In this one little verse, because
it has pleased the Lord to make you his people. You didn't make yourself. You
had no part in making yourself. Not his people. Now you may make
yourself a great leader. You may make yourself a really
studious scholar, a professor, a scientist, an educator, whatever. but you will never make yourself
his people. The Lord makes his people. Why? Because it pleased him to
do so. It pleased him to do so. The New Testament agrees. I put
it in Ephesians one, verse four. according as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to what? The good pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. We are accepted in the beloved.
We are accepted in Christ. Why? The good pleasure of God's
will. That's where salvation starts,
in us. The good pleasure of God's will. He chose believers in his son,
before the foundation of the world. See, that's the thing
they call election that everybody wants to avoid. Well, there it
is in black and white. There it is in his word. There
it is by the lips, by the pen of the Apostle Paul. Inspired
by the Holy Spirit of God to write this word. according to his good pleasure. It pleased God. He predestinated
and he chose us in his son to be holy and without blame before
himself. Before himself, not before each
other. Before himself in love. True love, real love. the love
that he has for his son, he has given to us. Why? It pleased God. It pleased God. Adopted as sons and daughters
of God, according to the good pleasure of his will. What's
that mean? Well, it means that it pleased
God to make you his people. I like that, I like that thought. So, that's what we see in the
Old Testament. We come to the New Testament,
the Gospels, we see someone else with whom God is well pleased.
Three times in Matthew, you don't have to turn there, I'm gonna
read them right quick. Matthew three and verse 17 said, and
lo, a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased. Matthew 12 and 18, behold my
servant whom I have chosen, my beloved, in whom my soul is well
pleased. I will put my spirit upon him
and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. And Matthew 17
and verse five, While yet he spake, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them and behold, a voice out of the cloud which
said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And he had these three words,
hear ye him. Heed the words of the son because
the words of the son are the words of the father. He came
to do his Father's will. God the Father is well pleased
with the Son. The Son, the one who was born
Savior, Christ the Lord. The Son, Jesus of Nazareth, where
is he that is born King? Well, that one who was born king
was both born Lord and Christ. He was Lord and Christ. Wasn't
born Lord and Christ, I said that wrong, it's my fault. Isaiah
wrote it. A child is born and a son is
given. You understand, that's two separate
things. You understand? A child was born,
the child Jesus was born. Let's say this very clearly,
the son was never born. You understand? He's the eternal
son. He's the eternal elect. My elect, chosen, precious. The child was born, the son was
given. That's the difference. And this
one was born king, and he was king before he came. This one
is the savior. The savior was born. Christ the
Lord, who's both Lord and Christ, the Savior was born, who grew
up to be and was always the one with whom the Father was well
pleased. The Son is eternal, and the Father
has always been eternally pleased with his Son. The Lord, the Christ, the Messiah,
the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the Savior. Pleased God in every way. His walk and his talk pleased
God. His works, and here's this, his
thoughts pleased God. You understand, that's where
Paul ran into trouble with the law. Until I read thou shalt not covet,
and it sank in, I had known lust. Because you understand, God requires
perfection. Total perfection. Not only in
what you outwardly put out, but what's here and what's here.
In the head and the heart. Guess what? We got no control
over that. We have some. Sometimes. But we don't have total control
over our head or our thoughts. But that is what God demands. That's what he demands, perfection.
In all things, because if you covet, if you think it in your
head, you've done it. You've done it. Now I look back
at that scripture and says, where God says, your thoughts aren't
my thoughts. No, they're not. Because his thoughts are perfect.
And his thoughts are actions. Because whatever he thinks happens.
Whatever he says, he's gonna bring it to pass. Why? It pleased
God. It pleased God. And the Son,
the Savior, our Savior, pleased the Father. With his lips, with
his walk, with his actions, with men, and with his thoughts. He pleased God in every way.
So what happened to the one well-beloved, well-pleasing son? Isaiah 53
and verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. To bruise him. When he had put
him to grief, he had put him to grief, when thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. It pleased the Lord to bruise
our Savior. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, the one with whom he was well pleased. Yeah, that's exactly
right. The one who was promised in the
garden. What did it say about the seed of the woman? He's gonna
bruise the serpent's head, but his heel was gonna be bruised.
And I'm gonna tell you this, Jesus Christ's heel was bruised
by the Father. Now the serpent might have tried
to claim credit for it, but everything that happened to our Lord Jesus
Christ at the hands of men, Jew and Gentile, everything happened according
to the determinate counsel and the foreknowledge of God. Peter
preached that. You know why he preached it?
It was prophesied. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. So why did it please God to bruise him? Back up just a
little bit to Isaiah 42. In verse 21, consider this. The Lord is well pleased for
his righteousness' sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. I like that, I like that. No man is above the law. Not
even the Son of God who came as a man. He became a man. No man is above the law. Now,
our Lord, Jesus Christ, was absolutely guilty of no sin. He committed no sin. He couldn't commit sin. I don't care whether you wanna
call it impeccable or peccable. It doesn't matter. He couldn't.
It was not possible but the Lord Jesus Christ sinned. But he was
punished. He was punished. It pleased the
Lord to bruise him, to bruise him. Our Lord subjected himself to
the law. Man was subject to the law. God is the law. But our Lord Jesus Christ subjected
himself to the law, and he alone kept it perfectly. But we see, let me go from here,
to Philippians chapter two, And verse five. Let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. He was made to be sin for us. And he humbled himself to death,
unto death. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Sin was punished in him. Sin was punished in him. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He honored the law. He magnified the law. The very
Son of God took upon himself our sin. He was made to be sin. Who knew no sin, committed no
sin, never even thought of sin. But it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He was punished for our sin,
for the sins of his people. Let me get back to where I was. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. He shall bear their iniquities. He did this willingly and lovingly,
and willingly and lovingly, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And he was raised again the third
day, according to the scriptures. The Lord Father, the father, raised again his well-beloved
son from the dead. Why? Because death couldn't hold
him. Death couldn't hold him. It wasn't
possible that death should hold him. Okay, we're chosen in him from
before the foundation of the world. we see that Jesus Christ
pleased God in every aspect of his life, in every aspect of
his work, in every aspect of his deeds, in every aspect of
his thought on this earth. So where does that put us? Galatians
chapter one. Galatians chapter one, verse
15. 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, immediately
I conferred not with flesh and blood. Salvation, the salvation
of a sinner, a man who was on his road to Damascus to go kill
people who believed Jesus Christ, or to put him in jail at least.
Salvation by grace through faith, the gift of God, the bringing
in of Saul of Tarsus to become the Apostle Paul. And sending
Paul to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ pleased God. It pleased God to save this sinner
right here. And Paul himself tells us he's
a pattern. You understand? The way God saved
the Apostle Paul is the way God saves every sinner. By grace,
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of
God. And it happens when, when, when it pleases God. Not when
it pleases you, not when it pleases me. Not when it pleases any preacher. When it please God. He'll reveal
his son in you. He'll call you by his grace.
Mm, I like that. What about preaching? Ooh, that
pleased God too. First Corinthians one and verse
21. 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 belief. Isn't that
amazing? Why do we preach? It pleased
God. It pleased God. Wait, wait, wait
a minute. Man won't come. Actually, we
said man doesn't seek after God. Paul wrote that too. None that
seeketh after God. Now he's quoting Psalms, of course,
but there's none that seeketh after God. None. So why do we
preach? It please God. It please God. Because we preach. And here's
the hard part. We wait. That's all we can do. We wait. We preach and we wait. You all witness. You witness
the people you know. And then what? You wait. Sometimes
you don't have long to wait. Sometimes they'll run away from
you as soon as you open your mouth. It doesn't matter. We preach. We preach. What are we waiting for? We preach
and we wait for God to work. That's all we can do. We wait
for him to send forth his voice to dead alien sinners. And they
that hear shall live. That's what it says in John five. The reason we wait and what we
wait on is one thing. Scripture puts it this way. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. God's people will be willing,
but only in the day of God's power. Those he's chosen from
before the foundation of the world in his son, are going to
be brought in by his son to himself and be perfectly acceptable to
God. Why? Because it pleased God to do
it this way. We preach all we can, but the
only ones that answer, the only ones that hear, the only ones
that respond are the ones that when it pleased God and he called
me by his grace. So where are we now? Once you
believe. Where are believers, believers
now, where are they now? First Corinthians 12, verse 18. But now hath God set the members,
every one of them, in the body. as it hath pleased him. How about that? Where are you? You're right where
God put you. You're right where God sent you. It pleased God for you to be
here today. Isn't that amazing? Where two or three are gathered,
our Lord Jesus Christ is in our midst. but it pleased God to have you
sitting here today. The amazing thing, I mean, God,
for me to be standing here. I'll be more pleased when Walter
stands up here. And I can sit down over there and listen. But
it pleased God. You've been set, you are being
set, he may move you somewhere else. That's up to him. He sets
them in the body, As pleased as him. Foot, hand, eye, nose,
mouth. The metaphor of this body is
scriptural. We're talking about the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the head. But we're the body. And we're
in the body where it pleased God to put us. That means believer, evangelist,
pastor, teacher, deacon, all. are where God has been pleased
to send them or to put them. Isn't that amazing? He put it in you, both to will
and to do of His good pleasure. I like that. So what about the end that was
declared from the beginning? Going back to Ephesians one again
for just a moment. Verse nine. Ephesians one, verse
nine. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. What is the completion of our
salvation? Now, I am confident of this very
thing. Now my confidence don't count
for anything, but I'm confident in him. He that has begun a good
work in you shall perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. That's what this is talking about. He's going to gather all things
in one. In his son, in his son, in his
son. That's the fulfillment of God's
plan of salvation. Everyone and everything he has
chosen gathered and together in Jesus Christ, the one in whom
he is well pleased. Because salvation, from beginning
to end, is according to his good pleasure. After the counsel of
his own will. And his own purpose. What'd he say? I've purposed
it. I'll bring it to pass. I've spoken it. I've spoken. I'll do it. I'll do it. If he says he's gonna gather
together in one all things in Christ, according to the Holy
Spirit, leading the Apostle Paul to write this down, he's gonna
gather all things together in Christ. Why? because it pleased God. And it pleases God. And it shall
please God. I like that. Salvation, from
beginning to end, depends upon the pleasure of God. None of it, thank God, depends
upon me. None of it. I am kept, and you
are kept, by the power of God through faith. What? To the end of this salvation.
What? He's promised it. You read that
part again this morning. There's that other part I read,
I didn't read. Where he talks about brothers,
brethren, we're not all gonna sleep, but we're all gonna be
changed. In the moment, in the twinkling
of an eye. The dead in Christ are gonna
rise first. but then we which are alive and
remain shall also be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of
an eye. But he's a thing. We're gonna rise up, and then
he says this one statement that just blows my mind and makes
me love the pleasure of God even more. So shall we ever be with
the Lord. God's gonna gather everything
together in His Son. Why? Because it pleased God.
It pleased God. Revelations 4 and 11 says this. Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive
glory and honor and power. For thou hast created all things,
what? And for thy pleasure, They are
and were created. It pleased God to make you his
people. Now here's the question. Are you pleased that his will
is done? You understand, I want my will
half the time. and I'm wrong most of the time. But in the back of my mind always,
I try to keep it there and sometimes I'm glad it's there even when
I'm not trying to keep it there, that it's not my will but thine
be done. That's what I want. That's what
I really, really want. I may not act like it sometimes.
I may not remember it sometimes. But when I'm in my right mind,
That's what I want. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for all that you've done for us, for all that you've given
us in your son, and for all your son did for us. Be with Walter this morning as
he comes to preach your word. Give him what we need to hear,
the message we need from your thoughts, while asking Christ's
name and praise you because of him. Amen.