to sing praises to our King,
it can resolve a lot of problems. That's one of the reasons why
Paul says rejoice in everything. And again, I say
rejoice. But it's not easy. If it were
easy, we'd be doing it all the time. If it were easy, we wouldn't
even... I have this hymnal. If it were
easy, we wouldn't even need to be assembled. We wouldn't need each other.
We wouldn't have any problems. We wouldn't have anything to
learn. Sometimes as we go through life,
we get bent out of shape. I know most of you probably don't,
but I do. I get bent out of shape, and
I'm not talking about physically with an ailment or an injury.
I'm talking about emotionally, mentally, and spiritually bent
out of shape. Now, if you can imagine that,
You ever been to a restaurant and went to use a fork that the
tines had all been jacked up? It doesn't really work. Neither
does our life. Neither do our hearts. Neither
is our joy when we are bent out of shape. And beloved, we could
get into the weeds of depravity and all the philosophy therein
and the theological inferences and all that kind of stuff. And
we can talk about all sorts of things about what it means to
be sinners. But we know ultimately that we are sinners. and that
the only hope that we have is the mercy, kindness, love, grace
of God for us as people. And not only is it the empowerment
of our salvation, the power of God unto life, but it is our
joy. God and his power, he is our
joy. The good report is our joy. And
some of us, we labor. We labor in everything. We work
hard in everything. And we think that in order to
succeed in spiritual matters, we must do what we do in earthly
matters. We must work hard. But beloved,
working hard in spiritual matters will get us nowhere. Resting
in the finished, hard, difficult, impossible task of Jesus Christ
is where our hope is going to be found. So we do, we get bent
out of shape. And what does it look like for
us? We worry. We wish. Things could be different. We
want what we don't have, different outcomes. But sometimes for me,
I feel like, you know, I wish somebody would come along and
take control of this situation. Have you ever thought that? I
wish something would be done. And see, we speak into the ether.
We ambiguously have this idea, which is the answer to all the
problems, but yet there is no answer. It's just this ambiguous,
ethereal, hope, magic wish. Somebody needs to do something
about this. Well, who? And then we can blame somebody
for things, and we don't ever want to blame ourselves, and
then we can blame ourselves. But sometimes we just really
wish somebody would take control of these circumstances and these
issues and these people, you know? Have you ever seen that
new phrase, I stay inside because it's too peoply out there? I
can relate to that. You know, I unwind and recharge
by being alone. I don't recharge en masse. I don't do it. I don't recharge
with noise and interaction and stimulus. I recharge with just
silence. My brother called me one day
last week, and I happened to answer the phone. It was about
9 o'clock in the morning. I was sitting at my desk, and I hadn't
said a word to anybody all day. And I must have sounded like
a radio broad. He says, man, is that a new phone? That sounds
great. You sound awesome. Is that a microphone you've got
attached? I'm like, no, I'm just talking. I haven't said anything.
So I've had that early resonance. You sound really full. Those are unwinding, recharging
times for me when I haven't had to say anything. because I spend
my entire life talking. I love not to talk. But sometimes
I want people to take control. I want things to be solved. I
want the answer to be done. I want somebody to take the lead
and do the right thing and fix the problems. And ironically,
sometimes I think it's me, right? And sometimes I think it's you.
And sometimes you think it's you and sometimes you think it's
me or anybody else in the world. And beloved, we're all wrong.
We're all wrong. James in his letter says we shouldn't
boast about what we're going to do today, tomorrow, next week.
We should never say, you know what? Me and my buddy are going
to be partners. We're going to go down here and start a business.
We're going to do this. We should say, if the Lord wills, we shall
go do this and this and this. Because guess what? All of our
striving, all of our hard work, all of our expertise, all of
our power, all of our strength, all of our determination, none
of it was going to affect anything in regards of outcomes, solutions,
problem solving, progress, prosperity, except that which God has ordained. That which God permits. That
is why Solomon in his writing that we know as Ecclesiastes
talks about and opines and really whines a little bit about how
prosperous the wicked seem to be. For it is the Lord's purpose
to do what he does and what would seem like a blessing, which is
actually a curse to store up wrath against them. But for us,
beloved, sometimes the blessing of failure, sometimes the blessing
of pain, sometimes the blessing and the blessed gift of suffering
and relationship destruction and death and health problems
are actually bringing us to a place of ultimate joy so that we aren't
longing for the things that God has not given us, but we rejoice
in the very thing that He has given us and that is Himself. He is our joy. He is. doing all things according to
the counsel of His own will for our good and for the sake of
His name. Scripture reveals the glory of
God in Jesus Christ and in all things we are to walk by faith
in Christ. I want you to hear what I'm saying.
Yes, we're in Timothy. Yes, we're talking about peace, okay? Scripture reveals that we are
to walk by faith in Jesus in all things, knowing that even
in our minds, if our minds rather, And if our hands and our hearts
are chained or broken or bent out of shape, we are free and
we are holy and we are fully set apart and perfect before
our Father, because Christ has done that work. Now why do I make such an obvious
statement? Because that is one of the purposes
of preaching, is that we are reminded of the glory of Christ
in redemption. We are reminded of all of the
things He has done and accomplished for us. We are reminded that
in the midst of our desire to make things better and to work
things out for our good, we sometimes forget that He alone is the one
working all things out for our good. Or as Romans 8, 28, toward
the end, is that just a cliche? What's a grand expression of
a closing argument moving into some practical instructions about
God's sovereignty? As we get into Romans 9, for
those of us that know the letter, we know what Romans 9 opens with. Basically is God saying, I do
what I want with what I want, with whom I want, when I want,
how I want, period. What is the word for that? The
word for that is sovereignty. The word for that is sovereignty. And then after Paul teaches sovereignty
in Romans 9 and 10, he begins to segue into some practical
theology and understanding now because God is all this, and
because God has done all this, and because we all are His, therefore
the Bible then is clear on how we're supposed to approach life.
In what way? Every way. Every way that we
could consider existence on this rock called Earth, we are to
look at scripture and the gospel as a centerpiece out from which
everything that we are to be doing flows. And even if the Bible doesn't
teach us, of course it doesn't teach us, you know, calculations
or budgeting. It teaches the centerpiece of
these things. What is the centerpiece of budgeting? Christ. The gospel. Who is Jesus? He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. He is the Holy One set apart, sent from God.
That's what Christ means, Messiah, by the way. He is the one who
owns all things. So all wealth is due Him. All
things are created. He created the very thing that
we consider wealth, that He is going to destroy the end of all
things because the only thing with all value is He, Him alone. He is the one with all value.
So these things are just shadows. When we're talking about budgeting,
then we think, okay, for the sake of Christ, I am a steward
of that which God has made. What am I doing with it? The Bible's clear. In every area
of existence on this planet, we are to look at the scripture
as it reveals what? As it reveals ultimately and
to the center of all its revelation, the glory of God in Christ. that
He is in all things, above all things, beyond all things, preeminent
of all things, He created all things, you know, all these words
and phrases that Paul and Peter and others like to use in their
writing. And we are to walk then by faith in Jesus Christ and
we are not to ignore it. At the core of biblical teaching
to the church is Jesus Himself and really there's nothing more.
Because there is nothing more, the instructions are not burdensome,
as John would say, remember? Because of Christ and we being
found in Him, these commandments are not burdensome. Now I'm just
going to go ahead and say, there are some people who have not
been taught of God who don't think they have to listen to
the instructions of the apostles in practical matters. That's
nonsense. But there is also a false gospel that says, you know that
you are a child of God, before God because you are growing in
some sense of practical righteousness. And we don't want your assurance,
and we preached about that last week, right? We don't want your
peace and your assurance to be in you. As many brothers have said through
the years, I was probably in middle school when I first heard
this navel gazing, introspection, looking inside of ourselves to
see if we really are children of God. Well, The gospel testimony
of a truly converted person doesn't begin with I. It begins with
Christ. And I'm just saying that there
are exceptions. I have been saved by Christ this
way. I mean, you know, let's don't
be so literal that we chop off each other's ears. So Jesus himself. The instructions
are not burdensome because he has carried the weight of their
failures. He's carried the weight of their purposes. What is the
purpose of the instruction of Scripture? To show us the perfection
of Christ who is the fulfillment of the law, fulfillment of all
things required of Him. He didn't become righteous. He
is the righteousness of God. All the shadows of the law point
to him. He is the fulfillment. He's like, ta-da! All that you
have been looking at and trying to accomplish is me. Now I will
accomplish it for you. See, that's what he says to his
people. That's the good report. I will accomplish life for you.
I will accomplish obedience for you because I am the righteousness
of God. I am God in righteous form in
the flesh. See, this is Jesus speaking,
not me. That would be a sound bite to get me in trouble. So
the instructions are not burdensome because he carried the weight
of their failures. He also is our joy. Jesus is our hope. Jesus
is our peace. And as the scripture says, we've
already referred to Romans 8, nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing
can. But what happens? We get up, we see the world,
we see our lives, we feel the pressure. We have all of these
sinful thoughts. Let me remind us again, and I've
said this a lot in the last year. The Spirit of God does not give
us a spirit of fear. The Spirit of God does not give
us a spirit of suspicion. The Spirit of God does not give
us a spirit of disbelief. Hear that. So that anytime our
flesh feels those things, it is always of Satan. Now, did I call anyone in here
Satan? I probably have thought it. No,
I'm just teasing. Just these people in the front
row there, those two chairs. No, did I call anybody demonic?
No. We are tempted by the demonic. Why? Because our flesh loves
to feed on itself, on its food. Suspicion, frustration, Fear,
animosity, malice, all of it, 100% of the time, since the very
first couple ever walked the face of the earth in the presence
of God and His righteousness, all of those things come from
the enemy. And so when we express them in
ways of thinking we are working in the context of faith, we lie
and we do not practice the truth, you see. What is our hope? As Paul says,
who's gonna save me from this body of death? Christ. Christ
has saved us from this body of death. And so we gather as we're
instructed for our joy, not that we would please ourselves, but
that we would be reminded and encouraged to love one another
and to serve Christ through service to one another. No matter how
upset you might be with someone, nor if you find out they may
not even be converted, you still are commanded to serve them. When Lucifer thought in his heart
he should share the glory of God, God threw him with a multitude
of the heavenly host out of heaven. And then he put that same idea
in the heart of the first couple. God knows that if you eat of
this fruit, you will be like him. And beloved, it's still
the same thing today. People think that they ought
to act like Christ and treat people as Christ treated the
Pharisees and treat people as Christ and speak to people as
Christ spoke to the false teachers. Yet Christ is God and he is right
in his assessment. And then Christ commands us to
shut our mouths, turn the other cheek and to work with our hands
and stay busy about our own affairs because we're not Him. So to
do the other is to say, is to claim divine essence. You see? That's what it is, and it's rampant. It's rampant in our own hearts.
We do that to ourselves. We do that to one another. We
do that to the world. It's easy for us to look across
the street and go, hmm, look at them over there. No, look
at you. Look at me. How about this? Look at Christ. See the difference? Because we can get wound up in
this instruction. Why is this important? Because,
beloved, if we don't know where our peace rests, we're going
to have a hard time with Paul's letters to Timothy. Because there's
a lot of stuff in there that's going to empower our flesh to
think it's divine. It's a lot of stuff in there
that if we're not careful, if we're not floating, if we're
not walking, imagine the letter to Timothy as this terrain and
the peace of God is the carpet on which we ride. I know that
might be paganistic about flying carpets, but imagine that. If
we're not resting on the peace of Christ as we traverse the
terrain of Paul's writing here, we are going to put our foot
on the ground and claim victory in our own rights. and our own
power over certain things. Or worse, we're going to make
wrong judgments concerning our interpretation of what Paul's
instructing the elders of the church to do, thinking we have
the authority to do so and thus become idiots and wonder why
our life is falling apart. Because I'm a giraffe and I want
to be a giraffe. That's why I'm stretching my
neck. And then I'm paralyzed. That's my fault. We must have the peace of Christ
as the resting place as we study the Bible, the gospel, Jesus
himself. Because nothing can separate
us from him. Yet what we do is we dispose
of that joy and we dispose of that peace ourselves when we're
at odds with others when we're at odds with ourselves, when
we're ignoring the promises of God through the assembly who
tells us that only supernaturally God will restore our joy when
we're together. That's nothing to do with what
we offer, nothing to do with the ambiance, nothing to do with
the music, nothing to do with the style of preaching or the
ability of one to be an orator or not. It has nothing to do
with the comfort level in here. Whether it's clean, dirty or
whatever, whether it's wet or dry or anything, it has everything
to do with God promising something extremely personal to his people
through the simple discipline of just being together under
his word. And when we stomp our feet and
make our own demands of God, we're only hurting ourselves. And when we scuff our knees,
our whole body hurts, right? We dispose of our joy when we
are not doing what God has called us to do in the remembrance of
him. And most importantly, what we can talk about this morning
is sovereignty. So biblical preaching, biblical teaching for the saints
is to be done by the elders of the church. No one else. No one else has
the authority to look after the lives of other people, you know,
to instruct them in things. But yet that's what we think
we do sometimes. We can remind one another of what the scriptures
teach, but the elders are looking after the flock. So biblical teaching and preaching
is to remind the church of whose we are. Whose are you? You don't belong to yourself.
I don't belong to me. I belong to you. Why? Because I belong to Christ and
we are Christ's. You see how the only way to wiggle out of
that responsibility is if you have a divine gift. The divine
essence of being Christ himself, or maybe a little Christ or a
sub God to know the hearts of men, to know the truth of God's
electing grace. And to dare stand before God
and men and say who is not in the faith? And who is not in
God's plan of redemption? And who and who is not given
to Christ? Wow. That's beyond hubris. That's insanity. It is psychotic
at the demonic level. What's this got to do with anything?
This is what our flesh is. This is what our flesh does.
It's what all of us, everyone here, in the sound of my voice,
can identify with what I'm talking about because we are in that
way. Often, if it's not our people
in our house, or the people in the congregation, or the people
in our neighborhood, or the people at work, or the people on TV,
or the politicians in the White House, or the guy down the street
that we don't know, or the dog that might belong to the neighbor,
it's somebody. Almost almost 100 percent of
the expressions of Christianity on social media are negative,
non-biblical assertions and distinctions that are not taught in scripture. Almost 100 percent. It's not a proclamation of what
the scripture teaches, it's an ideology of what man has decided
it teaches. And the flesh decides to get
all excited about that. And we know what's wrong, and
we know what's not right, and we know what's in error, and
we know what is not good living, and we know who we're doing what
shouldn't be done. But beloved, that's not what
it means to know Christ. If you want to know, if you know
the truth, you will know the error when you see it. $10,000 a day since this country was
founded would not make a billion dollars. It's 800 and something thousand,
800 something million. And that doesn't even touch the
amount of errors that are in the world concerning Christ. So you can learn 10,000 errors
a day since this country was founded and you wouldn't have
a billion errors and you wouldn't even be scratching the surface.
But guess what you wouldn't have even if you had a billionaires?
A dollar's worth of truth. You don't get to the truth except
what is revealed by God and His sovereignty. God has sovereignly
expressed Himself to His people in a supernatural way through
the writing of Scripture. And where the Scripture teaches,
we follow. biblical preaching and teaching
is to remind the church of whose we are and who He is so that
we too can know the joy together of His power and His hope filled
promises. Now this isn't, this is review
beloved. We've been talking about this for a long time. So the
church assembles under the teaching of the scripture so that we can
read Paul's letters to Timothy and to others, to the Hebrew
people, John's letters, John's gospel, the synoptic gospels,
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and all these other things, and we
can read all these letters who were written to a people who
the apostles were so confident of their regeneration that they
refused to call them anything but beloved children. And if
Paul and the apostles were alive today, they would rebuke the
dog mess. You know what that means in the
South? I don't either. But if there was dog mess, he'd
rebuke the dog mess out of us. Is that a mess the dog makes
or is that the mess that plops out of the dog? We don't know.
We don't care. It's just a mess. He would rebuke us so hard. for
our unbiblical narratives, our unbiblical stances, and our wickedness
in refusing to hear the simple instructions of the practical
theology taught by the apostles. Because all these things defame
the truth of what Christ reveals in His scripture. And we come together to learn
and to be reminded of these things. Why? To the praise of who He
is. to praise Him for who He is,
to the praise of His glory. The word glory means who He is. Who He is. So we assemble in order to praise
Him for Himself, for His glory. And then we are to assemble to
be prepared through the reminder of who He is and whose we are
to serve Him, to love Him. How do we do that? Well, I do
love Jesus. Really? How did you love Jesus
today? At the minimum, you prayed for
someone else that wasn't you. That's how you love Jesus today. The minimum, you serve someone
who wasn't you. That's how you serve Jesus today. If you don't love him and don't
serve him, is he going to throw you into the lake of fire? No.
Beloved, your joy is never going to be complete. You're always
going to be looking for an extra layer of piety that's not found
in Scripture, whether it be doctrinal or philosophical or academic
or lifestyle. Remember last week I said something
about the Puritans? Man, they depress me. There's a few that
I can read and go, wow, this is good. I really am just resting
in the promises. But most of them are like, good
gracious. Who is saved? Jesus died for Himself and He
didn't need to. Wow! So we worship Him. We love Him
by loving each other because of Him. We serve Christ by serving
each other, but we are not Christ. And we're not called by Him to
be His soldiers. We're called to be His lambs.
We're called to be sheep. We're called to be those who
need to be taken care of by His Spirit, need to be carried by
His power, need to be encouraged by His grace. We're not to be
strong in ourselves. We're not to stand bold in our
own abilities. We're never to be in the flesh
whatsoever. We are to be, at all times, by
faith in the Spirit. Because when we're not, we lose
our joy. We lose our peace. We are to be taken care of by
His Word. The washing of regeneration by the Word. You see that imagery
that Paul writes? He keeps us and he washes us
and he carries us all the way home. What is that? That's grace.
That's sovereign grace. And it's free. There's nothing
we can do to earn it. There's nothing that we can do to keep
it. There's nothing that we can do to cause him to give it to
us. There is nothing. Grace is free. And grace is sovereign
because God is. Sovereign. But I don't know where I'm supposed
to stop today. This type of teaching is bad for somebody like me because
I have 70-something verses picked out here. And I was reviewing
them this morning very early and I realized I had triplicated
some of them in some points. So I knocked it down a few. So I don't know where I'm going
to stop. And I'm really preaching for my own good this last four
weeks. Because my joy has been gone.
My flesh has ruined my joy. I've been sick. We've got turmoil. Family's been sick. Y'all have
been sick. Y'all have had turmoil. The economy's in the mess. The
weather's not nice. Got dirt in my pool. I mean,
you know what I'm saying? What else could go wrong? Flat tire?
Let's just go out there and just take a hammer and bust them all.
I mean, don't you feel like that sometimes? And so we look at
all these little things and instead of thanking God for the good,
the bad, the ugly, we whine and cry and get upset and then we
take it out on those people close to us. The straw that breaks
the camel's back is the most abused thing in the world. But
it's rarely anything that would ever bother us. It's all the
other straws underneath that one that's caused the breakage.
But oh boy, to be the one in the limelight. It's not a good thing. So I'm
preaching for my own good. Why? Because the word of God
must inform me and remind me of whose I am so that I can carry
you and remind you of whose you are. And the beauty of it is
I don't have to be in a place of joy in order for God to carry
you to the place of joy through the preaching of the word from
my mouth. I'm just a slave anyway. And there's something supernatural
happens when I have this responsibility that He will allow me to teach,
and then I may go home and go to sleep for 14 hours because
I don't want to face the world. So who's my joy? And I have no other message for
you this morning, beloved, or yesterday, or the day before,
or the year before, except Christ and Him crucified, His word to
you. But it's not just the theologies of Christ, concerning Christ.
It's the Word, verse by verse, word by word, sentence by sentence,
expression by expression, the syntax of whatever language,
whatever scepter language we're reading the Bible in. That is
our job, is to preach Christ fully. The full counsel of Christ
is the full counsel of His Word. And the New Testament is written
to the church, that we may understand the promises of the prophecy.
Then we may understand why Joseph, why Cain, why Pharaoh, why Noah. Because God is sovereign. We have to remember that Tippins
is not wise. And the minute I believe I'm
wise, I'm actually stupid. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm not making this stuff up.
So the more wise we become, we realize the more stupid we are.
And the only true wisdom is Christ. The only righteousness is Christ. So I'm not wise, but here's a
newsflash, neither are you. None of us are wise. Christ is
our wisdom. And I can't trust in any of you, and you can't
really trust in me, but we can trust in Christ. Why? Because
I'm not sovereign. Christ is sovereign. Trust in
Christ, He is God, and God is sovereign. And what is sovereign?
Sovereignty is expressed in kingdom power and authority. And we've
talked about this before, but when we look at sovereignty in
the context of the world, there's no one higher. The word God means
the highest of all things. That's what God means, it's not
His name. It's what he is, the highest of all things. And so
when we know that he is the highest of all things, then we have to
say, okay, then who is higher than he? And the answer is no
one, so he is sovereign. A king that needs to put his
subjects to war to keep his kingdom is not sovereign. He's a sissy and a coward. You see? So even the sovereigns
of this world are cowards, weaklings. But God is not. And the scripture tells us, the
psalmist tells us in Psalm 115, our God is in the heavens and
He does all that He pleases. Now that's enough, right? He
does all that he pleases. But yet we still have in our
own right a caricature of what pleases God. How do we know what
pleases God and His sovereignty? By what He's revealed through
His Word. In context. In Romans 9, we see Paul writing
and he asks questions. He says, what will you say then?
Why does he find fault? If he's sovereign, he's done
me this way. Who can resist his will? Then he says, but who are you,
O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its
maker, why have you made me like this? See, God is absolutely sovereign
in everything. Beloved, that is the only way
we will know our peace. And I told you this morning,
or last week, that I was going to talk about relationships today.
But, beloved, I think that's what I'm going to do. I think
that's what this is. When I talk about God's sovereignty and that
our peace is subject only to the sovereignty of God. Let me
put it that different way. The sovereignty of God alone
will create our peace. That includes our relationships.
That includes our jobs. That includes our calamities.
That includes everything. So instead of continuing the
series, you know, for 30 more weeks, piece, piece, piece, it's
an exhaustive thing. It's never going to end. So today
it'll end and we'll move on into the meats and the structure of
Paul's writing to Timothy. But for today, we need to know
that God is absolutely sovereign in all things, and that includes
our relationships. Between what relationship? Our
relationship with Him and our relationship with each other.
We are reconciled to Him by His work and then we can seek peace
by resting in His work with one another and not taking the things
upon ourselves as to how we're going to resolve issues, but
God has done it in His sovereignty. So how is God sovereign in His
reconciliation of our relationships with Him? And the answer to that
is election. election. God has, in His will,
in His own desire, eternally purposed to save a people for
Himself that He has foreknown eternally. Before there was anything,
He has loved us. Psalm 65 verse 4 says, blessed
is the one you choose and bring near. Now listen to those words.
Blessed is the one that you choose, O Lord, and bring near to dwell
in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple. And now I want
us to go over, of course we're talking about peace in the context
of Paul's writing to Timothy, but go to Ephesians chapter 1. And I would say out of John 1
and John 3 and John 6 and John 10 and John others, that this
text is probably one that's often brought up. Why? Because it is
a constitution for the people of God assembled. Ephesians establishes
not only the doctrine, the teaching of Christ and redemption and
the reconciliation of God, but it establishes many theological
truths concerning the Lord, concerning His sovereignty, concerning His
purposes, concerning His will, concerning His desires, and all
these things that He doesn't really reveal in detail, but
He just expresses them in this way so that we may know who He
is. In chapter 1 of Ephesians, starting in verse 3, well, let's
just read the whole thing there, starting in verse 1. It says,
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Remember?
How did Paul become an apostle? He wasn't mama called and daddy
sent. Christ met him and he had no choice. A pastor that has
a choice should leave the ministry. Who's he writing to? To the saints
that are in Ephesus. To all of the believers who were together
in Ephesus under one Christ, under one gospel, under one label.
Were they all meeting in the same place every Sunday? No. It wasn't that. We didn't start
building cathedrals for a long time. A couple hundred years. But to the saints who are in
Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, and then he
grants these things in chapter, in verse two, grace to you and
peace from God, our Father, and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.
So see, this is important because it is the platform on which we
stand before the Father in peace by grace. Verse 3, down through
verse 6. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with
every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose
us in Himself before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy, set apart, sanctified, and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for
adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the
purpose of His will. to the praise of His glorious
grace with which He has blessed us and the beloved." So I've
already preached that entire text this morning in points. And it's just the way I think,
I say things and then I prove that what I'm saying is biblical.
I just think better that way. Because when I read that text
and 500 other things come to mind. So if I focus on the text,
talk about it, then read the text to prove it, I show you. God is sovereign. And He's created
His, He's revealed Himself through the creation of His Word, which
is also eternal. But He wrote it down so that
we may know Him in His sovereignty. And what has God done? It says
there, by the counsel of His own will. Why? To the praise
of Himself. What has He done? He's elected
us. He's called us to Himself. He's brought us into His presence.
He's given us all the goodness that is everything that He is
in Christ Jesus. You know what that means? It's
not the stuff that comes from Christ. It is Christ. I'm going
to say that again. All the spiritual blessings are
not the things that come from Christ. All the spiritual blessings
are to be given to Christ. Christ. is yours and you are
His. Faith is settled in that proclamation. Faith that is granted by God
doesn't go, now what do I have to do to get it? What do I have
to do to keep it? What do I have to be? Faith that
is settled goes, Skip on down to chapter 1, verse
11. Look at verse 11 and 12. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance. Now see, we were in Hebrews a
little bit last week. We saw that in order for inheritance
to be given, there has to be death. In order for forgiveness
to be given, there has to be death. In order for us to be
adopted or to receive what is guaranteed to us, there has to
be death. And the only way that you cannot get what you inherit
is if you just leave it. But guess what? It's still your
property. Your parents pass and give you
a house. It's your legal responsibility.
And when the taxes aren't paid, they're calling you. Well, I
just didn't accept that inheritance. Too bad. You're paying the taxes. You see? What I call property rent, or
actually, Trey actually coined that. It's what it is. You can't get away from it. You
can sell it. You can't sell God's grace. You can't get away from
the inheritance of Christ. You cannot escape it. It's life. We pretend inheritance, having
been predestined according to the purpose of Him. Whose purpose? Our purpose? No.
God's purpose. What does He do? He works all
things according to the counsel of His will. Beloved, God is
sovereign in all things, and most importantly, He reveals
Himself as sovereign in salvation, sovereign in redemption. He's
purchased the people, He's adopted them, called them His own, given
them to Christ, crucified Christ, all the stuff that goes along
with redemption, all the things that we learn through the revelation
of Scripture about What Christ has done is ours. Christ is ours. And why did he do this? So that we who were the first
to hope. When you have hope, you have
peace. We who were the first to hope in Christ. Might be to
the praise of who he is. His glory. And I mean, we could
just go on and on and on, but like I say, 68 more to go. 63
more to go. God elects after the counsel
of his own will. I mean, Jesus speaking in Matthew chapter 11
says, I thank you, Father, the Lord of heaven, the Lord of earth,
that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding
and revealed them to little children, for they are yours. Matthew 22, 14, it reads, For
many are called, but few are chosen. Jesus says in John 6,
37, For all that the Father gives me will come to me, will know
me, will believe me, will rest in me. And whoever comes to me,
I will never cast out. John 13, 18, I'm not speaking
of all of you. I know whom I have chosen. But
the Scriptures will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted
his heel against me. So we understand election comes with an antithesis,
doesn't it? It's taught in Scripture. And
that's reprobation. And only God knows who are the
reprobate except for the few, few exceptions that are listed
in Scripture. Few exceptions. But God elects his own to life
and he chooses others to death. Jesus prays in John 17 starting
in verse 6 there. He says, I've manifested your
name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they
were and you gave them to me and they have kept your word.
What does that mean? They've believed in me. We've
gone through that. Now they know that everything
that you have given me is from you, for I've given them the
words that you gave me and they have received them and have come
to know in truth that I came from you and they have believed
that you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not
praying for all of the world, but for those who have given
me. For they are yours. All mine are yours, and all yours
are mine, and I am glorified, and I am revealed in them. I
am who I am in them. Quit having the cultural Christian
vocabulary. Glory, glory, glory. I am who
I am in them. I'm revealed in them. I'm seen
in them. How? Because the work is finished. God's election for His people
is finished. The work is finished. The redemption
is finished. We're not yet glorified. Okay. But we're still finished. There's no more sacrifice for
sin. There's no more death to be had. There's no more, there's
nothing else for Jesus to accomplish. And He's not in time. He's not
sitting there with a timer on the wall going, oh my goodness,
are we there yet? I mean, you know, this is not God. God is,
He is. We're the ones waiting. And it's not just the teaching
of Jesus and the teaching of Jesus through the synoptics and
the gospels. The teaching of the apostles
and the acts of the apostles. The scripture says that they
went attending the temple together, breaking bread in their homes.
They received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising
God and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to
their number daily who were being saved. Paul and Barnabas in Acts chapter
13 say these words, it was necessary, it was necessary that the word
of God be spoken first to you since you thrust it aside and
judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Who's he talking
to? The Gentiles. That's why Romans was written. How are we
able to believe this? We're not Jews, we're not worthy.
You got that right. Paul and Barnabas. You've thrust
it aside and you've judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life. Look
and see, Paul says, we are turning to the Gentiles. For the Lord
has commanded us saying, quote, I have made you a light for the
Gentiles that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And
when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying
the word of the Lord. And as many as were appointed
to eternal life believed. So now I need to preach on evangelism,
right? I've already talked about Romans 8 and about God working
all things together for good for those who are called according
to His purpose. What is His purpose? Salvation. To glorify Himself
in being the Savior of a people who cannot save themselves. He
can create light out of darkness and He can create life out of
death. In Romans 9, Paul quotes the
Lord. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I have mercy. And I will have compassion on whom I have
compassion, so that it does not depend upon human will, desire,
mind, or exertion, power, or energy, but it depends upon God
who has mercy. And then he quotes the scripture.
The scripture says of Pharaoh, for this very purpose I have
raised him up, or you up, concerning Pharaoh, that I might show my
power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the
earth. So He has mercy on whoever He wills, and He hardens the
heart of whoever He wills. And I could go on and on. I've
got so much here. But God is sovereign in His election of His people.
Love, don't ever forget that. Because when we take away sovereignty
and salvation, We make salvation an opportunity that depends on
the creature. That's where we get the idea
of. And I don't want to get into the weeds of historical monikers,
but that's where we get the idea of, you know, choosing to be
saved or or, you know. Free will. Salvation. Or decisional salvation, decisional
regeneration, baptismal regeneration, covenant regeneration. All these
silly things that the Bible doesn't teach, that man follows a certain
protocol and poof, he's in the covenant. And that's what we'll all do
until we're taught of Scripture. We'll all gravitate toward these
Galatian heresies, of which all of the writing to the Galatian
churches, there was a lot of people there, a lot of congregations
there. passionately dogmatic about their
conversion. They were the children of God.
And they were being taught to look at something else other
than the promise of God and sovereignty. So therefore they had no peace.
I said to a brother last night concerning Galatia, I said, what
kind of fear must have been instilled in the men of Galatia that they'd
be willing to circumcise themselves? He goes, I never experienced
that kind of fear. Think about it for a second.
This isn't like, wear this, go here, wash this, you know, cut
your hair, don't cut your hair. This is circumcision, adult circumcision. They were scared to death. But they were born of Christ.
And that's why when Paul teaches of the sovereignty of God and
their relationship with him, and that they cannot be lost.
And he shows through the relationships that God had with other people,
like Hagar and Sarah. And though both children were,
what, sons of Abraham, it wasn't Abraham's business to tell God
who his children were. God sovereignly chose The other. God elects. Because God is absolutely
sovereign after his own will, according to his own purpose,
so that as God commands us as his people in Christ Jesus to
rest, he also instructs us to make peace as we are able, according
to the gospel and in no other way. This is because of his purposes,
not ours. See, it's not about our purposes.
Do you know why we call ourselves Grace Truth Church? The full
name is Sovereign Grace Truth. One word, Baptist Church, so
that people know where to stop on their way. Because the laws of the land
require a corporate structure to rent commercial buildings.
Things like that. But who are we really? And that
name could go away, but the people could be the same. Who are we
really? We're the children of God. We
are assembled together as a covenant family. We've made a promise
to one another because of God's promise to us. Just like marriage
is a temporary picture of the church eternal. And marriage
ceases at death, the body of Christ does not. God's purpose is in God's will.
Isaiah 43, God speaks. I love this text. I will say
to the North, give up, and to the South, do not withhold. Bring
my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone
who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom
I formed and I made. The gospel writer, John, in John
1, I mean, we could just go, beloved, I'm telling you, we
could go through every book of the Bible and just flip and go,
oh, here's one, here's one, here's one, and that's what happened.
I was just going through it. He came to His own and His own
people did not receive Him, but to all who did receive Him. who
believed in His name. He gave the right to become the
children of God who were born, not of blood, nor the will of
the flesh, nor the decision of the mind, but who were born of
God. God being rich in mercy, Ephesians
chapter 2, because of the great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our trespasses, what did God do? Made us alive together with Christ.
by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Him
and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches
of His grace in kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. This is God's
doing. God has established peace in
His sovereignty. 2 Timothy, go over to 2 Timothy
real quick. Look at the first, look at verses 8 through 12 there. Paul instructs this young man,
therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord
and do not be ashamed that I'm in prison, but share in suffering
for the good report by the power of God who saved us and who called
us to a holy calling, not because of works, but because of his
own purpose. and because of his own grace
which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the world began and which
is now which now has been manifested the appearing of our Savior the
Christ Jesus who abolished death and brought life and brought
immortality to light through the what? through the report
of his obedience through the report of his work for which
I was appointed a preacher to report of His work, and an apostle,
a messenger, to report of His work, and a teacher to teach
of the report of His work, which is why I suffer as I do. But
I'm not ashamed, listen to this, for I know whom I have believed,
and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day
what has been entrusted to me. Beloved, the Lord, and we've
seen that. We've seen that promise already.
He will guard our hearts and minds in Christ. God will guard his people. He
will guard the good deposit. He will guard his gospel. Not
through minions that he purposes to be heralders or wall watchers. People that go to Nehemiah to
instruct the New Testament church make me sick. The apostles instruct the New
Testament church and tell us what Nehemiah is a picture of.
Christ is the wall. Christ is the watcher. Christ
is salvation. Christ is the army. Christ is
Yahweh saves. Where's Joshua? His body's rotting
in the ground. But he's alive in Christ. And
he doesn't have a sword. There's only one sword coming
from glory and Jesus is the only one carrying it. And what is
that sword? The proclamation of his authority
of himself. And beloved, that is sovereignty.
It's too much. That is peace. And beloved, it
is free. Because of Him, you are in Christ,
1 Corinthians 1.30, who became to us wisdom, I've already said
this and referenced it many times, but He became to us wisdom from
God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it
is written, let the one boast, boast in the Lord. I have been found by those who
did not seek me. I have shown myself to those
who do not ask for me." But God chose what was foolish in the
world to shame the wise and God chose what was weak in the world
to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised
in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing
the things that are so that no human being might boast in the
presence of God. You know one of the worst boasts
in the presence of God is to say, look what God allowed me
be in my knowledge and righteousness, rather than Christ is my knowledge. Christ is my righteousness. Because
beloved, God can take the mind of His people away. I'll testify
to it. Scripture testifies to it. God gives repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins. God knows the heart. And to think differently and
to act differently. I want us to hear this in closing because
it's important. I say this stuff and our feathers
get like a cold breeze running up our backside. To act differently, to expect
a different outcome in opposition to what God's Word has taught
us is antichrist. To make Jesus sovereign in salvation
in all things and to be all things and God to be the author and
the finisher of all things concerning all things, even bad things and
good things. You know, the wicked of the world
are under God's sovereign hand. To think we are going to affect
the change or the outcome of the transformation of these circumstances
is anti-Christ. if we think we're going to do
it in opposition to what's been prescribed according to the teaching
of the scripture. So, ultimately, at the end of
it all, we have peace and we have rest in the gospel. And
we do so with other believers who are continuing to rest in
the assembly, to rest together in the assembly, in the gospel
of Christ, in the gospel of life, in the gospel of glory. Nothing
can change that. So we seek peace and reconciliation
according to Scripture. We could go to Romans 14, 15.
We could go to Ephesians and look and we could see how James
talks about to seek, you know, reconciliation. We could see
Jesus speaking to these things. We can know that God has sovereignly
ordained all things. Beloved, God has even ordained
divorce. God has even ordained death. God has even ordained people
telling you to jump off a cliff. And when these people come into
our lives, we rejoice, we hold fast, we rest, and when people
come out of our lives, we rejoice. We weep. We pray, we strive for
reconciliation, but we do not go outside that which God has
commanded us. Because when we do, we are saying,
you're sovereign in salvation, but not in this. God has purposed those who are
in our lives for a short time, and those who love the gospel,
and those who change their mind and do not listen to the truth,
God has ordained and purposed those in our lives that will
listen to the voice of their shepherd, that we will be friends forever,
some of us. The gospel is our unity according
to the scripture, the sovereignty of God, the free and sovereign
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is our unity according to scripture
and everything else we will work out as God has ordained through
the hearing and the teaching and the learning of His word
together by laying down our lives and not seeking our own ways
and trusting in the Lord, not James Tippens. Do not trust in
me. You will be very, very disappointed. And it happens a lot. People,
people, well, that's a great idea. When are you going to do
it? I'm not doing it. A wish list is not, it's not a roadmap. I'm not doing anything else.
I'm not doing anything else than what I'm doing right now. Nothing.
I'm not adding new ministries. I'm not doing any more teachings.
This is what I do. That's it. See? Oh, you've got some ideas. Get
on it. More power to you. The Lord bless you. I will toot
the horn. Go do it. Look at this, this
is great. And when it stops, when you decide it's over, it's
over, you know. The gospel is for you, not these things, not
these affinities. God's revelation of His work
through Jesus Christ is the news of effect that drives us together. And when something else can drive
us apart, we're not in the faith together. We may be in Christ,
but we're not in the faith together. We're not learning together.
We're refusing what God has established. Because we are able to rest in
the gospel according to the sovereign and free grace of the Lord, we
have peace in all circumstances. And in that, we can rejoice.
And it's not easy, but we do it together. God doesn't need
our meddling. He's not looking for heroes.
He's not looking for people who are bold. People esteem other pastors who
tell it like it is. Jesus never told it like it was.
And if He did, He's God. He's a law unto Himself. He displays what is righteous
and good and perfect because He knows all things and He's
created all things according to His purpose for Himself. So
what God does with what He has made is His business. We don't
get to mimic Christ and our dealings with people, unless it is what? Long-suffering, patience, kindness,
obedience. We are not called to be anything
but humble servants, quiet and peaceful, private, working with
our hands. We can go to Paul's writing to the Thessalonians,
which we've studied here through the years. where the scripture
teaches that the biggest problem in the body of Christ is when
people meddle in other people's affairs. People think accountability
means I get to look at your life and watch it and tell you when
it's wrong. That's none of my business. If I have a relationship
with you, and you with me, and in that relationship we have
the ability and the intimacy to share life together, then
you can inform me of things because you love me. But if you're coming
into my life to try to tell me different, teach me different,
or change me, I don't want you. And I'm telling you right now,
beloved, you don't want those people in your life. But, brothers and sisters, we're all
guilty of being that person. And so how do we speak the truth
in love? You say, that's not your business. You don't have
to know the details to pray. God does not need an explanation
of what's going on that he foreknew. So, just pray for me. And our
relationship will go a lot further if you just love, if we just
love one another for who we are now, rather than thinking that
we're the catalyst to make each other something else. Beloved,
there's a peace in that. I'm gonna tell you right now. And this old boy, is done trying
to change people. Why? Because it's a sin. The
Lord is sovereign in transforming the lives of His people as He
sees fit. Some of us will learn and grow.
Some of us will have faith. And all of us will look at this,
how come we can't have faith like Johnny? Goodness gracious. And then we might even put Johnny,
the head of a class, on how to have faith like me. And then
we'll all be in it. And then we'll all pretend we
have faith like Johnny. But God hasn't promised to grant
us that. So we're running a fool's errand by thinking we can employ
other methods of instructing the church other than the teaching
of the scripture together in the assembly and then living
out and reminding each other and encouraging one another as
we teach the scripture in our relationships together. You can't
contrive intimacy. You can't make it. You can't
make intimacy happen in a marriage. If it's not there, it's not there. And there's nothing worse than
being told, you must love me or else. Beloved, that isn't
how God has saved us. God's word says, you hate me and I'm going to lay my life
down for you anyway. And there's nothing you can do
to stop me. And then I'm going to show you what I've done and
show you who I am by my spirit. And then you're going to love
me because I've loved you. And then your peace is going
to surpass all understanding. Beloved, that is where we rest.
That is where we sit. That is where we must stay every
day of our lives. And I will tell you right now,
please pray for one another. We have a lot of folks sick.
Several families with COVID, several families with anxiety,
several families with physical pain. There's a flu bug going
around, there's a stomach bug, there's an aggravation bug going
around, you know. There's sin, there's worry, there's
doubt, there's economic failure. Everybody is suffering in their
own way, but there's one remedy, and that is to be reminded of
God's sovereignty, even when there is no practical application
of, now what? Just remind us. Remind one another. Share with one another the truth
of that so that we will not forget, because we do forget, we forget,
we forget. When things come along. So take
in the breath of God, take in the word of God and fear not. We are at rest and no one can
change that. So let us learn to live that
way together as a family. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for just
a reminder throughout all of the word and so many different
things that are on my heart and mind, but Lord, for the sake
of what you have purposed, you have accomplished all that you
have deemed necessary for our time this morning. And so Lord, above all things,
would you encourage us in the gospel? We are your people. We are born of your spirit. We
confess the truth of your revealed gospel. And Lord, we submit to
your word. We pray for one another. We pray
for those who have suffered loss. Those who have had death. Father,
those who are ill and inundated with sickness, Father, we pray
you heal them. Lord, we pray for those who are
suffering in their marriages, God, that you would just restore
them, that you would break down pride and hostility and arrogance
and selfishness, and that you would bring marriages to a place
of humility and intimacy. Father, we pray for our children
who don't like to obey, those who have no interest in the faith. Father, we pray for the things
that are happening around us and in our homes and our work
and our jobs. Father, we pray for all sorts
of things and we don't have to tell you the details. Lord, you
know what they are, but Father, what we ask of you is that your
will is done in all of them. What we need and what we think
we want, we share with you, but Father, ultimately help us to
be at rest and your sovereign power in hand. that you will
work out all these things according to your purpose, so that when
your answer is not what we thought, we can thank you for it. Help
us to be people of thanksgiving and praise. Not just when things
are good, but Father, when things are horrible. And we thank you
for your promises. We thank you for the gospel.
Father, I pray that you would humble me more and more and that
our hearts would all be broken for those who do not know the
truth, or Father, for those who are stuck and caught up in anger
and resentment and unbelief, that we may be patient with them
and that we would be guided by your Holy Spirit according to
your word as to when and how we approach others in the context
of our lives together. Not because of what we want,
but because of what you have established. And so Lord, as
we worship and continue to worship this morning, we thank you for
the great privilege and your love for us. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.