I am so thankful to be here. I felt like I needed to come,
not to preach, but to be preached to. And I think these brethren
know what I'm talking about. We need encouragement. We need
to hear the gospel ourselves. We just, we need help, oftentimes. And I'm thankful for Brother Richard, the ministry
the Lord's given him. I'm thankful for Brother Bill
and his ministry in this place and elsewhere. And I'm thankful
for this church that has been my privilege to know for some
time. You've been so supportive and
encouraging and I just love you and thank you for all that you've
done for me and my family. I have to be careful talking,
I'm getting a little weepy in my old age. If you would turn
this morning to the book of Matthew. The book of Matthew, chapter
six. Chapter 6, and I'll begin reading
at verse 7. This has been called the Lord's Prayer. But it's not really the Lord's
Prayer. It's the model prayer that the
Lord gave. It's actually the elect's prayer. It's the people of God. It's
their prayer. Verse 7 says, but when you pray,
use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that
they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto
them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before
you ask him. After this manner, therefore,
pray ye. Our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. thy will be
done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the
kingdom, Thine is the power and Thine is the glory forever. Amen. I often hear in the day even
in which we live, individuals, I hear on the news, leaders,
clerics of all religions, use expressions like this, God
willing, or in God's will. And I hear many religious people
around me in this country use similar terms. Yet, for some reason, their God's
will does not include the Lord Jesus Christ. It's this generic
God, God willing, if the Lord wills. But God's elect find the will
of God in Christ, their comfort, their rest, their consolation,
in all their trials, in all their weakness, and in all their ignorance. They seek and they find this rest and consolation in
the fact that God's will will be done. It really will. And it really will because there
is none that can stop it. None that can stop it. But when
I read here in Matthew 6 in this 7th and 8th verse, he warns and
he instructs his people. He says, but when you pray, Don't
use these vain repetitions, these hollow, empty repetitions as the heathen do. And then he says in verse 8,
be not ye therefore like unto them. Don't be like that. Don't be like this godless, generation
that uses religious terms, but they know nothing about the true
God. And then in verse 10, he says
something that I want us to look at this morning. He says, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. in earth as it is in heaven. What separates us from the fatalists who claim
to believe the same thing? Thy will be done. He says that we're not to be
like these people. We're not to be like the heathen,
the godless, the wicked. We're not to be like them. So
in other words, these people who are God's true people, his
elect, those who are true believers, They must see more in God's will
than the fatalist. Oftentimes at funerals, preachers
of every ilk and color, they'll say, this was the Lord's will.
Is this all? What separates us? You see, we
need to see God's will as it is, and his will in our afflictions
as well as our blessings. Even to see that the afflictions
are sin of God, they in themselves are blessings. And that everything that comes
to pass, is providential, not accidental. There are some things about God's
will that we know to be true if we know anything about the
Bible. The first is that God's will
is eternal. It's not spur of the moment.
It doesn't involve contingency plans. God's will is eternal. God has no new purpose. He doesn't come up with something
on the fly. His will is eternal. Isaiah said, O Lord, thou art
my God. I will exalt thee. will praise
thy name, for thou hast done wonderful things. Thy counsels
of old are faithfulness and truth." His counsel is of old. It's eternal. Ephesians 3 says, according to
the eternal purpose or will which he has purposed or will in Christ
Jesus our Lord. This isn't a Johnny come lately
thing. God's purpose is eternal. Known in Acts 15, known unto
God are all his works from the beginning of the world. He didn't start this world, create
this world and just turn it loose. He has a will and a purpose in
all things. God's will is eternal. And then the second thing about
God's will is God's will is always effectual. It is always accomplished. I'm a Pretty dim-witted fella,
but I know this by God's grace. When I look back and see what's
happened, that's God's will. I don't have to wonder if it
was God's will. If it happened, it was God's
will. The Lord of hosts has sworn,
saying, surely as I have thought so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purpose, so shall it stand. For the Lord of hosts hath purpose,
and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out,
who shall turn it back? It's always effectual. He always brings his will to
pass. And then the third thing is this,
God's will is immutable. Immutable. It never changes. He doesn't ever find a better
plan. He doesn't discover a better way. There's no need for it to
change, it's perfect. God's will is unchangeable. Malachi, he says, for I am the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He doesn't change, can't change
for the better, won't change for the worse. His will is immutable,
unchangeable. Quite honestly, it's quite possible for the fatalists
to acknowledge the same things. They'll say God's will is eternal,
God's will is unchangeable, God's will is always accomplished. But I do believe that God's people,
God's elect, these that he brings to faith in Christ, I believe
that they rest in more than this. Because they have some understanding
of what is involved in God's will. God's will flows out of
his divine knowledge. The Lord knows all things. The Lord knows every heart. The Lord knows every detail. The Lord knows them that are
His. Sometimes when I pray, I may not think that somebody
is one of God's elect. I may not believe that the gospel
is preached in the way it should be in some place or another place. I don't believe that God's glory
is quite well maintained, but I always find myself praying
this, Lord, bless and help and save your people because you
know who they are. I don't. I may not think somebody
is God's elect. They may do a lot of things before
they die. And like that thief that died
on the cross at the right hand of Christ, They may show in the
end that they really were God's elect, that He may save them
in this hour. So I pray that the Lord has this
knowledge, this knowledge of His people. He knows how to deliver
them. He knows them that are His. He knows what they need. He knows
who they are. Even if I don't. In Acts 22, Ananias says to Paul, the God of our fathers has chosen
thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one,
and should hear the voice of his mouth. Did you catch that? The God of our fathers has not
only chosen you, but he's chosen you that you
should know his will. Know his will. And I believe
that to know God's will. Somebody says we can't know God's
will. We don't know God's will. Well,
yes, God's people do. Paul said, I mean Ananias said,
God has chosen you not only to salvation, but he's chosen you
to know his will. So in my understanding, to know
the gospel, to know the true gospel is to know the greater
part of God's will. The mystery that Paul speaks
about so many times is not secret, it's that which has been kept
covered from times past, but he says now is revealed to us,
that you may know the will of God. The will of God is all bound
up in the gospel, and to know the gospel is to know God's will. And God's will is joined with
divine wisdom. Wisdom. Turn over to Ephesians
chapter 1 and listen as Paul describes here to the church
at Ephesus. He talks about these things and
he says, beginning in verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. This is beginning to be the revelation
of God's will. Paul is writing to them and saying
that you know these things, I preach these things to you, and it involves
something that God in mercy and grace has done. He's chosen us
in Christ and blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. according as he hath 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 unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his what? Will. There's so many people who claim
to be saved. For many, many years, haven't
they ever read the book of Ephesians? At least maybe they would have
read the first chapter. This is all according to God's
will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the blood, in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of his will." It's not a secret to believers. It's not a secret to God's believing
people. He's made known to us the mystery
of his will according to his good pleasure, which he had purposed
in himself. He's made known unto us His wisdom
and His wisdom and grace. He's made known unto us His goodness
and His mercy. He's made known unto us His choice
of all His people in Christ and His blessing them with all spiritual
blessings. He's done it and He's revealed
it to us. And He's done it because He willed
it. having made known unto us, revealed
to us his will, his will. And he says it's joined with
divine wisdom. And God's wisdom is accomplished
by divine power. Divine power. Look over in Romans
chapter nine. Uh-oh, we better be careful reading
in Romans nine. When, in my early days, I hung
around a radio station a lot. Even had my license to broadcast
at one time. But I would notice that the DJs,
the commentators, when they didn't know how to pronounce a word,
there would be a sudden, They would invent the radio distraction. The airways would get suddenly
messed up. They'd tap the mic or something.
If they didn't know a word, that's the way it is with preachers
in Romans 9. There's a little bit too much
of God's will in Romans 9. But in Romans 9, look down at
verse 21. He says, speaking of God and
likening him to a potter, what does a potter make? Anything
he wills. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? What if God, willing, I hear people say, my God would
never do that. You're probably right. But God
is willing to do what he wants to do, what he determines to
do. He's willing to do what it takes.
He's not ashamed of his work. He's not ashamed of his will,
and neither should we as his people be so. God, if God, willing
to show his wrath. not only show his wrath against
all the world in his sin, but show his wrath and demonstrate
it when his people are being saved by Christ. He's willing. What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering
the vessels of wrath, fitted? What fitted to them? Well, they
were sinners. They never believed on Christ.
Yeah, but that's not how they were fitted on it. They were
fitted to be this by the will of God, by the purpose of God. fitted to destruction, and that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us, whom he
hath called, not only of the Jews only, but also to the Gentiles."
Well, why did he call them? Why did he make them the vessels
of mercy? Why did he determine to save
them? Because he was willing to, as
well as willing to show his wrath. All these things are true. All
them are true. But here is the real difference. Here is the real rejoicing. Here is the real comfort. And that is that God's will toward
His people is a will of grace. A will of grace in His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to John's gospel. John chapter six. And listen to what Christ says. In other words, the Pharisees They had just pretty much rejected
him. They've not believing that he
is son of God, not believing he's the son of God. He's not,
he's not been believed on by them. They're the, they're the
pride of the land, but he's, they rejected him. But he says this, All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will. Now this is where people misunderstand. Because he's speaking here as
Jehovah's servant. He has submitted himself. He has condescended as Jehovah's
servant to carry out the will of the Father. For I came down
from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the Father's will
which has sent me, that of all that which he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last
day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at the last
day. I came to do a will. I've said this, I'll say it again,
Christ doing the will of the Father is all our salvation. If he's done the Father's will,
what's there left for us to do? You see, the Father's will is
sovereign and free. It's not man's so-called free
will that makes salvation effectual. It's not Christ doing the will
of the Father and making possible something, available
something, making this salvation of the soul something that is
effectual if we'll have an act of our will join to it. This is the Father's will. God
Almighty, absolute sovereign of the land, Whatever he desires,
it says in Job, that's what he does. Somebody said, well, he
wants to save everybody. No, he doesn't want to save everybody. If he did, he would. He doesn't need an act or a demonstration
of man's will, which is a fallen will, bound to a fallen nature. I always likened it to this. You can bet your bottom dollar
I won't go in a restaurant and will to order liver. You just bet on that. I will
not do it. And you know why I won't do it?
Because I don't like liver. I don't want to will it. I don't
like it. I don't like the smell of it.
Especially don't like the smell of it cooking. And so I will
not act contrary to my nature and my desires. And that's why
a sinner whose mind is a carnal mind that's enmity against God,
whose work's oriented by nature, who's polluted by religion in
every age, they will not will to come to God that they might
have life. But the Father's will not only
does not need the help of fallen sinners, it's not influenced
in the least by Satan. It's not influenced in the least
by all his enemies. Everything that takes place And
especially as it took place in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
everything though they took him with wicked hands and slew him,
what was it really caused by? The will of God, the determinant
counsel and foreordination of God. Man desiring to do his will is
much so as if any point of time in history, he in doing his will,
his wicked will, slain the Lord Jesus Christ by wicked hand,
by even them doing their wills, they really did his will. An old preacher said God's will
to justify is our justification and it can't be thwarted. Certainly not by man's so-called
free will. It can't be thwarted because
His power not only rules in everything, it's the Father's will which
cannot be turned back, but it also is that His people, He has
a will to make His people willing in the day of His power. I thought about Brother Scott
Richardson's saying, He says He'll make them willing.
He says He'll save them against your will with your full consent. That's it. This is the Father's
will. This ain't no midget God. This ain't no God of your imagination. This is a God who's God. It's
the Father. It's a sovereign and free will.
And not only that, It's a selective will. Look at verse 37. When those Pharisees rejected
Christ and his gospel, He didn't fall down there weeping, begging
like preachers presenting today. Oh, he's done all he can. He wants to save you. He's done
everything possible. You're breaking his heart. He's
leaning over the banister of heaven, looking down on you,
pleading with you, just as I am, softly and tenderly. Jesus is
calling. Horse feathers. He said, though you won't come,
you're not of my sheep. He says, but all that the Father
giveth me. I don't think there's many people
who understand that at all, that the Father has given a people
to his son. He's given him a bride. He's
given him a kingdom over which he's the king. And all that the Father has given
to Christ entrusted Him with their care. Sending Him to purchase His church
with His blood. Every one of them. All. You want a universal word? That's
a good one for this thing. All. Every one of God's elect. Every one chosen in Christ. Given
to Christ. before the foundation of the
world. He said, they'll come to me. Whenever I run up with a preacher
and he's talking about his notches on his gun, how many souls he's
won, how many people he had in Sunday school, how many converts
he had, how many people he had won to the Lord. And I can't talk in that language. But I know this, I'm preaching
to thee all. You say you don't like this gospel?
I'm sorry, but I ain't got nothing else for you. Will it somehow
diminish my work if you don't believe? No, because I'm sent
for the lost sheep of God's true Israel. This is a message of
grace that gives all the glory to God and salvation. And if
you want a part, God has not dealt with you yet. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. They might not come to my church,
Richard, but they're going to come to Christ. They may not come in the way that this world thinks
they ought to come. They may not come in the way
of religion, but they gonna come to Christ. I think sometimes that bothers
preachers, that they didn't come to them. No, I'm happy if they
come to Christ. They'll find the gospel somewhere.
They're gonna identify with God's people. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise, no wise, no wise cast out. Not only is his will this selective
will, but it's a saving will. It's the whole enchilada of grace. That's why this business of rewards
is so, not only unbiblical, but ignorant. If everybody that is
saved is saved by grace, by grace, that excludes every level of
merit. You're not gonna get a bigger
house than I did. You're not gonna get a, Me, me
sit over here with a private stripe and you look like a third
world gen. Well, that is not gonna be like
that because it's all by grace and it's all in somebody else
outside of us, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 40. And this is
the will of him that sent me that everyone that seeth the
son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. I'm not sure I can explain all
that everlasting life is. I'm almost lost on the first
word, everlasting, eternal, eternal life. But I know this, Christ
said it means to know God. You say, preacher, do you know
God? I believe I do. I know God by the revelation
of his will. When people talk about a trying
God, a hoping God, I know that's not God. A God that desires to
save all, a God that sent his son to die for all, a God that
loves all, I know that that's not God. I know that he's given unto us
eternal life, and this life is in his son. I believe the record. Everlasting life. That's all
there is to know God, perfect righteousness and glory. And
his will is a securing will. Look down at verse 39. And this is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. That won't one
of those sheep entrusted to this shepherd, that won't any of them
be missing, but should raise it up again
at the last day." He's going to raise each one of his people
up in the last day. He's already risen, erased all
of them. and He raised them together with
Him, and He's already seated them in the heavenlies in Him. If the head's in heaven, the
body's sure to follow. You see, you ain't going to heaven
unless you're already there. Is that right? You're not going
to heaven unless you're already there. You say, what do you mean? My going bodily into his presence
depends on one thing, being in him spiritually, being in him
representatively, already seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high, together in Christ, with Christ. You see, that's what Peter's
actually saying there in 2 Peter 3. He said he's long-suffering
to usward, not willing. That's a wonderful thing. He's
not willing that any of his people, this usward, these elect ones
that he starts writing to, he's not willing that any of them
should perish. I may fall. I fall every day. I told Paul this morning, I'm not
so much concerned about what God would have me to do as I
am for Him keeping me from doing what I would do, but apart from
His grace. But I'll persevere. I don't really like that word. I'll be preserved because he's not willing. It
would be a defiance, a changing, an altering of his will if I
perish. He's not willing that any should
perish, but that all of this ushers should come to repentance. everything that happens. Paul
said, and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are called according, or rather called
according to His purpose, according to His will. And I think all of these verses
show us that His will is in His Son. I'd say we're pretty safe, wouldn't
you? His will of grace, His will to save His people, His will
to glorify His name, His will is all bound up in His Son, His
co-equal Son. And so we see even in these verses,
that His will is not only all bound up in His Son in some mystical
way, but in a particular way. I just challenge you to see how
many times in the New Testament it says something about Christ
dying. It is Christ that dies. that suffered as a sacrifice
for the sins of his people, put them every one away, endured
the wrath of God on their behalf, died as their substitute, paid
their debt as their surety. That's why Paul said, I determined
to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Let me show you in Galatians
chapter 1. Galatians 1 and verse 1. The apostle Paul is an apostle
not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ. In other places
he said, I'm an apostle for one reason, the will of God, the
will of God. But look in verse three, grace
be to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord
Jesus Christ. Which Christ is that? Which Jesus is that? This one
right here, who gave himself voluntarily. They didn't take
his life. He laid down his life, and he
laid down his life for the sheep, who gave himself, not some other
kind of sacrifice, but the sacrifice of his unique self. sinless self
who gave himself for our sins in order to do something, to
accomplish something that he might deliver us from this present
evil world according to the will of God and our Father. He came according to the will
of God. He suffered according to the
will of God. died on the cross according to
the will of God, bore all he bore in his own body on the tree
according to the will of God, and it was for one purpose, that he might deliver us from
this present evil world. Now he's already delivered his
people from this present world, from its coming judgment, from
the wrath of God upon it, They're delivered right now. They're
going to be delivered into His presence. This is all the will
of God. All the will of God. You see, He went in the garden
and He, the second time, prayed saying, Oh my Father, if this
cup The cup, the bitter cup, the bitter cup of God's wrath.
The cup that he was to drink, drink damnation dry for his people. That this cup, if this cup may
not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. Thy will be done. In 2 Corinthians 5, we oftentimes find ourselves
debating this thing and that thing, but I think we forget
the first things. For he hath made, he hath willed
it to be, determined it to be, that this one who in himself never
knew any sin. This perfect one who dies as
a sacrifice, as all the types and shadows and all the plain
statements of the New Testament say, this is one who was harmless
and holy and separate from sinners. He hath
made him sin. The only way one such as he could
be made sin, and that's by imputation, by imputing the sins of his people
to him. I always think about the scapegoat. When the hands were laid on the
scapegoat, it wasn't like, first of all, the one who did it rubbed
his hands in tar or something to make the... That's not what's
taking place. There's just a picture transference. This is all the will of God.
He hath made him to be sin for us by imputation, the sin offering,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him by imputation. Look at me. I know I'm a fine
specimen, but I certainly don't look righteous, don't look sinless,
don't look perfect, and I ain't in myself. But I am by imputation. I've been made the righteousness
of God in Him because it was God's will. Paul writes to the Thessalonians
and he says, Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks. Here's the reason for it. For
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I'll tell you, when my first
wife of 51 and a half years died, caught me so surprised. There was one consolation above
all others. Though I don't understand it,
though it hurts, this is the will of God. I rested right there. And in every trial, every trouble,
because God's sovereign will of grace is a will of grace toward
us, we can rejoice, we can pray, we can give thanks to our God
at all times and in all situations and circumstances out of believing
hearts, not as fatalists, but as the faithful in Christ Jesus,
crying out, thy will be done. I'll bow my head and my heart
in submission by grace and say, thy will be done. Thank you.