It Pleased God

Q: What does the Bible say about praising God?

The Bible encourages believers to praise God as the ultimate purpose of worship. Psalms 135 clearly emphasizes that praising God is the core intention of public worship. The practice of gathering to worship should not be about entertainment or socializing, but about giving honor and glory to God. The psalmist instructs believers to praise the Lord, focusing on His character as revealed in Scripture. To truly praise God, one must understand who He is, as worship without knowledge of God's nature lacks true substance.

Q: Why is God's sovereignty important for Christians?

God's sovereignty reassures believers that He controls all things according to His will. The concept of God's sovereignty is crucial because it highlights that God does whatever pleases Him in heaven and earth. This truth provides comfort to Christians, as it affirms that not a single event occurs outside of God's sovereign will. From creation to salvation, every detail of life is under God's control, assuring believers that they can trust in His complete authority and purpose. This understanding underscores the importance of relying on God rather than human wisdom or circumstances.

Q: How do we know that God is good?

God's goodness is affirmed in Scripture, regardless of our circumstances. The Bible declares that God is good, establishing it as a fundamental truth. Even when we face difficulties or pain, we are called to recognize God's goodness in all circumstances. Experiences may cloud our perception, but the truth remains that God's nature is inherently good. This assurance encourages believers to praise Him and trust His decisions, as He works everything for their ultimate good, shaping their lives according to His perfect will.

Q: What does it mean to ascribe greatness to God?

To ascribe greatness to God means to acknowledge His supreme authority above all creation. Ascribing greatness to God involves recognizing and declaring His supreme authority over all things. This includes rejecting any doctrine or belief that minimizes His greatness. The Bible makes it clear that God stands above all other 'gods', asserting that He is the sovereign ruler of the universe who works everything according to His will. Thus, understanding this truth compels believers to engage in worship that glorifies God, elevating Him above all human notions and substitutes that fall short.

Turn with me, if you will, to Psalm 135. Psalm 135. The psalmist says, praise ye the Lord. Now, I hope that's the reason you've come here today. to give praise to God. Praise ye the Lord. That's the object of all public worship, to render praise, honor, and glory to God. Somehow, this religious generation has made worship an entertainment session. This religious generation has made the gathering of men and women in the name of God to be nothing but a social club in which men and women gather to try to make folks feel good and get folks pumped up with a little religious excitement. But the purpose, the purpose of public worship, the reason it was established in the beginning and the instruction given throughout the Old Testament, as well as the new, is to give praise to God. That's the ultimate purpose.

Praise ye the Lord. And notice what he says. Praise ye the name of the Lord. Now that's not just talking about calling the name Jesus or calling the name Jehovah or calling the name of our God. It's talking about the character of God. Whenever you read the name of the Lord in the scriptures, understand that the names by which God has revealed himself are nothing more or less than accommodating terms. by which God makes himself known. When the scripture describes God by various names, those names mean something. Those names represent his character. They represent his attributes.

So to praise God is to praise him with understanding. That's the reason I'm here preaching to you. I'm here to give you some understanding concerning who God is. You can't worship him. You can't praise him, you can't exalt him, you can't glorify him if you don't know who he is.

And so the psalmist says, let's praise the Lord, let's praise the Lord as he has made himself known in his word. So that whatever this book says about God, praise him for it. Praise him in his holy character. Read on. Praise him, O ye servants of the Lord.

Now that's talking about me, that's talking about those particularly who lead God's saints in worship. It's my responsibility, my privilege, yes, oh, my delightful privilege, but my responsibility to lead you to praise God by constantly praising him.

Well, what does that mean? Does that mean waving your hands and waving handkerchiefs and shouting praise to the Lord, bless Jesus and all that nonsense? Of course not. Of course not. It means that I am with the doctrine I give you, with the message I declare, with the hymns we sing, I am to lead you in the praise of God by exalting him continually. It means I am to praise Him in my heart, yes.

It means that I am to lead you in praising Him so that everything done here, everything spoken here, everything written here, everything going out of here, gives praise to God Almighty, not to man. Gives praise to God, not to the Baptist Church. Gives praise to God, not to you, not to me, not to the preacher, not to this group or that, but to God Himself. Praise him, ye servants of the Lord. Read on.

You that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Now you know, of course, David is speaking of Old Testament times and temple worship. When men were gathered together after David died, the temple was built and these psalms were written giving instruction with regard to worshiping God. He says that you folks who listen to the preacher, you folks who listen to the prophets and observe the priest going about the business of worshiping God and leading you in the worship of God, you stand in the congregation. You come together to observe what goes on when sacrifice is made to the living God. To observe how the God Almighty condescends to meet sinners in mercy.

O you saints of God, praise Him. You who stand in the courts of the Lord, praise the Lord our God in the house of our God. Praise He, the Lord. You see, I keep stressing this. He keeps repeating this. Give praise to God. Give praise to God in all things, by all means, but particularly when you come to the house of God, when you come to the place of worship, God help us. God help us to learn to come here for the purpose exclusively of giving praise to him. That's our object. That's got to be our object, otherwise we've missed everything. Now then, he tells us why. He gives us five reasons for praising God. First he says, for the Lord is good. The Lord is good. Generally, it doesn't matter how we perceive things. God's good. God's good.

I think I told you some time ago in one of the messages here. One of the ladies was a member of Todd's Road Church in Lexington. Her 16-year-old son was killed in tragic manner, drug-related difficulties. And Todd, trying to console her, walked over to her at the funeral home, took that boy in the casket, put his arm around her, Started to say something to her, I don't remember what it was anyway, he told me she interrupted him. She said, Brother Todd, I know that whatever God does is right. And the Lord's good. That's right.

He brings to pass things that appear to us to be painful. and evil and bad. They appear to us to be. They seem to be, for the time being, things that we would not choose. They are things that, as we look at them, we would not, under any circumstance, choose this thing to happen.

But God, who is good, has brought it to pass. Now let us learn to ascribe goodness to him and give him praise even while our hearts break within us. Understand God is good. Our circumstances don't change that. What goes on in our families don't change that. What goes on in our society doesn't change that. God is good. Have you learned that? Are we learning that?

The Lord's good, so give praise to him. Always give praise to him. Sing praise unto his name, for it is pleasant to do so. Most pleasant thing on this earth is to sing God's praises from a heart that believes he's good. Most pleasant thing on this earth is to sing God's praises with a heart that believes he's good. It doesn't matter whether you sing good or not. If you sing praise to God from a heart knowing he's good, you sing praises to God that are acceptable to him by Christ Jesus. I don't mean just sing praises to him vocally, though certainly when you come into the assembly of the saints, and the congregation of God's saints joins together to sing praise to God, we ought to delight in the opportunity to do so.

Sing praise to him. But hold children of God in your heart. Constantly give them melodious songs until nobody is good. He's good. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. He's good. And the most pleasant way for you and I to live in this world is to live in the constant awareness of God's goodness, giving praise to him in our hearts. Read on.

Praise the Lord, he says, for the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself. and Israel for his peculiar treasure. Now I'll have a little more to say about that in a few minutes maybe, but just in case I should pass it up, or should risk passing it up, let me say something about it now. The Lord God has chosen you, sons of Jacob. You who believe as his peculiar treasure. Imagine that. You. God looks on you as his treasure.

His treasure. Now treasure is something that's rare, costly, and valuable. That which a man treasures, that which a man treasures, he'll part with everything to have it. Everything. Oh, what he treasures. Treasure Christ, indeed, and part with everything to have him. But listen to this.

Rex Butler, God Almighty has taken you to be his treasure. He gave his son to get you. His treasure, the apple of his eye. So he looks on you as his treasure and the psalmist here says you are his peculiar treasure. Just look in the mirror and you'll understand it's a peculiar treasure, sure enough. Strange thing that God should take me to be his treasure, but he's done so. Taken us as his treasure, under his care, under his protection, the objects of his delight, and the objects of his desire, forever and forever.

All right, read on. Give praise to God, for I know that the Lord is great. Ascribe ye greatness to God, Moses said, and that's what must be done. That's what must be done. In this day and age in which we live, men and women somehow have got the notion that it's honoring to God to compare God to men. They got the notion that it's honoring to God to make God like us. They think that God is altogether like we are, and so they speak of God like we are, and such nonsense is blasphemy.

It is our responsibility to ascribe greatness to God. So that whatever doctrine you hear, whatever you read, whatever you think, whatever you embrace as doctrine, be certain that it ascribes greatness to God, not to man. Greatness to God, not to the church. Greatness to God, not to the powers of man, or the powers of his will, or the powers of his work. Ascribe greatness to God.

Any doctrine. Any doctrine. I don't care who teaches it. Any doctrine. that makes God smaller than what he is. Any doctrine that would diminish God's greatness in any way, you mark it down as not God's doctrine. It's not according to this book that we're commanded continually to ascribe greatness to God. I know that the Lord is great and that our Lord is above all gods. He's above all gods.

Now what does that mean? That means everybody's got a god. Everybody does. Everybody is worshipping some kind of god this morning. Everybody. Churches all over this town, all over this state, all over this country, all over this world. Men and women are worshipping some kind of god.

Some folks have a little god over here that's a poor man's god. They carve it out of a stump. and maybe paint him with a little paint, put some polished rocks on him, and that's their god. Other folks over here, they take a god and mold him out of gold, and trim him up in bronze and silver, and put jewels on their god. He's a rich man's god, but he's just as useless as a poor man's god. Folks have their imaginary deities that are utter stumps and stones and totally useless.

Men worship them all over the world. Now then, we live in a more refined, more enlightened, more educated society. And men don't worship stumps and stones anymore. not in this kind of culture, not in a society like ours. Now, well they really do, there's some that still worship statues of Mary and such as that. I was down in Louisiana preaching with Brother Gilbert Barr one time several years ago, and I hadn't, I had never seen this, but down there there are lots of papers, all over southern Louisiana.

And the houses all have got little cubicles, just looks like a little window with one of those rounded tops, just a little cubicle, not so high. And I thought, well, they must have made that to put a phone in. I said, that's a handy place to have your phone, just right beside the door. And I noticed all the houses I went in were like that. All the older ones, they had a place right there for the phone. I thought, that's real handy. And I said to some of the brothers, I said, it's not a phone box, it's an idol box. That's where they put Mary. That's where they put the statues of Jesus. That's where they put the crucifix. That's their God box. Everybody worships some kind of a God.

Now, we don't do that. We don't do that. Baptists don't do that. No, no sir. What Baptists and Protestants do is this. For the most part, they go into the dark, dark, dark forest of their own minds and whittle out of God to their own liking and say, this is Jesus. This is Jehovah. This is our God. But it's penance. He's a pygmy. He's a peanut guy. He's a useless guy. Now I'm telling you, I'm telling you, I don't care who you are, I don't care if my mother, my dad, my brothers, my sisters, yours, or anybody else hears this message.

I'm telling you that those who worship a God who lacks the greatness and the supremacy of our sovereign God worship nothing but an idol and are lost just as lost as if they were heathen in the heart of Africa worshiping a stump or a totem pole or something of the kind.

Our God's above all gods. Well, how? How is he above all gods? What's the difference between our God and the God down the road that folks worship? Or this God over here folks worship. The God that folks worship in the poor church house and the God folks worship in the rich church house. What's the difference in our God and theirs?

Read on. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth, in the sea, and in all deep places. That's the difference. That's the difference. Now, this is the one distinguishing attribute of God that sets him apart and above all imaginary gods. It is his total, absolute, universal sovereignty. God Almighty, the only true and living God, that God who is able to save your soul from everlasting perdition, is God who rules all things totally according to his sovereign will. I mean everything. I want to keep stressing this Because I know it's needed, and I know we have a tendency to become somewhat lax, because this kind of sets us apart from other people. This kind of makes us oddballs. It makes us real oddballs.

Some of you will remember, more than 15 years ago, before I moved down here with my family, I came down one week and preached three, four, five nights over I was at school, and I said to you then, if there's any place in this town, or any place within a reasonable driving distance of this town, where you can go worship God, where you can find a man who will tell you the truth about God, and you can worship him, forget all your other differences, go sit down and worship God.

Don't call me down here. Don't move me down here. Don't attempt to go to the expensive building of this church building. But if you call me, understand what I'm telling you. I'm telling you we've had a distinct message, for we worship a distinct God. The God of the Bible is not even similar to the pygmy God that's being worshipped all around us. I say worshipped, I use that word very lightly. That men bow down before him and pretend to worship him, but actually they just use him. He's just sort of a religious good luck charm to them.

When I say that God is sovereign, I'm declaring that God Almighty does everything exactly as he will in creation, in providence, and in grace. Let me show you. Turn to Proverbs chapter 16. Proverbs chapter 16. God created this world for himself. For himself. Somehow men have got the silly notion in our day that God created the world for me. For me. Then he was talking about marriage this morning and folks bailing out marriages. They do it all the time. And do it with this reason. This is number one reason.

I'm not happy. I'm not happy anymore. A friend of mine Her boy got married a couple of years ago and he came home about six months later one day and he said, he said, I just can't live with her. I'm not happy. And his mother said, sit down here son. She said, what in this world do you think happy has got to do with anything? Do you think your father has always been happy? Life's not always happy. You go home to your wife, don't you ever say another word to me about you not being happy. Be a husband to her.

But the reason he said what he did is because the pulpits of the land have told folks all their life long, this world's made for you and to make you happy. God's here to make you happy. I'm telling you, no. God made this world for himself to glorify himself in the saving of sinners. Look here in Proverbs 16, 4.

The Lord hath made all things. What do you say? himself. Everything. Well that means all good things. That means the Lord made the angels and the saints for himself. Read on. Yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. God made everything for himself. Everything. even the wicked for the day of judgment.

God made this world to be a stage upon which he accomplishes his purpose of grace for his people, for the glory of his name, so that he might be praised among a race of men throughout the ages of eternity. God is sovereign in his rule of the world as well in providence.

Turn to Ephesians 1 and verse 11. Ephesians 1 verse 11. Now there are numerous, numerous passages we could look at in this regard, but let's just look at this one. The apostle is writing to the Ephesians about God's purpose. And he says, with regard to God's purpose, 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 in earth, even in him, verse 11, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him, look at it now, who worketh.

Who works presently. continually. He never ceases to work. Who worketh. That's what we call the linear tense of the verb that's used here. It's an action that being started continues on without interruption. God is him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. That's our God. That's our God. He rules the universe. He rules the universe according to His will and His purpose in His good providence for the saving of His people.

The psalmist said in Psalm 76 10, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath wilt thou restrain. So that whatever comes to pass in time, comes to pass according to God's purpose of grace in eternity, everything, everything. Chris and I were talking about this the other night, he called, wanted to chat about this a little bit. Did God purpose everything?

Absolutely. Does God have his way in everything? Absolutely, no question about it, no question whatsoever. Either God rules everything or he rules nothing. Now, it's just that simple. When our Lord sent his disciples out to preach, he said, now, fellas, you go and don't you fear anybody. Don't you worry about taking care of yourself, defending yourself, protecting yourself, or providing for yourself. The very hairs of your head have all been numbered. Well, what's he saying? He said, God takes care of even the hair that's on your head.

And if God rules the minute things, you can bank on it. He rules the big things. He rules everything. everything. And the only way he can be a God who is trusted, a God in whom we have implicit confidence, a God whose purpose, whose prophecy, whose words certainly will come to pass, is if he's a God who absolutely rules the universe. Absolutely.

Now, you folks came to his services this morning because you were anticipating that I would do as I have avowed myself to do. I'll be here to preach. You came here because we have made arrangements and plans according to the best of our intentions to meet in the name of God and worship Him. But I was in Indiana last night preaching. And we had two and a half, three inches of snow in Indiana last night. And I was going to do my best to get back here. Regardless of what I had to do, I'll do my best to get back here.

But I don't control the snow. And I don't control the highways. We got almost back into Lexington and some fool turned off the interstate and back on the interstate turned around and went the other way. Right in front of me. I'd run into him. I don't control anything. I don't control anything. So you can't rely on me explicitly. You can't do it. Now, I'm an honest man, as honest as I can be. I'm an honest man.

And I'm going to abide by my word if it possibly can. But when God says something, you read this book, read this book and find me a place where God says this is what I'll do if I can. Find me a place where he said that. God says this is what I'll do if it be alright with you. Or where God says, this is what I'll do if the devil don't keep me from it. Or where God says, this is what I'll do if man will let me do it. Well, that's nonsense. God says, this shall come to pass. And he can say, this shall come to pass, because he controls what comes to pass. Absolutely.

Even down to the wicked thoughts and deeds of men. The king's heart's in the hands of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, he turns it, whithersoever he will. Our president sits in the White House and he does what he can to make deals with Congress and they pass their laws and they establish laws that are in direct contradiction to the word of God.

So does God rule that? Absolutely. Did God make them do it? Oh no. Oh no. But he controls it. He says the wrath of man will praise him. That means whatever there is in man that man does of evil, that God intends to use for the saving of his people and the glory of his name, God uses it. And that which God won't use, he won't let men do, no matter how vile they are. He will undo it. He rules the world in absolute sovereignty.

Now I keep stressing that because I know there's nothing on this world or nothing in this world that will sail our little boats through the troubled waters of this life except an absolute confidence, an absolute God. I watch religious people all the time.

Religious people who don't know God. Trouble comes, trials come, heartaches come, and they paste the floor, and chew the nails off, and before long they start pulling their hair out. They just go absolutely berserk, because they've got no confidence. They've got no one in whom to have confidence. Their imaginary God can't do anything about their situation.

These things are now out of control, and so they're out of control. Oh, but God give us faith in him, so that we walk before him with confidence. He rules. He rules. The scriptures describe numerous things that must come to pass. The scripture doesn't say they might, they may. We hope they'll come to pass. The scripture says some things just got to happen. They just got to happen because God purposed it.

You remember our Lord said the Son of Man must be betrayed. Now nobody put any pressure on Judas to betray him. The devil entered into his heart, and Judas, for clever business, sold him for thirty pieces of silver. And so our Lord said, The Son of Man must be betrayed. And then he turned right in the very same sentence and said, Beware of that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed, because he's totally responsible for his actions.

The Scripture says the Son of Man must be lifted up. He must be. That's the reason God made this world. Was to crucify his son on this world. To accomplish the redemption of his people for the glory of his name. The son of man must be lifted up. There's no getting around it. He came here to die. Die he will. And those wicked men who took the Lord of glory and nailed him to a cursed tree did exactly what they wanted to do. Do you understand that? Tells us that Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. To the will of men. Now you can talk about free will. All you will to. Pam's brother, Ron Rumberg, preached a message in a conference years ago at Appomattox, Virginia. I was with him. It's been 20 years ago, I guess.

On what free will has done to Christ and took as his text. Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. That's what free will does with the Son of God. Free will religion is an absolute denial of Jesus Christ the Lord. It is a crucifying of Christ afresh continually. Nothing more, nothing less. Wicked men with their wicked wills took the Lord of glory up to Mount Calvary and there they hung him from the cursed tree, beat him with their fists, threw a party with him and left out of God of glory hung upon the tree of human flesh and died in our stead.

But the scripture says, in doing so, they fulfilled all the scripture. Nothing without a control. Our Lord said to the potter, you don't have any power over me. I called my father right now and he said, twelve legions of angels will take care of you. You don't have any power over me. Our Lord spoke to those men who came to arrest him in the garden.

He said, I am. And he proved it. They fell away as dead men. He raised them up. Our Lord, hanging upon the cursed tree, hangs there the King of Glory. And never once, never once, yielded to power as though it had power over him. But rather he said, Father, it's finished. Into thy hands I commend my spirit. He bowed his head. and gave up the ghost. Our Lord Jesus Christ died a willing, voluntary, sovereign Savior who laid down his life for the sheep. And that one who died on our behalf, as I substitute, did so according to God's purpose.

Must be. The scripture says, with regard to God's elect, ye must be born again. Must be. There's not any getting around it. You must be born again. And God's elect shall be born again. If God Almighty has chosen you, if Jesus Christ has redeemed you, I'm telling you, you ain't gonna get away. God will get his own. You must be born again.

Will a man have to seek the Lord? Yes, sir. Will a sinner have to trust Christ? Yes, sir. Will a sinner have to bow to the word of God with willing heart and embrace the Savior? Yes, sir. If you don't trust him, you're going to hell. The scripture declares that the gospel of God's free grace must be preached among all nations.

Must be. But wait a minute. They won't allow it over in Moscow. We'll probably just tear Moscow down. That's all. Well, they won't allow it when we're in China? Well, God can tear their China down. They won't allow it in North Korea? God can tear down North Korea, that's no problem to Him.

The scripture says the gospel must be preached among all nations, and preached among all nations it has been and shall be. Because God says so. God says so. What I'm saying is, whenever the Lord pleased, in heaven, in earth, in the sea, or in hell, by way of judgment, by way of grace, whatever the Lord pleased, that did he in all places. He's our God. He's our God. God Almighty is absolutely sovereign in this business of salvation as well. Turn over to Matthew chapter 11, Matthew the 11th chapter. Look at verse 20. I'd love to hear some babbling free will Arminian even attempt to give an exposition of these few verses of scripture here in Matthew chapter 11.

Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not. He said woe unto thee Chorazin, woe unto thee Bethsaida, For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repeated long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Why weren't those works done in Tyre and Sidon then? Did God somehow lack the ability to do in Tyre and Sidon what he did in Chorazin and Bethsaida? Was there something lacking in God's power? No. Those works that would have brought Tyre and Sidon to repentance, God withheld from them because he passed them by. Anybody got any other explanation for that? Any other explanation to be found anywhere? All right, read on.

But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell. For if the mighty works which had been done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day."

Well, couldn't the Lord have done those things in Sodom that he did there? Boy, wouldn't that have been a wonderful thing? If the Lord God had come to Sodom in all those perverts, those homosexuals and lesbians in Sodom would have been converted, you like that? If the Lord had just come and done there what he did in these cities, they would have remained to this day. Is that what the text says?

But he didn't do it. The Lord came, took Lot out of Sodom, took him out by miraculous power. The Lord came and struck the Sodomites with blindness so they couldn't break those angels whom God sent in human flesh to deliver them. And God Almighty brought Lot out and poured out fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because he passed by Sodom, had mercy on Lot.

Look what it says here, verse 24. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee. And at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.

It's amazing. It's amazing. You say, Pastor, why would God send blindness to a nation, a great nation, most powerful, influential, wealthy nation in the world, the United States of America, and leave that nation in the blindness and darkness and death of religious ignorance and superstition. Why would God send blind preachers to lead blind sinners blindly into hell all over the world, and then be pleased to send the gospel of his free grace to a little band of meaningless nobodies who've got nothing and can do nothing except sin, sitting out in the middle of nowhere in Daniel, Kentucky.

And I had but one answer to give. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. And I'll give him praise forever. Will you? I'll give him praise forever. God Almighty has snatched us out of a blind religious generation under the judgment of God and has given us the light, the knowledge of the glory of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. Oh, we ought to cherish Him. We ought to cherish Him. Now, I will tell you this.

And declaring this message in this generation, if you do it, it's going to cause you trouble. It's going to cause you trouble. It's going to cause you trouble at home, cause you trouble at work, cause you trouble in the religious world. Because there's no way on this earth to faithfully minister to men without telling them the truth about their God. There's no way to do it.

And we're going to have to count the cost. You are and I am. Are we going to pay the price or not? Are we going to or not? I sat down with my wife the week before we got married. I came home from Springfield one week. We got married, came home one Saturday. We got married the next Sunday. And I sat down with her that Saturday night when I got home. I'd been away a year. And I said, now, Shelby, this is what I believe. And if God's pleased to make a preacher out of me, put me anywhere to preach the gospel, anywhere in this world, this is what I'm going to preach.

And I don't expect you to believe something because I believe it. But don't you ever open your mouth about it in public. Because this is the way it's going to be. This is the way it's going to be. And if you can't handle that, no need for us to get married.

And I'll say the same thing now. I've been married to that girl for 25 years. I love her. But if it causes a rift between me and her, it'll just have to cause a rift. That's all there is to it. I got one daughter. I love her. Apple of her daddy's eye. But if the gospel of God's grace causes a rift between me and my daughter, it'll just have to cause a rift. You see, we got two choices. Say, my mama and daddy didn't believe that. That's not what I was taught.

You can go to hell with mama and daddy, you can go to hell with son and daughter, or you can believe God, one of the two. But there are no options, there's nothing in between. Either we'll worship our God in the heavens, who hath done whatsoever he hath pleased, or we'll perish in our sins. There's no in between ground. You say, well, I'll have God if you make him this way. Well, you can't have him that way. Our God, is in the heavens, he has done whatsoever he has pleased. And I'm perfectly pleased for him to do so. I hope you are. Amen.

It Pleased God

What does the Bible say about praising God?

Why is God's sovereignty important for Christians?

How do we know that God is good?

What does it mean to ascribe greatness to God?

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It Pleased God

What does the Bible say about praising God?

Why is God's sovereignty important for Christians?

How do we know that God is good?

What does it mean to ascribe greatness to God?

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