Well, good morning, everyone. If we don't have the piano playing,
tell everybody when it's time, I must get a school bell and
ring it. It's good to see everyone this
morning. If you would open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter
five. Ephesians chapter five. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord and seek his blessing. Our Father, which art in heaven,
Holy and reverent is your matchless name. And Father, we come before
you this morning with reverence, with fear and trembling, knowing
that we come before the God of heaven and earth. And Father,
how thankful we are that while we come reverently, be able by
your spirit to come boldly and confidently, pleading the merit
and the blood, the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
Father, I pray that you would bless us this morning with your
spirit, enable us to look into your word and to see the Lord
Jesus Christ, to see him, to believe on him, to rest in him. Father, in everything that's
said and done here today, let it be done to the praise and
the glory of the name of Christ our Savior. Let us lift up his
character, his person, the sufficiency of his person, that your people
might being able to worship. If he's lifted up, we'll be able
to worship. What we pray for ourselves, we
pray especially for our children's classes going on at this time.
And wherever your people meet together, Father, bless your
word where it's preached. Father, we pray you'd be with
your people who are in times of sickness and heartache and
sorrow. Father, we pray your hand of
healing and comfort and direction be upon them, that you would
be pleased to deliver them quickly. Now, Father, all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name, which is above every
name, the name of Christ, our savior. Amen. I have a huge, huge subject this
morning. I've titled the lesson, what
the will of the Lord is. Our text is just one verse, verse
17 of Ephesians chapter five. Wherefore, be ye not unwise,
but understanding. what the will of the Lord is.
Now, confess right from the beginning, I feel very inadequate to talk
about what the will of the Lord is, and everybody should feel
that way. I think it's wise to be a little leery of somebody
that says, oh, I know what the Lord's will is, you know, all
the time. I know, I see the Lord's will,
I know what the Lord's will is and this. I think we ought to
be mighty careful about that. Normally, when we think about
what is the will of the Lord, we think, what is God's purpose? What is God accomplishing through
the events that he's bringing to pass to me and around me? And almost always, we don't know. Almost always, we don't know
what the Lord's doing. I don't know what the Lord's
gonna accomplish through the different things that he's doing,
and how can we? How can we? We're finite creatures
of the dust. God's the eternal creator. We're
sinful creatures. God is holy. God is eternal. God is spirit. How can we know
what God's doing? We don't. We simply don't. Now, even though all that is
true, Paul tells us here in our text that we can understand what
the will of the Lord is in some things. There's some things about
the will of the Lord that are given to us to understand. Now,
without a doubt, there are things about the will of the Lord we're
never gonna know, we'll never understand. But there are some
things about the will of the Lord that we do know, and we
know them because the Lord's been pleased to reveal them to
us. Deuteronomy 29 verse 29 says, the secret things belonging to
the Lord the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed
belong unto us and our children forever. We know them because
the Lord's been pleased to reveal them to us. And everything that
I know about the will of the Lord comes directly from the
word of God. That's the only way I can know
anything about the will of God. Everything else is just a guess.
It's just a guess. And I'll give you a few things
that I know about the will of the Lord And it struck me as
I began starting this lesson, you know what I said, I feel
very inadequate to discuss, talk about what is the will of the
Lord. But as I looked through the scripture, this is what I
found. We know more about the will of the Lord than we might
think. I went through God's word looking at what the will of the
Lord is, the things that we can understand. And I had to cut
a bunch of stuff out because I don't have time to deal with
them in the time allotted this morning. So there are more things
about God's will than we think we know. At least if we'll take
the time to find out about it from God's word. So the first
thing I know is this, the will of the Lord is eternal. Look
back at Ephesians 1 verse 9. Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will. Now God's made this known unto
us, the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he hath purposed in himself. Now God's made known unto us
the mystery of his will, the mystery of how he saves sinners. And he does it, he lets us in
on that, he reveals that to us through preaching. Well, when
did God purpose this will in himself? Well, verse four tells
us it was before the foundation of the world. See, it's eternal. God's will doesn't have a beginning
and it doesn't have an ending. It'll never change because God
never changes. And that makes God's will eternal.
Look at Ephesians 3 verse 9. And to make all men see what
is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world has been hidden God, who created all things by Jesus Christ
to the intent for this purpose that now under the principalities
and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. God's will is eternal. All right, number two, look back
at Romans chapter 12. The will of the Lord is always
perfect and good. Ephesians 12, verse one. I beseech you, therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. God's will is always good, it's
always acceptable, it's always perfect. Now that's good for
us to remember when God does something and we don't understand
it. Even when it hurts, we need to remember this. The will of
the Lord is always perfect and good. Everything he does is perfect
and good. All right, the third thing, look
at Hebrews chapter six. The will of the Lord is immutable. That means God's will can never
change. Hebrews six, verse 16. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them in the end of all
strife, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, conferred it
by an oath, that by two immutable, unchangeable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong refuge
who have fled, or a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. That word counsel in verse
17, the immutability of his counsel, that word is will. God's will
is unchangeable because God's unchangeable. And the writer
to the Hebrews says, now this has been written for our comfort,
for our consolation. If we've laid hold on Christ
and believe Christ, here's our comfort. If almighty God purposed
to save you before time began. then you will be saved in time. Because God's will can't change.
You can't mess it up. God's will, if he purposed to
save you, he will. You'll be glorified together
with Christ. God's never reacting to what
men do in his creation. He doesn't have to make slight
adjustments along the way to keep his purpose on track. Everything
that happens, is happening because God willed for it to happen before
time began. He's working all things after
the counsel of his own will, all things, whether we think
they're good or whether we think they're bad. And the best example
of that I can think of is the fall of Adam. Now you write this
down. God willed for Adam to fall. Before God created anything,
he willed for Adam to fall. If he didn't, Adam wouldn't fall.
Isn't that right? Adam didn't do something God
didn't will for him to do. Now that doesn't make God the author
of sin, because God can't sin. You just don't have people say,
oh, I don't want to say God willed for Adam to sin, because that
makes God the author of sin. You don't have to worry about
making God a sinner. You can't do it. God's nature is holy. Adam's fall was the will of God
being carried out so that God's purpose of the redemption of
his people through the sacrifice of Christ could be carried out
about 4,000 years later. That was God's will coming to
pass. That's God's will, whether I
completely understand it or not. I just know it's God's will because
his will is unchangeable. Now that's some of the characteristics
of God's will. But you might be wondering, well,
what's God's will for me? What's God's will for what I
should do with my life? Well, I can't tell you with any
degree of certainty whether you should take this job or take
this job. I can't tell you what house you
should buy. I can't tell you what color you should paint it.
I mean, God has a will for it, but I don't know what it is.
I can't tell if you should do this, that, or something else.
I don't know what God's will is in all those things. I don't
know because the Lord hadn't told us in his word. But there
are some things I do know that God's will is for us. This is
God's will for his people. I know this, number one, God's
will is that his people be saved by the sacrifice, by the unspeakable
suffering of his son. Look at Matthew chapter 26. Matthew 26, verse 39. And he went a little further
and fell on his face and prayed, saying, oh my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou will. Well, it wasn't possible that
this cup passed from the Savior because we know he went and suffered
and drank the cup dry, don't we? It's not possible that that cup
of suffering could pass from Christ except he drink it because
he must suffer that whole cup of God's wrath against the sin
of his people. He's got to drink that cup down
to its very dregs. He's got to drink it dry because
that is the one and only way God's justice can be satisfied.
The only way God's people can be saved in truth and mercy is
if Christ drinks this cup dry. Now, if it's God's will that
God's people be saved by the doing and dying of Christ, by
his obedience and by his sacrifice, him and him alone, if that's
God's will, let's preach it. Let's never compromise it. If
it's God's will that his people be saved by the sacrifice of
Christ alone, We'd be mighty wise to pray and ask God, Lord,
give me faith to trust my salvation to Christ alone, because that's
God's will. That's his will. All right, number
two, look at John chapter four. God's will is that salvation
be accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ alone, that he accomplished
the work by himself. John chapter four. In verse 34, Jesus said to them,
my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish
his work. Now this work is the work of
the redemption of God's people. I'm telling you, the Lord Jesus
Christ got the job done. Hebrews 10 verse 10 says, by
the witch will we're sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ in one's fall. He said, it's my meat to finish
his work. He finished it, didn't he? That's
what he cried on the cross for. He gave up the ghost. It's finished.
He finished the work. Now, if it's God's will, the
salvation be accomplished by Christ alone. Let's quit thinking
we can do some good work to make God more happy with us than he
is in Christ alone. If it's God's will, The salvation,
our salvation is wholly in Christ alone. Let's quit thinking, if
I do this, God's gonna bless me, because I did better than
somebody else. I don't think anybody in this room would think,
oh, if I do this good work, God will save me. But this is what
the believer's prone to think. Oh, if I do this, God's gonna
be so happy with me, because I did it God's way, and God's
gonna bless me. Now, we bless for our works, and we're blessed
in Christ alone, If it's in Christ alone, let's trust him alone.
Let's preach him alone. A believer will do good work
without any question about it. But we'll never trust those words,
do we? It's trusting Christ alone. If that's God's will, let's trust
Christ alone. I now look over at John chapter
six. Here's the third thing I know. God's will is that everyone who
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. I know only the
elect will believe on Christ. I know that. But when you first
come to Christ, you first trust him. You don't know if you're
one of the elect or not. All you know is your sinner needs Savior.
And here's good news for you. God's will is, this is God's
will, that everyone who believes on Christ will be saved. John
6, verse 38. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
You wanna know what God's will is? Here it is. And this is the
Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. Everyone the Father chose in divine election
and gave to Christ, he's not gonna lose them. They're ultimately
gonna be glorified together with him in the last day. And verse
40, this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone receiveth
the Son and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I'll raise him up at the last day. Now man by nature will not
come to Christ. Man by nature will not believe
on Christ. Now it's God's will, everybody
believes on Christ to have eternal life, but man by nature will
not, cannot believe on Christ. What a contrast our will is to
God's will. Look back at page John 5, verse
40. and you will not come unto me
that you might have life. You will not. Now that is our
nature compared to God. Our nature is we will not believe.
God's will is everyone believes on the sun will have eternal
life. Well, that's our nature, but don't fear. Don't fear. Our sinful will will never stop
God's will from coming to pass, never. God's gonna draw all those
people that he chose to save in Christ, he's gonna draw all
of them to Christ so that they believe on Christ alone. That's
what he says in verse 44, John 6. No man can come to me. We don't have the ability to
come to Christ except the Father which sent me drawing. And I'll
raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that
hath heard and has learned of the Father, cometh unto me. The Father's gonna see to it.
The Father's gonna see to it that his people are drawn to
Christ and they believe on Christ. And like I said earlier, I don't
know what God's will is. If you should take this job or
this job or if you should do this or you should do that or
you should do something else, I don't know. But here's what
I know and what I know makes me mighty happy is God's will
that everyone that believes on Christ have eternal life. Now, that makes me determined
to keep preaching Christ so that you and I will believe. I don't I don't know who it is,
God will say, but I know this. It's God's will to save his people
through the preaching of Christ. So that we'll believe on. And
I hope we'd all pray that God give us faith to believe on.
I want that faith to believe on Christ, don't you? Oh, I want
it so desperately because it's God's will. If I believe on Christ,
I'm gonna have eternal life. And I'm right interested in that.
I'm real interested in that. All right, here's the fourth
thing I know about God's will. Look back at John chapter one. God's will is to give his people
spiritual life through the new birth. John one verse 11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born. They were born, not
of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but
they were born of the will of God. Now, every single time somebody
believes on Christ, they hear preaching, they hear preaching,
they hear preaching, and they finally see. They finally believe
on Christ. You know what that is? That's
the will of God being carried out. That's exactly what it is. You know, a person just doesn't
up and decide, you know, I'm gonna believe on Jesus. I'm gonna
let Jesus into my heart. A person just doesn't up and
decide that. That person believes on Christ because they can't
do anything else. You know why they can't do anything
else? They've been born of God. They've been given, a nature's
been born in them that can't trust anything but Christ. That's
why they believe. And it is the will of God that
this spiritual life and the new birth be given by the preaching
of God's word. James 1 verse 18, of his own
will, this new birth happens by God's will, of his will begat
he us, caused us to be born again, how? By the word of truth. by the word of truth. Now since
it's God's will to give his people life in the new birth, by the
preaching of his word, let's be determined to preach nothing
but Christ to our generation. Nothing but Christ. Several of us worked together
yesterday evening to talk about some preachers some men we loved
of the past. Lord's called them home. They're
not here anymore, not preaching anymore. And I mean, these, these,
I mean, they are preachers. I mean, wow, they were preachers. But they're gone. It's my prayer, God will make
you and me faithful to preach this gospel to our generation,
to the next one to come, because if God's going to give life to
anybody, I'll tell you how he's going to do it. by the preaching
of Christ. Then let's preach Him. Fifth, I know this about God's
will. You know, we're to pray for it. We're to pray that God's
will be done. That's how the Lord taught us
to pray, isn't it? Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. How often are we guilty of praying,
Lord, my will be done. This is what I want to happen,
my will be done. Our Lord taught us to pray, thy
will be done. And I tell you, the best way
I can think of to have our prayers answered, for God to give us
what we asked for in prayer, is to pray for what God already
promised to do. He's gonna do what he promised
to do. Will our prayers be answered if we pray for it? Now, I say
that, let me tell you this about prayer. We can, and we should,
about whatever it is that the Lord lays upon our heart. We
should always pray. Pray for all things at all times. But as we pray, for what it is
that we desire, there's just so many things. But as we pray,
always with this being the most important thing. Lord, thy will
be done. Now this is my desire, but Lord,
thy will be done. We should pray about whatever
it is that's on our heart. And when the Lord finally shows
us, that's not my will. Quit. Quit praying about it. And move on, because the Lord
already showed us, that's not my will. We're to pray for God's
will, not our will. I know that. That's the only
way we should be praying. All right, now here's the sixth
thing. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter five. God's will is that you and I
be thankful. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 16. Rejoice evermore, pray without
ceasing, in everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. It is the will of God concerning
you and me that we rejoice, that we pray without ceasing, and
we give thanks. That's God's will for you and
me. Now, since that's God's will, would everybody agree that we'd
be better off doing it God's way instead of our way? I mean,
I don't think there'd be any argument. But we'd be a whole
lot happier if we spent less time complaining and more time
giving thanks. We would. We'd be a lot better
off because that's God's will for us. We'd be better off and
the people around us would be better off if we'd spend less
time complaining and more time giving thanks. That's God's will
concerning you and me. And I tell you this, God's people,
now I'm not just preaching the whole wide world right now, I'm
talking to this congregation. We have a whole lot to be thankful
for. We have a whole lot to be thankful
for. It's God's will that we say thank
you, Lord. That's his will. All right, now look at 1 Corinthians
1. This is one I did not want to
cut out. I pray it will be very helpful
to you. Our place in the body of Christ,
that's God's will for us. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 1. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God. Now the apostle Paul
was an apostle by the will of God. I'm a preacher, I'm a pastor
by the will of God. We're all believers. Those who
believe Christ, you're a believer by the will of God. You're here
as a member of this congregation. You live where you live. You're
a member of this congregation by the will of God. You didn't
just come here by accident. You're here by the will of God. You're part of the body of Christ.
You're part of this congregation by the will of God. And that's very important. You
have an important role to play in this body, just like every
body part has an important role to play in our body. And someone
might think, you know, I'm not very important. I don't even
want to be seen. I don't even want to be recognized.
I just, you know, want to be the little toe in the body, you
know, that's always covered up by shoes. Well, maybe you are
the little toe. Maybe. Have you ever tried doing
without your little toe? Have you ever stubbed it real
bad and turned purple and swells up? How's the rest of your body
feel? Pretty miserable, doesn't it? Pretty miserable. Your whole
body's going to limp. and hurt. You remember this. Every member of God's body, the
body of Christ is important because they're important to him. They're
important enough to him to die for it. Whether it's the little
toe or whether it's the nose or the eye or the hand is important
enough to Christ to suffer and die for it. Then we ought to
be important to one another, shouldn't we? And you think,
well, I can't, I can't do, you know, a lot. Well, I'll tell
you what, be diligent about doing what you can do. Don't think
about what you can't do. Be diligent to do what you can
do. Do whatever it is that you can do to help the gospel be
preached in our town, to our families, to our children, to
our loved ones. You say, well, I can't do a lot.
Well, I'll tell you what you can do. You can pray and ask
God to bless his word. You can pray and ask, Lord, give
us a message. Give us a message from you today
and enable the preacher to preach it so I can hear it and enable
me to hear it. I'll tell you that you can't
overestimate. You can't say how valuable it
is to pray and ask God to bless us as we meet. You can give what
the Lord has enabled you to give to pay the bills. I mean, you
know, money is not the most important thing, but now we ain't going
to have lights and air conditioning without it. You know, I mean,
you can give. You can go to somebody and give
them a smile. Give them a kind word. Let's
let them know you care. I mean, just as such a simple
gesture, you wouldn't believe how far that goes. You can go
cry with those who are crying. And you can go laugh with those
who are laughing. Those kinds of things are invaluable
to the body of Christ. They're valuable to people. And
I'll tell you something else you can be. You can be faithful. You can be faithful to come to
the service as much as is humanly possible. you can be faithful
to come to the service. And you wouldn't believe how
important that is. It's encouraging to the pastor, it's encouraging
to others, just to know, boy, this person, if they're in town,
they're not sick, they're gonna be here. I mean, they're gonna
be here. What a great example for our children, for our young
adults, that you just keep showing up every week, every Sunday,
every Wednesday, every Sunday, every Wednesday, And I tell you
what that person ends up being. They end up being the most supportive
and the most dogmatic that we not lose this message of Christ
in our town, in this place. You can be faithful, you can
just show up. You wouldn't believe how helpful that is. We're all
part of the body of Christ by God's will. Now let's just do,
willingly, happily, what God's given us to do, what I can do.
All right, 1 Thessalonians chapter four. Here's the eighth thing
I know. It is God's will that we abstain
from sexual sins. Don't think that, well, God saved
me from my sin. It doesn't matter what I do,
because I'm already saved from it. 1 Thessalonians four, verse
three. For this is the will of God,
even your sanctification, that you should abstain from fornication. Now, if you're a believer, your
body is the temple of the living God. Just let that sink in for
me. Your body is the temple of the
living God, if you're a believer. Be careful what you do with the
temple of the living God. That matters. Then ninth, look
at Ephesians chapter six. It is God's will that we do this
from the heart. From the heart, Ephesians six,
verse six. Not with eye service as men pleasers,
but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. Doing the will of God from the
heart. With good will, doing service
as to the Lord and not to men. You know, it is God's will we
do this from the heart. Ain't no point in putting on
some religious veneer because God looks on the heart. You don't
fool God by putting on a religious veneer. So this is God's will. Now we can pray and ask the Lord,
Lord enable me to do this from the heart. Give me this heart
to do thy will. I tell you, I don't want to have
a false religious veneer. And usually you can see through
somebody. I promise you God does, but usually we can see through
somebody with a false religious veneer. It's just not pleasant. And it has to be exhausting,
doesn't it? Don't you think that has to be exhausting to try to
keep up this false religious veneer all the time? I'd just
rather do it from the heart. Well, I can pray and ask the
Lord, give me that heart, can't you? Now here's the last thing. And this goes right along with
what I was saying. Look at Philippians chapter two. Oh, I want to do God's will.
He's laid these things out, says this is God's will for you. Well,
I want to do it, don't you? Well, we need to remember this.
We can't do it on our own. God has to work his will in us.
Ephesians two verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you've
always obeyed, not in my presence only, But now much more in my
absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his
good pleasure. I can't will and I can't do God's
good pleasure, can't do his will. If I tell you what I can do,
I can ask God to work it in me. He too. That's God's will for
us. All right, well, I hope that'll
be a blessing in hell.