Let's start 2 Samuel chapter
3 and begin reading in verse 31. I believe David's just been made
king. Right after this, I mean just right after this, trouble. He just has trouble with the
one called Abner. Abner tried to take some of David's
would-be followers and turn them against him. And Abner paid for it with his
life. Verse 31 of chapter 3 of 2 Samuel,
And David said to Joab and to all the people that were with
him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn
before Abner, And the king himself followed the briar. And they
buried Abner in Hebron, and the king lifted up his voice and
wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept. And the
king lamented over Abner and said, died Abner as a fool dieth? Thy hands were not bound, nor
thy feet put into fetters, as a man falleth before wicked men,
so fellest thou. Apparently he was faithful and
then turned on David, turned unto him, or not unto him, but
turned against him. And all the people wept again
over Abner, over him. And when all the people came
to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David swear saying,
so do God to me and more also if I taste bread, or ought else
till the sun be down. Now this is the verse I want
us to look at. And the king, in reference to Christ in this
passage, and all the people took notice of it. That's what David
the king had done. They took notice of what he did
and it pleased them. And whatsoever the king did pleased
all the people. Now that word please, if you
have a marginal reading is, was good in their eyes. Everything
the king did, everything, no exception. What we call bad times
and what we call good times, they're all in his hands. As
David says himself in the Psalms, my times are in your hands. Can we say that? The believer
can say that. Now, afflictions are not pleasant. Trials are not pleasant. Sometimes
life is not pleasant. But that's what I want us to
look at. All the people took notice of the king, not the stuff,
though that too, but they took notice of him and it pleased
them. And whatsoever the king did,
Please all the people. Now, turn with me, if you would,
to Acts chapter 15. Acts chapter 15. This early New Testament church
sending out people, hazarding their lives for the name of Christ.
And then we come on verse 28, Acts chapter 15, verse 28. And
this is what got my attention from Tom Harding's bulletin. For the things that they were
doing, Judas and Silas, not Judas Iscariot, but a different brother,
or another brother different, who shall also tell you the same
things by mouth. For it seemed good to the Holy
ghost, which is the third person in the Trinity, God, the father,
God, the son, and God, the Holy spirit. It seemed good to the
Holy ghost and to us and to us and to us. For it seemed good, that word
is pleasing. Same thing as in 2 Samuel. For it seemed good, it seemed
pleasing to the Holy Ghost and to us. Who is this us? Well, this us in Acts is his
redeemed people, it's his bride, it's the church, it's the remnant
according to the election of grace. But before I get into my message,
I wanna, this is first truth we must see. So everything that
the Lord does, we at all times, whether we were
10, 12, 15, four, 50, at all times, it pleased us, right?
No, that's what I wanna talk about first. From birth, because
of Adam's sin, nature, and practice, us. I'm speaking of us personally,
you, me. God's ways, his person, or his
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was not naturally pleasing to us. Why? Because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. So we establish that first.
We're gonna look at this as it applies to after salvation, the
believer's salvation. It was only after superabounding
grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ that we could ever
come to be pleased with anything that God has done. We were against God. No, we were
God-haters. We were God-haters. And some
people say, well, I never hated God. Then you still do. Because
the Holy Spirit will show you, will show me, that we are against
him. We're not for him, we're against
him. Matter of fact, we were idolaters and as the scripture
says, we were refusing to have this man reign over us, ever
reign over us. Oh, I tell you and I tell myself
how indebted we are to sovereign mercy in the doing and dying
of the Lord Jesus Christ. John chapter, you don't have
to turn in these passages, John chapter five and verse 40, you
will not, you, us, will not come to me, Christ, that you might
have life. Won't do it. Why? Because in
1 Corinthians 2, you don't have to turn there, verse 14, the
natural man, that's our natural state, we're coming to this world
born naturally, the natural man receives not the things of the
Spirit of God, they're foolishness unto him, because they're spiritually
discerned. Romans chapter three, it is the
whole chapter dedicated to what we call the depravity of man. The depravity of man. Are we,
Paul says, better than they? No, and no wise, for we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles are both under sin. As it is
written, there is none that is righteous, no, not one. There
is none that understands. There is none that seeks after
God. Well, I've always sought after God. No. No, I'm not saying that. This
is the word saying, I'm reiterating what this, I'm just reading the
scriptures. Romans chapter three, take it, uh, take it home and
read it sometimes. They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become unprofitable. There is none that do with good.
No, not one. Well, my aunt told me I was no. No, you may do good things. You may help other people. He's
talking about spiritual in the eyes of God. So, you know, I
want to clarify that. Well, that guy did something
good for me. Yes, it was, and I'm glad he
did. He's a friend maybe, but I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about spiritual things. We're born spiritually blind. How indebted we are. With us,
salvation light of the scriptures godliness is impossible praise
be to Jehovah God with him all things are possible now let's
look at this passage before us well actually we're going to
look at three verses where it specifically says God is pleased
and I say if he's pleased we're pleased that he's doing just
like in Samuel, everything that the king did, everything that
he does, everything that he will do. I hate to say it, November
5th. If God is pleased to put whoever
in the White House, we will be pleased. Now, what
is pleasing to our God and therefore well-pleasing to us, his covenant
people? We could say as Eli, the Lord's
done it, it seems good to him. Whatever the Lord does, it seems
good to him. We desire to have our wills acquiesce
into his. to do as he would have us to
do, to speak according to his word, not our imagination, to
totally surrender unto him and be at peace, that peace that
passes all understanding. Turn to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. Obviously, this whole chapter
is speaking about Christ, about the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll
start in verse three. He is despised Christ
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.
We hid as it were our faces from him. He is, was despised and
we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs,
carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Obviously the
Lord Jesus Christ. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone his own
way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Look at verse 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord, God the Father, to bruise him, God the Son. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. It pleased the Lord. And I know
this doesn't make human sense at all. Spiritual, this is the
way salvation cometh. This had to be this way. We could
not produce, as Bruce kept saying, the law was against us. The law
is a schoolmaster. The law made sin exceeding sinful.
Every time we run to the law, the Ten Commandments, or whatever
you want to say law is, is against us. Yet it pleased the Lord to
Bruce him. it pleased the Lord to bruise
his son for our sinfulness. What cost, what cost of our redemption,
what payment must be exacted, what suffering must he endure? Such was and such is the narrative,
thought, and action of our holy and pure Lamb of God. If God
is well pleased, In this scheme to rescue fallen men and fallen
sons and daughters of Adam's race, we, his ever-blessed ones,
are also pleased to observe, to feel and experience and understand
it must be this way. We do not fully understand it,
but if it pleased the Father, it pleases us. Our sins are fully
paid. There's not one left undone,
but clean, clean everyone for whom Christ made reconciliation. By the sacrifice of himself,
he put away sin, says Hebrews. He put away sin. We love him
because he first loved us. Oh, brethren, to be pleased with
all that God is pleased with, and to be of a grateful and thankful
heart. That comes with salvation. Not
only are we pleased, we may not understand because his ways are
not our ways. He's still higher. He's still the sun and we're
a candle. Comparatively, and I've used this illustration before,
the believer is like the moon. It has no light of its own. It's
reflective light. It reflects off the sun. That's
what a believer is. You take that sun away and you
got this cold, lifeless object. Secondly, turn with me to Galatians
chapter one. Galatians chapter one. What else
is God pleased? Pleased with, pleased in, pleased
for doing, pleased for accomplishing his decrees and purpose. Galatians
chapter 1, we'll start in verse 11. But I certify you, brethren,
said Paul, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after
man. For neither received it of man,
neither I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For
you have heard of my conversation in times past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted
it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers." Not the gospel, traditions. And you have a lot
of people like that. Islam, they're really zealous.
And even Christianity, without Christ, without understanding
the gospel, they're, you know, we used to call them Bible thumpers. Verse 15, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to do what? Always to reveal his son in me,
that I might preach him among the heathen, immediately I conferred
not with flesh and blood, It pleases God to absolutely, without
any input from us, He chose us in Christ Jesus from before the
foundation of the world. Where do you get that? Well,
turn to Ephesians chapter 1, over a couple pages. Ephesians
chapter 1 and verse 1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by
the will of God, not by the will of man or the will of the flesh
or birth, to the saints that are at Ephesus and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus, grace be to you and peace from God our Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see how the order is always
the same in all these letters to the epistles. Grace, then
peace. People are trying to find peace.
And they're not going through grace. The only way you're going
to find peace is if he gives you his grace by his will, then
you'll have peace. It's the cart before the horse.
No, we try to preach the horse comes first and then the cart.
Grace to you and peace. Verse three, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Accordingly,
as he, that is God the Father, hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. One of the first things, when
I got mad at election, One of the first things I did, somebody
had given me an interlinear, Greek interlinear Bible. I want
to look this up. And if I remember, it was a long
time ago, this is how it's worded. According as he has selected,
this is God, selected us in him prior to the conception of the
cosmos. Hmm. That's it. You don't have to
know Greek you just read it. It's pretty plain. It's pretty
plain But and I've said this to you and to me all the time
This choosing this is every child of God's Grace every child of
God. He hope this is his hope his
peace and is his assurance is It's in Christ it's in Christ
it's in Christ Does this bring us joy? Does this bring us happiness
and pleasure? Are we not pleased that it is
so? Pleased God, who separated me
from my mother's womb, had he not done so, we would not be
even here worshiping him. Does this not please us? Or are
we still angry that God can choose over us? Are we still angry,
like I was, I told, when I started learning these, not understand,
learning these doctrines, I said, well I got my roommate in college,
he was my best buddy in grade school, we played basketball
together, I said, I'm gonna save him, and the guy says, no, if
the Lord chooses, and I got mad. What do you mean, if the Lord
chooses? I gotta pray and it's gonna be done. And I'm gonna
talk to him, it's gonna be done. But God, who separated me, Please
God to separate me from my mother's womb. Oh my, oh my. It's hard for us to kick against
the pricks, right? Shall the thing form, say to
him that molded us, why be done so? No, the saints of God in
every generation have rejoiced over what God rejoices in and
what he glories in. And he glories in his own will,
his own purpose, his sovereign mercy to the likes of us who
are polluted, vile, and cantankerous from birth. John chapter one,
pretty plain. How does God save a sinner? Which
were born, born spiritually, supernaturally, not of blood,
not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. That's pretty clear. John chapter
3, verse 27. John answered and said, a man,
and I've heard this before, and I had forgot about this, but
I used to hear this all the time. Well, you know, I have to receive
it. You know, if God, this is a gift
floating out and I got to receive it. Okay. What do you do with
this verse? And I'd seen this verse forever. I thought, well, there's the
answer right there. Well, it's not a gift until I
receive it. No, it's not. We heard that back,
oh my word, Zion Baptist Church years ago, didn't we, Bruce?
John answered and said, a man, a person, a boy, girl, woman,
can receive nothing except it be given, there's grace, him,
from heaven. I'd never seen it that way. That's
exactly how it's written. Oh, I got her, you can't even
receive it. You can't even believe it. What
am I repenting of? You're repenting of what we are.
We are what we are because we do what we do because of what
we are. My, oh my. Thirdly, Colossians chapter one. Turn to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter 1. Let's start at verse 16. He's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for by Him were all things created
that are in heaven and in earth, visible, invisible, whether they
be thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things were created
by Him and for Him. And He, Christ, is before all
things and by Him, Christ, All things consist. And he is the head of the body,
the church, which is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. Look at verse
19. What does it please God? For
it pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. Should all fullness dwell. It
pleased our Father that all things are in the Son's hands. Adoption. If you look at Ephesians
chapter one, look at that sometimes, that word in Christ is used so
much. We're adopted in him, we're predestinated in him, we're called
in him, we're chosen in him. As I said before, God has all
of his eggs in one basket. There's one son, and Jackie may
disagree, not with this statement, but there's one son in our solar
system, one son. I don't care what NASA says,
one sun. There's one inhabited planet.
Now there may mark, no, it's not inhabited now. What about
the, I don't know, what about this? I don't care about that.
I'm living right here, right now in Jackson, Missouri. There's
one inhabited planet. There's one darling of the heavenly
father, his name is Christ. Thusly, when Paul says there's
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one church universal, one king
upon his throne, and one key to eternal life, and guess who
has that? In Revelations, Christ has that. Turn to Acts chapter four. I
love how this is worded, and I've skipped over this quite
a bit to get to a verse, and I may need to back up. Acts chapter
four. I go to verse 12, neither is
there salvation in any other for there is none other name
under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. It's
not Joseph Smith. It's not Confucius. It's not
Buddha. It's not Muhammad. It's Christ. Go back up a little bit. Go back
up one verse. And I've, I didn't see this,
but this is, this is the stone which says, set it not of you
builders, which has become the head of the corner. Now this
is, and it's not in italics. So it's, this is, this is original.
This is, this is the stone, the, now that word, the, It means it's
singularity. We used to watch the news and
it'd say, like, Channel 12 is the new, and I was like, what
are they talking, and then it hit me. They were subtly saying,
Channel 3 doesn't have it. Channel 6 doesn't have it. KFES
is the new source. They were touting themselves.
Well, that's, I'll do the same. This is the stone. There's not
another stone. This is the stone. Isn't this well pleasing to you
who for refuge to Jesus have fled? That which pleases the father,
pleases his sons and daughters. That which pleases the great
shepherd, pleases his sheep. That which pleases our sovereign
creator, pleases his humble creatures. That which pleases the Holy Ghost
and us, and us. We'll turn back in closing to
our text in Second Samuel. I just love re- I gotta re-read
this. And all the people, all of his
elect, all of his bride, take notice of him. Whenever he's
spoken of in truth, whenever his gospels preached, That's where they want to be,
if they can. Sometimes we're hindered, sometimes
we can't. It happens. But we want to be there. We take
notice of Him. And that's why, again, I say
what Paul says, I am determined not to know anything, though
I love you and I want to hear that you're doing well, etc.
Desire to know nothing among you, said Christ to him crucified.
Solve the riddle, the great riddle of time. How can man be just
with God? Solve that. How can I be just
with God? Well, are you pleased in his
son? Do you love his son? Have you
seen yourself in a fleet of Christ? and it pleased them and whatsoever
the king did please all the people may we be brought to see that
he does all things well mark chapter seven and whatsoever
he brings to pass may it please us and thereby may we adore him
and worship him who sits on the throne because he's on the throne
of universal dominion. I don't care what people say
or what they think or their opinion. We have the scriptures and the
scriptures are abundantly clear. God is pleased with his son. He pleased with his son's sacrifice.
He's pleased. This is another place. He's pleased.
I think in Samuel, he's it's pleased the Lord to make you
his people. Now that's I don't even know if I can go there.
It's pleased the Lord to make us his people. So we can be haughty
and, well, I've got, I've got doctrine. You know, that's why
two churches were called 13th Street Angels by protractors,
by people who didn't like the gospel and people who, but there's
probably some truth to that. And in another church, they were
called the Frozen Chosen. I don't want to be called that.
We understand we have doctrine and doctrine is very important.
It's just teaching. But salvation is in a person. In a person. May we be pleased with what our
sovereign is doing in us and for us and about us. Matt, would you close please?