If you will, turn back with me
to Ephesians chapter one. My subject this morning is knowing
the will of God. Our God, the God of Holy Scripture,
the God of creation, providence, and salvation is truly God. In every sense of the word, He
is God. He said through his prophet Isaiah,
remember, remember the former things of old. For I am God and
there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. I declare the end from the beginning. Did I not declare the end from
the beginning in the garden? Now you remember that. You remember
that. You remember the destruction
of this world. You remember the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah. You remember my calling of your
father Abraham. Remember those former things,
those things of old. You remember those things because
I'm God and there's nothing like me. I declare the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times the things
that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I'll
do all my pleasure. I'm God. Is that who we come in here to
worship this morning? God's not some mystical fantasy
of man's imagination. He's not some portion of the
human spirit. That's the new thing today. He's
a portion of the human spirit that helps us through the bad
times and the hard times. No, He's God. He's God, and He
alone declares Himself and reveals Himself to men. And He does that,
Paul said, according to the good pleasures of his will. I tell you, I found folks in
the past that I was, I just liked them. They were nice people,
they were kind to me, and we kind of developed a little bit
of friendship, and oh, how I wanted them to know the gospel. I wanted
them to know the gospel so bad, and I'd sit and talk for hours
and hours and hours with them, but they never did. You know
why? Because it's not by the will
of man, but the will of God. It's according
to the good pleasure of His will. When I used to hear the word
will, I thought it was talking about your want to. Is that how
you thought about it? Talking about the will, well,
that's my want to. Something you wanted, something
you hoped to have or hoped would happen, that's the will. And I suppose that's true of
man's will because he doesn't have the power and ability to
make his will effectual. So his will is just a want to. But it's a grave error to think
on the will of God that way. And that's how religion portrays
him. He said, you thought I was altogether
such a one as yourself. But he said, I'm going to reprove
you. I'm going to tell you who I am. And it's a grave error
to think of the will of God the way we think of the will of man.
God wanting something. He wants to save you. Won't you
let him save you? God wants you to do. God doesn't
want. He does. He tells us in Ephesians 111,
listen to this, that in Christ we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. Now that either means what it
says or it has no meaning at all. Either God is working all things,
everything. You say, I can see, I can understand
God working in the salvation of a sinner. I can understand
God working in things for our good. I can understand that,
but it's difficult for me to understand the will of God in
little everyday things. I was telling one of the boys
after the Sunday school lesson this morning, we were talking
about the will of God, I said, suppose that rifleman that shot
Kennedy, he draws that bead from that window, and it's a difficult
shot, I've been there, he shot through a tree and all kinds
of stuff, and here he is, he's got that bead, boy, he's ready
to pull the trigger, and a gnat flies in his eye. You think how
much of history would have been changed an event from a gnat. Why didn't that gnat fly in his
eye? Huh? Why wasn't he distracted? You
see what I'm saying? God works all things, even those
little things that we just can't imagine or don't even think about.
He said not a sparrow can fall to the ground without your father. You mean God takes care for sparrows? Sure does. He sure does. He worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will. God's will, not just a hopeful
desire, but the eternal, effectual, immutable decree of God. That's
his will. Nebuchadnezzar said, after God
did business with him, and brought him down to see who he was, and
gave him a sound mind. And when that mind returned to
him, old Nebuchadnezzar said, he do according to his will in
the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or even question what he does. He's
God. He's God. The early church knew this. James
said, go to now, you that say, today or tomorrow, we're going
to go in such and such a city, and we're going to continue there
a year, and we're going to buy and sell and get gain, and we've
got all these things that we're going to go do. We just leave
God out of it. I'm going to go here, and I'm
going to get an education, and then I'm going to become a bank
president, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. No knowledge of tomorrow. James
said, you don't know what tomorrow holds. You know nothing of what
lies ahead. What you ought to say, if the
Lord will. We'll live. We'll still be alive
if the Lord will. And then we'll do this or that. This whole religious world has
a frustrated God who wants men to... He wants to do something
and men won't let Him. They just, they won't let him. And he labors. They have a God
that labors for things that men won't let him do. They won't
let him do. But the Bible depicts a different
God. He said, listen to David, he
said, whatsoever the Lord pleased. That's what he did in heaven.
That's what he did in earth, in the seas, and in all deep
places. That's the Lord. And even when
circumstances seemed to suggest the contrary. You know that pouting
disciple walking on the road to Emmaus, and the Lord came
up and began to talk to him, but he didn't reveal who he was.
And asked him what the problem was, and they said, well, where
you been? Don't you know it? And they began to tell him about
Christ and they said, we thought, we thought he was the Savior.
We thought he was the Christ. Circumstances suggested something
different, didn't it? Suggested that he died and that
was the end of it. Even when circumstances seem
to suggest the contrary as it did at the cross of Christ, yet
even there the scriptures tell us that all these people did
what God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done.
Right down to the words they spoke. Foretold thousands of
years before they ever said them. The scripture says of unregenerate
man, they had no fear of God. before his eyes. You know why? Because they don't know who God
is. They don't know who God is. The
man who knows who God is fears God. It's a fearful thing to
fall into the hands of the living God. He's God. No fear of God before their eyes.
And that's why. They don't know who He is. They
think that their whole being and destiny lies in their own
will. I want you to listen to me. The
Lord said, cannot I do with my own what I will? Where he is, we belong to him.
He's the Lord of the dead and the living. Cannot I do with
my own what I will? Who art thou that replies against
God, Paul said. Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Does not the
potter have power over the clay to make one vessel unto honor
and another to dishonor? I'm telling you this, the apostles
preached the eternal, omnipotent, immutable God, the God of purpose,
the God of election and predestination, the God of creation, providence,
and salvation. That's what they preached. Now what is the will of God?
Let's talk about that for just a minute. What is the will of
God? The will of God is His eternal
purpose and decree to save a people in Christ for the glory of His
name. Now you read Ephesians 1, I read
it to you, but you read it again with that in mind. That's the
will of God. It's to save a people that He
chose in Christ for the glory of his great name. What is the
will of God? He tells us down in verse 10,
Ephesians 1, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might
gather together one all things which are in Christ. Everything that was trusted to
him will be gathered in him. Both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in Him. And it's in Him also that we
obtained our inheritance. Now here's the picture. The sovereign,
eternal God of purpose, gathering to Himself everything He purposed
to have and to do. By way of His Son, our Redeemer,
and our representative. This is the picture. That's what's
going on today. He's gathering in to Himself. Everything is
trusted to Him. He's gathering it in. Gathering
it in. Fulfilling God's demands. Accomplishing
all His redemptive will. It says over in Hebrews chapter
10, talking about the Lord, He said, I come, He said, To do
thy will, O God, in the volume of the book it's written to me.
That's what I come to do. By the which will we're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And in the midst of this glorious
purpose of grace, we find ourselves obtaining an inheritance being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the council. of his own will. We find ourselves
being gathered together in him for the glory of God. And there's
a multitude of secondary things going on. Wars and rumors of
wars. Rising and falling of nations. Rising and falling of governments.
Scientific discoveries, trains, buses, trucks, planes, even space
travel. Discoveries in medicine. But nothing has changed in the
salvation of sinners. That's what I want you to say.
Nothing has changed in the salvation of sinners. Nothing has changed
in God's eternal purpose of grace in Christ Jesus. You can get
on a plane and in a matter of hours you can be on another continent. That's almost unbelievable. Get
on a plane, lay back there and take a nap, wake up and you're
in England. But there's only one way into
glory and it's the same as it was in the garden. By grace through
faith. That's it. That's it. Faith in an all-sufficient Savior,
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should bow." Now, I said all that to say this. We can read the Bible and see
the general will of God. God's going to save a people
for His glory. He tells us that. Just language
a child can understand, He tells us that. according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. From the beginning
chosen you unto salvation. I can see the general will of
God. I can see that there's a judgment out there in the future. I can
see that there's salvation out there in the future. I can see
all of these things. I can see the general will of
God, but what is God's will in my salvation? How does a poor, depraved, ignorant
sinner come to know something about God's will to save him? That's what I'm interested in. I praise God for his general
will. I praise him for at least an
understanding of that. But what is his will concerning
me? Let me give you a few things
that I believe God has used give me some understanding of his
saving will toward me. Now, here's the question. Man's
depraved, isn't he? I've dwelt long enough on that
subject where everybody in here ought to know what that means.
Man's depraved. There's none. And don't we see
it? None that understand it. And
not some little kid gonna come around and say, now wait a minute,
preacher, I already understand all these things. Really? No, there's none that understandeth.
And I'll tell you something else. Everybody looking for the seeking
sinner, there's none that seeketh after God. None that seeketh after God.
They're all gone out of the way. Religion says, you take the first
step, God will take the rest. But that's not true, is it? That's
not true at all. God takes the first step, the
next step, and all the rest of the steps. In Romans chapter 3, verse 11,
there's none that understandeth, none that seeketh after God.
In verse 16, he said, destruction and misery are in their ways.
What's that mean? That means they're walking the
path of self-destruction. That's what that means. And in
verse 17, the way of peace they've not known. An unregenerate man
walks according to the course of this world and according to
the prince of the power of the air. He has, in Romans chapter
8 verse 7, a carnal mind which enmity against God, its hostility
toward God, it hates God. Not subject to the law of God.
That word law is word. He's not subject to the word
of God. Neither indeed can be. He can't take the first step
because he's dead in trespasses and sins and has no understanding
and no heart to know it. You see what I'm saying? And
unassisted, the natural man receiveth not even the things of the Spirit
of God. He won't receive them because
they're foolishness unto him, and he can't know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.9
that it's never entered into the heart of man. Are you listening? It's never entered into the heart
of a man the things that God hath prepared for them that love
him. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit. So how does this poor, ignorant
sinner, this depraved sinner, ever come to know anything about
the sovereign, redemptive will of God? by divine intervention. That's how. God has to intervene. If he just leaves you to yourself,
you'll keep right on walking the way he describes your walk
according to the course of this world. You'll just follow that
course until you fall off the end into hell. You keep walking
according to the prince of the power of the air, thinking that
you do God a service every time you persecute a believer. Unassisted, the natural man,
he won't even receive the things of the Spirit of God. There'd
be foolishness to it. And it's never entered into the
heart of man, those things which God had prepared. It takes a sovereign intervention
of God. All right, preachers, so how
does God intervene? How does he do it? How does he
do it? James 1.18, we're talking about
the will of God, the redemptive will of God toward you. Of his
own will, begat he us with the word of truth. Huh? That's the only way you can know
it. God said, I'm gonna come down
and I'm gonna reveal myself to Russell Sanders on such and such
a date and such and such an hour, and he did. And he didn't do
it out on the lake. He brought you to here to preach
it. of his own will, God's will,
his immutable will, his unchangeable will, his sovereign will, begat
he us with the word of truth. We wasn't seeking him. He was seeking us. He's seeking
us. Oh my soul. And He did this that
we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures. That
word creatures is often misinterpreted. It means creation. Creation. It means that over
in Romans chapter 8 and it means that here. That we should be
a kind of first fruits of His creation. Because let me tell
you something. If any man be in Christ, he's
a what? A new creation. It's not something that evolved
out of the old man, it's a new man. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Now James made this statement
after telling us that every good and perfect gift is from above
and cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variable,
neither shadow of time. Then he says of his will, this
immutable God of his will, begat he us with the word of truth. The Lord of Glory, except you
be born again, you can't even see the Kingdom of God, and you
can't enter into it. The sovereign intervention is
the free gift of our Immutable Father, and then secondly, this
begatting is with the Word of Truth. Turn with me to 1 Peter
chapter 1. There's three ingredients that
go into the new birth. Three ingredients. I want you
to see that. These make up that divine intervention. 1 Peter 1, verse 22. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. And that's the only
way you'll ever do it. Unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently being born again. Not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. For all flesh is grass. You understand why he inserted
this verse? It's to show us that this new
birth has nothing to do with that old nature. That's why he inserted this here.
He's talking about the new birth. And he said, we're born of that
incorruptible seed by the word of God. For all flesh is grass
and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass. The grass
withers, the flower fades away. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. Now watch this, verse 25. The
word of the Lord endures forever, and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. We're talking about a divine
intervention here, and here he gives us all three ingredients.
He gives us the spirit of God, the word of God, and the preaching
of the gospel. The work of the Holy Spirit and
the word of God and the preaching of the gospel are together the
means of the new birth. And Paul believed this so much
that in Colossians 4, 3, he asked the church to pray for him. He
said, pray for me, that God would open to him a door of utterance
to speak the mystery of Christ, because only God could do it.
And he believed this so strongly that he said to the church at
Philippi, I would that you should understand, brethren, that the
things which happened to me, what happened to it? He was taken
prisoner. He was thrown in prison. He was
falsely accused. He was arrested for doing nothing,
nothing but good, doing the will of God. And he was arrested and
put in prison. And he said, don't think bad
about me. He said, I want you to understand that the things
which happen unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance
of the gospel. libyans one thirteen so that
my bonds in christ are manifest in all the palace god opened
the door to me and i'm his friend right prisoner rome i'm here
for a year and he made me here for a year so his gospel could
go right into the palace then he said when you think about
my bond you think about him that way what do you believe What do I believe? Do you believe that God Almighty
arranges His providence and sends His Spirit and sends His preachers
and opens the Word of God in the hearts of chosen sinners?
Because that's what God said He does. Listen to how clear the scriptures
are. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The saving knowledge of God requires
a divine intervention in the sinner. He must be arrested. He must be stopped. And only
God can stop him. He can't stop himself. The world
can't stop him. Don't want to stop him. They're
encouraging him. Well, what's going to stop him?
God is. Paul went down there. He sought
those papers so he could go persecute those Christians. He thought
he was doing God a service. He crawled up on that big white
stallion and away he went until God arrested him and threw him
in the mud. Now he said, I'm going to tell
you who I am, and I'm going to tell you what my will is, and
you're going to do it. And he did. He made that proud Pharisee go
down there and let a preacher teach him the truth. Huh? That's right. The saving knowledge of God requires
a divine intervention in the sinner He has to be arrested
by the spirit of grace. He has to be taught the truth.
And he has to come and bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and trust
in him. And then secondly, and I'll hurry.
How can a poor, depraved, ignorant sinner come to know something
of the redemptive will of God? By the word of God. Quit listening to men and quit
looking to see what seems right to you. Word of God says you're
depraved. You ought to quit looking inside
based just on that. The Word of God. Let God be true.
Isn't that what Paul said? Let God be true. And every man
a liar. Now I wasn't too shocked the
first time I heard a man state the doctrine of God's sovereignty. The sovereignty of God. The particular
redemption of Christ. predestination. I wasn't too
shy. I'd heard men make these loud statements before, not especially
on that subject, but on other things. I'd heard things like
that made. Sinners love to do that, especially
irreligious people. They love to make shocking statements.
I'd heard those things before. But I tell you, I was shocked
down to my toes when I saw those doctrines plainly stated and
taught in the scriptures. Huh? Oh, this is what God says. This is what God says. fall of man, the sovereignty
of God, the election of men to salvation, predestination, particular
redemption, faith and repentance, and on and on it goes. These
things are clearly, plainly stated in the Word of God. You know what Paul told Timothy?
He didn't say, now you get you a good book of illustrations
because you're going to need a lot of illustrations. And then
you need to study up on history, so when you go to these foreign
countries, you'll know a little something about them, and you
can find a little common ground there, and you can... You know
what he told me? Preach the word. That's what
he told me. Preach the word. What am I going to do with the
rest of my time? Study the Word. Huh? Give yourself to it. Study the Word. Get familiar
with the Word of God. And somebody stands up here and
said, the Lord said you ought to be able to know if he's lying
or telling the truth. Huh? That's right. Study the
Word of God. We study everything but the Word
of God. I can tell you what was in last week's newspaper. Somebody
said Romans 6 verse 13. I wouldn't know what they're
talking about. Why? Because I have given myself completely
to the Word of God. Study the Word of God. Commit
it to your memory. The Word, David said, is a lamp
to my feet. Our power went off the other
night. You couldn't see your hand in front of you. And I remembered
where I thought I left the lamp. And I was doing this. I was over
there and finally found it, turned it on. Had no trouble after that. I could see. David said, your
word is a lamp to my feet. I could see where I'm going. It's a lamp to my feet and it's
a light unto the way. It shows me the way. Christ said
I'm the way. How do I know that? Because the
Word of God says it. Now don't get me wrong, I want
folks to hear what I'm saying. I want you to understand when
I give you illustrations and when I say things like that.
I want you to listen to what I'm saying, but I want more than
that. I want you to see a harmony with
what I'm saying with the Word of God. That this is what God
is saying and not just the preacher. And then thirdly, how can a poor,
ignorant sinner come to know something about the saving will
of God toward him? by seeing and believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well you say, how is that the
will of God? Turn with me to John chapter
six and I'll show you. John chapter six. Let's back all the way up to
verse 37. We're going all the way back
to the Father's purpose, His eternal counsel, and His will,
His redemptive will. 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 my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which is sent me that of all which he
hath given me I should lose nothing but raise it up again at the
last day. But he don't stop there. Now
watch this. And this is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. How do I know the will of God
told me? Because I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, well how does a poor
sinner see the Son? He sees Him as the Son of God.
as the Son of God, because that's how He's preached when He's preached
to right. He's preached as the Son of God.
He's God over all, blessed forever. He's God our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And secondly is God's provision
for the sinner. I need provision, David. I can't do what God demands. I want to, but I can't. I don't
have the ability. I don't have the righteousness
that he demands. I can't satisfy his justice. I can't do what God demands. Listen to this. Paul said we're
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Now watch this. Whom God has
set forth. That's how we see him. as God
has set him forth. How did God set him forth? As
a propitiation for our sins. That which enables God to show
mercy to the sinner. That's how he set forth. As God's
provision for the sinner. And he did that through faith
in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins. To
declare his righteousness that God may be just and yet justify
all them that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
we see it. As a forerunner sinner looks
to Christ, he finds in him a full sufficiency. He may not see it
all at the beginning, but he'll see it. He'll see it. That sinner looks to Christ and
he finds in Him a full sufficiency. He finds that Christ is all. That God hath made Him to be
for us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Now, going back to our text down
here at the bottom here in Ephesians chapter 1. He said, God hath
abounded toward us. That's how the poor ignorant
sinner comes to know the will of God. God abounded toward us
in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery
of his will. God did that. Oh, you mean God
sent that preacher? That's exactly what I mean. You
mean God taught him? That's exactly what I mean. You
mean God uses that to the salvation of sinners? That's exactly what
I mean. God hath abounded toward us. He didn't abound toward the
world, he abounded toward us. Who's the us? Go all the way
back up there to the beginning of verse three. Verses three
and four. God blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ according as he's chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world. And those He chose
in Christ and whom Christ redeemed, those He abounds. He abounds
in this wisdom and prudence. He abounds in our understanding
of His will. He abounds unto us. He makes
known unto us the mystery of His will according to His good
pleasure which He purposed in Himself. Well, what have you
got to say about that, Preacher? Amen. Amen. So be it. Somebody told one of
the preachers I know, he said, well, that makes man a puppet,
and God has him on strings, and he's dancing around doing everything
God wants him to do. And the preacher said, well,
let me tell you something. What's the alternative to that?
Man has God on the string. making God do what he wants him
to do. I'd rather be the puppet on God's
strings any day, wouldn't you? And that's what I mean when I
say amen.