Back to Jeremiah chapter 29 briefly. You can follow me in your pastor's
commentary. We are continuing in our second
installment on the will of God. We'll be here for one more week
as I am contemplating some other things around it as well. We started off two weeks ago
talking about how the will of God is a multifaceted design
and scheme and purpose on the part of God, which requires the
believer to have a very good working knowledge of God's word
to begin to even process how God thinks and how God acts and
how God works. So that we might, we might, come
at and arrive at a conclusion as to what God's will is for
us. And I think I recall saying to you two weeks ago, in order
for you to know what God's will is for you, you've got to first
know God's will. So for the believer, really what
God is calling you and me to is a knowledge of his will. When
you know the will of God and the facets in which we are going
to be addressing it, you will begin to know God's will for
you. The reason why I gave you Jeremiah 29 is because this is
what we do in Christianity. We lift Bible verses up out of
their text. And because we don't know the
context, we fail to actually grasp the rich, rich meaning
of that verse. How many times have we heard,
I know the thoughts that I have towards you. and the plans that
I have for you for success and prosperity and blessing and not
harm and hurt. And they've been snatched out
of their context and been made to be just sort of a calling
card for God to be a sugar daddy to you. Is that true? Right. And so where we have failed to
honor the totality of God's word, we set ourselves up for misinterpretation
of the scripture. But when you understand that
promise that God is giving you right there, here's what you
understand. That God is coming alongside of his people who are
in the midst of trouble. Trouble that they are in because
of their own sinfulness. And what he's doing with them
in the midst of their trouble is telling them, this trouble
is from me. I sent this trouble. This trouble
is a consequence of your disobedience, but it is part of my will. A
lot of times when we're talking about God and thinking about
God, we don't want to think about God in terms of his discipline
in our life. We'd love to blame it on somebody
else or something else, but we have a hard time with the sovereign
God who is in control of everything, both good and evil. Is that true?
Well, God knows that in the midst of Babylon, to which his people
have been driven, according to his covenant promise, for those
of you who know Bible theology, that God told us in Deuteronomy
28 through 30, as well as Leviticus 26 through 29, if you disobey
me, I'm going to send you far, far away from my house. I'm kicking
you out of my house. Remember, Israel is the second
Adam type. Christ is the ultimate Adam type.
Israel is the second. And the first Adam was kicked
out of God's house too, right? And the second Adam is removed
too because of its disobedience to God. And what God says to
his people is, I'm always in control of your circumstance.
I'm always in control of everything that's going on in your life.
Even when I'm disciplining you, it's for your good. So now what
happens is the people of God try to wiggle out of God's sovereign
hand and either blame it on someone else or change the scenario.
This is where false prophets come in. False prophets will
paint bleak and dark pictures of what's going on, failing to
understand that God always means good to his elect when he brings
discipline in their life. So you have these prophets going
around talking about rebelling against the king of Babylon and
rebelling against being in Babylon and rebelling against your circumstance. And what God is saying is when
you rebel against your present circumstance, you're rebelling
against me. You're rebelling against me.
Why? Because God is in control of everything. Haven't we learned
that? And here's the beautiful truth that God lays down in this
text that's going to now bring us back into remembrance of the
multifaceted nature of the will of God. Here's what God said,
settle down right where you are and realize I'm on my throne
and there's not a king in the universe that I don't control.
He can't go to the left or the right. He can't do good or evil. He can't do right or wrong unless
me, the sovereign and living God, I, the true and the living
God, give him permission to do it. He can't touch you. He can't
harm you. He can't hurt you unless I let
him. Now, do you know how much faith
it takes to sit up under a God who will allow the last eight
presidents we had to run this nation? In our hermeneutical systems,
we learn how to not only preach the text and context, but we
also learn how to make application. And the application is the same.
Child of God, you're in Babylon. Whether you know it or not, you
are in Babylon. And Babylon has been the journey of God's sojourning
church ever since the persecution in Acts chapter 8. We've been
traveling as strangers and pilgrims through this world for the last
2,000 years. Am I making some sense? And sometimes
God takes us into hard places as the church. But he tells us
in those hard places, listen to me, look for me, and I will
keep you. This is the context now of chapter
29, verse 13 and 14. Listen to his prophecy as I make
an application, and we will once again rejoin our consideration
of the will of God. He says in verse 11, for I know
the thoughts that I think towards you. I'm not like these guys
who are crying, the sky is falling. I'm not telling you the world
is ending. I'm not telling you to look for judgment day. I'm
telling you to trust in me. That's what God is saying. Do
you guys see that? I'm telling you. Listen, they're
in Babylon. They're under the rule of a heinous
criminal king and pagan idolatry rank everywhere. What is he calling
his people to do? Close their eyes and open their
mind to the reality of God. That's called walking by what?
That's exactly right. He says, now I know my thoughts
towards you. They are thoughts of what? Peace and not evil to
give you an expected end. Now watch the next two verses
because these are going to be the verses that I'm going to
use to nurture our continual thought around the will of God
since we all want to know what his will is. Then shall you call
upon me. What does God want you to do?
Why? Because he values relationship. Then shall you call upon me and
you shall go and you shall what? Ah, there it is. You know what
butt whoopings do for us as children of God? They cause us to call
on God. They cause us to go and do what
we should have been doing because we are children of the living
God in the first place. You know how you don't talk to
God for a while? He'll get you to talk to Him at some point.
You know how you ain't been praying in a while? He'll get you to
praying at some point. Child of God, listen to me. And
the reason He does it is because He values your what? With Him. This is how we're going
to get into the will of God. This is how we're going to learn
the will of God. God is radically committed to your walk with him. He's radically committed to it.
And the devil is radically committed to you not walking with God.
He's radically, just as radically committed God is to you walking
with him, the enemy is committed to you not walking with God.
So understand every time God sets down a way for you to escape,
the enemy lays a trap in the jinn to keep you from your escape. So when we talk about the will
of God, as we're doing today, I guarantee you, you can understand
this as a, as what we call a hermeneutics, a reputation principle. The devil
does not want you to know the will of God, your enemy. The last thing he wants you to
know is how to trust God. The last thing he wants you to
do is what Job did when God destroyed his whole house, his whole family,
his whole business. The Lord gives and the Lord takes
away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
The last thing the devil wants you to do is be able to trust
God in the midst of your storms. He wants you crying and whining
and falling out and blaming somebody. I think it was one of my deacons
who said Job never exercised the doctrine of demonology in
any of his crying out. He never blamed it on the devil. He kept his eyes fixed on God,
didn't he? And this is where your peace comes in at in the
midst of your trouble, keeping your eyes on Christ. But now
notice what he says, you shall call upon me and you shall go
pray. And when you pray calling upon me, what I will hearken
unto you. Isn't that good? That's what
we call scripturally a promise. You can shut that down. It's
a conditional promise predicated upon God's purpose. If you do
this, God will do that. And do you believe God always
comes through? Now watch the next verse. Watch this next verse.
And you shall seek me. You shall seek me. Lord, have
mercy on us. Have mercy on us. Is that true, Saints? Is it appropriate
for me to say that right here? For me to pause like the psalmist,
we have been having rich, rich, rich studies in the Psalms. Aren't
the Psalms good? And you guys had one this morning,
didn't you? A rich study in the Psalms. And the psalmist sometimes
after writing a line on his score for the hymn or the song that
he's developing, he pauses and thinks about God's goodness in
his life. It's called a salat. you have
to pause. And sometimes he pauses because
he remembers, as we learned this morning, sometimes we're just
not right. And you have to pause and admit
you're just not right. Even in the face of God's goodness,
you have to pause and admit. And if I had to confess over
us at grace, I would have to confess we are not seeking God
as we ought to. I'm talking about you and me.
Not like this. Watch the text. Here's what God
says. Now when I put you in straits, and I cause you to fall on your
knees, and I cause you to call on me, and I promise you I'm
gonna hear you, and you will begin to seek me. Isn't that
how it works? You start tearing up all of those
old forms of distractions and hindrances that keep you from
God. Isn't there a ton of distractions that keep us from God? they pop
up every day they're called pop-ups in your life they pop up every
day and they hinder you from your walk with God they take
away your time from God they hinder you from your walk with
God and watch this you let them and then when God out of love
has to kick the doing say hey what about me then he has to
bring you to your knees He has to bring you to your knees because
you won't call on him until you find your need of him again.
That's how terrible we are by nature. That's you and me, saints. He says, you'll seek me and you'll
find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. You see it? That's the condition. That's the condition. finding
God. Now, watch this. Here's what
I'm gonna say as we move into our point. God is not into hide and seek. God's not into hide and seek.
You and I are. We love playing hide and seek with God. God,
I'm gonna hide from you. Find me. Preacher, what are you
talking about? Adam and Eve. Didn't they hide
from God? They sinned and then they what?
Hid. But in God's mercy, what did he do? He sought him out,
didn't he? Because God values what? I remember
a man named Achan. He was told, don't touch the
devoted things. Kill it all. Israel in battle
with Joshua to destroy the people of Jericho. And he had taken
the goods. And he had taken a Babylonian
garment and 200 shekels of silver. Remember that? And hid them in
his tent. And you know what he said to
God and to the whole of Israel? I'm hiding. Seek me out. Well,
because God values relationship, what did God do? Seek him out.
and brought him to judgment because God values relationship. I know
another couple who thought that they could play hide-and-seek
with God too. You know who they were? Ananias and Sapphira. You
see how we do, saints? You see how we do? You see how
unfair we are to God? We love to play hide-and-seek.
Now, we want God to save us, but God has to come hunt us down
and expose our sins and then deliver us from our sins of which
we're in love with before we can actually have a healthy,
vital walk with God. Now, while there's shit that's
going on in your life, are you ready? You can never know the
will of God. So we're getting ready now to
work with our text, and I'm going to show you what I mean by that.
And this is designed to be of encouragement and edification
to you. But I tell you, child of God, the idea of knowing the
will of God is the most important thing in your life. It's the
most important thing in your life. You cannot get to heaven
by accident. Point number one, let me quickly
work through these. I want to touch on these. Remember I told
you there were five aspects to God's will? Five aspects. Remember
I talked about what is called the what? Precept of will of
God. And I told you that the precept of will of God is your
what? It's your Bible. Everything starts here. This
is what we're going to learn in our fundamentals class as
we deal with church history and show us how that the only reason
we're saved today is because God gave us grace to keep this
book. But this book is what we call
the preceptive will of God. That means from Genesis to Revelation,
it is God's will to us. Do I want to know what God's
will is? I better read this book. Am I telling the truth? I better
read this book to the law and to the testimony. If they speak
not according to this word, it's because there's no light in them.
And I share with you several verses. I only want to share
with you one right now in 2 Peter 1, verse 19-21. 2 Peter 1, where Peter explaining
the more sure word of prophecy that was given unto us. You know,
you got folks in the church like to talk about they heard from
God. And then they want to tell you what they heard from God.
But what we tell men and women is we've heard from God and we
know what God has to say. It's right here in this book,
right? And so now listen to how Peter affirms what we call the
more sure word. You'll go wrong with everybody
else's word, but you'll never go wrong with God's word. It's
the more sure word. Listen to it. We have a more
sure word of what? Where unto you do well to take
heed as unto a light that shines into what? Is God's Word a light? Is it a lamp unto our path? Is
his reproof of instructions the way of life? Yes, they are. And
so it goes on to say, until the day dawn. Do you see the metaphor?
It's the rising of the sun. What are you talking about, pastor?
Your heart and my heart are by nature dark. We have no counsel
in our heart of any kind by which to get to God. If we will ever
get to God, God must cause his light to shine out of darkness
into our heart and cause the day star, which is Jesus Christ,
to rise continually in our soul and give us a revelation of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Is that
true? That means I need to stay in the book because the book
alone is going to illuminate my mind to understand God's will.
This is what Peter is saying. Now watch how Peter lays down
how we got this book. Verse 20. And he says in verse
20, knowing this first, this is of the highest priority, that
no prophecy of the scripture is of any what? Private interpretation. Now here's what this means. It's
a bad translation. It's not really a good one. There
can be a better. The word interpretation is not the real meaning of that
word. That word is a beluso, and it
actually means the releasing of revelation from heaven down
to us by inspiration. It's not of any private or personal
doing, meaning the Greek term idios is the word for private
idioties. What Peter is saying is, man,
whoever it was, Samuel or Joshua or David or Moses, they did not
write the Bible as a consequence of their own reasoning out of
their own heart. But they were moved when the
Spirit of God went into them, infused himself in them, illuminated
their mind and made them the mouthpiece for biblical revelation. So this is what we call a loosening
of God's revelation from heaven in the heart of a man who then
inscripture rates that revelation Heaven opens up. It was a loosening
of heaven and the revelation comes down Inspiration takes
place and then inscription is the final product you guys got
that revelation inspiration inscription The scriptures are the consequence
of illumination. Illumination is a consequence
of what? Revelation. So this is what the text is saying.
It didn't happen on a compunction or a drive or a personal passion
on the part of the authors of scripture, which were more than
46 authors. And verse 21 underscores this
as well. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the what? Will of man. But then whose will
brought it about? God. It was the will of God to
give us the Bible, and he gave us the Bible through men through
whom he spake infallibly, inerrantly. Do you guys understand that?
For those of us who are Biblicists, as you heard this morning, we
believe the Bible to be the infallible, inerrant Word of God. We believe that God moved upon
frail, fickle, sinful men in a way by which he gave us the
actual Word of God and all this verbal, plenary inspiration. In other words, God meant what
he said. This is how we have what we call
the preceptive will of God. Your Bible is your preceptive
will of God. It all starts right there. It all starts right there.
And in fact, our Lord underscored that in Psalm 40 verse 7, which
is one of our primer verses for how we interpret the Bible Christocentrically. When we say that the Bible is
about Christ, notice how Psalm 40 verse 7 puts it. Then said
I, this is Jesus talking through David, lo, I come in the volume
of the what? What book are we talking about?
This book, right? Who's this book about? It's about Christ. From where? Genesis 1-1, Revelation
22-21, right? Jesus is making his way through
the book, in our heart, back to glory, and bringing the people
with him. Watch what it says. Watch what
it says. Then said I, Lo, I come in the
volume of the book. It's written of me. So we know who the subject
of the book is. Verse 42. I delight to do thy
will. This is why whenever you go through
the gospels, the authors of the gospel would say, and thus the
scriptures were fulfilled. When Jesus laid hands on people,
he healed the sick. Frequently the authors of the
narratives of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John would say that
the scriptures might be what? Fulfilled. So what is Jesus doing
when he comes? He's tagging every verse of Old
Testament prophecy and fulfilling them. Fulfilled! Fulfilled! Fulfilled! Fulfilled! Fulfilled! Fulfilled! And even while he's hanging on
the cross, he says, give me vinegar to drink that he might finally
what? Fulfill the scriptures. The Bible
is the preceptive will of God. This is where we all start. Secondly,
the Bible is not only the precept of the will of God, I taught
you that the Bible is also what? The decreed of will of God. In other words, inherent in your
scriptures is a revelation that God is a God that is sovereign
and he decrees. And what God sovereignly decrees
is everything that comes to pass. Do you believe that, Saints?
I'll just use a couple of verses again to affirm that Ephesians
chapter 1 verse 11 Ephesians 1 11 now again if you take your
Bible seriously and You have a sanctified mind and you are
patiently waiting on God Clarity comes to the text but listen
to what this verse says He says in whom that is Christ. We have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose what is the word purpose will and according to the will
of him that worketh what all things stop that now notice what
he just said God sovereignly works everything everything say
everything for the purpose of those who have been predestinated
into Christ watch this after the counsel of his own what now
when you understand that verse carefully here's what you think
through God has a counsel a Among the Trinitarian persons father
son and Holy Ghost who before the world began determined everything
that should be So that nothing happens in our world where a
sovereign God has not already determined it. Do you believe
that? This is why we also say at grace. God never reacts. He always what? See you only
react when you're not running the show. I You only react when you don't
know. But when you know everything, all you have to do is anticipate
it and have your sovereign, impeccable, purposeful will ready for that
move. So God is always in control of
everything from the standpoint of his eternal counsel. Grace
for his people now I told you when once you and I read the
precept the will of God and we see that God is sovereign How
that he moves the hearts of Kings how that he stops people from
sinning against him even heathen does God do that? Does God restrain
all the wickedness of men right for some people that's theological
and others they can't quite get it But you remember the pagan
King that was going to go into Abraham's wife Sarah and God
said brother Don't you touch her? I will kill you to death. You and everybody in Egypt, I'll
destroy." You know what he said? And he said, hey, the king said,
hey, now, you know, out of the integrity of my heart, I wanted
her, but I didn't want her as an adulterous man. And God said
to him, I know, because I kept you back. God keeps all people
from sinning as much as they could. When we teach the doctrine
of total depravity, you're going to learn that. We don't ever
sin as much as we could, even though we are totally capable
of the most heinous crime in the world. So for those of you
who are embracing the category of the sovereignty of God, embrace
this. God keeps your boss back from acting out against you as
he or she would if it wasn't for the grace of God. That's
why you pray for your boss, because God keeps your boss back. See,
like he keeps you back, Like he keeps you back from fussing
and cussing at her, he keeps her back from fussing and cussing
at you. That's good doctrine. Good doctrine. So when we pray
for our unsaved colleagues and co-workers and bosses, you pray
for them and you at the same time. Lord, have mercy on us. Now you're moving into the priesthood
ministry of which we're going to be talking about next week.
Because the only people that have access to God is his people.
So why wouldn't you pray for the non-elect or the unsaved
as you pray for yourself since God is using them to bless you
by keeping you on your job? I can shut it down right there,
huh? Because y'all got some stuff to work with, don't you? Let's
keep going now see cuz here's what I've learned. Here's what
I've learned a lot of us believe in the sovereignty of God Intellectually,
but not pragmatically on a practical level we believe in free will
You'll get that in a moment But again, we're gonna learn that
when we go through the doctrines of Tulip over against the man-centered
system of free will works religion And we will demonstrate that
that's a myth but we act like free willers and We love taking
things into our own hand and doing whatever we want to without
taking into account that God's on his throne. So when we understand
that God is sovereignly controlling everything, the good and the
evil, we will then have to learn how to negotiate why God brings
things into our life or allows things in our life or circumstances
in our life that are evil by nature. And how do we manage
that? Is that true? How do we manage
that? So this is what I say under the first three headings, the
precept of will of God, the sovereign will of God, the sovereign will
of God is the next one. We call it the what? Mandated
will of God, the imperative will of God. Saints, what is the imperative
will of God? Those specific teachings in the
word of God by which God tells you and me what to do. When God
says to you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, is that the imperative
will of God? When God says to you, walk by faith, not by sight,
is that the imperative will of God? When God says to you, be
patient with them that despise you, is that the will of God?
When God tells you and I to look to Christ and to trust Christ,
is that the will of God? When he tells us to turn from
our sin, repent from our evil ways, is that the direct, mandative,
imperative will of God? Is it? When God gives us the
moral code of the Ten Commandments, I am the Lord your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt. You shall have no other
gods beside me. You shall not make an image in
heaven or the earth or under the earth. I alone am the Lord
your God. You shall worship me alone. Is
that an imperative? And there is no squabbling with
that. When he says don't kill, don't steal, don't commit adultery,
don't covet, don't violate the Sabbath day, honor your mother
and father. Those are imperatives that God means for us to keep
because when we fall into conformity with them, we glorify God. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? But here's the struggle, y'all
ready? Didn't I tell you this a couple of weeks ago? We are
both frequently in the will of God and out of the will of God
at the same time. Is that true? The imperative
will of God comes and say, love your neighbor as yourself. I'm
in trouble. The imperative will of God says,
love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and
your neighbor as yourself. It's right to do. I should do
it, right? I'm in trouble. But remember, I told you when
you are truly born again, you have two natures. How many natures
you got two? You're one person, two natures. You're going to
learn something about this as I talk about the doctrine of the Trinity,
one of the major arguments of the church from the first century
to the fourth century. We need to know it. Why do we
believe in a triune God? It's essential. It's part of
inscripturated revelation, right? We need to know it because the
nature of God is relative to your salvation. But here you
are, you bear two natures, don't you? One that wants to do good,
the other that always wants to do evil, right? You're going
in two directions at the same time. Is that true? Two directions
at the same time. two directions at the same time.
And because you are going in two directions at the same time,
theologically, you are both in the will of God and out of the
will of God at the same time. You guys get that? Anytime I
disobey God's word, even in thought, I'm out of the will of God. But if deep down inside, I've
been born again, as 1 John 3, 9 says, he that is born of God
cannot continue sinning because God's seed is in him. I always
want to do the will of God, even when I don't want to. I know
that sounds like a contradiction. I know it sounds like a contradiction.
But it's not a contradiction. It's what we call a paradox.
Because what I want to do, not being able to do it, is to drive
me to my knees because God values what? You better get it because
he values relationship. So what we're dealing with is
preceptively, we know what the book says. Sovereignly, we know
who God is. Mandatively, we struggle with
what God tells us to do. But we want to. We want to. And then there's another aspect
of God's will. I have to remind you of Deuteronomy 29, 29a. This is designed to knock us
in the head and to tell us that we will never know everything. Because some of us think we can
know everything about God. Deuteronomy 29, 29. What does
it say, part eight? The secret things belong unto
the Lord. Stop right there. Now, let me
help you understand the difference between secret and private. I
taught this in our marriage series. But I'm going to share it with
you now because remember there are three covenant paradigms.
How many of you guys know the three covenant paradigms? Raise your hand. So
you only have the house. You know what that means? You're
not listening to your pastor. So the three covenant paradigms
by which you understand your Bible is this. God reveals himself
to us in a father-son relationship. That runs all the way through
the scriptures. You can't miss it. Then he also reveals himself
to us in what we call a king-servant relationship. By the way, a son
is a servant as well. Is that true? And then he reveals
himself to us as a what? Husband, wife. When you understand
those three major paradigms, everything in scripture will
find their place. Do you understand what I just
stated? Everything is scripture. That's why it starts off with
the father and son in Genesis 1, and it ends with the husband
and the wife in Genesis Revelation 22 and 17. Because God means
to have a family through his son, by the church who are the
objects of his mercy and grace for all eternity. Is that true?
Now watch this now. But the secret things belong
unto God. What that means is God wants
our walk with him to be one, not of knowledge first, but of
trust. Did you get that? Not of knowledge
first, but of trust. How do you figure it out? That's
what my sister said at one time yesterday. We had a great DOG
class yesterday. It was great. And my sister was
prophesying. I'm sorry, exhorting. When she
was exhorting the saints and she was telling her sisters,
ladies, you got to learn how to just call on God and pray
to God for your children. I was listening to what she was
going on for 10 minutes. She sounded like George, her husband.
But that's how we are by nature. We love to exhort. But her exhortation
was so simple. It was so simple. It was so simple
that I know we will miss it. When you are in your struggles,
while you will be inclined to want to try to figure them out
first, go to God first. And then you're going to discover
in doing that, that the real exercise that you should be engaged
in is going to God. Because what you'll do is you'll
go to God for about five minutes and then you'll move from going
to God and you'll get involved in going to self and trying to
work it out yourself. And that's where all the frustrations
come in at. Am I making some sense? Sometimes God is not going
to tell you what he's done. What he's done, what he's doing,
what he will do. Doesn't that hurt? Haven't I told you there
are situations where you wake up on a given day And you have
this crazy day. And at the end of the day, you
wonder, what was that all about? And then you go, I'm going to
wait on the Lord for him to reveal it to me. And here you go, 20
years later, and he still ain't revealed it to you. So stay with
me for a moment. He ain't going to reveal it to
you, because that was one of his secret things. All he wanted
you to do was to trust him through it, because God values what? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? See, and you're the son, he's the daddy. You're the servant,
he's the king. You got that? You're the bride,
he's the husband. And all we're supposed to do
is after reading his precept of will, understanding he's sovereign
and perfect and cannot fail, cannot lie, all right, what?
Change. That we can trust him to get us through the storm.
Then we can save this little gray matter and the synapses
and the neurotransmitters running in our brain and we don't have
to go crazy trying to figure it out because we have a God
who is omnipotent and omniscient and everywhere present and able
to fulfill his will without the slightest hindrance if we would
but what? Trust him. So the secret will of God is
that space where you got to leave it alone and let God take you
through. Some of y'all know what I mean
by experience, don't you? Cause this is where we're getting ready
to go now under our second proposition, because this is where the struggle
of the sovereignty of God comes in for most people. We'll come
back here a little bit later because part B is very interesting.
We'll come back here a little bit later. So now I want you
to move with me now to our final aspect of the five that we talked
about last week. We've looked at the precept of
will of God, the decree of will of God, the mandate of or the
imperative will of God. We've seen now the secret will
of God. by the way Romans chapter 11 verse 36 underscores this
as well who had known the mind of the Lord or who have been
his counselor or who have told God that God should recompense
him again as if we could give God some advice unto God are
all things for of him and through him and to him are what all things
you know what that means he's sovereign he's sovereign at the
end of the day the buck stops with who God And finally, our
last one, which we'll treat this week and more fully next week,
is the redemptive will of God. Now here's the redemptive will
of God in a nutshell, the gospel. What do we mean by the gospel?
The person and work of Jesus Christ. What do we mean by the
person and work of Jesus Christ? The counsel of God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Before the world began
to have a people for themselves to the praise of their glory
and through the grace of God that he would accomplish for
them in Jesus Christ. So that Jesus Christ becomes
for all the people of God the fulfillment of God's will. Are
you guys hearing me? Jesus Christ becomes for all
the people of God, the fulfillment of God's will. Now, when you
get a hold to that one, you can swing through any trial. When
you understand the redemptive will of God for you, if you are
a believer in Christ, you can swing through any trial. Now,
we'll get back there a little bit later on. So we've covered the
five. Let me move now into the more pressing aspect of our consideration. Point number two, are you there?
Point number two, the principle attitude towards the will of
God. The principle attitude. See, there's a will, an attitude
that you and I have to have about the will of God. And here's the
attitude that God wants you and me to have. He wants you and
I to have the attitude of pursuing God. Pursuing Him. That's what we saw in Jeremiah,
chapter 29, verse 14. Remember, if you seek me, you
shall find me when you seek me with all your what? So the attitude
is pursuing God. So the question we have to raise
now is, are we pursuing God? Is God really the passion of
our soul? Am I invested in wanting to obtain
who God is and what he does and what he wants done as the highest
purpose for my existence? And the answer for many of us
is no. And while that is not the case, you will not know the
will of God for you. You will be in flux. Oh, yes. You can embrace what we call
the sovereign will of God. But can I say something about
the sovereign will of God? Everybody's in that. Hell bound sinners in
that. Lost people who call God no God
are in that, right? The sovereign will of God encompasses
all human beings, does it not? This is true. Watch this. Hell
is filled with everyone who did not pursue God's will. Hell is filled with everyone
who did not do God's will. Hell is filled with everyone
who did not want God's will. And that was God's will. You got it? Categories help us
not contradict the scriptures. Is that true? But what side of
God's will do you want to be on? The side where God says you
didn't do my will and you ended up in hell, which was God's will?
Or the side where God says, well done, my good and faithful servant,
enter thou into the kingdom and joy of the Lord. You guys see
what I'm getting at? This is so very important for
you to know. Don't play with this thing called the will of
God. Be very serious, be very intentional. So I'm going to
share something with you around this. This is so very important.
When it comes to the principle attitude towards the will of
God, you and I ought to desire God's will as the highest objective
of our life. Matthew chapter 5 verse 6 says,
Blessed are they that hunger. Hunger. Are you hungry? Are you thirsting for God's righteousness? Now watch this, saints. If you
presume on it, you're not hungry. Because God's righteousness reaches
from eternity past. It enters into time. It tutors
us through the law. It brings us to Christ. It regenerates
us. It sanctifies us. It leads us. It keeps us. And it finishes
us in glory. What does that mean, pastor?
Every day of my life, I am to hunger for that righteousness
until it has engulfed me with the glory of God. Are you hearing me? Until it
has engulfed me with the glory of God. Until I am so, if I'm
born again, I have Christ's nature in me. If I have Christ's nature
in me, I want what Christ wants. And he already told us several
weeks ago what he wants. Father, I will that those whom
you have given me be with me where I am, that they might behold
my glory. that they might know the love
that you have towards me and me towards you, that they might
know the oneness that I have purchased by my blood for all
of God's elect, that they might enter into that for which they
have been apprehended, the glory of God. Am I making some sense?
What that means, Cal Day, what that means, Brother George, what
that means, Brother Skinner, is that right now I'm still hungry
because I'm not what I'm supposed to be. I'm not what I'm supposed
to be. You can pretend You can pretend. You can pretend. You can pretend. But every day of my life, I'm
fighting against the drought. How about you? Every day of my
life, I'm fighting against the drought. I'm fighting against
the drought. Are you, Stephan? You know what
the drought is? It's that part of our being that
keeps the moisture of grace drying up so that I never enter into
the fullness of what I want to enter into. Now God has taught
me how to recover from the drought. Take a deep swan dive into the
river of grace and open your mouth wide. Open your mouth wide. Open it wide. And God says, I'll
fill it. I'll fill it. But that's what
the people of God are supposed to do on a lot of practical levels.
I'll leave that to your imagination. How do I get at God like he's
worthy to be gotten at? I'll leave that to your imagination
because your Bible has told you what you should do. I'll leave
that to your imagination. But here's what I want you to
understand. There are three aspects of the attitude of the will of
God that we should pursue. It's called first yearning for
God. Do you see it? The next one is what? Learning
of God. And if you yearn and you learn
of God, He will grant you the gift of what? Discernment. You
cannot discern God's will where you have not learned God's will.
And you cannot learn God's will where you have not yearned for
God's will. You have not because you ask not. And if you don't
ask continually, as God tells us to knock, knock, knock, seek,
seek, seek, ask, ask, ask, it'll be given to you. It'll be given
to you. It'll be given to you. But the
reason why we don't have it is because we don't ask, because
we don't seek, because we don't knock. I'm going to keep it real
with you. Can I do that? I'm gonna just keep it real with
you. And while we are not seeking, knocking and asking, you're just
wandering in the wilderness. And you're building, we're building
shabby tabernacles in the wilderness. Instead of letting God provide
for us the manna from heaven, the water out of the rock, both
water and honey. a covering by day and a covering
by night, that God would be our tabernacle, that God would be
our refuge, that God would be our shield, that God would be
our provider, and that we would know that because God is near
us, I am in the will of God. See, we should want to know that.
Isn't that right? But we can't know it while we're
not learning and yearning and discerning. I love this. Listen
to Psalm 119, verse 20. Psalm 119, verse 20. Psalm 119
fundamentally covers every doctrine I'm talking about. In your own
time, read it. I hope that God will let me live
to be 100 years old so I could teach all the Psalms. Because
at my pace, I only get about nine Psalms in a year. So if
I'm going to get 150 in, I got a long way to go. But I'm so
thankful he gave me grace to start now in my in my vision
about 15 20 years ago I said lord Let me get old and then
settle me down where I could just teach the psalms and let
the young people run the church Now I was thinking maybe 80 years
old I'm sorry old folk 80 is not that old to some of you.
I got that I've been beat up on that, but I'm thinking maybe
about 80 I could just start teaching the psalm because the psalms
You can live and die in the psalms Do you understand how rich they
are? You can live and die in the Psalms. After you have done
all your youthful lust, just settle down with God in the Psalms
and ride this thing out. It is so rich. But listen to
verse 20 of Psalm 119, which we call the Alphabet Psalm. For
those of you who know a little bit of Hebrew, here it is. My
soul is breaking for the longing that it had unto your judgments
once a week. No. Well, I'm not talking about
the psalmist. I'm talking about us. I'm talking
about us. That's why somebody said, they
agree with me. See, we love playing church.
Will we be lying if we said that was us? Raise your hand. Tell the truth. Don't lie. See, this was the
secret to David. This was the secret to David.
David long for God's commandment. He said, my soul broke. Because
he longed for God's commandment. Why? Why? Why, Mario? Because
David understood that access to the sovereign will of God,
which you need to know when your enemies are coming after you,
you need to see God's sovereign when your enemies are coming.
But sometimes we forget God is sovereign until we read his word,
right? But do you know it takes grace to read God's word when
you're in trouble? Most of the time when you're in trouble,
you won't read God's word. Because it's a spiritual act
that requires grace to do. Can I get a witness? Am I telling
the truth today? Watch this. It's a spiritual
act to go to God's word when you're in trouble. You would
rather go to other books and other counsel and other advice
and go to drinking and go to smoking and go to sex and go
to Facebook and go to this and go to that and not go to God.
I'm telling the truth. I'm telling the truth. This is why I say we are in a
spiritual battle. Hell is coming after us. Hell. And this is how you know hell
is coming after you. You think you're all right. You are not all right. While you're comfortable far
from the peaceful shore. You're not all right. If you're
that far from God, you're not all right. We're not all right,
saints. My soul breaks for the longing
that it hath unto your judgments at all time. Now that's the person
that God's gonna reveal his glory to. Do you understand that? Listen
to how it goes on to say, I think it's over in verse 40, Psalm
119 verse 40, as we pick up on the principle attitude of God's
will. Behold, I have longed after your what? Because in my experience
with God, he uses his word to bring life to my soul. And I need to be quickened every
day. Every day, I need to be quickened.
Is that true? I need to be quickened every day. Now in this, I know
you know this is true, but we don't go for the quickening,
do we? We stay dead all week long until Sunday morning. And then we try to get a jump
start. That's good. That's good. That's
good. That's good. Hold up. Now watch this. Watch. Stay with
me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Stay with me. Ain't
no gas in the tank. That's the problem. No gas in
the tank. You stopped going to the filling
station long time ago. And because you didn't see God,
he wasn't there for you. Now you're trying to start the
motor. Why won't this thing start? I'm telling you the truth. I'm
telling you the truth. So I'm trying to make this as
plain as possible. Because sometimes I get blamed
for being too sophisticated and too lofty and using too big of
words and too esoteric and too theologically peculiar. That's
what people say about me. But do you know what the Bible
says? The Bible says, learn of me. Learn of me. And our generation is dumbed
down because we're willing to learn secular concepts and philosophical
terms, long drawn out syllable, seven syllable words in the pagan
system. But we don't want to even learn
three syllable words in God's system. So when we are talking about
yearning for God, what David teaches us is that we have to
desire his revealed will We got to yearn for it. God, reveal
yourself to me. It's another place in the Psalms.
I'm not going to go there, but I want you to think about this.
This is how a true believer is. You ready? God, I am a stranger
in the earth. Hide not your commandments from
me. See the tension? I'm a stranger. because God has begotten me again
by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. I live in a broken
world that I really don't identify with anymore. I'm trying to get
out of this place fast as I can. But because I have a fallen nature
that keeps dragging me down, my new nature keeps crying out,
I'm a stranger, God. I'm a stranger. Don't hide your
word. If you hide your word, I won't
know what you're up to. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is a battle we're fighting, Saints. This is a battle
we're fighting. So let's continue to work through
this. The next one is to learn God's word. And this here is
so very important. Psalm 119, verse four and 104.
I love this. Psalm 119, four. I taught my
children this years ago before they were smart enough to determine
whether or not I was abusive as a dad. Because I would be
called that presently today. The way I raised my kids, I would
be called abusive. We are in dangerous times. And
here's the reason why I would be called abusive. Are you ready?
Because I dare to tell my children that the Bible is the most important
book in their life. There are states right now that
will put parents in jail for teaching their children the Word
of God. And when my children were little
and their brains were wide open for biblical truth, and they
trusted daddy, you know what we would sit and do? Memorize
whole portions of the Bible. Now they would throw me under
the jail today for doing that to those poor kids. But my kids
would sit up and learn Psalm 119. The whole of the divisions. We would do whole divisions. Whole divisions. And the kids
would, guess what they would do? Memorize them. Memorize them. And here's one that they know
right now. My daughter, some of my daughters are back there,
they know this one. You have commanded me. Is that an imperative? You have commanded me to keep
your precepts, what? Diligently. That was a mandate to me to raise
my kids under the gospel. Are you guys hearing me? I wasn't
an option. It was a mandate to keep them
diligently. Verse 5. Oh, that my ways were directed
to keep thy statutes. Verse six. Then shall I not be
what? When I have respect unto all
your commandments. He commanded the psalmist says,
God, take my heart, take my heart, because I'm telling you what
you're telling me to do. I don't do and I don't want to do. But
if you ever give me a willingness to do it, here's the result. I won't be ashamed. when I have
respect unto all your commandments. And the goal of the teaching
ministry is to get us to know God's Word and to love God's
Word and to do God's Word from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-29. And guess what? The day is coming.
The day is coming. When you talk like that and think
like that, you're going to jail. You're going to jail. Because
see, you would have been brainwashed. Yes, Lord, brainwash me. Yes, Lord, brainwash me. Wash my brain. Wash my heart. Wash my soul. Wash my mind. Wash my being. My brain is twisted. My soul is perverted. My heart
is corrupt. My will is out of the way. Wash me, oh God, so that I can
see what you see and love what you love. and desire what you
desire, and it won't happen no other way. And while it's not
happening, I'm steep in sin, steep in secularism, steep in
the perversions of this world, hoping that somehow I'm going
to land on the peaceful shores. Can I get a witness? Alright,
so let me wrap up point number two as we deal with this yearning
learning and then discerning this is powerful I'm gonna stay
in Psalm 104 and help us to understand this Psalm 119 verse 4 Psalm
119 verse 4 again. Here's what it says 1 119 104 Psalm 119 104 watch this. This is a beautiful precept learn
this the memory Are you ready through your precepts the book? Do I get what? Watch this. And therefore I hate what? While
as yet you don't know the book, you don't have discernment, you
love every false way. You guys see it? See what David
says? Your book taught me your will.
It gave me discernment. And now I know right from wrong.
And because I'm born of God, I hate everything that's contrary
to your word. Lord, have mercy on us. So yearning,
learning and discerning is critical because it's the discernment
that you and I get through experience that helps us to understand God's
ways, which is now going to bring me to my third point. Let's look
at our third point. Again, it says the principal
attitude towards the what? The first time it was a question
this time. It's a it's an exclamation pull up Romans chapter 12 verse
1 and 2 I'm gonna touch on it a little bit one of our teachers
will touch on it next Saturday at the conference, but I'm gonna
just deal with it from one angle. I want you to see this Here's
what here's what Dave here's what Paul said to us. He said
to us I beseech you by the mercies of God when we get back to Romans
in a few weeks as our study I'll show you that he's launching
from Romans 9 and where by the Spirit of God he has described
us all as vessels of what? That's all you are. God scooped
you up as a vessel of mercy and brought you into his house and
set you on his shelf. And he said to the world, look
at my vessel. Now as a vessel of mercy, here's what you're
supposed to do since you're a vessel of mercy. I beseech you by the
mercies of God that you present your what? That's what I was
doing a moment ago when I was crying out to God. Did you hear
me? When I was crying out to God for my mind, for my heart,
for my soul, for my being, I'm presenting myself before God.
Because I know that I got to stand before Him one day. And
I want to stand before Him now. And I want Him to work a work
of grace in me now. Because I want to do His will
now. Now I want to do His will. Listen
to it. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you present your
bodies a what? Y'all smart people write it down.
It's gonna get you in trouble if you actually embrace it because
this is the only way you can do the gospel There's only way
and here's the reason why people don't want to do it because it's
a sacrifice It's a sacrifice serving God is a sacrifice You
got to give up something This is why I said earlier most
people are not gonna know God's will because every time you're
called to learn it means you got to cut the tv off and what
you learn you become obligated for because to whom much is given
much is what and if the holy ghost comes along because he
has loved you and he has tagged you and he has purpose to reveal
christ's glory to you he expects you to yearn for more once you
get what you first yearn for now what that's going to do when
that begins to happen you're going to struggle with time you're
going to struggle with time and you're going to struggle with
time management. You're going to struggle with
whether or not you should cut this out and cut that out and
cut the other thing out and pursue God. And here comes the devil.
Ready? Now, don't go crazy. Don't lose
your mind. Let the rest of them lose their
mind, not you. You are a sane Christian. Do
a little devotion in the morning. and do you enjoy your life? That's the enemy. You will never
know God's will once you give into that. You're going to always
be circling around the camp. Let's go in a little bit further. I beseech you by the mercies
of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Is that
what it says? Yeah, these are sacerdotal terms. These are ministry
terms. These are terms for people who
have been brought nigh through the gospel and made to be God's
priesthood. You know what that means? If
you really truly say God has brought you near to him so that
you have communion and fellowship with him, so that you can be
a blessing to people who are not as near to God as you are.
Do you guys get that? Do you get that? In other words,
God saved you for himself to be a blessing to others. but
not for you to shirk the blessing of being near to God. Because
you're a priest. And when you're a priest, you're
set apart. And to be set apart means you got to say no to a
bunch of stuff. That's my problem. Do you understand that? That's
why I can't wait to get the glory, so I don't have to deal with
this problem anymore. Because it's a problem. It's a problem. Do you understand that? It's
a problem. Because the world is constantly
grabbing. You need this. You need that. You need the other
thing. You need to be with me. You need to be here. You need
to do that. And God is saying you need to be with me. That's a problem. I'm telling
you it's a problem. I remember when I was a mechanic.
Can I talk to you guys a little bit? I'll let you go. I remember
when I was a mechanic and I used to be in my stall. And I had
12 other guys working. We were top-notch mechanics in
the Bay Area and working on big fancy cars. And everybody's stall
was a church. Got the vision? And in their
churches, they were worshiping their God. Got the vision? They had the posters of the chicks.
They had the radio with the music playing. And they had other paraphernalia
for their religious interests. And among the 12, 13, 14 stalls,
here is the preacher that they all mocked. Do you understand
what I'm saying? So in my stall, all I got is
a radio and a Bible. So I'm working on the cars, and
I'm having revelations. And I go into suspended animation,
because it's true about most men, we can't do two things at
once. Watch this. preacher what you
doing and I gotta shake myself cuz I'm I'm in the world but
but but I want to be in Christ and I remember crying out Lord
I don't like this I don't like this are you hearing me I don't
like that can't wait to launch go sneak into my sanctuary and
get me some more fellowship with God. Read the scriptures and
pray and start my studies. Then I look, I got about one
minute to go. Alright, time to pray. And then
go back in there late. Hope I didn't get caught. Gotta
do another four hours. Does anybody know what I'm talking
about? That's what I'm talking about.
That's the battle. That's the battle. And now in the ministry,
you would think that it's different. It is. But there's so many things. So many. Point number four. Point number
three. So under point number two, you
yearn, you learn, you discern. Let me get rid of you guys in
five minutes. And under point number three, this is what I
call three desires relative to yearning, discerning and learning,
learning and discerning. It's almost the same, but it's
different. Are you ready? The principal attitude towards the
will of God emphatically, rooted in a worship-driven life. This
is what Romans chapter 12 is really teaching you. Romans 12,
1 and 2 is a worship-driven life. Can you see that? Romans 12,
1 and 2 is a worship-driven life. That we are to yield our bodies,
a living sacrifice unto the Lord, which is your reasonable service.
Verse 2, you should have kept it up there. Verse 2, this is
what it says. Be not conformed to this world.
And all my reputational statements that I made here earlier is all
about us being conformed to the world. When I say we shouldn't
do this, we shouldn't do that, that's because verse 2 is telling
us we're conformed to the world. So while we are conformed to
the world, we can't be transformed. So while the world is squeezing
us into its mold, taking our time, taking our mind, taking
our passion, taking our money, taking our heart, You can't think
like God nor act like God and nor look like God. Because to
look like him, you got to think like him. And to think like God,
you got to be able to hear God's word on a consistent enough level
where change takes place. You guys hear me? So most of
us look like the world because we are. And what do you mean
by that? I'm not talking about the clothes
we wear. I am not talking about the clothes we wear. My brother
told me I look like Johnny Cash today. I said, I ain't wearing this
ever again. After this, I ain't wearing this ever again. I never was thinking about Johnny
Cash. Now, he loved me. Now, my brother loved me to death,
but I'm stuck now. Now, see, I'm gunshot. Every
time I put on full black, I got to think Johnny Cash. That's
why I don't like to talk to nobody before I preach. I really don't. I don't like to talk to nobody
before I preach. I'm not talking about clothes.
But here's what I'm talking about. It's very clear that out of the
abundance of the heart that the mouth speak. And we do what we
want to do. Nobody's stopping us. You do
what you want. And what you do is who you are.
And what you want to do and what you do is what you look like. So when we do what we do and
we look like the world, it's because we are the world. Now when you are transformed
by the renewing of your mind and your thoughts are renewed
and your will is connected to your thoughts, this is where
we overcome hypocrisy. Because you can have one thing
running around in your cranium but it's not engaged to your
volition. Your volition will not move your knowledge to action.
And until your knowledge by volition is moved to action, you are not
transformed. Because transformation is really
what you look like when the gospel has comprehensively got you. Am I making some sense? So I'm
going to leave that right there. And I'm going to work through
these few and close down and pick it up. Here's how simple
I want it. I want to actually do point number
four or two just as a word of exhortation, and then we'll pick
it up next week. Next week's study on the will of God is going
to be so good. At least it was for me. I want you to mark this, saints.
I want you to mark this. What I am talking about right
now is really the way our text open. You got to go after God. And in going after God, He makes
you to understand doctrine correctly and deeply and effectively. And then He produces fruit in
your life. The reason why we don't know is because we don't
go. You understand? Hosea chapter 6 verse 1 through
3. Pull that up. I'm going to show you what I'm
talking about. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Hosea,
Yahshua, Jesus, Lord Jesus. Come! Let us return unto the
Lord. You know what we call that? Repentance. That's a work of grace when God
turns our heart. Isn't that right? It's what we're going to learn
when we deal with the doctrines of grace. You can't turn to God
until he turns your heart. Come! Let us return to the Lord. Isn't that a good word? Don't
we have a lot of children in the far country that we're waiting
for the Holy Ghost to make that happen? Turn! Come, let us return to the Lord,
for he hath what? Sovereignty. He's torn. Did God
tear? That's right. See, our God is
sovereign. Is our God sovereign? God tears. Notice what it says? And he will what? Are they talking
about faith now? This is the person that's in
the far country that's ready to come home. Some of you may
be those people out here. You ready to come home? And you
are submitting now to a revelation of God's sovereignty, and you
understand that God rules. Yes, he does. And you're way
out there. This is how you come back. Come,
let us return unto the Lord. He tore, and he will also what? Now watch this, saints. He has
smitten, double Hebrew isms. He has smitten, and he will do
what? Bind us up. That's the prodigal son who knows
that God has a remedy for his sin. Verse two. Verse two. Are we there? Look at verse two.
Here it is. After two days, he will what? What are we talking
about? The resurrection. That the sinner
is putting his hope in Christ as the grounds of Christ's resurrection,
being the basis of his turning from his sin and knowing that
he will be accepted with God. Because when Christ died, he
died. When Christ rose, he rose. And because Christ lives, he
shall also live. And because the father accepts
the son, he will accept that sinner. Will he not? This is
what we call gospel repentance. Gospel repentance. The only way
you and I can come back to God is on the grounds of the resurrected
Christ. Is that right? Now listen to what he says. After
two days he will revive us and in the third day he will what?
Raise us up and we shall what? Live in his sight. It's the us
factor once again. For us folk who love to make
it all about me. This is the beauty of the doctrine
of the priesthood. That all of God's elect are everything
in Christ. and everything that Christ is,
he is for all of God's elect. So that Christ can speak in the
first person plural, we, we and us. And we can speak in those
same forms relative to who he is. Am I making some sense? We
are not disconnected to him because this is the reason for which
we have hope. Now watch what he says. Watch what he says,
verse three. Now this is the one that I'm talking about. Based
upon the gospel promise, our union with Christ here's what
he says here's what he says look at it then shall we what then
shall we know if we do what follow on to do what stop right there
there it is is it there I will only know if I follow on to know
I will only know if I follow on to know now you can write
right by that verse John 8 31 if you are my disciples You will
continue in my word, and you will know the truth, and the
truth will continue to set you free. If you want to know, you
have to go on to know. You have to press on to know.
His going forth is prepared. As the morning he shall come
unto us, the rain and the latter rain The former reign unto the
earth. He's talking about the promise
of God of restoration in the soul for the repentant sinner
who sees Christ as his vouchsafe before God. God will bring him
back based upon who Christ is. Are y'all following me? All right,
so let me wrap this up here. Here it is. Three sub points. We want to know his will. Is that right? Y'all see that
in y'all life? The emphasis is on what? To know.
The second one, we want to know his will. The emphasis is on
what? The want to. Do you guys see it? So the first
is on knowledge, the second is on will. That's where the problem
is. John 7, 17, pull it up. Watch
this, watch this. John 7, 17. Here's what our master
said. If any man will to do his will. You saw, see the text? If any
man wills to do his will. It starts with the will. But you have to first be told
His will. That's knowledge. Then you have to ask yourself
the question, do I desire? Do I desire? Do I desire? Do I desire? Are you with me,
Brother Skinner? Do I desire? See, this is what
Psalm 51 says around verse 6. God desires true from where? Do you desire to know his will?
Do you desire to know his will? Because God's not playing hide
and seek. God's playing seek and find. Is that good? He's not playing
hide and seek. God's not hard to find. He told
us in the book of Acts, if happily you would seek after him because
he's very near us, so near us, all we have to do is ask. That's
how close God is to us. The reason why we're far from
God is because we want to be. The reason why we're far from
God is because we don't desire him. Here's what our master said.
If any man will do his will, he shall know of the what? Whether
it be of God or whether he speak of himself. This is all those
folks who would run around called Jesus a devil, a demon, a winebibber,
a glutton, a fornicator, a child of fornication, because they
never really wanted to do God's will. When you want to do God's
will, God will reveal himself to you. Will he not? That's James
chapter 1 verse 5. God gives to all. liberally and
upbraided not. When you come and ask God for
wisdom, will he give it to you? Right. See, God's not stingy.
The issue is the heart. The issue is the heart, saints.
The issue is the heart. We want to know his will. We want to do his will. We want his will done. Do you? This is our Lord's prayer
in Matthew chapter six. Thy will be done. This is why our substitute and
our surety came into this world, manifested his father's glory,
walked in this world, lived in this world. He only came to do
his father's will, didn't he? Isn't that all he did? And guess
what? When he hung on Calvary's cross,
he smiled with great joy in his soul because he had did it. Are you guys hearing me? It is
finished. Now from here is where every
believer in the house take your place under the redemptive will
of God. Now that you've been beat up,
and rightly so, because some of us are in danger of not being
believers. Now that you've been beat up, and rightly so, I'm
just going to articulate our fourth point. Raise it up. That's
all. I'm going to leave it here. I
just want you to think this through. It's our final set of points. As soon
as she finds it. Point number four. The redemptive
will of God. Do you see it? Now the redemptive will of God
in Christ is designed to secure my what? Is that true? It secures my obedience. Why?
Set point number one. He did it for me. You believe
that? You know what that means? What
that means? When Christ obeyed God, he obeyed for me. This is the doctrine of substitution.
It allows me to breathe. Can I breathe now? Because I
wasn't breathing for a minute. Can a brother breathe now? Can
a sister breathe now? Because once I sit down and watch
the movie, and this is what we call the gospel, the gospel is
when you sit down and watch what God has done for us, that's the
gospel. When we watch the movie and see
how he came from glory and lived a perfect life and died a perfect
death and rose again and went back to his seat at the right
hand of God the Father, we can go, whoo! Because he did it! And he did it for me. But of
God are you in Christ? who have God has been made unto
us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Christ is all
our righteousness a seduction of what substitution what's the
second one I did it in him whoo that's hard but it's true hard
but it's true hallelujah if he did it for me I did it in him
do you believe that I have already obeyed all of God's commandments
in Christ because He is my substitute. And watch this, all of His righteousness
is imputed to me. We call this imputed righteousness. Is that true? Imputed righteousness. It's as if I did everything that
He did. That's good. That's why according
to Romans 6, 11, I am to reckon myself indeed dead again unto
sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus my Lord. Do you
guys see that? My reckoning, my assessment according to the
gospel is that I'm dead. But I'm alive in Christ and I'm
good to go because of the final one. Here it is. The reward is
what? See, if I'm alive in Christ, I've got the reward. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my words and believes
on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but has passed, has passed, has passed, has passed
from death to life in Christ, I already have the reward. So
though I'm jacked up in myself, I'm good to go in Christ. Though
I don't do the will of God in myself, the will of God is done
in Christ. And that's my hope for glory. Amen.