You'll be turning, if you will,
to Luke chapter 16. And I'll get there in just a few minutes.
Luke chapter 16. I believe God has given me a
message that's very important. It will be practical and useful,
if God's pleased to make it so, to you. I want to answer in your
hearing just one question. And I want to answer it from
the Word of God with such clarity that there can be no mistake
concerning it. Here's my subject. What is important
to God? What is important to God? What's really important to God? The Apostle Paul wrote to the
Corinthians and said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but to
preach the gospel. That doesn't mean that baptism
is insignificant or not to be dealt with, not to be explained,
not to be properly maintained. What it does mean is there's
something indescribably more important, and baptism must never
supplant this important thing or anything else supplanted.
He says Christ sent me to preach the gospel. The gospel is the
power of God to salvation to everyone who believes. God sent
me to tell sinners that Jesus Christ is wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. To tell sinners the only thing
to trust is the Lord Jesus Christ. He that glorieth let him glory
in the Lord. In Isaiah chapter 66, the prophet
Isaiah speaks very plainly to us about the Lord God and His
ways and that which is important to Him. Thus saith the Lord,
the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of
my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. God says all the
things that men are greatly impressed with, all those things that greatly,
greatly impress the eye and the appetite and the affection of
man. Those things are nothing to me.
I look to one thing, that one who's poor, poor in spirit, who
knows himself a sinner in need of my grace, a sinner in need
of my son, to him that is of a contrite heart, contrition
before God. Not the kind of outward show
of contrition that men make before one another. What men call contrition,
what men call humility is just another expression of pride.
But those who are poor in spirit are contrite before God to him
who trembles at my word. That is, who so reverences my
word that he understands this is my word. So reverence is my
word that he understands that he stands or falls before me. Who so reverence is my word that
he understands that he is in my hands. As I observe all that's
done in the name of God. All the money that's raised and
spent. All the buildings that are built
and all the works that are performed. All the programs and activities
that are maintained. All the rituals and ceremonies
endured by men. All the creeds and confessions
and laws that are imposed upon men by religion in the name of
God. I can't help asking myself this
question. And it's worth considering. What
is important to God? Now let's look at Luke 16 and
verse 15. Our Lord has just given the story
of the rich man and Lazarus. Some get real upset because they
want to argue that this is a parable. Others get upset because they
want to argue that it's not a parable. It doesn't matter. The message
is the same. And our Lord's given this message
concerning the rich man and Lazarus. And then the Pharisees heard
it. And they were covetous. They were covetous. They were
covetous. They maintained their religion
only because they were covetous. I haven't sufficiently stressed
this. After the Babylonians took the Jews into captivity and destroyed
Solomon's temple, the furnishings of the temple were never recovered. They were never restored. They
rebuilt the temple, but there was no table of showbread, no
golden lamp stand, no Ark of the Covenant, no mercy seat. But the Pharisees and the Jewish
leaders continued to maintain the practice of religious ceremonies. without those things essential
to the worship of God in the Old Testament, without the Ark
of the Covenant, without the mercy seat. They pretended to
go in and observe the Passover every year. How come? Because
they didn't want to lose the hold they had on men and they
were covetous. They were covetous. If you want
to know why religious people compromise, I promise you, It
is always because they're covetous. Some years ago, I was preaching
down, first time I was preaching at Buck Mountain, there was a
few preachers who came to the services. None of them have been
back since, but there were a few who came then. And one of the
fellows said to me after service, we chatted a little while, he
put on a great air of sincerity and he said, oh, I wish I could
preach like you do where I am. I said, do what? He said, I wish
I could preach like you do, where I pastor. I said, what makes
it so you can't? He said, oh, they wouldn't tolerate
it. I said, I'll tell you exactly why you don't, if you'd like
to hear it. And he said, I'd like to hear it. And I reached
in my pocket and pulled out my wallet. And I said, that's the
only reason you don't. That's the only reason you don't. Men
who compromise the gospel do so only because they're covetous. Our Lord spoke to these Pharisees
who were the covetous ones who heard these things and they derided
him. And this is what the Savior said
to those Pharisees who coveted him, who derided him. Ye are
they which justify yourselves before men, but God knoweth your
heart. Now watch this. For that which
is highly esteemed among men. Bill Raleigh, what's that saying? Everything, everything, everything
that men highly esteem as spiritual, religious, godly, righteous,
serving God. Every single thing. That which
is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to God. When I think about God, I can't
help but to cry out with Paul. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out who have known the
mind of the Lord or who have been his counselor. I'm fully
aware. that God's infinite, holy being
is indescribably above me. My puny, pygmy mind cannot fathom
the Almighty. No man has seen God at any time,
John tells us twice. Zophar asked Job, canst thou
by searching find out God? The fact is our greatest, deepest,
broadest knowledge of the infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, omnipotent,
omnipresent God is very, very limited. And yet the Lord Jesus
declares, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and I have
seen Him. You've seen Him. And I spent
50 years, almost 50 years studying this book, and I think I can
shed some light on this question. What's important to God? Our
Lord declares that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination
to God. What's he telling us? I know
this. Almighty God, Almighty God is
totally unimpressed. with church buildings and ornate
cathedrals and so-called houses of worship. I drive back from
the West when I've been out preaching for Brother Darwin or other folks
out in Texas, and Shelby and I about always come around Oklahoma
City. I'm sorry, not Oklahoma City,
Little Rock, Arkansas. And going around the Beltway is absolutely
the most spectacular, beautiful church building I've ever seen.
I mean, it's it is something else. It's something else. It
caught my eye one time, and I can't help but look at it every time
I go back because it impresses me. First Pentecostal church. Every time I look at it, I think,
wow, what a building. I feel kind of like John when
he stood it and looked at that great whole Babylon and he was
just overwhelmed. And the angel of the Lord said,
said, what's impressing you? She's just a whore. We're impressed
with those things. We're impressed with those things,
but it's an abomination to God. God's not impressed. He says
the heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you will build to me? Paul told the Athenians
in Acts 17, God doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. We have adapted and adopted papist
language. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I often
say to Shelby, I'm going over to the church and the church
is not here. Now, I'll also say, would you
go over to the church and get something? And the church is not here. This
is just a building. The church is here tonight. When
y'all leave in just a little while, the church will be dispersed.
But this is a building. This is not a church. It's just
a place where God's people meet to worship Him. Nothing more
than that. Nothing more than that. No more
sacred, no more holy, no more divine, no more spiritual than
a barn over there. It's just a it's just a building
and we need to understand that these things are not holy things
This is not a sacred desk. This is not a sacred place. This
is not a holy place This is where God's people meet to worship
the Holy God no more Crosses and altars and stained glass
and crystal cathedrals and lavish ornate church buildings and gaudy
Religious attire impress men, but they don't impress God. They
don't impress God I watched the charade that's given and displayed
all over the place all the time now with that old man in Rome
and all the folks following him and everybody's impressed with
all the apparel, all the gaudy, silly, ornate stuff that they
wear to impress men. And they succeed, they succeed,
but not God, not God. God is not at all impressed with
those things. But more than that, God is not
impressed with the tithes and offerings and sacrifices men
bring to him. Turn back to Isaiah chapter 1
for a minute. Hold your hands there. Isaiah chapter 1. Look
at verse 11. Hear what God says. To what purpose
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord? I am
full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or
of eagles. But God ordered them to bring
those things. God ordered them to bring them with reference
to Christ, by faith in Christ, worshiping him as pictures of
Christ the Redeemer. He didn't order them just to
go through the ceremonies. If those things are true concerning
what the Jews were doing in Isaiah's day, how much more so in our
day? Preachers beg and scrape before
men like beggars in the street. They compromise the gospel and
sell their souls to get people to give them a little bit of
money. They even promise them rewards from God, rewards on
earth and rewards in heaven if they will just give God a tip
occasionally, just as though somehow or another grace and
forgiveness and salvation is something God sells. You tithe
and you give and you do this and God will reward you. You
may as well just sell indulgences like folks did in Germany when
the Protestant Reformation began. The God who owns the cattle on
a thousand hills, who owns all the gold and diamonds of the
deep mines of the earth doesn't need you and He doesn't need
me. He doesn't need us. He doesn't
need us and he's not impressed with all the gifts men bring
to him. Which of us ever made a sacrifice
worthy of God's notice? Now, when I wrote that down this
morning, I paused and thought about it
a long time. I don't know, Alan, that I've
ever sacrificed anything for God. Sacrifice? Sacrifice was made
at Calvary, not by me. What have I ever done or given
worthy of God's notice? God has no need of our paltry
gifts. It is a great blessing of grace
that he allows us to give and that he stoops to accept what
we give. Stoops again to use what we give
for his glory and the benefit of his people But the Almighty
the self-sufficient God Doesn't need us and he's not impressed
with man's puny gifts There's a melts guys. They want again
verse 13 God is not impressed with with all our rituals and
ceremonies, holy days, and Sabbath keepings, and all the stuff that
is satisfying to the flesh. He's not at all impressed. Look
at what it says in verse 13. Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination unto
me. The new moons and Sabbaths, the
calling of assemblies, I cannot away with. It is iniquity, even
the solemn meetings. your new moons and your appointed
feast, my soul hateth. There are trouble unto me, I'm
weary to bear them. These folks were living under
the Mosaic law. And they were outwardly complying
with the Mosaic law in their acts of worship. But there was
no inward compliance in their hearts. Their religion was all
outward. It was not a matter of the heart.
It was not a matter of faith. And God says, your outward doing
is meaningless to me. How much more in this day? when
we are no longer under the law and are no longer worship God
carnally through the rudiments of the world but worship Him
in spirit and in truth. All our religious rituals and
ceremonies, things that men do to impress men, things that men
do to act religious are an abomination to God, an abomination to Him. We keep on trying to show folks
we're good. We keep trying to show folks
that we're religious. We keep trying to show folks
that we're spiritual. We keep trying to show folks
that we're godly. Now, please don't misunderstand
me. Do everything you can, Larry
Brown, to honor God. Everything you can, but nothing
to show that you honor God. There's a huge difference. There's
a huge difference. Live for God's glory, but don't
try to impress men with what you do. It's that reason, or
for that reason, that our Lord Jesus spoke concerning men standing
in the street corners and blowing a trumpet before the give and
making long prayers before they pray, or blowing a trumpet before
they pray, and when they fast, they, oh, well, no, I can't eat
supper with you tonight. I'm fasting. I'll just watch
you eat. Nothing wrong with praying, do
that. Nothing wrong with giving, do
that. Nothing wrong with fasting, do that. But don't tell anybody
anything about it. You understand the difference?
God's not impressed with what men do outwardly and with all
the rituals and ceremonies that men perform. Look at verse 15. The Lord God certainly isn't
impressed with long, fancy, often repeated, wordy prayers. And
when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you.
Yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are
full of blood. You see, true prayer is more
than words. It's the voice of the heart seeking
God's mercy, God's will, God's glory, and God's soul. dealt
with it a little bit last Tuesday as we finished up the study in
James. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. True prayer is prayer that's
wrought in us by the Spirit of God. And that prayer that's wrought
in us by the Spirit of God is in complete compliance with the
will of God and is always effectual and is spoken to God fervently. That is spoken to God believing
him. It's not an outward show. And
God cares nothing for all the works of righteousness performed
by men by which they impress one another. Our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. And our Lord pointed his disciples
to the Pharisees, and he said in Matthew 5 20, Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
God. Those folks, Jonathan, prayed
three times a day. They fasted twice every week.
They gave tithes of chickens and eggs as well as money. They
gave tithes on everything. Which of you do? Our Lord said,
accept your righteousness. Exceed their righteousness. You're
going to hell. What he's telling us is there's
no way you're going to be saved by what you do. No way you're
going to be accepted of God by what you do. Our righteousness
is Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. And God's not
impressed by strictly observing legal religion. Legalism impresses
men. It allures men. But it snares
blind, spiritually ignorant men and women. Legalism in any shape
or form is an utter abomination to God. Back years ago, this
is back in the mid-90s, had a young fellow who came down here. I
guess he was about 30 years old. up in Long Island, New York.
He came down pretty often. He's sitting out on the back
porch of me one day talking, and he was, you know, when folks
start to talk spiritually, they'll talk kind of like this all the
time, and then they start to say something spiritually. They'll say, Brother
Don, I go to church every Sunday, and I just feel so beat down
with the preaching. The pastor so, so preaches God's
law that I just feel beat down. And he was begging on it. He
would beg. I said, why do you go? Why do
you go? I used to come home and I never
knew whether I was going to get beat or fed. And I deserved to
get beat, but I stayed away as much as I could because I wasn't
anxious to get beat. And if I had to go to church and get beat
all the time, I just flat wouldn't go. That's not our purpose. Our purpose is to comfort God's
people, not beat them. To help them, not to smash them
in the face. All legal religion is just the gratifying of the
flesh because we really think two things. We really think we're
better than other people. And we like to measure ourselves
not by God's standard, but by our standard, not even by your
standard, by our standard, by my standard of what's good and
righteous and holy. And you just don't quite measure
up. You haven't done what I do. You
don't do the things I do. I'm not perfect, but I've got
a thing or two on you. That's what legality is. Causes
men like Pharisees to despise others, to set in judgment over
others. God's not impressed. God's not
impressed. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. And the other thing about legalism
is it exposes the fact that we all like to be told something
to do. We all like to be told something
to do. I don't think I'll ever forget
when the publishers were working on my book years ago. I think it was the second book
they published on the Church of God. I think it was the second
one. I got several notices from the editors, and they were real
concerned because I wouldn't tell folks how much to give.
I said, we don't tithe, we don't teach tithing, but people need
some kind of groundwork. Why? Why should I tell you what
to give God? How dare I tell you what to give
God? And I said, no, I won't make a suggestion. Publish it
like it is or don't publish it. I won't make any suggestion.
No. No, I won't dare make a suggestion. God's people don't need to be
told what to do. Not by me. We're told in God's
book what to do. And that's sufficient. That's
sufficient. All the laws and traditions of men, all of them,
are an abomination to God. And those who would seek to impose
upon you the yoke of Mosaic law do so in direct violation of
Holy Scripture. God tells us in no unmistakable
terms, we are not under the law, but under grace. Either you're
under the whole law to do it all, Are you not under the law
at all? There's no dividing it. God Almighty,
God Almighty, who made Adam and Eve and made them naked and set
them in the garden, gave them everything he had made. And he
said, you just use it however you want to and enjoy it. You
just use it however you want to and enjoy it. Well, you can't
say that to people. Mark, here's God's world. He made it for you. You use it
however you want to for God's glory and enjoy it. It's exactly
right. Now you can't do that. You can't
with a believer. You can't do that with a rebel. But a believer,
a righteous man, that's what God does. That's what God does.
And God's not impressed with all the taboos that men make. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Now, I know something of that
of which I speak. My wife will tell you, when I
was a young believer, I was converted in very strongly fundamentalist
religious atmosphere and very strong, strict atmosphere. And I was thoroughly convinced
if he could be a Guinnett, you ought to be a Guinnett. I mean,
whatever it was, anything, anything that you could tell folks not
to do, Looking back on it, you think, well, why didn't somebody
tell us something to do? We just hold not what not to
do. Don't do this. Don't do that. Don't do that.
And all of it to the gratifying, the satisfying of the flesh. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. That is not the way God deals
with his people. And God's not in the least bit
impressed with preachers. Orators impressed men and pulpiteers
impressed themselves, but God's not impressed Our Lord speaks
of multitudes in the last day. He'll say Lord. Have we not prophesied
in your name? Have we not in your name cast
out devils? Haven't we done many wonderful works and he says I'll
say to them depart from me you cursed I never knew you Brother
Don what is important to God? Let's begin back in Psalm 138
now won't be long. I promise I promise I'll just
give you the outline and you can you can work on it Psalm
138 Here are six things Treasured
by God above all things And I'm going to give you a specific
order because I try to do things orderly. But you could take these
six things and throw them up in there in whichever way they
came down. It wouldn't matter. These are matters of immeasurable treasure
to God. And one can't be divided, distinguished
or separated from the other. These six things. Number one,
Psalm 138, verse two. Look at the last line in verse
two. Thou has magnified thy word above all thy name. Thou has magnified thy word above
all thy name. That's utterly astonishing. That's utterly astonishing. What's
he talking about? His word. You've got it in your
hand. You've got it in your hand. The
Lord God reveals himself to us by his name. His name represents
all his attributes, all his character, all his being, all his works. His name represents the totality
of his infinite being. And yet the psalmist speaking
by inspiration says, thou hast magnified thy word above all
thy name what does that mean? the most important thing in this
world is this book the most important thing in this
world is this book men may poke fun and Make light of it until
God throws them in hell. But this book is God's holy word. It may not be important to you
now, but it will be one day. Forever, O Lord, thy word is
settled in heaven. The word of our God shall stand
forever. You see. The psalmist, for one
thing, when he speaks of God's word being magnified above all
his name, is declaring something that men seem to deliberately
ignore. You can't know God but by his
word. You can't know God but by his
word. You can know something about
the wisdom and power of God in creation, You can know something
about the holy character, righteous character of God by what God
stamped on your conscience and on your heart by nature. But
you cannot know God except by his word. This book, written
by inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of
God may be truly furnished unto all good works. This book, this
book. from a child from a child look
at you young people raised here from a child you've known the
holy scriptures which able to make you wise into salvation
this book this book it's been under attack throughout history
but here stands God's Word God's Word men do everything they can
to assault it But there it stands, God's Word. Men refuse to hear
it and you can go to the bookstore and you'll have a tough time
finding one of the standard King James Bibles in any religious
bookstore because men keep trying to make new translations. They
make new translations and they've been doing it for the last 175
years, making new translations, one after the other, because
they keep trying to find a way to make God's Word comply with
what man wants God to say. But here it is. Here it is. You
won't have any trouble understanding it. The trouble is you do understand
it. You won't have any trouble understanding
the words. You do understand the words. That's the difficulty.
And men don't like the words. But this is the word by which
God reveals himself to me. And this book is the only book
ever written by men. And it was written by men, but
written by men under inspiration of God, the Holy Spirit. Now,
this is what that means. That means I I believe God inspired this message
today. I've been working on it all day.
I believe God inspired by that. I mean, by that, I mean. I believe
God directed me to this subject and directed me in preparation
of this message. But there's, I've been correcting
it for the last couple of hours. I wrote things down, had to change
the way I wrote them, had to change the way I stated things,
even had to put some words in that I left out and take some
words out that I put in because I didn't write by divine inspiration
as the scriptures were written. The scriptures were written by
men. as though God the Holy Spirit took their hand and formed the
words. I mean by that, there's no error,
no mistake in the book. The character of each writer
is sitting there. The character of each man is
demonstrated by the way he writes. You know something about the
man just by the way he writes. But the word written is God's absolute
inspired word. And you will never know God but
by this book. And in the last day, our Lord
Jesus says God's going to judge us by this book. Second, what's
important to God? His will. His will. It is clearly revealed in the
book that our God is God who has purposed, decreed, and predestined
all things that ever come to pass. all things that ever shall
come to pass without exception all things are of God of Him
through him and to him are all things to whom be glory forever
Look in Isaiah 49 46 verse 9 Isaiah 46 verse 9 Remember the former things of
old for I am God and there is none else. I am God. There's none like me Declaring
the end from the beginning and from the ancient times the things
that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure Calling a ravenous bird from the east
the man that executes my counsel from a far country. Yay. I Have
spoken it will also bring it to pass. I purposed it, I will
also do it. We know that our Heavenly Father,
the God of the Bible, The only true and living God, the only
God there is. Everything else is just a fake
God. Everything else is just a man-made
God. Any idea of God contrary to this
is idolatry. He who is God worketh all things
after the counsel of his own will all the time. This week, Those of us who are politically
conservative, and I happen to be one, somewhat disturbed by the death
of Anthonin Scalia, the Supreme
Court Justice, who was a strong, strong conservative man. And the opportunity now for some
liberals to seat on the Supreme Court, folks who advocates infanticide, the murder of infants,
and sodomy, and ungodliness in the name of democracy. Let me tell you why Mr. Scalia died when he did. Because
God ordered it. God ordered it. And let me tell
you who will be seated in the White House a year from now.
The man God from eternity ordained for it. And God orders all things
exactly as he will for one reason. The saving of his people for
the glory of his name. Everything. Everything. That means that you and I who
believe God ought to be the most careless people in the world. I mean by that we should have
no care about anything going on here. We shouldn't be bothered
by it. I don't mean we should be irresponsible.
I plan to go vote. And when I'm going to be out
of town, I'll go vote early. But I don't mean we should be
irresponsible. I mean we should be without care, no burden, no
fear, no apprehension. Our God sits on the throne. And the wrath of man as well
as the praise of his people praises him in all things and redounds
to his glory. Let us then be at peace. Let us live in moderation. Our God rules. Our savior taught
us to pray. Our father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Thy will, not
mine, O Lord, however dark it be. Oh, lead me by thine own
right hand, choose out my path for me. I dare not choose my
lot, I would not if I might. Choose thou for me, O Lord my
God, so I shall walk aright. Take thou my cup, and it with
joy or sorrow fill. As ever best to thee may seem,
choose thou my good and ill. Not mine, not mine the choice
in things both great and small be thou my guide, my guard, my
strength, my wisdom, and my all. I'll tell you a third thing of
immense importance to God is his grace, his grace. In Exodus
33, Moses asked the Lord four things. He said, show me your
way. He said, consider that this people
is your people. He said, Lord, if your presence
go not with us, carry us not up hence. And then Moses said,
Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, show me thy glory. And the Lord God showed him his
glory. This is how he did it. He said,
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. God's grace is the exercise of his goodness
in the saving of his people for the praise of his glory. When
God saw that the world was only evil, full of evil, that continually,
and he destroyed the whole human race with the flood of his wrath,
we're told that Noah was saved because Noah found grace in the
eyes of the Lord. The Lord God Almighty is the
God of all grace and nothing's more important to him than his
grace. Grace established and made for
us an everlasting covenant order in all things ensured. His grace
chose us in Christ and sent Christ into the world to redeem and
save his chosen covenant people. His grace called us from death
to life. His grace keeps us. And His grace,
blessed be His name, will finish the work which He began in us. Grace. That's how God saves sinners. Grace without works. When God
gave the law of Mount Sinai in Exodus chapter 20, you'll remember
that God required that the children of Israel not come to Him on
an altar made of hewn stone. That they not come to Him on
an altar made by their own hands. When the temple was built, there
was not heard in the building of that temple the sound of an
axe, or of a hammer, or of a saw, or of any tool. All the materials
were prepared outside the temple. The Lord God is telling us there's
nothing you contribute to this work. He says concerning the
altar, if you lift up your hand on it, you polluted it. If you
put your work in this, if Don Fortner somehow interjected into
this thing called salvation, Don Fortner's will, his work,
his worth, if somehow, somewhere, it doesn't matter if we're talking
about the beginning or the middle or the end, if somewhere I can
find a little place to put my finger in it, I pollute the whole
thing. And God says, you're going to
hell for that. Christ will profit you nothing. Galatians chapter
five, verses one through four. You mean preacher? God's grace
requires that men do nothing. that men offer nothing, that
men perform nothing to attain it. God's grace demands it. God's grace demands it. You cannot
have God's grace as long as you're seeking to earn it by something
you do. Fourth, God's son is important to him. It pleased God that in his son
fullness should dwell. The Lord God has put all things
in the hands of his son. He's given his son preeminence
in all things and over all things. Christ Jesus is that one of whom
the scripture speaks when it says in him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. So that all that God is Christ
is. All that God does, Christ does. All that God receives, Christ
receives. All that God gives, Christ gives. All that God has to give is in
Christ, like Joseph in Egypt. Pharaoh put everything in his
hands, and it was a beautiful picture of Christ. Somebody come
up wanting corn, go to Joseph. Somebody come up wanting some
wheat, go to Joseph. Somebody come up wanting some grain, go
to Joseph. Joseph's got everything. You want anything from God? Go
to Christ. He has everything. And he gives
freely, but all things are in him to the praise of the glory
of the grace of our God. Jesus Christ is the great reservoir
of grace and salvation. All our salvation is Jesus Christ
himself. I can't stress that sufficiently.
I can't proclaim it clearly enough. I can't proclaim it. I can't
exaggerate it in any way. With regard to God, His grace,
His will, His salvation, His people, Christ is everything. Number five, I'll tell you something
else important to God. As important to God as His word,
His will, His grace and His Son. I'm not thinking about what to
say. I want you to think about what I'm about to say. As important
to God as His Word, His will, His grace, and His Son are His
people. Deuteronomy chapter 32 declares
the Lord's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. The prophet Zechariah declares,
he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye. Preacher, you didn't mean to
say we're as important to God as his son. as important as his
son. God created all things for Christ.
This book says God created all things for you who are Christ.
God sent his son to die for us. Of all the things that certainly
means, it certainly means this. God regards us as highly as he
regards his son. Oh my soul, I can't believe I
just said that. God regards us as highly as he regards his son. Our Savior said so, thou hast
loved them as thou hast loved me. Isn't that amazing? Isn't
that amazing? No wonder our Savior says, you
do something to me, to one of my children, you've done it to
me. You do something for one of my children, you've done it
for me. God rules all things for us. He upholds and preserves
all the world for us. He will one day judge the world
for us. And he will bestow all the glory
of heaven upon us, his people. One more thing. What's important
to God? His glory. His glory. And I don't have any idea how
to speak about His glory. But I know this. God has done
everything in election, redemption, predestination, and grace for
the praise of His glory. He does everything in providence
for the praise of His glory. He does everything in the saving
of His people. for the praise of his glory.
You can read it for yourself in Ephesians 1, 3 through 14.
Three times he tells us this is all for the praise of his
glory. Somehow, somehow. The glory of the infinite eternal
God, that is his everlasting praise from all his creation
is completely wrapped up in the
everlasting salvation of chosen sinners, redeemed by Christ. What's important to God? His
word, his will, his grace, his son, his people, and his glory. Now, here's a question to go
home with. What's important to you? What's important to me? His word. His will. His grace. His son. His people. His glory. Whatsoever you do, in word or
in deed, my brother, my sister, do all to the glory of God. And you will go through this
world in peace, in joy, in satisfaction. Our Savior said, my meat is to
do the will of him that sent me. And that's the bread that
satisfies all his people doing the will of our God for the praise
of the glory of his grace. Amen.