Would you turn back to Ephesians
5? I forgot to announce this morning, but we're gonna have
a church dinner next Sunday after the morning services. Susan,
why don't you put that in the email or whatever it is? Okay. I've entitled... I've entitled
the message for this evening, understanding God's will. Not knowing God's will, but understanding
God's will. Generally, when people think
of God's will, they think, what is God's will for my life? You've
come across that. Or what's God's plan for me? And preachers have said, God
has got a wonderful plan for you. I want to remind you the
word plan's not in the Bible. I don't know whether I ought
to say this or not, but I guess I'm going to say it. I think of what Henry Mahan
said about that statement when he said, God's got a wonderful
plan for you. He said, I tell you what he's planning to do.
He's planning to send you to hell. And that is, if that's what someone
continues to adopt, I would agree with that. I don't want to say
that by way of, well, what are my notes? What is God's will for my life?
Well, whatever's taken place up to this point is what God's
will for your life is. And everything that happens from
now on is what God's will for your life is. Now, you get that? Be not unwise, Paul says in Ephesians
5, 17, and the word is actually usually translated foolish, without
reason. Want of mental sanity or sobriety. Lack of common sense, no perception
of the reality of things. That's what it is to be foolish. Do not be that way. Be not unwise
or foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Somebody may think, well, how
can I know what the will of the Lord is? That seems almost like
an act of presumption to say I can understand or know the
will of the Lord. How can me, a sinful finite being,
how can I know anything about understanding the will of the
Lord? Well, there's one answer to that.
The Bible. The Bible. God has revealed to us his will
in the Bible. I love the scripture, Proverbs,
not Proverbs, but Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong
to the Lord. That's the stuff he hadn't revealed.
There's a lot of it. There's a lot that you and I
have no clue about. The secret things belong to the
Lord, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to
our children to do all the words of this law. And the only way
we can have an understanding of his will is through this book. That is where he has made known
his will. And the only understanding you
and I will have of his will is through this book, the Bible,
the inspired, inerrant word of God. spoken directly from God,
revealing who he is. Now, there is such a thing as
the will of God. Now, we speak from the scriptures
of the character of God, what he's made known of his own character
in the Bible. He's made known that he's eternal.
And I can't grasp that. Neither can you. Neither can
anybody else. He never had a beginning. Nobody made him. He's always
been. He's eternal. He'll always be. Whatever he
always was, he is. Whatever he is, he always will
be. That's the God of the Bible. He's immutable. He's sovereign.
You know what that means? I think the simplest way to put
down or define God's sovereignty is he's the cause. Whatever it
is. Doesn't matter what you talk
about. He is the cause. He's the first cause behind everything. He is all powerful. Whatever
he wills, he has the power to make sure it comes to pass. He
is omniscient. He knows everything and there
isn't anything he doesn't know that can cause his will to come
to pass. He's omnipresent. That means
he's everywhere. There's nowhere he can be where
it's going to thwart his will from taking place. He's omnipresent.
He is everywhere. He's independent. I love thinking
of his independence. You know what that means? That
means he doesn't need me and you to fulfill him. He's utterly
independent. But never forget. He is a person
with a consciousness and a will, a purpose, an intent, a desire. That's who he is. He is a person.
I feel silly saying that. Try to talk about the living
God, you feel so inadequate, but he is a person, and he has
a consciousness, and he has a will, an intent, and a desire. Now, before I go on with this,
there is no such thing as free will in God or man. When somebody talks about free
will, they're just talking about foolishness. Your will is controlled
by your nature. Your will is not independent
of your nature. Your will comes out of your nature.
Now we do what we want to do. We don't act by compulsion. We're
not forced to do things. We do what we want to do, but
that will is controlled by an evil nature. God's will is controlled
by a holy nature. And the difference between God's
will and our will, we don't have the power to make our will come
to pass. He has the power and always does make His will come
to pass. Now to understand God's will,
we're going to have to understand His will of command and His will
of decree. Let me say at the outset, his
will of command is never done. And his will of decree is always
done. That's a very simple concept.
That's very true. And you and I are not going to
understand God's will if we don't understand that. Somebody says, are you
separating God's will? No, this is all part of his good
and perfect will, but he's got a will of command. And he's got
a will of decree. Now, what does that mean? Well,
his will of command goes something like this. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me. You're not to have any idols.
No false images of God. It's his will for you to not
take his name in vain. Remember the Sabbath to keep
it holy at rest. It's his will for you to honor
your mother and father in all forms of authority. It's his
will for you to teach your kids to do so as well. It's his will
for you to not murder anybody. It's his will for you to not
commit any kind of sexual sin. It's his will for you to never
lie. It's his will for you to not
steal. It's his will for you to not covet. This is his will
of command. God has a will of command. And
it's essential that I understand this. Anytime I sin, anytime
I sin, I am breaking his will of command. You know what that
means? That means I'm breaking his will
of command all the time. Now, the fact that he commands
it, and we break it, makes it our fault. Can't blame God's
sovereignty. Well, God purposed for me to
commit that sin, therefore I committed it. No, you broke God's commandment. That's all that can be said of
that. I broke God's commandment. If I fail to take personal responsibility
for my sin, It's all my fault. If I fail to do that, you know
what I cannot do? I cannot ask God for mercy. You
see, you only ask for mercy when it's all your fault. You only
ask for forgiveness when it's all your fault. You only ask
for grace when it's all your fault. This issue of personal
responsibility for our sin is so very important. You and I have not kept one commandment
one time and deep down if you think you have all you prove
by that is you're ignorant of the law. That's it. Ignorant. I think of that passage of scripture
in Romans chapter 9 where the man is objecting to God's sovereignty
and he says Why? If he had mercy on whom he will
have mercy and whom he wills he hardens. How can he find fault
with me? Who's resisting his will? If
he wills everything and if he's in control of everything and
if he's sovereign over every event, I can't do anything about
it. Why does he yet find fault? How
can he hold me responsible for that which is a part of his sovereign
purpose? I love Paul's answer, nay, but
old man, who are you to find fault with God? Since when do
you have the moral authority to stand over God and say, I
don't agree with what he's doing? Take, may the Lord enable me
and you to take complete responsibility for our sin. You know, there's
only one who kept God's will command. the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
I do always those things that please the Father. Satan has
come and found nothing in me, nothing he could get hold of.
The only holy man to ever live. And I love including this. He
said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness. Because when he fulfilled righteousness,
when he kept God's law perfectly, so did everybody in him. That means, dear friend, you
kept the law if you're in him. You personally kept the law if
you're in him. That's why I don't try to keep
the law. I heard somebody recently say, we can't keep the law, but
we want to. That's not good enough. I got
to keep it. I got to keep it purposely. And
in Christ, every believer has kept the law perfectly. That's
God's will of command, though. This do. This do. Somebody says, well, that is
kind of separating things. You can look at it that way if
you want, but it's not. It's just something. God has
a will of command. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. No man repents until he gives
them the grace to do it, but he commands all men everywhere
to repent. He commands you to believe the gospel. Don't say,
well, I can't believe unless he enables me to. That's true. Does that give you an excuse?
No, the command is to believe the gospel. young people, God's
command to you is to believe the gospel right now. That is God's will of command. And then there's God's will of
decree. And that covers everything that
happens in time without exception. That is God's will of decree. Everything that happens in time
was decreed in eternity. His will of decree is always
obeyed. And whatever happens is God's
will taking place. I love the scripture in Daniel
4, 35, when Nebuchadnezzar found out this. Nebuchadnezzar, the
Lord saved that man. He was made to know who the living
God is. And he said concerning the living
God, after God revealed himself to him, he said, he do it according
to his will in the arms of heaven and down here on earth. Everything
is his will being done and none can stay his hand or say unto
him, what doest thou? Give an account of yourself.
He gives account to no man of his matters. He's God. You know, uh, It's a good thing
for parents to say to their kids, if they say, why should I do
this? Because I said it. Because I said it. It's infinitely more true concerning
God. Because he said it. Why did the fall take place? God's purpose, God's will. That's why the fall took place.
Now, I don't want to charge God with sin. I don't want to hold
Him. Don't worry about it. God's God. He's God. Whatever He does is right. Whatever
He does is holy and true and just and good. If He purposed
the fall, it's holy, just, good and true. Whatever He does is
right. He said, I form the light. I
create darkness. I make peace. I create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. This is who he is. You don't
need to worry about, oh, I don't want to lay sin at his charge.
Don't worry about it. He can take care of himself.
He doesn't need your help. He's altogether glorious, high and
holy. When Drew's reading Psalm 9,
I love it when David calls him, oh, most high. He says that so
much, oh, most high. Well, were Adam and Eve responsible?
Yes, they were. Yes, they were utterly and completely,
but it was all a part of God's purpose. But you take that with
regard to the cross. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. He was delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you're responsible for
slaying him. I love what the early church
said in Acts chapter four. I mean, these were new believers.
They'd only been believers for a couple of weeks. But here's
the thing, they knew God. And if you know God, you know
that's the way He is. They said, concerning the Lord,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. Now that's who God
is. And the most immature infant believer knows that if they know
Him. You see, what you believe is determined by who you believe.
That's it. You ever see who the Lord is,
you'll know this is so. Turn to Ephesians 1. You're in
Ephesians, Ephesians 1, verse 5, having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. What's that
next line? According to the good pleasure
of his will. That's why look in verse nine,
having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure, which he had purpose in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times, he might gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on
earth, even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the council. of his own will. Now when we
talk about the will of God, it's absolute. Covers everything. I love that
scripture in Proverbs 16, the lot is cast into the lap. Now
that seems like pure chance, happenstance. The lot is cast
into the lap. But the whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. Whatever it is. God's will is
eternal. We read in Ephesians 3 11 of
the eternal purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. You see, whatever happens today
was eternally purposed by Christ Jesus, by God, and that's why
it takes place. It's eternal. His will is immutable. God is not a man that he should
repent. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, You
sons of Jacob are not consumed. You see, he doesn't have to respond
to anything. He doesn't have to have plan Bs and contingency
plans and what if this doesn't take place? No, not at all. God's
will, what it is now, it always was and always will be. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. It's efficacious. That means
his will cannot be thwarted. I've already quoted it. None
can say his hand or saying to him what do is now. I love what
David said in Psalm 115, three. He said, our God was in the heavens.
He had done not. He will do not. He can do. He had done what so
ever he hath pleased. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in earth and sea, heaven, all deep places. God's
will is causeless. And what do I mean by that? God's
will is causeless. That means that there's no cause
outside of himself as to why he does what he does. I love
what the Lord said. He said, I thank Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because You've hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight. It's the only reason He
does what He does. It seems good in His sight. And
whatever's good in His sight, it's good in our sight, isn't
it? We really believe that. We believe God is God. His will
is sovereign. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. His will is sovereign. Whom he
will, he hardens. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. I
mean, his will is his sovereign will, and his will is supreme. He is supreme to all others in
authority, in power, in stature, oh, the supremacy of His will.
And the supremacy of His will is demonstrated in these three
things. First of all, creation. He willed creation. Now when He created the world,
He didn't create the world in order to make up for some kind
whole or longing in him that he needed to have, it was simply
an act of his will for his glory that he created all things. For
thy values created all things, for thy pleasure they are and
were created. Oh, how glorious creation is
when he simply willed all things into existence. The supremacy
of his will is seen in providence, everything that happens in time.
is his will being done that which he decreed before time. Isaiah
46, this is a, I know a scripture we all like to see quite often.
Comforts me, makes me bow down before this glorious God. Verse nine, remember the former
things of old. Isaiah 46, verse nine, remember
the former things of old, for I am God, There's none else. I'm God and there's none like
me. I love thinking about there's, there's none like him. There's
no one you can compare him to. Anything you compare him to is
only bringing him down. It's wicked and idolatrous to
compare him to anything. I am God. There's none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I've spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I purposed it. I will also do it. That's true
with regard to everything. The Lord killeth, the Lord maketh
alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
he bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and he maketh
rich. He bringeth low and he lifteth
up. That was the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2. And how precious
this verse of scripture is. And we know that all things, that covers everything, doesn't
it? All things work together. for good to them that love God,
to them who are called according to his purpose. And that's why
Paul could say to the Thessalonians, in everything, give thanks. For
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Aren't you thankful it's that
way? I'm so thankful it's that way. I wouldn't want it to be
any other way. Now, this supremacy of his will is seen most especially
in salvation. Now, why do I say most especially?
Because a natural man can use a little logic and he can see
where God's will must be supreme in creation. I mean, it just
makes sense. It's logical. And if he follows out his logic,
He can see where God's will of God is. He must be completely
sovereign over all things. And so they can see his will
in providence. But you know, men chafe at this.
His will is always done in salvation. Your salvation is up to his will.
It's not up to your will. It's up to him as to whether
or not you'll spend eternity in heaven or eternity in hell. And men chafe at that. You know
why they chafing that? Because they're self-righteous
and they believe that they deserve to be in heaven. That's the only
reason why anybody would chafe at that. Men have been fed this all their
life. God loves everybody. Christ died
for everybody. God wants to save everybody.
God the Holy Spirit's calling everybody. People have been fed
that all their life and they believe it. Nothing in the Bible
that says anything like that. You're not going to get that
from the scriptures. And as far as that goes, if God wills the salvation
of all men the same, and not all men are saved, God's will
has nothing to do with salvation. It's what you do. If Jesus Christ
shed his blood for all men, with that exception, and some of those
men that he shed his blood for are not saved, his blood doesn't
save. It's what you do. You see, this
is a message of salvation by works. It's not just mistaken
theology. It's an anti-Christ, anti-gospel
message. Sinners are unsafe through this
message. That's the case. The Lord said in John chapter
six, verse 38, and I love to think of what the people thought
of when he said this. He said, I came down from heaven.
Stop there. What if I said to you, I came down from heaven?
I believe somebody might throw stuff at me. That's what I would
deserve. I came down from heaven, not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing. But raise it up again
in the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
should have eternal life. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. Hebrews 10, 10, by the witch will, by God's will,
by the witch will, we are sanctified once for all. through the offering
of the body of Jesus Christ. John 5.21, as the father raises
the dead and quickens them, even so the son quickens whom he will. Second Timothy 1.9 says he saved
us. That's everything we believe.
He called us with a holy calling, not according to our works. but
according to his own purpose and grace, which were given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began." Turn to Romans 9. If I'm looking at a commentary,
the first place I go is Romans 9. I want to see what they say
there, because I pretty much know what they're going to say
about everything else, about what they say about Romans 9.
Look in verse 11. For the children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it's written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. What should we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses,
I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up. Don't miss that. The scripture
saith unto Pharaoh. Scripture had not yet been written. When scripture speaks, God speaks. The scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power, my authority in thee, and that my name might
be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardens. God is long suffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now, how does this affect me
and you personally? That's totally dependent on whether
you love this or hate it. Somebody says, I'm indifferent.
Well, you're a fool then. That's all that can be said.
You're a fool if you're indifferent. Somebody says, I hate this. It's
because you hate him. That's the only reason. You don't
like him being in control. You don't see safety in it. You
don't see salvation in his will. You would rather be up to you
and you prefer salvation by works. There's somebody else who loves
this because they know the only way they can be saved is for
him to will their salvation. Like the leper, Lord, if you
will. Can you pray that right now?
If you haven't ever before, can you do it right now? Lord, if
you will. You can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. I
can't will my own cleaning. If you will, you can. Now, anybody
that prays that prayer, they're going to hear him say, I will.
There's never been anybody who prayed that prayer from their
heart. Lord, if you will, I've got nothing
else. If you will, you can make me
clean. Nope, not going to do it. You're not one of the elect.
Never happened. Never happened. Anybody who prayed that prayer
in the first place, he put it in their heart. Lord, if you
will, you can make a clean hope. Don't ever look at the sovereignty
of God and election and his effectual atonement for the elect as negative.
Kind of like whether we've been more people saved. No, this is
what brings people into heaven. This is what brings people into
glory, who he is and what he did and his sovereign will. I hope this is the desire of
my heart, thy will be done. We're taught to pray that, aren't
we? Every day. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done. And I want to be somebody who
does his will. You say, well, doesn't everybody
do his will? Yeah, in his sovereignty, but here's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about where the Lord said, not everyone that saith
unto me. Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom
of heaven that he that what do the will of my father, which
is in heaven. Many will say unto me in that
day, Lord, Lord, we've done your will. We preached in your name. Why, in your name, we've cast
out demons. In your name, we've done many wonderful works. I think that's interesting of
their estimation of their works, the quantity of them, many, the
quality of them, wonderful. Then will I say unto them, depart
from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you, never. Now, what was it that they didn't
do? They didn't do the Father's will. They thought they did. Well, we've preached in your
name, not in our own name, yours. It was sound in your name. We demonstrated power. We cast
out devils in your name. We were good. We did many wonderful works.
I never knew you. Now, what is doing the will of
God? What must we do? that we might
work the works of God? What a question. And here are
Lord's answer. This is the work of God. That you believe on him whom
he hath sent. You believe him, you believe
the father sent him. You believe he did what the father
sent him to do. You believe He is all in salvation. Now, faith, here's another scripture
that lets you know that faith doesn't have anything to do with
what you think about yourself. This is the work of God that
you believe you're saved, that you believe Jesus Christ died
for you, that you believe you're one of the elect. No, this is
the work of God that you believe on him, whom he hath sent. I want to acknowledge his will.
If I don't say it out loud, probably I'll say it out loud every time,
but I want to say this in my heart. If the Lord will, we'll
do this or that or the other. You know, James said it's evil
to say we're going to do this or that. He said, don't say that.
If the Lord will, there's a continual acknowledgement of his will. And then I want to be one of
these people that Paul said, prove, demonstrate that good
and acceptable perfect will of God. I beseech you by the mercies
of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly
acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service and be
not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you might prove what is that good and acceptable
and perfect will of God. And what's the first thing he
said? We saw this in Sunday school this morning. First thing he
said in doing that is, for every man not to think of himself more
highly than he ought to think. First thing he said. And then
I want to submit to his will. The will of the Lord be done. Paul says, I'm going to Jerusalem. No, don't do that. They'll kill
you. They'll murder you. I'm ready to die for the name
of the Lord Jesus, Paul said. You know what they said? Let
the will of the Lord be done. I want to submit, willingly submit. You know, His will's going to
be done whether I willingly submit to it or not. I know that. You
know, sometimes I wonder if my submission is one of, well, nothing
I can do about it. I don't want to have that kind
of attitude. I want the will of the Lord be done. And I like
what Paul said to those servants in Ephesians chapter six. He
said, doing the will of God from the heart. I want to do that,
don't you? Well, where do we begin? Believe
on Christ right now as all that's needed to make you perfect before
God. They make you perfect. That's
doing the will of God from the heart. Be not unwise, but understanding
what the will of the Lord is. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
glorious will, and how we thank you that it
You sent your son to do your will, and that your will was
that of all that you've given him, he wouldn't lose one of
them. but raise them up again at the last day. And Lord, we
pray that we might be of that number. We pray that you would
cause us to say from our heart, thy will be done. Cause us to
acknowledge at all times, if it be thy will. Cause us to do
thy will, to believe on my son. Cause us to rejoice in thy will
and give thanks for thy will in all things. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.
Bitch, come on.