The glorious gospel of the happy
God. Sounds good, doesn't it? The
happy God. God is infinitely happy. He always has been and always
will be. He only is independent Self-sufficient. He's never been lonely. He's
never been deficient in any way like we are. You know, we have
needs. And we're born into this world
thinking we need something to make us happy. He has no needs
like you and I do. He's completely happy in himself. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, the happy God. And men have a different
view of Him, to be sure. And the Bible also tells us that
God is angry with the wicked every day. The Scripture says,
He hateth all workers of iniquity. And it even speaks of Him being
furious. And He says, Vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. But that doesn't take away from
the fact that he is happy. The great God of glory is the
happy God. He never worries. He's never
surprised. He never reacts. This is our
father I'm talking about. Isn't this the kind of father
you want? He only. Acts according to his will. All that he does is neither more
nor less than the working out of all the things that he is
pleased to do. God is happy. Isn't that a wonderful
thought? He's always happy. He's in need
of nothing to make him happy. The scripture says he's not worshipped
with men's hands as though he needed anything. He didn't make
men because He needed us. The Scripture says in Revelation
4, 11, Thou has created all things and for Thy pleasure, for Thy
pleasure, because it pleased You. They are and were created. He created the world simply because
it pleased Him to do so. He saved us, not because He needed
us. but so we could enjoy Him as
He enjoys Himself. That's glorious, isn't it? God is happy in Himself. Being
holy, He's happy. There's two things that go together,
holiness and happiness. It's sin and unbelief. and disobedience that brings
misery. But where there is holiness,
there is happiness. Now, before the creation of the
universe, when all there was was God, there was no matter,
there was no material things, there was no stars, sun, there
were no angels, there was nothing but God. Even then, He was And he had no needs. He was happy
in himself. How the Father rejoiced in himself. How he rejoiced in his Son. How he rejoiced in the blessed
Spirit of God. And how the Son rejoiced in the
Father. What communion! What fellowship! How the Son rejoiced in the Spirit
of Christ. How God the Holy Spirit rejoiced
in God the Father. How God the Holy Spirit rejoiced
in God the Son. How the Spirit rejoiced in Himself.
There was a delightful, uninterrupted communion and joy. Turn to Proverbs 8 for a moment. Beginning in verse 22, these
are the words of the Lord Jesus, wisdom personified. He said, the Lord possessed me
in the beginning of his way. Before his works of old, you
remember how the scripture speaks of let us make man in our own
image. That's the father, the son and
the Holy Spirit. Verse 23, I was set up from everlasting
from the beginning or wherever the earth was when there was
no debts. I was brought forth when there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth, while as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world. When He prepared the heavens, I was there. When
he set a compass upon the face of the depth, when he established
the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
he gave to the sea his decree that the water should not pass
his commandment, when he appointed the foundation to the earth,
then was I by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily
his what? Delight. Rejoicing always before
him, rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, and my delights
or with the sons of men. Now, when we think of the happiness
of God, what I think most of all is I think of the happiness
of the father with the son. Now, I love to think of the Lord's
baptism when our Lord was baptized, drawn to baptize, baptized, and
when it was brought back up out of the water, what happened?
The heavens were opened up and a voice came from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son. in whom I am well pleased, in
whom I delight. Oh, all the pleasure of God is
in him. What about the man of transfiguration?
The Lord brings up James and John and Peter, and the scripture
says he was transfigured before them, and his face did shine
as the sun, and his clothes actually started glowing, and they were
blown away by all this. They didn't know what to say,
and then Peter has to make that foolish statement of, Lord, let
us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and
one for Elijah. You remember Moses and Elijah
were speaking concerning his death, the death that he should
accomplish. And then the bright cloud overshadowed them, and
they hit the dirt, and a voice came from heaven, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. And the Scripture says that after
that they saw no man save Jesus only. The Father is well pleased with
His Son. Colossians 119 says it pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. Now, what all that means, I don't
know, but it's glorious, isn't it? Colossians 2.9 says in him
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in a body and you. Talking about every believer.
Now, hold on. Listen to this. How pleased is
God the Father with God the Son? He's infinitely pleased, isn't
he? He can't find anything to not be pleased with. Oh, he delights
in his son. He sees his son as altogether
lovely, altogether glorious. He rejoices in his son. Now, my dear friend, that is
precisely how he rejoices in you if you're a believer. However,
he rejoices in his son. That's how he rejoices in you. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? Believe it. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead in a body, and you are complete in Him. Now, God is pleased with Himself,
He's pleased with His Son, He's pleased with His Spirit, and
He's pleased with all that He does. Everything He does is neither
more nor less than His good pleasure. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
the psalmist said in Psalm 135, verses 5 and 6, whatsoever the
Lord pleased, That did He in earth and sea and in all deep
places. Psalm 115.3, where's your God,
David? Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. You know what God does?
What pleases Him. What He delights in. What He
rejoices in. He only does what pleases Him. He said in Isaiah
46.10, I will do all my pleasure. God acts in sovereign freedom. His acts do not spring from the
need to make up deficiency. He simply does his pleasure,
and only he is like this. He is that blessed, and there
the word happy is again, the happy and only potentate, the
Lord of lords and the king of kings. God does as he pleases. No cause other than himself produces
his acts, and no external obstacles impede them, God is the happy
God, and because He is happy in Himself, happy in His Son,
He rejoices in His people. Now I want you to look at a passage
of scripture with me in the book of Zephaniah, right after Habakkuk. Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai. It will take you a couple of
seconds to find it properly. Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17. And if this wasn't
in the book, we would have a hard time getting a hold of this.
Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee is mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. Now, that's true regarding every
believer. When the Lord looks at me, He's
so enamored with my beauty, with my loveliness in the Lord Jesus
Christ, who I am in Christ, united to Him. He looks at me and He
rejoices with singing. And can you imagine that? He
sings over me. What a voice he must have. He
sings over every single one of his children. And that's joy,
isn't it? Turn to 1 Samuel, chapter 12.
1 Samuel, chapter 12, verse 22. For the Lord will not forsake
his people for his great namesake. Salvation is for his namesake
because it has pleased the Lord. It has given the Lord delight.
It is his pleasure. It has pleased the Lord to make
you his people. Here's the reason for divine
election. The pleasure of the Lord. having
predestinated us according to the good pleasure of his will,
to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made
us accepted in the Beloved. He said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight." That's why he does it.
Naturally, when you talk about the election, God choosing who
would be saved before time began to get mad, to get upset. But
the Bible doesn't present it that way. It's a doctrine of
divine praise. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has, from
the beginning, chosen you to salvation. Election doesn't keep
anybody from being saved. Election saves people who would
have been damned. It's a glorious God honoring
truth. And God has pleasure in His choice
of His people. God was pleased to purpose to
take and choose a vast number of men and make them to be perfectly
conformed to the image of His Son. That's God's good pleasure. Turn to Isaiah 53. Now, you know that Isaiah 53
is that great chapter regarding the substitutionary death of
the Lord Jesus on the cross, and the first nine verses are
taken up With his sufferings, verse three, he's despised and
rejected. Verse four, surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows. Verse five, he was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
Verse seven, he was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he
opened not his mouth. Verse eight, he was taken from
prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
Verse nine, he's made his grave with the wicked and with the
rich in his debt because he's done no violence. Neither was
any deceit in his mouth. It's talking about all the things
that he went through. Now look at verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. That same word is translated
delighted. It delighted the Lord. It pleased
the Lord. It was his pleasure to bruise
him. Go on reading. He hath put him
to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin,
he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Now, obviously, he's
not talking about some sadistic pleasure in seeing his son suffer,
but it also says it delighted the Lord. It pleased the Lord. He found pleasure in bruising
him. Now, how is that? Let me give
you two or three reasons. Because His will was being done. Him being delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. What was happening on the
cross? The will of God was being done. And the Lord is always pleased
with His high and His holy will. I'll tell you why it pleased
the Father to bruise Him. Because God's justice was satisfied. Completely satisfied. Now, hail!
is eternal. And we don't understand this.
I was thinking about this and I thought nobody here is going
to understand this. We believe it, but we don't understand it because
we don't understand how bad sin is. Sin doesn't bother us much.
We're used to it. It's just natural to us. But
sin is so bad that hell is eternal because a sinner can never make
payment for his sin. God's justice is never satisfied
because sin is an infinite evil against God. That's why hell
lasts forever. Sin can never be satisfied. I
can never make satisfaction for my sin. He did. He did. God was the sins of all
of God's people were placed upon him and because of who he is,
because of who died, he made complete satisfaction. God's
satisfied. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. The pleasure of the Lord is the
salvation of his people. Now, who knows? I certainly don't,
nor does anybody else. Who knows the pain and the grief
Christ endured on the cross? Being shut up, being forsaken
by God, having nobody, being utterly alone, feeling all the
eternal wrath of hell because of sin. He experienced all that,
but yet the scripture says, looking unto Jesus, who for the joy that
was set before him. endured the cross, despising,
counting as nothing the shame, the shame he felt before his
father. What is that joy? Well, it's the joy of doing his
father's will. It's the joy of saving his people. You think
of that. And who understands this? What's
that passage of scripture in Judges where Jephthah He makes
a vow that he'll sacrifice anybody who comes up to him first. When
he comes in, the Lord gives him the victory. And so he comes
up and the first person that comes to him is this little girl.
Can you imagine the pain that man felt? Now, I don't understand
that. He had to sacrifice her. You
know what that's given to teach us? What pain the father felt
in killing his son. Do you think he was indifferent
about this? We don't understand that, but we understand this.
The pleasure of the Lord was being done. It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He had put him to grief. And here's what happened as a
result of it. Let's go on reading. He shall see, verse 11, he shall
see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath
poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bared the sin of many, and made intercession
for the transgressors." So we see God's pleasure in election.
We see God's pleasure in redemption. And we see God's pleasure in
regeneration. That's God's work. When God gives
a new heart and a new nature, it's the work of His good pleasure.
Listen to this scripture. Philippians 2.13 says, For it
is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do. What? His
good pleasure. Romans 8.7 says, They that are
in the flesh cannot please God. You're not in the flesh. But
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth
in you. And if you have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in you, you
know what? You please God. God looks at you and He's pleased. He's well satisfied. It's His
Spirit. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. He can't be separated from you. Now, this is mysterious.
It's glorious. It's not something we can figure
out. It's just something we believe because the Bible teaches that
God's Spirit is in me. God's pleased with that which
comes from Himself. He pardons all the stuff that's me. And
he's pleased with himself. Paul said, when it pleased God
who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace
to reveal his son in me, that I might preach him among the
heathen immediately. I conferred not with flesh and
blood. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 19 for a moment? I want to show you an example
of biblical conversion. Verse 1, the joy of God in himself,
the joy of God in his son, the happiness of God in election,
the happiness of God in redemption, the happiness of God in regeneration. God's a happy God. Now look at
this in Luke chapter 19. Verse 1, And Jesus entered and
passed through Jericho, and behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus,
which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who
he was. You know, that's when salvation
has begun. When somebody wants to find out
who the Lord Jesus Christ really is, all that other stuff is furious,
but when somebody actually wants to know who Christ is, the Lord's
doing something for them. Let's go on reading. And he could
not. You know, that's what you find
out when you start wanting to know who the Lord is. You find
that you can't know him. I can't know. And I can't. I'm too little. I can't. He could not for the
press because he was little of stature. And he ran before and
climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was to pass
that way. And when Jesus came to the place,
he looked up and he saw him. You see, he'd seen him a long
time before this. He'd seen him in eternity. This is one of his.
He saw him. And he said unto him, Zacchaeus,
make haste and come down, for today I must abide at thy house. And there's only one reason the
Son of God must do anything. He must do his Father's will.
Now look at this, verse 6. And he made haste and he came
down. You know, if the Lord ever works
on you, You're not going to be waiting for tomorrow. You're
going to do what He says now. You're not going to wait right
now. You're going to make haste. And it's always down. You come
down. Not up. You come down. He made
haste and came down and received him. How? Joyfully. Joyfully. You see, the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness. of Jesus
Christ. And peace. There's peace that
comes from that, isn't there? Knowing that Jesus Christ's righteousness
is my righteousness before God. Peace. What's it say next? And joy. Joy in the Holy Ghost. I cannot have the Holy Spirit,
the joyous Holy Spirit, without having a measure of joy. Now, I repeat, God is the happy
God. Aren't you glad he's happy? He's
happy in himself, and all that he does is an extension of his
happiness. He said in Micah 7, 18, it says
this about the Lord. It says, He delights. He finds pleasure. He delights
in mercy. It never says he delights in
wrath. It says that's his strange work, but he delights. He finds
pleasure in showing mercy to sinners. Do you know the Lord?
I've said this many times. I hope I believe it maybe for
the first time. I say it all the time. The Lord is more willing
to give me mercy than I am to receive it. That's how the Lord
is. He delights in mercy. And I think this is another glorious
scripture. Proverbs 11 says a false balance. is an abomination to the Lord,
but a just weight is His delight. It's His delight. You see, His
delight is always a just delight. His mercy is a just mercy. He delights in justice. He delights
in mercy. He delights in justice. What
a God He is. Now, I'd like to close by considering
some things in the believer that are His work that He delights
in. Would you turn with me to Psalm
147? Psalm 147. Verse 10. He delighteth not in the strength
of the horse. The horse is the method we would use for our protection.
The Lord takes no delight in the strength of the horse. He
takes no pleasure in the legs of a man, a strong man's legs. He takes no delight or pleasure
in that. The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those
that hope in his mercy." Now listen to me. That man or woman
who fears God. Now what is the fear of God?
What is it? It's seen in two things. If you
fear God, that means you're afraid of sin. That's why you're afraid
of it, because you fear God. If you fear God, you fear sin. And you're afraid to look anywhere
but Christ alone. Now that's the man that fears
God. He's afraid of sin, and because of his fear of sin and
his fear of himself, he's scared to death to find any rest, any
comfort, any peace. As a matter of fact, he can't.
He can't find anything anywhere but in Christ Jesus alone. Now,
God takes pleasure in that man. And look what it says next. In
those that hope in his mercy. Now, I'm one of them. I hope. I have an expectation toward
the future that I'm going to be accepted, and there's one
reason. His mercy. God takes pleasure in that one
who hopes. Are you hoping in his mercy?
Is that what you're hoping in? Beloved, he takes pleasure in
you. Turn to verse Samuel, chapter
15. He takes pleasure in the obedience of his people. You probably remember the story
how Saul had not done what God told him to do. He didn't kill
the Amalekites like God said. He left some of them and excused
himself and blamed the people and so on. You find it interesting
reading. But Samuel says to him in verse 22, and Samuel said,
Had the Lord as great a delight or pleasure in burnt offerings
and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice. and to hearken, to listen to
what God says, then the fact of Ram's obedience is better
than sacrifice. And the Lord is pleased. The
Lord is pleased with the obedience of his people when they believe
the gospel, when they may be a gospel. God's pleased with
that. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Verse 1, Furthermore, then we beseech
you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as you
have received of us, how you ought to walk, and to what? Please
God. So you would abound. Grow in
that more and more. Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Verse 15. By him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. You know, I love
those by him's in the scripture. When I praise God, I don't praise
God on my own. I know it would be an abomination
to him in and of myself by him, by him, by his intercession,
by his righteousness, by his merits, by him. Let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, nonstop. That is
the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Verse 16,
but to do good and to communicate. Forget not. For with such sacrifices, God
is well pleased. Now for me to do good, you know
what? It's going to be a sacrifice. Every time. To do good. He says, to do good and to communicate. To give. That's what the word means. It
means to give. To give. Forget not. For with such sacrifices,
God is well pleased. When I do good, Oh, there's plenty
of good to do. Good to my brethren in Christ
Jesus. When I do good, you know what? God is well pleased with
that. When I give, oh, the scripture says, God loveth a cheerful giver,
a hilarious giver, one who enjoys doing it. When I give, God is
well pleased. You see, He's the one that worked
in us all these things. When you do good, you know how
come you did it, don't you? It's because He worked it in you.
If you give, you know why you gave. It's because He gave you
the grace to do it. It's God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do is good pleasure. Here's something else
he's pleased with. He's pleased with the prayers
of his people. Proverbs 15, 8 says the sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is
his delight. Now, can you imagine God delighting
in your prayers? We're ashamed of our prayers.
Our prayers can be so cold, or there can be so many evil thoughts
that pass through our mind during that, that just go on and on.
But do you know the prayer of every single believer, every
time he prays, without any exception, the prayer of every believer
is a delight to the Lord. You see, it comes through the
intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I may not feel like
it's much of a prayer, but that doesn't make any difference at
all, because my great high priest takes that prayer, and it's a
sweet smelling incense to God, and he presents it to the Father,
and the prayer, every prayer of the upright, is a delight
to God. You know, God works through prayer.
His decrees come to pass through the prayers of His people. I
shall yet, he said in Ezekiel 36, be inquired of, of the house
of Israel to do it for him. I'm going to do these things
for them, and they're going to ask me for it. They're going to say,
Lord, do this for me. I'm going to decree to do it
for them. I'm going to cause them to seep my face and ask
them for it, ask me for it, and then I'm going to give it to
them. That's the way the Lord works. He works with the prayers
of his people, and the prayers of his people are a delight to
him. And here's something else that
pleases God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. What's going on right now is
called the foolishness of preaching. Why do you all do stuff like
that? Because it pleases God. Any other reasons? That's plenty
for me. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And God is pleased with
the faith of His people. You know, Hebrews 11, 6 says,
without faith, it is impossible to please God. And it is. But
by faith, we please God. Let me show you some scriptures
in Matthew 8 and 9. Would you turn to Matthew 8? I read these
just a couple of Mornings ago, and it was such a. Encouragement
to me. First in. When Jesus heard, he marveled
and said to them that followed, barely, I say to you, I've not
found so great faith. No, not in Israel. Look in chapter
nine, verses one and two. And he entered into a ship and
passed over and came into his own city and behold, they brought
to him a man. sick of the palsy, lying on a bed, and Jesus seeing
their faith, the faith of those men who brought that man, said
unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be
forgiven thee. What was their faith? They knew
the only one who could do anything for their friend was the Lord
Jesus Christ when he saw their faith. Look at Matthew 9.22. But Jesus turned him about and
when he saw her, he said, Daughter, Be of good comfort, thy faith
that made thee whole. And the woman was made whole
from that very hour. Look in verse 29. Then touched
he there I, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. Now, why does Christ put such
honor on faith? Because it puts such honor on
Him. Faith is Christ all. And that's why he honors faith. Thy faith. What's your faith? Well, here's my faith. I believe
that who Christ is and what he did is everything in my salvation. I really believe that. Well,
according to your faith, be it unto you. And then in Luke chapter
12, verse 32, you don't have to turn there. I'll quote it.
The Lord said, Fear not, little flock. You know, it always seems like
a little flock, doesn't it? Little flock, insignificant.
The Lord said, fear not little flock. It is your father's good
pleasure to give you. The kingdom. And all that's associated
with it now. Find your satisfaction. Find
your happiness. In what the father does. What
does the father find his satisfaction in his pleasure in? His son. I want to ask you a question. Is Christ enough to make you
happy if you don't have anything else? Really? Is Christ enough? He surely is. He surely is. Being in Christ
is enough to make me happy. I need nothing else. And if we
love Him, our great desire is to please Him. You see people
you love, you know what you want to do? You want to please them.
You want them to be pleased with you. Now, one last scripture,
Psalm 40. Psalm 40. And I believe I can identify
with this one probably more than any of these other things about
God's happiness and God's pleasure and so on. Because I read things
like, I read of God being pleased with me just like he is with
his son. And I believe it, but I don't much enter into it. I
mean, I believe it because it says it, but I have a hard time
grasping that. And you do too, you know you
do. We believe it though, don't we? I mean, we believe what God's
word says, but here's something I can get hold of. Psalm chapter
40. Verse 11. Withhold not thou thy tender
mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Now, I realize that this is first
The Lord is speaking from the cross, but it's me too. It's me too. I feel it right
now. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart fails me. Be pleased. Oh, let it be your
pleasure, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help
me. Lord, be pleased to deliver me. Let's pray.