okay the question asked tonight usually people don't just have one question they kind of mix and mingle more than one this one comes from Brooke James you sent me this one long ago right seems like I've seen this one floating around for months and months from Brooke here's what she asks why would God make us knowing that we were going to sin isn't that selfish for him to make us for the sole purpose of just worshipping and that's it so here it again Brooke asked why would God make us knowing that we were going to
sin isn't that selfish for him to make us for the sole purpose of just worshiping and that's it and so the first part in the second part seem like they're kind of two different questions why would God here's the first part why would God make us knowing that we were going to sin what does the open theists say God doesn't even know where who's gonna send the open theists basically says that God doesn't know the future they teach that God knows all that's knowable but because the future hasn't happened yet it's not knowable listen to
this and turn turn with me I want your eyes to see this Ephesians has all manner of glorious truths but teach us lots of things about God's eternal purpose let's look at Ephesians 1 in verse 11 I want you to see something here in Ephesians 1:11 here's what it says in Christ we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will and here's what I want you to see the last part there the him who works is God were predisposed that
are predestined are predestined according to the purpose of God who works all things according to the counsel of his will if you just isolate that last part you get this God works all things according to the counsel of his will he works all things according to what he wills according to his own counsel he doesn't take counsel from you and me when he's trying to figure out how things are gonna work out everything happens and works out according to the counsel of his will now watch this I want you to turn to Romans 11 when
people ask questions I'm often looking at their questions and I brought this up last time but I look at their questions to see if in the question they're making assumptions that may not be valid think with me here think about Brooks question why would God make us knowing that we were going to sin what are her assumptions when she says that I mean here what she's asking why would God make us knowing that we were going to sin what is she implying there she definitely that God knew we were gonna sin but what does it
feel like she's implying what's that charging God it's almost like what's God doing I mean why look if if you're a Calvinist and you say well God designed all of mankind and he has an elect people and he passes over all the rest God is sovereign God decrees all that comes to pass and God has actually written the script that sins going to be in the world I mean if he did that people fault him why why in the world would he do that he could have created all men so that they didn't sin why
would he create and the Arminian says at least the Arminian says that God can look down through the corridors of time and see who's gonna believe and who's not gonna believe and that they believe in conditional election that sieze who's gonna believe and he chooses them but why would he create all the people that he sees won't believe you see whether whether you're whether you're a Calvinist or whether you're an Arminian you've got an issue here with the fact that God either God decreed it or at least God knew it and why would he create
these people he knew was going to sin and it is it's charging God with fault there that that indeed has happened now I want you to see something because I want you all to be absolutely absolutely clear about something Romans 11 verse 32 for God this I'm reading from the English standard version and I know this reads a little bit different in different translations but the ESV reads this way for God has consigned all to disobedience now you get that what does consign mean it's actually the idea of imprisoned but God has consigned or imprisoned
all to disobedience and what do you think he means by all well I'll tell you what he means if you go back and look at Romans 3 9 you see it Romans 3 9 says this what then are we Jews any better off no not at all for we've already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin they all is Jew and Gentile but listen he's talking about all of the Jews and all of the Gentiles all of the nations and all individuals that make up all those nations they are all being charged
as being under sin Galatians 3 22 says scripture imprisoned everything or all men under sin and what you have here is Paul says that this has to do with God's consignment in other words I want you to be very clear Brook says it doesn't make sense to her she's she's finding fault it sounds it appears she's finding fault with God for going through with creating man even when God knew which ones were going to sin what Paul was saying is it's God's eternal purpose that there be sinners in this world in fact God can sign
them all to disobedience why for the sake that he have might have mercy on all that doesn't mean every single individual of all of them but all that he has mercy on and from Jew and Gentile that he may have mercy on all the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways look he not only knew we were going to sin you need to get this God decreed that all men were going to sin as part of his eternal plan and it's according to
the counsel of his will he not only saw it and did nothing to prevent it he ordained it he wrote the script and if you doubt it if you don't think God consigning all to disobedience means that I'm gonna prove it to you let's look at ephesians 1 and verse 4 I mean I want you I want to convince you all of this fact the Lord not only saw that sin would come into this world God decreed that sin would come into this world and we're gonna talk more about that because as soon as people
hear that they again they want to they want to charge God with some sort of fault or with being the author of sin but we'll get back to that in a second but what I want you to do is see if even's one beginning in verse four he that's God chose us now let me ask you this he chose us for what is he saying to the Ephesians now you remember he's not writing to everybody under the Sun he is specifically writing the letter of Ephesians to who Ephesians those who are faithful in Christ Jesus
that's what he says that's how he introduces the letter God chose us Christians what did he choose us to what has he chosen us to to be holy and blameless in other words to salvation in Ephesians 2 verse 1 you see that lost people are dead in trespasses and sins God chose people to bring out of the cesspool of their deadness in sin and he made them alive in Christ to be holy and blameless he chose a people to save from among the mass of mankind he chose the ones that he would save watch this
keep reading he chose us in Christ in other words he chose not only that we would be saved he chose the means by which we would be saved sheltered in Christ protected in Christ taken out of being in Adam and now positionally in Christ this is salvation this is salvation through Christ this is salvation through the cross of Christ through the merits of Christ through the righteousness of Christ were in Christ that's what this is all about he chose us to be in the Savior those that are in the Savior he chose to be in
the same he chose us it does not say we chose him it says he chose us but follow when yesterday the day before we got saved the day he thought well I'm gonna have pity on him because he's calling out to me I'm gonna have pity on him because he believes in me I want you to see there is an eternal plan here before the foundation of the world this was determined this did not happen in in the course of you and I living our lives and somehow falling into sin and and somehow exercising our
free will and determining over others that we need to escape to Christ and therefore we were smarter and wiser than others and we fled to him Jesus says no man can come unto me unless my father who had sent me draws him you don't come unless the father draws the father is only going to draw those whom he chose to be in Christ before the foundation of the world that's what this is teaching keep going that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined again when did the predestination occur before the
foundation of the world he determined our destiny pre that means before before our life before the world before the foundation of this world he predestined us for adoption again who's the US the faithful in Christ Jesus he's speaking to Christians he's speaking to those that are chosen he predestined Christians for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will before the foundation of the world God's exercising his own will and what does he do he chooses Youk somebody some guy wants to interview me and he sent me an e-mail and he
wants to interview me about this question does God ordained certain people to he'll listen when God decrees and works everything out according to the purpose of his will you can be sure this he designed he creates every single individual human being that will ever live in this world and if before the foundation of the world he looked at this pool of mankind and he chose out of it those whom he would choose to be saved Bank on it he purposely passed over everyone he did not choose God is God is not God is not somehow
unknowing about that God did it with design God did it with purpose God determined ahead of time not only who he would choose but he determined ahead of time exactly who would be created who would not be created God never thought of anything today God didn't think of something yesterday God's mind has known all things for all time and for all eternity nothing is new to God otherwise God is changing do you understand that God is not changing what do we call that that God is not changing immutability God does not change God is the
same Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever there is no changing in God God doesn't change God knows all that would ever be known and can be known and all the possibilities and he I always known it God has always known exactly who would be saved God not only knows all of it he designs all of it it all works according to the counsel of his will his will exercise in all that takes place in this world if God chose them those who would be saved before the foundation of the world he obviously
passed over those who would not be saved before the foundation of the world God chose us think about this God chose us before the foundation of the world in Christ in the Savior what does that tell you to be holy and blameless before him we were adopted in other words not only before the foundation of the world were those of us who would be chosen chosen were being chosen to be in a Savior which means before the whole thing started God had decreed there would be sin in this world he decreed that Adam would fall
he decreed that men and women all exceeding his son would would fall into sin they would be sinners he decreed that salvation would take place before the foundation of the world look at revelation 13 turn to Revelation 13 why would God make us knowing that we were going to sin and say I'm telling you God made us knowing that we would sin because it's part of his plan God in His perfect knowledge and perfect understanding not only saw that we would sin it was according to God's purposes that man would sin it was necessary for
God to bring about the very purposes he intended to bring about by creating this world and his purposes for this world would not be achieved if sin had not entered into it that's what you need to understand now that this caught God by surprise God is an infinite wisdom is designing this watch revelation 13 verse 7 also it was allowed to make war on the Saints this is the Beast of Revelation 13 to make war on the Saints and to conquer them there is evil in this world that conquers the Christian not in an absolute
sense but in a temporary sense there are evil forces in this world that put Christians to death and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation and all who dwell on earth will worship the Beast everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain before the foundation in this world there was a book and the names of God's people are in it now look you and I don't know who those people are you and I don't
know who they are and we know this if you will you can take of the water of life without price if you will if you're weary and heavy-laden you can come to Christ and he'll give you rest if you'll come you can come Jesus said you won't come unless the father draws you but if you want to come go that means the father is drawing you and we don't know who they are and so our commission is to preach the gospel among all the nations but listen to this there is a lamb's book of life
and the thing about it is it was written before the foundation of the world and when you go to Revelation 20 and verse 15 jump over there and if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life he was thrown into the lake of fire did God put those names in that book before the foundation of the world you better believe it did he leave all the names out that he determined to leave out before the foundation of the world you better believe it are they in the end gonna be thrown in the
lake of fire you better believe it and then people ask the question that is asked there in Romans 9 why does God still find fault who can resist his will and of course that classic answer that rings down through the ages is what who are you old man listen here's what we need to understand God's ultimate purpose in creating this world was not to try to keep all men out of hell you need to understand that his ultimate goal his ultimate purpose his ultimate end his ultimate objective for creating this world was not to save
all men it was not to keep all men out of hell and what you have to understand is this in God's mind he saw that decree that sin be in the world and that all of Adam's posterity be sinners was to the accomplishing of his greatest purpose for creating the world he said you follow what I'm saying God had a purpose for creating this world and God determined and decreed that sin should be in this world for the sake of achieving the greatest purposes for which he created this world you follow that you follow what
I'm saying if his great objective was to save all men he failed right would you you would agree if his greatest objective was to keep sin out of this world he failed but keeping sin out of this world and saving all men was never his chief objective it's something else God's eternal purpose works out the way you see it working out all around us you say oh look at all this evil in the world look at all the depravity look at the Wars look at how men are merciless look at the evil look at the
depravity look at the murders look at the rapes look at the look at this world and we say why why why look at the death and destruction if God's sovereign and he's in control why would he allow all these things to happen you need to understand he doesn't just allow them to happen God creates the calamities God's not responsible for the sin but here's how God created everything God created this world in such a way that everything that you see happening would indeed come to pass and yet he not be the author of sin and
we know he's not the author of sin he doesn't tempt anybody to sin and in him there is no darkness at all first John 1:5 there is no darkness doesn't Habakkuk say something about his eyes what does he say about his eyes he's a pure eyes than to behold iniquity so how does he do it how does God so construct a world where by their sin and yet he's not accountable he's not guilty for the actual sin and the way is this God has designed this world so that so that the sin has actually carried
out by second causes who are the second causes you and me where he is the initial cause of everything he creates us but the but the fact is we operating freely spontaneously we do the evil and we are chargeable for the evil did God determine to have his son die on that cross and yet what are the men called who nailed him there while this men wicked men yeah Jesus Christ was killed according to the predetermined counsel of God that's what Peter said on the day of Pentecost did he not and yet he doesn't charge
God with the crime who does he charge the men who did it you see God has so perfectly constructed this world so that all his eternal counsel is carried out by second causes so sin comes through wicked men through wicked angels who are exercising their own wills in such a way that God is unblemished he is untainted there is no darkness in him and yet his purposes are being carried out and if any evil is done its us and we're responsible for it and we know we are and so what you have to understand is
that man is not the primary end man's goodness man's pleasure man's prosperity man's survival man's painless Ness man is not the chief objective of this creation you really need to get that that we struggle and find it hard to stomach so much of this because we're so humanistic in our thinking we have a very high and exalted view of man and a rather low view of God you know what God did create this world to bring about a magnificently glorious ultimate purpose and sin was necessary for the bringing about of that purpose and like I
said before that glorious ultimate purpose was not keeping all men out of hell it was something else hard to stomach for fallen men I mean men have mistaken the fact that all God's purposes terminate with man I mean in other words everything God does the end is man and so they just can't hardly understand how could Katrina happen how could that how could these tsunamis happen how could this tornado that went through Oklahoma City happen I mean and so you end up with open theism because people are just saying God really isn't in control you
go in what you go to the hospital and you watch somebody die this miserable horrible death of cancer and you just say you know God God just couldn't have known God God can't be involved I mean he he he must weep tears just like we do and he can't prevent it must have caught him by surprise just as much as it as it caught us by surprise I mean what happens is too we even in hearing the gospel we hear part of it I mean we hear that Jesus came into the world to save sinners
we hear about Jesus going to the cross and suffering phenomenal suffering for the sake of sinners we hear about sinners being forgiven we hear about eternal life we hear about God's love we hear about eternal pleasure and fullness of joy in God's presence and in his right hand and we hear about this eternal state and we see pictures in our mind of God wiping away the tears and no more suffering and no more pain and all that and what happens is we take all of that and then we mistakenly come to this conclusion into this
assumption that all God's purposes just revolve around man and yet there's other things in Scripture that when we read over them we just entirely don't hear them they go right over our head they're there they're gone look at Romans 8 I want you to see something I want you to feel something here Romans chapter 8 verse 29 this is familiar for those whom he foreknew that just doesn't mean that ahead of time he foreknew who would believe - for no knowing you know when he looks at Israel he says of all the nations of this
world he said you alone have I known that doesn't mean that he didn't know about the others Adam knew his wife and she conceived it's a term of great intimacy it has to do with the people ahead of time who God put his love on again this goes back to the predestinated of God whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son so you have these people who ahead of time he set his love on those people he didn't predestined now to set his love upon those people that he
set his love upon he predestined to bear the image of His Son Jesus Christ in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined to the image of his son he also called not a general call this is flesh and blood has not revealed this to you Peter my father revealed to the I thank you Father you've revealed this to babes this is what it is it's God call it's God my sheep know my voice this is the voice of God coming home to the sinner's heart in an effectual
way those whom he called this is how we know it's an effectual call because every single one of them who get this call get justified which means I have faith you don't get justified without they God grants faith does he not it's a gift of God so whoever he calls he grants saving faith to that they might get justified because all who are called they get justified all who are foreign-owned they get predestinated they get called they get justified and in the end what do they get glorified even past tense it's a done deal folks
this is a broken chain you don't get in you don't get out you go all the way through or you're not in there at all and see we look at this and we say hallelujah and we should in the end glorified I mean we're going to shine like the Sun and the kingdom of our Father we're glorified we're gonna see Christ and we're gonna be as he is and we ought to jump up and down and we ought to be excited but listen this tax does not say that God's eternal purpose in for knowing and
predestinated and calling and justifying is all for the end of glorifying man that's not what he says here he says that all this happens for this purpose look at it again in order verse 29 right at the end in order that Christ might be the firstborn among many brothers what his firstborn mean what does that mean that he might be the firstborn let me give you an example Psalm 89 26 he shall cry to me you are my father my god and the rock of my salvation and I will make him the firstborn the highest
of the kings of the earth Jesus Christ is called the firstborn in Colossians 1 why what's that all about that Christ might have the preeminence you see we have not sufficiently delved into God's purposes if we conclude that man is the center of God's purposes that's not true that's not what you find there you don't find that man glorification is the center of all God's purposes what you find is that Christ to be the firstborn is center to God's purposes that means that Christ would have all the preeminence that Christ might have the highest place
of honor and you see we miss it if we if we don't see that that's the purpose don't you recognize that it just as much as Jesus Christ said they search this they think in here they have eternal life but the Scriptures speak of me do you recognize that when God has a word to give to the world it's all about Christ why because this world was created primarily not for your glory in mind not for your glorification in mind but for Christ's preeminence and for Christ's honor and for Christ's glory just think of scripture
Romans 9 the dreaded Romans 9 let's let's look there Romans 9 21 and think as we read this whose honor whose glory whose Dominion whose beauty whose preeminence who is center to God's purposes as we read this is it man or is it God Romans 9 21 has the Potter God is the Potter has the Potter no right over the clay we're the clay he's the potter has he no right I mean write it right off God has a right the clay doesn't he's superior he's sovereign or not has not the powder the right over
the clay to make out of the same lump Oh get that the same lump so we just tell them the Brethren up in Austin on Sunday what is that lump the lump has fallen mankind you remember that it's not perfect mankind it's not unfallen mankind it's fallen mankind you know how we know that because from the lump he makes vessels of mercy and vessels of Wrath and nobody needs mercy unless they're coming from a lump of sin and nobody gets Wrath unless they come from a lump of sin you recognize this right off the entire
lump if justice is given to it they deserved eternal punishment has the Potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use does God make some vessels specifically for dishonorable use you better believe that that's what he's saying and dishonorable use has to do with wrath and hell and we're gonna see that plainly in a second he is in control he decreed it and he not only decreed it he not only knew it was going to happen he is forming the vessels he
is creating the vessels watch what if God not God sitting off as a spectator allowing it to happen what if God as first cause God is doing it what if God desiring to show now get that God is doing what he's doing to show who he is his glory he's displaying his attributes to show his wrath that's what he's doing in making these vessels of Wrath he's desiring to show his wrath he's desires to make known his power you see that twice there he's showing his wrath he's showing his power he's endured with much patience
vessels of Wrath prepared for destruction hinders he's patient he's long-suffering he's slow to anger but these are vessels for dishonorable use and God has the right to make vessels of dishonoured dishonorable use he says vessels of Wrath prepared for destruction they're being prepared for destruction in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy but notice this notice the in order make sure you don't miss that do you hear what's being said he fashions he prepares for destruction vessels of dishonor vessels of Wrath in order to make known the riches of
his glory for vessels of mercy isn't that in order interesting it's almost like the one is necessary to the other is that is that not what you feel one is done in order that the other might be done how is that what do you make of that remember why he's doing this to show who he is what if God saved everybody would it show God's mercy the way the same way if he saved everybody then if he consigned all to disobedience and saved only a remnant would his mercy not be that much more exalted and
would his power in his wrath also not at the same time be seen can I tell you this if sin never came into the world God's wrath has never seen if sin never came into the world God's mercy put on display the way it is through the death of his own son it's never seen the extent of God's love the extent of God's compassion the extent of God's justice the extent of God's wrath the extent of God's anger none of it would be seen if there wasn't sin in this world and you understand what it's
saying here what Paul is saying to us is God does these things to show his wrath to show his power to show his mercy you need to remember man is not central to the purposes for which God created this universe God created this universe first and foremost for the sake of his own glory God's glory is indeed the ultimate aim turn to Colossians 1:16 there's these little words I mean sometimes it's just a matter of a little almost insignificant preposition and we could just pass right over it and we hardly see some of these magnificent
truths of God's Word Colossians 1:16 by him Christ all things were created in heaven and on earth visible and invisible whether or dominions or rulers or authorities watch this all things were created through him and what for him all things including even people who are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life who are being prepared as vessels of dishonor vessels of Wrath who will put certain attributes of God on display even them it's all for him and it's been so perfectly crafted and designed and decreed by God that God is gonna get the ultimate
glory out of the way that he has designed this be certain to this de creme that sin decreed that Adam would fall into sin that all of Adam's posterity would now be under that federal headship of Adam and all be sinners themselves and face the condemnation that came with being in Adam and faced that judgment that is there the death all of that that is all according to God's design why so that in perfectly on the other hand Christ and being in him Adam is the type and here you have Christ the anti-type and just
as sin you have obedience and just as it's imputed to all so is this obedience imputed that the many might be declared righteous and just as his condemnation came on all those in Adam so justification for all you see it's all been crafted and designed so that Jesus Christ is praised so that he gets the glory and God will save just enough so that it maximizes the display of his compassion and his glory and his love and by the way it's absolutely genuine compassion and mercy and love and long-suffering and kindness I mean those he
bestows his love on he really does and he means to love them because God is love and he will love them you know what it's part of God's nature to love and in all the design yes God shows forth his love but it's not some hollow thing it's not something that doesn't exist it's not something that's not true his love I mean the love of Christ it goes beyond knowledge that goes beyond comprehension it goes beyond understanding the depths of it are unfathomable you think about the fact that that we as rebels this doesn't take
away from the fact that God created it all this way what God did in the midst of all this is he created the perfect scenario to show a manifestation of love that is simply staggering and what you and I have to recognize is that God did this to show us that love do you recognize that through all the coming ages what's God gonna do that in the coming ages he might show just the immeasurable depths of kindness the kindness of God that is going to be poured upon the elect through all these coming ages his
love is real his love is deep his love is unsearchable Christ's coming and laying down his life propitiating God being crushed stricken smitten flick 'td of God that's all real and see God fashioned this whole thing so that real sinners would be saved through a real outpouring of wrath upon a real son God himself made flesh and it's all real and look God getting glory to himself Brooke has this idea isn't this all selfishness but listen again that comes back to our miss apprehension about what this is all about - a misapprehension about love you
see a lot of times we have this idea that you know okay if we love our wife we're going to make her feel special about who she is you know if we love our wife we tell her you're beautiful we love our wife we maybe make much of her but the greatest love that God could give is not to come into this world and make a bunch out of us God's greatest love is to come into this world and give himself to sinners the greatest gift God had to give us is not complements of ourselves
the greatest beauty and glory the most precious thing God has to offer us is himself because he is a treasure infinitely valuable and we are not if he came in here to just simply puff us up then it would detract and distract away from the thing that truly is most precious and most worthy and most beautiful and most glorious that is Christ for Christ to come and say I give myself to you as a husband and you're gonna be my bride and I'm gonna make you beautiful but the greatest gift I have to give to
you is I am going to be your God you're gonna be my people you see that is the greatest loving thing that God can do is it selfish it's not selfish look selfishness in and of itself is when people only care about themselves but for God to deny that he is the most glorious that he is the most beautiful that he is the most precious that he is the most to be treasured would be to deny who he really is you see when men make themselves out that way it's a lie because it's not true
whenever men puff themselves up with ideas of grandeur it's fake it's false and it's Hollow because the closer you get to him the more blemishes and defects you see that they have they're not what they say they are but have you ever noticed that the closer you look at Christ the more you're astounded you're floored you're set on the back of your heels and you're just amazed you recognize that the more they got to know about Christ the more they saw of him the more they came to know about him the more in awe the
more speechless they became they never saw greater blemishes the closer they got they saw a greater glory the closer they got in the end the greatest gift that God can give to us is himself and that is not the height of selfishness it's the height of love if he was only concerned about himself but he isn't he's loved and his concern for his elect is real and you just remember those that he passes over those that get passed over on Judgment Day every one of them will have chased after the sin that they loved that
they wanted and that they refused to turn from in order that they might have life and they'll know they love their sin they'll know they did when God saves us he overcomes what you and I want he overcomes what you and I desire in our lost state if any of us could have wrote the script for our life it would not have been the Christian script you would not have written that script you would have written a script that you don't go to hell but you would have not gone to hell loving your sin that's
the script you would have written not being saved from your sin not loving Christ not being saved the way Christ has promised to save you wouldn't have written that script and I know it because Paul says it there's none that understands there's none that seeks after God there's none that does good we know all those there's none that seeks after him there's none men are all together in confusion the thoughts the intentions of thoughts they're hard only wicked continuously there we are a messed up crew by nature and you wouldn't have picked it you would
not have chosen God that you might have life and what is eternal life what is it I mean you think about it brethren think about it Jesus Christ it's all about God's glory he's at the end of his life and he comes before his father and he lifts up his eyes to heaven there in John 17 and what is he praying he wants the Father to be glorified in him he wants the father to return the glory unto Him that he had with the father before the world began it's all about he wants the Father
glorified and the father wants the son glorified but in the midst of it is all selfishness no regard to mankind whatsoever or does he share his glory what does he say he prays to his father his desire for them is what that they may be with him and that they may behold his glory why so that they might be mut made much of and loved that way No so that they might behold and lay hold on that which is most glorious I want him to see it Lord and I'll tell you this you get to
heaven you take one look at Christ and even in your glorified state you go look in the mirror which do you think you're gonna want to just gaze in that mirror for the rest of eternity you'll smash that mirror all I gonna want to do is behold Christ why he's the treasure of heaven he is altogether lovely he is the treasure that you want to forsake all that to have and he's wanting to share it and think about what we are by nature think about what you were Christian think about the sin you drank and
here's Christ praying for you now I want him to behold my glory does that sound like selfishness that sounds like the Son of God desires the father to be glorified and desires himself to be glorified and desires to just pull us right into the love of the Trinity and the glory of the Trinity and just immerse us in it through all the coming ages to shower out his kindness upon us to take us deeper and deeper into the depths of the love of Christ and that what that sounds like to you it's what it sounds
like to me and in the midst of all of it he has saved us for his own name's sake and for his glory but the way God is the way he reveals himself it is he is a God of love he is a God of compassion yes of Wrath yes of justice but God is good and His goodness just pours out in every conceivable manner it's like you can't keep it back he's like a spring just blows forth with all that's true about him it's like he give give God a moment and he just he
gonna conceive this plan of the most incredible demonstration of love he's actually going to take as these rebels against his infinite glory who deserve an infinite wrath and hell and suffering and to be showered with sulfur and brimstone and gnashing of teeth forever and ever and ever in ages and ages and ages and still it's not compensated for and it's not fully paid and yet God would actually send his son to be killed by those very same rebels then he might pour out his wrath upon his son to stand in place of the rebel and
then all the good that his son deserves he would shower upon these forgiving people they saved people these redeemed people I mean we have to see it for what it is look the last thing you want to do is sit back and find fault because we know that God's kindnesses are showered on you they're meant to bring you to repentance you say yeah but what if I'm not written in the Lamb's Book of Life why concern yourself with what isn't given you to know what has given you to know is how you might be saved
and how can a man or a woman or a child be saved only one way only one you buy of him without price you come in your utter bankruptcy your utter despair your utter emptiness you can't buy from them any other way by the way only without price you can only buy from him without price you come to him bankrupt destitute poverty-stricken nothing in your hands don't come with money in your hands don't come offering some faith you fashion or some repentance you fabricated you come empty you come not trying to clean yourself up at
all he he promises he'll save you he promises he'll save you to the uttermost he'll save you that's what you have to concern yourself with you turn from trying to trying to do it yourself you you turn from your idols from your sin and you fall surrendered at his feet Lord if you will you can make me clean I will you go to him asking you to make you clean that's your real desire not just that you want to get some fire assurance and escape getting your rear-end burnt but you really want to be saved
from sin you really want to be clean oh I'll tell you you can see him there at Levi's house he had him packed in tax collectors and sinners and all those self-righteous religious people and your master no then he know he's eating with sinners and Jesus says you bet I know I came to save just such people as these that's what you need to concern yourself about I mean you want to know the love of God he invites you to it you want to know the rest of God the peace of God he invites you
come unto me all you that labor and a heavy laden he promises he'll give you rest that's what you need to concern yourself don't get concerned about the decrees of God some things are given for us to know and some things are not don't concern yourselves with the things that are not given to us to know what's given to you to know is the fact did you live in the city of destruction and there's a storm coming and you need to flee the wrath to come there's only one place of safety only one place and
Christ has his arms wide open today's a day of salvation he calls sinners to flee into those arms now but you have no guarantee of tomorrow you have no guarantee life is a vapor and you may find yours is gone before you thought it was going to be gone don't think you're gonna get saved tomorrow hell is filled with people who thought they were gonna take care of this tomorrow well god help us why did God go ahead and make men if he knew they were gonna fall into sin I hope you have a good
answer for that isn't he selfish just to make us that he might be worshipped he didn't just make us that he might be worshipped but indeed he's worthy to be worshiped and you know what in scripture says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God and to have that privilege of seeing the face of God and to fall down on your face before him it will fill you to overflowing men and women who have had experiences of Christ drawing very close and manifesting himself in this lifetime outpourings of the spirit times when
the glory of God has come close even in this life it's almost destroyed them with a fullness of joy and glory that they found unsustainable in this physical body what do you think it's gonna be to have a glory glorified body and to actually see God face to face you will not say how I want something better than this you will be so filled with pleasure and joy and satisfaction you won't want anything else that that'll be all you won't think god is selfish you will think God is most gracious that you a sinner especially
when so many are going to be cast away who you knew who you ran with who were your friends who were in your family and you were chosen out you're gonna be staggered his grace you're gonna be so filled with joy and Thanksgiving I mean Jesus just telling his disciples about the anticipation of it just you should rejoice and be exceedingly glad I mean this this is not a small thing to be saved father we pray that you would help us to recognize that your eternal decrees are most glorious Lord we know that it does
us no good to fight against such things or to find fault with you no man is prospered or prevailed who has sought to find fault with his maker we indeed are the clay Lord let us behold your glory Lord we pray that in this day at this time in this place may the vessels of Mercy be multiplied in Christ's name we ask amen
