Hebrews chapter 13 verse number 20 and verse number 21. Hebrews chapter 13 verse number 20, Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will. working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. As we said, we want to deal with the will of God as far as the series on that. I know we have the tapes out back there, but a lot of times it helps us to go over it over again and again because it's been, like I say, 89. I think when I actually dealt with this particular series. So that's been a while ago. You notice in the phrase, he said in verse 20, now the God of peace, the God of peace. And in other words, he's calling God, he's the God of peace. And Philippians chapter four, verse number nine says this, as Paul writes the saints at Philippi, he said, those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do. In other words, Paul says, if you'll practice what you've heard and seen and learned and received in me, you do those and the God of peace shall be with you. Now, that's a promise of God. Now, I know we got peace with God when you're saved. I know that we can have the peace of God day by day. We need that tranquility of soul that's based on the conscience of a right relationship with him where you worry about nothing and pray about everything and thank God for anything. But he said, if you'll practice these things that Paul said that he did, in other words, you've seen and learned and heard and seen in me, do those, you practice those. He said, the God of peace will be with you. I don't know about you, but there's a lot of times we get, you ever get lonely? You ever get out somewhere and you feel all alone, maybe it's a night hour and you're by yourself, but you can have the God of peace with you. the God of peace, and so he spoke about the fact here in our text verse, the God of peace. In other words, call God the God of peace. In other words, it also said in Romans 16, 20, he said, and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, amen. Now, when Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, he said, Tetelestai, which is a perfect tense verb, it is finished. And that meant that there's a completed action with existing results. And even though the devil has been alive for these 2,000 years and rampant upon the earth, he still has his days numbered. And here he said, the God of peace, Romans 16, 20, shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. In other words, he's going to take care of it. And then he said, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. But he spoke of him as the God being a God of peace. the God of peace who wants to be with you and he's the same God who raised up Jesus there it said, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus and in other words and raised him up and you notice it identified the Lord Jesus as that great shepherd of the sheep and Psalm 23 is the great chief shepherd, good shepherd, whatever you want to call it, but still talks about the Lord is our shepherd, I shall not want. It tells where he leads us and all. He's there with you, the God of peace, who is the great shepherd, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, in a sense, who is God. but he's the God of peace who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead. Now, you notice he said here as we go on down to verse 21, and of course it spoke there through the blood of the everlasting covenant in verse 20, but I'll come back to that in a moment. But in verse 21 he said, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. Who? The God of Peace. The God of Peace, in essence, He's saying, may He make you perfect to do, in every good work, to do His will. Now that word do is a continuous action lifestyle. It means to pursue a course of action. I think it would have a similarity to what Jesus said to those who said they believed on the Lord. And John 8, and yet they wasn't saved, he said, if you'll continue, you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. That's doing something, pursuing a course of action. And so he said, hear the God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do. In other words, pursuing a course of action, and he said, make you. Now, I know in context, he's talking to the Hebrew professors and some of them wasn't saved, but we've studied that in the book of Hebrews, but he's talking to the Hebrew professors. May he make you perfect. Now, folks, no man's going to be perfect as far as sinless perfection is concerned, as long as you've got the flesh to contend with. Paul said in the book of Romans chapter 8, mortify the deeds of the flesh. And the action of that verb is a continuous action lifestyle. You're going to have to do it every day of your life. You're going to have to buffet this body. You're going to have to deal with the flesh. But he's saying, may he make you perfect in the sense of being complete. In other words, being complete. Now, how in the world can you be complete? How are you going to be complete? How are you going to even get to the place that the God of peace make you complete to do his will? through the blood of the everlasting covenant, verse number 20. Through the blood of the everlasting covenant. In other words, his blood has continual cleansing power. Now if you're saved, you had the blood applied. That's part of the first Peter chapter one, verse number two says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of blood. Now, it's Jesus' blood that he shed when he gave his life on Calvary. You see, a lot of people say all he had to do is just cut his arm and a drop of blood has cleansing power in it. I will tell you, his blood had cleansing power for all the world if they'll come God's way, but he had to die. You see, there had to be a death of the testator before his will was ever, the testament was ever in effect. And he died and shed his blood, because life's in the blood. And that's what it means when he said, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. So his blood has continual cleansing power. If you've been saved, you're cleansed by the blood. What's the songwriters say? What can wash away our sin? Nothing but the blood. But John, 1 John chapter one, verse number seven says this. But if we walk in the light, now he's talking to the saints of God. He said, as he's in the light, we have fellowship one with another. In other words, walk means to order our lifestyle, pursuing a course of action, doing the will of God, if you please. He's walking in light, obeying the light we have. If you're saved, he's talking to the saints now. He said, then what happens is, in verse seven, he said, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. In other words, it still has cleansing power again and again and again, if you please. And so therefore, we need that God of peace. Be with you, he said. And you know something, the presence of God who is light. Did you know the Bible says that God is light? First John 1, 5, he said, and this then is the message which we've heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Light brings consciousness of sin in our nature and it also brings consciousness of sin in our life. In other words, but you realize something, but His blood is the divine provision for both our nature and both our lifestyle, if you please. His blood, His blood is the only thing. In other words, it's divine provision for both our nature and lifestyle. Now, His blood not only saves us, but His blood says, make you perfect there. Make you complete is what it's talking about. Now, that phrase, make you perfect, and verse number 21 is one word in the Greek, and it means to complete thoroughly or throughly. You could use those, and I used it last Sunday night as through and through. Thoroughly is another word, but the Bible sometimes uses the word throughly, through and through, in other words. Now, the fundamental meaning is to put one in his appropriate position. Now, it's not speaking of sinless perfection when he said, make it perfect, but putting you in an appropriate position, and that means, you say, what's that? To sanctify you wholly. completely. Bible says this in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, he says, and the very God of peace, there's that God of peace again, sanctify you wholly, and I pray you, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now when you're saved, your spirit has been saved from the penalty of sin justified. but your soul is in the process daily for being saved from the power of sin. That's sanctification. In other words, setting apart what we call progressive sanctification. The walk of progression toward perfection. And I'm not using that perfection the same as they use this word perfect here. It means completely like our Lord Jesus Christ. When? Whenever our body is saved from the presence of sin. That's glorification. And therefore he said, now may the God of peace who's going to walk with you, if you'll do those things, pursue a course of action, that means in his will, may he sanctify you, set you apart wholly, spirit, soul, and body completely. In other words, that's what he's talking about. In other words, And that's what in this thing of sanctifying us, or setting us apart, is God working in us what he said he would do. In Romans chapter eight, verse number 29, where he said, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. In other words, those that he saw through the pages of time, that would respond to the light that God had, that would conform to his will, and they would trust Jesus as Lord and Savior. He said, I'm gonna make him like my dear son. And therefore, he's setting us apart daily. And that God of peace, the God of peace, not that God, but the God of peace, he's sanctifying us and conforming us to the image of his dear son. That's why Romans 8, 28 said, for we know that all things work together. for good to them who love God, who are the call according to His purpose. Now, if you're not saved, folks, He's still working in you those things. He was good to you today, amen? He was good to you today. He led you along. He gave you a chance to respond to light. Did you respond to all the light you should have today? Well, I don't want you to answer that because most of us have to say, well, I'm afraid I didn't do it. You see, he knows that, but that's the long suffering of God and his goodness to lead us to repentance. That's how much he loves us, amen? He comes back again and again and again. And how long would we put up with somebody that they mistreated us like we've mistreated God? How long would you put up with them? Huh? I mean, you understand? How long would you do it? But he's put up with us because he loves it. He wants us to come to that place. So as Paul is writing to the Hebrews here, he's saying that the blood of the everlasting covenant will make you perfect in the sense of bringing you to, cleansing you, and in other words, completely, throughly, through and through, making you what you ought to be, working on you. And that's the process we're talking about, conforming you to his image. Now, how's he going to do that? I know it talked about the blood, but I want to tell you what, he uses the word, too. Does he not? He uses the word. You see, he uses the word in conjunction with his blood. Now, if you go back to the Old Testament time, when those priests offered up sacrifice in the outer brazen altar, they had to come by a place called the laver. The laver was a symbol of the looking glass, or it wasn't a symbol, it was made from the looking glass of the women, but it was a symbol of the Word of God. Because, see, the priest could look in there, and they had to be clean before they went in the Holy of Holies, which is the eastern side, and they look in that looking glass, made out of brass, And it wasn't, that's why I'm saying now, so we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face, you see that there was, but they could tell if they were smudged. I mean, they'd killed an animal and the smoke and the smut and their faces were dirty and their hands were dirty. Well, just looking in there, in the Bible, James says that this is a looking glass. In other words, it's a mirror that we can look into and it brings us to the point to let us realize, hey, there's something not right in our lives. But in the Old Testament time, just to look and find a smudge didn't do them any good. They still couldn't enter in because it wasn't clean. But God made a provision inside that labor, something like a birdbath, best I can describe it, that had water in there. And that water is also a symbol of the Word of God. And so they could take and they could wash their hands, they could wash their face like a wash pan. You remember back in those days when there were We didn't have running water in the house. I remember having a wash pan and a dipper, put it in the wash pan, and I tried to wash my face. I didn't want to get it all over me. You know, I'd usually get on the way to church, and you know what? Mom would finish it up. Take a handkerchief and get the wipe behind my ears. And I took many a spit bath on the way to church. Y'all know what I'm talking about? Some of you don't know that, but that's the way they did that. But the thing about it, I didn't want to wash completely, but that priest had to get in that water. He saw the smudges, and then he washed in that laver and cleaned up so he could be presentable to meet God in the Holy of Holies. And see, God is taking the Word, which is the labor and the water, if you please. And the Bible says this in John 15, 3, Jesus made this statement in John 15, 3, now you're clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you. In other words, the Word of God's got cleansing power. Bible said in 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, he says, In other words, instruction in righteousness. Why? That the man of God may be perfect. That means coming to completion. than be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So God gave us the word, and he uses that word to wash us, if you please. And it lets us see where the sin is, but it also is the cleansing power upon us, if you please. And so therefore, he said, it'll make you perfect, in verse 17, of 2 Timothy chapter number 3. That's a kindred word to be this word perfect in verse number 21. But remember of our text verse in verse number 21, the word make you perfect is one word in the Greek. So it's a kindred word to the word perfect in 2 Timothy 3, 17, and it means completely qualified. All parts complete and whole. Or in other words, what they're supposed to be so that they might serve their destined purpose. In other words, man I'm talking about. Mankind. God brings you through the word of God to the place that you might serve your destined purpose. Well, you can use the word predestined, okay? God's got a destined purpose for you. Did you know that? I don't care who you are today. God's got a purpose for you. What's his purpose in your life? Well, I'm going to be an astronaut. I'm going to be this. I'm going to be that. Well, that might be involved, but what is the real destined purpose in your life? And so when we see that then, we realize what the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 43, verse number 7, I have created him for my glory. You know why God created you? For his glory. That's your destined purpose, that you might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God created you, that you might bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ. And see, that's why we're in trouble today. Most of our world systems today don't know where we come from, why we're here, and where we're going. See, God said, I put you here that you might bring glory to me. And therefore, you need to understand that. So our destined purpose is to glorify God. Now, what glorifies God? What brings him glory? To do his will. To do his will brings him glory. Don't you, when your children obey you, and you tell them what you want, what you expect, when they carry it out, doesn't it make you feel good? You say, in other words, it bring, it, it, it, it, I don't know that it bring you glory, it would in some ways, but it still makes you, lifts you up. Thank the Lord, they're finally learning something, and the next day, it's about back in the same old groove. A lot of times, right? We're the same way. But the thing about it, it brings him glory to do his will. Therefore, Paul was closing out his letter to the Hebrews, and his desire was that they would allow the God of peace to what, verse number 20, make you perfect, 21, in every good work to do his will. So that was Paul's desire for those, and he knew some of them unsaved, he tried to get them to see that, but he's saying, if you're really saved, he said, my desire is to make, that the God of peace will make you perfect in every good work to do his will. So he said, make them perfect, put them in their appropriate position, And he said, in every good work. In other words, in every good work. That means, that speaks of acts in which a man proves his genuineness of his faith. You see, there's nothing good about us unless it comes from above. And God puts faith in you, whether it's intellectual faith, a seeking faith, or a serving faith, or a saving faith in between that. He puts that in you so that it might work. It might work, James 2.17. He says this, even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. If you've got any kind of faith, it will work and produce another, the steps of that faith that Father Abraham had, we talked about. Even Paul, after Paul was saved on the street called straight. You go back and study Philippians chapter three and you'd be surprised how many people argue with you over that. Paul was not saved on the road to Damascus. I mean, because the Bible said in Acts 22, 16 when Ananias came over there and said, Arise and be baptized and wash away your sin, folk. I don't care what you believe about what the verse says. His sins were not yet washed away. And he said, do it by calling on the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, you got everything right, ducks in a row, ingredients are there, then God will save you. But the thing about it, Paul wasn't saved until three days after he met Jesus. What did he do for three days? He was blinded. struck blind. They had to lead him down to the street called Straight, put him in a house, and Philippians chapter 3 said that he laid there in essence and counted the cost. Am I willing to pay this price? And he finally come to a conclusion and said, I'm willing to count all things lost. that I might one thing win Christ, that I might be saved. And then Ananias came to him and said, Arise and be baptized. Now baptism wasn't what done it, but wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. And so as a result, he was saved there on the street called straight after he counted the cost. But if you read Philippians chapter 3, Verse number 7, 8, and 9, along in there, he talks about how he counted all things lost, but then he said this, after he'd done all, he counted all things lost, he said in verse number 9, he said in Philippians chapter 3 verse 9, and be found in him. be found in Him. And Paul said, listen, it's not just enough to be saved, but I want to be found in Him. In other words, when people investigate my life, they look at the acts of my faith as it's working out, and he said, I want them to see something in me that's real. I want them to know that I'm found in Christ. I belong to Him, and He's mine. And so Paul, I hear Paul as he's writing this, he said that, in other words, may the God of peace make you perfect in every good work, in every good work, so that others can be, you can be found in Christ by others. Then he also said there, and to do, to do his will, to do, that means to pursue a course of action. Now, his will, what does this mean? The word will means determination. It designates that what occurs or what should be done by others as the objects of God's good pleasure in carrying out of the divine purpose or the accomplishment, in other words, of what He would have, in other words, what He would have that which He purposes or has purpose or what He regards or does as good. In other words, that's what God wants, that's His will. Destined purpose is to glorify God, but he said there's certain things in there you need to know what we need to do. Now, when we think about the will of God, you mean, well, that's a complicated thing sometimes. As I shared with you one time about Brother Percy, he was just working on that building down there. We'll forget him down there in his coveralls. And he, every little thing, every minute detail, he was so careful. He wouldn't let anybody begin work on anything. Now, you turn me loose with a sledgehammer and we'd tear that building down, but he wanted it just so, so. And I said, Brother Ray, how do you know the will of God about these minute things? And he just reached up and sort of with a squeezed eye, he turned like a knob on the side of his head. He said, something clicks. Now, he made mistakes. Sometimes it clicked and it didn't click, okay? But I'm saying the fact is he got to that point to where it clicked, found out what God wanted him to do about those particular things. And we need to do that in our lives. We need to pursue a course of action to do his will. In other words, think about will, it means carrying out of God's will by others with reference to what God ordains or commands. Now, you notice there in verse number 21 of Hebrews chapter 13, he said, make you perfect in every good work to do his will. And then the next phrase says, working in you, that which is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. In other words, working. That means, again, that's a similar word as do. That means to pursue a course of action. He is working in you, causing you to pursue that course of action. If it was left up to you, you'd never pursue a right course. You'd choose wrong every time. You'd go the wrong way every time because your nature's to do that, amen? But you notice he said, that which is well-pleasing in his sight. That word well-pleasing means fully agreeable. That which God wills and recognizes, in other words, is what it's talking about. You see, Paul's desire for the Hebrews is what right here is in verse 20 and 21, but that's also God's desire, not only for the Hebrews, but for all mankind, for you who are here tonight. The will of God, the will of God. Now, how about the will of God? What about it? Well, let me tell you something. The word of God is the written will. God's penned down some things in the word of God we can find that's the written will of God for our lives. Now, in that, you're not gonna find all the minute things, and we'll try to get down and divide that at a later time, but what is God's will for you? What's the most important thing in life? What does God, what's God's will for you? Have you ever really thought about it? I think some of you have answered because you know what I'm, I'd say the first and foremost and utmost important thing of God's will in your life is that you be saved. He wants you to be saved. Now this crowd that goes around him and says, well any many mighty most some to hell and some to heaven, they don't understand God's will. God's will is that every man might be saved. I mean, you realize something, 2 Peter 3, 9, he said, the Lord's not slack concerning his promises. Some men count slackness, but it's long suffering to us. Now, they'll change that verse and say he's writing to the saints, so he's writing to the elect, which is 1 Peter 1.2 says, and he'll say that means he's not willing, in other words, long-suffering to us was not willing that any should perish. Folks, why would you have to worry about it if God's already wrote you down as being elect? Why would you have to worry about perishing? See, he changes direction. He's long-suffering to us. We're not just us, but he's not willing that any should perish, period. Don't put elect in there. He's not willing that any man perish. Did you know he's not willing for our politicians to perish? Some of us would say, carry him on out, let him perish. But listen, he's... the worst murder you can think about. He's not willing that they perish. God's will for every man is that they might be saved. That's the first thing we need to look at. 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 4, listen to what he said. He talked about praying now for kings and whatnot. And of course for Jesus Christ, he said, the mediator, but he says, then who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth? God's will is that all men. Now why would anybody want to put just elect there? That's changing the word of God. You know, Bible says in the book of Revelation, man add to the book, he's going to have parts added to the plagues in the book. of revelation. I mean, it's bad when you add to it. And that's what they're doing when they try to put the word elect in the verses like that. In other words, he will have all men to be saved. Now, you know what the word all in Greek means? All. All men, that mankind's what it's talking about. It's not talking about just men, males, it's talking about females as well, because it's a generic word for human beings. All human beings, in other words, He would have you to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. John chapter 1 verse number 11 through 13 talked about Jesus being the light of the world. Lighteth up every man, verse 9 said, but verse number 11 said, he came unto his own, and his own received him not, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. When it says not born of blood, it's talking about human blood. Just because your daddy belongs to some group or something, or American, or so-called Christian, whatever, that won't carry you through. It's got to be, it's not of blood. It's not of the will of man. So he said, every man. In other words, it's what we're talking about. He wills it to be saved. And listen to what he also said in the book of Ephesians chapter one, verse number five. In Ephesians chapter one, Verse number five, he says this, he said, having predestinated us. Now that's talking to the saints of God. And as I said, predestination has nothing to do with a lost man, but he said he had predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Now, he's talking to the saints there, that's true. But folks, he's not willing that you perish. He wants you to be placed as an adult son as well. Every man on the face of God's earth, God's not willing that you die and go to hell. Ephesians chapter 1 verse number 9, he said, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself. What's his will? That you not perish, but that you be saved. He purposed that in himself. He's not willing that you perish. Verse number 11, he said of chapter one of Ephesians, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So he's not willing that you die and go to hell. His will for every man is that you might be saved. James chapter 1 verse number 18, listen to what he said. He said, of his own will beget he us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And he also said this in 1 John chapter 2 verse number 17, when he says, just love not the world. The things in the world do the love of the fathers, not any. And then he said in verse 17, and the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now what is the will of God? To be saved. Now how are you going to do the will of God? Listen, it takes a work of God in you. You wouldn't do it without Him coming. But He said that may the God of peace make you perfect, complete to do His will. And He'll bring you to that place if you'll move on what He's worked in you. In other words, and you'll have to give Him credit for everything that's done. But in other words, it's doing his will is to be saved. That's what brings him glory, if you please. Mark chapter 3, verse number 31 through 35. This is, the Bible says this, let me just read this. He said, there came unto him, then his brethren and his mother, that's his four half-brothers and his mother, standing without, sent unto him and calling him. Now, he's with the people out there. In other words, he's dealing with them and whatnot. He's in a multitude. And the multitude said about him, and they said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answered them saying, Who is my mother and my brethren? And he looked around about on them which said about him and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. In other words, Jesus was not putting his mother down in that sense. That wasn't what he was doing. He wasn't disrespecting her. He's stopping mereolatry is what he's doing, if you don't know the truth about it. Because you see, she wanted him to come out here. He said, I've got other things to do. And the Bible said in Luke 14, he said, unless we hate our mother and our father and our brethren, we cannot be his disciples. Now, that means to love less. So he said, I must be about my father's business. It's what he said when he's 12 years old to his own mother and his own dad, his stepdad. Well, his dad, his adopted dad is what it amounts to, so close to them. But the thing about it is, here he said, who is them? But they who do the will of God. And the will of God is to be saved. Now, you say, well, I'll just make up my mind to do this. That means I can make up my mind. You can't make up your mind, because you see, may he make you perfect. May he throughly get you to the place to where you'll respond to him, and he's giving you opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. to do that, whether you realize that or not, he has, he has done that. Well, the will of God is to be saved because that glorifies the Lord, and that's what God's destined purpose for you was, to glorify him. Doesn't mean you gotta jump up and down and swing from a chandelier or jump over a pew or say something. A lot of that ain't nothing but wildfire, amen? A lot of that's just not even got any validity about it, but the thing about it, it means to glorify God by being saved. The Bible said in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12, he first mentions about being strangers and pilgrims on this earth. A stranger's not at home, a pilgrim's headed home, you see. But then he said this, verse 12, having your conversation, which means your manner of living, your lifestyle, honest, which means upright, among the Gentiles, which refers to the lost, in other words, that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they saw your lifestyle before, they knew what you were like, that they may by your good works, what good? Only what God does in and through you is the only thing good, which they shall behold and glorify God in the day of visitation. Now what that verse is saying May you get to the place that you allow God to work in you and save you and that brings God glory that will cause others to be glorified, God to be glorified when others are saved because through the Holy Ghost conviction He uses evidence in people's lives. to bring you to a complete persuasion that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And when you come, when the Holy Spirit visits you in completed Holy Ghost conviction, work of reproval of sin, righteousness, and judgment, he'll bring you to that place to where you too will respond and trust the Lord because he gives you faith. He grants your repentance and you'll obey the gospel by repenting and believing. And when you do that, that glorifies the Lord, fulfilling your destined purpose. on this life. Who's going to get the credit for that? Even though he said you do the will of God, the only reason he was able to do it is because he enabled you to do it. Enabling grace, that's what it is. Enabling grace is what it amounts to. So God's will is to be saved, but he will not force you to respond to life. He'll not force you to respond to life, but he'll enable you. In other words, and you'll have no excuse. If you refuse life, you'll have no excuse that the great white throne judgment, Lord, I didn't have an opportunity. I didn't have what somebody else had. Listen, every man's got life. In fact, the Bible said in Deuteronomy chapter 30 verse number 19, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing, therefore choose life that thou, both thou and thy seed may live. Listen, it's important for your children and your grandchildren and your offspring for you to choose life. Now what does it mean to choose life? It means responding to the light God gave you. When you respond to that light, that's choosing life, that's choosing right, and it will give your children an opportunity down the road. Now, in other words, and he enables you to do it. You say, well how come some do and some don't? It's because of the old depraved nature, they just refuse. How come sun melts butter and hardens clay? because of the nature. Well, you say we got the same nature, it's all that Adam. Yeah, but some people, because of their upbringing, because of their own anger and things they grew up with, they just keep on having up a front and calloused hearts, and they refuse the light God give them, and they choose death instead of life. You see, you'll have nothing to stand on one day because you got to choose life. That's the will of God, choose light, and that's choosing life, if you please, carrying you the right way. So therefore, you see, we hear a lot, and talking about the will of God. But you hear a lot today about, I don't know whether you hear a lot, but I used to hear it, and preachers preached about this, about the perfect will of God, and the permissive will of God. Well, I wanna tell you what, that's word terminology that's not really biblical, amen? God's got a will for you, and there's no other will for you. Now, what it amounts to, you see, he's got a, he's got a, has a will or a purpose, and that's it. There's no second choice as far as he's concerned. And the will of God is for you to be saved. The will of God is for you to be born again, you see, but he'll, he will not permit you Well, somebody said, well, what about this permissive will? God gets a credit for a lot of stuff sometimes, you know that? But God's will, and I'm just dealing with number one, will that glorifies God is being saved, but yet this applies in every area. God's got a divine will, and there is no permissive will. Now, he permits you to have your will, because he's not going to force you to choose life. He said, you boy, I'm going to go this way. He said, go ahead if you want to. For instance, Balaam was a false prophet. Balak hired him to curse the children of Israel. Whoever heard, I want you to curse the children of Israel, God's children, and get the glory off of them. That was God's presence, cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. And Balak, Balaam, Balaam wanted the money that Balak had to offer. He wanted to die the death of the righteous, but still, he wanted a monetary means. He was after filthy lucre. And when he came over there, Balaam even went and asked God, and God talked to a lost man. He wasn't a saved man. Went and talked to him, and God said, curse my people. What do you mean? Well, no, you can't curse my people. And then Balaam went back, I can't do it, I can't do it. God won't let me to do it. And Balaam, Balaam come back with a little bigger offer. And he went back to God again and said, can I curse your people? And God basically said, I've told you, I'll paraphrase, I've told you, but if you're so headstrong and hard-headed that you want your own way, I'm gonna let you have your own way, and I'm gonna let you find out your donkey's got more sense than you've got. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to read the story, okay? Amen? That wasn't a permissive will of God. God had a divine will not to go. Now, I know that's not dealing with salvation right there, but I'm trying to show you it's divine will and there's no permissive will, but when man throws up a wall and hardens his heart and refuses life and chooses death instead of choosing life, then God says, I'll just let you have it. He'll back up and let you have your own will. But that's not God's permissive will. He permits you to have your own will, but God's divine will forever, man, is it to be saved. The rich young ruler came and said, well, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life, or to be saved, another word. And he said, keep the law. He was dealing with him. God, the Lord knew his heart. And he said, this I've done, as he mentioned the six commandments dealing with mankind. And he said, yeah, but you lack one thing. What is it? You've got another God before you. Now, he didn't say it in those terms, but he said, go sell that you've got and give to the poor. Now, what happened? The man turned and walked away because he had great riches. Did he not? Now, what was God's divine will? That that man be saved. But what did God do? Soften? Did he give in? Did he get liberal, if you please? Did he just say, well, we want you to be saved so much, just pray this prayer. No, no. He let him walk away. He let the man have his own will. Man chose death instead of life. He'll stand at the great white throne judgment and said, I was right there close, not far from the kingdom of God, met the shepherd, great shepherd of the kingdom. And he told me exactly what to do, but I wasn't willing to do it. Was that God's permissive will? It was God permitting the man to have his own will. Now, you can take the terminology however you want to, but God's divine will was for that man to be saved, and yet he wasn't saved because he chose death. He didn't choose life. He didn't choose a course of action. What if he had said, I don't understand, Lord. Lord said, you get close to me and I'll tell you. If you'll stay right with me, you'll hang around. If you'll continue, you shall know the truth. The truth will make you free. But you see the man chose his own will and walked away. He missed God's will. And the Bible says, in essence, you gotta be in the will of God. It means to be safe. His will is that you be safe. Then you think about the children of Israel at Kadesh Barnea. They went up there and they chose out committees. I had a committee of 12 to go spy out the land. They come back with a report, 10 said it can't be done, and two said it could be done. But you know what? They said, would the God we died in the wilderness, would the God we died back down in Egypt, we don't wanna go in there. We're like grasshoppers in the sight of those giants in that land. All the lands like he said it was, but we just don't want to do this. God had already told them, I'll drive them out for you before you little belittle. I'll take care of all your enemies. But they didn't do what they should have done. And so God's will was to go into the land of promise, but they would not go. They chose death. And the Bible says in the book of Psalms 106, verse number 15, he gave them their request. It wasn't God's permissive will. God's will was from the go in, but he gave them their request. He let them have their own will, and he said, but he sent leanness into their soul. They got what they wanted, but they lost what they could have had. That's exactly where we're at today. We want what we want when we want it. And if you don't choose life, that means to pursue a course of action, obeying the light you've got. Then you can come in God's will. And that's the only thing that's going to ever glorify the Lord. And that's the only thing that's going to work. I'm talking about being saved. And it's His will. that you be saved. But those people rejected the will of God and had to suffer the consequences. All of them, 20 year old and up, died. And same's true with mankind. Now you take, there's Timothy for instance, 2 Timothy 3, 6, 15. He said, Paul writes Timothy, and he said that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Thank God for the scriptures that Mama and Grandmama put in Timothy's life. That's the word of God that pointed them, and because of their influence, he had made some right choices. He chose light. He chose right. He chose life, if you please, okay? And as a result, there come a time when he reached the knowledge of accountability because of what he had instilled in him, even though he didn't understand back there, even though a lot of people said, hey, Timothy's a saved man. He was a grown individual before he was actually saved. When Paul came over there and met him, he was worshiping God. He was going through the motion, doing what he knew to do, but he was choosing right. He was choosing life. It's alright to do those things that's right. Somebody said, well, you're just a hypocrite. No, you're thankful for the light God's given you. And go on, you shall know the truth. In other words, that's the will of God that you be saved. So Timothy was saved. You see, God's will for him was to be saved, and God's will for mankind is to be saved. God's will for every one of you is to be saved tonight. He's not willing any should perish, in other words. But if man rejects the life that's in conscience and creation, as Romans 1, 19 and 20 talks about, then there's no hope for you to be saved. Whose fault is that? That's not God's fault. You see, if he refuses to listen to the preaching of the Word, if he refuses to accept the authority of God's Word and rejects that, there's no hope for them. Will God get to blame for it? No. They may try, but it's not going to matter. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? You see, can any of those professors lay anything to God's charge against him? Oh, they may do, but it'll pass off because it's not going to have any validity about it. You see, if you refuse to heed the preaching of God's Word and choose right, if you resist the work of the Holy Spirit, God has no choice but to allow that individual to be cast into hell, into a hell which was never prepared for mankind. God was willing that you be saved. God never prepared hell for you. He never prepared hell for you. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 25, verse number 41, he says, hell is prepared for the devil and his angels. Now I know it says in Psalm and Isaiah, it speaks about hell has enlarged herself. Why? Because of men who choose their own will. They choose death and they go against God's light. They don't pursue a course of action to walk in his will and God has no choice but to cast him in the lake of fire. The Bible said in Matthew chapter 18 verse number 11, he said, for the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. His will is that you might be saved. In verse number 14 of Matthew 18, he said, even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Not his will that you perish. His will is that you be saved. He paid the price on Calvary, did he not? John 3.16 says, For God so loved the world, that's all mankind, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And he sent the Holy Spirit when he left out to do what? He'll reprove the world of sin. That's the world, that's every man of sin, of righteousness, And of judgment, but why? He said, of sin because they believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to my father and you see me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. John 16, 8 through 11, I believe it is, if I've got that right, all right? And not only that, he's preparing a place for us. He's preparing a place. He didn't prepare hell for you. He's preparing a place. John chapter 14, verse number 1 through 3. Now, I know that God knows all things. I understand that. But the Bible said here, as he told his disciples, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and he didn't go, I will come again and receive you unto myself. That where I am, there you are. will be also. Folks, I want to tell you, it's God's will that you be saved. And He'll prepare a place for you. He'll do it, you see. But if you refuse, and by the way, Jesus said this in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. There's no other way. But if you refuse to come God's way, and God's way is through Him and His shed blood. The Bible said in Romans 3, 25, it's by faith in His blood. by faith in His blood. But if you refuse to come God's way, then God has no choice but to cast you in the lake of the fire that's prepared for the devil and his angels. The will of God is that you be saved. Won't you do the will of God? Now, I understand you can't be saved any time you want to, but it means to pursue a course of action, to obey the light God's give you. You keep refusing it, one of these days, He'll pull back the hedge on you. give you over-reprobate mind, vile affection, and uncleanness, and you'll do what you wouldn't even thought you would be capable of doing. Amen. Pursue a course of action that will glorify God. In other words, come to Him and His way. Commit yourself to Him. Continue in His Word. You see, step in what light you have. Move Godward. Move Godward. That's what you need to do. God's will for all men is that they be saved. Did he not say that? 2 Peter 3, 9, the Lord's not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Oh, listen, the God of peace wants to walk with you. I don't care where you're at. He wants to walk with you and bring you down a road of light all the way to him, because he wants to get glory out of you. That's why you're created. that you might give Him glory. And the only way you're ever gonna give Him glory is to trust Him as Lord and Savior. And that's gotta be a work done in your heart to bring you to that place. But man's nature is to rebel and kick and choose to reject God's authority and choose to go their own way. Tradition, all religion, what you brought up with is damnable, amen? It's hard to junk some of that stuff, amen? We've all got problems with some of that stuff. But what you need to do is throw it aside by the grace of God. I cry out for help. Help, Lord, help me throw that aside because, Lord, the only thing that's going to matter is that I glorify you, and that's to be saved by the grace of God. He's not willing that you perish. He didn't make hell for you. He made hell for the devil and his angels. He's gone to prepare a place for you. Now I understand God knows all about who's gonna get in and all that. I understand that. But it's not that he said you to hell and you to heaven like some people do. He is not willing that any should perish. He gave light to every man. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. And that's enabling grace. Enable you when you make mistakes about choosing life that you'll come back and choose life and light and right and move Godward. to pursue a course of action. Oh, he said, may the God of peace make you complete to do, to practice, in other words, to pursue a course of action, that you might be saved, first thing, first thing, the will of God, that you might be saved. He's not willing that you perish. Father, I pray someway, somehow, you'll get across the hearts and lives of people the necessity of their obeying the light that God, The necessity to quit kicking against the pricks. Quit kicking against the rebellion that's moving in the opposite direction. Help them to choose life. Help them to choose right. Help them to move Godward. Help them to pursue a course of action. May grace be enabling grace to them to do that. and help them just to continue. And you said they shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Thank you that you're long-suffering. Thank you that you forbear holding back that pile of wrath that's over us, that head of wrath that's over us. Oh, dear Lord, thank you for that. how good you are to us, and how longsuffering you are, how forbearing you are, just because you love us enough that we might repent. And Lord finished that in every person. May every person do the will of God in the days to come. The will of God is that they might be saved. be saved by the grace of God, and Lord, if they'll pursue a course of action, they shall know the truth, and the truth will make them free, and you'll have a place prepared for them, yonder on the other side, in heaven, in glory, and we'll thank you, and that'll glorify you when they do that, and we'll thank you for it, and praise you for it, but we ask it all in Jesus' name, for his sake we do pray, heads bowed, eyes closed, altars opened, will you mind the Lord tonight as she plays?