-Transcript-
00:23 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:27 Welcome to the cafe. Pastor Clark Covington here from Heartland Community Baptist Church. We also have Heartland Ministries, a bunch of things going on.
00:34 Amen. I like to stay busy for the Lord, but I’d say the main ministry is KJV Cafe, the radio broadcast we have on many stations here in the Southeast. Well, I should say Southeast sounds too big, but Tennessee and North Carolina, Florida.
00:50 Amen. God has been good. And I thank you for joining us here today.
00:57 And I thank you for listening to the program if it’s your first time, don’t let it be your last time. Amen. If you’re a repeat listener, then praise a holy God for that.
01:07 Amen. I’m very blessed to have you listening. And I pray that by the work of the Holy Spirit, nothing I can do, but by the work of the Holy Spirit, you’re blessed from this message today.
01:17 We’re talking about something marvelous, delighting our Heavenly Father. You know, when it was little, when I was, when it was little, when I was little, I coveted my father’s appreciation of how I desired for him to tell me I did a good job, I’d get a pat on the back. Amen.
01:35 You know, I love that as a child, there’s nothing better than that. You desire that as a child, you crave that, and it’s no different now here today with our Heavenly Father as born again Christians, we should desire for him to be delighted in us. Amen.
01:55 And the Bible kind of gives us an interesting way, God’s way, of course, of understanding what delights God. And God’s way is telling us what doesn’t delight him, I believe.
02:05 There’s a lot in there about, in the Bible, about what does not delight God.
02:10 And sometimes we can learn from other people’s mistakes so that we don’t make those mistakes. And sometimes we learn from our own mistakes that oftentimes the Bible will expose our own shortcomings.
02:19 The idea that it cuts both coming and going, the idea it’s a double-edged sword, that the Bible will convict others but also convicts us.
02:26 As a preacher, since the time the Lord has called me to plant a church three-plus years ago, I’ve been very much convicted by the Word and cut by the Word many, many times.
02:38 Whereas as a deacon or as a video guy or any other role that I’ve had in the ministry, it’s been different, you know. You get in the Word and you’re convicted, but, oh, how as you study the Word, study it so well that you can teach it, does the Word reveal so much truth of who we are and how we have so much room for improvement when it comes to serving and living for a holy God?
03:03 Not that God thinks or desires us to be perfect, but he does desire us, I believe, to give our best effort in that category and to have the knowledge not to be ignorant.
03:18 Isaiah 65:12, therefore will I number you to the sword and you shall all bow down to the slaughter because when I called, ye did not answer. When I spake, ye did not hear but did evil before mine eyes and did choose that wherein I delighted not.
03:37 So God’s telling the Israelites there in Isaiah, through Isaiah the prophet in chapter 65, verse 12, you did things that did not delight me.
03:50 You did the things that I didn’t want you to do. You didn’t listen. You did evil.
03:53 You rebelled. And then he kind of repeats it here in Isaiah 66:4. And anytime God, through his Word, repeats something, there’s a high level of importance. In the New Testament, you’ll have Jesus saying, verily, verily, right, and he’ll go in and mention certain things over and over again.
04:06 And that shows an importance, a significance, I believe. Isaiah 66, 4, I also will choose their delusions and will bring their fears upon them because when I called, none did answer.
04:18 When I spake, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not.
04:27 And so we see through Isaiah what God does not delight in, that this rebellion the Israelites put forth, God did not delight in that.
04:36 God did not delight in them closing their ears and not listening to God. God did not delight in them having willful ignorance, not wanting to get to know God.
04:46 God did not delight in them for them turning to idolatry and to other pagan religions. Remember at that time, many of the places the Israelites were going or inhabiting had pagan religion there.
04:53 Even Canaan land was very pagan and that’s why God told them to wipe it out because he’d given those pagans many years to repent and they hadn’t.
05:03 And so God told the Israelites through Joshua, you need to wipe that place out, wipe out all those people. And they didn’t, they left some hanging around and there was intermingling and God does not like that, amen. And on and on throughout the Bible, you see the Israelites falling into these temptations.
05:19 Now that the Israelites are a unique group in terms of sinning because we all sin and we all fall short and it still happens today. And this leads to grave consequences.
05:28 God here speaks of the sword, amen, of bowing down to the slaughter of, of, of dealing with delusions and having their fears brought upon them.
05:36 This does not sound like good stuff. There’s consequences for the rebellion, but here in the new Testament age of grace, we are simply called to have faith in Jesus, believe on Jesus, and we are saved from the wrath to come. But without faith, it’s impossible to please God.
05:53 Hebrews 11:6 tells us, and the Israelites didn’t live by his commands. And we see John 14:15, the new Testament verse, Jesus himself says, if you love me, keep my commandments. I love that verse.
06:06 If you love me, keep my commandments. How do we show God we love him by keeping his commandments? Again, we’re not under the law. We’re saved by grace.
06:12 And at the same time, as James points out, the book of James without a faith without works is dead. And so Jesus is telling us, look, if you love me, show me, don’t say, oh, I love God. I love Jesus.
06:22 And you live like the world. Say I love Jesus. I’m willing to suffer for him.
06:28 I’m willing to be Christ-like in my actions and my deeds. I’m willing to hold my tongue. I’m willing to be humble.
06:34 I’m willing to get rid of the pride. I’m willing to repent of my sins. I’m willing to depart from the unclean thing.
06:39 I’m willing to maybe even have relationships broken with family or friends, then they’re leading me astray. I’m willing to put God first in my life. But the Israelites didn’t listen.
06:49 And many people here today don’t listen. Psalm 81, 8 through 14, here, oh, my people, and I will testify unto thee, oh, Israel, if thou will hearken unto me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God.
07:05 I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
07:10 Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none of me. And so here, we see clearly through this psalm that Israel wouldn’t hearken.
07:25 What does hearken mean? It means listen. The New Testament version of this, how I pulled this up here, Matthew 23:37, oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wing, and ye would not.
07:39 And so Jesus is saying here in Matthew 23:37, that those that were the mouthpiece of God, the speakers of God, the prophets, were stoned and killed.
07:51 And they were stoned and killed, because why? Because the people didn’t want to hear it. You know, my brother, when a loud train would come in the subway, we grew up near New York City,
08:01 when a loud train would come, he’d plug his ears, because he didn’t like the sound and he didn’t want to hear it, amen. Well, many Christians today are plugging their ears, amen. They don’t want to hear God.
08:08 Many lost people are plugging their ears, and those two groups have different consequences for plugging their ears.
08:16 But speaking broadly here, we all should desire to please God. And so the first way to please God is to believe on his son, Jesus Christ, and to be saved, amen.
08:29 And not just believing on Jesus, that Jesus lived, or that Jesus was worthy of being God, but believing that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins, that you, in fact, are a sinner in need of a savior. And we believe on Jesus Christ as our savior.
08:42 The idea here is the substitutionary death, the atonement that Jesus died for our sins on the cross, that his precious blood was shed on the cross at Calvary so that we could be saved.
08:54 The Bible clearly says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. And so us being sinners cannot be reconciled to a holy God by anything that we did, or that we could do.
09:01 But Jesus Christ alone died for our sins on the cross, and we believe on him, we are saved, I believe, for an eternity, once saved, always saved. Jesus died one time for all mankind, for all humanity.
09:09 But we have to accept that free gift of salvation, and once we do, we’re saved.
09:13 And do I believe that if you are saved, and you just live like the world, that you’re still going to heaven? I believe that because the Bible says God is not a liar, that there’s no variable or shadow of turning.
09:26 God’s not going to revoke his promise. And so if you were saved, if you’re truly saved, you will be in heaven no matter what happens after that.
09:37 Now, a lot of preachers will say this, if you are saved, there should be some kind of fruit for your salvation, like you should change.
09:41 If you’re saved, we know the Bible tells us we get the Holy Spirit living within us. That’s the third part of the Holy Trinity, that’s God himself, the Holy Ghost living within you.
09:51 There should be conviction over sin. So if you’re living in sin and you’re not convicted, then you have to ask yourself, am I really saved? If you’re living in grave sin, let’s say you’re having an affair on your wife of many years, and you don’t even feel bad about it, then you really need to go to God in prayer and ask him, am I saved?
10:05 Have I really accepted Christ as Savior? Because the Lord should be taking you to the woodshed every single day from now until he returns. Or maybe you’re stealing from your job and you don’t feel guilty about it.
10:17 Or you’re blaspheming the Lord or whatever it is, okay? None of us are perfect and we all fall short and we all sin. But salvation means that we have the Holy Spirit living within us, which means that we should have a conviction over our sin.
10:31 The Holy Spirit convicts us of that sin, amen. And so once we’re saved, now what? That’s the question.
10:39 And briefly here, I’d like to give three ways to delight God once we’re saved. Number one, be obedient, right?
10:46 1 Samuel 15:22, and Samuel said, have the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.
10:56 To delight God, we must be obedient. It says here, hath the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.
11:10 So we must be obedient. If being like, oh, I’m giving these great sacrifices, but I’m being disobedient does not delight the Lord, then the opposite there would be that it does delight the Lord to be obedient.
11:24 What was all our text verse about in Isaiah? It was not listening.
11:35 And obedience signifies that we’ve listened and understood, and they’re now doing what God’s calling us to do. So we understand obedience is important in God’s program. Obedience delights God.
11:40 I believe the Holy Spirit is enriched or simply obedient to God. And we understand that obedience to God may look a lot different than what people in the world would think it would.
11:49 The world might think obedience to God is feeding the hungry seven days a week.
11:55 But maybe the Lord has called you into a prayer ministry and into a ministry ministering to someone else or some other group. And you’re obedient to God.
12:06 And even though it may not look to the world like you’re using your talents and skills as they want you to use it, you’re obedient to God.
12:12 And that’s the idea. There’s no grand sacrifice, no big thing like eyes on me, proud and puffed up, but instead humble and meek, doing God’s will. Secondly, accepting correction.
12:22 Proverbs 3:12, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whomhe delighteth.
12:30 Proverbs 3:12, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. And so we see here in Proverbs 3:12 that accepting correction is delightful to God.
12:47 Are we teachable? Are we correctable? You know, think about this. What gets in the way of correction? Pride, right?
12:56 You know, what student is the hardest to teach? Someone that’s proud and arrogant. They don’t think they need to be taught.
13:09 We need to be humble and meek and understanding that we are servants of a most high God. Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ. Do we look at ourselves as prisoners of Christ, bound by Christ, in command or submission to Christ, right? That we are his to do with what he desires.
13:20 Amen. To delight God, we must be able to accept his discipline in our lives. When we sin, do we repent or do we rebel further?
13:28 When we’re taken to the woodshed, do we seek to know him more, to live for him, or do we seek to rebel more? You know, chastisement really tells us a lot about where we are with God.
13:40 And God calls us to take chastisement well, to take discipline well. And that, I believe, delights the Lord. And you’re saying, Brother Clark, are you saying you can delight the Lord by messing up?
13:50 What I’m saying is you can delight the Lord by messing up and repenting for it and being wholehearted in receiving that correction and seeking his will and desiring to please him.
13:59 That delights him, I believe that. And you start thinking about obedience and chastisement, accepting chastisement, discipline well. Those two things go hand in hand.
14:08 Being obedient means you’re not rebelling against the discipline that you’re receiving from God. And these are just two of the many, many ways to delight the Lord. There’s so many ways that I believe we can delight the Lord.
14:18 In fact, the word delight is in the Bible over a hundred times, I believe. And next time, we’re going to get to a very important way to delight the Lord.
14:24 So tune in next time as we get to the third part of this three-part series.
14:28 Thank you so much. Take care. God bless. Amen.