-Transcript-
00:25 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program.
00:27 Welcome to the Cafe, Pastor Clark Covington, Heartland Community Baptist Church. So glad that you’ve joined me today. Today we are getting into God’s Word in the third part.
00:37 Now let me be honest, I started this series saying it was going to be a two-part series on delighting God. And you know, Lord had other plans. We are now in part three and I’m going to commit to sticking to three parts because I don’t want to drag it out and there’s other things the Lord’s put on my heart to share with you in future episodes.
00:57 But I couldn’t fit it into two, honestly. And really delighting God is not something that you can really even fit into, like how to delight God. You can’t fit that into a 10, 15 minute message, not even an hour message or 30 minutes or two hours or whatever the preaching time is at your local church may be.
01:18 I know they vary greatly depending on the preacher and the schedule and so forth, but you can’t even fit that in. I mean, the idea of delighting God is very deep. I mean, there’s many references to the word delight in the Bible.
01:31 And as God would have it, what struck me was God puts in his word a lot of things that does not delight him. Things that his people, the Israelites were doing in the Old Testament that didn’t delight him.
01:42 And then we see those patterns emerge in the New Testament that did not delight Jesus, certainly did not delight God the Father because we know Jesus came to do the will of the Father.
01:52 And so what we can learn here as kind of like Bible detectives, we get into the word, we’re looking at it forensically. We’re looking at it like a story, but more like a textbook that we study. So it’s historically accurate.
02:05 We believe the Bible’s true from front to back cover. Every word in there is true, amen. And at the same time, we also believe that there’s great depth to his word, that it’s a living word that we can apply it to our lives today.
02:19 And so when we look at the word and we see that, okay, this certain thing did not please God. Well, then maybe if we don’t do what this thing says that these individuals did and we do the opposite, maybe that would please God.
02:31 I mean, it’s a really simple concept.
02:36 Look at Isaiah 65:12, therefore will I number you to the sword as the Israelites, God speaking here to the prophet Isaiah, and you shall bow down to the slaughter because when I called, you did not answer.
02:50 When I spake, you did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes and did choose that wherein I delighted not. And so Isaiah 65:12 was telling us, I called and you didn’t answer.
03:00 Can you imagine your phone ringing and God is calling you and you know what? You’re having too good of a time, whatever you’re doing and you don’t pick up.
03:08 That sounds like a silly example, but is that not true for what was happening with the Israelites that they were maybe enjoying the pleasures of the flesh and what they were doing is committing spiritual adultery against God.
03:20 They were practicing whoredoms as the Bible tells us.
03:25 They were living at odds with the holy nature of a holy God. And it says, when I spake, you did not hear, but did evil before mine eyes and did choose that wherein I delighted not. So they didn’t listen.
03:38 They wouldn’t hearken. They wouldn’t listen. And they did things that he delighted not in.
03:42 They chose to do things that God gives people free will. And so what we see with the Israelites then we see today that many people, even God’s people, I say God’s people, that’s those that have been saved by the blood of Christ.
03:54 People that have honestly, earnestly accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, not been born at a church or sprinkle with some water or anything else, but truly accepted Christ as Lord and Savior, understood their sin debt, understood that Jesus Christ was the only way to repay that sin debt and reconcile themselves to a holy God, accepted Jesus Christ.
04:14 And now they’re living off in the world. I believe this is true. Lord put this message on my heart.
04:22 I believe it was yesterday morning, amen, or the morning before that, several mornings ago. And I went to a revival meeting last night.
04:29 The preacher was speaking about how not short term members of a church just leaving church, but there were long-term members of a church.
04:38 This man had been preaching many decades and he said, there’s long-term members of a church are telling him, I’m just not coming back anymore. And I’m just going to, I just don’t feel like it.
04:47 And he’s saying, there’s just this falling away happening.
04:54 That’s a really surprising because if you’re a pastor, you know that there’s a group that will come and then they’ll go, right?
05:01 But then you’ll also know there’s like that faithful group that always comes, you know, we often call them the faithful few, right? That they’re always there for everything. Now, some of the faithful few are starting to fall away. Okay.
05:11 So now these people, no question that they are gods, amen. And yet they’re not doing what he delights in. The Bible tells us the more and more that we see the day approaching, we should meet more and more.
05:18 So as much as we see the day approaching, the more that we should meet, amen, not the opposite. That wasn’t the best, uh, paraphrasing. So I’m going to give you the verse itself.
05:29 Hebrews 10:25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
05:42 So we aren’t to forsake the assembling together. That’s church in the corporate sense, like, you know, as the manner of some, some are forsaking it, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching what day, the day of the day, the Lord returns, amen.
05:58 The day of the rapture, the day that Jesus Christ takes his church home. We are to gather more and more.
06:03 And, and, and this pastor backed up what I, the book of Isaiah was saying that, Hey, you know what? You didn’t listen.
06:10 Isaiah 66:4 kind of deals with the consequences of not listening to God. I also will choose their delusions and will bring their fears upon them. Because when I called none did answer.
06:24 When I spake, they did not hear, but they did evil before mine eyes and chose that in which I delighted not.
06:32 So again, the consequences again, Isaiah 65 also speaks of bringing the sword and so forth. But Isaiah 66:4 bringing your fears upon you.
06:41 So like your worst fear, God’s going to say, okay, here it is, you know having them delusion. He’s going to choose their delusions. That’s not good.
06:51 You know, that’s the scariest thing, right? When we don’t know what’s reality, what’s not, and we can’t, we don’t understand the truth anymore. You know, we’re given over to a reprobate mind and that’s what’s happening here today. Amen.
07:07 The Israelites rebelled against God then, and man, today is no different large for, you know, again, largely not everyone.
07:18 And I know many people, if you’re, you’re like, okay, I’m listening to this Bible radio station. I obviously love the Lord.
07:23 Amen. And I believe that you, you listen to Christian radio faithfully, either you’ve got questions or truly you love God so much, you’re like tuning the other stuff out with all that you could listen to.
07:30 So I believe that I may be preaching to the choir here, or if you have questions, you may wonder about what’s going on.
07:38 But regardless, there are many today, and you’ve probably seen it in your church that are turning away from the Lord.
07:48 They’re turning away from the things of the Lord. You know, to delight God, we have to turn to God and to turn to God.
07:52 We have to believe that he is God. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, but without faith, it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
08:03 So if it’s impossible to please God without faith, what’s the inference? If we do have faith that it does please God, Abraham was justified by faith.
08:14 When people ask what can we do to please God, really the only thing we can do is have faith. Because if we have faith, then we believe in him.
08:19 If we believe in him, then we fear him. If we fear him, then we obey him. If we obey him, then we show we love him.
08:23 John 14:15, if ye love me, keep my commandments. That’s Jesus speaking. So how do we show Jesus we love him? By keeping his commandments.
08:33 But the Israelites didn’t listen to him. Many people aren’t listening to God today. Psalm 81:8-14 tells us what God would have done if they’d just listened to him.
08:49 Psalm 81:8-14, hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee. O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me, that means listen, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shall thou worship any strange God. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
09:03 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 they wouldn’t listen to God.
09:10 If they would listen, they would have had discernment. They wouldn’t have been yoked up with false gods and idols. They would have had discernment over that, and they would have been fed by God himself.
09:19 Verse 12, so I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust. And we know lust is what precedes sin, amen. And they walked in their own counsels. O that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways.
09:33 I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries. So God himself would have taken care of everything.
09:43 And that was the issue going into Canaan land is they sent spies, the Israelites did, because they didn’t believe God was going to take care of it.
09:49 Then they said, we can’t go in because there’s giants in the land. They didn’t believe God could do it, and it infuriated God. And here the Israelites were, and God’s telling them, if you just trust me, I’ll take care of this.
10:03 I’ll take care of your enemies, no longer Canaan land enemies, but the enemies in the time of David and so forth. I’ll take care of you, right? But they wouldn’t listen. Matthew 23:37 gives us a New Testament context to this.
10:14 O 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 wings, and ye would not. So think about this.
10:38 Jesus is saying, Jerusalem, you’re killing the prophets. What was the job of the prophet? To speak God’s words. What are people doing? So the prophet is like God’s mouthpiece, right? It is the one that is speaking God’s words.
10:54 The text verse today came from Isaiah, the prophet speaking God’s words. Now, what do you want to do? What do you do if you don’t want to hear the prophet? You kill them. And that’s what Jesus was saying.
10:48 You’re killing them. And if you would just listen to them, I would have taken care of you. I would have protected you.
10:53 What is a mother hen doing with the chicks, putting those chicks under her wings? Protecting, right? It wouldn’t do it. They wouldn’t do it. So all this to say, how do we delight God, right? How do we delight him? Well, we don’t do what didn’t delight him.
11:14 And what didn’t delight him was not listening and not being obedient. So we should be obedient. We should be obedient, obedient, obedient.
11:19 1 Samuel 15:22. And Samuel said, hath 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.
11:34 To delight God, we must try our best to be obedient. This means listening to God, trusting God, spending time with God, understanding God’s ways are not our ways, which means that we can’t sometimes rationalize or reconcile what he’s calling us to do.
11:42 We just need to be obedient, committing to live godly and separate from the world.
11:47 And I could give so many examples. For the lack of time, I won’t. Amen.
11:55 But there have been many things the Lord has called me to that in a worldly sense didn’t make sense, but in a godly sense, it’s being obedient.
12:02 And so I try my best to do it. You try your best to do it.
12:01 Amen. All we can do is be obedient, except correction. Proverbs 3:12.
12:07 For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son in whom he delighteth.And so we need to be correctable.
12:12 What gets in the way of correction? If you have a bad student, oftentimes it’s pride, arrogance, lack of respect.
12:19 We need to be humble, meek, and fear God. And for time’s sake, let’s get to the last one. To delight God, we should be like his true delight, which is Jesus.
12:26 He is his true delight. Proverbs 8:30, I believe speaking of Jesus. Then I was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.
12:39 If God the Father delights in Jesus daily, as we read in the scriptures, and it’s his beloved, and we hear God’s affection on Jesus Christ when he’s being baptized by John the Baptist and at the Mount of Transfiguration, we know that God loves Jesus dearly.
12:55 Shouldn’t we try to be like Jesus? If we are clothed in his righteousness as saved Christians, as ones that have accepted the blood atonement for our sins, should we not then try our best to be like Jesus? What is our responsibility, our role do we have as Christians?
13:13 Now that we’re saved and now that we understand that Christ is God’s delight, it’s to be Christ like. And so as we apply Christ-like living to our lives, and if we are saved, then therefore we can rest assured we are in some way delighting the Lord.
13:30 Because as we live like Jesus, who suffered and was meek and was loving and did all things right, as we live like that, amen, that we can delight God.
13:44 And when we get away from that and we start living like the world and the little G God of this world, that must grieve the Holy Spirit living within us.
13:50 And so as God, the great potter, molds us more and more to be like Christ each and every day, we must understand that that is delightful to God.
13:59 And to fight against that is grieving to God. And to ignore that is infuriating to God, as it was with the Israelites. And so we being no better, we’re no better than the master.
14:10 The Bible says that the servants no better than the master. We must submit to Christ, be obedient to him, take correction well, trust God, and know that in doing this thing, we are delighting him.
14:22 I thank you so much for listening today.
14:26 Take care. Tune in next time. God bless and amen.