Things In Which God Delights

I have been preaching this week in the state of Illinois. Brother Gary Shepard and I preached
up on the Wisconsin border Tuesday night, Wednesday night, and Thursday
night, and I returned home Friday, late Friday evening. Saturday morning, I began my day by calling a friend and inquiring about another
friend who is in the hospital. And he told me that my friend
was quite ill. And I said, well, I'll go down
to see him. So I went down to the hospital
to visit this man who's been a friend, a dear, close friend
for many, many years. I'm talking about 35 years. We have been very close. A man I admire and love very
much. I wasn't quite prepared for what
I found. I went into the room all the
way down there. I was thinking about him and
what we would say and we would talk a little bit, you know.
We have the same name, Henry. And I figured I'd go and say hi,
Henry, and he'd say hi, Henry. and we'd talk a little while
and have prayer and I'd enjoy my visit with him. That's what
I had prepared to do. Well, I went into the room and
the nurse was in there and spoke to her and she stepped back out
of the way and I walked around the bed and he was lying there
on the bed. He's in his early 80s. And I said, hi Henry. And he looked up at me and he
said, who are you? Who are you? Isn't that something? I wasn't prepared for that. Who are you? Now we've talked
hundreds and hundreds of times in his home and my home. I've
preached to him for years. They're close to me for many
years. He said, who are you? And I said, well, I'm Henry.
He said, Henry who? You think of this now. And I said, well, I'm Henry Mahan. He said, what do you do? What do you do? Well, I couldn't stay there much
longer. So I left, and I left walking
down the hall thinking of several passages of scripture. One that came to my mind was
Ecclesiastes 12. Would you turn over there with
me, Ecclesiastes chapter 12. It says in verse 1 of Ecclesiastes
12, Remember now thy Creator, thy
God, in the days of thy youth. Think upon the Lord God. Set
your affection on Christ now, nowadays. While the evil days come not,
the evil days of decay, decay of faculties, the evil days come
not, nor the years draw nigh when you shall say I have no
pleasure in these things. I thank God that this man to
whom I refer heard the gospel. He heard it when he could hear
it, and he believed it. Now he doesn't know me, he doesn't
even know what I do, but he knows Christ, and he knows what he
did, because he heard it when he was young. He heard it and
received it. When he had his faculties, he
doesn't have them anymore. Verse 2, while the son or the
light or the moon or the stars be not darkened. That's your
mind. Darkened mind. You say, you may feel, and I
may feel, that this can't happen to me. Well, it not only can,
but will. My own father, the last few weeks
of his life, didn't even know me. Didn't have any knowledge at
all of anyone. And these old minds, what does
somebody say, once a man, twice a child? Something like that.
I don't know what those things mean. Or the clouds return after
the rain. Watch this, in the day when the
keepers of the house, that's the arms, strong arms, defend
the house and keep the house and supply the house, they're
going to tremble. These strong arms that have defended yourself
will be stretched out defending you no more. These arms that
have supplied your needs and the things that you've required,
they're going to be helpless hanging at your side. And the
strong men shall bow themselves. That's the legs. You've walked
on them. There'll come a day when you
can't even walk. They won't even support you.
The pillars of the house are gone. And the grinders cease
because they're few, that's the teeth, and they that look out
of the windows be darkened, the eyes are blinded, staring into
space, you don't see anything. And the doors shall be shut in
the street, the lips grow thin and tight, and the sounding of
the grinding is low, no appetite, and you'll rise up at the voice
of a bird, can't And the daughters of music shall be brought low,
can't sing. And when you'll be afraid of
that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, fears and
troubles, and the almond tree shall flourish,
that's the hair will turn white, and the grasshopper will be a
burden. Weary of the slightest load, desires shall fail. What's happening? What's happening
indeed? Man's going to his long home. Man goeth to his long home and
the mourners go about the street. This is death. It's a part of
them that wants to die. This is death. My friend, if wherever one of
us are going to be some day, he's dying. And now you talk
about preach the gospel, run to the hospital, preach the gospel.
It's too late to preach the gospel. There's no understanding of the
gospel. There's no need for the gospel. There's no desire for
the gospel. The time to preach the gospel
is when men are listening, when they have the faculties. Verse
6 says, or the silver cord be loose. That's the bond between
the soul and the body. The silver cord shall be loose. The body will give up the spirit.
And the golden bowl will be broken. That's the brain. The picture
will be broken at the fountain, that's the heart, and the wheel
broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust, and he remembereth
our frame, he knoweth that we're dust. It doesn't matter this
morning if you're in the prime of your life, in the strength
of your health, every faculty is sharp, you're at your sharpest
peak, you're still dust. You're made of dust and the dust
is going to crumble. And years will bring about the
crumbling. This man, this friend of mine
has been a strong, he worked at Armco for many, many years,
served in the U.S. Navy for many, many years. He
was a robust and strong and healthy and vigorous and intelligent
man. But he's just not there anymore. He's just not there, Tom. And
the dust is returning to the dust as it was. And the Spirit's
returning to God who gave it. And this is the conclusion of
Solomon. Vanity of vanities. Vanity of
vanities. All is vanity, says the Scripture.
And when you come to that point, and I know we have a lot to say
about this. Boast not thyself of tomorrow.
These are Scriptures that we know. We know them. By memory
we know them, we've heard them, boast not thyself of tomorrow,
thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. The scripture says
what is your life? What is your life? Why it's but
a vapor that appears for a little while and then it's gone. What
is your life? It's but a flower that bloometh
today and is withered tomorrow. All flesh is grass. All the goodliness
and glory of men is as a flower that feeleth, it withereth, it
decayeth, it fadeth away. Isn't that right? We know that. Do we know that? But do we know
that? What is your life? It's but a
shadow. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth it with dust.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures on this earth. And yet that's
what we do. Clamor and drive and work and
strive and labor and all these things to lay up for yourself
treasures on this earth, treasures on this earth. Lay up for yourself
treasures in heaven. Here the moth and rust doth corrupt,
thieves break through and steal. Lay up for yourself treasures
in heaven where moth or rust doth never corrupt and thieves
never break through and steal. Vanity of vanities all is vanity. And then I thought of another
scripture in Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9. Verse 22. I want you to look
at this. Jeremiah 9, 22. And it begins this way. faith, thus saith the Lord. Even
the carcasses, that's the dead bodies of men, even the carcasses,
the dust, the dead bodies of men shall fall as dung, manure
upon the open field. That's what we amount to. He
remembereth our frame, we're dust. We fall like dung on the
open field. And watch this, and as the hen
pull after the harvestman, in other words, stalks of grain
that the harvestman has missed, and they just drop along this
gray side, and no one bothers with them. They just lie there. And they're plowed up later,
or plowed into the field. That's what he's saying. speak
thus saith the Lord, that dead bodies of men shall fall as manure
upon the open field, and they shall fall as a handful of wheat,
or some kind of grain, behind the harvest man that he hasn't
even paid any attention to. As he's binding up the sheaves,
he's just let it lay there. And none shall gather So thus
saith the Lord. Now get with me here. Thus saith
the Lord. Then let not the wise man glory
in his wisdom. Now we've got some wise men in
this congregation, some wise women in the things of this world.
You're intelligent. God's blessed you with intelligence
and initiative and ingenuity and in the things of this world.
But don't, what does the word glory mean? When you glory and
so, well, to glory in something is to honor it and exalt it and
find great satisfaction therein. Satisfaction. And to give it
such priority that it occupies a very important place in your
life. It is to glory in something. I said the other night to the
folks where I was preaching, sometimes we preachers use words
and we don't define them. People don't know what we're
talking about, like the glory of the Lord and glorying in the
Lord and glory. What does it mean to glory? It
means to honor and exalt something. It means to give it a place of
priority, doesn't it? Lift it up. It means to find
great delight in it, great satisfaction in it. So he says, you who are
blessed with wisdom, the wisdom of this world. Don't glory in
it. Don't exalt and magnify it. Don't
try to find any satisfaction. But men do. They do. Oh my my,
let a fella get a little education. Or maybe get a position. Or a
promotion. Or maybe he's elevated over somebody
else. Maybe he's got a bunch of men
working under him. And he can get high and mighty, can't he?
Oh, he can strut his stuff. He's so arrogant and proud, but
you know, who maketh thee to differ? What do you have you
didn't receive? Now if you received it, why do
you glory as if you didn't receive it? Men are going to glory in
their so-called wisdom. They're going to boast in their
natural wisdom. They're going to keep doing it
until, until, until the Spirit of God shows them that the highest
wisdom of this world they can attain is utter, absolute foolishness. That's right. That's when he's
going to stop glory. The cure for vain glory is true
glory. The cure for glorying in my so-called
wisdom is to realize that I am by birth and nature, indeed and
thought, a fool. That the true wisdom is Christ.
He is the wisdom of God. Isn't that right? He is the wisdom
of God. I've got nothing in which to
boast or glory. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory save in the cross of Jesus Christ, by which the
world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. That's my glory,
my glory. Let not the wise men Since the
dead bodies of men are going to fall as manure in the field
and forgotten sheaves behind the harvest man, then let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom." My friend that I was talking
to yesterday was a very wise man, very intelligent man, but
he doesn't know anything today. Isn't that, you see, that's a
picture, isn't that a picture for you and me? But if he knows
Christ, he has all things. Christ is the wisdom of God. Look at the next line. And let
not the mighty man glory in his might. But he will. You know what might is here?
Well, you say that's physical strength. Not necessarily. It
may be just influence. It may be power over other men. It may be some power that you
have attained through position. You have might, you have strength,
you have control, you have influence. Don't glory in that. But a man will until he's taught
by God that he's nothing but dust and weakness and frailty
and corruption. I knew another man in this community.
I've been here a long time. I lived right over there three
blocks for the last many, many years. But there was a businessman
in this community whom I knew quite well. I saw him at least
once a week for the last 35, 40 years. Very proud man. Very wealthy
man. A little arrogant. He never had a thing for me.
He never... I'd be in his place of business
and he seemed to feel like it was beneath his dignity to speak
to that preacher. Because he certainly didn't believe
what I was preaching. Well, the years rolled on and
he got old. He got very old. And he retired. And he got quite frail. And he
had a lot of time on his hands and he realized that he didn't
have much time left and he started listening to me on television. And the man who for thirty some
odd years had no, when he was in his, when he had his intelligence,
when he had his faculties, when he had his thinking ability,
had no use for me or my gospel or my God, one day came walking
in this building. old and stooped and came in my
study and sat down in front of my desk and said, can I talk
to you? I said, yes sir, you can talk
to me. Ronnie never did want to talk to me before. He never wanted to talk to anybody
except by himself. But now he wants to talk. And
he began to tell me about all the good deeds he had done in
his life. He began to tell me about all the young people he'd
helped through school. He began to tell me about all
the bums he'd paid. He began to tell me about all
those things. I said, but that's not it. Salvation is not in what
you've done or what you're doing. Salvation is in what Christ did. But it never penetrated. It's
too late. It's too late. That's the reason
he said a while ago, Remember your creator on the days of youth. If you've got some interest and
concern about your soul, now's a pretty good time to do something
about it. You see, my friends, a refuge
that's built in a storm will go away if the sun ever comes
out. And this man couldn't, he couldn't
comprehend what I was talking about. It's too late. But all
these years I've known him, he glowed in his riches, glowed
in his might, glowed in his position, glowed in his influence, glowed
in the fact that his money talked and he could get people to do
things. Don't glow in those things. Look at the next slide. And let
not the rich man glow in his riches. You know about all we own is
six feet in the ground, a hole, isn't that right there? That's
about it. We don't own that for long because
we're going to rot and somebody else will probably be buried
on top of us. But we don't have anything. We don't have anything. That's the reason Moses, Moses
got a glimpse of this right here. He understood by faith. He understood
by faith that even the reproaches of Christ, This thing of being
hated for the gospel and despised for the gospel and reproached
for the glorious gospel of substitution. I'm talking about the gospel
of his righteousness and the gospel of his blood and the gospel
of his substitutionary work. The gospel which brings a man
to love Christ, dedicated, separated, obsessed with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That gospel, though it be despised
of men and hated of men, the reproach of Christ is greater
riches than all the treasures of Egypt. Moses saw that. Have you seen that? That the
fellowship with Christ, my fellowship with him, is worth all the enmity
of this whole world. I wouldn't exchange one second
of his fellowship for a thousand years of the fellowship of this
world. That's exactly what I want, my
fellowship with Christ. The reproach of Christ, the trials
of Christ, whatever we called upon to bear is worth far more,
greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. So let not a man glow
in his riches. In his riches. I tell you, we have too much,
don't we? I was thinking last week, we
met in that church building up in Illinois and they didn't have
air conditioning. It was a hundred degrees. I had
to take off my coat and my vest and preach in a shirt, my shirt
sleeve. And I started to say sweat, perspiration
just ran. It was hot. But don't you remember
we didn't have air conditioning here? There was a time when I
never heard of air conditioning, but we're spoiled. We're spoiled
to all these things that we've gotten used to. Luxuries. You know, things that used to
be luxuries, we look on now as necessities. That's right, necessities. We've got to have the best. Got to have the best, and I hope
we cannot glory in these things. Just use them without abusing
them. Let them get where they're not
supposed to be, watch out. Get where they're not supposed
to be. And I'm supposed to be there, and I'm supposed to be
in my eyes, and my heart, and my devotions, and I'm supposed
to be looking, setting my affection on things above, not on the things
of this earth. But men are going to glow in
those things until they see that Christ is the riches of God,
the riches of His grace. Riches of His grace. Look at
the next line. But let him that glories, let
him that boasts, let him that brags, let him that exalts something,
let him that gives great priority to something
in his life. Let him what? Let him glory in
this. Now here it is, let me give you
about five or six things here briefly. Let him glory in this.
Number one, let him glory in this, that he understandeth."
That he understandeth. Hold your hand right there a
minute and turn to 1 John 5. What does he understand? Well,
I'll tell you, some of you folks here understand. I believe I understand. I believe
you've been blessed with an understanding. Understanding of what? Well,
look at 1 John 5.20, an understanding. And 1 John 5.20 says, And we
know that the Son of God is come, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, has come into this world, and hath given us an understanding,
here's our understanding, that we may know him that is true,
that we may know God that we may know Christ who came from
God, that we may know him as our substitute, our redeemer,
our great high priest, our mediator. That we may know him that is
true, and we're in him that is true. He's the head, we're the
body. And what he did in righteousness
he did for us, and what he did in sacrifice he did for us, and
what he did in exaltation and intercession he did for us. And
we're in him that is true. We're even in his Son, Jesus
Christ, and this is the true God, and this is eternal life.
It's in the person and work of Christ. You want to glory in something?
Don't glory in your wisdom. Don't glory in your influence.
Don't glory in your riches. Glory in the fact that you have
an understanding of who Christ is. Oh, God, you know that salvation
is not in your mother and father and godfather and godmother bringing
you in front of a so-called preacher or priest and sprinkling water
on your head and calling you confirmed or in a covenant. You know better than that. You
know that salvation is not walking down an aisle, shaking a preacher's
hand and praying some little sinner's prayer or going to eat
this water or eating wafers and wine look into the law, and trying
to work for God, and trying to make yourself acceptable, or
doing penance, or keeping Lent, or some special do-without-coca-cola
week, or something. You've got more sense than that.
You've got an understanding. Glory in the fact you've got
an understanding. An understanding that the Son
of God has come. He has come. He has given us
an understanding. That we're in Him by God's elective
grace. We're in Him by God Almighty's
purpose. We're in Him as our righteousness,
sin offering, escaped, golden, risen, justified. We're in Him
as our great high priest. We're in Him as our forerunner
who's gone within the veil and occupied. I understand that. Glory in it. And you want me to glory in your
New car. That's peanuts besides what I
got to hold up. You want me to glory in some
accomplishment here on this earth? You want me to glory in something
that's just going to last a few years? You want me to glory in
something that's just here today and gone tomorrow? Glory in this, that he understands
secondly, and he knows me. He understands and knows me. How do we know God? We know God
in Christ. No man knoweth the Father but
the Son, he to whom the Son will give him understanding. David
said, My soul panteth for the living God. Christ said eternal
life is to know the living God. It's not to know the God that
sits, you know, on a shrine somewhere, or the God of somebody's imagination,
or the God of the Baptists, or the God of the Catholics, or
the God of the Jews, or somebody. It's to know the living God.
Glory! You have an understanding and
you know me. You know His might and power
and glory. You know His goodness and mercy
and grace. You know Him as He's revealed
in Christ. You know God. Show us the Father,
the disciple said. Well, he said, he that hath seen
me hath seen the Father. No man has seen God in any time.
The Son has revealed Him. That's something to glory in,
Tom. And glory in this, that I am the Lord. I'm glad He is. I'm glad you're not. I'm glad He's Lord, aren't you?
You'd be glad I'm not. I'm glad he's the Lord. He does
things wisely. He's the Lord. I'm glad he's
the Lord. I'm glad he's not some poor little superstar. I'm glad
he's the Lord. The Lord of Lords and King of
Kings. I'm glad he's the Lord over creation, the Lord over
providence. Nothing can happen to his child
without his will. I'm glad he's Lord. I'm glad
he's Lord of salvation. Are you? I'm glad. I know. You glory in this. You glory.
that you understand the gospel and that you know the living
God and that he is Lord, be glad. And glory in this, what's this?
And I exercise, I exercise, I do it. I exercise what? Loving kindness. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who could stand? But there's forgiveness with
thee. Loving kindness. David prayed in Psalm 51, O God,
be merciful unto me according to thy lovingkindness. Blot out
my transgressions according to thy lovingkindness. Urge me with
hyssop according to thy lovingkindness. Now you can glory in that. I glory in his lovingkindness. And I glory in his judgment.
There is therefore now no judgment to them who are in Christ. Who
shall anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. I glory in God's judgment. His
judgment fell on Christ, and therefore there's none left for
me. And he exercises judgment. Lovingkindness, judgment, what's
this? And righteousness. Where? In
the earth. loving kindness and judgment
and righteousness is not reserved for the starry heavens. God says,
I exercise it right here on this earth. And all of it in Christ. Bob, in Christ. God's love. For
God so loved, he gave his son. And at Calvary's cross, when
his son bore our sins and sorrows, the judgment of God forsook his
son. And in His daily walk and obedience,
God's righteousness was fulfilled in His Son, right here on the
earth. You want to glow in something? You want to exalt something and
magnify something? All over the world, preachers
are magnifying somebody today. They've got their prayer list
and they'll call everybody's name. They've got everybody's
name in the bulletin and they'll stand up and brag on somebody
who gave this and did that. And they've got their names on
the windows and names on the pews. Some of them name up under
here, you know, and bragging on the flesh and passing out
visitors' cards and turning the worship of God into a recognition
of flesh. You want to honor something?
Exalt and magnify something? He said, you glory in this, that
you understand and you know that I'm God. And I exercise right
here on this earth in my beloved Son, my love and my judgment
and my righteousness. You can glory in that. And watch
this next line. In these things I delight, I
delight, I delight. I can't find much that we do,
say, or give in which God could find delight. Do you? Even our righteousness is a filthy
rag. But I found right here some things
in which my God delights. And I tell you, I want to learn
this, get a hold of this, before I come to this. Before I come to the place where
I have no memory, I have no foundation,
I have nothing to hold to. like the infidel son I read about
in the Spurgeon book. He'd been taught all his life
there was no God, and the boy was dying, and he was screaming
and screaming and crying, and his daddy said, Son, hold on! He said, Dad, there's nothing
to hold to! Before I get there, I want a glory in these things
in which God delights. Don't you? I delight. I delight,
God said, in judgment, in loving kindness, and in righteousness. And all the things in which God
delights are found in Christ and are found in me. See, I don't
love like God loves. I wish I did. Wish I could. Maybe
someday I will. And I'm not just. I'm not a just
man on the earth. doeth good and sinneth not. And
I'm not righteous, but I found one who is. And he is God's delight, in whom
my soul delighted.

Things In Which God Delights

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Things In Which God Delights

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