00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
Alright, let's go ahead and get
started. Let's turn to 1 Timothy chapter 3. 1 Timothy chapter 3. Paul writes,
this is a faithful saying, if a man desires the position of
a bishop, he desires a good work. And so the idea here is as we
continue to study through systematic theology, the purpose here is
to prepare you guys to know God's Word and be able to handle it
in a way that would be pleasing to Him. So we want to know God's
thoughts after Him. This is a good work. When we
begin to survey the landscape of what's going on, particularly
within pulpits, one has to wonder how much do they really know
and study of God's Word versus bringing man's wisdom and man's
thoughts. There are those who disregard
God's Word. There are those who may look at it but then they're
relying heavily upon those outside themselves to help them understand
and read it. But the question really has to be is that if you
desire this good work that Paul talks about here in 1 Timothy
3, then you must be giving yourself to the study of God's Word. And so those that have historically
prepared themselves for the ministry have done so at great cost to
their own comfort, to their own whatever their desires or wishes
were. They set themselves aside for this time. So I'm going to
encourage you that if you're not doing so, if you're not going
and studying and following up on this, you're not going and
meditating on what we're talking about, That'd be really problematic
because it's not when the problem happens. It's not when the issue
arises that you, whoa, I've got to go figure out what to do now.
You need to be prepared. We need to have God's Word in
hand and learn how to use it. Well, we've been studying for
several weeks now the attributes of God, and we're going to move
our attention this week to the will and the works of God. And
so we're moving into a new section of study of God as we want to
look at His will and His works. In Dagg's manual theology, this
is the section that is titled, and if you remember the format
of his systematic theology, is he always starts off a new section
with our duty. Turn to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. We pick up the reading in verse
one. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give
glory because of your mercy, because of your truth. Why should
the Gentiles say, so where is their God? And the psalmist answers,
but our God is in heaven, and he does whatever he pleases.
And so what we see here in the psalm is that the psalm writer
is delighting in something. What is he delighting in? Well,
he's delighting in the very thing that most people want to rebel
and push against, which is it's okay for sinful man to do whatever
he pleases, but the moment we start proclaiming the sovereignty
of God that he does whatsoever he pleases, what does it do?
The sinful, fallen, wicked man, well, we don't like that. When trouble comes your way and
someone wants to know, well, where is your God? Can you remind
them of this? Can you praise the God of Psalm
115, who is in the heaven, who ordains all things to come to
pass? And He does whatever He pleases. Even in your darkest
hour, and this is where your systematic theology really fleshes
out, even in your darkest of hours, can you praise God? The
psalmist could. And the psalmist did. In fact,
the Psalms are full of praises during what? During some of the
most trying of times. Very little, I mean, you don't
really have this idea as you read through the Psalms of a
pity party and all these things. It was crying out to God to deliver
him, to save him, but he always praised God in the process. Think
about how trivial we tend to be. We don't get our way, our
plans get frustrated. Can we praise God? The pattern
that's been set before us is that we should. The Lord Jesus
Christ, He could. So that's the standard. with all the allotments of divine
providence, happy in the exercises of piety and devotion, joyful
in the hope of endless felicity. Heaven is near in prospect, and
while on that way to that world perfect and eternal bliss, we
are permitted in some measure to anticipate its joys being
even here blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. We are enabled not only to pursue
our pilgrimage to the good land with content and cheerfulness,
but even to delight ourselves in the Lord. Our happiness is
not merely the absence of grief and pain, but it is a positive
delight. And so I don't know if you're
reading through, Dag, but as you read through this section,
our duty to praise the will and the works of God. When we think
of heaven, there will be an absence of grief and pain as part of
the glory of that place. But our happiness here, our joy
here on this earth is not the absence of grief and pain. That's
not the basis of our joy. For example, think of those who
seem to, you may think, and I look at them as well and think, boy,
they live the enchanted life. You know, they have the enchanted
life where they have health and prosperity, but yet their lives
are without joy. So joy can't be just tied to
an absence of grief or pain. That's not the basis of it. We
see this with the wealthy, the famous all the time. Our happiness
cannot be tied to our external circumstances, but rather our
happiness and our joy must be in knowing the one true God and
delighting in His will. Are you prone to complain and
murmur about your lot in life, about your situation, about your
status? Well, then what is your joy tied to? You see how easy
it is for us to fall victim to this, to make our joy based on
our external circumstances, rather than saying, I know the true
and living God. And so when the pagan and the mocker says, where
is your God in your time of affliction? Oh, my God sits in the heavens,
and He does whatever He pleases. Praise be His name. Can you say
that? Can you do that? Because that's
the standard. And this is what we, who are
leading and guiding within our churches, should be proclaiming.
and that's been lost. And it's interesting when you
read through someone like Dagg, it wasn't lost. That's why I
love reading his systematic. His manual of theology is so
encouraging to me because he writes in a way that's more in
alignment with God's Word than when I see the more modern day
systematic theology books that are placed out there. Now sure,
maybe the systematic theology of the modern day gets into more
of the polemical side of things and they get on the thorny issues
and the thready issues about how many angels can fit on the
head of a pen or whatever it is they want to argue about. But
they miss an element here. And the element they're missing
is what Dagg is saying. Our duty is to praise God for
His will and His works, not only for who He is, which we looked
at when we dealt with the attributes of God, but we should learn to
praise God for His will and His works. We are to delight and
love God for who He is in nature, and we are to love and delight
in God for His works and His will. Now think about the things
you find delight in or the things that other people might find
delight in. What do you find delight in? Most of the time
it's the simple things of life. But many find it difficult to
just simply find delight in the God of the creation, the God
of the scriptures. We tend to delight in the gifts
of God but not necessarily the gift giver. So Dagg reminds us
that we are to have a delight in God, and as a result, we should
have a delight in His will. To refuse to delight in the will
of God is to refuse to delight in the nature of God. We are
to delight in the commands of God and His eternal pleasures.
And Dagg writes, divine truth is not only sanctifying, but
it is beautifying. I don't know if we think about
truth in that way. Divine truth is not only sanctifying, but
it's beautifying. To the ancient saints, it was
sweeter than honey in the honeycomb. The early Christians, in believing
the truth as it was in Jesus, rejoiced and with unspeakable
and full of glory. And so the true saint of God,
who knows his God and knows his ways, knows the ways of his God,
can delight in God. You say, I don't know if that's
possible. Well, you're not the basis or
the standard for whether or not you can delight in God and His
will in His works. God's Word is. God's Word says we should. And then God's Word shows us
people who have, who have found comfort in God. And so when we study out the
God of the Scriptures, God is not simply existing, but God
is very active within His creation. In heaven, the angelic host loves
God for who He is and what He does. Turn over to Revelation
1. Think about it. In heaven, they
love Him for His attributes, His nature, and they love Him
for what He does. Revelation 1. I don't know about you, but I
find this very convicting about when I start murmuring and complaining.
How pathetic. How pathetic for me to complain
when we have this, when we know the true and living God. But
do you see how fast it is? How quick, how subtle murmuring,
complaining, doubting, unbelief can creep in. I think this is
why it's so important that we stay submerged in the Word of
God. Revelation 1, look at verse 12. Then I turned to see the
voice that spoke to me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands
and in the midst of the seven lampstands one like the Son of
Man clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about
in his waist with a golden band. His head and his hair were white
like wool, and as white as snow, and his eyes like a flaming fire."
And I just want you to pause and think about this. What we
have here is a picture of Christ, and what is this picture teaching
us? Well, it's teaching us something of the purity and the holiness
and the majesty of Christ, the majesty of God. But look at verse
16, because then we see something of his works. He had in his right
hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword, and his countenance was like the sun, shining in its
strength. The seven stars, which are the
seven messengers, when you go down to verse 20, you would see
that. But out of His mouth comes His Word, which is His will that
flows from His nature. So we see something of the beauty
of the nature of God, the majesty of God. We see His works. Turn
over to chapter 4 and look at verse 8. The four living creatures,
which having six wings, were full of eyes around and within,
and they do not rest day or night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord
God Almighty, who was and is and is to come, whenever the
living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits
on the throne, who lives forever and ever, The 24 elders fall
down before Him, who sits on the throne and worship Him, who
lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne,
saying, You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and
power, for You created all things, and by Your will they exist,
and they were created. He is worshipped for who He is,
but He's also worshipped for what He does within His creation.
And this is the pattern that we are to follow. As creatures
of God, we are to worship Him and serve Him because of who
He is and what He does. And so as elders, you must learn
to teach those under your care to worship God in this pattern. They must learn to delight in
the God for who He is and what He does. And so when we contemplate
God, He's not anything like the God of man's creation. The vain
imaginations of man comes up with all kinds of gods. They'll
never come up with this God on their own. This God must be revealed
to them. God's will, and this is what
we want to understand as we move into the will and works of God
this morning, God's will is never arbitrary. When we talk about
arbitrary, what we mean by that is that there's no purpose to
it. In other words, God's will is never arbitrary in that way.
In man's finite thinking, we see the will of God If you look
around the religions of the world, the will of God really has no
purpose. But our God always has a purpose, and that purpose is
always holy, His purpose is always good, and it's just. So unlike
the false gods of fallen man, our God is not sadistic. The
false gods of men like to torture men for the sake of torture.
In other words, with sadistic delight. The Bible teaches us
that God is good to all of his creation, and this is why Ezekiel
teaches us that God does not take delight in some kind of
sadistic way in the destruction of the wicked. But he will punish
the obstinate sinner, and his justice will be rejoiced over. His justice must be rejoiced
over because he is right and he is good. Whatever God does
is right and good. But notice that God is not sadistic,
but rather he is serious about sin, and that's the problem.
Fallen sinful men, what do you think they want to do? They want
to rationalize and justify it. You guys in here, you're big
boys, you're old enough to know, most of you, as you look at a
young child who wants to continue in his sinful ways, his deceitful
patterns or his disobedience, what does he want? He wants a
parent that's permissive and not so much serious about sin.
However, the moment you are crossed, the moment your rights as you
perceive your rights are violated, what do you want? You don't want
a permissive parent anymore, do you? You want someone who
takes sin seriously. Well, that's the kind of God
we have. He's not a sadistic God when He punishes sin. He's
a just, good, and holy God. So understand, God's will is
never arbitrary. Now, the two primary ways in
which we think about the will of God and the kind of will that
we delight in is His will of command and His will of purpose.
So there's two ways to look at the will of God, His will of
command and His will of purpose. God's will of command is expressed
in His law. What God has commanded, we refer
to His precepts, His judgments, His testimonies. And in the New
Covenant, for example, New Covenant members receive a new heart.
And within that new heart of the New Covenant member, remember,
there's no New Covenant member that doesn't have this work of
grace within their life. That's a distortion and once
again a man-made law or man-made idea. But the idea here is that
within the New Covenant, New Covenant members receive a new
heart. And what does Hebrews tell us? In Hebrews 8, it says,
within that new heart, God does something. He writes His law
upon that heart. Turn over to Hebrews 8. Look
at it again. Hebrews 8, look at verse 10.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws
in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be
their God and they shall be my people. So those who are in the new covenant
will have something that they didn't have at one time. You
see that? What do you think it is they're
gonna have? They're gonna have this delight and love of God's
law. That's the point of what he's
saying here. I will be their God. They will be my people.
Well, in what way would that make sense that, well, they're
my people, but they hate everything about me? You're not His people if that
describes you. But rather, if you love God's law, take delight
in His will of command, that's a work of grace that was not
there prior to the work of regeneration. Turn over to Psalm 1. And I hope your wheels are turning
as you think through what I just said. Very practical. Isn't this theology here very
practical because now it starts making you ask yourself, do I
delight in the law of God? Do I really love it? Has this
work taken place? Is He my God? Am I His people?
Psalm 1. Think about what Dag's saying.
It is our duty and our responsibility to delight in the will and the
works of God. Blessed, Psalm 1 says, is the
man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in
the path of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.
But notice, his delight The blessed person, he does delight in something. What does he delight in? In the
law of the Lord. And his law, he meditates day
and night. He shall be like the tree planted
by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season,
whose leaf also shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.
Now think about this, what he's saying. This person delights
in the law of God, and what does he do? He meditates on it once
a week. When the pastor forces him to
open the Bible. Do you see the problem within the church today?
Do you see the problem maybe within your own life? Do you
meditate? Are you this blessed man? Do
you meditate day and night? Do you see the benefit and the
purpose of meditating upon what? The law of God. That's not legalism. The question is, do you desire
to study it out? Do you desire to delight in the
law of God, God's will of command? And this is Dag's point. If we
are confessing Christians, in other words, those who truly
have the work of grace, those who do have a new heart, he says
we should have a love, we should have a delight in God's will
of command. So the question for you is this, do you rejoice in
God's will of command? I think we all recognize this,
that there are far too many who profess to be believers but don't
have this delight and the joy that we read about here in Psalm
1. Think about it for a moment. It's not my definition of what
we're talking about that matters, is it? What does God's Word say? The blessed one is the one who
does not find his delight walking in the counsel of the ignorant
and the fool, the ungodly, right? The blessed one is not the one
who stands in the pathway of sinners and say, boy, it looks
like they're having a good time over there. That's not the blessed
man. The blessed man is not the one
who sits in the seat of the scornful, those who mock God, those who
are scornful and bitter. Ah, but it's delight. He does
have a delight. The blessed man does delight in something. It's
in the law of God. And in that law, he meditates
on it day and night. Has the Word of God become alive
to you? Or is this all still academic? Do you see keeping God's Word
that it truly brings Him delight? Or do you find your delight in
pleasing Him? I mean, this is what is so disturbing about going
in many churches today. We see people who don't find
their delight in pleasing God. We see parents encouraging their
children with respect to salvation, but yet the child shows no delight
in pleasing God. And we must understand that salvation
includes something. It includes regeneration. And
regeneration includes a new nature that delights in pleasing God. I'd be curious to see if in our
discussion time does anybody have a passage that says otherwise.
What would be the purpose of bringing someone from spiritual
death who is dead in their sins and trespasses to life just so
that they can despise God's law? Seems kind of odd, doesn't it?
Also, it misses the whole point of the New Covenant, doesn't
it? This is why it's a better covenant, built upon better promises. The Old Covenant was not like
that. You could be in the Old Covenant. All you had to have
is a mark in the flesh. But you could still be so far
from God, not in the New Covenant. Do you see that? New covenant
members have this work of grace that has taken place. And when
this work takes place, there is a true delight. Turn over
to Psalm 119. And I just want to read some
verses out of Psalm 119 just to kind of back up what Dag is
saying. Psalm 119, look at verse 14. The Lord is my strength and song
and He has become my salvation. I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong chapter.
Let me get over to 119. Verse 14, I have rejoiced in
the way of your testimonies as much as in all riches. So when we talk about the law
of God, we're talking about his testimonies, we're talking about
his precepts. So there's different words that are used for this.
But notice here, I have rejoiced. You see the duty, the responsibility?
I have rejoiced in what? That you let me do whatever I
want to do? I rejoice in the fact that you let me be autonomous?
No, he says, I rejoice in the way of your testimonies as much
as in all riches. And so throughout this psalm,
there's a great love for God's law. There's a great love for
God's word. So what is God's law? It's whatever
comes out of his mouth, right? Many of you may rejoice in riches.
You look forward to it. You try to figure out how you're
going to gain it. But the believer rejoices in something else. The
believer rejoices in God's testimony. Look at verse 16. I will delight
myself in your statues. Notice the word, the delight.
There's joy, satisfaction. In what? In your statues. And
I will not forget your word. So the reason why the psalmist
is delighting in the testimonies of God is that they perceive
from the very mind of God. Has your mind been humbled by
the greatness of God's mind? And the reason why he delights
in this is that this comes from the very mind of God. And so because they perceive
from the mind of God, his testimonies are most perfect. Verse 18, open
my eyes that I may see wondrous things from where? Your law. Do you see the law of God as
something wondrous? Or do you see God's law as, oh, man, he's
such a killjoy. He doesn't ever let me have any
fun. Be careful if that's the way you think of God's law, because
that's going opposite of what Hebrews 8 is teaching about new
covenant members. New covenant members find delight
in God's law. Look at verse 20. My soul breaks
with longing for your judgments at all times. So the child of
God longs to know how God's verdicts will come down on issue. He wants
to have thoughts after God. So do you desire to know God's
judgments? Do you desire to know how God comes down on all issues? Look at verse 24. Your testimonies
also are my delight and my counselors. Where do you seek counsel? Do
you find delight in finding counsel? from God's testimonies. Well,
the psalmist did. Look at verse 35. Make me walk
in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them. Verse
47. I will delight myself in your
commandments, which I love. Look down to verse 70. Their
heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in your law. So the
child of God can look at the world and allow them to feast
upon their own self-indulgence and have all the trinkets of
this world. But the child of God delights in one thing. God's
law. Because you see it as God's most
perfect and holy will, and that's what you want for your life.
Why? Because He's done a work of grace
in your life. He's given you a new heart. His Spirit has written
the law of God on your heart. Look at verse 77. Think about it. What is it that
you delight in? It's whatever you're giving yourself
to at this moment, right? What are you thinking about when
you leave here? Are you thinking about spending
maybe a little time with God's law? His word, His testimony,
His statutes, His principles. Why? Because I love it. Because I want to know the mind
of God. I want to see, I find my delight there. My concern is that we're finding
our delight everywhere else but here. And so this is what maybe
characterizes or dictates what takes place in your life day
in and day out. Look at verse 92. Unless your
law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction. And do you understand that? Do
you see how gracious God is that you live in such a time that
you have been brought into the presence of God's testimony,
His precepts, His law? Unless your law had been my delight,
what would have happened? You would have perished. You
would have perished. There's a reason why. God's law
has driven you to Himself. It has seen your need for a Savior,
assuming you have bowed your knee before Him. And as a result
of this work of grace that has taken place in our lives, we
desire to look like Christ. And He's left us a testimony.
This is how we are to look like Christ. We are to follow according
to these precepts. Look at verse 97. Oh, how I love
your law. It is my meditation all the day.
I mean, we have a song in our hymn book about this. But this
is the verse that everyone should be meditating upon. Oh, how I
love your law. It is my meditation all the day.
Is it? Is it? Look at verse 103. How sweet are your words to my
taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Are the words of God
sweet to you? I see one of the first things
that empties out on our dessert table each Sunday is the dessert,
or what do you call it, our table there where we have all the food
each Sunday at lunch. You can tell what people have
a taste for. It's that sweet side of the table
because it never goes back full. I mean, you know, we may bring
crockpots of certain foods back home that people don't have a
taste for. It's not sweet to their mouth, right? But that
sweet side of the table is always gone. Why? People purpose for
it. They love it. They crave it.
They desire it. And this is what he's trying to get us to understand.
Do we desire? Do we crave this? How sweet are
your words to my taste? This is a little convicting,
isn't it? It's hard to teach. And we must understand how easy
and how prone we are to be distracted by other things, the substitute
rather than the substance. Is this sweet to us? Look at
verse 111. Your testimonies I have taken
as a heritage forever, for they are rejoicing of my heart. So the world in which we live
will mock and make light of God's law, and we should expect that
from those who love this world too much. But the Christian is
a stranger here. He's a pilgrim here on this earth,
and so he finds his delight in something else. He finds his
delight in the law of God. Be careful when you become too
comfortable with this place. Ask yourself, as you look at
the landscape of churches, including our own, would you say that our
church is characterized by a congregation that finds their delight and
meditation upon God's law. And I'm not simply asking you
to judge other people. I'm really asking you to personalize
it yourself. Would you say, based upon you and based upon me, our
church truly defines itself by having a sweetness, having this
taste and this delight in God's law? Do we meditate upon it?
Look at what's verse 13. I hate the double-minded, but
I love your law. So here's the question. Do you
hate vain, empty thoughts? That's what he says. I mean,
it's a pretty strong language. I hate the double-minded. Do you love God's thoughts? And
how you answer these questions really says a lot about yourself.
And as you think about the landscape of the churches that are out
there today, would we say they delight? I mean, can they really
personalize Psalm 119? Can you personalize it? How we
answer these questions really says a lot about us, doesn't
it? If we understand what Hebrews 8 is teaching, if we understand
the work of grace, if we understand regeneration, How we respond
to these questions says so much about us. And if you love God's
thoughts, that implies that you are meditating upon His Word.
How do you structure your life? Do you need to get up an hour
earlier? Do you need to go to bed an hour later? Is your life
so busy with things that bring you away from this that These
words are foreign to you. It's not sweet to you. You're
not meditating upon them day and night. You're not making
this the desire of your soul. That's not where you're finding
your delight. Your delight is somewhere else. You're finding
your delight in some external. This is the areas I think we
ought to be praying for one another in because, I mean, we'd be fools
to think that these attractions of the world and the pulls and
the snares are not real. They're very powerful. They're
very tempting, aren't they? And so what we need to be asking
ourselves is, do we have this delight of God's law? Look at
verse 162. I rejoice at your word, at the
one who finds a great treasure. This is the picture of a Christian
who is digging for truth, is digging for hidden treasures,
and he finds it. Do you have such a love for God's
law? How do you approach your time of meditation in God's Word?
Do you see it as, well, this is time for me to learn more
about the mind of God, His expectation, this is what brings His pleasure,
and my delight is pleasing God. I'm going to spend time in the
Word of God. There's great hidden treasures within God's Word.
But here's the thing, if you don't love God's Word, if you
don't love God's law, You're never gonna appreciate, you're
never gonna find the hidden treasures that are found here. Look at
verse 70. Is it 174? Yeah. I long for your
salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. So do you see
the connection between salvation and God's law now? I long for
your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Do you see
the connection? God gives us a desire and a delight
for His law. The redeemed, those who have
been saved, they're not saved by the law. That's not what we're
talking about. But they do have a delight in
God's law. They see it as His most perfect will. The psalmist
does not say, I long for salvation so that your law has no place
in my life. That's not what he's saying there.
But that would be pretty much typical Christianity today, right?
I want salvation. I want the benefits and the blessings
of salvation. But I don't want anything to do with your law.
Well, that's carving some things out of the scriptures that are
very fundamental and very basic when you think about it. Rather,
he says, I long for your salvation and I delight in your law. We
should delight in God's law because it shows us something of His
perfect, holy character. It also brings him pleasure when
we align ourselves with his law and have thoughts after him.
I think this is what the heart of being created in the image
of God, we're to reflect something of God in this creation. It's
a desire and a delight in his law. And we know that his desire,
I'm sorry, we know that his law is most perfect. And so we should
desire to see it and expect to see it within our lives. So we're
to delight, Brother Dagg tells us in his will of command. And
this is what Dagg is talking about when he says, you should
delight in God's will. And this would be in alignment
with the teachings of Christ where he says, if you love me,
you'll do what? Keep my commands. If you find
delight in me, you will keep my commands. Turn over to Hebrews
10. Hebrews 10, look at verse 4. For it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. Therefore, when
He came into the world, He said, Sacrifice an offering you did
not desire, but a body you have prepared for Me. And burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin you had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold,
I have come. In the volume of this book it
is written of Me to do what? To do your will, O God. Here's
your great example. The Lord Jesus Christ who delighted
in one thing. What? What did he delight in?
To do the will and the works of God. Christ was delighted
to do the work. And there's your great example. Not only are we to delight in
God's will of command, but we are to delight in God's will
of purpose. Turn over to Daniel 4. Daniel 4, look at verse 34. You're
familiar with this story, and at the end of time, this is after
Nebuchadnezzar ate grass like an animal, he says, Notice this, I bless the most
high and praise and honor him who lives forever for his dominion
is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation
to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing.
He does according to his will in the army of his heaven and
among all the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain
his hand or say to him, what have you done? At the same time,
my reason returned to me and for the glory of my kingdom,
my honor, my splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles
resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom,
and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar,
praise and extol and honor the King of Heaven, all of whose
works are truth, and His ways justice, and those who walk in
pride He is able to put down." Notice that Nebuchadnezzar has
now come to his senses, and what does he do? God, how dare you
make me look like an animal? You embarrassed me. You made
me look like a fool in front of my kingdom." He didn't say
that, did he? When he came to his senses, right, he began to
praise God's what? His will of purpose. His will
of purpose speaks of what he has determined. And when you
read through the Bible, you notice that the saints are content to
trust in God's will of purpose. There may be things about the
purposes of God that baffle us, but it is our duty to delight
in His will of purpose. There are things that will come
into your life that you don't understand why they're there.
But can you still delight in God? Can you still delight that
His purpose is the most perfect purpose? And it's good for you.
It's good for me. It brings about the ultimate
good for me. So no matter where you find yourself, at any moment,
whatever comes into your life, It's God's most perfect will
for you. You understand that? Unless you're the ones out there,
I mean, there's plenty of them out there who just think, well,
the good stuff comes from God, but the bad things, well, that
just comes from something else. As though God's asleep. Or as
though God's not capable of dealing with things. Or that, well, God
certainly wouldn't want to violate my free will. Well, what do you
do with Nebuchadnezzar? You think Nebuchadnezzar sat
around and delighted and thought about, boy, I wish I could just
dig around on the ground like a dog. No, not at all. Think about the
sovereignty of God and the child of God must learn to find delight
in God's will of purpose. Think about the saints who've
gone before us, who were martyred or put into prison. If you read
the latest versions of The Voice of the Martyrs and find out what's
going on around the world right now, it's not a good thing, humanistically
speaking, what's taking place to Christians around the world,
being beheaded, raped, tortured. But as you study out the martyrs
who have gone before us or those who have been put into prison,
what do you read about the true saints of God? What are they always
doing? They're praising God. Oh, but I don't feel good this
morning. Me and my wife had an argument.
I'm in a bad mood. My brother made me mad. My sister
made me mad. That girl across the congregation
said something to me and upset me, right? I mean, do you see
how sad we are relative to those who have come before us? We look
at what God's Word has to say here. The saints that have come
before us have praised God in far more extreme circumstances
than anything we've been exposed to. Think about Job. At the moment
his family was being wiped out, the moment he was being inflicted
with all these painful bulls and skin diseases and whatever
else he was going through, all he knew at the time was the afflictions
that plagued him. All he knew at the time is that
he lost everything. But the Bible says he never sinned and never
brought a charge against God. Can you delight in a God that
baffles you at times? You see, the God who is unable
to baffle us is not really much of a God, is He? Turn over to
Romans 9. Romans 9. Look at verse 7. Well, go back to
verse 6, but it's not that the Word of God has taken no effect,
for they are not all Israel who are Israel, nor are they all
children, because they are the seed of Abraham. But in Isaac
your seed shall be called. That is, those who are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted as the seed. For this is the word
of promise, at this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one man,
even by our father Isaac, For the children not yet being born,
nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls.
It was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. And
as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Certainly not. For he says to
Moses, I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will
have compassion on whomever I will have compassion. So then, it
is not of them who wills, nor of him who runs, but God who
shows mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh,
for this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show
my power in you, and that my name may be declared in all the
earth. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he
wills he hardens. And you say to me then, why does
he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?
But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the
thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like
this? Does not the potter have power over the clay? from the
same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor.
What if God, wanting to show His wrath to make His power known,
endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared
for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of
His glory on the vessels of mercy which He prepared beforehand
for glory?" Now, this passage has caused many to really struggle
because this is not the God that many have ever been taught. But can you delight in the God
of Romans 9? That's the real question. It's
interesting, you go and you read Wesley's commentary on this section
and there's nothing. Can you worship this God? This is the God who is, and Paul
can praise this God because he summarizes in chapter 11, look
at verse 33. Oh, the depths and the riches
both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known
the mind of the Lord? Or who has become his counselor?
Or who has first given to him and it shall be repaid him? for
of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be
glory forever and ever." I mean, look at this. Paul is the one
who just wrote Romans 9, right? And he gets to the end of this
great description of the purpose of God, and he's still baffled,
right? But despite that, because when
he says... I mean, you can tell he's running out of language
to describe the grandness and the majesty of God when he says,
Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are his judgments? He's saying, I
don't know what else to say about him. He's far too grand and far
too great for me to speak beyond my capabilities of language.
And so Paul is able to praise the God that baffles him. Can
you? Who has known the mind of God? He has revealed His mind to us
in His will of command, but His mind, God's mind, is far above
us so that all we know to do is bow before it and rejoice
in it. We are to delight in God's will of purpose. I want you to
ask yourself this question. Is His will your delight? His
will of command, His will of purpose. Can you delight when
His will crosses your desire? Can you delight in God when His
will crosses your will? Job could. Remember? It's Job that says, it's the
Lord that gives. It's the Lord that takes away.
I want you to think about what happened. He lost his family,
didn't he? Many of his possessions. He lost
his health. The Lord gives, the Lord takes
away. What's the rest of it? Blessed
be the name of the Lord. Can you find the light in the
will of God? Turn over to 1 Samuel. Do you
remember the prophecy given to Eli? Do you begin to see the problem
here? People say, well, you know, sure I'm a pastor at a Presbyterian
church or sure I'm a pastor at a Reformed Baptist church or
this kind of, you know, maybe I'm a Reformed pastor and I'm
hiding somewhere in a Southern Baptist church, but I want to
talk about the doctrine of election because, you know, that's divisive.
Do you begin to see why, if you don't teach on this, you're not
preparing the people of God to handle God's will of command
or handle His will of purpose? I think it's a very simple thing
to keep this from the people of God. Turn to 1 Samuel 3. Let's just read the beginning
in verse 1. Now the boy Samuel ministered
to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in
those days, and there was no widespread revelation. And it
came to pass at that time while Eli was lying down in his place,
and when his eyes had begun to grow dim so that he could not
see, and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle of
the Lord where the ark of God was, And while Samuel was lying
down, that the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, Here I am. And
so he ran to Eli, and he said, Here I am, for you called me.
And he said, I did not call you. Lie down again. And he went and
lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel. So Samuel rose
and went to Eli, and he said, Here I am, for you called me.
And he answered, I did not call you, my son. Lie down again.
Now Samuel did not know the Lord, nor the word of the Lord yet
revealed to him. And the Lord called to Samuel
again a third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here
I am, and for you did call me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord
had been calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
Go lie down, and if he calls you, you must say, Speak, Lord,
for your servant hears. So Samuel went down and lay down
in his place, and the Lord came, and he stood and called as other
times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel answered, Speak, for
your servant hears. Then the Lord said to Samuel,
Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of
everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against
Eli. Notice this. In that day I will perform against
Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from the beginning
to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever
for the iniquity which he knows because his sons made themselves
vile and he did not restrain them. And therefore I've sworn
to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall
not be atoned for by the sacrifice or offering forever. So Samuel
laid down until the morning and opened the doors to the house
of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. And Eli
called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he answered, here
I am. And he says, what is the word that the Lord spoke to you?
Please do not hide it from me. God do to you and more also if
you hide anything from me of all the things which he said
to you. Then Samuel told him everything and he hid nothing
from him. How would you respond? You know what's going to happen. This is the word against you
and your family. How would you respond? Eli says, it's the Lord. It is
the Lord. Let him do what seems good to
him. Can you delight in God's will? This is a man who delighted in
the purposes of God. Eli knew that God was right.
And what he was going to do, if you go back a couple of chapters
earlier and find out what his boys were up to, and he didn't
do anything about it. Here's the test of your delight
in God. Can you delight in God even if He judges the sins of
your children? Can you delight in the purposes
of God? It's also a reminder to you young people, God will
judge your sins. Learn to repent of them. Learn
to be humble and seek His mercy, seek His grace. This is important because we
deal with the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and when dealing with
the doctrine of the providence of God, we're going to be talking
about some difficult stuff because we're going to be dealing with
some things that goes against your flesh. But you have to ask
yourself, can you love this God? Can you love and delight yourself
in the God of the Scriptures? If you cannot, then you're an
idolater. You're creating a God of your own imagination. Resist
the temptation of rationalism that says, well, the God I worship
would never do that. He's a loving God. That's not
what Eli says, is it? Eli says, well, if that's what
the Lord says, let him do what seems good to him. Can you resolve
yourself to that end? So in this study, I think our
pride is really going to be challenged. And so either this study will
drive us to humble ourselves before the God of the Scriptures,
or it's going to increase our pride as we rebel against the
God of the Scriptures. Let me give you another one to
think about. This is all introductory work. Turn to Acts 21. But this is laying the foundation
because when Dax says, it is our duty to delight in the will
and purposes of God, Many of you may be sitting there saying,
well, yeah, that's obvious. Of course I will. But we're talking about the totality
of the will of God. And when His will crosses your
will, when His plans frustrate your plans, you still going to
delight in it? Or are you going to say, but
I know better? Of course my plan and what I
want to do is better than yours. Why are you frustrating this?
The child of God must learn to submit himself to the will of
God and say, if my plans are being frustrated, this is the
perfect will of God in my life. Acts 21, look at verse 10. And as we stayed many days, a
certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And when
he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and
his feet, and said, Thus says the Holy Spirit, So shall the
Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver
him into the hands of the Gentiles. And when we heard these things,
both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. And
then Paul answered, what do you mean by weeping and breaking
my heart? For I'm ready not only to be bound, but to also die
at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. So when he cannot
be persuaded, we cease saying, the will of the Lord be done. Notice Paul understood something
of the will of God. God purposed that Paul would
die for his namesake. In fact, go back over to, hold
your place here, go over to Acts 9. In Acts 9, remember, he's on
his way to Damascus. He's there to go and persecute
Christians. And there he is confronted with
the risen Lord Jesus Christ. But notice what Christ says to
him in verse 15. But the Lord said to him, Go,
for he is a chosen vessel of mine to bear my name before Gentiles
and kings and the children of Israel. And he said, Sign me
up for that ministry. But look at verse 16. For I will
show him how many things he must suffer for my name's sake. How
many of you are willing to sign up for that ministry? Turn over to 2 Corinthians 11. Keep your hand there in Acts
21, though. We'll come right back. In 2 Corinthians 11, in verse
23, are they members of Christ? I speak as a fool, I am more.
and labors more abundant, and stripes above measures, and prisons
more frequently, and deaths often. From the Jews, five times I received
40 stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with
rods. Once I was stoned. Three times
I was shipwrecked. A night and a day I've been in
the deep. In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils
of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of Gentiles,
in perils of the city, in perils of the wilderness, in perils
of the sea, in perils among the false brethren, in weariness
and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness. Besides other things, right? What comes upon me daily, my
deep concern is for all the churches. Christ says, I got a ministry
for you. You're gonna speak before kings. How did he end up before
kings? In chains, as a prisoner. That
was the will of God for him. The brethren who love the apostle
Paul in Acts 21 says, don't go, don't go. Paul says, you're breaking
my heart. That's the Lord's will. I must
go. I must go. He found great delight in the
will of God, didn't he? What do you find him doing in
prison? Singing praises. He found an honor to suffer for
the sake of Christ. In Galatians, the very end, chapter
6, as he's dealing with these Judaizers, he let them know.
He says, I bear the marks of Christ in my body and my flesh.
What is he talking about? What we just read in 2 Corinthians
11. is the purpose of God for his
life. And we don't read anywhere about him commurmuring, complaining,
saying, well, my plans are frustrated. I had this great idea for this
ministry. I was thinking I'd be before kings. Christ says,
I've got a ministry for you. This is my will that you suffer
for me. Can you delight in the will of God? This has definitely
been missing in the church. This teaching doesn't get much
attention in the church today. But we must lay down this foundation
because we must not only delight in the person of God, but we
must delight in His will and His works. So we'll stop here
this morning because we're going to get more into the details
of the sovereignty of God, the providence of God, the decrees
of God. So we'll start looking more at
this in more and more detail. But let me end with prayer. Our
Father, we come to you and we ask for your forgiveness because
we don't delight in your will. We don't delight when our plans
are frustrated. We murmur and complain and Father, we just
ask that you'd help us to see that your will is most perfect,
is most holy, and that the safest place for us to be is always
in your will. So, Father, we ask that you give us hearts to
love and praise you and take the words of Brother Dagg to
heart, that we may learn to have a heart of prayer and adoration
and just thankfulness for everything you do in our lives, and that
it is good for us when our plans are frustrated. Because if left
to ourselves, Father, it would just lead to more selfishness.
So Father, we pray that we would learn to delight in your will,
that we praise your name correctly. We pray for those who have heard
your word. We pray that your word would continue to do his
great work of conformity. We pray that your spirit would
do his great work, that he would just give us hearts that love
you. And so Father, help us this day to meditate upon your law,
to give you thanks for your purpose within our life this day. And
it's in Christ's name we pray, amen.
19 - Duty to Delight in the Will and Works of God
Series Elder Training
| Sermon ID | 126151832185 |
| Duration | 56:44 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 3:1 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2026 SermonAudio.