And I do bring you greetings from Victor Baptist Church in Cortland, Virginia. It's good to be here with you. We've been wanting to come down and visit with Brother Lewis and the family. They are very dear to us. If you won't be turning to Psalms 37, the Lord has blessed us richly with our friendship and fellowship over the years. As he said, we can We can talk for hours and do usually. And though we may not agree on everything exactly, by and large, we agree with one another. And where we disagree, we disagree in an agreeable way. And we're both seeking the truth. So I have something to build on right there. If you can find somebody even if you disagree with them, if they are and you are seeking the truth from God's word, You'll find harmony there. The Lord will lead you there. My subject today would have to do with finding real delight in life, and I want to talk to you a little bit about that. In Psalms 37, verse 4, it says, Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. This is a promise from God. Do you take God's promises as being real? You know, if God promises something, is there anything more real in life than God's Word? You know, the heaven and the earth will pass away, but God's Word will not. So if He gives you a promise, it is something real, and you need to pay attention to these things. So I'll read it again. Delight thyself also in the Lord. He's telling you, delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of your heart. The desires of our heart, oftentimes if you was to stop and ask, well, what do you really want in life? Most of us want to be loved. Do we not? I mean, we seek somebody that will love us, so we want that. And we need a purpose in life. You'll find that life is awful empty. If you don't have a purpose in life, everything else loses its meaning. So we need a purpose in life. We seek after joy and pleasure and satisfaction. And you will find all these things in the Lord. And that's the answer to all these things when we truly search. The Lord has made us in a certain way. He created us. He made us. And He made us empty, as you might say, and you'll not be filled until the Lord comes into your life and fills that void place there. You were made that way. You were made to feel empty until the Lord comes in. To demonstrate this somewhat, the Lord's ever given us natural things, things that we're familiar with to teach us spiritual truths. And He gives us, and I'm going to use marriage as a picture right here to get your mindset in the right direction here, hopefully. And I'll use the natural to explain the spiritual. I want you to think about the married life right here, what a marriage is. And a marriage, oftentimes we misunderstand what a marriage is. But a marriage, oftentimes we want to think about things, what I'm getting out of it. But a true marriage is one given yourself to your mate and them giving themselves to you. When I perform a wedding ceremony, this will be one of the phrases I'll require men to listen to and promise to. Here I will say to him, I require you to promise to love and to cherish her, to honor and sustain her in sickness as in health, in poverty as in wealth, in the bad that may darken your days, in the good that may light your ways, and be true to her. I will require him and I will stand there and wait and the ceremony is not going to step further until he promises to do that very thing. And then I turn around and I require the wife to do something with very similar words to that. I require them to make that promise there. But what they need to see is, in that marriage ceremony when they do this, they are committing themselves one to another. In 1 Corinthians 7, in the first three or four verses, I want you to see what God understands a marriage is to do here. In 1 Corinthians 7, there in the first four and a half verses, really, says, Now concerning the things whereof you wrote unto me is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence, and likewise also the wife unto the husband. The wife hath not power of her own body. Now, you'll hear that a lot of preachers preach that, you know, the wife, you're in submission to the husband now. And it's true. Women, when you get married, you do have to submit yourself, you know, wife, the wife hath not power over her own body. But read the next phrase right here. It's equally as strong right here. But the husband and likewise also the husband hath not power over his own body but the wife. In other words, when you get married You no longer have this body. It's not yours to control anymore. It is your mate's. She has authority over that. You don't have the freedom to go and be with some other woman. You no longer have that. You have given up that to your wife. Wives, you've given up that to your man. This is what God said right here. And the 5th verse says, "...defraud ye not one another, except it be with consent for a time." In other words, don't deprive the other of the privilege of your body right there. In other words, they have authority over that. That's God's Word now. And in the 5th chapter of Ephesians, it tells us to submit one to another. You know, the husbands who submit to the wife just like the wives to the husband. Now, I understand the man is the head of the house. I'm not preaching against that. But you understand what God's saying right here. And what I'm getting at right here, if you want to understand these kinds of things, and understand the picture that I have here, is you'll not find true joy in marriage. until you find somebody that is worthy to give yourself to them, and you freely give yourself to them. And hopefully, you have waited and found somebody who is worthy of that. Be very careful. God has commanded you, once you're married, to give yourself to them. Now, you be very careful to find someone who is worthy of that. And then, as you will give yourself to that, and your purpose now in the marriage is no longer a selfish purpose. You're not looking out and saying, what can I get out of it? Your goal is to bring her joy and pleasure and satisfaction. And this is where you get your joy in the marriage is bringing her joy and pleasure and satisfaction. Likewise, her goal should be to bring you joy and pleasure and satisfaction. She no longer is selfish and self-centered. She is seeking your own good. Now there, if you have a marriage like that, you've got a wonderful marriage because each of you gets their joy from bringing joy and pleasure and satisfaction to the other. And you will find a marriage that is working the way that the Lord wants it to work. Now let's take that from that to a spiritual standpoint. In Ephesians 5.25 it says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. You see, our Lord gave Himself for us. He gave His very self. I don't know if you've stopped and contemplated what that means. He gave His all. He gave His very self for us. And he tells us husbands do the same thing, because here's the picture of marriage. It's a picture of what Christ is to the church there. So you see that husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He gave us his body. soul and spirit, He emptied Himself of all these things for us in order that He might do us good, in order that He might bring us pleasure and joy and satisfaction. That's His goal. You know, our God is a pleasure-loving God. You read in the 16th Psalm, when we get to heaven, there's pleasures forevermore. There's fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. This is when things are right. God says, I'm going to bring you Fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. And He works at that right there. What we needed, He had made His commitment to us from eternity past, and what we needed was forgiveness, redemption, salvation, justification, sanctification and glorification. And He brings all these things to us. He brings the complete package to us because He gave Himself for us. If your marriage is not what it should be, the way you start out to make it is you give yourself and you do what you should, and trust the Lord to impress upon them to do that also. We love Him because He first loved us. So He's first in that, and He sets the example right there. It says this also in Galatians 2.20. It says, For I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, It is Christ that liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. You'll see that all through the New Testament. He gave Himself for us. And we talk about that. And not only did He give Himself for us, but it was His delight there in the Hebrews, the twelfth chapter, and the second verse. I don't seem to be able to find it here, but here it is. But we'll read this. It says, Looking unto Jesus. Now, if you want to know the example, he set the example there. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him. You know, he had a certain amount of joy coming from this. What was his joy? His joy was bringing us joy and pleasure and satisfaction of doing us good. That was the joy that was set before him. Us. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God on high." Here you have again that he gave himself and he enjoyed doing it. It was his delight to do that. It's not that everything that he did was a joy or pleasant to him, but he looked beyond that and he saw what we needed. And He had already set His heart upon us right there. As I said, the Lord finds joy, real joy, in bringing us joy and pleasure and satisfaction. And He knows that you will not find that joy and pleasure and satisfaction and true love in life until you find Him. And so He gave Himself to us there. And we will never reach the pinnacle of joy and real true satisfaction until we take upon ourselves the same attitude as what he had. In Philippians 2.5 it says, let this mind be in you. which was also in Christ. You see, it's going to tell what Christ did and how He emptied Himself. But the Bible tells us, let this mind be in you. Now, our Lord found joy in doing what God's will was. And you will, too, if you will give yourself to it, you will find true joy in life. True pleasure, you'll find a purpose in life, and you'll find satisfaction right there. Let this mind be anew which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself. and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross." Here is the gospel. Our Lord came here. He laid aside the privileges that was His as sitting there on the throne and not wanting one thing. You know, whatever he might want then, he could just command the angel or just speak the word and it was done. But now he comes and he identifies himself with us. He's born of a woman. He depended on her to hold him in her arms and nurse him and change his diaper and everything. He depended. He become like us. And He went further than that. He was made sin for us. He was made a curse for us. He was made under the law for us because that's where we were and that's where He had to go in order to redeem us. He gave Himself for us. He went all the way of that and then He went to the cross and there He hung on the cross. For us. He gave Himself for us. He went there. And all these things, the scourgings and all these things, He would not be deterred from it. Even when Peter is in the garden and they came after Him and Peter took a sword and cut off one of the servants' ears, ready to fight Him, our Lord said, Peter, put it up. The cup the Father has given Me, shall I not drink it? He said, I cannot. If you stop this, I cannot redeem my people. I cannot do them good. I give myself. And he went. And even when Pilate was asking him questions, he wasn't so much as defend himself. He never did because he was looking at the joy at the end of this. He was going to be obedient to the Father. He was following on right there. And he bought us. He purchased us with a price in 1 Corinthians 6th chapter, I read in the 1st Corinthians the 7th chapter, but if you back up just a verse or two there, in the 19th and 20th verse of 1st Corinthians 6th chapter, it says, What? Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? By the way, why are you the temple? Why is it that your body is a temple? It's because Christ lives in you. He not only gave himself for you, He gave Himself to you. Now, you think about that a minute. He's there. He ever liveth to make intercession for you. He lives. Christ lives. He lives within you. He come to abide in you. You're the temple of the Lord, it says, for you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. It tells us there, and I've got other verses that would tell you He tells in John 17, his father, they were yours, you gave them to me. We're his. We're a purchased possession right there. But do we delight in this? Do we delight that we're his? He owns us. He's bought us. Do you delight in that? You know, you think of your husband or wife. My wife and I will tell each other quite often, Honey, I'm glad I'm yours. We've got to that point. It used to be, honey, I'm glad you're mine. But you'll see what we're talking about now. I hope I can bring that out a little bit later. It's my absolute thrill in life that I belong to her because she does bring me joy and pleasure and satisfaction. She thanks more of me than what she does herself, it seems like. And I try to return that. But with our Lord, My question to you is, do you delight in the fact that you belong to the Lord? Not just that you're escaped from hell, but that you're His. You're His bondservant. Do you delight in that? Or is it a burden we reluctantly bear? You know, knowing, well, okay, He bought me. I'm obligated to do certain things. You see a husband or wife who feels like, well, I'm married to them. I've got to do this and got to do that. You're going to see an unhappy marriage right there. The joy goes out of that kind of marriage. But if you see one that just thinks ahead and says, well, what can I do to make their life a little better? What can I do to bring them joy? There's the difference. And there's the difference in your Christian life. If you want a Christian life that brings you joy, and pleasure and satisfaction and brings Him joy and pleasure and satisfaction, which you can do to your God. You can bring Him or you can grieve Him. Then your attitude has everything to do with it. You are His. If you're a Christian, you've been bought with a price. But do you delight in the fact that you're His? Do you delight in the fact that you owe Him everything? Does it thrill your soul that you belong to Him? Our attitude towards this will direct our steps. You know, how we think about the Lord will direct our steps. We may come to church, even though we're not thrilled about it, but we're coming because we feel like I've got to come. We may give our money and feel like, well, you know, I'm supposed to die, so I'm going to do it, but really do it reluctantly. But the Lord loves a cheerful giver. Hilarious, Gilbert, the literal translation there. Oh, Lord, You've abundantly given me these things. And here, Lord, take what You will. And by the way, I'm not going to get on time and as such, but I think this, you know, the Lord's already told you where 10% goes. The other 90% you hold out here and say, all right, Lord, where do You want it? It's Yours. It's Yours, too. There's a difference between somebody who is happy to belong to the Lord and somebody who is legalistically saying, OK, I'll do this is what and our attitude would be, well, how little can I do and still get by instead of how much I can do? It has to do with our attitude. It will direct our steps. Let me read about one whose attitude was right. If I can get over to that. And Ruth 1.16 says, And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go. And whither thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Here was one who had the right attitude. She says, Naomi, don't make me go back. I want to stay with you. I want to be with you. It's my desire to do that. And she indeed did. And she went and she looked after her mother-in-law. It was from her heart. Do you love the Lord with all your heart? We're commanded to do that, but the Lord encourages us to do that. He gives us every reason to do that. There's another example in the Bible, somewhere around Genesis 28, I believe is, maybe Genesis 29 here. And it talks about Jacob who had went down. And here he was with his uncle, and he had spied his uncle's daughter, which was actually his cousin. And he saw Rachel there. He said, oh boy. And his heart melted right then. He said, oh, I would, you know, There's one I want right there. And he said, Laban, what would it take to win her hand over? Laban said, well, you served me seven years and you can have her. And what does the Bible say about Jacob there? He had a great desire for her. And it says in the 20th verse, and Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had to her. You see, if you have a love for your God, it will seem, you know, all he asked you to do, and some of it may be hard on the flesh, but you'll do it with joy because your great desire is to please him. Jacob's great desire was to get Rachel. He worked seven years, seven hard years. to get her. And it seemed him but a few days. And then he got snookered there and he got the wrong sister and he come back to Laban and said, wait a minute, what have you done? Laban said, well, you know, this is our custom here. But if you'll serve seven more years, you can have Rachel. And he said, I'll do it. I'll do it. Now, there's the kind of love that we should have for our Lord. And that kind of love will motivate you to do things that will bring delight and pleasure and satisfaction to our Lord. You can do that or you can grieve your Lord. We can do these things. But the question is, do we bring pleasure and delight and satisfaction to our Lord? I've been studying through, we've been leading the church there through a study of the Old Testament. We're up through Joshua. Most of the way through Joshua now is if there's two words I would tell you that sum up everything from the children of Israel coming out, even Abraham, if you'll follow, trust, and obey. These are two things. The Lord wants you to trust Him. The Lord wants you to obey Him. The Lord is well pleased when you trust Him and when you obey Him. And when you will not, you read in the 14th chapter, I believe our brother's fixing to get there, In the 14th chapter, where they went up to Kadesh Bardea and would not go over, and the Lord said, how long ere they believe Me. If you won't trust your God, He has proved Himself trustworthy. You know, sometimes we end up with a mate that's not trustworthy. But your Lord is worthy of your trust. You're worthy of everything that you have there. In 1 John 2 and 3, it talks about it changes our attitude as we walk through these things. Let me hurry here. I see my time is slipping away from me here. And if I can find 1 John back here in the 5th chapter in verse 2 or 3, it says, By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments. By the way, it's also turned back around and said, By this they will know that you love God and that you love the children of God. You know, that's another place in the Bible. You can't love God and hate His people. And you can't, you know, it just doesn't work. He says, if you're going to love Me, you're going to love My people. I'll give a love in your heart for that. But verse 3 says, For this is the love of God that we keep His commandments. You say, oh, there you go. I've got to keep His commandments. But read the rest of the verse right there. And His commandments are not grievous. You see, when you love God, His commandments are not grievous. You know, it's your delight to do the things that God wants you to do. It becomes our delight. Not a duty or burden, but a sought-out pleasure. to be His in every way, to be obedient to Him. No burden is too heavy, no task too much, no sacrifice too great when we know the small God to be upon us. Have you ever known the small God upon you? Have you ever done something and you just knew God? His hand was upon you in such a way you knew. Oh, Lord, it pleased me well because it pleased you. And you don't take long in God's Word to know how to please Him. I want to talk to you a little bit. I'll comment on this a little bit earlier. In the Song of Solomon, I don't have time to take you back there, but it would be a good reading. Just read the 8th chapter of the Song of Solomon there. But it's a love story, and it pictures Christ and His church. And in the 2nd chapter, in the 16th verse, This lady here says this, He is mine and I am His. And you can just see the love pouring out of her heart. He is mine and I am His. But as she goes on, she matures in her love. Back here a little bit later in the sixth chapter, in the third verse, she turns it around. She says, I am His and He is mine. After she had been around him long enough, she says, Oh, the greatest joy in my world is that I belong to Him. And it's also nice that He belongs to me. But I just, you know, what a blessing to belong to Him. And you have such a God as that. It is a blessing to belong to Him. He blesses those who will follow after Him. In Song of Solomon, 7th chapter, 6th verse says, And as she finds in Him her delight, she finds herself a delight to Him. I need to go back and read that. Maybe I don't have time there. I didn't read the verse. I didn't copy it down. I thought I had it. Let me find there. 7, 6 says, How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights. How fair and how pleasant art thou, O love, for delights. You know, she finds her delight in Him, and He finds His delight in her. You read in the Bible, and you will find God delights in His people. He absolutely delights in us. And if we will delight in Him, we will find that our joy is full there. In the tenth verse right here, He says, I am my beloved, and His desire is towards me. There's a picture of that in the book of Esther, where Esther went in to the king. Ahasuerus there, and he found pleasure in her. He was delighted in her and made her his queen. He was delighted in her. Is your Lord delighted in you? You can be a delight to Him. Trust Him. Obey Him. Love Him. Commit yourself to do Him good. That's what true sanctification is. Set yourself apart to the Lord. You know, the words sanctification and holiness, we've complicated these words, but it's very simple in God's Word. Both of them means to set yourself apart for the Lord. If you're holy, that means you've been set apart. It doesn't mean you're sinless. It means you've set yourself apart. Now, you will go in that direction and lay aside sins if you've set yourself apart for the Lord. But that's not what it says right there. It is a set-yourself-apart. In Romans 12.1, it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy. You're not acceptable unless you've set yourself apart. I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, I beg you. That's what the beseech means. I beg you. Come on. Do what's best for you. This is best for you. Don't just look at it as best for him, but do what's best for you. I beseech you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. Holy and acceptable. which is your reasonable service. That's not unreasonable. It shouldn't be exceptional. It is, but it shouldn't be exceptional. It ought to be the normal thing for every Christian to present themselves, their bodies, as a living sacrifice. I talked to you about a marriage where the husband is committed to give his body to the wife and the wife to the husband. Now, our Lord did give Himself for us, and now we're beseeched. I beg you, By the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly unacceptable unto the Lord. Ephesians, the fifth chapter there, I'll start reading the twenty-fifth verse, says, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. That, you know, he has a purpose in this. That he might sanctify, you know, sanctify, that he might set it apart, might sanctify and cleanse it with washing of the water by the word. That, you know, he's a father purpose here. that he might present it to himself. A glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. And there it goes on down and it says, For this call shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. You can't have that oneness. You know, in his high priestly prayer in the 17th chapter of John, One of the things he prayed to the Father, that they may be one in us, as you Father and I are one, you know, that they may be one. And right here it talks about that marriage, that there may be a oneness. A oneness like only marriage in this life pictures. Only the best marriage would even come close to picturing, but a oneness right there. We're going to be conformed to His image. We're going to be where He is. We're set on His throne with Him. We will have the same goals as what He has. We will think like He thinks. We won't be God, but we'll be just as close to it as what God can make a man be. And that's what His goal is for us. This is a great mystery concerning Christ and the church. This, as I said, is true holiness. Psalms 45. You don't have to turn. I'll quickly get over there. But if I can find some, my verse here in the 11th verse. Let me back up to the 10th verse. It says, Harken, O daughter, and consider. You know, the Lord calls us to stop and consider every now and then, you know. You know, He says in Isaiah, the first chapter. It says, Come, let us reason together. You know, here's God. And He says, Well, come on, let's reason together. You know, right here he says, stop and consider, hearken, old daughter, and consider and climb thine heirs. Forget also thine own people in thy father's house. You know, let's turn from that now. You have a higher calling. You have something better right here. He says, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. What beauty is it that she has? I'll tell you the beauty God appreciates. And I'll tell you a beauty that everybody else appreciates too. It's a beauty that far exceeds anything that the beauty contest have or anything. It's the beauty of holiness. The beauty of holiness, it wears well. It's becoming of everybody. The beauty of holiness when one sets himself apart for the Lord. And it says right here, So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. Are you beautiful to the Lord? Only if you set yourself apart for the Lord. Have you set yourself apart? Do you commit yourself in all your ways to Him? For He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him. You know, that's the secret right there. That's the secret of joy and contentment. As a seeker, I find your purpose in life. You know, it's sad to see somebody take their own life. You can just about bet they do not have a clear vision of what their purpose in life is. And so many young people, this is a problem today. We've taken God out of the schools and God out of the home, and now they have no purpose. And when things go bad, we teach them, well, you know, you're just here and you're just a chance by nature, you know. And so they say, well, why not just check out? You need to tell them they have a purpose in life. And their purpose in life is to live for the Lord and to bring Him joy and pleasure and satisfaction. And they will find the joy and the pleasure and satisfaction that they're seeking in life. They will find a purpose in life. They will find that love. And once you find that, you will be able to love your mate, your children, your family, your neighbors like you never could before. You wouldn't be able to before. It's Christ in you that enables you to do that, and He will have the freedom to do that there. Consider these things right there. Let me go right back to where we started in Psalms 37. I'm going to read 4-6. It says, Delight thyself also in the Lord, for He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Are you longing for some things? Christ is the fulfillment of the true desires in your heart. Commit that way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. Commit your way unto the Lord. You trust Him. You just give yourself to Him. Trust Him in all things. He can be trusted. He gave His life for you. And in the 8th chapter of Romans it says, God having delivered His own Son up, how shall He deny you any good thing that you need? He won't. You can trust Him. So commit thy way unto the Lord and trust also in Him. And He shall bring it to pass and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. And over here in verse 23, look at this verse. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. If you commit your way to the Lord, He will order your steps. How many times have we gone somewhere we shouldn't have went? In life, in relationships, in different things we've been somewhere we shouldn't have been is because we wasn't following the Lord. We wasn't following our own selfish desires. If the steps of a good man, a man who commits his way unto the Lord, read Psalms 3, 5, and 6. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. That last phrase there, you can read it two ways. And he, the man, delighteth in his, God's way. Or you can read it this way. He, God, delighteth in the man's way. Well, the man who steps is ordered by the Lord. He does delight the Lord. And he will find his delight in the Lord. You see that oneness right there that comes together when we commit ourselves to the Lord, when we love the Lord with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind and all that's within us. We take that and say, well, that's a hard, that's a hard commandment. The Lord says, no, you misunderstand it. You misunderstand it. This is for your good. This is where your joy and your pleasure and your satisfaction comes. I made you. I know how I made you. I know what the end is. I know what's best for you. Love the Lord your God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy mind and all that's within thee. And you watch. Life will bring new meaning to you. And I'm not saying you won't have troubles, but I'll say you'll have joy in the troubles. You will have help in the troubles. And other people will see Christ in you in the troubles. And you will bring that joy and pleasure and satisfaction to God. And your life will be full of it. Consider these things. Consider thy ways. I thank you. I do want you to consider this. God's way Let me tell you this, you're going to find this is a hard, fast rule. God's way in the end is always the most pleasant way, the most joyous way, the most prosperous way. God's way is the only good way there is. Now if you turn from Him, you're doing yourself harm. You are.