Let us open our Bibles to Genesis 1, the book of the beginning. God tells us in Genesis 1:26:
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
God tells us here that mankind was made in the image of God. I do not know the full import of this verse, but one thing I do know is that mankind knows right from wrong. We are not animals. Some believe this is all that we are and that we evolved over millions of years.
No; the Bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. Because of this, we know that it is wrong to murder. We know that it is wrong to commit adultery. We know that it is wrong to tell lies.
Animals do not know this. We are the highest created beings in God’s creation. He has created all things and He tells us that we are made in the image of God.
For instance, go to Romans 2 where God gives us a little bit more information on this. There could be someone who had never heard the Bible. He could have lived and died and never heard about the Bible, but yet God tells us in Romans 2:13-14:
(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law…
These are people who do not have the Bible. They have never heard of it. They have not the Law, but when they:
…do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
To a certain degree, although mankind is in rebellion against God, God’s Law is on his heart. We know right from wrong. We know that we do not have to teach a child to lie. How does a child know that they are not to lie? It is because we are made in the image of God and God’s Law, to a certain degree, is written on man’s heart, although he is in rebellion against the Law of God.
It goes on in Romans 2:15 to say:
Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)
This is the key. The Law of God is on our conscience. We intuitively know that it is wrong to lie, to murder, to commit adultery. We know all of these things. We know this without a doubt. We also know that the whole Bible is a Law Book. The Bible is the Law of God. The Bible is for the whole human race. It is God who is speaking to us through the pages of the Bible and He has many, many things to say to us.
One of the things that I want to go into is something that I was looking at last night. Although we are made in the image of God, there is a Day of Judgment that is coming on all the world, and yet God has no pleasure in destroying man. He has no pleasure in doing this. He has no pleasure sending man, whom He has created in His image, to destruction, and yet He clearly tells us in Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death…
The payment for our sin and rebellion is to be destroyed forever. Of ourselves, we cannot get around this. The only way that we can get around this is by God saving us. God is not going to change His Law.
There are many people who do not believe the Bible at all. They just go about their lives while scoffing and mocking the Bible. They have all kinds of things to say about it. Some may say, “Part of the Bible was written by man and part of it was written by God, so how can you be certain of it?” They just go on and on.
This is not going to change the fact that the Bible is the Word of God. It is a Law Book. When we break the Law, the Law of God demands death. It demands judgment. We must have our sins paid for.
Can you see how desperately you need a Savior? It makes no difference who you are. The Law of God is the Law of God.
As we learned this past week as we listened to Family Radio, Mr. Camping has been speaking about King Solomon. Who would have ever thought that King Solomon was not a saved man? He was the wisest man who ever lived. He was the richest man who ever lived. Yet we see in his final days that he was not a saved man and that he will be destroyed forever.
“God is no respecter of persons.” It makes no difference what your abilities are. Faith does not come by understanding and because of how smart someone might be. The Bible says, “Faith [or Christ] cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” This has nothing to do with our personal abilities or where we might be from.
Let us turn to Ezekiel 18. God has no pleasure in destroying man whom He has created in His image. In Ezekiel 18:23, let us hear what God says. He says:
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?…
He has no pleasure in destroying the wicked, none whatsoever. It continues:
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord JEHOVAH: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
He has no pleasure in destroying man, none whatsoever. He is not sitting up in Heaven just waiting to destroy man. God is a very merciful God. He is the very essence of mercy, but He has to do what He says that He will do. He has no pleasure in destroying man, yet the Law of God demands this.
Look at Ezekiel 18:32:
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord JEHOVAH: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
God has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” because God is merciful. Can you see why we need a Saviour?
As we look throughout the history of Israel and how God dealt with the nation of Israel, how He would forgive them and raise up another king, how He dealt with them in a loving and merciful way, we learn that there came a point when He put them away.
The Bible clearly tells us that God’s door of mercy is not an open-ended thing. God will not keep His door of mercy open forever. There will come a time when He will shut the door, just like He did in the days of Noah. He used Noah to build the ark and to warn the people of a coming flood. For one hundred and twenty years, He warned the people of Noah’s day that the flood was coming.
We can see the mercy of God in this. He had Noah build that huge ship. Did they listen? No and there came a point when the door to the ark was shut. He closed the door and no one else was getting in. He then destroyed the people of that day, but He had no pleasure in doing this.
So it is in our day. On May 21, 2011, the door of mercy will be shut. God will no longer be saving people on that day. When all the activities of that day are happening, then man will begin to know that the Bible was true all along. The door of mercy will then be shut. No one else will get in, but the door right now is wide open.
We could go to God like the Ninevites. You have heard of Jonah. We are increasingly becoming familiar with the prophet Jonah who went to Nineveh, how God warned them and they listened. God saved them and that was the mercy of God.
So it is in our day. God is still saving sinners, which all of us are. We all have something in common, which is that we are all sinners. We all also deserve the same fate. We deserve to be destroyed forever; but, wonderfully, God is still saving in our day, is He not? God is merciful. He is merciful, but the day will come when He will no longer be saving.
Turn to Ezekiel 33. A lot of us are familiar with these verses. We read in Ezekiel 33:10-11:
Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Do you see the mercy of God that is displayed over and over again to mankind? This is nothing but the mercy of God. God tells us to “turn ye from your evil ways,” but we have to be careful with this word “turn” because God is the One who has to turn us to Himself.
In the days of Jonah, they did not know whether God was going to save them or not. They just pitifully cried out to God for mercy. God in His great mercy and great kindness saved a great multitude in that day, and so it is in our day.
How can it be that God would save anyone? Look at the world that we are living in. Sin is multiplying. Man is in rebellion and goes about his own way, and yet the Bible says, “but his hand is stretched out still.” He is still saving people yet in our day.
It makes no difference who you are. God is a merciful, merciful God and He has no pleasure in destroying man whom He has created in His image and likeness. But as I said earlier, He just cannot put His Law aside. He must do what He says, because God is faithful to His Word. He is going to do what He has committed Himself to do. Because of this, we know that this Day of Judgment is fast approaching.
Turn again to Ezekiel 18. Here God says in Ezekiel 18:4:
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
This says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Parents are not responsible for the sins of their children. They are not. Children are responsible for their own sins. Here He tells us:
…the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Turn over to Psalm 5. We read in Psalm 5:1-5:
Give ear to my words, O JEHOVAH, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O JEHOVAH; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness…
God has no pleasure in sin, in wickedness. It continues:
…neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight…
Who are the foolish? The foolish are all the unsaved of the world. They are foolish because God refers to them as “fools.” It continues:
…thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
God hates sinners with a perfect hatred.
Then Psalm 5:6 says:
Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: JEHOVAH will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.
God is going to destroy wicked unsaved man on October 21, 2011. There will be a five-month period after Judgment Day begins on May 21, 2011. This will continue for five months during which God will then be pouring out His wrath upon the unsaved of the world. God is going to punish them for their sin. On October 21, 2011, they will be destroyed forever.
He has to do what He says. There are many who mock the Bible because they are still yet in their sin, but remember that the Bible says that “the wages of sin is death.” The payment for sin is death. This is why God will begin to pour out His wrath on all those remaining on May 21, 2011.
How awful this will be for those who are left behind on that Day of Judgment! Unsaved man will begin to experience the wrath of God. It will be terrible for those who are left behind to face the wrath of an angry God.
Let us look at Hebrews 10. This is another thing that God has no pleasure in. We will start in Hebrews 10:1. It says:
For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
This is speaking about all those blood sacrifices that were offered in the Old Testament. Thousands and thousands of animals were slaughtered by the priests, and yet this did not take away sin. It was a work that the children of Israel were doing, but God had no delight in this.
We have to also remember that our works will never save us. There is nothing that we can do to merit salvation. It is the work of Christ that saves us. Israel was offering all of these burnt sacrifices. This was a work that they were doing, but God had no delight in this. We will see this as we read on.
It says in Hebrews 10:2-4:
For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
All of those sacrifices that they were making did nothing to take away sin. It was pointing to Christ: “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
Then we read in Hebrews 10:5-6:
Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
So God had no pleasure in what Israel was doing. It was all works. We also know, according to the Bible, that Israel perished in the wilderness “because of unbelief.”
Maybe we have thought that if a person could only see something, they would believe it; but this is not so. The Israelites heard the voice of God. God parted the Red Sea before their eyes. God fed them in the wilderness for forty years. God fought for them. God did all of these things for the nation of Israel, things that they could see with their eyes, and yet they perished “because of unbelief.” They did not believe God. There were a few who were saved, but the majority of them perished “because of unbelief”; and so all of those sacrifices that were instituted in that day never saved anyone.
This is like someone in the churches of our day who thinks that water baptism or walking down the aisle after a sermon and accepting the Lord is going to save them, but these things never save anyone.
It is Christ who saves. He has done the work and He is the One who has to give us a new heart. This is something that we cannot do. He has to give us His Holy Spirit. This is something that we just cannot do. Salvation is totally the work of God. It has nothing to do with us doing anything, but God does allow us to cry for mercy. He does permit sinners to approach unto Him.
How can it be that Almighty God allows sinful man to approach unto Him and plead for mercy? He saves this one here and that one there. How can this be? We are approaching the “King of kings, and Lord of lords,” His majesty, the Creator of the whole universe. Remember that all it took was for God to speak in order to bring this creation into existence with all of its billions of lifeforms. Wow! God has created it all, all things above the sea and under the sea and on the land. The Bible says, “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
As we read on in Hebrews 10, it says in Hebrews 10:8:
Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
He had no pleasure in those burnt offerings. God had no pleasure in those things.
Let us move on a little bit further and look at Hebrews 10:37. It says:
For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
There is coming the Day of Judgment. God says that He will come and that He will not tarry.
Then we read in Hebrews 10:38-39:
Now the just shall live by faith…
We know whose faith this is. It is the “faith of Christ.” It continues:
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
God has no pleasure in these things, none whatsoever.
Let us turn to Isaiah 1. This is still speaking about the burnt offerings. We read in Isaiah 1:9:
Except JEHOVAH of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
We know according to the Bible in Genesis 19 what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah. God destroyed them. If God had not chosen a people unto salvation from eternity past, all of us would likewise be destroyed. On Judgment Day, we would all be totally destroyed if God had not elected a people to Himself.
Look at Isaiah 1:11. This says:
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith JEHOVAH: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.
Do you see what Israel was involved in? God did not delight in this. He did not delight in this at all. He had no pleasure in this.
As we read on, it says in Isaiah 1:16-19:
Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith JEHOVAH: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
These are the things that God delights in. In other words, He delights in “a broken and a contrite heart.” This is what He delights in. God says elsewhere in Isaiah, “But to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” He takes delight in that person. Who knows? He might save that person.
So God takes no pleasure in man and his rebellion. He takes no pleasure in sin and wickedness at all, but He does go on to tell us what He delights in. There are many other verses that we could look at. These are only a few that I was looking at last night. He has “no pleasure in the death of the wicked…for why will ye die?” This is why God provided this wonderful and magnificent salvation plan for the human race.
By nature, we love this world and the things that it has to offer, the niceties of this life. God has created a beautiful planet and put us on it and we love it. Mankind does not want to see this be destroyed, but God has prepared for His people something far greater than the pleasures of this world and of this life.
Look at Psalm 149. We read in Psalm 149:1-4:
Praise ye JEHOVAH. Sing unto JEHOVAH a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in his people…
Do you see what God takes pleasure in? He takes pleasure in His people. It continues:
For JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
God takes pleasure in those who love Him, not in the wicked or the foolish.
He goes on to talk about the saints in verse 5, and the saints are God’s elect. We read in Psalm 149:5-9:
Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye JEHOVAH.
We see one thing here that God takes pleasure in. He takes pleasure in His people.
Turn to Psalm 147. We will start reading at Psalm 147:10. It says:
He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.
You could be young and strong and a great athlete, but God has no pleasure in this.
Psalm 147:11 tells us what He takes pleasure in:
JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in them that fear him…
Fearing God is to be obedient to Him. God tells us in the Bible, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” He also tells us, “Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only.” We can hear the Word, but we have to do what He says. Those who do are the ones who truly fear Jehovah.
Psalm 147:11-12 goes on to say:
JEHOVAH taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy. Praise JEHOVAH, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.
We can see that this is one thing that He takes pleasure in.
Look also at Ephesians 1 where God is speaking about election and when it was that He made the choice to save someone. Remember that God elected His children in Him “before the foundation of the world.” God could do this. He is infinite in His wisdom and He made the decision on those He would save for Himself before He created the world. We do not know who they are because this is God’s business. It says in Ephesians 1:4-5:
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
It was God’s pleasure to save a people for Himself. Out of the billions of people who would be ever be born into this world, God took pleasure in choosing a few, a very tiny remnant for Himself; and it is God’s business whom He has decided to save.
Look at Ephesians 1:9. This says:
Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
It was God’s “good pleasure” to save a people for Himself. He could have sent every one of us right down to hell [or to the grave/destruction] because we are all wicked sinners; but in His great mercy, He has decided to save a people for Himself. This number will total into the millions.
If you are truly saved, does the wicked of the world envy you? No; they look down at you, “You poor soul. You are wasting your life!” But as we look at the Bible, we see Christ, God Himself, and He chose fishermen, He saved a prostitute, He saved the outcast.
The ones in the church of our day walk around with a certain attitude, “Look at me. I am a Reverend!” This does not mean anything. It is the lowly ones whom Christ saves. In the church of Christ’s day, the Pharisees and the Jews rejected Him. They rejected God! They claimed, “Look at Him! He is eating with publicans and sinners!” They thought that they were better than anyone else. God then went to the Gentiles, and we see how wonderful God truly is.
Let us look at a couple more verses. Turn to Jeremiah 9:24. This says:
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am JEHOVAH which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith JEHOVAH.
Do you see what He delights in? God delights in “lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness.” He delights in these things. People say that they do not know what God wants. Read the Bible and find out for yourself what God delights in.
When we truly become saved, God says that He has “delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” We, too, are then going to delight in the same things that God delights in, because He has given us “a new heart.”
If you are now saved, you can look back in your life to see the person you were before you became saved. You were no different than anyone else; but now God has given you a new heart and you love the Word of God. The only way that you are going to love the Word of God is if He gives you a new heart, else the Bible will make no sense to you.
Let us look at a passage in Psalm 119. The whole Bible is beautiful, but Psalm 119 really gets into how we stack up against the Word of God. He is speaking of a true believer, and He says in Psalm 119:16-18:
I will delight myself in thy statutes…
The true believer is going to delight in the Word of God. When we see the word “statutes” or “judgments” or “commandments,” these have to do with the Bible. The true believers are going to delight in God’s Word.
It continues:
…I will not forget thy word. Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word. Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.
Do you see how the true believers are going to delight in the Law of God?
Psalm 119:24 says:
Thy testimonies…
This is referring to the whole Bible, God’s Word. It continues:
Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors.
For the true believers, the Bible is our counselor and we delight in the Word of God.
If you say that you are a child of God and yet you are not delighting yourself in the Bible, Psalm 37:1-5 tells us:
Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in JEHOVAH, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself…
He is speaking to the true believers. What are we to delight in? It continues:
Delight thyself also in JEHOVAH; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto JEHOVAH; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
Then in Psalm 37:11, He says:
But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The true believers delight in the Word of God. There are many other verses that we could look at to see the things that God delights in. He does not delight in destroying man. He has no pleasure in doing this. He also has no pleasure in the wicked.
We were created in the image of God. We can see from the Bible what God delights in. As true believers, because He has given us a new heart, we also are going to delight in spiritual things, in God’s Word, in the Bible. We should want to spend the rest of our time doing nothing else but reading the Word of God, studying it, and doing what He commands us to do.
Let us close.