If I was more foolish than I actually am, I might say that this scripture is full of New Testament doctrine. This passage is full of New Testament doctrine, but New Testament doctrine is also Old Testament doctrine. My foolishness would be leaving you with the impression that there are two opposing portions of scripture. The fact is both the Old Testament and the New Testament have the same message. It is that “the just shall live by faith.” Habakkuk 2 is a prophecy of the last times – the days in which we live. Verse 2 – “The LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” This is repeated several times in the New Testament. Romans 1:17 – “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11 – “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Hebrews 10:38 – “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.”
Ezekiel 33 is full of New Testament doctrine. Verse 2 teaches us that God is sovereign over the affairs of nations. It teaches us that He is righteous and that He judges and punishes people and nations for their sins. It also teaches us that the Lord does not leave Himself without a witness against sin. There will always be a preacher, a prophet or 144,000 witnesses to the truth of God. Verses 4 and 5 remind us that the “god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not,” lest the witness of those watchmen should be heard, believed and acted upon. Verse 6 shows to us that there will always be ministers who neglect their responsibilities or who focus on non-essentials – to the peril of their constituents. But it also teaches us that the sinner cannot blame the negligent preacher for his damnation. That minister is responsible for his sin, and the dead parishioner is responsible for his. Verse 10 reminds us that to recognize our sin, and to pine away in sorrow for our sin is not sufficient; there must be repentance. Verse 11 was one of those scriptures which gave to John the Baptist his message of repentance. “Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” Verse 12 teaches us that all our human righteousnesses are as filthy rags. It reminds us that “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” The man who preaches obedience to the law in order to be sin-free, must demand absolute perfection. But, of course, this can never exist in any of us as long as we remain in the flesh. Salvation is not based on our good deeds outweighing our bad deeds, or our righteousness outshining our sins. Verse 13 reminds us of Titus 3:5 – “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” And verse 16 reminds us of I John 1:7 – “And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “None of his sins that he hath committed shall be mentioned unto him.” This scripture sounds as evangelical and New Testament as anything Isaiah or John or Paul ever wrote.
It is to verse 11 that I’d like to draw your attention this morning. My message is entitled: “God’s Pleasure.” Now, usually in Baptist churches, when the word “pleasure” is pronounced warning lights start blinking, bells sound and sirens start wailing. The word “pleasure” calls up dark thoughts of evil, lewdness, and sexual wickedness. Scriptures like Hebrews 11:25 pop into the initiated mind: “Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Then there is James 5:5 – “Ye have lived in pleasure on earth, and been wanton, ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.” Or I Timothy 5:6 – “She that liveth in pleasure is death while she liveth.”
In contrast to these, it needs to be pointed out that not all pleasure is evil. Someone once said that two of man’s greatest pleasures are the itch and sneeze. I don’t know if that is true or not, but I do know that usually neither to scratch or to sneeze is sin. And there is nothing wrong with enjoying a good piece of beef, listening to good classical music or taking a drive through the Palouse on a nice late summer Saturday. Even God takes pleasure in His creation, so it shouldn’t be sin if we, with praiseful hearts, do as well. “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” God takes pleasure in SOME things, and He does NOT take pleasure in OTHER things. The word translated “pleasure” in this case is most often translated “to have delight in something.” Yes, man delights in evil things, but it is also possible to delight in non-sinful and even secular things.
Again, Jehovah never takes pleasure in sin, but there are some things in which He DELIGHTS. And in these two things we have some fodder for spiritual rumination: in what does God take pleasure? Meditate on that question for a while later this afternoon. Because we are to grow in our likeness to the Saviour, so in what things He takes pleasure should be of interest to His children.
As a general rule, the Lord delights in hearing and answering your prayers. He takes pleasure in guiding the soul which longs for His guidance. I think that it’s safe to say that “the God of all Comfort” takes pleasure in meeting our emotional needs. One philosopher has said, “Our greatest pleasure is in doing what others said can’t be done.” Yes, there is a kind of satisfaction to that sort of thing. And maybe that is a part of the pleasure of the Omnipotent One as well. Would we give the Lord more pleasure by asking Him for more for the impossible? Do you suppose that He’d be “happier” if we trusted Him more and grew in our faith in Him? I’m sure that God delights in seeing good things – righteous things – in you and me. He has said, “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” Doesn’t that mean that the Lord takes pleasure in the work of the evangelist?
Jehovah has His pleasures and obviously man has his. Trouble enters the equation when we see that these two kinds of pleasures conflict. And maybe a test of that might be by letting you examine some feet here today to see if you agree with Lord. This is our message this morning – “God’s pleasure.” But I’m going to begin with a more detailed look at the negative side before proceeding.
For example, God finds no pleasure in WICKEDNESS.
Earlier we read from Psalm 5:1-4 – “Give ear to my words, O LORD, 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 LORD; 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: neither shall evil dwell with thee. The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” “To speak leasing“ means to utter lies. And how forcible; how strong is the word “abhor” – “The LORD will abhor the bloody and deceitful man.” “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”
People sometimes make this despicable accusation against God, but sin will never be found in Jehovah. It is an impossibility – both the Father and the Son are impeccable and therefore incapable of sin. They are impeccable and unimpeachable. In contrast to them, there is man – every single member of the human race is a sinner before God. Not only does man redefine his wickedness in terms excluding sin – like abortion and homosexuality – but he also tries to redefine some of the acts of God as BEING sin – like hurricanes, disease in a baby or not taking grandma to heaven just because she was an atheist. But, “let no may say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:”
And as a rule what cannot be found in God, should not be found in us. No matter how witty or cute we make that wickedness appear…. No matter how proud we may be of it, or how grand it might be…. Not even if we think that we are doing a better good, by committing a smallesh evil…. Our sins and iniquities separate God and man; “our sins have hid his face from us.” Bonny and Clyde should not be heros, nor should Elvis Presley, Beyonce, or Tom Brady. Wickedness is wickedness, and God finds no pleasure in it – to put it very mildly. “Righteousness exalteth a nation” but Hollywood and Madison Avenue are an abomination. I would be ashamed to say that I went Las Vegas if it was for anything more than to change air planes.
You can see how man takes pleasure in wickedness by examining his pantheon of gods. The temples of Baal and Ashtoreth were houses of prostitution. The worship of Dionysus and Bacchus meant the debauchery of drunkenness. And so are some of the modern cathedrals of Christendom. After that we could talk about modern day cults like Mormonism.
But the true and living God takes no pleasure in wickedness. The price of honey is too high if you must lick it from thorns. God not only takes no pleasure in wickedness, but He strikes it down, because He is inseparable from holiness. Like the judge on his throne, the Lord will have no misbehavior in His courtroom, and He holds court in every corner of the globe. Sodom and Gomorrah were wiped up like a greasy spot on someone’s stove – because of homosexuality. Ananias and Sapphira breathed their last while standing in wickedness before Jehovah. “God looked down on the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God.” He found not one, so He drowned all but eight with a flood, and those eight were saved only by the grace of God.
The idea that God will tolerate 10% wickedness is 100% wickedness. Let me remind you of the man who was gathering sticks on the Sabbath day in Numbers 15 – dead. Permit me to remind you of the judgment on the child who cursed his father – executed. Listen to I Corinthians 6:9-10 – “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” Do we have any thieves here today? Are there any revilers? You are in the same company with homosexuals and other sinners. And you are fooling only yourself in claiming righteousness based upon your few good deeds. God takes no pleasure in any wickedness.
And speaking of fools and fooling ourselves – God finds no pleasure in that kind of person.
Listen to Ecclesiastes 5 – “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few. For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool’s voice is known by multitude of words. When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed.”
Have you ever met a man that honestly thought of himself as an out-and-out “fool”? It’s not very likely. Honest people will admit to some foolish mistakes now and then, but most non-Christians would be throughly upset if someone else called them “a fool.” And they’d never actually call themselves “fools.” Usually we keep pretty high opinions of ourselves.
But God’s opinion is different – if “opinion” is an appropriate word to use in this case. The Lord defines us as sinners, and as the fools we really are. He teaches us here in Ezekiel that the church-goer, the tither, the singer of hymns, who has no interest in hearing the Word of the Lord is a fool. And the fool is quick to justify himself, no matter what it is that he has done. “A fool’s voice is known by the multitude of his words.” The man who makes a promise to God, but who does not keep that promise, is a fool. The one who, while lying on the hospital bed prepped for surgery, pledges to serve the Lord once he gets out is a fool. He is a fool for making a promise that he might not keep. And he is certainly a fool for not keeping the promise once it is made. And yet how different that is from our deceitful, duplicitous, cheating, scheming world. It seems now that to make bargains and to renege on those promises is some kind of mark of human intelligence. It is the work of the politician and the advertising executive. And how many people are there who join a church, agreeing to the covenant of that church, but who ignore that covenant almost immediately? These and thousands more are fools in the sight of God. They are fools because they are daring God to pour down His wrath upon them.
Then there are the fools of Psalm 14:1 – “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God.” Some of these say that there is no God at all. Others simply tell God to get lost, “No, God. You can keep your opinion to yourself.” There thousands of these people in good Baptist churches even this morning. Proverbs 1:7 describes the man who despises instruction as a “fool.” He attends the house of God, and hears a pure gospel message from the Word of the Lord. His heart is under the general conviction of the Holy Spirit, but he turns up a blind eye to the Truth of God, returning to the lies of Satan. Luke 12 describes the fool who lives for today only, and not in the light of eternity. He makes no provision for his soul, never any repentance, no faith in Christ. Jehovah finds no pleasure in fools like these. Nor in the fools who make a mock of sin – Proverbs 14:9.
The Lord finds no pleasure in wickedness, because He is inseparable from holiness. And he finds no pleasure in fools, because He cannot be dissociated from absolute wisdom. My friends, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
But in apparent contrast to that, God also finds no pleasure in punishment.
Ezekiel 33:11 – “Say unto them (those fools), As I live, saith the Lord GOD, 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?” Ezekiel 18:23 – “Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?” Verse 32 – “For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.”
These verses are prone to misinterpretation by those who are prone to dying. If they aren’t read properly, they might seem to say that God weeps when the wicked die. This might be possible, if the Lord is a dutiful – but helpless – servant to the creature. If someone believes that Jehovah is striving with all His might to save people from their sins, but He can’t break through their foolishness, then this might be possible. But God does not weep over the death of the wicked. These scriptures need to be read in their immediate context and in the context of all the rest of the Word. The death which these scriptures describe is not the second death, not eternal death, not spiritual death. And the Lord doesn’t weep over those deaths either. These verses are talking about the physical judgment of God on nations and individuals. If you beget a son that a shedder of blood, then you can expect to see him executed – v.10. When you begin to worship idol gods on the top of the hill in the midst of the groves, then God will send the Assyrians and Babylonians to bring you to your graves. When your sons begin to defile their neighbor’s wives, then God will afflict them with death and disease. And he that “hath oppressed the poor and needy, hath spoiled by violence, hath not restored the pledge, and hath lifted up his eyes to the idols, hath committed abomination, Hath given forth upon usury, and hath taken increase: shall he then live? he shall not live: he hath done all these abominations; he shall surely die; his blood shall be upon him” – verses 11-12.
These terrible words need to be read in the light of some of the things in which God actually delights. Jehovah delights in righteousness, holiness and godliness. And He delights in judgment in the sense of establishment of righteousness, and the punishment of evil. The Lord is not interested in blood for blood’s sake. But when the death of that wicked soul brings about justice, then the Lord does take pleasure in that. And to prove the point, that is just what Ezekiel 33:11 is saying – “Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, 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?” If repentance of sin is found in the face of on-coming justice, that is infinitely better than blood-letting. And actually if repentance and faith in Christ are found in the heart of the wicked, then he will not be wicked any longer.
Oh, what confusion Satan has caused in the minds of men, in regard to the image of God. To one, the Lord is a wishy-washy, pussy-footing, pusillanimous philanthropist. Then to another He’s an evil-eyed, angry-hearted, man-destroying ogre. But neither of these is accurate.
God is hurt more by the effects of sin than any human being ever can be. Man has been hurting man with his sins since the days of Adam and Cain, but we cannot begin to imagine how that sin has affected the infinitely holy God. The Lord’s only-begotten Son was, in a sense, murdered by, and because of, sin. Jehovah has every right to sweep us all off the face of the planet. In smaller numbers He has done that from time to time with Korah in Numbers 16, and to the world in Noah’s day.
Yet in the face of all this, God takes no pleasure in death itself. In a sense man was never meant to die, but to live forever in fellowship with the Lord. And Hell was certainly never kindled in order to gratify God’s lust for revenge. The Lord was compelled by His own perfect justice and holiness to create that place. Furthermore the Lake of Fire was not created as an afterthought – it was not a response to sin. It was created prior to the creation of man. Hell is as necessary and justified as returning a borrowed garden tool. Yet still God takes no direct pleasure in the death which precedes that judgment.
In fact, it was pleasure of the Lord to prepare a way of escape for us wicked sinners.
It was God’s pleasure to send His “only begotten son, into world, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” It was His pleasure to make him “to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” It was Christ’s pleasure to be “wounded for our transgressions and to be bruised our iniquities” and that the “chastisement our peace be laid upon him.” It pleased Him to “bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.” Our theme word is found in Ephesians 1:5 – Listen carefully – “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” Luke 12:32 – “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Prophesying of Christ the Saviour, Isaiah 53:10 says, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.”
Among many things, God takes great pleasure in the repentance of sin by sinners like us. The righteous God takes pleasure in granting faith to trust in Christ. The Lord takes pleasure in giving eternal life to those who take pleasure in Him. The Lord delights in repentance and faith. Does He delight in your repentance and faith?