Be seated. Our text this morning can be found in the book of Amos chapter six, Amos chapter six. But before we get to that, I want to introduce this message with some other things.

In Psalm nine, verse 10, the Lord says, they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. All of us have had someone ask us, if we knew somebody, do you know so and so? And if you know them, you might say, yes, I do know them, know them very well, and you begin to tell them what you know about them. Or you might say, nope, never heard of them, don't know anything about them. Or you might say, I don't know them personally, but I heard about them, and this is what I heard, which would just be hearsay information, point being, that the name of an individual communicates things about that person. Something about their character, something about their strengths, their weaknesses, their way of life. A name carries with it images, personality traits, character traits.

And so it is with the names that the Lord has given us of himself. The Lord manifest his glory, as we saw in the previous hour. He reveals himself to us by the definitions of his name. And so they that know thy name. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed unto him against that day. I put my trust in him because I know who he is. He has manifested his grace and his glory to my heart by the revelation of his name.

Many names that the Lord gives us to show a different aspect of his character to us. Psalm 8 verse 1, the psalmist said, oh Lord, our God, how excellent is thy name in all the earth, in all the earth. When I hear his name, I know that that name is past finding out. I know that that name reveals something of my God's glory. Psalm 148 says, his name alone is excellent and exalted and his glory is above the earth and the heavens. His name speaks of things about him that cannot be fully understood, but he reveals glimpses of his glory by his name.

David said in Psalm 22, and Psalm 22 is a Psalm that is speaking of Christ on the cross. And so David is speaking prophetically of the son of David, the Lord Jesus, the son of God. And he says this, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. I will declare thy name unto my brethren. And so the Lord Jesus declares his name, the name of his father, unto his brethren.

Now, just as when we discover something new concerning our created universe, every time an honest scientist discovers a new fact, not a theory, but a fact, that new discovery opens up a hundred new questions. And so the more we learn, the more we realize we don't know. Now, if that's true concerning the creation of our God, how much more true that is concerning our God himself? Does the Lord reveal glimpses of his person, of his glory to us? They that know his name will trust him. Yes, he does. The Bible says that our God is unsearchable. We just read that he is higher than the heavens. He's past finding out. And for all of eternity, Our Lord will be manifesting more and more of his glory to us and he will remain higher than the heavens.

We have words that we use to define the things that we believe. Words like sovereignty, words like Eternal, words like holiness, words like imputation. And those words have definitions that give us a little bit of understanding. But what those words really mean is beyond our comprehension. You see, the truth is, brethren, that we don't really understand anything that we believe about our God. Now I know some men, some particular Calvinist, who you would never hear make that statement. They are proud of the knowledge that they have. They are proud of the definitions that they've attached to God. They are proud of their theological terms And they will say, well, I understand it, it's this.

Turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter eight. Now, let me preface reading these verses by telling you a little bit about Corinth. When we were building this building, I was happy to work with the political leaders of our city here, Apopka. And I made a statement to someone that Apopka was Winter Park wannabes. they make it so difficult to get anything done, and they're so unapproachable, and they put such a burden on anyone that wants to do anything that I got a little frustrated from time to time and thought of them as Winter Park wannabes.

Now, I say that in order to say that Corinth is very close to Athens. And Athens was the seat of the intelligentsia of the day. And the Athenians were extremely proud of their philosophy and their knowledge and all their Greek gods and their philosophers. We still study Greek philosophers today. The people of Corinth were Athenian wannabes. And the only thing worse than a person who is actually there is a wannabe. It's kind of like you can deal with somebody who's genuinely wealthy, but someone who is a rich person wannabe, they're the ones that are presumptuous. They're the ones that are pretentious. They're the ones that are proud.

Well, that was the people of Corinth, exactly. And they carried that spirit over into their church. And there was a lot of competition going on among the believers about their knowledge. Who knew more than the other? And they debated and competed with each other over who understood the gospel better and who could define it better. And there were some weaker brethren probably uneducated slaves, which I'm sure the local churches were made up primarily of. That the philosopher wannabes, the people who thought they had a handle on everything, treated them with disrespect. Because these uneducated people thought that eating meat that had been offered to an idol was a sin.

Now here's how it went. In that day, they would slaughter an animal, and certain parts of that animal would be offered up as a sacrifice to a Greek God, and the rest of the animal would be sold in the marketplace. And so when you bought a piece of meat, It could very well be part of an animal that had been made a sacrifice to a pagan god. And the scripture tells the believers, don't even ask if that meat, there's nothing to the meat. There's nothing to that god. Those gods are no gods at all. Don't ask if this is part of an animal that's been sacrificed to an animal, just to a god, just eat the meat.

But some of the weaker believers, some of the more uneducated ones, were very wounded in their conscience by eating meat that had been sacrificed to a false God. And the Lord tells those who knew better not to treat them harshly. As a matter of fact, he says to those who knew better, Paul said this, if eating meat offends my brother, I won't eat meat. I will give up my rights to eat meat rather than be an offense to a weaker brother.

Now that's the setting. But here's the application. Verse one of 1 Corinthians chapter eight. Now as touching things offered unto idols, We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up. There was a lot of things going on in this church at Corinth. I mean, there were people getting drunk at the Lord's table. There was a man living with his father's wife. There was believers suing one another. I mean, it was a mess. Church was a mess. And the Lord addresses each one of those things. And this was one of the messes, that those who had knowledge were treating those who were offended by eating meat as if, you know, you're just uneducated. You just don't know what I know. And so the Lord says, be careful. Knowledge puffeth up. Knowledge will make you proud. Love, on the other hand, will edify your brother, will build your brother up. Don't use your knowledge to try to be superior to someone else.

Verse two. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." We know in part. We understand in part. We have just a very small window, like that ark, Had a one, that huge arc had a one cubit window. 18 inch by 18 inch window in the top of it. It was the only place for light to come in. We have a very small window to heaven. And we come before our God as ones, Lord, I don't really understand anything I know. I'm preaching to you from my own personal experience. I don't know if it's your experience or not. But I've had to deal with these men who are puffed up. And they think they know more than they do. And they know nothing as they ought to know.

And they think that because they've attached theological terms like imputation, that they know what it means when the scripture says that God made him who knew no sin sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and they take that verse they say well Christ bore our sins in his body on the tree, and he was a sacrifice for sin. God imputed our shame and our guilt to him. And by imputation, God's justice was satisfied. And by imputation, we have been given a righteousness that's alien to us, a righteousness that's outside of ourselves. And they think that the word imputation just explains it all. It's a mystery, brother. How can God, the eternal God, the immutable God, be made flesh? How can he be made in the likeness of sinful flesh? Well, that's incarnation. Well, what does that mean? What does that mean? How can God be made sin? Well, it wasn't really made sin, it was just imputation. Well, what does that mean? How can God die? You see, the point is, we don't really understand anything that we believe about our God.

But here's the good news, brethren. The Lord didn't make salvation dependent upon understanding. He made it dependent upon faith. And the nature of faith is this. The nature of faith is this. We believe because God said so. Not because we've proven it by our understanding. Not because we've attached some theological terms to it. Not because we boast in thinking that we know more than our uneducated brethren. Not because we're We're reformed and educated and we've got all these theological terms and we can describe things. No, we walk by faith. We believe what we believe because God said so. And we willingly and readily confess that we don't really understand anything that we believe. And the understanding that we have came from God. And we grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We have just a little bit of understanding. And as the Lord reveals more and more of himself to us, We come to see him larger and larger and larger, but the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. That is the mystery of God. That is the unsearchable.

Romans chapter 11, turn to me there. Verse 33, Romans chapter 11, verse 33. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways are past finding out. That's pretty clear, isn't it? How unsearchable. That's why Paul said, the peace of God is better than understanding. Peace of God is better than understanding.

The peace of God doesn't come. You see, we become disquieted. We become uncomfortable. We become anxious. We become unbelieving when we can't understand something. Let us Let us bow and just believe God. Believe that God is in the heavens and we are upon the earth and he hath done whatsoever he wills. He's unsearchable.

Verse 34, for who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been his counselor? We're gonna tell God what to do. Or who hath first given unto him that it should be recompensed unto him again? What am I gonna do to obligate God to bless me? God doesn't need anything from me. I need everything from him. I can't give to God something that would obligate him to save me or to bless me.

For of Him, He's the source of all things, of Him, and through Him, He is the one who exercises all things. And to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Everything came from Him, everything is done by Him, and everything is to Him, and He is all the glory. And here we are, here we are with our pea brains trying to understand the Almighty.

Lord, show me a glimpse of your glory. Turn me to 2 Peter chapter one, 2 Peter chapter one. Verse three, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. The little bit of knowledge we have of Him, He gave to us, whereby are given unto us great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature."

What does that mean? I've heard men debate that. Partakers of the divine nature? What does that mean? Well, Christ in you is your hope of glory. God made him who knew no sin to be made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him, that I might be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness, which comes by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be in Christ, to have Christ in me. I believe that. But what does that mean? How do I explain that? I can't. I can't explain it. But those who are puffed up with knowledge think, well, I can attach a theological word to that and that explains it. No, it doesn't. It just makes you sound smart. It doesn't explain it at all. And the fact that you think that you know anything means that you don't know anything as you ought.

Psalm 139, don't look it up, verse six, David said this, such, he's describing the nature of God. And he concludes with this, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. I cannot attain unto it. Our God is past finding out. Our God is unsearchable. And yet he's pleased to reveal the only, by the way, the only other Psalm 139 verse six, wonderful, the word wonderful, such knowledge is too wonderful for me.

If you remember in the book of Judges, Samson, you remember Samson, the strong man? His father's name was Manoah. And the angel of the Lord, who was the pre-incarnate Christ, came and appeared unto Manoah's wife. And we don't even know her name. She's talked about several times in that passage, but she's always called Manoah's wife. That's us, isn't it? We're the bride of Christ. We're not known by our name, we're known by His name.

But the angel of the Lord tells Manoah's wife that she's gonna bear a child, and that that child is, is going to be a prophet of God. He's going to be one of God's judges. And so she runs to Manoah and tells Manoah. And Manoah prays and asks the Lord to reveal himself again so that Manoah can see what his wife saw. And so the angel of the Lord comes again. The Lord comes again. And Manoah says this, what is thy name? What is thy name? And the Lord Jesus says to Manoah, why askest thou me my name? For it is secret. It's secret. No man can know it. Too wonderful for me. unsearchable, past finding out.

This is the God that we worship. There is no other God to worship. A God that can be understood, a God that can be controlled, a God that can be obligated, a God that can be manipulated, that's no God at all. That's a God of our own imagination. This is the God who is, who is.

Turn with me to Psalm 65, verse 1. Psalm 65, verse 1. Praise waiteth for thee. Now, in the margin of my Bible, the word waiteth is translated remains silent. In other words, I cannot praise God until he does a work of grace in my heart. I must remain silent in the presence of God until he speaks to me. But if he's spoken to me, and he's put in my heart a desire to worship him, to honor him, to glorify him, then I'm able to praise, but only because he gave me that ability. Praise is silent, waiting for God to do something for me. I cannot praise God. I cannot worship God until he bids me into his presence.

Peter said this, Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Bid me to come unto thee. And the Lord said, come. Here's the spirit of worship, brethren. Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Lord, reveal something of your grace and your glory to my heart and cause me to flee to thee, to come before the throne of grace and worship. And when he does, he does it by his name. They that know thy name will trust thee. They will trust thee. And the more he reveals of himself, the more unsearchable he becomes. The more we know, the more we realize we don't know. And as we grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ, our God gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And he is infinitely larger than we can possibly imagine. Possibly imagine. That's where our God is.

I ask you to open your Bibles to the book of Amos. I hope you still have a mark there, maybe your finger there. In Amos chapter five, verse 27. Therefore, will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus, saith the Lord, whose name is The God of Hosts. The God of Hosts. It's interesting to me that when you read of the names of God that men point us to in the Bible, Names like Jehovah Sidkenu, we sing that hymn oftentimes, the Lord our righteousness, that's one of his names. Or Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide, that's one of his names. Or Jehovah Nisi, the Lord is my banner, that's his, And each one of these names reflects a different aspect of his nature and of his character. And yet, they're just little bits and pieces, aren't they, of who he is.

But most of the men that I've read about the names of God in the Bible limit it to seven. There's seven of these Jehovahs. Actually, there's nine. And the interesting thing is that Jehovah Siba, the Lord of Hosts, is the one most often mentioned in the Old Testament, many, many more times than all the other names. And the word host, means an army. It means warfare. It means a battle. The Lord of Hosts identifies our Lord as the commander and chief of his army.

Joshua chapter 5 term me there. Joshua. Excuse me. Joshua chapter five. Look at me, verse 13. Joshua has brought the children of Israel across the Jordan, and they are at the city of Jericho. And the Lord is going to, the Lord says to Joshua, the battle is not yours, it's the Lord's. He is the Lord of hosts. He is Jehovah Seba. He is the one who's gonna fight the battle for you.

And in verse 13 of Joshua chapter five, and it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho. Now you remember, you know the story of Jericho. They didn't lift up, they just marched around the city and God brought the walls down to the city of Jericho. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries? And he said, the man said, nay, but as the captain of the host of the Lord, I am now come.

As Jehovah Seba, as the Lord of host, this is a pre-incarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can you be so sure of that? Because God will not allow a man to worship an angel. You remember in Revelation when John fell down at the feet of the angel and the angel lifted him up and said, don't worship me, I'm a fellow servant just like you, worship the Lamb.

And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoes from off thy foot, for the place wherein thou standest is holy. And Joshua did so." He did what Moses did at the burning bush. The ground on which you stand is holy ground. Take your shoes off your feet. Expose yourself as having feet of clay. Expose yourself as a creature in the presence of the creator.

I am the Lord of hosts. I am the one who will fight your battle for you. which is exactly what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter 40, when the Lord told him to speak a word of comfort to the people of God. Isaiah said, the Lord said to the prophet Isaiah, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord, speak ye comfortably unto Jerusalem and tell her that her warfare is accomplished and that her iniquity has been put away and that she has received of the Lord's hand double for her sin. Tell her that.

And then Joshua and then Isaiah said, but Lord, where do I begin this message? And the Lord said, tell them that they are grass. Tell them that they are completely dependent upon me. Tell them that they are nothing in this thing of salvation. Tell them that the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Siba, the God who leads his army into battle, will fight the battle for them.

One time the Lord Jesus appeared after this and slayed 185,000 of the enemies of Israel by himself. By himself.

Now here's the point of the message, brethren. Our God has passed finally now. Our God is infinite. Our God is glorious. Our God is worthy. of our worship, which he must give us if we're to worship him. But he's given us a window into who he is. If you know my name, you'll trust me. If you know my name, here's my name, the Lord of Hosts. That's who I am. I'm gonna fight the battle for you. I'm gonna go to the cross and I'm gonna do for you at the cross what you could never do for yourself. I'm gonna fulfill the law. I'm gonna satisfy all the demands of God's holy law in my perfect obedience to my heavenly father. And then I'm gonna suffer the full wrath and justice of God Almighty in order to put away your violation of the law. I'm your commander. I'm the Lord of hosts. I'm the one that will save you.

I say, Lord, whatever all that name means. I love it. I love it. You know, I've, uh, I spent a little time in the military, grew up in the military, then I spent a little time in the military myself. And, uh, there's a lot of flaws in the military. A lot. There's only one reason the military works. It's not because everybody's qualified and everybody knows what they're doing and all the plans are perfect. No, it's a mess, just like the church. There's one reason it works, the chain of command. That's the only reason the military works. The commander in chief, the president of the United States gives an order, passes it down to the chiefs of the heads of each of the of the military branches and that gets passed down right down to the guys like me. And what you're told to do, you do it without any question. You know, in the military we say there's a right way, there's a wrong way, there's a military way. You do the military way because that's the chain of command and the one thing you don't do in the military is ever violate the chain of command. And it's the only reason it works. It's the only thing that keeps it order.

We have a commander-in-chief. We have a chain of command. And our churches are just like the military. Our plans don't always work. We got a lot of issues and problems and failed. But we have a word from our God. And when he speaks, we say amen. We bow. We, Lord, whatever you say, we know it's right. And with God, it's not there's a right way and a wrong way and there's God's way. There's a wrong way and there's a wrong way and then there's God's way. And we rejoice. We rejoice. that our God has revealed himself to us as the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of Hosts.

If you know my name, you'll trust me. And we're gonna see the Lord of Hosts coming in all of his glory one day. Turn with me to Revelation chapter 19, and we'll close with this, Revelation chapter 19. Look at verse 11.

And I saw heaven opened and behold, a white horse. And he that sat upon him was called faithful and true. He was faithful to his father. He's faithful to his church. And everything about him is truth. He is the Lord of hosts. And in righteousness, in righteousness, he doth judge and make war. He made war against death. He made war against sin. He made war against Satan. And just like us with Joshua standing before Jericho, we can't bring those walls down. We can't bring them down, but he can. He can bring them down. And the trumpet of his word will bring down those walls. He's the Lord of hosts.

His eyes were his flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. And he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. Why asketh thou me my name? For it is secret. These things are too wonderful for me. He's past finding out. He's unsearchable, who has plumbed the depths of his glory. But what we know about him, we know is true. And as we bow to the one who has revealed himself as the Lord of hosts, he shows us more and more. of His grace and glory, for He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him, and upon white horses clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, and with it He should smite the nations. With a rod of iron, he treaded the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God Almighty. And he tread the winepress.

That's why he came out, as Isaiah said, who is this that come out of Basra, whose vestures are soaked in blood? I am the one who treaded the winepress of the wrath of God alone, alone. He did it all by himself at Calvary's cross. He is the Lord of hosts. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, Jehovah Siba. king of kings, lord of lords, the commander of his army.

And unlike we are able to say, Vietnam was such a shameful experience for America because Every time we'd ever gone to war before that, we came back victorious. Hadn't won a war since. I say that in order to say, he never went to a battle he didn't win. Not once. The war he wages, he's always the victor. Always. He always conquers his enemy.

Jehovah Siba, the Lord of Hosts, they that know my name will trust me. Trust me.

Our Heavenly Father, thank you for the revelation that you've given us of thyself. Lord, Give us faith to believe what you've spoken and to rest, to rest at the feet of our commander, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen.

Adam 53 on the hardback timber. Let's stand.