I was blessed in Brother Al's
word that he shared with us there. One of the things specifically
was that he pointed out that the proving of the Lord's people,
when the Lord said that He would prove them, now a lot of people
think and they look at these things when the Lord gave the
law to prove the people of God, They think that, well, the Lord
gave them this law to find out what they would do. Just like
a lot of people think that's what happened in the garden.
You know, they say, well, the Lord created Adam, and then he
just kind of sat back and waited to see what was going to happen.
Well, when he created Adam, he knew what was going to happen,
did he not? I mean, he said to Adam, in the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. He didn't say, Adam, if you eat
this, you're going to die. He said this is what's going
to happen. And it did happen. Now it didn't happen outside
of the realm of God's purpose. And if people have a problem
with that, that's their problem. Because God is God and He can't
be questioned in anything. And I know men raise all sorts
of arguments against that line of thought. But it's the same
thing when the Lord gave the law to Israel Did he give the
law to Israel thinking that they were going to keep the law? No, he gave the law to Israel
to show them that they could not keep the law. He proved that
to them. He proved it. They didn't believe
it because just like Brother Al said, when the Lord gave the
law, they said, yes, sir, we're going to keep it. Buddy, we're
going to get this, all these blessings, it's going to come
down. The Lord said, well, I'm going to prove you. And what
he did was he proved to them that they would not keep it.
They did not keep it. And that's what the law does
in the present time. The law is a schoolmaster. And
of course, what the schoolmaster was was somebody who made sure
that the students made it to the classroom. That was what
the servant who was the schoolmaster, that was his job, was to see
that boys didn't play hooky, that they made it. to the lesson. That's what the law is. It's
a schoolmaster. It beats on us and it convinces
us of sin. It shows us what we are by nature
to bring us to Christ. Thank God for the law. You know,
some accuse us of being against the law. We're not against the
law. We just see the law for what
it is. And we'll understand what men are by nature. And when you
take the law as it is, and man as he is, and you put those two
together, you can be sure that men are not going to keep the
law. That's just a fact. I don't care how many times you
paste it up on the wall, or you put it in a monument, or you
tell people what the law is. I've been reading, I've got a
fellow that sends me, or doesn't send it to me specifically, but
he sends out an email, and he's been going through all of the
commandments of the law. And I read them. And I cringe
every time I read them, through them, because I see how far from
Christ I am by nature. how far from being what the Lord
would have me to be. But that's the purpose of the
law. And when we understand what the purpose of the law is, there's
nothing wrong with setting the law forth if our purpose in setting
the law forth is to show men the way to Christ. Because that's
what the law is given for, to bring us there, that we might
be taught of Him. Now we're looking in Psalm 115, Psalm 115 says, Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy
mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
then say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone
that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
The Lord hath been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will
bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
You're blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth. The heaven,
even the heavens are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to
the children of men. The dead praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence, but we will bless the
Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. Now this is a psalm that's purely
about the praise of God. and the Lord Jesus Christ. Not unto us. I mean, we don't
come together, hopefully, for any reason that would be of glory
to us. I mean, we don't come down here
to make our name known, but we come here that we might lift
up the name of Christ, that we might magnify Him, not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. That's what
we desire. See, by the grace of God, when
a man is moved to love the Word of God and to love the Lord Himself,
that's what he desires, is that the Lord have the glory, not
himself. for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake." Because that is indeed those predominant features that
we would declare in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now it is a
true thing, as he will say here in just a moment, that God's
will shall be done in the earth. He is a judgmental God and he
will judge the earth with truth and righteousness. That is a
surety. He is a consuming fire. That
is an absolute fact. But you see, when we are sent
into the world to declare the good news of the gospel, it is
about the mercy of the Lord. It's about the truth of God. That's what we're sent to. The
law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And so we're sent into the world
not as messengers of the judgment of God. Now the Spirit of God
will convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
And in the preaching of the gospel, He's pleased often to cause that
to come to pass. But that's not our function.
That's not what we're sent to do. What we're sent to do is
proclaim the glory of God in the redemptive work which He's
performed in Jesus Christ. That's what we're sent to do.
That's what we're to declare unto the nations. And that's
a good message. I mean, it's a good message to
sinners, is it not? Now, the righteous man, he doesn't
care for it at all because it doesn't give him anything glory
in. But a sinner, you see, like Joseph Hart wrote, a sinner is
a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
I mean, because the work of the Spirit of God is to cause a man
not to become a sinner, but to see himself as a sinner. And
so in that fashion, he does reveal that men are sinners. For Thy
mercy and Thy truth's sake, wherefore should the heathen say, Where
is now their God? Why should they say that? I mean,
how foolish is that? And David says, he answers it.
He said, Why should they say, Where is our God? Our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Now that really ought to be the
end of the argument, should it not? as to whether or not God
is the predestinator and ordainer of all things that come to pass.
I mean, how can anybody deny that to be true and read that
passage of Scripture? But our God is in the heavens.
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He created the world
for His pleasure. And He will do with it as He
sees fit. And not one thing will occur
in the earth that is not according to the good pleasure of His will.
Now again, the only people that have a problem with that is the
people that would be rebels against the Lord. I'm glad that He does
according to His will an army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. Are you not? I mean, do we not rejoice that
our God is in the heavens? He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Where is their God? David said. Can they say that? I mean, do the worshippers of
false gods, do they have a God like that? Do those who say that
men can be saved according to the actions of their own free
will, do they have a God like that? No, this is the God of
the Bible that we're talking about. This is God who appeared
to Moses and He said, I am. That was descriptive enough.
I am that I am. The self-existent one. The one
who needs nobody. He needs nothing. He's perfect
and complete. See, a lot of people, they think
that God needs things. He needs for men to do things.
And He needed men. He needed to create men. God
didn't need to create anything. He's the self-existent one. He's
in the heavens. He inhabiteth eternity. You see,
that is the separation between men and God. That's why no man
hath seen God at any time. No man can approach unto God.
Why? Because He dwells in the light to which no man can approach. What is that light? It is the
light of eternity. It is that which surrounds Him
that cannot be entered into by men. We can't lift ourselves
up into that realm. Our God's in the heavens. Now
the glorious thing, you see, and what we come here today to
remember is that though our God is in the heavens, needing nothing
or anyone, having no lack, yet in His mercy and kindness, He
has come down and visited men. Now that's an amazing thing.
Is it not? I mean, just think. Now, if you
have the notion that God ought to do stuff, or that He should
do this, or He should do that, it wouldn't be right if He didn't
do this, or it wouldn't be right if He didn't do that. If you've
got that kind of a notion, then you're not talking about this
God here. Because our God's in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever
He hath pleased. And the fact that such a one
as that would be pleased to come down and redeem rebel sinners
who hate His very Word. That's an incredible thing. I
mean, who could devise such a thing? See, men don't think like that,
do they? No, when somebody cuts you off in traffic, you want
judgment to fall on them right then. I mean, you know, you're
not geared up to show mercy. Only as the Lord reminds you
that you're a recipient of mercy will you ever show mercy. I mean,
it's not in your DNA to show mercy. That's just not the way
we're built. We show the work of the Lord
written in our hearts. An eye for an eye and a tooth
for a tooth. That's what we believe, don't we? I mean, everybody believes
that. Every kid that's born into the
world comes into the world believing in that. They believe justice
ought to be done. They know what's fair. If you
ever had more than one child, you know you've heard these words. Well, that's not fair. Now where
did they learn that? How did they learn what was fair?
It's written in their heart. The work of the law. Justice. That's the way men think. Not
mercy. David said, there's forgiveness
with thee, that thou mayest be feared. Now, in some ways, men
have a hard time grasping that, but if you understand that we're
talking about this God here, the fact that He would show mercy,
See, I mean, if He's some little pipsqueak God that's hoping people
will do right, you could kind of understand why He would show
mercy to try to get some folks to follow Him. I mean, that's
kind of the way that the Gospels preach today, is they tell folks
all about what the Lord has done in hopes. They think, well, the
Lord, if I go around and I show how good I am, maybe I can get
some people to follow. No, our God's in the heavens.
He's done whatsoever He pleases. But our God is a God of mercy
and kindness. Totally in contrast to the way
we are. There is forgiveness with Thee
that Thou mayest be feared. That's an amazing thing. Oh Lord,
how can it be that Thou should stoop to redeem sinners such
as myself? Oh, what a wondrous God He is. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Remember Dagon? Every time I read this passage
of Scripture, I think it was written in remembering Dagon. I think David probably remembered
Dagon. You remember when the Ark of
the Covenant was... when Eli was... or in the days
of Eli, and the Ark of the Covenant went over to the Philistine.
And the glory departed from the house of Israel. And they brought the Ark of the Covenant
that Philistines did into the house of their God, Dagon. They
figured, well, you know, this is a place where our God dwells,
so we'll bring the Hebrew God in here and we'll let them be
buddies. Well, they went in there the
next morning and old Dagon was laying on the floor. The image,
the statue of Dagon, he was laid out there on the floor. They
said, hmm, this doesn't seem right. I wonder what happened.
And they sent him back up there. And they came back in the next
day, and he was back there on the floor, but this time his
legs and his arms and his head was cut off. Our God's in the heavens. They're
gods. Or what he says, they're silver
and gold, the work of men's hands. You see, men are in the business
of God-making. Every man will come forth in
his own mind and he has a notion of how God is. And every time,
God is somebody that's going to benefit him. Isn't that correct? I mean, isn't that the God that
men think of? Oh, Lord, help me. Well, why
should the Lord help you? You know, men cry out to the
Lord for help, but they don't ever say, well, Lord, you ought
not to help me, you ought to just kill me. See, only the Spirit
of God can teach a man that. Their gods, or some of the work
of men's hands, they have mouths, but they speak not. They don't
have an eternal word to leave to men. We don't have time to
go through all the various gods. I had read a book one time, and
this guy, it was the book of gods, was what the book was,
and he made an attempt to go through and name every false
god, or every god. He actually had Jehovah in there,
and I'll tell you what he said, I probably have shared that with
you before. But he named off all these gods,
and he had their characteristics and all of this stuff, And I
don't know if he got them all or not, probably not, because
every time somebody's born, they're making another one, you know.
But anyway, when he got to Jehovah, he said, this God is totally
unlike all of the other gods in this book. So much so that
he probably ought not to even be named here among them. And
he was right. And that's exactly what David's
saying here in this psalm. They have eyes. They have noses. They have all these things. I
mean, Dagon, he was probably carved out. He was probably a
pretty good looking fella. I mean, if you went in there
and saw that statue, you'd probably say, man, this is nice. And see,
people have their religions today, and they make them nice. And
people go to them, and they say, well, you know, that's nice.
I enjoy that. I'm going to go back. And I'm
going to enjoy that. Because I like all the ambiance,
and I like all the things, you know, that go on. And it's nice. They have noses, they have eyes,
they have throats, but they don't speak through them. Because see, they have no power.
Because the power is not in all of the things that men design
and come up with or improve. No, it's not so much that men
And those who are taught from the Bible and stuff, it's not
so much that they want to go out and carve out a God out of
wood or stone or something like that. No, they wouldn't ever
do that. But they want to help God out. They want to improve
on things to make it more acceptable to me. Cut it back a little bit. Don't talk so much about God
being an absolute. Don't mention predestination.
Don't talk about these things. Talk about the things that appeal
to me and more. We're not sent into the world
to appeal. We're sent into the world to declare. And the one
we're to declare is the God of the Bible who sits in the heavens
and He's done whatsoever He has pleased. And when we start there,
he doesn't need any improvement. He doesn't need a thing in the
world that you can do. Now that's just disconcerting,
is it not? I mean, to the religious man
that's wanting to do something for God, which all religious
men do, I mean, that's just really down-heartening, is it not? And
a religious man doesn't want to listen to that. He doesn't
want to hear that. He wants to know what he can
do. He does not want to know what God has done. But you see,
that is what we are talking about. That is what David is speaking
about here. As our God is in the heavens,
He has done it. All of these other gods, they
are true enough and real enough to those that make them, but
they are not the true God. And what does he say here? They
that make them are like unto them, and they And so is everyone
that trusteth in them. They're nothing. A man that trusts
and follows God has nothing. Our God's in the heavens. Oh
Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
Oh house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their
help and their shield. He speaks to Israel, to the house
of Aaron, and those that fear the Lord. We know that Israel
is typical of the people of God, the chosen people of God. But
Aaron, what's Aaron? Aaron was the Aaronic, the priesthood. But even the Lord says, oh well,
house of Aaron. You who have every reason to
trust in your ministrations and your offerings and all of these
things. He said, trust thou in the Lord. It's not about all
these things that you have. Oh Israel, trust in the Lord
because He's brought thee out. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
the Lord. See, even those whom the Lord
has caused to fear Him need the exhortations of the Word of God,
do we not? I mean, we would say, by and
large, I think, that we would be a people who fear the Lord. We hope that we are. But do we
not need the constant exhortations of the Word of God to teach us
to fear the Lord? Because, see, we don't naturally
fear the Lord. We're naturally moving away.
from the Lord. And that's what's so ridiculous
about these, getting off into the natural realm here for just
a moment, about all these natural ideas that men have of ways to
improve society and make everything work good, is they leave off
the most important thing that causes none of these things to
work, and that is the natural depravity of man. Oh, wouldn't
it be nice if we all just cared so much about one another? You know, if we had some money,
and this guy over here, he didn't have any money, and we just gave
him money, and if he didn't want to work, we said, that's okay,
you know, we'll just give you some money, we'll go to work,
because we like to work. And wouldn't it be nice to just
live like that? The only problem with that is
that it won't ever work. for the same reason that the
Lord proved to the nation of Israel by the law that they would
not keep it. Such things as that is not the
way men are. I'm lazy by nature. And if it
was in a society that did like that, I'd be one of the ones
that didn't want to work. And so it is. Fear the Lord.
Trust the Lord. We need the Lord. even though
we know we need the Lord. We need somebody to tell us that
we need the Lord. Do we not? I do. You know, I'm
thankful for the exhortations of the Word of God. The Lord
has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless
the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
He will. Now He didn't say He might. He
will. See, the blessings of God are
yea and amen. They are without any equivocation. When the Lord determines to bless
somebody, He doesn't say, you know, I want to bless these people,
but I just can't. I'd like to pour out my blessings,
but I can't. Because here they're not doing
what I want to do. And so He's sitting back and
He's just ready to do something, but He just can't because people
won't let Him. Well, what kind of a God is that?
Our God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has
pleased. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the
house of Aaron. He will bless them that fear
Him, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more
and more, you and your children. He'll do it. You're blessed of the Lord which
made heaven and earth. What a glorious thing. Are we
not reminded of that when we come to this table? We are blessed
of the Lord. See, everybody can't come to
this table with the same understanding of what the Lord did and the
rejoicing in their heart that Jesus Christ has paid their sin
debt. But we're blessed. We can come
there. The heaven, even the heavens
are the Lord's. You're blessed of the Lord which
made heaven and earth. Even the heavens are the Lord's,
but the earth hath He given to the children of men. Now there
again, there's that separation that I'm talking about. You see,
we're creatures of the earth. We're made from the earth. The
Lord made us of the dust. We're not going to flit around
as some ethereal being. What's the purpose of the resurrection? The purpose of the resurrection
is to raise us from the dead. That's the hope of the resurrection,
is that we won't be left in the ground. That He'll raise our
bodies. Because that's what we are. That's
what He made us to be. What we'll always be. We can't
be anything else. Now the Scripture says that we
will be given a spiritual body. Now that doesn't mean that we
will be spirits, it just simply means that the body that we will
be given in the day of the resurrection is not this corruptible flesh
here. But it's that which is made immortal.
It's that which is infused with the power of God according to
His purpose for men. See, we are perfectly, be perfect
men by the grace of God. But the earth has to be given
to the children of men. This is the place we dwell. And
He's going to make what? A new heavens and a new earth.
Now I can't explain all of that. I don't have all the answers
of how that's going to be. But that's what the Scripture
indicates. That a new heaven and a new earth. Wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Isn't that where you would want
to be? What a glorious thing. To dwell in an earth that's full
of righteousness. The dead praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence. Now this has a twofold
meaning. Number one, now is the time to
praise the Lord, because once you are in the casket, you won't
be praising the Lord in your body. You're going to cease,
your praises are going to end when your body is put in the
ground. Now that's not our final dwelling
place, nor do we expect that we shall not be risen from the
dead in the day of the resurrection, but the dead, the place of the
dead is not the place of praise. It's now. Now's the day of salvation. Let's rejoice in the present
time. That's why He gave us this. You see, those dear departed
loved ones that we have dwelt with in times past and have communed
with us, we can't commune with them anymore in this realm. But we can commune together now. And we can praise the Lord in
receiving these things. Neither any that go down into
solace. The dead praise not the Lord.
Now the second thing is this, that it has reference to the
fact that if a man is spiritually dead, he cannot praise the Lord. Now we exhort all men everywhere
to praise the Lord, but we know this, the only people who will
praise the Lord are those whom the Lord is pleased to give life.
caused to be born again by the Spirit of God. And they shall
desire to praise Him. But we... See, He said the dead
praise not the Lord. We're not the dead. See, we're
the living. Why seek ye the dead among the
living? See, we're the living. But we will bless the Lord from
this time forth and forevermore. The Lord designed us to be men
and women who praise Him forever. And He has enabled us to do so.
And He will cause us to do so in the day of the resurrection. Which as we look at this, we're
reminded of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He died for
us. But dear brethren, as Paul said,
to remember the Lord's death, Not forever, but till He comes. He's coming back. And if He's
coming back, what's He coming to do? To get His purchased possession. That which He bled for. That
which He poured out His life's blood. You see, the gods of men,
they cannot speak through their throat, but the Lord of glory
He speaks not only through His throat, but through the cross
of Calvary. And He brings forth a sweet message
unto His people. And just like He said to those
weary disciples when they had toiled all the night, fishing, hadn't caught anything, And he said to them as they came
to the shore with a net full of fish that they couldn't even
drag, he said, come and dine. Because he'd already prepared
a feast for them. That's what he did then. He's prepared a
feast. He said, come and dine, gentlemen.
This belongs to you. As often as you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you do show or manifest the Lord's death
till he comes again.