I was putting this message together
and I just thought, I just got lost in this marvelous thought
of how magnificent our God is. How magnificent He is. Who is God? Who is God? Well, The only thing
we know about our God is that which he tells us and chooses
to reveal to us about himself. And that's only in the scriptures. Our opinions don't matter. Who we think he is doesn't matter,
because it's usually not who he really is. Have you ever heard
people say, I've decided I'm going to follow
Christ. I've decided I'm going to do
that. I'm going to give God a gift and it's me. No, it doesn't work that way,
does it? Does fire decide to burn? Does rain decide to fall? Does
a baby decide to be born? Does an earthquake decide to
tremble the earth? No. It all happens according
to God's wise decree, doesn't it? And our God is a sovereign
God. And we're going to look at some
scriptures today that tell us about who he is. and we're going to let the Scriptures
speak about who our God is. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 66. Often it's beneficial to examine
the circumstances under which certain portions of Scriptures
were penned. Such circumstances shed light
upon the Scriptures And we see in the teaching of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the apostles that they seldom labored
much on the circumstances of the passage. They often quoted
the Old Testament because that's all they had. They preached Christ from the
Old Testament. Christ preached himself from
the Old Testament. That's what they did. Paul, on
his missionary journeys, preached Christ from the scriptures, the
Old Testament. So in Isaiah chapter 66 here,
let's read verses one to six and see what God says about himself. And again, the title of the message
is Our Magnificent God. I hope we can leave here as a
people of God rejoicing in our magnificent God. That's my prayer,
is that God the Holy Spirit would take these words and use them
to build you up in Christ, comfort you, give you joy and peace.
It's only He can do, right? This world's full of sorrow.
Let's contemplate our magnificent God. Thus saith Jehovah, the
Lord, the heaven is my throne. in the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you build
unto me? And where is the place of my
rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is of a poor and
of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. He that killeth an
ox is as if he slew a man. He that sacrifices a lamb as
if he cut off a dog's neck, he that offereth an oblation, as
if he offered swine's blood, he that burneth incense, as if
he blessed an idol, yea, they have chosen their own ways, and
their soul delighteth in their abominations. And he's speaking
here of idol worship, worshiping false idols, the works of man's
hands, as opposed to worshiping the one true living God. I also will choose their delusions,
and will bring their fears upon them, because when I called,
none did answer. When I spake, they did not hear,
but they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that in which
I delighted not. Hear the word of the Lord, ye
that tremble at his word. Your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for my name's sake, said, let the Lord be glorified,
but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed. A
voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice
of the Lord that renders recompense to his enemies. Our Lord Jesus Christ sent his
preachers to do one thing, to preach Christ and him crucified. I was talking to a fellow yesterday,
and he said, well, I think, and he was talking about what
he thought church was for, and I said, it doesn't matter what
we think. Whoa, what? It doesn't matter what we think. Church is where God's people
are fed through the preaching of the gospel, where God's people
are comforted through the preaching of the gospel, where God's people
are admonished through the preaching of the gospel, where God's people
are counseled through the preaching of the gospel, where God's people
are uplifted through the preaching of the gospel. That's why Paul
said, for Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the
gospel. Not with wisdom of words, not
fancy words. He could have used fancy words.
Paul, I believe, was a genius. Could have used fancy words.
He said, no, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ
should be made of none effect. Who did he preach? He preached
Christ and him crucified. Who sent Christ? Well, the Father
sent Christ, didn't he? And look at here in Isaiah chapter
66, verse one. He's revealing a little bit of
himself to us here. And that's what he does through
the scripture. See, the only things we know about God is what
he reveals to us. And that's just a little wee
bit, isn't it? Think. Think of how before the Lord
saved us, we had no care for the things of God. No care at
all. Think of what you know now by
the grace and mercy of God. Think about what he's taught
you. Think of how he's taught us how wondrous he is, how he's
the one true living God, how he sent his son into this world
to accomplish salvation, to save his people from their sins, and
he did it. You see, God the Son had an assignment. He had a mission, didn't he?
He's the captain of the Lord's host. He had a mission, and that
mission is to save his people from their sins, and he did it. He did it. It's all done. My oh my. But let's look now
at who God is through this scripture. Look at just verse one. Thus
saith the Lord, thus saith Jehovah, the heaven is my throne. Now, the scripture declares that the
heavens cannot contain our great God. So the heaven is my throne
and the earth is my footstool. This is the self-existent one
getting our attention. And then he says, Where is the
house that you build unto me? Where is the place of my rest?
See, our homes are places where we can go and rest. But they're
material things, aren't they? They're material things. And
we can go there and rest. Our Lord's throne is heaven.
Now, I want us to think about something. Do you know that we're
just a little speck? Our galaxy is just a little speck.
They find it out with these new telescopes. They're going out,
and out, and out, and out, and out. And they're finding out
that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is just a speck. Just a speck. And they went out,
and out, and out. And they said, we can't go any
further. There's more, but we can't go any further. The heavens are his throne. Our God is majestic. Our God
is great. Our God is incomprehensible to
the human mind except by revelation. And even then, we start to fizz
out when we start to think about our great God, don't we? Our brains are quickly overwhelmed
when we're thinking about our great God. And he says here,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. The self-existent one, Jehovah,
has our attention turned to him through this verse. Notice the
magnificence of our great God. Notice the grandeur of who he
is. The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Beloved, he abides high in the
heavens. And remember, Christ is sent
from glory. He's sent from heaven to this
little insignificant speck. Now this world's huge to you
and I. It's gigantic to you and I, isn't it? And do you know
that in reality, we're just, when you look in space, all you
can see is the land. You can zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom,
zoom, zoom, and then you start seeing a few buildings, zoom, zoom,
zoom, zoom, start seeing a few cars, zoom, zoom, zoom, start
seeing a few people. The heavens can't contain our
God, beloved. Cannot contain him. That's who
the God of the Bible is. Do you see how foolish it is
when people say, well, I've decided to follow Jesus now. Like I said,
I'm going to give myself to him now. And their God says, well,
I've been chasing you for 20 years, and I finally caught you. Not our God. Not the God of the
Bible. He's not chasing no one, is he?
He's having mercy upon whom he would have mercy. And He, with loving cords, draws
us. Can you put your hands up and
say, stop clouds, stop rain, and stop lightning? Can we do
anything like that? The Lord can have it stop like
that. How do we know? Remember the Lord and the boat? That huge storm? Behold, even
the wind and the waves obey Him. He said, peace, be still, and
it was like glass. And that's just a little manifestation
of his power, beloved, of his majesty. This is our great God. He abides
in the heavens. He abides far above us. And think
of that, far above all the troubles in this world, our Lord abides. We can get caught up in the troubles
in this world, can't we? He's so far above them. That's why Paul tells us to keep
our minds upon him. To set our minds upon Christ.
Because he's in glory, beloved. And notice how magnificent our
God is. The heavens is throne and the earth is his footstool.
A footstool. Note the contrast between us
and God. He dwells in the heavens and
we dwell on his footstool. You ever think of that? I was marveling as I was putting
this together. We dwell on his footstool. And he dwells in the heavens.
And man thinks that they're in control of what God does. God saves whom he will. And this
is what makes it magnificent for us. He saved us. He saved us. All according to
his mercy and his grace. See, God, again, you've heard
me say many times, God's no one to be trifled with. He's not.
You know, we're just a little atom compared to all his creation. And yet he loves us. and his
love has been set upon us from eternity for his people. The earth is his footstool. What a contrast between God and
man. You know, we can never preach
God high enough, and we can never preach man low enough. But I'm
going to try, every time we get in this pulpit, I'm going to
try to preach us way down there, and God, way up there. Because
that's his rightful place, isn't it? We see here, that's his rightful
place. My, we humans are a proud bunch,
aren't we? But he humbles the proud, doesn't
he? Look at verse two. For all these things are mine,
mine hands have made, and all those things have been, saith
the Lord. But to this man where I look, even to him that is of
a poor and a contrite spirit that trembled without my word.
We do that now, don't we? By being born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. There was a time when we didn't tremble at his
word. We didn't even tremble at God, did we? We do now. But it's a reverent
fear. It's a reverent awe, isn't it?
He's my savior, my king, my redeemer, my all in all. What a savior. And he dwells
far above us. And the earth is just his footstool,
something the rest is feed upon. You got a footstool at home? I got several footstools at home.
I'll tell you, my feet, your feet get weary. You put your
feet on that footstool, oh, it feels nice, doesn't it? But it's
just a footstool, isn't it? Just somewhere to rest your feet. Thus saith the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the earth is my footstool. Just part of his creation. But
it was created so that salvation's plan would be brought forth.
So that which God purposed and planned, right? would be bought
to pass in time. And he made the earth and all
the things on it. He made time, space, and he dwells
far above it all, beloved. And he did that so that his son
could leave the glories and splendors of heaven. And when I talk about
glories, it's so far above we don't even know what it's like.
You ever pick up a book and someone's trying to write about heaven?
Just put it back down. They don't have a clue. All we know is what
Paul said. Paul said, I saw things I couldn't
even utter. I can't even speak about what I saw. We know a little
bit from the scriptures of what heaven's like, but not a whole
lot, do we? I have not seen the scriptures say, ne'er heard the
things that God has prepared for those that love him. But
it's ready and waiting for it. Christ is preparing a place for
we who are his redeemed, we who are purchased by his precious
blood. And he's coming back, I tell you, he's coming back.
As sure as he came the first time and left to ascend it up
into heaven, as sure as that. He's coming again, beloved. We
have no idea when, but he is coming. Let scoffers scoff. My, if they're alive at the coming
of Christ, they will be crying for mountains to fall upon them. And yet we who are the redeemed,
the only one who's made us to differ is God and God alone. Ponder the immensity of the power
of God. Think of the immense power that
he has, that stars, galaxies are at his command. A star will
fade away at his command. And a star is born at his command. My, oh my. And we see our sun,
it's a nuclear furnace. Just one of many billions of stars. And he has power over them all. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? If you're listening to this message and you don't know
Christ, if it be His will, is it too
hard for Him to save you? No. Flee to Christ. Flee to the only Savior of sinners. Flee to the magnificent God.
who rules over all, who has all power, not only to save us, but
to keep us, and to bring us home to glory. This is the God of
the Bible. In all His magnificence and grandeur,
this is who He is. Ponder His holiness. He's absolutely
holy. So holy that sin cannot be in
His presence. So we must be made perfect. Sinless. But yet we're sinners
even after we're saved. But we're clothed in the perfect
spotless righteousness of Christ. Our sins were imputed to him
and his righteousness was imputed to us, beloved. So we stand. We stand in Christ Jesus our
Lord. And though we're sinners here
on this earth, when we get the glory we'll never sin again ever. Won't it be wonderful? Sin will
never bother us again. Never. You won't have trouble
with your mind anymore with sin, won't have trouble with our body
anymore with sin, won't have trouble with deeds of sin. He
won't bother us no more, beloved. We will be in the presence of
the magnificent God, the one true living God. We will be in
his presence. And you know what? Oh my, what
a privilege. What a privilege. And it's all
because it pleased him to do so. The one who's, the earth is his
footstool, is pleased to save us. Oh my. The one who is all power, the
one who is holiness incarnate, and then ponders omnipresence. He's everywhere all the time.
He sees everything. Nothing is hidden from him. Nothing. He sees everything. Oh, he sees
my sin. And yet I'm saved. Because I'm,
remember? Remember? Oh, this is wonderful. When I see the blood, what? I'll
pass over you. Right? And Christ looks and sees
the blood. I'll pass over you. All your
sins are forgiven in Christ Jesus the Lord. It's magnificent. All because of our magnificent
God. All because he sent his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to redeem us from our
sins. And then he sends the Holy Spirit
to us to regenerate us. And we're born again in the great
three in one, the magnificent triune God, the Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit are all involved in our salvation. And we cry
out, salvation is of the Lord. It's of him. And we have thoughts of awe at the fact that
this great God has saved us. And we're yet but a little atom
in all his universe, a little speck of dust, beloved, and yet
he's had mercy on us. Oh, that the God who controls
all, all things in the universe, everything, that all things happen
at His will and at His control, has saved me. And every believer can say that,
can't we? We can leave this place in awe today. That the great
God of the universe, the magnificent one, planned our salvation, purposed
our salvation, executed our salvation by sending the Son of God into
this world to die for us, to bleed for us, to purchase us
with his eternal soul. And now that he's risen, and
where's he risen? He's back with our magnificent
God! Because he is God! And now he's
the God-man. He goes back to heaven, something
he wasn't. He's the God-man, and now he's
our mediator. The only mediator between God
and man, this God of the Bible, the only mediator between Him
and us is Christ and Christ alone. There's no, we can't work our
way to God, we can't please God by anything we do, nothing at
all, nothing at all. It's all through the perfect
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only way
the magnificent God of the Bible will accept us. There's no other
way. No other way. Our God is unlike
any man. He's not like us. He's not like
us. He never changes. We change all
the time. He never grows old. He's the
ancient of days. He knows the thoughts and intents
of our hearts before we even do things. And his thoughts are not our
thoughts. His ways are not our ways. He says in Isaiah 55 verse 8,
for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Then he says, neither
are my ways, or neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah,
saith the Lord. Again, that's Isaiah 55 verse
8. If you want to turn there, I'll read it again. For my thoughts
are not your thoughts. You don't think like us. He's
the infinite one. He's the magnificent one. He
says, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. The heavens
can't contain him. They can't contain him. Upon
to this blessed thought, we who are the redeemed of the Lord,
that our great God, our redeemer, the word of God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, he left the glories of heaven, willingly. Again, he's sent on a mission,
wasn't he? He was sent to accomplish the
salvation of God's people, all those who the Father gave to
Christ in eternity, and he did it. The word finished is finished. It is finished. It's not mostly
done. It's not I've done all I can
do, now the rest is up to you. Our great God wouldn't do that,
would he? When God finishes something, it's done. Right? It's done. Oh, and think of this. He left
the glories of heaven to come to the footstool. He left the glories of his house,
his home. Heaven's his home, right? To
come to a footstool. to come and save us from our
sins. Oh, marvel at our magnificent
triune God. He came to this footstool to redeem our eternal souls.
And He did it. He did it. He went to Calvary's cross willingly. He lived the perfect life as
our substitute. The law says the soul that sinneth,
it must die. Christ is the great substitute,
the sinless one, and he dies in our room and place. And again
he cries, I'm going to keep saying this, keep saying it, it is finished. It's perfect. It's perfect. And then God raises him from
the dead three days later to prove to us that he's satisfied. And the scripture says he was
raised for our justification. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? Who purposed and planned this?
The one who says here in our text in verse one, the one who
says here, thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the
earth is my footstool. That's who's planned and purposed
our salvation. That's who saved us. So marvel at his condescension,
how he came down. Marvel at the grace that sent
him to this world. Marvel at the mercy of God. Marvel
at the love of God for his people, for his elect. Marvel. And marvel that through the eyes
of our great God, our littleness. And yet his love is set upon
us. Our littleness in this whole universe and everything all around
us. Our littleness. And yet he has
mercy upon us. And his greatness, contrast our
littleness to his greatness. Again, we cannot preach Christ
and God high enough, can we? My, and aren't we amazed that
he who calls the earth his footstool, he who the heaven cannot contain
should have mercy upon sinners such as we. It's amazing. No wonder John Newton prayed
amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found, was blind, but now I see. My, no wonder he penned those
words. And in our text, God is speaking
of himself. He is speaking about who he is,
about who he is. And our great God tells us that
the heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool. This wondrous world that we live
in is just a footstool for God. And our great God uses metaphors
in scriptures, and they are especially common in the scriptures. And
we cannot describe who he is. But we believe it by God's grace,
what he says about himself, don't we? And marvel that there was a time
when we didn't, and now we do. That's all because the magnificent
God did an operation in us, didn't he? We were born again of the
Holy Spirit of God. Turn, if you would, to Psalm
139. Do you know no mortal pen has
ever yet equaled or ever will equal what the scriptures say?
Because the Holy Bible, the true author of the Holy Bible is God
the Holy Spirit. And look at this in Psalm 119.
We're here, David, in the Psalms using the style resembling our
text. His mind is soaring to who God
is. But remember who the true author
of these words are. As we read these words in Psalm
139, remember who the true author of these words are, it's God.
Look at this. Lord, thou has searched me and
known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou can passest my path and
my lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. He knows everything
about us. He knows our thoughts before
we even think them. Now think of that in light of
how we're still sinners. And yet all our sins are forgiven
unto the blood. And that's amazing, isn't it?
It's just incredible, but it's true. Look at this though, oh
my. For there is not a word in my
tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast
beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. We're
kept by the power of God, beloved. Look what David says here. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high, oh, it's so high,
beloved. It's so high, isn't it? When
our thoughts think of this, Such knowledge is too wonderful for
me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. When he starts thinking about
God and his grandeur and his majesty, it just starts fizzing
out. Oh my. Now, let's look at this. You ever hear people say, well,
you ever hear people say this? They say, well, man, he got away
from God. That fellow got away from God.
He's on and out in the world. He got away from God. I didn't
know anyone can get away from God. Do you? I don't know how anyone gets
away from God at all. You know why? Let's read the
next text. We're going to see here in this
text, there's no getting away from God. There's no getting
away from God. Whither shall I go from thy spirit,
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? Where do I go?
Where do I go when your presence isn't there, Lord? I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. His wrath, right? If I take wings
in the morning and dwell in the outermost parts of the sea, even
there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold
me. So in times of troubles and whatever we go through in this
world, look what it says. Thy right hand, that being Christ,
shall hold me. Shall hold me. If I say, surely
the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee. Look at that,
darkness can't hide from our Lord. He created it. Oh my, but the night shineth
as the day, the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
Now, David, again, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God here, is proclaiming the magnificence
of our God. See, we can't fathom all this
stuff. We believe it, don't we? By God's grace, we believe it.
We believe what the Bible says. But there was a time when you
could have showed this to us in our natural state, we'd say,
what? But now, by the grace of God,
we embrace it. We love it. This is magnificent. This is the one who saved us.
This is the one who keeps us, beloved. Oh, look at this. It says, for
thou has possessed my reins, my life. Thou has covered me in my mother's
womb. I will praise thee for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works that
my soul knoweth right well. Look at that. We are fearfully
and wonderfully made. You know, people often, sometimes
a child's born with a disability and they're like, oh, I'm so
sorry. I look at it often now. They're fearfully and wonderfully
made. They're perfect in God's eyes. That's the way he made
them. I was born with dislocated hips.
I was disabled as a young man. Scripture says I'm fearfully
and wonderfully made. Isn't that amazing? That's how God made us. That's
how he made us. And you ever think of the intricacies
of our bodies? I know Sister Kathy is the one
to talk to you about how intricate our body is and how one little
thing, one little thing can throw everything right off kilter. My oh my. Isn't that amazing? It's absolutely incredible. And then he says, I will praise
thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, marvelous,
marvelous are thy works, because they're from a magnificent God,
the one true living God. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. Oh, how miniature is man when
we compare ourselves to God. We're miniature. were like microscopic
beans in the eyes of God. You ever look under a microscope? I remember in high school, first,
well, I looked at microscopes when I was a kid, but you get
those real nice ones in high school. They got those nice ones.
And you start looking at those things, and there's little things moving
around in there. You can't see them. You look at the slide with
your eyes, you go, there's nothing there. You stick it under that mic,
and there's all kinds of things moving. That's what we're like
to God. Oh my. And yet it says, thus
saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne and the earth is my
footstool. How small does man appear before an incomparable
being? We cannot, we can't compare God
to anything. He's incomparable. And so how
small are we in comparison to him? And yet he has mercy upon
us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah
chapter 40. We'll read verses 12 to 18. And we'll see here
that God has no counsel. He needs no counsel at all, no
instruction. And we're nothing in his eyes.
And yet he has mercy upon us in and through Christ. It's just,
it's incredible. It's absolutely incredible. And
think about God's infinite wisdom and grace, and his love for his
people as we read these words. It'll comfort our hearts. Look
at this, Isaiah chapter 40, starting in verse 12. Who hath measured
the waters in the hollow of his hands? He can hold all the oceans of
this world in the hollow of his hands. Remember when we were
kids, we used to play with the water, put our hands under there,
get a little bit of water, right? I remember doing that. Little
hollow of your hand. All the oceans of this world
can fit in the hollow of his hand. All the water in this world can
fit in the hollow of his hand. Nothing to him. And mighted out heaven with a
span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. The
dust of the earth in a measure. Or the span of all the worlds. He can measure it all out. See,
we don't know how big the whole galaxy, but he does. How big
everything is out there, but he does. And weigheth the mountains in
scales and the hills in balance. Weighs the mountains like they're
just in a scale. Little toys. How great is our God, beloved? He's incomparable to anything
we can see or even envision. And it says, who had directed
the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, had taught him?
Who tells the Holy Spirit what to do? No one. No one. Who's been his counselor? Who's been God's counselor? No
one. He don't need counselors. Who
taught him? He can't learn anything, he already
knows everything. You ever think of that? He already knows everything. Even the things we haven't even
discovered yet, with mathematics and all that stuff, he already
knows it all. He made it. He made it. With whom took he
counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of
judgment, and taught him knowledge. He's all-knowing. He can't learn
anything. This is our God, beloved. This
is the one who saved our souls. See, he's not a little God that
we shake our fist at him and go, oh, oh. No, he's God over
all. We're seeing it here, aren't
we? He's absolutely sovereign, beloved. He's the King of kings
and the Lord of lords. My. And who showed to him the
way of understanding? Who made him to understand things?
No one. Can't teach him anything. He
knows it all. He can't be taught in the passive
judgment because he's pure holiness. He's pure righteousness. Look at this. Behold, the nations
are as a drop of a bucket. You ever have a bucket outside?
And a drop away right here, ping! And you look in there and you
just barely see anything, don't you? That's what the nations
of this world are like to him. Just a drop in the bucket. How great is our God! Oh my! This is the one who saved
us, beloved. And then it says this, Nations
are, as a drop of a bucket, encountered as a small dust in the balance.
You know what that is? That's the dust that settles
on scales. Remember when we were all younger?
They used to use scales. They used scales and stuff to
weigh stuff way more than they do now. But you can still go
to the grocery store, and they put the meat on there. But the
dust of the balance is that dust you can't even see that's sitting
on that. Because there's dust on there. We just can't see it.
He says the isles are just like that, insignificant. My, this
is wondrous. He'd taken up the isles as a
very little thing. Behold, he'd taken up the isles
as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All the
beasts in the world are not sufficient enough for a burnt offering to
our great God. But yet Christ, in Christ he's
well pleased. He's well pleased with his lamb.
Behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.
Behold him, look to Christ, into Christ alone. And then look at this, verse
17. All nations before him are as nothing. Now we get pretty
worked up in this world about one nation doing something to
another nation, right? They're nothing to our God. Nothing. That's what he says
here. They are counted to him less
than nothing in vanity. My. There's not a lot of value
to the nations of the world because he already owns everything. visible
and invisible. And yet the scripture says that
we are precious in his sight. Marvel at that. It's amazing. To whom then will you liken God? No one. He's incomparable. Or
what like this will you compare unto him? Well, we can't compare
anything to him. Nothing. Scripture says this.
And the house which I build is great, for great is our God above
all gods. But who is able to build him
in house, seeing the heaven and heavens of heavens cannot contain
him? Who am I, then, that I should
build him in house, save only to burn a sacrifice before him?
2 Chronicles 2, verses 5 and 6. And that's Solomon saying
those words. The heaven of heavens cannot contain him. So we instantly
see our littleness in his vastness, his greatness. See, man tries to bring God down
to himself, but there's no form of human
excellencies, no form of human excellencies that man can use
as a measuring line to measure deity. None. None at all. There's a great
gulf between us and God. There's a great gulf. So great
is the gulf that the Son of Man, the Son of God, had to come down
into this world and bleed and die in our room and place to
save our eternal souls. Because that gulf, we can't fill
that gulf, can we? But Christ is the mediator between
God and man. And his name is the man Christ
Jesus. Isn't that amazing? God incarnate in the flesh. So
in our natural state, we don't know who God is in our natural
state. That's why we must be born again.
That's why we must be born again. The words of our master, you
must be born again. And now we've got a little, just a little,
Just a little, just what God's revealed to us, a little bit
of understanding. And then the more he reveals,
we go, oh my goodness, don't we? He's even greater than I
thought he was. We just rejoice. We rejoice in
our hearts, don't we? And what comfort we can glean
just from this text here about, blessed the Lord, the heaven
is my throne and the earth is my footstool. My King is in glory,
and so is yours if you're a born-again blood-washed believer. And one
day we shall be with him. He says, I've got to prepare
a place for you. Well, if he prepared a place for us, where
are we going to be? We're going to be with him, aren't we? There's
no doubt. That's the master's words. That's
the words of the master. Oh, marvel that God in his infinite
wisdom and his wise decree sent the Son of God, the Word of God,
the Word of Jesus Christ into this world to save us from our
sins by the giving of his life and by the shedding of his blood.
Now think of this, too. The earth is God's footstool,
just his footstool, a place where he rests his feet. And his throne is from the heavens. If he mentions his hands, they
are hands which take up the aisles, as we saw, as a very little thing,
which stretches out the heaven as a span, which weighs the mountains and
the scales, and the hills and the bounds, which measure the
waters of the ocean in the hollow of his hands. And if he mentions his voice,
it is full of majesty, beloved, full of majesty. Divides the
flames of fire, shakes the heavens, wakes the thunder, wields the
lightning, breaks the cedars of Lebanon, makes them skip like
a calf. What wonderful imagery the Lord
uses to describe himself to us. And what does it do? It shows
us the grandeur of God, doesn't it? He's so great, beloved. He's
so magnificent. This is our God. This is the
God of the Bible. He's not waiting for us to do
anything, is He? He's not wringing His hands. By His mercy and His grace, He
saves us. And we've been, we were saved
2000 years ago. And by the power of God, the
Holy Spirit, when we're born again, given faith to believe
and trust and rest on Christ, then we find out he saved my
soul. And then now we spend the rest
of our lives learning about who he is, learning about his greatness. And we wonder, why me? Well,
because it pleased Him to do so. You see, this great God of
the Bible, the one who all the waters are in the whole of His
hand, can do whatever He pleases, can't He? Whatever He pleases. Rejoice, beloved. Let we who
are the redeemed of the Lord praise our Heavenly Father. Let
us think about His greatness. Let us think about His magnificence
this week. Let us meditate upon these wonderful
truths. How our great God is infinite.
He's infinite. Infinite in His goodness, infinite
in His mercy, and His grace can cover all my sins. And He covers
all who trust in Him, all who rest in Him. Oh my. So let us leave here today marveling
at the incarnation of the Son of God. Let us marvel at what
prompted it. At what prompted him, given his
life force, it's the love of God in Christ. It's the everlasting,
eternal love of God set upon us from eternity. And let us
also marvel that justice is fully satisfied with a divine atonement. Remember, Christ is the God-man.
His atonement was a divine atonement. He's fully God and fully man.
He's God in the flesh. And let us leave here today with
lips of praise that this magnificent God of the Bible has shown us
mercy and grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the
depths and the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God.
How unsearchable are his judgments in his ways past find and out. And what do we say? Amen and
amen. Oh, Heavenly Father, as we've
looked at these wonderful scriptures where you tell us who you are,
not what we think, in who we think you are, but you tell us
who you are, and that the heavens cannot contain thee, and that
the heavens are your throne, and that the earth is just your
footstool, and yet you have mercy upon we who are but dust in your
eyes. Yet you have mercy upon us, and
let we who are the redeemed marvel at this eternal, everlasting
love which you've had for us. We had no clue about it, Lord,
and yet you've loved us. We were in Christ at the cross,
oh Lord, let us marvel that. And now we live our life in you,
Lord Jesus. We're so thankful for your sacrifice,
for paying the full price of the redemption of our souls,
and we praise you and thank you, Holy Spirit, for regenerating
us. We'd never come to Christ unless
you'd made us willing in the day of your power. Oh, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, may we praise thy mighty name. May we
leave here in awe at your magnificence and the greatness of who you
are. And let us proclaim to a lost
and dying world that salvation is of the Lord. In Jesus' name.