Turn with me in your Bibles to
Genesis and the eleventh chapter. If you've traveled out of this
country very much, you may have faced the dilemma of trying to
communicate with all the various different languages. It really
makes you very helpless if you cannot communicate if you do
not understand the language. And you might even ask yourself
the question, how is it that in this world there are so many
different languages, so many different dialects and tongues? Well, the answer to that is right
here in this book. As a matter of fact, it is right
here in Genesis 11, where it says, "...and the whole
earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to
pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain
in the land of Shinar, And they dwelt there. And they said one
to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone,
and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us
build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.' And
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the
children of men built. And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is one, and they have all one language, and this they
begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them
which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech, So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon
the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all
the earth, And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad
upon the face of all the earth." These that are mentioned here,
if you look back in the last verse of the previous chapter,
these are the descendants of Noah, of Noah and his sons. And they are here. Though being
commanded of God, after they came off the ark, look back in
Genesis 9 and the first chapter, they are now stopped here in
the plain of Shinar, in a level smooth plain. And it says, God
blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth. But they have now stopped. They
no longer scatter abroad. They no longer go over the earth
to replenish it. But they journey to this plain,
to this level, smooth place in their sight and in their eyes,
and they stop, and they seek to build a city and a great tower. Why do they do this? Well, because Though they had
come through the flood and seen the miraculous deliverance of
the flood and the hand of God, their hearts are still the same. They are still rebels at heart. And they are still among Adam's
race, that people whose minds, their natural carnal minds, are
enmity against God, and against His Word, against His will, and
against His commands. Look back in verse 3. They said
one to another. And it is so amazing how men
and women can agree with each other against what God has said,
commanded, and willed. They have this notion that if
they agree with each other, that somehow there is this strength
and power in numbers that they can agree against right and be
right themselves. Well, they said one to another,
go to and let us make brick and burn them throughly, And they
had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they
said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, let us build
us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and
let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the
face of the whole earth." And they do this revealing something
of themselves and revealing something to us and about every one of
us naturally. And that is simply that fallen
man always seeks first his own glory. Always by nature seeks
his own way and unites with others for this very purpose to advance
his own glory. vain glory, self-glory, because
their own words reveal the intents of their heart. They said, let
us make us a name. Let us make us a name. And there is always a fallen
desire in us to unite in order to glorify us rather than God. There is always a desire, a fallen
desire to build monuments to ourselves and to labor and busily
do to glorify us. to build our own tower, if you
will, to do that which seems right to us. They all agreed,
I'm sure, that what they were doing was the right thing to
be done. But as this book tells us, oftentimes
there is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death. And it doesn't matter how many
agree. It doesn't matter how many of
us are in accord with each other if we are against God. We will neither be glorified
in our numbers or our accomplishments any more than we'd be glorified
in anything we do when all the glory belongs to God. And I think, in thinking about
this, that this is something that we as preachers often struggle
with. And that is, it seems like men
think sometimes that if we can preach the most sermons, or if
we can be, as is said, used the most by God, or write the most
books, or hymns, or whatever it is, or go the most places,
or gather the greatest following, then somehow that alone shows
that the hand of God is upon us. But if you look over in 1
Corinthians, that third chapter, listen to what the Apostle Paul
writes to this church at Corinth which was bothered in their people
by all of this preacher worship. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 3. He said, "...for you are yet
carnal." In other words, he gives as an evidence that they were
spiritually immature and yet very ignorant. He gave as an
evidence of this the division and strife that was among them
over preachers. Now listen. For whereas there
is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal
and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of
Paul, and another, I am of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? Who then is
Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believe,
even as the Lord gave to every man? He says, I have planted,
Apollos watered, But God gave the increase. One plants, one
waters, one comes again and waters, and there is no glory in what
they do because it is God alone who gives the increase. Listen,
"...so then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he
that watereth, but God that giveth the increased." Now he that planteth
and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his
own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together
with God, you are God's husbandry, you are God's building." Whose
building? Whose church? Whose work? God's. He says, "...according
to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master
builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon, for of the
foundation can no man lay, then that is laid which is Jesus Christ."
Now, if any man build upon this foundation, he's talking here
about the ministry, If any man build on this foundation, now
look at what he builds on this foundation. He says gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's work shall be made
manifest, for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed
by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort
it is." He's talking about the fruits, so-called, of a ministry. And he says, upon a foundation,
this foundation Paul says that he himself has laid, he said
a person can build on this, but obviously, not only gold and
silver and precious stones, but also wood, hay, and stubble. And he said, God will try, if
any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he
himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire. Now, amazing. And that makes me to think, that
makes me to consider, is what I do is the work of the ministry. Which, by the way, I do not have
what is called a ministry by so many. I do not have my name,
nor do I want my name, on everything that's done, that's supposedly
to be done for the glory of God. But here is a man. Here is a
man. And I certainly, by the grace
of God, hope not this man. to build upon this foundation,
that which is nothing but an effort of flesh to gain more,
to do more, to be more apparently and outwardly successful in what
they call the ministry, when God says that it will be burned
up, consumed. You say, well, why would a person
do that? For his own glory. for his own
name, for his own exaltation. And not only that, but you have
such men as John the Baptist, which undoubtedly was the Lord's
prophet and the last prophet as such. And he said concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, I must decrease. that he might increase."
You see, they did what they did here to make themselves a name,
to exalt themselves, to get glory for their own selves. And they
met the hand of Almighty God. That happens with preachers. And it happens all the time in
religion. That's what's going on. I always
remember Brother Rupert Reibenbach's expression of so much that false
religion is about the bees, he called it. In other words, it's
characterized by who can build the biggest, the nicest, the
fanciest buildings in religion. All to the glory of God. Or he'd
say, who can gather together the most bodies? If we got the
most bodies, then surely God must be blessing us. Don't tell
Noah that. He's a preacher of righteousness,
the Bible said. He had only eight in Sunday school. And then also, he said, the other
B was the busyness. Whoever can be the busiest, if
we can be the most involved and the most busy people, if we can
be doing the most, then that means God must surely be blessing
us. He must be blessing us. And there's a tendency, a tendency
to want heaven on earth in the sense we perceive it before we
ever get to heaven. We'd like to have all Bible conference
all the time. Let's just have one big Bible
conference all the time, and we'll all gather together, we'll
have a big time. We won't have to worry about
all this stuff. But I'm telling you something,
and that is that things have a tendency to become much more
social than they are spiritual. That's just the truth. I'll never
forget when Brother Henry Mahan, they had a big Bible conference
every year and it seemed like it got bigger and bigger and
bigger and more people and more preachers and all this kind of
stuff. And then all of a sudden, he stopped it. And I thought,
why in the world would he do that? But he saw that it was
becoming much more social than it was spiritual. much more gathering
together for the things that just simply glorify the flesh
of men and women and not God. Do you believe that can happen?
Well, our Lord took three men with Him up into the Mount where
He revealed to some degree and measure His glory. We call it
the Mount of Transfiguration. And he took Peter and James and
John, and it says, and it came to pass, that as they departed
from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to
be here. We're having a good time. And
let us make three tabernacles. Let's don't go back down that
hill to that real world down there. We're up here in this
mount. We're having a wonderful time.
It's good for us to be here. Let's put up three tents. One for you, one for Moses, and
one for Lys. But the apostle says he said
that not knowing what he said. You see, God, has us living in
a real world. You know why? Because there are
still yet real sinners who by their daily contact and reaction
with us and to us throughout all the cares and the trial and
the work of life, He's sending out His gospel. He says we're
a city that's set on a hill that bears a light that shines, and
nobody who has this light hides his light under a bushel. We're
not living here in this world so we can be on some kind of
hallelujah hayride to heaven. We're in this world to glorify
God and to glorify Him through the advancement of His gospel
to a world of sinners all around us. That's the way it was with
the New Testament church at Jerusalem. They all, after the Lord's resurrection,
All the apostles and the disciples, they're all hovered up there
at Jerusalem. And they are having a wonderful
time. They are rejoicing. And then
God sent a fellow by the name of Saul of Tarsus. It says in
Acts 8, and as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering
into every house, and hailing men and women, committed them
to prison. Therefore they that were scattered
abroad, he sent Saul of Tarsus in there like a hive of hornets
turned loose. He went to where they were, hailed
them into prison, had them beating, and they often, most of them,
went scattering every place and in every direction, to other
places, other cities, to escape His wrath. It says they were
scattered abroad. And guess what? They went everywhere
preaching the Word. They went everywhere preaching
the Word. The Lord is going to make sure
that we don't all just hover up together and live together
in some kind of commune on this earth, but He has sowed His people
amongst all the field of this world that they might be that
preserving salt. They said, this is a nice level
place. We're tired of tripping over
all those stones and rocks and falling and all that kind of
stuff. We'll just find us a nice place here in this nice level
plain of Shinar and build us a city and a tower that reaches
up to heaven and make us a name. Is that what God saves us for?
To make us a name? You see, men have a tendency
to think that if it's big, if there are all these many, then
it has to be of God, and God has to be in it. But our Lord
said, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord. Have we not preached in your
name, and in your name cast out devils, and in your name done
many wonderful works? But he said, I'll say unto them
in that hour." It may not appear to be such until that hour. They may feel so confident as
to be able to stand before me and say that even in that hour. But he said, I'll say to them.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity, I never knew you. And this is because salvation
is the work of God. It is the work of God. And it is to the glory of God. And we would do well to examine
everything, test everything, prove everything by that one
standard. Does it glorify God? Or does it glorify man? Every work, every ministry, every
sermon, everything Does it ultimately, finally, exalt the living God
or man? Is it of His grace? All of His
grace? Or is it of our works? You see, He says that He must
build the house. Now, I could get to feeling real
important. I could get to thinking that the only people that are
saved are those who heard the gospel by my lips. That would
be a lie. God has not ordained that. He has ordained that through
the mouths of various witnesses, His truth, His Word is to be
proclaimed, and He is the one who in blessing His Word, not
the way I preach it, but His Word. And blessing His Word,
He calls His people out of darkness into the marvelous light of Christ. Our Lord stood there with Simon
Peter, who was a zealous man, and others. He said, Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock, that He is the Christ, upon this rock
I will build my church." Now, who's the builder of the church?
I don't even like that term, church planning. The Lord's the
only one who can plan His church. The Lord's the only one who can
build a house. He's already said, I will build
my house. Whatever it is that He's called
me to do or you to do, it does not depend on us. He builds His house. As a matter of fact, the psalmist
wrote, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain
that build it, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman wakes,
but in vain. Over the years I've thought,
you know, as many people as has come through these doors. And
living near a military base, that's been a lot. Surely, after
those who have come, and those who've heard, and those who believe
the truth, you'd think we'd have a multitude here. But God has
sent this one to this place, that one to another place, that
one to another place. Some have died. It just doesn't
look like we're ever going to be a big church. But whatever it is, it'll be
the Lord. It will be Him. And just as it
was at Babel, God will stop the works and the wills and the ways
of man to save himself and to exalt himself. He may let us
go flying high for a while, but He's going to bring us down.
He says, "...and the Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain
the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable
of the earth." That's going to be true in his salvation, and
that's going to be true in advancing his gospel. So what did he do
here? What did he do here? Well, here
were these people that were called by the Lord's name. They've been
delivered. They're descendants of these
who had been delivered through the flood. It wasn't like they
didn't know God's way of salvation. It wasn't like they didn't have
a contact with somebody who preached the gospel. But instead, the
Lord looked at their tower in town and showing the very triunity
of God. Within the Godhead there is said,
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that
they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered
them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and
they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called
Babel." What does that mean? Babel. It means confusion. It means to confound. God confounds the devices, the
imaginations, the efforts of fallen man to save himself and
to glorify himself. Hold your place here and look
over in 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1, and look down
in verse 25. Paul writing says, "...because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men. For you see your calling, brethren."
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called." You mean that God does not use the
brilliant orator, the learned scribe, the educated Pharisee? But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise." And God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
things that are. Now, he's talking here on one
hand about those that God uses in the ministry. He's also talking
about those God chooses under salvation. What's that next verse? That no flesh should glory in
his presence. No flesh. But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." You see, salvation
from start to finish. is all of grace. And the means
that He uses to advance His gospel will be all of His grace, and
it will glorify Him. And those who are called to preach
the gospel, they'll have to confess that what the Lord does, who
the Lord saves through our preaching, He did in spite of us and not
because of us. That's it. Not because of us,
but in spite of us. You see, if you notice what they
did, they, in this place, there was no stones to build a real
building. There was no mortar by which
to put on those stones to seal them together. So what did they
do? They made bricks. And they burned
the bricks to make them hard. Now if you take a stone and hit
it with a hammer, and next to it take a brick and hit it with
a hammer, which one do you think is going to break? But it says
that they took, not having mortar, they took slime. You know what
that is? That's like pitch, tar. And so here they are, taking
these burnt bricks and this tar and sticking them together, building
up this tower. And I imagine, knowing fallen
man as I do, being one, they probably stood back and said,
well, this is looking pretty good, isn't it? No, it's looking
like a big, black, sticky, weak, Mess. That's what it's looking
like. And that's what everything we
as sinners do in the sight of God. That's what every work that
is an attempt to justify ourselves before God is. That's what every
self-glorious thing done by anybody at any time is in the sight of
God. Just a big, black mess. Nothing but sin. They were probably
just like the man who later would build a greater city and become
king over it all. Become king over what in that
same place became known as Babylon. And one day he'd step out there
on the balcony of his palace, and he would speak and say, is
not this great Babylon? that I have built for the house
of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of
my majesty." Isn't this mine? Isn't this my work? See what I've done? Just look
at it. And the Bible says that God smote him, and He made him
to be like a beast of the field. He made him to be like a common
animal crawling around on the face of the earth, a raving madman,
till he came to acknowledge that there's One who does His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of men, and none
can stay His hand. And He has all dominion and all
power and all authority and all glory. There's a man that one
day went out and made a speech in the New Testament. He was
a ruler, maybe a king. He made a speech. And when he
got through with his oratory, he said, he's a God. Woo! And I never heard a speech like
that. That man is a God. And it says that he didn't correct
them on it. He didn't correct them on it.
God sent the skin worms and ate his flesh and he died. I'm telling
you, if we put our name on it, if we receive any glory for it,
His glory, He said, He will not share with another. He tells the judge in the Old
Testament to beware of gifts. If you get a gift, that gift
may influence you in your righteous judgment of the one who gave
it, and the things concerning them." You know what the most
dangerous gift we can receive is? I know what the most dangerous
gift a preacher can ever receive is, and that's praise. It'll
pat on the back. Man, you're a preacher. overheard
saying to somebody about this individual, they said, ah, he's
a powerful preacher. I got to thinking about that.
Powerful preacher. What does that mean? What does
it mean? Well, I know by what most people
think that it means, I don't even come close. Does that mean
he's a great orator? That means he's dogmatic? Does
that mean he's loud? Does that mean he's intellectually
stimulating? What does that mean? What is
a powerful preacher? I'll tell you what this book
says a powerful preacher is. A man who preaches Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. And the Spirit of God mightily,
powerfully takes that word and saves His people. You see, all
human glory and boasting must be excluded. Turn over to the
book of Romans and listen. In the book of Romans, listen
to Paul. In Romans chapter 3, beginning
in verse 24, He says, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now that's as narrow a
gospel as ever I saw. Being declared righteous, and
that word freely there in another place is translated without a
cause. We're declared righteous without
any cause in us through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness. For the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say it
this time, his righteousness, that he might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Where is boasting
then? If it's all Christ, If it's all
of God, if it's all by grace, where is any ground for us to
boast? Well, I'm a member of the church, I don't have any
of these bad habits, I don't do this, I don't do that, I've
been baptized, I've identified with a gospel church, I've done
all these things. No boasting. Where is boasting
then? It is Excluded. Excluded. Paul writing to Titus
says, "...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." He said to the Ephesians, for by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should do what? Boast. Boast. No, the Lord Jesus
Christ is himself the Tyre of salvation, and he alone is the
builder of his church, and everything else is just babble. Just babble. But I found that
word in another place. I found it in a name. And it was the name of the grandson
of King Jehoiachin, who turns out was the leader of those who
came back to Jerusalem out of Babylonian captivity to build
the city. His name is Zerubbabel or Zerubbabel. And there are things that are
said of him, that name literally means something like one born
in Babylon. Some say it means one exiled
from Babylon. But he's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn in Zechariah. Now, you might
not have read in Zechariah lately, but if you'll turn back to Zechariah
4, just go to Matthew, you can find that. Go back, Malachi,
Zechariah. Zechariah 4, where we have a
prophecy that not only concerns this man Zerubbabel, but the
one he pictures. And I don't think that there's
any doubt that the one he pictures is Christ. But it says in verse 6 of chapter
4, Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the
word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by
power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou,
O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel thou shalt
become a plain, and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof
with shoutings, crying, Grace, Grace, unto it." Now what he's
talking about there, as it was literally with Zerubbabel, There
were many things against, many obstacles to the rebuilding of
that city. But He said, all those mountains
of obstacles, they'll become a plain before Him. And what He builds will be finished. And there will be shoutings of
grace, grace. What does that mean? That means
that from the first stone to the last stone in this building,
in this spiritual Jerusalem, the church, it'll be by His grace. That means the first stone, the
last stone, He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's Christ. Moreover, the word
of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it,
and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto
you." But now, while it's going on, at any time, this church
that the Lord builds, that He sets stone after stone in His
church, the work, the progress of it, the outward glory of it,
it may appear rather insignificant. For who hath despised the day
of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall
see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven. They are the eyes of the Lord,
which run to and fro through the whole earth." He gathers
maybe one of those living stones here, one of them there, one
of them at this time, One other at a later time? No earthly work,
no earthly ministry, no one person, no one place? No, in all those
places it will appear insignificant. Small things. He said, don't
despise it, because this is the hand of Zerubbabel. He's the one who laid the foundation,
and he's the one who'll finish it. Christ Jesus is Himself the
foundation of His church, of His people. It is all done by
Him. It'll be by His grace, and He
will save all His people from their sins. It's His finished
work. It is His work of righteousness
that God imputes to us. It's His blood shed for us. It's not our will, it's not our
decision, it's not our best, and neither is it all the means
of gimmicks and such. He says, not by might, not by
power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. I'm a pathetic preacher. But I could stand up in this
pulpit this morning, if it be the will of God, and read one
verse, declare one verse of His Word to you, and He, by His Spirit,
take that verse and give you life and faith in Christ. Who will get the glory for that?
None but God. Everything else is just babble. wood, hay and stubble, bricks
of sand and dirt and black pitch. The name of the Lord is a strong
tower, and the righteous runneth unto it and is safe." You see,
if I could convince you of the gospel, somebody else could come
along and unconvince you of the gospel. But if the Spirit of
God takes His Word and convinces your heart. There's not an imp
in hell that could change you from that, steal that from you.
Because you know that's not the Word of a man. That's not by
the skill of a man. That's not by something that
you did or I did. It's the Lord. You see, the truth
is God has sent another language that unites us. Here they all
went away Confused. Woke up one morning and went
to work and, what's this guy saying? Looked over here to buy
something from some other tribe. Confusion. Sometimes when we
preach the gospel, men accuse us of confusing people. No, we
were born confused. But when the Spirit of God takes
the true gospel and speaks it to our hearts, The message of
Christ, not what I say about Christ, or the way I say it about
Christ, or any of these things, but Christ and Him crucified
as our only hope, our only salvation, our only righteousness. God takes
that to the hearts of His people, and it becomes a language to
them. You know, He hath in these last
days spoken to us by His Son. He gives His people ears to hear. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. You remember what
happened at Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. It says
that there was gathered at Jerusalem people from all over the known
world at that time. And it gives a long list of them,
Parthians and Greeks and what have you, all these various languages. And they were there for basic
religious ceremony and stuff, but the apostles stood up, and
in the power of God's Spirit, these apostles preached Christ. The Spirit of God, it says, caused
every man to hear in his own language. They heard. Somebody
said, I think it was a miracle that they spoke in those other
tongues that day. Maybe the miracle greatest was
in the hearing that God wrought in the ears of the hearer. There's
one thing about it. When they heard Peter and these
others preach Christ crucified, they said, we've heard. In our own language, these men
speak of the wonderful works of God. When we really hear the
gospel, we will hear of the wonderful works of God. You see, the gospel
is a message suited to the state and condition of every sinner. no matter where they're from,
no matter what language they speak. But when you get down
to the end of this book, the end of the Bible, after this
day, all throughout of time, God describes all false religion. He sums it up and He calls it
Babylon. Mystery Babylon. The mother of harlots. And he
uses this very thing, every effort of man, every deception of Satan,
every man-glorifying theme or message or work, whatever it
is, he describes them as Babylon. And he says, they will all collapse. They will all be brought to naught
as was the case this day. Everything that exalts man will
be brought down, and God alone will be exalted. All throughout
Revelation we read language like this of an angel crying with
a strong voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Babylon
always falls. Babel always comes to naught. The psalmist says, in God we
boast all the day long and praise His name forever. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord, and the humble shall hear thereof and be glad. In that psalm that Joe read for
our reading, there is a line in that psalm, in that ninth
verse, that says, in His temple, in His temple, everyone speaks
of His glory. Whether it be of us individually,
which His people are described as His temple, or whether it
be His church visibly, In His temple doth everyone speak of
His glory, His glory. There's just one star, one superstar
in the Lord's church, and that's Jesus Christ. A man in England
wrote a hymn, a recent day song, and there's a verse in it that
says, I will not boast, in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom,
but I will boast in Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection."
I have words to glorify only one. Only one has saved me. I value the one who first preached
the gospel to me. I love him with all my heart.
But He didn't save me. Nothing He ever taught me or
anyone else from that day has ever been a part of my salvation. It's just God who uses whom He
will to bring the good news of free grace, of full salvation
in Christ alone. And so He gets all the glory. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thine own name get glory." We've been here for something like
30 years and we've had that sign or another sign like it on the
front. Situations have come about of
late that make me want to put my name on that sign as a pastor
to distinguish me from a false prophet with the same last name.
And so I started to tell somebody, well, we need to get a little
sign put in there, put my name on it. But I can't already bear
the thought of it. Because this is all about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And to Him be all glory and honor
forever and ever. Amen. And everything but Christ,
whether me or anybody else, is just babble. Just babble. Father, this day we pray that
all glory and honor would be to you. Forgive us of our self-glorying,
of our self-righteousness. Forgive us of all but that which
we received by your gift of mercy. Turn our eyes upon Christ. Whatever your will is for us
in this world, make it known to us. Make it known to us through
your Word and receive our praise and our thanksgiving. We will
not trust in anything but Jesus Christ, His death and resurrection. We pray and ask all things and
thank you for all things In him. Amen.