If you would open your Bibles
to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle
of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith
with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord,
according as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him
that has called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving
all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge,
and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience.
and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness,
and to brotherly kindness, love. For these things be in you and
abound. They make you that you shall
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things
is blind and cannot see that far off. and hath forgotten that
he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore, the rather, brethren,
give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you
do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall
be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Wherefore, I will not
be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things,
though you know them, and be established in the present truth.
Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to
stir you up by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly
I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ
hath showed me. Moreover, I will endeavor that
ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in
remembrance. Merciful Lord, thank you, Lord,
for gathering us together this morning. Thank you for your written
word. We long, Lord, for the living
word to come and effectually write the written word in our
hearts. We would find all our joy and
peace and comfort We ask that you would continue to be with
Greg this morning and use him to speak to our hearts. Lord,
give us ears to hear the spirit. Give us eyes to see Jesus. Give
us feet to walk in faith, to walk in your ways, to please
you and serve you. Forgive us of our sins, Lord,
and our unbelief. Deliver us, Lord, from our foolishness.
Help us this day, Lord, that we may glorify you, for you alone
are worthy. For it's in Jesus Christ's name
we pray, amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Thank you. In myself I have no merit. Nothing good have I to give. That a holy, just, and perfect
God could ever let me live. Sin defiles my best performance. Guilty, vile, and ruined I am. ? Yet my heart breaks in repentance
? By God's grace I see the Lamb ? See the Lamb of God our Savior
? Bearing all our sin and shame ? By eternal love and favor ?
Jesus died bearing our blame Bruised and wounded and forsaken,
as our substitute he died. It is finished, sin's forgiven,
justice now is satisfied. Here's my hope and consolation,
Jesus died for sinners' sake. Trusting Him, I have salvation
and the cup of blessing take. All is well, I cannot doubt it. God who gave his son for me rules
this world and all things in it for my good eternally. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Samuel
7. 2 Samuel 7. David wanted to build a house
for God. And Nathan initially, the prophet,
told David, do it. And then the Lord spoke to Nathan,
and Nathan brought the message to David, said, no, your son,
Solomon, will build the house. But God's going to do something
for you, in that he's going to build you a spiritual house.
And by your seed will be an everlasting kingdom. Of course, that prophecy was
in reference to the son of David, the Lord Jesus, who would come
through the line of David and establish the eternal kingdom
of heaven by his life and his death and his resurrection. And
David was blessed greater by this promise than had he been
able to build the house that he wanted to build. And when
he hears what the Lord says, he responds in amazement when
he says, who am I? And what is my house? Lord, why
would you do something like that for me? And after that, He begins a prayer of praise,
thanking the Lord for his amazing grace and for his blessings. And Lord willing, over the next
few weeks, we're going to be looking at this prayer. that David offers up, maybe one
or two verses at a time, because there's so much in it that I
hope will be a blessing to us. Notice in verse 20, and what
can David say more unto thee? For thou, Lord God, thou knowest
my by servant, or do you know I'm not worthy of this? You know
I'm not deserving to be part of the kingdom of God, eternal
kingdom. And then in verse 21, he says,
for thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou
done all these great things to make thy servant know them. Wherefore, thou art great, O
Lord God, For there is none like Thee. There is none like Thee. Neither is there any God beside
Thee according to all that we have heard with our ears. Anytime we try to speak for God,
were doomed for failure. Moses, when the Lord met him
at the burning bush and sent him into Egypt, Moses responded
by saying, I am not eloquent. I am slow of speech and slow
of tongue. Lord, I can't speak. When the
apostle Paul considered preaching the gospel, he said, who is sufficient
for these things. Who can possibly stand and speak
for God as he ought? When we try to express the incomprehensible
attributes of his glorious divine nature, We are sure to fall short
of our hopes. We are brought to the same place
where David was in Psalm 139, when considering the greatness
of God, he said, these things are too wonderful for me. I cannot,
I cannot understand them. John said, I'm but a voice of
one crying in the wilderness. And all he could do was point
and say, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins
of the world. He's able to speak. He's able
to speak truth to the heart. All I can do is point to him. There is none like thee, David
said. If the Lord is ever pleased to
reveal to our hearts a glimpse of his unsearchable glory, everything
else will be understood. We will understand our unworthiness.
We'll understand our sinfulness. We'll understand our need for
grace. We'll understand his mercy and his love. Scripture says that he is unsearchable
and past finding out who hath known the mind of the Lord. Moses said in Exodus 15, who
is like unto thee? Who's like unto thee? There's
none like unto thee. Micah said, who is a God like
unto thee that pardoneth iniquity? Lord, where am I gonna go to
find forgiveness of my sin but to thee? There's nothing like
you, no other God. As unsearchable and infinite
as He is, does that mean that we ought not to pursue a knowledge
of Him? Absolutely not. He has revealed
Himself in His Word in part, we see in part. And we're to
be like Paul when he said, oh that I might know him. Forgetting those things which
are behind, I press towards the mark for the prize of the high
calling I've not yet apprehended. That which has apprehended me,
I want to know him better. The Lord Jesus said in John chapter
17, this is life eternal that they might know thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. The pursuit of
the knowledge of God is our life. It is the believer's life to
know him. Tim, you read from 2 Peter, Peter
finishes his letter by saying, grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that very verse that you
read, Tim, he talked about the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is, our life is to know him. And he's pleased to reveal
himself in part Little by little. Sometimes we refer to heaven
as a place where the Lord is going to display the fullness
of his glory but that's not actually accurate. The fullness of his
glory will never be comprehended. Even in heaven, we're going to
be We're going to be learning more and more about Him. Eternity
will not be sufficient to reveal the fullness of His glory. He
is so infinite, He's so glorious. That's what David is saying here.
There's none like Thee, O God. There's none like Thee. Now in
heaven, we will be unhindered by our sin and we'll see the
splendor of His glory. not through a glass darkly as
we do now, but then face to face. But for the rest of eternity,
that's what's going to make heaven heaven, is the Lord Jesus is
going to be displaying and demonstrating and teaching and growing us more
and more in the knowledge of God. And we'll never be satisfied
with how much of him we know. So our journey begins now and
it continues for all eternity. And David is saying, who's like
thee? Or there's no pursuit in this
world that can captivate my soul and my interest for all eternity.
We get interested in something and we may stay interested for
a while, but while it loses its luster, does it not? Oh, not so. Not so with the revelation
of His glory. No, the luster and the glory
and the majesty of it will only grow infinitely more day by day
and time by time and eon by eon for all eternity. Who is like unto thee? There's
none like thee. There's none like thee. That's what his name I am is
a reference to. There's none like me. What the
Lord is telling us is I am self-existent. I have no beginning and no end. I'm eternal. I'm infinite. There's nothing like me. I'm self-satisfied, I'm self-contained,
I'm self-sufficient, I'm the uncreated, eternal, sinless,
holy God. And God in His mercy and grace
brings sinners into His presence and He enables us to get glimpses
of His glory and we're brought to say, you see how A man is
doomed for failure in trying to speak on such a vast subject,
on such a glorious topic. There's no way we can, who's
sufficient for these things? And yet this is the very subject
that captivates our souls and our minds and our lives now and
for eternity as believers. Before God created a heaven for
his abode, he existed self-sufficient, self-satisfied, self-content,
in need of nothing. Before he made the angels to
sing forth his praises, He was completely content with Himself before He made man in His image. He was content, complete, not
just content, complete within Himself. That's what His name
I Am means. Who is like Thee? You see, God didn't create all
of these things. He didn't make heaven. He didn't
create the universe because He was lacking something. He made
these things in order to demonstrate more of His glory for the benefit
of His creation. His creation benefits Him nothing. Yes, we glorify Him, but it's
not as if our God needs our glorifying in order to add something to
Him. Nothing can be added to Him.
He's complete within Himself. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. The triune Godhead, completely
self-satisfied, completely self-content and self-contained. Everything he does and everything he has done according to his sovereign will
and purpose, yes, is done for his glory. But God's glory is not God's
need. God's glory is our need. You see, it's God's mercy that
He would demonstrate His glory. We're not adding anything to
God by worshiping Him. We're the ones that need to worship
God. We're not changing God in prayer. It's prayer that God
uses to change us. You see, everything that we give
to God, He must give us first. If we're able to serve him or
to give to him something, let me ask you a question. A wise
parent will give to a small child money a few days before that parent's
birthday or some special event in order to give that child an
opportunity to go out and buy a gift for that parent. Has that parent profited? Why would a parent do that? Why
would we do that for our children? Because of our love for them,
we want them to experience the joy of giving. And so it is with our Heavenly
Father. What we give to Him is only a
portion of what He's given to us. And He's given it to us so
that we can enjoy His glory and His majesty and His power. He
doesn't need us for anything. For anything. For all eternity. And I know you can't wrap your
head around it. I can't either. These things are too wonderful
for me. We cannot even be, I mean, we have a hard enough time thinking
about time without end. But time without beginning? I
mean, that's outside of our, it's outside of anything I can
even begin to think about. But we know that's true of our
God. And creation, however long it
is, it's been here. is nothing compared to how long
he's been. He doesn't need any of it. We need all of it. And everything
he did was for our good. For all of eternity. before anything
or anyone sang his praises, he was solitary and perfectly complete
within himself. Who is like thee? What can that be said about?
Who can that be said about? And what does that tell us about
the The manifestation of His grace and of His glory. What
does that tell us about the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made? None of this added anything to
God. God can't be added to. He cannot
be added to. Ever. And He cannot be taken
from. Everything He has done is for
our benefit. Worship? Does God need to be
worshipped? No, but we need to worship Him.
And He's given us His Spirit and He's given us His Word in
order to enable us to enter into worship for our benefit. Turn with me to Revelation chapter
four. You might be thinking, well, I thought God created everything
for his pleasure, isn't that what the Bible says? Well, let's
look at that verse a moment. Revelation chapter four. Verse 11. Thou art worthy, O
Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created
all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. That word pleasure, you can look
it up, the same word translated will. What John is saying is
God created everything according to his will and purpose. That's
what he's saying. And it is... What pleasure he has is the same
pleasure that a parent would have in seeing a child appreciate
what they've been given. But the benefit is for us, it's
for us. God created to according to his
sovereign purpose and will to show forth his glory and his
grace to the vessels of his mercy. Let me show you that, turn with
me to Revelation chapter nine, Romans chapter nine, I'm sorry,
Romans chapter nine. For his glory, yes. For his profit? For his benefit? Because he had
a need? No. No. Romans chapter 9, look at verse
21. Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lunk to make one vessel of honor and
another of dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long
sufferings the vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, that
he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us, whom he
hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, that
he might demonstrate the riches of his glory on the vessels of
mercy which he had made." God's creation didn't add anything
to him. That's not possible. He's immutable. He doesn't change. He doesn't
need anything. It's impossible to obligate God.
It's impossible to increase Him in any way. God gains nothing
by anything that we do. Our faith adds nothing to God. Our faith is a demonstration
of our dependence upon him. Say, what about obedience? Doesn't that somehow help God? Bible speaks to that. Turn with
me to Job chapter 35. Job chapter 35, look at verse
seven. If thou be righteous, what gavest thou him? Or what
received he of thine hand? If thou be righteous, thy wickedness
may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness may profit
the Son of man." You see, Evil will affect other men and
righteousness will affect other men but it doesn't add to or
take away from God. The God of man's imagination. is a God who needs something
from man in order for his will to be done. And what I'm trying
to say to you this morning is that that God doesn't exist. That God is but a figment of
men's imagination. That God is an idol fashioned
in the darkened idol factory of men's own minds. It is not
the God who is. The God who is needs nothing
from us. The God who is provides everything
for us. From the very next breath that
we draw into our lungs to the breath of life that the Spirit
of God gives into our hearts and souls, it is all of God. It's all of God. And His glory is our need. It's our need. And when the Lord shows us that
His glory is our need, then His glory becomes our life. It becomes
everything. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah 40. Verse 15. Behold, look at this. The nations are as a drop of
a bucket and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold,
he taketh up the aisles as a very small thing. Whole nations, God
says, are but a speck of dust on the balance scale. How insignificant
is a speck of dust on a balance scale? God's saying whole nations
are that way to me. Lebanon is not sufficient to
burn nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burn offering. All nations
before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare
unto him? There's none like thee. Lord, these things are important
to us. They're significant to us, they affect us. Nothing affect, he's in. He's
in complete, sovereign, omnipotent control over all things. And that's where faith rests.
That's where faith rests. Faith rests in God. Faith doesn't
rest in the sovereignty of God. Faith rests in a God who himself
is absolutely sovereign. A God who is holy, a God who
needs nothing, a God from whom I need everything. A.W. Pink put it like this, he
is solitary in his majesty unique in his excellency, peerless in
his perfection. He sustains all, but is himself
independent of all. He gives to all, but is enriched
by none. Who is like thee? Who can that
be said about? Who am I? Lord, who am I? Go back with me to our text. The Lord Jesus laid down His
life for His sheep. He demonstrated His glory for
us. Yes, How do we reconcile this to what
the scripture says in Psalm 115? Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory. That verse is talking about taking
glory to ourselves. It's not about our glory, it's
about his glory. But his glory is our need. And
he's demonstrated his glory not because he needed to be glorified. He was completely self-sufficient
before anything that could glorify him was ever created by him. But out of love for his church, out of a desire for their happiness, for their salvation, for the
benefit that his glory could be to them. He not only made all things but
he came into this world and he laid down his life for his sheep. We might be partakers of his
glory. We're the benefactors. We're
the benefactors. Get back with me in our text
in 2 Samuel chapter seven. Look at the end of verse 22. Neither is there any God beside
thee according to all that we have heard with our ears. Look at verse 21. For thy words
sake and according to thine own heart, Out of the abundance of
the heart, the scripture says, the mouth speaks. You want to
know what's in a man? Listen to him talk, eventually
his words will reveal what's important to him. So it is with
God. We learn about the heart of God
by the words that proceeded out of his mouth. He has revealed
himself. Yes, in part, but he's revealed
his glory and his grace. And he revealed himself fully
in the person of his son. If you've seen me, you've seen
the father, for I and the father are one. Man can look at creation and
conclude that there is a God. The illustration has been given
of a person who's had no exposure
whatsoever to the outside world. Someone stranded on a desert
island was born there, that's all they ever know and a watch
washes up on the beach. And that person picks up that
watch, that savage person picks up that watch and looks at it
and they can come to one conclusion. there's a watchmaker somewhere. Beyond that, they know nothing
about who made that watch. They cannot imagine what that
person's like, what they love, what they hate, where they live,
what they look like, nothing about them, only that there is
a watchmaker somewhere. And so it is when the natural
man looks at creation. And he's a fool if he hasn't
concluded that there is a creator. But apart from the revelation
that God has given of himself in his word, that's as far as
his knowledge of God can go. The natural man can never learn
more about the nature of God other than what creation demonstrates
him as the creator. The Lord has given us his word.
And he's revealed himself in his word. He's shown forth his
glory. That's what David's saying here.
Look, verse 21, let's read it again. For thy word's sake and
according to thine own heart, Lord, out of your heart came
your word. And out of the heart of God came
the living word, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was sent into this
world. to lay down his life, not because God needed something
from us, but because we needed it from God. Hast thou done all these great
things to make thy servant know them? And Lord, if you don't
make me know them, I won't know them. If you don't teach me,
I won't be taught. If you don't open the eyes of
my understanding and unstop my ears, If you don't give me a
heart to believe, Lord, speak. I need to know God. I need to
know Him. I need to be overwhelmed with
His glory and with His grace. I need to be saved. I need to
be saying what David said, who am I? And who is like unto thee? Surely there's nothing like you
in me. Unless it be through faith, by
imputation, Lord, unless you come and make residence in me
Reveal yourself in me and show forth your glory. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. Nicodemus, you can't perceive
of the kingdom of God. The Lord had just told Nicodemus
the truth about salvation, about being born again. Nicodemus said,
how can I go back into my mother's womb and be born again? Oh, Nicodemus,
you've got to be born of the Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit
can reveal the truth of God to your heart. You see, this is
where we come to when the Lord causes us to say, there's none
like thee. Lord, if you don't give me your
spirit, I won't know thee. If you don't make your word alive,
I won't hear thee. If you don't give me faith, I
won't believe thee. If you don't cause me to say,
Lord, what would you have me to do? I won't serve you. Lord, I'll go about in my life
in this world and I'll make everything else the pursuit of my life.
It's what the unbeliever does. Family, work, possessions, Popularity, power, pleasure,
pride, all those things, Lord, I'll pursue all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, I'll pursue that. Lord, make me to know thee. Make me willing. Let him who has ears to hear,
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Oh, let us jettison any thought
that God might need anything whatsoever from us. He needs
nothing. And but for his will and purpose,
creating us in Christ Jesus, electing us and placing his eternal
love on us, we would be but a speck of dust on the balance scale
of no consequence whatsoever to him. None. The nations are that way. What
makes me any different? Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you did not receive? Oh, there is none like thee. Turn with me to Isaiah 57. Isaiah
57. This is a wonderful passage. Look at verse 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty
One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy. Now just
think of holy. Holy is not just moral perfection. It's not just sinless perfection.
This word holy means, the best definition I've ever heard of
the word holy is the word other. Just other. He's other than we
are. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners. He's higher than the heavens.
He's holy, separated. He's not like us in any way.
And we err if we make God to be like unto ourselves. I dwell in the high and holy
place. With him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive
the heart of the contrite ones. Wanna be where God is? Contrite, humble. And what brings about that? Who
am I? Who am I and who is like unto
thee? I've got no claim on God. God
needs nothing from me. I'm completely dependent upon
him for everything. I cannot add anything to my salvation. He must do it all. If I perceive
of a God who needs something from me in order for him to be
able to save, that's not the high and holy
one. And that's not a contrite and humble spirit. David put
it like this in Psalm 51, a contrite and humble spirit thou will not
despise. Why will he not despise it? Because
he created it. God only accepts what God provides. The only sacrifice that God will
accept for our salvation is the sacrifice that he provided. I can do nothing to obligate
God. All I can do and all that by
his grace is to take him at his word and to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we find our hope and comfort
in knowing that your throne is a throne of grace. That we can come and cry out in our time of need,
and find your help. Find your help to be full and
sufficient. Lord, we're reminded that your
grace is sufficient for us and that you need nothing from
us. Lord, thank you for this table. Thank you for the simplicity
of it. Thank you for the unleavened bread, reminding us of the sinless
life of thy dear son. Thank you for the wine, reminding
us of his spilt blood. Lord, might we receive this table
in faith, looking to Christ for all our righteousness and all
of our justification before thee. For it's in his name we ask it,
amen. Number six in their spiral hymnal,
number six. We'll sing every other verse,
so for a total of three verses in this hymn. So the first, the
third, and the fifth. ? Who is a God like unto thee ?
That pardoneth iniquity ? Jehovah God, the great I Am ? Forgives
our sins through Christ the Lamb ? Who is a God like unto thee
? ? That pardoneth iniquity ? ? His anger he retains no more ? ?
His grace and mercy shall endure ? ? Behold His love and compassion
? In the death of Christ His Son ? The precious sin atoning
blood ? Reveals the love and truth of God ? Is a God like
unto thee ? That pardoneth iniquity ? His anger he retains no more
? His grace and mercy he shall endure None can with our great
God compare. He gives His Son sinners to spare. His anger He retains no more. Christ died and God requires
no more. is a God like unto thee, that
pardoneth iniquity. His anger he retains no more. His grace and mercy he shall
endure. Please be seated.