Thank you, Joy. It's been a while since we've
had live piano. It's nice. It's a treat. So good
morning, everyone. Let's open to this morning's
service with number 62 from the Hardback Tymnal, number 62, Crown
Him with Many Crowns. Let's all stand together. Crown Him with many crowns, the
Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him
who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through
all eternity. ? Crown him the Lord of love ?
Behold his hands and side ? Rich wounds yet visible above ? In
beauty glorified ? No angel in the sky ? Can fully bear that
sight But downward bends his wandering eye At mystery so bright. Crown Him the Lord of life, Who
triumphed o'er the grave, Who rose victorious to the strife,
For those He came to save. His glories now we sing, Who
died and rose on high, Who died eternal life to bring, And lives
that death may die. ? Crown Him the Lord of heaven
? One with the Father known ? One with the Spirit through Him given
? From yonder glorious throne ? To Thee be endless praise ?
For Thou for us hast died Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in someone
15 this morning. If you'd like to turn with me,
there in your Bible, Psalm 115. And I will state the obvious.
None of us like wearing these masks. I know you don't like
him. I don't like him. I think we're spread out well
enough that we've got blue tape on the pews every other side.
So if you could just refrain from sitting where the tape is,
I think will. If you need to pull the mask
down now, I think we're I think we're. We're getting up your
nose at least. Last Sunday, it made me nervous.
We had over 60 people in here and nobody was wearing anything
and people were getting non-consensual hugs and handshakes. It would just take one person
to come in here with asymptomatic coronavirus and it would be a
real problem for some folks. Don't be, you know, if you don't
see a need for it, there's other people here that do have a need
for it. And don't, you know, don't be condescending to anybody
because they're wearing them. That's not helpful. So, thank
you. Hopefully, you know, it's like
I said Wednesday night, we're learning more about this thing
every day and hopefully, Very soon, things will change and
we won't have to do this. So that's the goal. And sooner
than we think, we're going to be over here with a lot more
space. And so if it lasts that long until we're able to get
on a new building, we'll be able to social distance a lot better
over there. All right, let's let's ask the
Lord's blessings on his on his word. Our Heavenly Father. We come
into the Holy Presence knowing that. Apart from the. Perfection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Apart from him. Standing in our
stead and. Presenting himself to you on
our behalf. or we would have no hope to call
you our father or to enter into your holy presence. But oh, what
great hope we have in him. We ask, Lord, that you'd be pleased
this morning to cause him to be glorified, exalted, send your
spirit and power put into our hearts the gift of faith that
we might rest all our hope in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that you would
Keep us safe and Lord that you would bring this trial. To a conclusion soon and enable
us to return to our normal. Sweet fellowship and and embracing
of the Holy Kiss that you've told us to share and Lord, we
we so miss that and we asked Lord that. You would enable us
to have that back soon. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Wednesday night we looked at
Psalm 115 and I want to focus our attention on verse 16. The heaven. The heaven, even
the heavens are the Lords. But the Earth have been given
to the children of men. Now, at the beginning of the
psalm, the psalmist declares, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. There's only one message of salvation
in all the world that strips men of any glory and of any credit
in salvation, and that's the gospel of God's free grace in
the glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every other message of salvation that we hear of credits men with
something to do. And we say, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name be glory. You get all the glory. You get all the glory in election.
You get all the glory in redemption. You get all the glory in sanctification.
You get all the glory in regeneration. You get all the glory in glorification.
Lord, you did it all, and you did it all by yourself, and we
can't claim any credit for any part of it. And the heathen,
verse 2, says unto us, where is your God? Where is your God? Now, I want to tie that question
in with verse 16. the heaven, even the heavens
are the Lord's. Because the response that the
church has to the heathen or the unbeliever who says, show
me your God. That's what verse two says. You
show me your God. I'll show you my God. And the
response to that question is, he's in the heavens. I can't
show him to you. I can tell you about him. But
if you're going to see him, he's going to have to show himself
to you. Now that's contrary to the religions of the world, because
all the religions of the world are fixed on showing us something
about their God. Look at the number of people
that we have attending our services. There's the evidence of our God. We'll show you our God. Where's
your God? Look at the beautiful buildings
that we've constructed in the name of our God. There's our
God. Where's your God? Your religion's so plain and
so simple. Look at our robes and our trinkets
and our statues and our edifices, and there's our God. Where's
your God? Where's your God? And then they'll say, this is
what I'm doing for God. You meet somebody religious and
they're very quick to tell you what they're doing for their
God. And they'll say to you, there's my God, now where's your
God? And what do we say? We hang our head in shame and
we say, but I'm an unprofitable servant. I can't tell you anything
that I'm doing for my God that would give evidence of him. He's
got to evidence himself from the heavens. He's got to make
himself known. For that which is in the heavens
belongs to the Lord our God. That which is upon the earth,
that which is earthy, that which is fleshly, that which is visible
with the physical eyes, that which we can experience, that's
for men. That's for men. Of course, the religious will
be very quick to tell you, let me tell you about how my life
has changed since I got saved. There's my God. And the believer
hangs his head in shame and says, oh, I'm worse now than I was
then. My sin is more real to me now
than it's ever been in my life. I can't tell you about changes
in my life in order to give you evidence of my God. My God's
in the heavens. He's in the heavens. And if you're
going to know him, he's going to have to make himself known
to you By his spirit and by his word, we know that faith is the
evidence of things hoped for. It is. It's the substance of
things hoped for. It's the evidence of things not
seen. You can't see a man's faith. It's a gift that God gives to
the heart to rest all one's hope in the glorious person and in
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we say,
I can't show you my God. My God, he's in the heavens and
he hath done whatsoever he's pleased to do. Now that which
is on the earth, that belongs to men. Let me show you a passage
that you're familiar with. First Corinthians chapter two.
1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is so glorious, brethren. We are tempted. I'm not here
to preach against false religion. I'm here to encourage the child
of God to not be tempted by the views of men to try to find evidence
for your God outside of the scriptures, outside of his spirit and outside
of faith. That's what I wanna say to you.
They're gonna continue doing what they're doing. They're gonna
continue flaunting their God and showing you evidences of
their faith and boasting in that for their glory. And the child
of God says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name
be glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. You have your
Bibles open to 1 Corinthians 2. Look at verse 9. And you know, we often quote
this verse, I do, in reference to the fact that what the Lord
has prepared for us is beyond our comprehension. We cannot
even begin to imagine the glory that will be revealed in us. And that's true. That's true.
But that's kind of taken this verse out of context because
the verse is saying, look what, look what I has not seen. Verse
nine, first Corinthians chapter two, nor ear heard Neither have
entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man save the spirit of the man, which is in
him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the spirit
of God. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world. The spirit of the world is looking
for outward evidence. The spirit of the world is looking
for worldly things and fleshly things to get assurance of their
salvation. We're looking to those things
that have been revealed by the spirit of God. Look. But now
we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit,
which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given unto us, which things also we speak. We can tell you about
our God. We can't show you our God, but
we can tell you about him. Which things we also speak, not
in the words which men's wisdom speaketh or teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual with spiritual. Now
that's what we're doing right now. We're comparing this passage
of scripture with Psalm 115. Because everything in God's word
complements everything else in God's word. And this is the means
by which the Lord enables us to set our affections in the
heavens on things above where Christ is seated at the right
hand of God through the eyes of faith, through these spiritual
declaration of who he is and what he's done. The natural man
cannot receive the things of the spirit. Look at verse 14,
the natural man, the earthy man, The man that only has physical
eyes, the man that's looking to some sort of physical evidence,
or some sort of feeling, or some sort of experience, or walking
an aisle, or praying a prayer, or making a decision, or looking
to their changed life as the evidence of their salvation,
those are the things of the earth that have been given to men.
But we look to the heavens, for that belongs to our God. And
the only way the things in heaven are going to be given to us is
if He gives them to us by His Spirit, by comparing spiritual
things to spiritual things. Is that not so clear and glorious?
Look, the natural man, the man who only has the natural nature,
he doesn't have the Spirit of God. He's not been born of the
Spirit. All he has is his physical eyes
and his physical reason and his earthly nature. The natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual, the
spiritual man, the man that's got the Spirit of God, judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. Let the unbeliever
say to me, here's my God, boasting in some outward evidences of
his religion, where's your God? And I say with confidence, you're
not going to judge me. Oh no, my God is in the heavens
and he hath done whatsoever he's pleased and I'm confident. I'm content with that. I don't
have to have. trinkets of religion in order
to give evidence of my God. Those are the things of the earth.
Those are things for men. These are things from heaven.
These are things of God for who has known the mind of the Lord.
Now this takes us back to verse nine, who has known the mind
of the Lord. that he may instruct him, but
we have the mind of Christ. And what does the mind of Christ
do? He causes us to not look at the earthy, not look at the
physical, not look at those things that have been given to men,
but those things that come directly from God. Let me show you that
again in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Just over a few pages. 1st Corinthians chapter 15. This
is so glorious and this this distinguishes the difference
between. Between our God and the false
gods of man made religion. He gets all the glory. And you
know, and he's not going to let us. He's not going to let us.
create for ourselves physical images and physical experiences
and physical things to attach our hope to. Our hope is in the
heavens. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15, verse 47. The first man of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. You see, this is the same theme,
isn't it? As is the earthy, so such are
they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, flesh
and blood cannot enter into the kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. A mystery, that which is hidden
from the natural man, that which God must reveal, that which is
from the heavens. The earthy, that belongs to man. The heavenly, that comes directly
from God. And because men love the praise
of men more than the praise of God, and because they don't have
the spirit of God to see that which is spiritual, They attach
themselves to those things that men glory in, the earthy things. One more passage of scripture,
John chapter three. This is our Lord's conversation
with Nicodemus in John chapter three, verse three. And Jesus answered
and said unto him, remember Nicodemus came to the Lord by night. And
they called him rabbi. We know that you've been sent
of God for no man can do the things that you do, except God
be with him. What was Nicodemus is what was
his, what was the evidence of his faith? The miracles that
the Lord was performing. He was looking at the earthy
evidences and he thought, well, you certainly must be sent from
God and you must be a great teacher. He was just looking at the earthy.
And Nicodemus is one of those guys. He says, show me your God.
I'll show you mine. Look at these phylacteries. Look at these robes.
Look at that temple. Look at all the evidences. Look
at the, even the disciples, they looked at the temple and they
said, Lord, look at how beautiful this edifice is. And the Lord
said, not one stone will be left on another. And in 70 AD, the
Romans came in and cleaned it to the ground and they burned
every bit of it. Why? Because God will not let you
set your affections on the things of the earth. This God that we
worship can only be known by the spirit of God. He can only
be known through faith. He can only be known by the word
of God. And when he makes himself known, you know who he is. You're able to say with the apostle
Paul, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've entrusted or committed unto him
against that day. I'm persuaded of it. I don't
need these earthly persuasions. God's given me the spirit to
discern the things of God. So the Lord responds to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, the fact that he came to the Lord by night is, is the,
is, is, is God's way of saying to us, he couldn't see anything.
He's blind. He's blind. He's walking in the
dark. And so Jesus answered him, verse three, and said unto him,
barely, barely, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. You can't see it, Nicodemus. Don't be looking at the evidences
of my miracles for the hope of your salvation. You've got to
be born of the spirit. You can't see the kingdom of
God just because you saw what I did. Just because you know
that I've been sent of God, just because you know that I can perform
miracles and that I'm a great teacher of God, you've got to
be born again. You've got to have the spirit
of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit. He can not enter in. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh,
this is the same message. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. It's earthy. It's the natural man and the
things of the earth have been given to men, but the things
of heaven, they belong to the Lord, our God. So when the world
says to you, child of God, where's your God? You say to them, our
God is in the heavens. I'll tell you about him as best
I can. But the truth is that God's called certain individuals
to spend their whole life preparing his word to declare the glory
of Christ. And if you'll come and listen
and hear about my God being preached, if you're going to know him,
If you're going to know him, that's the means by which God
will make himself known to you. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. People that are looking to a changed life, people that
are looking to their religious trinkets and buildings and, and,
and ceremonies and, and baptisms and, and, and, and prayers and
all those things that can be seen and experienced with the
flesh. That's of the flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. John chapter six, the flesh profiteth
nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. What a difference, what a difference. People say, well, your religion's
so plain. It's so simple. Oh no, it's so
glorious. But you got to be born of the
Spirit to see it. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Marvel not that I say unto you,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell where it cometh,
and so, and whither, or whither it goeth. So is everyone that
is born of the Spirit. And the Lord's liking in the
Spirit of God to the wind. And the child of God says, Oh,
Lord. Send your spirit. Give me your spirit. Open the
eyes of my understanding. Give me a heart of faith. Cause
me, Lord, to be able to see that which the natural man cannot
see. That mystery of grace, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,
his accomplished work, enabled me to set my affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, not
on the things of the earth. Go back in there, Psalm 115. James chapter one says, let no
man say when he sins that that that God made him do it for we
We're drawn away of our own lust and when lust is conceived to
bring forth sin and sin bring it forth death. What's the Lord
saying? You're the cause of your sin.
And then the next passage says, but every good and every perfect
gift comes down from your father above with whom there is no variableness
nor shadow of turning. In other words, sin, that's earthly
and that's from man. Salvation, that's heavenly and
that's from God. You see, we're so prone and so
tempted to look to something earthy, either for the cause
or the evidence of our salvation, aren't we? And that's what the
Lord said, when the heathen says to you, where's your God? What
do we say? Our God's in the heavens. The
Lord Jesus Christ heard the words of his father say to him, I have
made thee a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Sit
thou here at my right hand until I make thine enemy as thy footstool.
You can't see my God. You're looking for evidence.
Nicodemus was looking for evidence. Everybody's looking for evidence.
The world, the religious world is looking for evidences, physical
sign. Show me a sign. You know what
they said? Show me a sign. And what did the Lord say? A
wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign. No, the
only evidence, and here's the thing about it, the Lord's never
revealed himself to anyone except his own. The only evidence that I'm going
to give you is the sign of Jonah, who spent three days and three
nights in the belly of the whale. And then was miraculously brought
forth, a picture of the death resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know that clearly, that's a picture of that. And
the resurrected Christ has only shown himself to his people.
I mean, the Lord Jesus Christ could have, after his resurrection,
walked around Jerusalem and made himself known to everybody and
shamed the whole lot of them. But he didn't do it. He didn't
do it. No. He waited for his spirit
to be sent on the day of Pentecost and then he took the most unlikely
of the disciples, Peter, the one who had next to Judah said,
well, he did the same thing Judas did, didn't he? Did the same
thing Judas did. And he picked him to stand and
preach the gospel. And through the preaching of
the gospel, by the power of the spirit, 3,000 souls were saved
and the next day 5,000 more were saved. Nothing's changed. Nothing's
changed. That which is of the natural
man is earthy. Go back with me to Psalm 115. Here's another thing, and I want
to say this to our young people particularly. You all have grown
up in a culture where the The message of victimization and
the message of entitlement is heard on every corner. Your college
professors tell you that, your high school teachers tell you
that, the media tells you that. You're a victim and you're entitled. Well, I'm here to say to you,
you're not a victim and you're not entitled to anything. And
whatever you get in this world, you're going to have to work
for it and you're going to have to earn it, period. That's just the truth. Now, don't carry that into that
which comes from heaven. Because it's just the opposite. Can you imagine losing your dignity
in the culture that we live in, in the environment that we have?
losing your dignity and your pride to such a degree that you
would be standing on the street corner begging people for money.
Can you imagine? I mean, I'm not being cruel here. You wouldn't do that, would you?
You'd find any other means to try to work and provide for yourself
before you do that. And yet, that's exactly the position
you have to take if you're going to get anything from God. Anything
that comes from heaven, you're not going to earn it. Let me show you this. Turn with
me to Proverbs chapter 6. Look at verse 10 of Proverbs
chapter 6. You get a little sleep, a little
slumber, a little folding of the hands
to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travaileth,
and thy want as an armed man. And you just read the book of
Proverbs, and it talks about those who are irresponsible,
and those who slumber, and those who won't work, and those who
have an entitlement mentality, and those who think that they're
victims, and they all end up in poverty. In the New Testament, in 1 Timothy
chapter 5, even the widows, even the widows in the church who
didn't have anyone to provide for them, I mean these were women
who were desperate, had to meet certain qualifications before
they could be put on the widow list and provided for by the
church. What am I saying? Go back with
me to our text. What you receive from the earth,
you're going to have to work for it. What you receive from
heaven, you're going to have to beg for. That's what we're
saying. Now, in other words, don't say,
well, you know, God's going to provide and we're just going
to sit back and wait for, you know, him to. No. When it comes to the earthy things,
You have to get up, put your pants on, go to work, and make
something happen. And the Lord says, if a man doesn't
work, he ought not to eat. There's God's welfare system.
And if a man doesn't provide for his own family, he's worse
than an infidel. Now how do you take all, you see, that's what
the Lord said. That which is of the earth, that's earthy.
You gotta work for that, you gotta earn that, you gotta get
up and be responsible for that. But that which is from heaven,
you can't do anything to earn that. You can't obligate God
in any way. You can't pray a prayer. You
can't perform a work. You can't get religious. You
can't change your life. You can't do anything to obligate
God for that. You're gonna have to lose all
your dignity and all your pride, and you have to go to the corner
and beg like blind Bartimaeus, have mercy upon me, oh God. What
am I gonna do to bring those things down from heaven? Isn't
that glorious? The heaven, even the heavens
are the Lord's, but the earth hath he given to the children
of men. And this goes all the way back to Genesis, doesn't
it? Genesis chapter two, and the
Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it. That was before the fall. God
gave man work before sin. So, you know, work became by
the sweat of our brow and the thorns and the thistles and all
the hardships of work came as a result of the fall, but work
was given by God before the fall. The benefits of heaven have absolutely
nothing to do with our will or our works or anything we do. It is by God's mercy that he
would send his spirit to reveal the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, having put away our sin. Lord have mercy upon me. Let
me show you one last passage of scripture, Job chapter five,
Job chapter 35, I'm sorry, Job 35, Job 35. Now you remember
Job, Job was complaining and insisting
that he didn't deserve what he was going through and he was
justifying himself before God. And at one point he said, this
is what Job said, listen to what he says in chapter 27. I'm just
going to read it. My righteousness I hold fast
and I will not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me
so long as I live. I'm not guilty of this. I'm right.
And this is not fair. That's the reason after the Lord
spoke to Job, Job said, oh, I had spoke without knowledge. I was
holding, and Elihu reprimanded Job because he justified himself. Now here's what Elihu says in
chapter 35, verse six. If thou sinnest, what dost thou
against him? He's speaking of God. You think
that your sin is going to change God? Or if thou transgression be multiplied,
what does thou do unto him? You think anything you do in
terms of the negative things that you do is going to change
God? What's the Lord say? I change
not. And therefore you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. I'm the Lord. Your sin's not gonna cause God
to change his mind and say, well, I'm not gonna save you now because
you've acted this way. And if thou be, look at the next
verse, and if thou be righteous, what givest thou him? Or what
receiveth he of thy hand? If you do what's right, have
you benefited God? You think you're gonna obligate
God to bless you because you've done what's right? You see, those things are from
heaven. What you do here in the earth has nothing to do with
what God does from heaven. That's the heavenly. Now, I'm
glad the Lord put this in his word. Look at the next verse.
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art, and thy righteousness
may profit the son of man. In other words, don't use this
as an excuse to do wrong and not right. Because if you do
without what's right, you're going to help other people. And
if you do what's wrong, you're going to hurt other people. But
you're not going to change God. He's in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever he's pleased to do. These things are earthy. Don't think that your acts of
goodness are going to are going to sway God to change his mind. Don't think your sin is going
to cause him to reject you. These things are from heaven. By reason and the multitude of
oppression, they make the oppressed to cry, they cry out by reason,
the arm of the mighty. But none sayeth, where is God,
my maker who give us songs in the night? Where is God? Where's your God? He's in the heavens and he hath
done whatsoever he's pleased. And I'm not going to change him.
And I'm so thankful for that because what he's determined
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world cannot
be changed. He's chosen a people, He's redeemed
them successfully through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He sends His Spirit and makes them willing in the day
of His power. I'm so thankful that my God can't be changed. Amen.