I want to read for our Scripture
reading tonight from Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter
4. In verse 1, After this I looked,
and behold, a door was opened in heaven. That's our hope, isn't
it? I said, God be pleased to open
a door and allow us to peek into heaven. And the first voice which
I heard was as it were a trumpet talking with me and said, come
up hither and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the
spirit. It's the only way we're going to see into heaven is if
we're in the spirit. And behold, a throne was set
in heaven and one sat on the throne. This is the same one
that Isaiah saw in Isaiah chapter 6 when he said, I saw the Lord
high and lifted up. And in John chapter 12 verse
41 it says that Isaiah spoke of his glory when he saw him
seated upon his throne. And he that sat was to look upon
like a jasper and like a sardine stone. As I understand a jasper
is like a clear diamond and a sardine stone is like emerald red, emerald
red is like a blood red. And here we have a picture of
the holiness of Christ, his purity and his sacrifice. And there was a rainbow round
about the throne. You ever seen a rainbow from
an airplane? I saw one recently. And when I looked down, the shadow
of the plane that I was in was right smack dab in the middle
of the rainbow. And the rainbow was a full circle. All we see
is part of the rainbow. The Lord, when he gave the rainbow
to Noah, he said, this will be a token unto you that I'll be
faithful to keep my promises, not to destroy the earth again
with a flood. And every time we see a rainbow,
that's a token from God. But we only see a part of it.
We don't see the whole rainbow. A rainbow, in fact, is a full
circle, and here it is circled around the throne. God sees all
that he's doing in order to fulfill his promises for us. We just
see in part. Round about the throne was four
and twenty seats, and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders
sitting clothed in white raiment, and they had on their heads crowns
of gold. There's the church. And out of
the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices, and
there were seven lamps of fire burning upon the throne, which
are the seven spirits of God." This is symbolic language. The
seven is a number of perfection, and this is the full power of
the spirit of God. And before the throne there was
a sea of glass, like unto crystal. In the midst of the throne and
round about the throne were four beasts, full of eyes, before
and behind. I don't claim to understand verse
7 fully, but these beasts seem to be those seraphim that are
hovering over the throne of God, as we'll see in these following
verses. The first beast was like a lion, and the second beast
like a calf, and the third beast had the face of a man, and the
fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had
each of them six wings about them. and they were full of eyes
within, and they rest not day or night, saying, Holy, holy,
holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And when those beasts give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth
forever and ever, the four and twenty elders, here's the church,
fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him
that liveth forever and ever, and cast their crowns before
the throne, saying, 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. Jennifer Dunbar's father had
a setback today, but I understand now he may be doing a little
bit better this evening. Jerry Ross is still recovering
from the surgery that he had a week or two ago. You've heard me speak of John
Mitchell, who was the pastor of the church at Great Falls,
Montana, that I've been up and preached for. John was suffering
from late-stage Parkinson's disease. Bert and I visited him. two years
ago and he wasn't able to move then, the Lord took him home
last night. So what a blessing that is for
him. And I told Mitch at the church
there that we would be praying for them. Mary's having surgery
in the morning at Winnie Palmer. So I want us to remember to pray
for Mary. All right, let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
how thankful we are that you are a God of mercy and a God
of grace, one that is worthy of all glory and power and honor. We ask, Father, first and foremost,
that you'd be pleased to glorify yourself here tonight, that you
would open what no man can shut, open our hearts to understand
your word Open your word to reveal the glory of Christ and enable
us to agree with what's happening in heaven as the seraphim hover
over thy throne and cry, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts. We pray that you would open that door into heaven and
send your spirit in power. We pray for Jerry. We ask, Lord,
that you would be merciful to him pray for the doctors that
minister to him and ask Lord that you would give them knowledge
and skill and we pray especially for Jerry's soul and we ask that
you'd give opportunity to to speak to him about Christ. Father
we thank you for for John Mitchell for the many years of faithful
ministry and for the work that you've established there and
thank you now for the hope of knowing that he's with thee and
his sufferings here on this earth are over. Pray for the church,
ask Lord that you would provide their needs in this time of loss. And Father, we pray for Mary,
ask Lord that you would minister grace to her heart tonight as
she waits on you. I know there's always a sense
of anxiety and facing surgery. And Lord, just pray for your
peace to keep her heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Pray for the
surgeons and ask Lord that you'd make them very skillful and that
they'd be able to be instruments of healing in thy hand, that
you would be merciful Lord to us. We ask it in Christ's name. Let's stand together. Would you
turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. I've titled this message, For
Idolaters and Recovering Idolaters. Truth is, we all come into this
world naturally an idolater. We fashion at a very young age
an image of God that is altogether as we are ourselves. We find our place of comfort
and hope in our circumstances and in men, and in that sense
we make so many things to be our God. Until the Lord is pleased,
to open the eyes of our understanding, and cause us to see what an idolater
we are, and make Himself known to us, and cause us to believe
Him, and to worship Him, to trust Him, and to fear Him. And when
He does that, we're delivered. And yet, just like we are always
going to be in this body, recovering Pharisees, Always tempted to
go back to the law. We are, in a very real sense,
as believers, recovering idolaters. We still are tempted to try to
find our hope, our satisfaction, our happiness outside of Christ. And we need to be brought back
to the truth. And I pray the Lord will do that
for us. here tonight, that He will cause
us to once again bow before Christ and to acknowledge Him as our
all. Notice in verse 1 of Psalm 115,
and my first point started to be the title to this message,
it's not about you. It's not about you, and it's
not about me. And it's not about our circumstances,
and it's not about this country, and it's not about the world
and the wars of this world. It's not. And that's what David
says here. Look at Psalm 115, verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name be glory. The mystery of life can only
be discovered when one is able to say, in faith, not unto us,
not unto us, but unto thy name be glory, for thy mercy and for
thy truth's sake. As long as one is in pursuit
of happiness, happiness will remain an illusion to you. The American dream is a dream. It's just a dream. Not unto us,
not unto us, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and for
thy truth's sake. As long as the Declaration of
Independence is your rule of life, you'll not be free. You'll not be free. As long as what you do or don't
do is a considering factor, you'll never know the meaning of life.
And as long as what you do or don't do is a consideration in
your salvation, you'll never be saved. not unto us, not unto
us, O Lord, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and for
thy truth's sake." It's not about you. As long as your accomplishments
or your failures are your focus, then you will remain blind to
the truth. You see how we are recovering
idolaters? How often times do we consider
our circumstances, consider our accomplishments, or grieve over
our failures and try to measure the meaning of life based on
some contribution that we've made? What does God say? Not unto us! Oh Lord, it's not unto us. Unto Thy Name be glory for Thy
truth and for Thy mercy's sake. As long as in your relationships
you're trying to figure out how to have your needs met, then
strife and vain glory will be your lot in that relationship. It's not unto us. Oh Lord, it's
not unto us. Unto Thy name be glory." It's
not about you. It's not about me. And it's not
about serving others also. I heard a preacher this morning
saying, you know, that the way you really get meaning in life
is give yourself in service to others. Notice the tense of the pronoun. I don't know if it's a tense,
it's the third person. It's not unto me, it's not unto
us. It's not unto us. Well, if I
can just be a selfless servant. Well, you ought to be a selfless
servant. But that's not what he's saying. How many times people
pride themselves in thinking that their life has made a difference
because they've done something good for someone else? How many
times people feel good when they help someone and they gratify
themselves in thinking, well, now my life has meaning because
I've done something good for somebody else? It's not on task. Oh Lord, it's not unto us. It's not about You. It's not
about me. It's not about this world. But
unto Thy name be glory. We just read it in Revelation
chapter 4 verse 11, did we not? Thou hast created all things,
and for Thy glory they were and are created." Everything's about
Him. It's all about Him. For centuries, men believed what
they naturally observed. And that is that the sun was
rotating around the earth. And consequently we spent a thousand
years in the dark ages. And no scientific discoveries
were available to us because we were locked in to a false
presupposition about our circumstances. You know that's the way it is
spiritually with men. God's revolving around me. And
it's not until we see that He is at the center of our solar
system. He's the center of our universe. No advances, no scientific advances
could be made until that myth was proven wrong. And no advances
in your life or in my life will be enjoyed until the myth is
proven wrong. It's not unto us. Oh Lord, it's not unto us, but
unto thy name be all the glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake." My first point was it's not about you and my second point
is it is all about God. It's all about Him. Unto thy
name be glory. He's the creator. He's the one
who put everything into motion. And as He makes Himself known
to us, He begins by revealing that glorious truth to us, doesn't
He? In Genesis 1, verse 1, in the
beginning God created. And as we read in Revelation
4, verse 11, He created everything for His glory. Everything. And everything exists for His
glory. John chapter 1 verse 3 says all
that was made was made by him and without him was not anything
made that was made in him in him was life and the life his
life was the light of men see there's no light As long
as we are observing our existence in this world or evaluating our
salvation or our relationship with God or with one another
based on something that we do, we will not have any light. message that Paul the Apostle
preached to the Athenians there in Acts chapter 17 when he got
those philosophers together, the Epicureans and the Stoics. And he pointed out that they
were worshiping an unknown God and he said, the God that you
worship I'm going to preach unto you for in Him, in Him you live
and you move and you have your being. Apart from Him, we have
no being. Apart from Him, we don't move.
Apart from Him, we don't live. Apart from Him, we don't breathe.
Without faith, without faith, it is impossible to please God.
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, that He is,
and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Seek Him. Seeking His righteousness, His
glory. How do we seek His glory? How
do we seek His glory? By giving glory to His name.
There it is. Look at verse 1. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name, unto Thy name give
glory. Well, as we've seen over the
last few months, He has many names, doesn't He? And each one
of them demonstrate a different aspect of His glory. But let's
just look at a few. The Lord Jesus Christ, His name
is Jesus. And the angel told Joseph, you
call his name Jesus for he shall save his people. Now how many
people have, as we said Sunday, been guilty of identity theft? They've stolen the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ and they've robbed him of his glory by suggesting
that he wants to save some who he's not able to save. We glorify
Him in His name. His name means that He's a Savior
and that He's accomplished everything He came to do. Is it possible
that He could fail? We glorify Him by giving glory to
His name. He told Moses at the burning
bush when Moses said, whom shall I say sent me, what is thy name? And the Lord Jesus Christ spoke
to Moses from that bush and said, tell them I am hath sent thee. We have it translated in our
Bibles L-O-R-D, all capitalized. It's his name, Jehovah. And the Lord Jesus Christ, when
He came, He said, I am the bread of life. I am the bread of life. It's all about His glory. You
say, well, how do I glorify Him? Don't measure your performance
to see whether or not you're giving glory to God. Don't do
it. I'm much more concerned with
what you believe. I'm much more concerned with
what you believe. You know, everything that we do comes from what we
believe. It does. Every time we sin, we
sin because we believe in our hearts that that sin is going
to make us happy. It's going to somehow gratify
us. Every time we're afraid, it's because we believe that
the circumstances are out of control and something might happen.
And everything we do comes from what we believe. The gospel deals
with men's hearts. Glorifying God is an issue of
the heart. It's what we believe about Him.
That's what it is. So that the Lord said, whether
you eat or whether you drink or whatsoever you do, you do
it all to the glory of God. What does that mean? My mother
used to tell me, don't chew with your mouth open. Is that what
it means? To eat to the glory of God? Or
to be careful that we eat healthy food? Is that what it means?
Or don't slurp your drink when you drink? You know, we've got
to do this to the glory of God. No! No. The Lord is saying in the
most mundane, common things of life, you acknowledge in your
heart that your only ability to do that is because of God. And you are giving to Him the
glory for it. You give to Him the glory for
every bite of food you put in your mouth. You give to Him that,
why? Because you're You're saying, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto Thy name. You're the glorious I Am. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the bread of life. You wouldn't have bread without
Him. You wouldn't have physical bread without Him. You wouldn't
have spiritual bread without Him. He said, I am the resurrection,
Martha. Martha, believe us thou this,
I believe Lord that when you come, I believe that in the end
that my brother will be raised again. She believed that there
was going to be a resurrection, but she didn't understand that
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is that resurrection. I am the life. There's no life outside
of me. There's no truth outside of me. I'm the way as we saw Sunday. I had a man tell me yesterday,
a friend of mine, that I had been speaking to about the gospel
on several occasions. And he stopped me yesterday and
he said, I want to thank you for helping me on my faith journey."
And I said, well, what do you mean? He said, well, since our
last conversation when you told me that I needed to go out there
and discover what was true for me. He said, you told me there were
lots of truths out there and I needed to go discover what
was true for me. And I have. And I want to thank
you for that. You know I didn't tell him that.
I told him just the opposite. And I told him yesterday, I said,
no, there's only one truth. Where did you get that from?
And as I was going home, I was just
being reinforced that this is the work of the Spirit of God. I mean, he's an intelligent,
educated man that I was clear with. You know I was clear with
him. And he heard just the opposite
of what I said. Why? Couldn't believe. Couldn't see. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
glorious, self-existent creator and sustainer of all of life. And when He said, I am, what
He was saying was, I'm not like you or anything else in any way. I'm the one that created all
of this. I'm the one that sustains it. I'm the one who made you. I'm the one who created all the
intricate details of your life. And it's not about you. It's
about me. All that the Lord would deliver
us from our idolatry. Are you a recovering idolater?
Do you find yourselves falling back into thinking that it's
about you? And when your situation isn't
as it ought to be, you're trying to figure out a way you can manipulate
the circumstances so you can make it work for you, rather
than falling before God and saying, it is not of us. It's not unto us, oh Lord. but unto thy name." What's his
name? His name is Jesus. His name is
I AM. I'm the bread of life. I'm the
truth. I'm the light of the world. There's
no light apart from me. Before Abraham was, I AM. I'm the door, the one and only door. And as the gates of heaven are
described in Revelation, we see that there's 12 gates, all of
one pearl. He's the pearl of great price.
It's about Him. It's about Him. He's the Good
Shepherd. He is the true vine. Look at the last part of verse
1. thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake." Let not, Proverbs 3, verse 3, let not mercy and truth forsake
thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the tables of
thine heart. It's all about mercy and truth. By mercy and truth, iniquity
is purged, and by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil. It's God's mercy that saves us,
and it's His truth. It's His truth. He seeketh after
those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Turn with me to Psalm 69. Psalm
69. Glorifying God simply means that we give to
Him from our hearts. all glory, all praise, and all
honor for all things. That's what it means. And if
that's in our hearts, the rest of it will take care
of itself. That's why we can say, love God, trust Christ,
believe God, and live like you want. Religion's all about putting
rules and regulations on men's lives in order to try to prove
by their behavior that they love God. If the Lord's pleased to put
it in our hearts. You know, men are cleaning the
outside of the cup and the Lord said the inside of it's full
of corruption. Whitewashed tombs, he called
them. whitewashed tombs full of dead men's bones. I'm much
more concerned with what's on the inside. That's where the
gospel speaks. That's where we must address.
That's where we must ask God to do a work. Lord, do a work
on my inside. And help me to quit trying to
fix everything else on the outside. Just to be still and know that
Thou art God. Do you have your Bibles open
to Psalm 69? Look at verse 13. But as for
me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. O God,
in the multitude of thy mercy, hear me. If God hears us, it
will be because of his mercy. Now he's full of mercy, and he
delights in showing mercy. That's the only reason that he
would hear us. The only reason He would give us the time of
day. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Can you say that? Lord, who am I that you would
be mindful of me? It's not unto us. It's not unto
us, O God, but unto Thy name be glory for Thy mercy and for
Thy truth's sake. The only reason God would give
us the time of day. is because he's merciful. And
David says right here, Lord I bring my petition before thee and plead
with you that by the multitude of thy mercy you would hear me
and in the truth of thy salvation. There is one gospel. There's
one truth. The Lord Jesus Christ said I
am the truth. Lord, would you be pleased to
reveal the truth of who you are to me? Would you be pleased to
reveal, to show by your mercy the truth of what you've done
for me? Would you be merciful enough
to do a work of grace in my heart and reveal to me the truth of
how this thing is all about you and not about me? Lord, would
you do that? You're going to have to be merciful
towards me to do it because I've got no other plea. I've got nothing to bring to
you that would be grounds for you to be that way towards me. It's going to all have to be
by your mercy. Not unto us. Oh Lord, not unto us. But unto
thy name. And for thy mercy's sake. And
for thy truth's sake. You know, it's by the mercy and
truth of God that we're here. How did you end up here? How
did you end up hearing the truth? How did you end up like Cornelius
when he said to Peter, We are all here to hear what it is that
God has commanded thee. How did you get here to hear?
And how did you hear? In Genesis chapter 24 verse 27,
Abraham, you remember, sends his servant out to find Isaac,
a wife. And in the providence of God,
he is sent directly to Rebekah. And here's what the servant says
to Rebekah's father, Rebekah's brother, Bless be the Lord God
of Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master of his mercy
and of his truth. I being in the way, the Lord
led me to the house of my master's brethren." The Lord led me to the house
of my master's brethren. Why? Because we were not left
destitute of mercy and of truth. He gets all the glory. He gets
all the glory in salvation. He gets all the glory in the
simplest things of life. He gets all the glory. The glorifying
God is just acknowledging that everything is of Him. And it's
all about Him. Psalm 85 verse 10 says, Mercy
and truth have met together. Where did mercy and truth meet
together? How is it that God is able to maintain His justice,
His holiness, and justify sinners like you and me. How can you
do it? Mercy and truth has met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where did that happen? Where
did mercy and truth meet together? Where did righteousness and peace
kiss one another? I'll tell you what they did.
You know where they did. Right there on Calvary's cross. right
there on Calvary's cross, when God the Son was doing business
with God the Father to bring glory to His name. He said, Father,
I have glorified Thy name upon the earth, and I pray now that
Thou will glorify me and return me back to the glory that I was
with You. It's all about God's glory. And
the salvation of His people is for His glory. is for His glory. Everything is for His glory.
Not unto us. O Lord, not unto us. Psalm 86 verse 15 says, But thou,
O Lord, art a God full of compassion and grace, longsuffering, and
plenteous in mercy and truth. Does the mercy and truth of God
cause your heart to worship Him and to give to Him all the glory
for all of His blessings? He's plenteous in mercy and truth.
He doesn't lack anything. Isaiah chapter 16 verse 5 says,
In mercy shall the throne be established. and he shall sit
upon it in truth." God mercifully set a throne over Israel and
put a king on that throne. And that king reigns in truth,
judging and seeking judgment, and hastening righteousness. Mercy and truth on the throne
of God. He gets the glory. Look at verse 2. Wherefore should the heathens
say, Where is now their God? You know what the heathen say
about this, about what we're doing. About the few of us are
meeting here on the backside of a popcorn. We don't have any
political clout. We don't have any religious influence.
You know what, they would come in here and they would say, where's
your God? Where's your God? I mean, our God is saving thousands. We've got a multitude of people
coming to our church. We've got big buildings and lots
of money. Where's your God? The heathen
says, where's your God? They may look at our families,
some of the messes that we've made of things, and their self-righteousness,
condemn us. by saying, where is your God? They may look at your career
and your accomplishments and successes in this world and say
of you, where's your God? Where's your God? You see, men don't measure the
power of God by His glory. They measure it by what's happening
among men. They still see the sun rotating
around the earth. And they're just as backwards
as someone who would believe that. Our God's in the heavens. You see that in verse 3? He's
sitting upon His throne. He's never been shaken. He laughs. He laughs and holds
in derision those who would call Him into question. Oh, He's in the heavens, and
He hath done. Now we are talking about verb
tense. He hath done. Whatsoever He hath pleased. I know I made this statement
a lot recently, but I'm going to make it again. I love thinking
about it. God has never, ever had a new
thought. He's never had a new thought. Now you can't get a hold of that. When I consider these things
David said in Psalm 139, they're too wonderful for me, I cannot
attain unto them. But it's true. It's true. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased." That means that everything is exactly how He purposed it
to be. Everything. It's all about Him. Oh Lord, deliver me from my idolatry. Deliver me from setting myself
up on the throne of God. Deliver me from looking outside
of Christ for anything. Unto Thy name be glory forever. for thy mercy, and for thy truth's
sake, for thou art in the heavens, and thou hast done whatsoever
thou hast pleased to do." Lord, I don't, I don't understand the
details. And I can't see how it's all,
but I know in my heart, I know in my heart that you're on your throne, and
that everything is right on schedule, and that in the end, and that
in the end, we're going to see that it's all about you. Would
you be pleased to show me, by your mercy, the truth of that
now? Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that You would enable us by Your Spirit to rejoice
in believing that it's not about us. Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto Thy name be glory for Thy mercy and for Thy
truth's sake. We ask it in Christ's name, Amen. Number seven in the Sopheak Tymna,
let's stand. 70, 70, sorry, number 70.