All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to the book of Proverbs, chapter 28, Proverbs
28. I'd like to look at one verse,
verse two. Proverbs 28, verse two. For the transgression of a land
Many are the princes thereof. But by a man of understanding
and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. When a land transgresses, as
what the Spirit of God says, it has many rulers. But when the ruler is a man of
discernment, understanding, and knowledge, the stability of that
land will long continue. That's what Spirit of God moved
Solomon to write. It is the evidence of rebellion
when a country, nation, or even the entire world and its inhabitants
have many princes, many rulers, many leaders, many heads, governors. Now, I'm not going to deal, I
thought about it, it made me think about when the nation of
Israel went into the land of promise and there were the Moabites
and the Hittites and the Perizzites and all the other zites that
were there, and they all had their little gods, and they,
you know. I'm not going to go into all of that, but what I'm
going to do is I'm going to go back to the root of all of the
transgression, and where all these many gods came from. When the Lord created man, he
placed him in the garden, and there was one god. There's still
only one god. What I mean is, there's gonna
be some creations, I'm gonna read this in a minute, of these
liturgy gods, a bunch of, there's one God, there's one God. But as far as man is concerned,
in his transgression, there's lots of gods. Genesis 1-1, in
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
He created all that was ever to be. He spoke light into existence. He made holders of light. Put
them in the heavens. He made the heavens. He made
the earth. He made all the living creatures
in the earth. He created man, the scripture
says, in his own image. We dealt a little bit with this
the other day. Before the Lord Jesus Christ,
was made flesh before he was actually made flesh. He was. He was. He was. He was the image of the invisible
God. He was. He made flesh. Man was
created in his image. We think that the Lord was created
in the image of man. He came into this world and was
made like men were made. He was first, man was created
in his image. But when man was tempted by the
devil to sin against God, he did that one thing that God had
forbid, God told him, the day you eat of that fruit, of that
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in that day you're
gonna die. And of course he did, and in
time man began to replenish the earth, and his rebellion against
God was evidenced by a very deceptive thing. Here was the evidence
of man's rebellion. Little g gods. Little g gods. Little r rulers. Little c, captains,
little g, governors were seen all over the earth. Not that
they were gods, but they were figments of men's imagination. Turn with me to Isaiah. Hold
your place in Proverbs. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
44. Now here the Spirit of God moved
upon Isaiah to write, talk about how, this is how men's imaginary
gods come into being. Isaiah 44, I'm gonna read verses
nine to 20. And they that make a graven image
are all of them vanity, and their delectable or desirable things
shall not profit. And they are their own witnesses,
they see not nor know that they may be ashamed who have formed
a god or molten graven image that's profitable for nothing.
Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen they
are of men. Let them all be gathered together,
let them stand up, yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed
together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals,
and fashioneth with hammers, and worketh it with the strength
of his arms. Yea, he's hungry, and his strength
faileth. He drinketh no water, he faint,
the carpenter stretches out his rule, marketh it out with a line,
he fitteth it with planes, and marks it out with a compass,
maketh it after the figure of man, according to the beauty
of a man, that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down
cedars, and taketh the cedars, the cypress, and the oak, which
he strengthening for himself among the trees of the forest,
he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it
be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof and warm himself,
yea, he shall kindle it, and baketh bread, yea, and maketh
a god, worshipeth, he maketh a graven image, and falleth down
thereto. He burneth part thereof in the
fire, with part thereof he eats flesh, he roasteth roast, and
is satisfied, yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Ah, I am
warm, I have seen the fire, and the residue thereof he maketh
a god. Even his graven image, he falleth
down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and
saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god. They have not known nor
understood, for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see,
their hearts that they cannot understand, and none considereth
in his heart Neither is there any knowledge nor understanding
to say, I've burned part of it in the fire. Also, I bake bread
upon the coals thereof. I've roasted flesh and eaten
it. I shall make the residue thereof
an abomination. Shall I fall down to the stalk
of a tree? He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him
aside. He cannot deliver his soul nor
say, is there not a lie in my right hand? The Lord said, this
is how these gods come about. I'm going to cut me a tree down
and I'm going to cut me some firewood. and I may build me
some furniture, and I'll build me a fire in the fireplace, and
I'm gonna cook me something to eat, and I think I'll make me
a god out of part of it, and I'll fall down and worship it.
He said, that's the god of a man's imagination. He said, well, that's
foolishness. Oh, really? Today we behold the
continual evidence of this deception in the many denominations of
this world. Denominations that were actually
created in the hearts and minds of people by Satan for one purpose. We've read this passage before.
Turn to Revelation 12. These gods, now you think about
it. How many denominations are in
Revelation 12? How many different denominations
are there? Who knows? And they're not worshiping the
same God, because what one of them's God demands, the other
demands something else, and this one, you know. The evidence of
transgression is that there's many rulers in the land, many
gods. This one says you've got to be
baptized to be saved. This God says, no, no, no, no,
no, no. You've got to speak in tongues to be saved. No, no,
no, no, no, no. This God says you've got to be
part of this church right here to be saved. You've got to worship
Mary to be saved. This one says you've got to.
Now that's strange. You mean to tell me that all
these gods are right? Something's wrong. So the scripture
bears out. Revelation chapter 12. The scripture says in verse 13
to 15, when the dragon, that's Satan, saw that he was cast onto
the earth, he persecuted the woman, that's the bride of Christ,
which brought forth the man-child, that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, she's
being protected by the Lord, that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place, kept hidden in him, where she's nourished for
a time, and times, and half a time, the face of the serpent. And
here's the bride. Now she's in this world. And
where is she? Well, she's in her place. Where
is that? Well, it's wherever God puts
her, and he's keeping her there. He's sustaining her. He's protecting
her under his wings. And what's Satan doing? He's
throwing out all of these different heresies, all these different
religions. Where do you think all these
religions... There's one God. Where did all these little G-gods
come from? Well, the scripture says they
came out of the mouth of the serpent. Verse 15, the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that
he might cause her to be carried away with the flood. The flood
of false religion. You think all these different
denominations, somebody said, well you're just too hard. No,
I'm being truthful with you. Now listen, we're going to die.
We're going to die and all of this other foolishness that's
in the world is going to come to nothing. All they did back
in the Old Testament, they was talking about they just took
them a tree and just cut it all up and made them whatever they
needed, made them a little god, stuck it up there on the shelf right
there and bowed down to it, you know, and then take part of the
wood and go cook them something to eat. And all that's happening today
is Satan is casting out of his mouth all this false religion.
And it's all these different denominations and all in the
world they're for. We love you. No, they don't.
If they loved you, they'd tell you the truth. Because men are
going to die. And he cast it out. But what
happened? God intervened. Verse 16, 17
of Revelation. And the earth helped the woman,
and the earth that is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof, opened
her mouth and swallowed up the flood, which the dragon cast
out of his mouth. And the dragon was wroth with the woman and
went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. You know why? If you know Him, if you're sitting
under the sound of the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
That message that declares God to be in the heavens. Where's
your God, David? He's in the heavens, and He has
done whatsoever He hath pleased. If He chooses to show mercy,
He shows mercy. If He chooses to leave a man
or woman to themselves, He leaves them alone. Why? Because He's
God. That's why. That's the God of
this Bible. And if you believe that, you
believe it by His grace and by His compassion. And if you think
it would be foolishness, I pray God have mercy on you. Give you
a heart to believe this. The God, the little G God that
has to have somebody to help him, that wants to do something,
is not God. He's not the God of this Bible.
And He's not God. He's just a carved up imagination
of man's depraved heart. God delivers his people. So back
in Proverbs 28, for the transgression of a land, many are the princes
thereof. All these princes. You know,
we have elections and stuff like that. We elect a new governor,
elect a new president, and they all think the way they think.
I think we ought to do it this way. I think we ought to do it
this way. I'm getting rid of what he did, and I'm gonna do it this
way. You know what that is? That's because Almighty God has
allowed this world to have what this world wants, and He's keeping
His people in the midst of it, in spite of it. But, by a man of understanding
and knowledge, the state thereof shall be prolonged. I looked
up that word state. I want to know what, what does
that mean? By a man of understanding and knowledge. Here, what does
it mean? Though set up, just, fixed. Now who do you think he's
talking about? He's talking about God's people.
By, by, by a man of understanding, a man of understanding and knowledge. Here's set forth by man of understanding,
the man, Christ Jesus, wisdom himself, God Almighty, the uncreated
God, the eternal I Am, who alone is God, ruling, reigning, the
God of His people, who everlastingly has stood as their surety, their
Lord, He who loved them, died for them, redeemed them. He that came into this world
and obeyed his own law on their behalf, by his obedience, by
his righteousness, imputed, he robes them. He's coming back
to get them. I'll tell you, by a man of understanding
and knowledge, the state God's people, there's gonna be a prolonged
state there. That man, that man, by him they're gonna live forever.
My sheep hear my voice. I know them. You know what they
do? They follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life. and they shall never perish. Psalm, I'm gonna end with this. Psalm 33, 33. Psalm 33, verse
12. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, is Jehovah, and
the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance. Blessed are those who have been
given a heart for him. They've been given a heart for
him to trust him, cast themselves upon his mercy, They are his
peculiar treasure. By transgression, by transgression,
there's found many rulers. But by a man of understanding
and knowledge, the state, the fixed ones, they shall be prolonged. I pray God bless this to our
heart, for Christ's sake. Amen, Gary.