chapter of the book of Romans.
Romans chapter 1. First chapter. Let's read verses 20 and 21. It says, For the invisible things
of him, that's of God, the invisible things of God, from the creation
of the world are clearly seen. That is his power. The power
of God is clearly seen. It can be seen from the first
chapter of the book of Genesis when he talks about in the beginning
God created world and all things therein, see the infinite wisdom
of God and the infinite power of God. These things are clearly
seen. Man is without excuse in reference
to God Almighty because God in his infinite wisdom and power
can be seen in his creation. should be no question whatsoever
in a man's mind as to the creative power of God Almighty and the
existence of God Almighty, the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world
are clearly seen, not just seen through a glass darkly, partially. but are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse." And that applies to all of Adam's
race. All of Adam's race are without
excuse. in regard to their Creator, God. And then he says, Because that
when they knew God, when they knew God, they knew
God by reason of the revelation of creation. They knew Him. They didn't know Him in a saving
sense. but they knew of his creative
power and his infinite wisdom. And if a man will act upon the
light that he's got, God will give him more light. But evidently
these people didn't act upon the light that they had in regard
to the creative power and the infinite wisdom of God Almighty
that's visibly displayed in everything that you see. because that when they knew God
they glorified him not as God. Now, God will be glorified as God in his children. You say, why is that? Well, God
has so fixed it and so arranged things that he must have all
the glory and all the honors and all the majesty. God must
have it, and will have it. He will have it. If we are to
glorify God, we will have to believe what God says about Himself. Now, because that when they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. but became vain in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds,
and to four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them
up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to
dishonor their own bodies between themselves." You say, well, he's
not necessarily describing us here. But he's talking to all
of Adam's race. He may not be describing our
sins in this particular chapter. But he's describing us, and there
is ways that we can change the truth of God into a lie. It says in this twenty-fifth verse,
"...who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the Creator who is blessed
forever. Amen. Well, that's enough scripture
there as a basis for what I want to talk about here this morning. There's many people at any given time on this universe
who boast and brag of their knowledge and yet at the same time betray
their own ignorance. Now, knowledge, spiritual knowledge
in particular, any kind of knowledge, any kind of knowledge, is not a possession to be proud
of. Now, knowledge may become good
or bad according as it is used. According as this knowledge is
used, it becomes either for good or for evil. If man knew God, for instance,
then glorified him not as God and was not thankful for this
particular knowledge, then it would be for his evil and not
for his good. And it indicates here, it says,
because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God. Now, if a man knows God, if he
has the knowledge of who God is, the true and the living God,
this knowledge will not puff him up. If man ever comes to
the place where he knows God Almighty in the face of Jesus
Christ, and that includes Jesus Christ making satisfaction to law and
justice. That includes Jesus Christ in
his own person, bearing what's due a man, being man's representative,
bearing in his own body the penalty that's due the creature. If he knows God, if he has this
knowledge, if God is going to have this knowledge here of who
God is, and the eternal purpose of God in the salvation of his
people. If he knows that, if he knows
that his eternal destiny is bound up and shut up in the doing and
the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, if he knows that, then that knowledge
will not puff him up. He'll not brag and boast about
that knowledge. because he knows that that knowledge
comes to him by revelation. That's what I'm trying to say.
Does not the Bible say here in the book of John chapter 17,
which I partially reminded you of here at the outset of the
service, and I'll read it here again, in John chapter 17, Our Lord lifted up his eyes to
heaven and he said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son. The Son is glorified when a man
comes to this knowledge of the eternal purpose of God and the
salvation of his people. He said, The hour has come, glorify
thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given
him, as thou, God the Father, hast given the Lord Jesus Christ
authority or power over all flesh. God's given him power over everything
that moves. All flesh, your flesh, my flesh,
the flesh of those on the outside, the flesh of those in Europe
and Asia and the Far East and the Orient, He has power over
all flesh. God gave him that power. And
he says, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal. Now,
listen to me. This is what life eternal is
all about, that they might know thee. You remember, I read here
in this text, because that when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God. Their knowledge of God put them
up, and they changed the truth of
God into a lie. And God will not have it. He
will not have it. He will have all the honor and
all the glory, or he won't have any. and I'll give him all the
honor and all the glory, or he won't have none of it. That's
all there is to it. God must have all the glory. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, the true and the living
God, and Jesus Christ whom thou sent, imperative. that we have
some understanding of this eternal purpose of God in the salvation
of sinners, in the doing and the dying of Jesus Christ, the
Lamb of God. Listen, for men to know God and
not to glorify him as God and to be unthankful is no benefit
whatsoever to them. and the majority of the people
on this planet at any given time, they know God in his creative
power and his infinite wisdom, but they are unthankful and they
do not glorify God as God. And the Bible over and over says,
take heed what you hear. And I add to that, take heed
also what you know. Men do not glorify God when they
do not trace all their good things to God. One way, of course, he's talking
here in this chapter about some men, he said, change the glory
of the incorruptible God into an image made like the incorruptible
man to birds to four-footed beasts. That is, they took pieces of
stone or pieces of wood and whittled out images and bowed down to
those images. We don't do that. But we have
other ways whereby we rob God of his glory. We make a God after
our own thoughts and imaginations, and that's robbing God of his
glory, and that's not glorifying God as God. So I say then that man does not
glorify God when he does not trace all the good things that
have come his way to the God of glory. Because the Bible,
if it says anything, it says this, not only in one place,
but it is underlined in practically every book of the Bible, that
every good and perfect gift, that means every good and perfect
thing, comes from above. It comes from God, every good
and perfect thing. If you have a good thought, it
comes from God. If you have good things in this
life, it comes from God. If you have good health, where
does it come from? It comes from God. But if you
do not ascribe God the glory for it, then you're changing
the truth into a lie and God will not have it. See what I'm
talking about? He won't have it. Every good and perfect gift comes
from above, but man They sit on a pedestal, an idol, many
times, and I read about it every day and listen to people talk
about it on the television and so forth. They sit on a pedestal,
an idol, that they call nature. They say that's nature. That
is, they attribute everything that's good and glorious and
wonderful in this life to nature. I'm just pointing out some things
here in order that you might see what I'm getting at. They
talk of the beauties of nature. They talk about the mountains,
the glory of the mountains, the glory of the bodies of water,
the ocean and the streams and the grass and the flowers. They
talk about this Nature, they say this is wonderful, this is
glorious, this nature. They talk of the beauties of
nature, they talk of the grandeurs of nature, and they talk of the
laws of nature. But God is little spoken of. See what I'm talking about? God
is little spoken of, as if he was not alive. as if he was not
the living God, as if we could talk about nature as nature being
apart from God. These are just little things
that seemingly creep into our everyday lives and conversation
which do not seem to be very big as far as we're concerned,
and it's just a slip of the lip and all that, but these are only
indications of our true nature, that we do not know him as God. It says, "...because that when
they knew God they glorified him not as God." Let's glorify
God as God, huh? What are the laws of nature?
What is nature? Just ask anybody, what is nature? And they'll say, well, nature
is nature. And that's what I'd say. But
I found out better. You see, the laws of nature is
just the ordinary ways in which God works. That's the way God
works. The laws of nature is the way
God works. But folks attribute to them,
nature, a sort of power that sets God away from, or divorces
God from the ordinary way that he works in this world. And they
attribute it all to nature. They don't say anything about
God. They can talk all day about nature and you think they're
smart and you can bow and reverence them for their knowledge and
their articulate manner in which they convey what they found out
and know. And they never say one word about
God. And you can be impressed with
them. But they don't say anything about God. They don't glorify
God as God. That's what I'm talking about.
And that's the thing that bothers me. And that's an evidence, by
the way, that man doesn't know God. He can't know God and be
accepted by God if he doesn't glorify God as God. That's all
there is to it. Man does not like to think of
God. We come from God, but we don't like to think of
God by nature. We like to get away into a far
country, away from God, like the prodigal son did. The prodigal
son was there at his father's house and he had everything.
He had everything. There wasn't anything there that
he didn't need. It wasn't provided for him. He
had his father's love. But he had to get away from God.
He had to get away from the Father who is representative of God.
And where did he go? He had to go in a far country.
Get away from the Father. I've got to get away from this
house. Get away from God. You don't
want to retain the thought of the Father. Get away! Get away
from God. This man by nature, He longs
and delights to have a high wall built between him and God. That's
the reason he adopts the language and uses the phrases that he
does, such as nature. He wants to clear himself, if
he can, and do away from himself and from his thinking any trace
whatsoever of God that remains in him. They don't talk about
God. It's all right to bask in the
sunshine of nature and bask in the warmth of the sun and all
those things, but let's not bring God into it. That's the way man
is. Men talk of chance. I was talking
to a fellow Saturday, I believe it was, and a fellow that you'd
know better, and I was sitting across from him. And I forget
what the conversation was. But oh, he's talking about his
uncle. His uncle had been sick in the
hospital. And I said, how's your uncle?
And he told me, he said, well, I think they're going to bring
him home today. So he's walking around on crutches. He said,
boy, he is lucky. I said, lucky? Well, he said,
yeah, he's lucky. But men talk about chance and
they talk about luck. Let's quit talking about chance
and luck, you and I who are believers. Let's glorify God as God. There's no such thing as chance
or luck with God. He does everything on purpose.
Everything He does is planned. He predestines. He does it all
according to the good pleasure of His will. And it's for His
glory. He doesn't do it for our glory. He does it for His glory. We
are of secondary value. It's God's glory that is the
main and foremost thing in God's eternal purpose. He does it for
Himself. I talk of chance. A man prospers
a little bit, he says, I was lucky. Man has a heart attack
and he goes to the hospital. That's the first thing he tells
his wife. Boy, I was lucky, wasn't I? She says, yeah, you sure was
lucky. Yeah. They talk about themselves. Talk about being self-made. Everybody's
a self-made man. Well, I got where I am is because
I did this and I did that. You made yourself. Don't talk
about God. They don't say, well, God's blessed
me. God's blessed me with a fine home. He's blessed me with a
good job. He's blessed me with a good wife.
He's blessed me with fine children. He's blessed me with a fine car.
He's blessed me with fine friends. They don't say that. They talk
like they did it on their own. They talk like God wasn't even
maligned. They talk like it's just luck. It just happened.
It didn't happen. Nothing just happened. It's all
purpose. See? Talk about themselves. Let me read something to you
here. I was reminded of this this morning as I was thinking
about this. Over here in the first chapter of the book of
Isaiah, it says this. Verse 2 says, Hear, O heavens,
and give ear, In other words, everything in heaven and everything
here upon this earth. Hear me. Hear, O heavens, listen,
O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. What did he speak? He said, I
have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against me. That's what he said. They rebelled
against me. The ox. knows his owner. He knows who feeds him. He knows
who pours water on his back. He knows who scratches him. My aunt used to tell me, when
I was a boy, stand with her, and I'd go off yonder and play
in someone else's house. And I'd come back starved to
death. I'd be gone for three or four hours, running and romping
and playing. I'd come back and say, boy, I'm
hungry. She'd say, well, pick where you
scratch. That's what she'd tell me. She'd say, well, you just
pick where you scratch. You're scratching over there all day.
Why don't you pick over there? That's what that reminds me of
here. The ox knoweth his owner. He knows. And the ass, his master's
crib. But Israel, that's you and I,
Israel, but Israel doth not know my people, doth not consider. Hell no, God! Victory is scratch. Well, lucky days, self-made men,
chance. Would you call a man a brother
and treat him like a dog? Huh? You call God your God and
then act towards Him as though He was not worthy of a single
thought. Is that right? Ask everybody you see and they'll
tell you if you keep pressing the issue, they'll tell you they've
got a God. They've got a God. We've got
a God. They call him their God. But
if you had a brother, you wouldn't treat your brother like a dog,
would you? No, you wouldn't do that. Well, why does a man who
says he knows God act towards God as though God
was not worthy of a single solitary thought and does not attribute
unto God a single line of praise for what He's done for us. Never glorify Him as God. They never adore Him. They never
worship Him with love in their hearts. They go to church. I'm not saying that men don't
go to church. They do go to church. They do
join in in Congressional singing. They do read the Psalms and read
the Bible. They do listen to the teacher
and to the preacher at times. They do all these things, sing
the hymns and go to church, but never in their hearts do they
love the living God with living love. They present to God all the external
harvest of worship. But the corn is gone and only
the straw and the husk remain. And that's what they give to
God, the external praise of the harvest, husk and straw. What is the value, I ask you,
of a professed friendship with God like this? when the heart
is at enmity against him. Well, listen, I believe that
the Bible teaches that it is out and out mockery to present
unto God a sacrifice when the heart is not found in the sacrifice. He says, they come as my people. sit as my people and they sing
as my people, but their hearts are far from me. My God, He'll have our love and
our hearts and our adoration or He won't have us at all. He
won't do it. And if that rules out me and
if that rules out you, that's too bad. But that's the way it
is. We're going to glorify God as
God or we're not going to glorify Him at all. We're going to come
to God on God's terms or we ain't going to be with Him. His name is on their tongues,
but they don't delight in Him. They don't hunger and thirst
after Him. There's no prayer and no praise
in their hearts for Him. It's all an external thing. It's
a thing we'd get up on Sunday morning and we wash our face
and we shave and shower and those things and put our clothes on
and we pick up our Bible and come on to church, but our hearts,
for the most part, are not in it. There's no prayer. We go through the mow, we sing,
we pray, we get our money out, but our hearts are not in it.
It's an external thing. What he delights in is prayer
and praise, seeking Him, seeking His face. About all that's presented unto
God from this generation of heathens is lip service and unwilling
homage of boneslaves. It's a slavish sort of service
that we give to God, as if God was some sort of a tyrant and
demanded of us certain things or send us to hell. In order
to keep in His good graces, we give Him some lip service and
some homage of bonded slaves. Some who do not give Him I hope there are many here this
morning that will give God the glory as I set forth some statements
here on the way I believe God is to receive glory and the concept
we are to have of God in our hearts and in our minds. Now,
there are many, not just some, but there are many who do not
give him glory for this reason. because of the idea of his sovereignty. They won't give God the glory
because of his sovereignty. Consequently, this sovereignty is a terrible
thing to their minds. He said of old, in the book of
Exodus, He said this, I will have mercy on whom I will have
mercy. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. In other words, I'll show mercy
to whomever I will. That's sovereignty. When I'm talking about the sovereignty
of God, I'm saying that he has the right to rule, and there's
no limit to his right. I say that God's sovereign, I'm
saying that God is God. I'm saying that he's almighty.
I'm saying that he can do what he wants to do, when he wants
to do it, and to whom he wants to do it to. That's what I'm
saying. I'm saying that the majority
of people in the world at any given time right now rebel and
do not glorify him as God because of the idea that God's sovereign. And he does what he wants to
do and men don't like it. And they wouldn't let me preach
like this in most places. They wouldn't have it. And the
reason they wouldn't have it is because they don't like that
idea. You mean God's sovereign. You
mean that God does what he wants to. You mean that I don't count
for anything in regard to God's eternal purpose. He said, Of old I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy. That's what he said. Most professed
followers of the Lord Jesus Christ We'll not have this God that
I'm talking about. We will not have this God reign
over us. We own him. He's our God. And they glorified
him not as God. We'll have to glorify him as
God. We'll have to acknowledge God's rank, God's sovereignty
over all flesh. They make to themselves, most
people, who will not have this God to be their God, they make
to themselves a God. Listen closely now. They make
to themselves a God who is under some degree of obligation to
treat all men the same. Is that right, Pat? This God,
that's right. They'd think God's under obligation
to treat everybody the same. Huh? If I say, well, here comes
a man, and he says, he talks to me on his fingers, and I say,
well, the fellow's deaf, isn't he? He says, yes, he can hear.
He's talking to me in sign language. I say, well, I wonder what happened
to him that he's deaf? And if I'd happened to say, well,
God made him deaf, oh, they'd say, that can't be. But listen
to this. Listen to this. You'll find out whether
you believe the Bible or not here this morning. The Bible
says in the fourth chapter of the book of Exodus, God's talking
to Moses. And he said, I want you to go there
to Pharaoh and give him the message. Let my people go. And old Moses,
he began to make excuses. And he said, Lord, Lord, O my
Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since thou hast
spoken unto thy servant, but I am slow of speech and slow
of tongue. And the Lord said unto him, the
Lord said unto Moses, Who hath made man's mouth? Who makes a
man's mouth? Or who maketh the dumb? Who makes
a man dumb? Or who maketh the deaf? Or the seeing? Or the blind? Have not I the Lord? I make them
all. I kill. I make alive. God does all. Let's ascribe unto
him his worth and value as God. And quit saying that this man
died of old age. You say, well, his body just
wore out. Or he had cancer. Or he had this. Those are just means to the end.
That's all. That's all. Everything's in God's hands.
You say you make God sound like a monster, then you're going
to have to deal with a monster. You see that? You're going to have to deal
with a monster. If you think that this is a monster, that's
who you're going to have to deal with, because that's how He is. I kill. I make alive. I make rich. I make them poor.
I bring them down. I raise them up. I do all this.
I'm God. And men rebel against this idea
of God because they think God's obligated to treat all men alike. He's not obligated to treat all
men alike. Huh? Sure isn't. Well, man has this
concept of God, then he's guilty of what? Not ascribing unto God
his glory. He's robbing God of his most
majestic attribute, which is his sovereignty. Every man wants
what God has, but he won't admit it. He wants to be free and independent
of everything and everybody and not be dependent upon anybody. That's the way he wants to be. bear his heart and tell you the
truth, he'd like to say, I'd like to quit my job today and
tell my employer to take this job and shove it. I'd like to have enough money
in the bank that I could tell that boss, you can go, why you'll
never come back. I'll do what I want to. I'll
get up when I want to get up. I'll work when I want to work.
I'll go where I want to go and do what I want to do. I don't
want to be dependent upon anything or anybody. You want to be sovereign. You
want to be like God. But you won't let God be that
way. that say this is what they want
for themselves, will at the same time deny God of His right to
do what He wants to. He said, He said, Can I not do
with mine as I want to? He made us. He made us. We trace our life back to Him. He made us. He made Adam. And all flesh comes from Adam.
Who understands about the woman's seed and the man's seed? Who
understands that? About birth? About life? I don't. God's the source of
life. Some men and women are compatible
and they have children. There's others that are strong
and healthy. They can't have no children.
Why is that? God gives life. Life comes from
God and we trace our life back to Him. Now, if you say this
idea of God being sovereign, doing what He wants to according
to His own purpose, according as it pleases Him and as it goes
for His purpose, you say that ain't right. Well, then you want
to rob God of His most majestic attribute. which is his sovereignty. These folks that want to rob
God and want to not glorify God as God, they're for dictating. They want to dictate to God.
They want to tell God what to do and how he can do it and when
he can do it. They want to tell God that. They want to speak
to the king of kings and dictate to him. They want to tie the
hands. of his infinite compassion, lest
the supreme will of God should have too much liberty. They don't
want God to have any liberty. That is, they don't want God
to do what God wants to do. They want to tie his hands. You
can't do that. You can't bypass me. You've got
to treat me like you treat everybody else. Well, listen, I know of no such
God as that. I don't know of a God in the
Bible that's under any obligation whatsoever to any of his creatures. The Bible says, He cometh, ordereth,
ordereth all things after the counsel of his own will. And I, for one, and I hope you'll
join with me, am perfectly satisfied with everything that God does,
whether it's in power or mercy or in justice. It is of the Lord. Let him do as it seemeth good
unto him. Don't you agree with me? Oh,
yes! I could have sung, I believe,
the song of Moses at the Red Sea. Remember what happened at
the Red Sea? Pharaoh and his nation, his army,
they were chasing these fleeing Israelites. A handful of them! in comparison to the great army
and the people of Egypt and Pharaoh. They were chasing them. They run them down to the Red
Sea, and they had them cut off. I mean, the army was behind them,
a powerful army. The most powerful force of men
in the known world at that time were the Egyptians, the smartest,
the most powerful. They had weapons of warfare.
They had soldiers that were battle-scarred veterans, knew how to fight and
knew how to kill. They were pursuing these Israelites
that were carrying sticks and staves to defend themselves.
They were running as hard as they could, and they run down
in there to the Red Sea. And here comes the army. And God, miraculously, for His
people, caused a road to be made right
through that water, rolled the waters back, and there's a dry
road. And the children of Israel went
down that dry road to the other side. Pharaoh in hot pursuit. And when Pharaoh and his army
and captains and chariots entered in, And the Bible said on the other
side, when the thing was all over with, and Moses and the
people looked out there, and there was no more enemy. They
sang a song, and the song goes something like
this. They said that the Lord has gloriously
triumphed. He has cast the horse and the
rider into the sea. And I could have sung that song
along with Moses and the Israelites when God drowned every one of
them Egyptians. I could have sang that song.
And I could have found in the basis of their drowning a deep-seated
joy that rages in my heart. for the ever-living God. I would
have praised God endlessly as the waves swept over Pharaoh
and his army. I would have said, The Lord did
it! And the Lord is right. He did
it! And the Lord's right. He wasn't
wrong in doing it. He was right. He did it. I believe
then this morning, brethren, to sum up everything I have said,
I believe that God is on the throne and He gives no account
to men for His doings. His doings is all according to
His good pleasure as God Almighty over all and above all, and there
is no other. And short of this, I could not
glorify Him as God. There is only one way whereby
a man might have his sins taken away and be made accepted in the presence
of God. And that's through him whom God
sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he bids men to come to him. He says, Are there any thirsty
men out there? If any man's thirsty, let him
come to me and drink, and satisfy his thirst. If any man's hungry,
let him come to me and eat, and satisfy his hunger. He said, Come! all who labor
and are heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you rest." The
only true rest for a man's soul is coming to God in Jesus Christ
and knowing in his heart that Jesus Christ satisfied all the
claims of justice. All the attributes of God are
satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you come to Him as a needy
sinner and you trust in Him and Him alone, then you're giving
God the glory and you're not robbing God of it. God's got
to have the glory. You say, well, but I believe.
Well, the reason you believe is because God made you willing
Left to yourself, you wouldn't believe. Left is, you say, well,
I come. Left to yourself, you wouldn't
come. You say, but I go to church. What made you come to church? It's all of God. First and last
and all in between, it's all of God. Let's ascribe unto God
the glory. But if I say this morning, well,
I believe that God saved my soul. Let me ascribe unto God the glory
for doing so. Don't let me say, well, I did
some things and cooperated with God and he did some things in
between the two of us. My soul will say, that's not
ascribing to God all the glory. Let's give God the glory. He'll
have to have the glory. I heard him singing a song here
the other day. I said, I like that song because
I can understand it. And I forget now exactly how
it went. But part of it was like this.
Most of you have heard it. It says, when I called your name, nobody
answered. I called your name, nobody else.
God's going to call some names. It's going to have to be somebody
that answers. The answer must come from someone
you know. And if you ever know Him, the
sin bearer, if you ever know Him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who
suffered in your stead. Then when your name's called,
He's going to answer. He's going to say, I'm the answer. I'm the answer. I made satisfaction. I bore His sins. I gave Him my
righteousness. He's mine, and I'm His. Lord bless you. Really?