I turn this morning to the book
of First Kings. As returning, I am grateful to
your pastor for asking me. I know this is serious business
and we want to worship our Lord, but I'm also grateful for the
opportunity to see friends and brethren whom I've known for
so many years. 1 Kings chapter 8, this is the
occasion where the temple at Jerusalem, the very first temple,
was dedicated. And Solomon stood and prayed
at that dedication. And I want us to read what he
said here in 1 Kings 8, beginning in verse 55. Solomon stood and blessed all
the congregation of Israel with a loud voice, saying, Blessed
be the Lord that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according
to all that he promised. There hath not failed one word
of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses
his servant. The Lord our God be with us,
as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us, nor forsake
us, that he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his
ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments,
which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words, wherewith
I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord
our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant
and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall
require. that all the people of the earth
may know that the Lord is God and that there is no one else. You know, men make promises.
I've made a lot of them in my lifetime, and I have failed to keep a good
many of them. Sometimes men keep part of a
promise, And that's to fail to keep any of it. Sometimes we make a promise and
just forget about it. But we do make promises we don't
keep. You children want to know who
God is? God is the one who keeps all
his promises. you can count on it. Every one of his promises to
the letter. God is true to his word, every
word. From cover to cover in this book,
The Word of God, you cannot find a promise that God has made that
he has not kept or that he will not keep. Some he's delayed the
keeping of, but he'll keep them. Men are clever and crafty. Men
twist words and turn phrases to change their promises and
to cover their failings. We see a lot of that in politics.
That's what it is, isn't it? Making promises and then who
cares whether they get kept. If I don't keep it, I'll figure
out a way to rephrase it to where it sounds like I did it or try
it or something. Men try to make a lie sound like
the truth and cover up their own inability to make good on
their promises. God is truth. What he says, he
will do. He does it. What God promises,
that's what's going to come to pass. Every word of every promise. There's only one in whom you
can put your trust. your hope and your faith. That
one is the Lord Jesus Christ, the true and living God, who
has not failed to keep, not even in one little bitty word, all
his good promises. If he's promised a million, he
doesn't give 999,999. He gives a million. That's my
first point. The second point is Further on in this portion of
scripture, look at verse 57 here. The Lord our God be with us as
he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us nor forsake
us. That he may incline our hearts unto him to walk in all his ways
and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments
which he commanded our fathers. And let these my words wherewith
I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord
our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant
and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall
require. Why does God keep his word? Why
does he make good on all his promises? Well, first of all,
it's his nature. He cannot lie. That's a tremendous
understatement. Folks who try to find contradictions
or lies in the word of God, they'd be better off to sprout wings
than try to fly. Any of you children think, man,
I'd like to fly. Maybe I can grow wings. Well,
you've got a better chance of that happening than God not fulfilling
a promise or telling the truth. Something does not become true
because we like it. or because we understand it,
or if we approve it. Whatever God says in his word,
whether we approve or despise it, whether we understand it
or confused or baffled by it, whatever God says is true is
the truth. Why? Because God is truth. God keeps all his promises, number
one, because he is truth, and secondly, He does so because
of what it says in verse 60, that all the people of the earth
may know that the Lord is God and that there is none else.
That's why he does it. So that people, all people, all
his people, they know Listen, God's people don't go, I think
he's true. I think he keeps his promise. No, we know. We know. How do we know? He's come in
and given us a heart and a new mind that understands and believes. That's how we know. God's people
don't think. They know Jesus Christ is God. There's nothing else. God's people
all over the earth will know who God is. It is a fact that
one day in eternity all men will acknowledge that Jesus Christ
is Lord and God. But God's people, his chosen
elect, we know it right now. We believe it right now. We love
it right now. All of them, wherever on the
earth they are, the fact that God keeps all his promises is
evidenced in the scriptures. It's evidenced in the lives of
God's people by providence. and is the proof that God is
who he says he is, has accomplished what he set out to do, and is
now where he claims to be. Turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4. Solomon here is actually referring
to a scripture that Moses wrote back here in Deuteronomy. And
that's a good thing. Sometimes We have a lot to pray
about, but sometimes if, boy, if we can quote a scripture,
we've added substance to our prayer because it's right out
of God's. We're praying for something he's
already promised or declared. Moses, having seen God in the
burning bush that was not consumed and having experienced Israel's
deliverance from Egypt and all the fulfillment of all the promised
miracles associated with that deliverance, Look what he was
told in Deuteronomy 4 verse 35. Unto thee it was showed. God is saying this to Moses.
Unto you Moses, one of God's elect, one of my people, one
of my children, he said it's been showed that you might know. You say, how do we know? God
showed us. He showed Moses when there was
a bush that was on fire and didn't burn up. He showed Moses when
he went down into Egypt to deliver God's people, he showed him there.
He showed him what? That thou mightest know that
the Lord, he is God. And there is none else beside
him. None else beside him. It is obvious
here that this scripture is inviting comparison. Let me give you an example of
that. Now, in this group here, you know something's unusual
here, you know what it is? There's two Jacksons. There's two boys, two young men,
they got the same name. There's Jackson and Jackson.
There's Jackson Parks and Jackson Jennings, isn't there? Now, I'm
not going to do this, but if I had the two of them come up
here and stand and turn around and face you, You know the first
thing that would happen? Everybody here would start comparing.
And we'd go, hmm, you know, I'd say
Jackson Jennings is taller. I'd say Jackson Parks, he's shorter.
And then somebody over here would say, well, you know, Jackson
Jennings has dark hair. And Jackson Parks has sort of
sandy brown hair. And then those who, as you got
to know them and do know them, some of you would say, well,
you know, that D's boy, Jackson, what a smile. I mean, he just,
he just lights it up when he smiles. And those of you who
get to know Jackson changed a little bit, you go, that guy loves fishing. That's a plus five in my book
already. He's a fisherman. And we go on and on and on. One likes sports, one likes hunting,
one likes this, one likes that. But when you put two things beside
one another, it not only invites comparison, it demands it. Can you resist that? Not me. I don't know. Not at all. Only a fool would say this. Get
those two boys up here. Only a fool would say this. Well,
they're exactly the same. That would be making a declaration
that was obviously false. Just not true. They're not the
same. That's not Jackson Jennings. And this other young man is not
Jackson Parks. They're not the same. You kids
understand that, don't you? Even though they may have the
same name. When this scripture says, there
is none beside him, there is none beside the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not just inviting comparison,
it's demanding comparison. Go ahead, let's compare. Turn to Colossians 1. Colossians chapter 1. If you compare the Lord Jesus
Christ with all of the so-called God's little g of this world,
let me tell you, just give you a hint about what you're gonna
find out. And let me ask, do this in the form of questions.
Is the Lord Jesus Christ simply more wise than Confucius? No, you know what, you put them
side by side, what'd you find out? Confucius got no wisdom
at all. because the Lord Jesus Christ
is wisdom. Is the Lord Jesus Christ more
peaceful than the Dalai Lama sitting on a mountain with his
legs crossed? Is he more peaceful? Who's more
peaceful? The Dalai Lama couldn't make
peace with his wife or anybody else. There's no peace in him.
Jesus Christ, he is peace. That's what this word says. What
about this guy Mohammed? Is he more mighty than the Lord
Jesus Christ? He's got no power at all. Listen,
quit worrying about those guys over there. They're nobody from
nowhere. They worship a god, little g,
who has no power. Jesus Christ has all power. And
you can go on and on. You can take, you know, is he
more truthful than Tao? Tao has no truth. Is he more
merciful than Buddha? Buddha's a stone. It's a fat
guy carved out of rock. He's got no mercy in him. Jesus
Christ is mercy. Buddha didn't make some things
and Christ made others. You put them side by side, who
made the best things? Buddha made nothing. Jesus Christ,
on the other hand, made all things. There is none else. You hold
anyone up beside the Lord Jesus Christ and they'll evaporate
before your eyes. These other so-called God's little
G are not less wise, less merciful, less holy. Outside of Christ,
beside Christ, there's no intelligence, there's no truth, there's no
mercy, there's no holiness, there's no righteousness, none. Beside
him, there's none else. And that includes all the so-called
God's little G in our day who go by. I know you kids can't,
you can't avoid it. You turn on the TV and some guy's
standing up there like this, in a so-called church, and he's
so-called preaching, and he's so-called proclaiming. Somebody,
he says, has the name of Jesus. Well, we got two Jacksons. Let
me tell you, there are many Jesuses being taught in this world, in
this country. There is one Lord Jesus Christ. Beside him, there's none else.
The rest of them are just parts of somebody's imagination. This God, the true and living
God, decided to deliver a people out of Egypt. He sent Moses down
there. He didn't ask their permission.
He didn't beg them to let him have his way. He sent a man,
his prophet there, who commanded that they let God's people go.
Pharaoh said, Pharaoh resisted. You know what? You know what
the people in Egypt thought Pharaoh was? They thought he was a god.
Why'd they think that? Well, he sat up on that big high
throne. He had all that gold stuff around him and a big army.
And he said, I'm God. That's what men do when they
make idols and when these so-called preachers read in this Bible
from it and then twist the words and make it sound like something
it doesn't say and try to say, God loves you. He loves everybody. He wants to have his way with
you. Won't you let him? You know what that is? That's
an idol. And Moses said, let my people go. And Pharaoh said,
who is this God that I should obey him? I'm a God. He found
out, didn't he? He found out that there was none
else besides the true and living God. And God fulfilled all 10
of his promises, didn't he? Moses went into Pharaoh and said,
you let my people go. He said, oh, there's going to
be some problems. He said, I'm going to sin. and
it's going to light all your fields on fire." Pharaoh said,
I'm not having that, I'm God. And Moses said, I'm going to
send frogs. And there was frogs in the pantry,
and frogs in the bathroom, frogs in the bed, there's frogs everywhere.
And it went on and on, ten times. God made ten promises, and he
kept them all. And Pharaoh found out too late,
there's no God like unto this God. There's none beside Him. How in the world did we get to
this place we're in, modern religion? We wouldn't even consider it.
Listen to this. Would we consider, what would
happen if we had the two Jacksons here? And somebody comes in the
back door, comes in the door and sits down and finds out,
gets to talking and finds out you got a Jackson and you got
a Jackson. He says, I got a Jackson at home. He said, man, I love
my Jackson. He said, my Jackson is something
else. My Jackson is just so happy,
and my Jackson is so affectionate. He said, you know, in fact, I
got him in the car. Let me go get him. He comes walking in,
and you know what he's got? He's got a dog on a leash. He
said, this is my Jackson. And he's just like your Jackson.
You say, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard. It's not
near as crazy. Is trying to say Jesus Christ
is who these guys are saying he is in pulpits today And what's going to be you two
dads reactions to that Your first reaction is probably going to
be Are you kidding me? That's ridiculous you ever read
the scripture God the God in heaven laughs at our folly He
laughs at the foolishness. It's not an amusement It's an
amazement that a dog is the same as your son. Is it hard to understand
that one day, I mean, if a guy carried it far enough, it wouldn't
surprise me a bit if one or both of you initially laughed and
then punched him right in the nose. That's ridiculous. To compare
a dog to my boy? You think my boy's a goat or
a pig? They're the same? Of course not. One day God's going to stop laughing,
he's going to put them where they can do no more harm. He's
going to stop all this buddhism. Moses didn't go into Pharaoh
and say, please, please let my people go. Have you ever seen this God, the God
of all promises? He's no beggar because there's
no one beside him. We'll fall on our face and beg
him for mercy. We'll do what the public and
the temple did. Oh God, have mercy on me. I'm a dog. I'm a
dog. What right do I have to be in
the presence of the true and living God? And then we'll sing,
oh how merciful. He's had mercy on a dog like
me. All so-called gods are either
men who aspire to be a god, That's Mohammed or Confucius or the
Dalai Lama or the Pope. Those men all wish they were
a god and are pretending to be. Or all these false gods are inanimate
objects, something somebody carves a fat little man and says, that's
Buddha, he's my god. And they do that. It's been true
in the scriptures. There was Dagon and the Sphinxes
and Baal. Those are all stone statues. false gods, that if men could
get you to bow to them, and they control them, I'm God. We see that. But if we compare
them to the true and living God in the scriptures, and there's
none beside Him, He is God. He is mercy. He's merciful. It's His nature. God's people,
we're born sinners, and as men, you know, To be accepted of God
eternally, we need to be holy. And Christ became a man. Now stay with me here just a
minute. Jesus Christ became a man. Why? So he could do for us what
we couldn't do for ourselves. I tell you, that dog named Jackson,
he might come up and lick your hand. He's not ever, He's not
ever going to talk to you. You're not ever going to have
fellowship with that dog. Why? He's a dog. I tell you what,
if God takes us dogs and puts us in the Lord Jesus Christ,
we're the same as His Son, in whom He can have fellowship.
You understand? We like Him. We like Him. He
made His people as righteous as He is. took away their sin
at Calvary. He took on Him the sin of all
of His people. When He died, our sin was gone,
put away. Having done this to save His
people, Jesus Christ went back to the Father, which sent Him.
What does all this mean to you and me? Well, if you and I have
anybody or anything besides Christ, then all I'm saying means nothing
to you. Do we understand this simple
principle? Jesus Christ, who you read about in this book,
who your pastor gets up here and preaches every service, I
listen to him. I know who he preaches. Not a
what, not a where, not a how, it's a who he preaches. And when
he gets up here and preaches him, I tell you what, it either
means everything to you or it means nothing. There's no other
besides. On the one hand, if you have
nothing or no one else besides Christ, no other God, He's everything
to you. Turn to Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1. I want to press
for some truth this morning. I realize unless God grants it,
it won't happen. but perhaps he will. Let's all
ask ourselves this question, not that the answer comes out
loud, but let's ask ourselves and then answer ourselves, which
is it? Which is it for us? Which is
it? Is Christ all? Or is he nothing? I'm sorry, there's nothing in
between. You can't have it, you know, Is 999,999, is that a million? No, it's not, is it? It's not
that, it's not enough. And I'm telling you, you either
have the million or you have nothing. You either have nothing
or we have Christ. There's no in between, no hedging
here. Have you got Ephesians 1? Look
at verse 3. This is what the scripture says.
How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as
I wrote before. I've got the right scripture
here. Ephesians 1, 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
what? All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places. And where are those blessings?
In Christ. Look at verse 8. Wherein he hath
abounded toward us in what wisdom? All wisdom. What prudence? All prudence. Look at verse 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. that and what is the exceeding
greatness of His power, who's got all power? He does, exceeding
power. To us who believe according to
the working of His mighty power, which He wrought, where is all
this? In Christ. When He raised Him from the dead
and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, far
above, who's the head of United States now? Who's the head of
Iran? Who's the head of Russia? You can name all the names you
want. You know who's the head of all principalities, all countries,
right here, above all principalities, and power, and might, and dominion,
and every name that's named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come? And he put how many things under
him? All things under his feet, and gave him to be the head,
that means the boss. You young kids hear this, you
get in a fuss with somebody and they say, you're not the boss
of me. You're not telling me what to do. Well, let me tell
you who is the boss of you and the boss of your parents and
the boss of everybody on this planet, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the boss of you. See verse 22, and he put all
things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things
to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in an all. Now, if I don't understand, if
I understand words at all, what that just said is Jesus Christ
is all. Now, what remains? Is he all
to you or nothing? There's no in between. It's all
or nothing. turn to Colossians chapter 1. I want to read you one more verse out of Ephesians
which says, why is all that so? Why is it all in Christ? In Ephesians
it says that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ, in whom you also trusted after that you heard
the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. What I just read there is that
Christ is all, and the reason we believe that, that we know
that, is because he's put us in Christ. Are you alive? Are you alive,
Tommy? He's shaking his head. He thinks
he is. Why? Because you're there. You can
see your hand move. You can think. You know you're
alive, don't you? Physically. You know it. Let
me tell you what. If He ever puts us in Christ,
you know what we know? We know Him. Why? Because we're
in Him. We're alive in Him. You see what
he does for us? You kids don't have to wonder.
You don't have to sit there and go, well, I don't know if I believe. I don't know. Tell you what,
if he ever puts us in Christ, we'll know. We'll know. We'll know. Do you have to go
home at night, Tommy, and say, ask Becca, honey, I've been wondering,
am I alive? You say, no, I don't have to
ask her that. She can see. She knows. And God will give
us that assurance. He'll let us know we're in Christ.
Have you got Colossians 1? Preaching the gospel is no more
and no less than clearly stating that there is none beside Christ.
But there is all the room in the world. Listen to me. There's
none beside Christ. You bring up all the dogs you
want. You bring up all the people you
want and line them up here, okay? There's none beside Christ. If
He's here, nobody even sees those. God doesn't see what's outside
of Him. All He sees is Christ. But He
also sees those who are in Him. Look at Colossians 1 verse 25. whereof I am made a minister
according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for
you to fulfill the word of God. Fulfilling the word of God is
preaching Christ and him crucified and no one beside him. Verse 26, even the mystery which
has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest
to his saints to whom God would make known what is the richest
of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is
Christ, where? In you, the hope of glory, whom
we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all
wisdom, that we may present every man perfect, where? In Christ. I wonder if we somehow could
take a child, with Tate Jackson, and we go to the Halloween store,
and we buy a costume that looks like a dog, and we put it on
him. Does that make him a dog? You
say, that's ridiculous. He's not a dog. He's a little
boy. He's a young man. I'll tell you
what, when God takes a person and puts them in Christ, He doesn't
put them in a costume. and have them do things they
don't want to do, don't need to do, shouldn't do, this kind
of thing. You know what he does? He makes them new. He makes them
in the image of God's dear son. There will be a change in behavior.
We could put Jackson in a dog suit and I doubt if he's going
to go bark, bark, bark and start barking like a dog just because
he's got a dog costume on. That's what religious people
do who go into one of these places and say, oh yeah, I'm a Christian,
I believe in that Jesus. No, God's people, there's a change.
There's a change. And don't misunderstand me, but
they don't become Christians because they change, they change
because they become in Christ. Do we see the difference there?
It's not my works were saved, works are the evidence that we
have been saved. Big difference. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ,
we'll stop comparing God to anything or anyone, because Christ is
simply incomparable. He's beyond comparison. And I've
got good news for everyone who wants, with all their heart,
to find Christ, to see Him, to be in Him. Not one word of any
promise has failed to come to pass. And here's the promise
of God's Word. Turn to Jeremiah 29. You may be sitting there saying,
I want to be in Christ. I want to be in Him. I don't
want to be outside of Him. I don't want to be a dog barking
trying to get in. I want to be a boy. I want to be a girl. I want to
be a man. I want to be a woman. I want to be in Christ. when a person will find Christ
is right here in Jeremiah 29 verse 13. You shall seek me and find me
when you shall search for me with all your heart. Is he what
you want more than anything else? It is if he's everything. If
he's nothing, well, it doesn't mean anything to us. Jesus Christ
young people, is not one of the choices. There is no duplicity
allowed. There's no, I'll have him and
this, him and that. No, it's him, all or nothing. His father is a jealous God.
He demands complete commitment. It's all Christ or no Christ. No other. There is none beside
him. And the scripture says, choose
you this day, who you'll serve. Choose who you'll serve. You
know, I don't think that either Jackson wants to swap. Do you want to become Jackson
Jennings? I don't think Jackson Jennings
wants to become Jackson Parks. You know why? They know unequivocally. They know. You know your dad
loves you, don't you? Jimmy may be a fine fella, but
he's not your father. You see the picture there? We
know who the father loves, don't we? He loves his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let's not come under any other
name. Let's not try to get in on the pretext that Earth! Earth! I'm a Jackson! God's not
fooled by that. What a silly thing to think.
God is not fooled. His Son is all to Him. And if we're going to be in Him,
He'll become all to us. Well, I pray that the Lord will
bless His Word.