That passage, Brother Greg read,
Isaiah 65, 17 through 25, that goes so well with our text in
Psalm 135. That new heaven and new earth,
there will be a new heaven and new earth, but you notice there
the Lord said, I create my people who are rejoicing. And that's
what our psalm is declaring. It's a psalm of praise praising
the Lord because He creates His people anew. He creates us entirely
new. And so throughout this psalm
we're commanded to praise the Lord, to give Him the glory.
He made us, not we ourselves. And I'm talking about salvation.
I'm talking about creating us anew spiritually. He made us. I looked up this word, made us. And I want you to just listen
to this from the scripture. He said in Isaiah 43, 7, everyone
that's called by my name, for I created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. Ephesians 1, 6 said, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. Ephesians 2.6 said He raised
us up together and He made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ. In every way He made us. He created
His people. Giving thanks unto the Father
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. Revelation 1.5 says the Lord
Jesus loved us and washed us from our sins and in His own
blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God his Father.
To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Paul
would even attribute anything to himself in being made a minister.
We saw last time from 2 Corinthians 3, he said, he has made us able
ministers of the gospel, of the New Testament. Paul says, Stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. He
created those born again of God, have been created by God entirely
new. He made us. Psalm 100 verse 3
says, Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made
us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Now last time we ended here with
Psalm 135 verses 13 and 14. This is why his name will endure
forever. This is why His memorial will
endure throughout all generations, why He'll be remembered. It's
because the Lord will judge His people. That means the Lord is
always working right in this world for His people. He's working
what's right and just for His people. Christ justified His
elect. And so he's not going to pour
out wrath a second time. He won't pour out justice a second
time. Justice is satisfied for all
for whom Christ died. He satisfied justice for a particular
people. And so the Lord will call his
people, he'll create us anew in spirit, and he will keep us
and guide us and protect us and keep us knowing his name. He'll
judge us, but he'll defend us from our enemies. And it says
here, it says that he will repent himself concerning his servants.
It means he'll turn, he'll repent himself, he'll turn himself because
Christ is our intercessor. Ever living to make intercession
for, he will turn and hear us when we call. We just read it
in that passage Brother Greg read. Before you call, he'll
answer. And while you're calling, he'll
answer. Christ is at His right hand,
and what He's doing, He's doing for His people. So never forget
that, brethren. No matter how it may look to
you, and it might look bad to you, but it's right. Whatever
the Lord's doing for us, it's just that. It's for us. He's
doing it in our lives for us because it's what we need. and
he's gonna keep his name in our hearts and keep us looking to
him and trusting him. This is what the true, one true
God does. He's in the midst of his people
and he is working what's right for his people and he's causing
us to call on him and he's hearing us and having compassion on us
for the sake of Christ, having mercy on us for the sake of Christ.
But brethren, it's not so for a man who has made his God. It's not so. The man makes his
own God, makes his God like himself. And both he and the God he's
made, they're alike. They're unable to do anything.
Let's read verse 15. The idols of the heathen are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Now read verse 18. They that make them are like
unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. Now this passage
is almost exactly like Psalm 115. And why would the Lord repeat
something like this to us when it just almost exactly is Psalm
115? Why does He repeat it? Because
we need to hear it. Because it's needful for His
people. We need to be reminded and it's
needful for us. Now, last time when we looked
at Psalm 115, we contrasted man's idols with the one true living
God. Well, this time I want to focus
on what verse 18 says. It says, they that make them,
they that make their idols, are like unto them. So is everyone
that trusteth in them. My subject is like begets like. Like begets like. And here's
what we're gonna see. Man makes his God like himself. Man makes his God and he makes
his God like himself. He makes it in man's image. And
everyone that trusts in an idol is like the idol. But God creates his people. See,
man makes his God, but the true God makes his people. He creates
his people. Man makes his God in his image. God creates his people and he
creates them in his image. He makes them like him. Like
begets like. We're going to see this is what
makes God's children give him all the praise and all the glory.
He has made us, not we ourselves. That's what we're seeing here.
The contrast between how man makes his God and how God makes
his people. All right, first of all, man
makes his idol gods, but the one true God, he creates his
people. Man makes his God, our God makes
his people. Look here in verse 15, the idols
of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hand. Now this is the depravity of
the heart, right here. rather than worship the one true
and living God, rather than worship the one true and living God,
man will take things that the one God of heaven and earth has
created, things he's made, silver and gold, and they'll make a
God, a statue, an image, like themselves, and rather than worship
the one God that made those things, they'll worship that image. Now
that's depravity, isn't it? That's depravity, brethren. The
Lord said through Isaiah, he said a man will take a piece
of a tree and he'll take it to a workman and he'll have it overlaid
in gold and said he'll burn part of that tree, make a fire to
warm himself and he'll use it to make a fire to make him some
bread, something to eat. and then he'll make a god out
of the rest of that tree and bow down and worship the god.
So he's used part of it to warm himself and to eat, to make bread,
to eat, and the other part he worships. This is what the Lord
said, He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned
him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not
a lie in my right hand? Now, I've said this to you many
times, a man doesn't have to make a statue. The image starts
right here in the mind. And if a man imagines a God that
needs, his God needs him to help him in some way. His God can't
do, can't say without the man doing a part of the work. That's
an idol. That's not the God of this book.
That's an idol. and that man's worshiping an
idol, whether he has made a statue or not, it's an idol just the
same as a statue is. But while man makes his God,
God creates his people entirely new. We were no different from
idolatry. We were the idolater. God found
us in our idolatry, worshiping ourselves, worshiping the works
of our hands, not looking beyond just every day and what we were
doing. And God turned us. He created
a new heart within us. Entirely new heart within. And
it's all his work. Man makes his God out of something
that's already been created by God. But God creates his child
out of nothing of ourself. He creates his child out of nothing.
He makes his child out of nothing that existed before. He can't
use anything that's of us because we fell in Adam and everything
about our sin nature is sin. He can't use anything that's
of us. It's sin. It's going to return to the dust.
It died in Adam and it's going back to the dust. God creates
a new spirit, a new heart by the Spirit of the Lord. He does
that. We were conceived in sin so He can't use anything of us.
Listen, He said in Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you." How does he do that? The Spirit of the
Lord enters into his child. The Spirit of the Lord is God.
He's a living person of the Godhead. And the Spirit of our Lord enters
into us, and He creates a new spirit, a new heart, a new man, Our Lord said, this is why we
must be born again. We can't do this work. We're
sinners. That's all we are in ourselves.
But he said, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which
is born of the Holy Spirit is spirit. If a man has to help
his God, and has to have a part in making this new creation. He's worshiping an idol. He hasn't
been made new. Because when you've been made
new, that's when you know you didn't have a part in this. The
Lord did this. The true God creates his people.
We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to the praise
and glory of God. That's the only time we will
truly start to worship God is when he's worked his work and
created us anew. Our Lord, I know I say this,
I quote this passage, but it's so very important. Our Lord said,
it is the spirit that quickeneth. But that's a small s spirit and
really what it could be said is it's the spirit that is quickened. And he said the words, he said
the flesh profits nothing. That's all we are by nature is
just sinful flesh. It profits nothing. He didn't
have a part in this. And he said the words, I speak
their spirit and their life. So this is the Lord quickening.
He gives that new spirit when He enters in, and it's Him speaking
this gospel that quickens you in a new man. Don't you know
that when you sit here and you hear this gospel, and when the
Lord really speaks to your heart, He renews you. He revives you. And you know, you see Him, and
you know Him, and your heart's quickened. Sometimes it's so powerful, it's
like it's the first time you heard him, but he renews you. And this is an ongoing, he continues
to do that. He never takes his spirit from
us, we just, it seems to us sometimes like he has, but he doesn't.
But he keeps renewing you inwardly. Now, let's go a little further
here. Man makes his idol God like himself. But the true God, when he creates
his child anew, he makes us like him. Like begets like. That's what our Lord meant when
he said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which
is born of the spirit is spirit. Like begets like. Now listen,
Psalm 135, verse 16. He said, they have mouths, but
they speak not. The unregenerate man has a physical
mouth, so he makes him a god, a statue that has a mouth. And
if he just imagines his God, he imagines him speaking, being
able to speak. But his idol can't speak. His
idol cannot speak. He makes him a statue, puts him
out, and it can't do anything. It's a statue. Isn't it amazing
that men will worship a statue? It's just as offensive that men
worship this God they imagine that has to have a man to help
him. It's just as offensive. It's just as much idolatry. But his idol can't speak, and
that natural man that made him, he's just like his idol. He can't
speak things spiritual. He can't speak the truth of the
gospel consistently. Somewhere, he's going to give
man glory. He may say some true things,
but somewhere in his speech, he's going to give man the glory,
because it's coming out of his heart. Out of the heart, the
mouth speaks. You know, when the Lord told
the Pharisees, you'll know them by their fruit, or when he told
his apostles, you will know them by their fruit, he was speaking
of false preachers who preach a false gospel. Listen, the Pharisees
had natural hearts. They had unregenerate hearts.
Go with me to Matthew 12. I want you to see it. Matthew
12. They had unregenerate hearts, and so they preached a God who
was just like themselves. And listen to what the Lord told
him. Matthew 12 verse 34. He said, O generation of vipers,
how can ye, being evil, speak good things? See, they can't
speak. They're like their God. They
can't speak. They can't speak good things. They can't speak
the gospel. For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, this is a man regenerated
by God in whose heart there is no guile. He's been made truthful. It's a new man in which the spirit
abides. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things. An evil man out of the
evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. See that? A man cannot speak the gospel,
not consistently, He's going to give man glory somewhere along
the way. Out of the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks until God creates a new heart. God's got to make
a new heart. A man can't speak consistently
until God gives a new heart. He's going to give man glory
that belongs to God at some point. The Spirit of God creates this
new heart. And he creates it in his child. Christ is formed in us and Christ
is revealed in us. And so he gives you the pure
language of the gospel. And he's gonna keep his child
speaking the truth of the gospel. We're gonna speak and we're gonna
give our triune God all the glory. We're gonna give our Lord Jesus
all the glory. From the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaks. Only His people have this pure
language. He said in Zechariah 3.9, Then
will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call
upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent, with
one heart. That's what He does. Scripture
says, Our Lord said they should be all taught of God. This is
what God our Father does, Christ our Lord does when He's revealed
in the new heart. You have an unction from the
Holy One and you know all things. What does that mean? Does that
mean you know every bit of doctrine and you're able to speak deep
theology and all that? No, it means you know Christ
is all. You know He's all. And knowing He's all, you know
all things. You know Him who is life. And we speak that we
do know. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.12. 1
Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. You see
that? That little-ass spirit, that's
the spirit He's given us. It's of God. That we might know
the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also
we speak. Not in the words which man's
wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing
spiritual things with spiritual, scripture with scripture, But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual
judgeth or discerneth all things. Yet he himself is discerned of
no man, no natural man. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
See that the Lord, man makes his God, he gives him a mouth,
but the idol can't speak. And the man that made him is
just like him. He can't speak the truth of God. But you've
been made anew by the Lord, given a new heart by the Lord, and
the Spirit of God's made you to know the things freely given
to you of God, and those are the things we speak. We speak
these things from the Word of God. Verse 16, Psalm 135, 16. Eyes have they, but they see
not. Man has his physical eyes, so
he makes him an idol god that has physical eyes. But the idol
can't see, and neither can the man see. But God creates his
child, and he gives us spiritual eyes. He gives you new eyes.
He gives you faith, and we see by faith. We walk by faith, not
by carnal sight. Remember when our Lord, he took
that blind man, he led him out of town. That's what the Lord's
going to do. He's going to lead you away from
vain religion. And he led him out, and the Lord
gave him sight. He sped upon his eyes, and the
man, first he could just see men as trees walking. Then the
Lord gave him full sight, and the scripture says, and he was
restored, and he saw every man clearly. When the Lord gives
you these eyes, these spiritual eyes, faith to see, that's when
you see every man clearly. You see Adam, you see the first
man Adam, and you see he fell, and you see you and every other
sinner in this world fell in Adam. dead guilty in Adam. You see your own self clearly.
You see that in my flesh dwells no good thing. For the first
time you see I'm the sinner. But bless God you see Christ
clearly. You see that in Him is all the
fullness of the Godhead. You see that He came and laid
down His life and justified His people and He makes you know
He justified you. And you cast all your care on
Him and trust Him. You see clearly now and you see
by faith brethren Listen, Hebrews 2, 7 says, Thou hast made Christ
a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest Him with glory
and honor, and didst set Him over the works of thy hands.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He
put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that's not put
under Him. But right now, we see not all the things put under
Him, but we see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus. We see
Him by faith. who was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death, we see him crowned
with glory and honor. You see him by faith, don't you?
We see him crowned with glory and honor. This one that by the
grace of God tasted death for every chosen sinner. And you
see that it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are
all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain
of our salvation perfect through suffering. He's the perfect captain
of our salvation who worked out a perfect salvation, who perfectly
justified us, who perfectly saved us from our sin. You see, this
One who came down and did the sanctifying through His blood,
you and This one who does the sanctifying and you who are sanctified
are all of one for which cause he's not ashamed to call you
brethren. It's what he did. You see him
and you see him by faith now. Because he gave you the eyes.
Look at verse 17. They have ears but they hear
not. Man has physical ears so he makes his idol have ears.
But the idol can't hear and neither can the man hear. just like his
idol. Our Lord looked at those Pharisees
and he said, why do you not understand my speech? He said, even because
you cannot hear my word. Well, they had physical ears.
Couldn't they hear him speak? Yeah, they could hear him just
like everybody can hear me right now. But they didn't have these
ears we're talking about. They didn't have spiritual ears.
They couldn't hear the truth of the gospel. And that's how
natural man is and that's how his God is. His God can't hear,
He can't do anything, the man that made Him is just like Him.
But God creates His people and He makes us in His image. God
can hear, God can see. He sees His people, He knows
His people, He looks on the heart. He can hear, before they call,
I'll hear them, He said. And while they're calling, I'll
answer them. He speaks. He speaks this gospel affectionately
into our heart. Our God's living. He's alive
and He does all these things. And He creates us in His image.
We were dead. He makes us alive. We couldn't
see. He gives us sight. We couldn't
hear. He gives us hearing. We couldn't speak. He put a new
heart in us and makes us speak the gospel. Christ said, He creates His child
and gives us new ears to hear Christ, to hear His gospel. He
said, My sheep hear My voice. I know them and they follow me.
And he said, and a stranger they will not follow. They recognize
the voice of a stranger. When you hear this gospel go
forward, if you hear the gospel say that God chose whom he would
freely by his grace, not based on anything in us, you say, that's
the voice of my Savior. chose us in Christ. We've been
accepted in Christ from eternity. God only looked to His Son. You
hear the voice of Christ when you hear that. When you hear
that Christ came and laid down His life and really and truly
accomplished our redemption, He wasn't trying, He did it.
and now He's risen to the right hand of the Father and all His
people are in Him and we're there in Him and therefore God shall
hear us and He shall have compassion on us and He will work what's
right for us. You hear Christ's voice when
you hear that. When you hear the gospel declare
you must be born from above, you must be born of God, when
you hear this message that we're seeing in this psalm, that it's
God who creates us and not we ourselves, that He does it all,
A to Z, you hear the Lord Jesus speak. and you know it's his
voice. But if man's given, if he's given
man glory and he's putting it in man's hand in any, it's like
if Kalen was playing his piano over here and all of a sudden
hit just a note that had nothing to do with the song, you'd know
it right away. That's a bad note. Well, when
you're hearing this gospel and you hear somebody all of a sudden
say, but now you got to do your part. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You just
sounded the wrong note. That's a stranger. God's children
here to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. They're
not just awful little, there's no light in them. That's the
word of the Lord. Listen to verse 17. Neither is there any breath
in their mouth. Man is... He's dead spiritually and dead
is his idol God. Christ is the life. He made us. He gave us life. And He's the
life. He is the life. He's our righteousness. He is the gospel. That's who
He is. He is salvation. Man makes his
God liken to himself. Look there in verse 18. They
that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth
in them. But God makes his child like
him. He creates us anew like him.
Look at Colossians 3. I want you to see these texts. Colossians 3. Colossians 3.10, speaking of
God's saints, created anew, you've put on the new man which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where
there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in
all. See that? Look at Ephesians 4. Go back to your left to Ephesians
4 and look at verse 23. The believer is renewed in the spirit
of your mind and you've put on the new man which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the new
man. Our sinful flesh one day shall
return to the dust. You're dying, I'm dying physically,
we're going to die, and our sinful body is going to go back to the
dust. But our Lord Jesus is going to come and create a new body.
Just like He's created a new spirit, He's going to create
a new body. And everybody that's in heaven will be the creation
of God alone. That's what you read, Greg. It will be a new heaven and a
new earth created by our Lord, and all His people will be made
new, entirely new. Nothing of us, nothing of our
flesh. He did it all. Right now, it's in spirit. When
He gets done, we're going to be embodied soul and spirit,
entirely created anew by the Lord. Beloved, now we're the
sons of God, and it does not appear what we shall be, but
we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is. Now, let me give a word to the
idolater. One reason, and I'm talking about
anybody that hasn't professed Christ, hasn't confessed themselves
to be absolutely ruined in sin and totally trusting Christ alone
for salvation. I don't want to be mistaken.
If that's you, you're the idolater. Now let me say a word to you.
The reason you don't like to come hear the gospel. Let me
tell you why. A carnal man Even when he hears
the truth of the gospel preached, he only hears judgment. He only
hears himself condemned. That's all he hears. And to him,
the God of this Bible is a strict taskmaster. To him, he thinks
God's a strict taskmaster. And so a natural man, when he
becomes religious on his own, That's the God of his imagination,
is a strict taskmaster, because he's making a God like himself.
And when he preaches, he loves to condemn people, and he loves
it, because that's the natural God of his imagination. Listen,
the one true God that we're speaking of delights to show mercy. Judgment,
condemnation, that's called his strange work. He delights to
show mercy. He takes no pleasure in the death
of the wicked. He said this, saying to them,
as I live, said the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? That's what the Lord
said. Look at, if you can get there, go to Micah 7, verse 8. You're familiar with this, but
I want you to see this whole passage right here. Jonah, Micah,
Micah 7 verse 18. Who is a God, like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? This is talking about his elect
remnant, his inheritance. He passes by their transgression.
He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion on us. That's what our Psalm said. That's
how come His name's going to endure forever. It's all of Him.
He will turn again. He will turn to His people and
He'll have compassion on us. He'll have mercy on us. He will
subdue our iniquities and I will cast all their sins into the
depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to
Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which I was sworn unto our fathers
from the days of old. Now listen, indeed God's holy. Indeed He will by no means clear
the guilty but He performed the truth. He did. Somebody will
say, what's the truth? It's what Christ performed. That's
what it is. And He is that truth. He came,
and He bore the sin of His people, and went unto the justice of
God for His people, and satisfied God's justice, and He will perform
the mercy. Because you see, without the
altar, unless He turned to us and had compassion on us, and
made us entirely anew, we'd have never turned to Him. But when
He's done this work in His people, and it's through this good news
that He does it, and when He creates His child anew, He gives
you life, He gives you ears to hear, He gives you eyes to see,
He gives you an entirely new spirit and a new heart, and you
call on Him, and He has mercy on His people. And He's just
to do it because Christ performed the truth and the mercy. He's
done it all. He's done it all. He performed
the truth on the cross, laying down His life, and He comes and
performs the mercy work in the heart of His child. And when
you find out He really delights in mercy, and you see this gospel
and see what He did, For the first time, you know the true
God, and then you start delighting in mercy, and you start delighting
in the truth. And you know this, it's always
just to be merciful to His people, and long-suffering to His people,
and forgiving to His people, because Christ has satisfied
justice for His people. He's put away our sins forever.
Oh, and the right thing to always do is remind one another of this
good news of this gospel. But you see, until then, man's
God, man is unjust, and man is harsh, and he's a judge, and
he's self-righteous, and he makes a God that way. He thinks God's
that way. And it's just a lose-lose situation
because the gospel just grates on him because all he hears is
judgment. Oh, that God will give you ears, make you alive and
create you anew and make you like Him. Now, to you brethren,
the Holy Spirit commands us to praise God for making you, for
not letting us worship an idol that we made. He says, praise
God. Now, let's just read this out.
This includes everybody He's made anew. He says to His elect
Jews in Israel, Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. He says to
all His ministers that He created, He says, Bless the Lord, O house
of Aaron. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. He says to all His elect Gentiles
that He created anew, Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord.
That takes in everybody He's made new right there. And this
is the true Zion, the true Jerusalem, the true church. He commands
us, blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Jerusalem.
You're going to hear His church give Him all the glory because
we know He didn't leave us to ourselves. Here's His commandment
to you, praise ye the Lord. Brethren, Don't ever, ever, ever
be haughty towards somebody who's an idolater. Don't be haughty
towards people who don't know the Lord because you and me didn't
know the Lord. We were idolaters. And it was
God's grace and mercy alone. He turned to us and He had compassion
on us and mercy on us. And brother, do you see the riches?
He only does this for a remnant. He doesn't do it for everybody.
but he did it for you. That's not to puff us up and
say, oh well, I'm just, God's grace made me different. No,
when you really know that truth, you know, I would be still in my idolatry.
I still see so much idolatry in my flesh. And yet He keeps
having mercy and He keeps showing us compassion for His namesake
because He has dealt with our old man in Christ. He put away
our old man. He judged our old man. And He's
going to deal with our old man within us. We can't deal with
our old flesh and men, but He's going to keep you knowing Him,
keep you hearing Him, keep you seeing Him by faith, and He's
going to keep you to the end. That's how His name's going to
continue to endure. So we say, you know how Psalm
115, I said it's just like this Psalm, you know how it starts?
Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory.
for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. We don't have a thing to
rejoice in in ourselves, but we have everything to rejoice
in in our Savior. And we glory only in Him. Praise
Him, praise Him. Go, when you lay down tonight,
thank Him. Just thank Him. That's why He
did this, so we praise Him. Give Him the glory. Thank you,
brethren. Amen. All right, Brother Greg.