All right, brethren, let's turn
to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Our subject is our God and their
idols. Our God and their idols. Now
you who God has graciously given life and faith. Do you remember what you thought about God and
how he saves before God gave you an understanding? Do you
remember that? Do you remember coming to his
word and trying to read his word and trying to understand and
just not having any understanding spiritually? I almost always
went to the Word trying to find something I was supposed to do.
That's what I read it for, trying to find something that I was
supposed to do. And then you had all these thoughts
of who God is and how God saves. Well, after God saved you, you
realize you never ever understood who God was and how He saves. It was just all in your imagination. You think about the word imagination. It is an image maker, is what
it is. Image is in the word. And that's
where idols come from, is our imagination. We imagine what
we think God's like. We're going to look tonight again
here at God's description of the heathens' idols. But as we
do this, I want us to remember it's only by God's grace that
God's made you know the true God. It's only by His grace that
you have faith to believe Him. Everything we're going to read
here about the idolater, this was us by nature. This is exactly
how we were by nature. We may have been worshiping statues
or not. We may just had this image in
our mind of who God was, but either way, it was idolatry.
And it's only God's grace that gave you an understanding. And
we have to remember, too, we still have a sin nature. That's
an idolater. Sin, idolatry there, too. We worship so many things and
put so many things before our Lord so often. That's idolatry. So, as Paul said in Romans 11,
20, be not high-minded, but fear. He's not high-minded. We don't
have a reason to think more highly of ourselves than we ought because
this is us by nature. And really, when we read these
things about the idolater, it should sadden us. It should make
us sad for them because that's the heart God's given you. You
want to see sinners saved. But you have this hope, too,
knowing you were the idolater and God saved you. God saves
people like this. His people, He finds His people
in idolatry and saves us out of it. So we don't read this
with any kind of thoughts that we're better than anybody else.
And we don't read it taking any kind of joy in idolaters worshiping
idols. Our hearts break for them. You
want to see them saved. So, let's read this now. You
know, it's this thing of us having this sin nature. This is why
the Spirit of God says to believers, remember Paul said in 1 Corinthians
10, 14, he said, wherefore, my dearly beloved, he's talking
to believers, flee from idolatry. Why did he say that to believers?
Because we still have this sin nature. Everything this book
tells us turn from and to avoid. The reason believers are told
these things is because we still have a problem with sin. And
we have to be taught this over and over and over. So as we hear
this, I pray God will enable us to thank God that we know
the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding. That
we may know Him that's true and we're in Him that's true. Even
His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal
life. That's what God's done for you. That's what God's done
for you. This is why every spirit-born,
heaven-born sinner says what verse 1 says. Not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory, for Thy mercy
and for Thy truth's sake. We were the heathen. We were
saying, where now is their God? But now, by God's grace, by His
power, we can say what verse 2 says. But our God, I'm sorry,
verse three, but our God, there's grace right there that we could
say our God, our God. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now, what does the Spirit of
God say about the heathen's idols? We're gonna hear God's description
here, and we're gonna compare and contrast the true God with
the heathen's idols. We'll do a comparison and contrast
here of the true God with the heathens' idols. Let's just begin
here in verse four. First of all, they have many
idols. Except verse four, they're idols,
plural. But there's only one true and
living God. Idolaters have many idols, many
gods. But the true and living God,
there's just one. We have one God. There's as many
different idols as there are sinners in the world and all
the different imaginations. People just constantly inventing
gods in their minds. When Paul went to Athens, you
remember that? They had an idol god for everything. They even
had an altar with the inscription on it, to the unknown God, just
in case they forgot one, or left one out, to the unknown God.
Paul said, that's the one I'm declaring to you, the one you
don't know, the true God, the true and living God. So whether
it's carved out into a figure, or whether it's only carved in
a man's imagination, if it's of God, I mean if it's of man,
And if it depends upon man for some part of salvation, then
it's an idol. If it's of man, if it's what
man thinks, it's what I think, if it's of man, it is an idol. It is an idol. If it's any part
of salvation dependent upon the sinner, it's an idol. Listen
to this. David said this in the first
psalm he wrote and gave to Asaph. He said this. You'll find this
in 1st Chronicles 16.25. Let me tell you this. Let me
give it to you. He said, Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised. He also is to be feared above
all gods. Now listen to this statement.
For all the gods of the people are idols. But the Lord made
the heavens. It doesn't just mean that all
those idolaters, gods are idols. It means if it's of the people,
if the people came up with this God, it's an idol. It's an idol. The true God is one God, not
many. Deuteronomy 6, 4, Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one Lord. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 8, 4,
he said, Now we know that an idol is nothing in the world.
There's none other God but one. Though there be that are called
gods, whether they're in heaven or in earth, is there be gods
many and lords many? A lot of men have gods and, you
know, there's a bunch of idols in men's minds. But to us, there
is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in
Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things, and we
by Him. So, yes, there are three distinct
persons. There's God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit, and they're manifest bodily in the
Lord Jesus Christ, but it's one God. One God. There's one God,
and there's one mediator between God and me and the man Christ
Jesus. So that's the first difference. Idolaters have many gods. Many
gods. You find a man that doesn't worship
the true and living God, He gon' put confidence in his horoscope.
He gon' have his lucky rabbit's foot. He gon' have a bunch of
other gods besides just his idol god. Bunch of them. God makes
you have one God, one God. Now secondly, their idols are
made by men from created things. Men make these idols from created
things. That is, if they're made into
a statue or whatever, it's made from created things. He said,
verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. And you know this doesn't only
apply to crosses and statues and all of that. A man may claim
to have turned from idols and be worshiping the true God and
so he has no outward idols anymore. But if a sinner's God can only
save if a man lets him save him, if his God has to have, if he
has to help his God out, then that God is man-made, the same
as the statue is. Man has imagined that God the
same as the statue. Listen, Hosea 8.6, the workman
made it, therefore it is not God. That's Hosea 8.6, the workman
made it, therefore it's not God. Our God's in the heavens. Their
idols dug out of the earth, out of silver and gold and wood.
The work of men's hands. The one true and living God made
the silver, and the gold, and the men, and their hands, and
the earth, and the heavens where He dwells. He made everything.
We didn't make our God. He made us. We didn't make our
God. He made us. Our God is not our
workmanship. We're His workmanship. The true
God made the first man Adam out of the dust. He made him a body
and breathed into him the breath of life and he became a living
soul. But Adam sinned and all of his children sinned in Adam. We all sinned in Adam. Every
man on this earth sinned in Adam and died. But the true God had
created His people in His will and purpose in Christ before
He ever made the first thing. He had created us in Christ by
His electing grace and His predestinating grace. He had already created
His people in Christ. So in the fullness of time, the
Son of God came into this world and was made of a woman, made
under the law, made sin for us, made a curse for us, made higher
than the heavens, and He made His people higher than the heavens,
redeemed us, made a curse for us, made us righteous by His
blood. And then He came to us with the Gospel and sent the
Spirit to us, and He didn't use anything that's of Adam. You
realize that? God didn't use anything that
was already in existence in you. He didn't come and patch up what
Adam messed up. He created, He imparted into
you a new Spirit. You say, well, how would He do
that? Because the Spirit of God entered
into you. Something that was not in you
entered into you. and created a new spirit in you,
gave you a new heart, so that that new man that he created
is not of Adam. It's not of you and me. It's
a creation of God entirely. The new man which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Christ that created him. When
he made Adam, he made Adam in his image. But when Adam sinned,
he lost that image. But when Christ creates a new
man in you, that new man is created. It wasn't there. It's created
in the image of God who created him, of Christ who created him.
The new man which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. What did we have to do with the
first creation? Nothing. What did we have to
do with this creation, this new man that was created in you?
Nothing. God did it. Nothing can be put to it, nothing
can be taken from it. He made you meet, fit to be partakers
of the inheritance and the life. He created a new man in you,
Christ in you, and united you with Christ by faith so that
just like a thief on the cross, if you died right then, you'd
enter into paradise with him. Nothing we do is going to add
to his creation. We've never created anything.
We've never created anything. Everything that's ever been made
by man's hands was made from things God already made. And
you and I are not adding one thing, not one thing to the new
man, to the new creation that God has made us. You'll never
add anything to it. God is growing you, but it's
not me and you that's doing it. When Peter says, add to your
faith, and he lists the things to add, you know this, Peter
knew this. It's God that's making the addition. It's God that's growing you. When these sinful bodies go back
to the dust, then Christ is going to create a new body immortal
that He created and He's going to bring us into a new heavens
and a new earth so that everybody there and everything there is
entirely the creation of our Savior in His righteousness and
His holiness. Idolaters make their gods. That
other Jesus that depends on the sinner to let Him save is made
by the sinner. But our God made us. He created
us. I'm talking about you who believe.
The new man. He made you in His righteousness
and His holiness. So, that's the second thing.
First, there's many idols. We just have one God. Secondly,
we didn't make our God. Our God made us. Here's the third
thing. Idols can do nothing. Idols can
do nothing. But the true God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Verse 5, they have mouths, but
they speak not. Verse 7, the second part says,
neither speak they through their throat. That's why God calls
them dumb idols. They can't speak. The one true
God, does He speak? The one true God, does He speak?
The idol does not speak. They have mouths, they made a
mouth for them, but they don't speak. Does the true and living
God speak? He spoke and created everything
by His word. Yes, He speaks. The book right
here, this book is the Word of God. He spoke this Word by the
Spirit into the hearts of holy men and used them to write this
Word and He has preserved it to this day. And He speaks into
the heart of His children through the preaching of this Gospel
and He speaks effectually and that's how He created us anew
and gave us faith. Our God speaks just like He did
on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were sitting there, Peter
wanted to build idols to other altars in memory of Moses and
Elijah. And the Lord spoke a voice out
of the clouds, said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well
pleased, hear ye him. That's what our God speaks. Our
God turns all his people to one, to the one he's pleased with,
Christ Jesus the Lord, and he makes us pleased with him. Then
what does the true and living God say to you? If He's made
you to put all your trust in Christ, and He's made you see
and hear Christ, and put all your trust in Christ, what's
He say to you? Isaiah 43. Here's what he says
to you. He keeps speaking to his people.
I pray you speak tonight and make us hear this word right
here. Listen to this. It goes right along with what
Brother Rob just read and what he prayed. Listen to this. Verse
1. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Cebu for thee. We come here and we pray, Lord,
Increase us in faith, increase us in love, make us to honor
you, make us to behold you more, make us to see your all in all. The things we pray, we ask God
to do for us. And then one of us, our lives
is turned upside down. Trouble comes, terrible, terrible,
deep waters, burning, hot fire. And we're, oh, what's going on?
We just ask God to do this for us. When you ask God to increase
your faith, He's going to have to devour all the... He's going
to have to do away with the dross to do that. He's going to have
to refine the gold of your faith by the fire. You want to honor
Him. That's the heart of every child
of God. We want to please God. We want to obey our God in this
world. But to do that, He's going to
have to show you. He's going to have to turn you.
He's going to have to grow you. draw you and all the things He
does. And He's going to do this through
deep waters and through the fire. But He says to you, it's not
going to drown you. It's not going to burn you up.
I'm just purging you. That's all. I'm growing you.
That's all. I'm your God. I redeemed you.
That's what God says to you once He's called you. That's the true
God. You think about this God who
He wants to save, He's done all He can do, but you're just going
to have to let Him do something. That God can't even grow you.
That God can't. If you come into the fire, are
you going to trust that God to save you out of the fire? Verse 5, Eyes have they, but
they see not. You know what Hagar said? Thou,
God, seest me. Their God has eyes, but they
don't see. Hagar said, Thou God seest me. What a blessing! Because God saw us in Christ
when he put us in Christ before the world was made. He saw us
when we fell in Adam. The reason we were preserved
in Christ Jesus is he saw his people in Christ. When Christ
went to that cross, God saw us buried of the curse. He saw us
in Christ. Justice poured out on us. He
saw us die in Christ. He saw our old body of sin be
buried in Christ. And he saw us come out of the
grave in Christ, and saw us sit down at his right hand in Christ.
God sees his people. And when you were born into this
world, and you were walking in darkness, and you didn't know
God, and you had all the idols of your imagination, the only
reason you didn't die before is because God saw you. And He's
going to bring you to see Him and see His Redeemer that He's
provided for you, and that's why, because He saw you. And
ever since then, to this day right here, He sees you. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy,
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine. Man's vain God sees not, but
what a blessing, brethren. The true and living God sees
His people, and He sees His people righteous and holy in His Son. Since thou, Isaiah 43, 4, the
next verse, I stopped in verse 3, the next verse, notice it
says, Since thou was precious in my sight. Since thou wast
precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved
thee. Therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thou.
How come I was honorable in God's sight? God, because you are precious
in my sight, you've been honorable. How is that? Because in Christ,
you've been perfect. You've been honorable. He saw
you in Christ. Noah found grace. Where? In the eyes of the Lord. Verse
6, they have ears but they hear not. You want a God that can't
hear when you call to Him? They have ears but they hear
not. You remember the idolaters in Elijah's day? They called
on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal,
hear us. But there was no voice nor any
that answered. Elijah mocked them. He said,
Cry louder, cry loud. Maybe he's asleep. He doesn't
hear. He's an idol. When Christ cried
from the cross, this is where we see God hears us, right here.
Did God hear His Son? When Christ cried from the cross,
did God hear His Son? Yes, He did. When He satisfied
justice, God heard Him, and God raised Him, and God dealt with
His enemies. And this is what our Lord said
in Psalm 69, 32. The humble, you that are broken
in contrite, you that can't, you don't have any strength,
been broken in heart by the Lord. This is what the Lord said about
that. The humble shall see this. They're
gonna see that you answered me, Father, and they'll be glad.
And your heart shall live to seek God, for the Lord heareth
the poor and despiseth not his prisoners. When you're in prison,
when you're in captivity of your sin nature, or you're in captivity
by enemies, or whatever it is, and you're poor, that means you
don't have any way of freeing yourself. The Lord hears you. When you call on Him, the Lord
hears you. That's the true God. Verse 6, Noses have they, but
they smell not. Does our God smell? Does the
true God smell? When Noah came out of that ark,
he offered a burnt sacrifice to God. Scripture says, And the
Lord smelled a sweet savor, and said in his heart, I will not
again curse the ground any more for man's sake, for the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite
any more everything living as I have done. And you know what
that sacrifice pictured? That sacrifice pictured Christ.
Ephesians 5 says to us, walk in love as Christ also has loved
us and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet smelling savor. And for His ministers that preach
His Son, that come to the pulpit and they preach Christ and Him
crucified, and shut sinners up, and make them see that they're
sinners, incapable of saving themselves, in need of God's
grace and mercy, and they point them to Christ and Him crucified,
and show that Christ is the righteousness and salvation of His people.
God says of His ministers, under God they are sweet saver of Christ. in them that are saved and in
them that perish. To the one we're a saver of death
unto death, to the other a saver of life unto life. And for every
prayer, you know what the incense picture, remember this from the
tabernacle incense, your prayer was typified in the old covenant
by the incense going up. And that incense comes up, that
prayer comes up to God through Christ Jesus, a sweet smell to
God because of Christ. Verse 7. So I'm on 15.7. They have hands, but they handle
not. That's the idol. They have hands, but they handle
not. After Christ accomplished the salvation of his people,
he was received up into heaven and sat on the right hand of
God. And this is speaking of Him.
He is the right hand of God, the arm of His power. That's
who Christ is. Psalm 118 right there in verse
15 says, The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles
of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is
exalted. The right hand of the Lord doeth
valiantly. Who is that? That's Christ. That's
Christ. since Christ ever lives to make
intercession for us. He says to you to trust him.
Isaiah 41 10. He says, fear thou not for I'm
with thee. Be not dismayed for I'm thy God.
I will strengthen thee. Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah,
I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. You
know, I said to you before that this was for a long time it went
around. God has no hands but your hand. I looked it up. I
want to see where that came from. And it came from, it may be Mother
Teresa it came from, the one they call Mother Teresa. But
it's been passed down through the ages. Now I've heard two
or three different stories of it. One was a statue in World
War II. Another one says it's a statue
in San Diego. But this is what happened. Somebody
in the war, there was a statue that was supposed to be Jesus.
just a man, looked like Michael McDonald from the Doobie Brothers.
But he's sitting there and somebody shot a bomb or something and
blew his hands off. And the church decided, well,
we don't want to put his hands back on because this reminds
us that God has no hands but our hands. And that's what they
did supposedly in San Diego. Some vandals cut his hands off. And so they said, oh, we want
to put up a plaque here to remind us. And they put their plaque
up. It says, I have no hands but your hand. Well, their idol
doesn't. That idol doesn't. A vandal's
cut his hands off. But not the true and living God.
He does as he pleases. Does as he pleases. Verse 7,
feet have they, but they walk not. Remember Song of Solomon,
the bride saw Christ walking upon the mountains, skipping
upon the mountains. He walks on the wind, he walks
on the waves, he rules everything. Now I know that, what do they
call that? Anthropomorphic, where they're,
you know, saying God has hands and eyes and all that, and he's
speaking to us in language we can understand. Now that God
is spirit, but God became a man. The triune God is in Christ bodily
and a man went back to glory glorified. We have a God seated
in the heavens who has eyes and a nose and a mouth and hands. We really do. But now catch this, lastly. Those
who worship idols are just like their idols. Now look at this,
verse 8. They that make them are like
unto them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. Now, whether it's a statue or
not, any sinner whose God depends on him for any part of salvation
is just like his idol. He's as dead spiritually as his
idol God. He's just as dead as his idol,
or just like him. The God who loves all men the
same but fails to save those he loves, that's an idol. The
God who's not willing that any should perish, but he can't save
unless the sinner wills it, that's an idol. The Jesus who died for
everybody, but depends on the sinner to make his blood asfectual
is another Jesus. The God who wants to sanctify
his people, but he needs you to work with him in a co-effort
to make you holy and pure, that's an idol. When scripture says salvation's
of the Lord, that's what it means. A to Z. Author and finisher of
our faith. Salvation is of the Lord. Those
who worship helpless idols are like their idols. Now look at
it again. Concerning spiritual things,
concerning a true understanding of God, this is so of every man
worshiping an idol. Verse five, this is true of the
man. They have mouths, but they speak
not. They have eyes, but they see not. They have mouths, but
they can't speak anything spiritual. Christ said to the Pharisees,
how can you, being evil, speak that which is good? You can't
preach the gospel. They have eyes, but they don't
see Christ. They have ears, but they don't
hear the gospel. They have noses, but they can't
smell the sweet savor of Christ. Talk about the man who makes
his idol, who trusts his idol. They have hands, but they don't
handle. the Lord. They have feet, but
they walk not. Neither speak they through their
throat. Paul said in Romans 3, their throat's an open sepulcher.
It's a grave. But you see them doing a lot
of activity. They're running about doing a lot of stuff in
the name of God supposedly. No, it's in the name of their
idol. And their dust, if they made
a statue or they made a cross or whatever the idol is, their
dust is just like it is. And just like it's going to go
back to the dust one day, so are they. That's true. But you
know it's also true that God who made you makes you just like
Him. And you that trust in Him, He's
made you, He's created you in His image. Better than Adam,
because you can never lose that image again because of Christ.
It's all of Christ. And He's going to bring you to
Himself perfectly conformed to His image one day. So remember, brethren, this was
us while dead in our sins. This was us. God our Father made
the difference by His electing grace. Our Lord Jesus redeemed
us from the curse being made a curse for us. And the Spirit
of God gave us life and faith in Christ and shall keep us sanctified
and preserved until the end. And our Lord's coming and He's
going to bring us into glory, into that new heavens and new
earth perfectly conformed to Him. And everything will be of
His hand. So we don't have anything to
boast in. But this is what we have. We have all confidence
in the true and living God to preach this word to everybody
throughout this world. Send this gospel forth because
this same God that did this for you, He's going to do it for
all His people. He's going to make, He's going to recreate
them in His image. Renew them, regenerate them,
and return us to Him. Bring us into His presence. Behold
what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. Taken us from being idolaters,
enemies in our mind by wicked words, and made us know we're
sons of God. Now are we the sons of God. It
doesn't 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. What do you want to do with that? What does God make you
in your heart want to do from hearing that word? Flee from
idolatry. Flee from every other sin. Flee from it. Sin's the enemy.
Sin's the enemy. Flee from it. Believe Him, love
Him, love one another. That means we're going to have
to be long-suffering with one another. We've got to be merciful
to one another because we're going to sin. Any man says he has not
sinned, he makes God a liar. And he says he's not sin in his
nature, he makes God a liar. But if you come to Him, confessing
your sin. He's faithful and just to forgive
you of your sin and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
I'm saying this that no man sin, but when you do, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He's the propitiation
for our sin, for His people all over this world. Keep reminding
each other we're serving the true and living God and He saved
us. He has. And keep reminding each
other that. When your knee-jerk reaction
is to speak something against your brother for their sin, check
yourself. Go to him. Go to Christ right
away. Consider yourself, lest you also be tempted. A man think
himself something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. Let us remind
ourselves, I'm nothing. I'm an idolater saved by grace.
And then go and remind our brethren what Christ has done for us.
If we could just remember that, if we could just remember this
is it, brethren, this is what God saved you with in the first
hour, this is what He keeps saving you with, this is what He's going
to keep saving you with to the end. Why don't we just speak
about Christ to one another when we need it most? Why don't we
remind each other of how Christ has borne our sin and put it
away and saved us by His mercy and His grace? Why don't we remind
each other that? That's the only thing God's going to use to turn
us. His love and His grace. There is a discipline of our
Lord in His forgiveness of His people. That's what makes you
fear Him. That's what makes you hate your sin. That's what makes
you see it as awful and mourn it and turn from it and flee
to Him. It's His forgiveness. All right, I pray God bless it.