Here, you can check. Good evening. If you would, let's
stand and sing an opening hymn out of your softback, number
45, Praise God for Grace, number 45. of electing grace, secure for
me in heaven a place chosen from all eternity, the Son of God
by blood for me. The Spirit came in sovereign
power, that the exact appointed hour. Healing Christ, creating
faith, my soul, he quickened from his death. ? I rejoice in sovereign grace
? ? My sovereign God shall have my praise ? ? Praise God for
grace ? ? Praise God for grace ? ? Sovereign, eternal, saving
grace ? If you would turn to 103. 103, glory, glory, I'm forgiven. ? Glory, glory, I'm forgiven ?
All my sins are washed away ? Christ by his great blood atonement
? All my sin has put away Sin imputed to my Savior when He
died upon the tree. As the substitute for sinners,
God will not impute to me. Glory, glory, I'm accepted Robed
in Christ's own righteousness I'm a child, an heir of heaven
Saved by God's almighty grace Christ's obedience to the Father
is imputed now to me. In God's sight I'm pure and holy. He declares me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish. In Christ's hands I am secure. You save me, sure will keep me. By God's grace I shall endure. This is not a vain presumption. I just take Him at His word. Christ has sworn they shall not
perish who believe on me their Lord. I would like to read from 1 Kings
10. 1 Kings 10. Regarding the Queen of Sheba.
1 through 13. And when the Queen of Sheba heard
of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came
to prove him with hard questions. And she came to Jerusalem with
a very great train, with camels that bear spices and very much
gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon,
she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon
told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from
the king which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom in the house that he had built,
and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants,
and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers,
and his assent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord,
there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it
was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. How be it, I believe not the
words until I came and my eyes have seen it and behold, the
half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded
the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are
these thy servants which stand continually before thee, that
hear thy wisdom, Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth
in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved
Israel forever. Therefore made he the king to
do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents
of gold and of spices, very great store. and precious stones. There came no more such abundance
of spices than these which the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. And the navy also of Haram that
brought gold from Ophir brought in from Ophir great plenty of
algam trees and precious stones. And the king made of the algam
trees pillars for the house of the Lord and for the king's house
harps also and psalteries for singers. There came no such algam
trees nor were seen unto this day. And King Solomon gave unto
the Queen of Sheba all her desire whatsoever she asked, besides
that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned
and went to her own country, she and her servants. Our Heavenly Merciful Father,
we thank you for allowing us this opportunity to come to gather
together as a local assembly. Father, we thank you for this
place you have provided for us. Father, will you continue to
give us what is needed and necessary, both financially and also the
health and the strength. Father, it is all in your hands.
Will you remember us, Lord, as this local assembly? Remember
this community also. All things are perfectly in your
hands and you know where your lost sheep are and exactly what
they need. Father, continue to allow us
to meet together and remember especially our pastor, Brother
Eric. where he continues to study the
word and to bring forth the gospel to us. What a great, great blessing
it is. Father, give us an appetite for
the gospel, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. Give him, Lord,
the strength and the health, and be with also Michelle. Give her the strength as she's
working and supporting this assembly also. Lord, we also think of
our daughter-in-law Amy that has an important meeting with
the embassy tomorrow. Lord, will you direct all things
perfectly. You are in control no matter
where it is. And Lord, will you be a surprising God and make
all things well. Remember us, Lord, in mercy for
Jesus' sake alone. Amen. All right, brethren, good evening.
We're gonna be in Isaiah 44, and I wanna look with you at
verses 10 through 20. And last week, we saw how that
the Lord gives us a description of himself. And the revelation
that our Lord provides for us in his word is it gives us a
measure of who he is, whereby we may know that when others
are speaking of their God, we can tell, are they speaking of
an idol, false God of their own imagination, or is this the true
and living God as he's revealed himself in the scriptures. What our Lord uses here is to,
he takes the idols that man creates, especially under the old covenant,
these idols that they would whittle from wood and carve out from
stones and beat precious metals around it and form it and shape
it. And what he does as we go through
these verses, we see that this is the imagination of what a
man has of God. And when we say imagination,
we mean this is the image that he has of God, right? It's his imagination, an image
that he's making, projecting what he thinks of God. And what we find is that it's
nothing more than a reflection of his own corrupt, sinful nature. All right, so the image, which
is a projection or a creation of himself, we see, and he says
in verse nine, before we get into it, they that make a graven
image are all of them vanity, and their delectable or desirable
things shall not profit. And they are their own witnesses.
They see not, nor know that they may be Ashamed, right? The very act of their idolatry
shows it's a witness against them that they don't know what
they're doing. They don't see or understand
or have any real understanding of what they should know or understand
concerning God. And they're so blind that they
don't even, they're not even ashamed. They feel no shame. There's no blushing, if you will,
over their folly. Now recall that last week the
Lord declared himself to be Sovereign God. He's Sovereign. He's Sovereign
over his creation. He's Sovereign over our salvation. He's Sovereign in electing or
choosing a people for himself and in his choosing he therefore
provided everything necessary for our salvation, even down
to our very calling out of darkness and calling out of our death
and blindness to know the true and living God. We see that He's
done all this. He's the sovereign God. He's
almighty God. We're not the God. We're not
the provider for ourselves. We're not the ones who get ourselves
saved. We're not the ones who let God
do anything. God sovereignly does as it pleases
Him. That's how He's revealed Himself
in Scripture. He's not subject to the whims
and the will of man. He is all-wise, all-powerful,
all-knowing, and He does according as it pleases Him. And what He
does is perfect and righteous, just and holy. All right, so
tonight we're just gonna go through these verses, breaking down the
idolatry of man, showing how it fails in comparison against
the revelation that our Lord gives concerning himself in the
scriptures, all right? And we do this because this is
what our God saves us from, all right? This is exactly what he
saves us from, false idolatry of God. Just as he tells us in
1 John 5, 20, We know that the Son of God has come and hath
given us an understanding that we may know Him that is true
and we are in Him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. This is what our God reveals
to you and me. This is why we call upon Him
and rejoice in His salvation and are thankful for his grace
rather than fighting and rebelling against his grace. That's his
work in us. So I've titled this, Who Hath
Formed a God? Who Hath Formed a God? All right,
so let's get into it here. Our Lord, what he does is, He
reveals to us that he's eternal and that man didn't create God,
not the true God. There are many that believe that
man is the inventor of God to control people and things like
that. And there are many idols in man's mind and in his heart.
He did create those false gods based on the corrupt image of
the true and living God in his own imagination. But man didn't
create God. God created man, he tells us.
In fact, in Genesis 2, verse 7, we read, the Lord God formed
man, right? The Lord God formed man of the
dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and man became a living soul. And so, one of the things
that we see here from this first verse in our text is that With
the idols of man, man is his maker. Man is the maker of his
gods. God made, God formed man. God
made man and he formed man of the dust. And we read here in
Isaiah 44 verse 10, that's the question that the Lord asks.
Who hath formed a God? Who hath formed a God? God formed
man. Who hath formed a God? Or molten
a graven image that is profitable for nothing. So the Lord's putting
a question to us. Who's formed a God? What have
you done? What have you done? Or who of
us have done this? Who has formed a God? And the answer to that question,
sadly, is every one of us. Every one of us is guilty of
idolatry. Every one of us is guilty of
forming an image of God that's corrupt and fallen and not according
to the sovereign God who reveals himself as our almighty in his
word, right? And so we've all had thoughts,
vain, foolish thoughts about the Lord. We've all created idols
ourself. And the wicked who are yet dead
in their sins, they may not answer that honestly, but you and I,
who the Lord has opened our eyes and begun a good work in us,
He begins, he brings that work to its completion. And so he
shows us that that's where we all were when the Lord saved
us. We all were dead in trespasses and sins. We all had various
thoughts of who God was and who he is and what pleases him and
what I should do to serve and worship him. And so he's taught
us that You know, we're idolaters just like everyone else. And
he shows us that so that we aren't puffed up with false knowledge,
right? And that we're not puffed up
over our brethren thinking that we're something when we're really
nothing, all right? And so there's a lot of people
that love to speak about their God, right? They're willing to
speak about their God and to define him, they'll use man-made
quotes about God, right? prefer Ben Franklin's Above All,
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves, right? I think that's Ben Franklin.
And they really believe that the Lord said that somewhere
in the scriptures. Or they'll take scriptures and they'll twist
them, right? They'll misuse those things. But if it's not the truth, if
they're not speaking of the Lord according to the scriptures,
it's a false God. It is a false God, right? All
right. Thankfully, the sheep of our
Lord, they are much more, we are discerning, we're made discerning.
There was a time in religion where I was fearful to get into
conversations because everybody had a pretty good argument and
it confused me. And this one sounded good and
that one sounded good and it scared me because I didn't know
what was the truth. Everyone's quoting from the scripture
and yet they're all saying different things. after faith was revealed
in me, right? Just as he's revealed his faith
in you, even if you're not bold to speak, you know, and get into
a discussion as they're speaking, you know that doesn't sound like
the God of the scriptures. That doesn't sound like the God
who reveals himself as my God and Savior, my Lord, my all,
the one who's sovereign and almighty and does all things well, right? use a scripture or speak of God,
but you can tell that this doesn't ring true at all. Their spirit
isn't testifying with my spirit. I don't hear what they're saying. I was seeing online just a comment
section of one of the articles and someone was going so far
as to invoke Ephesians 6, you know, God's given us this armor
of God, and they're, you know, promoting civil war. And I'm
just looking at that like, no, that's not at all what that scripture
says. In fact, Paul, in verse 12, Ephesians
6, 12 said, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high
places. And that's exactly what is, you
know, there's a certain sense in which none of us sees what
that next level sees above us, right? When you've, if you've
ever been in management and you've seen a certain level, and then
the directors have another level, and then vice presidents and
presidents have another level, you know, in business. They just
know things that you don't know. And so who knows what they see
and what their concern is, but I mean, We don't, the fact is
they could be just under an influence, a dark demonic influence that
we don't know. We're wrestling against things
that aren't flesh and blood. I mean, the lunacy that seems
apparent to us, the fact is it's not them that we're fighting
against. This is a spiritual war. And so the spiritual armor
of God is given to us by which we stand against the wiles of
the devil. All right, that's what's really
at play here. There's hatred and bitterness
and anger, and those are not fruits of the spirit. And we're
given the gospel armor whereby we stand against the wiles of
the devil. And so our Lord, he assures us
that all who put their trust in a false god, you know, holding
on to their God and abusing the scriptures and just taking things
out of context to suit their version of God, they'll be ashamed.
They'll be ashamed. And so Isaiah 44, 11 says, behold,
all his fellows shall be ashamed. And the workmen, they are of
men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. Yet they shall
fear and they shall be ashamed together. So there's coming a
day, it may not be today, but there's coming a day when the
works of darkness, those who practice the works of darkness,
they shall be ashamed. And when they're brought to that
judgment. But for now, we, brethren, you
that believe and have an understanding of the Lord, we're to stand in
the armor of God because evil isn't afraid to stand. They're
pretty bold. The things that people say against
the Lord and mocking those who believe the truth, they're not
afraid to stand and deliver their accusations and hurl their insults
and things like that. They boast of things for which
they ought to be ashamed and for which we are ashamed too
because we partook in those things as well. So we don't boast of
those things, but what does the word there say in Ephesians 6,
13 and 14? Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that
ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all, to stand." God calls them to stand, and we in the gospel,
fitted with the gospel armor, are called to stand as well.
Stand, therefore, he says, having your loins girt about with truth,
and having on the breastplate of righteousness. And he goes
on to describe every piece of the armor, which is gospel armor. It's armor forged of Christ's
work. The armor was made by Christ
and his work. Our offensive weapon, it's the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. In our stand, it's a gospel stand. We have no fellowship. He says
in Ephesians 5, 11, and 12, we're to have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. Those that speak of their God,
and in the name of their God, but go and do things. I mean,
if you're able, and you hear what they're saying, and the
Lord gives you liberty, don't agree with it. You can correct
them with the scripture if the Lord gives you that wisdom and
that ability and that opportunity to speak it. And he says, for
it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of
them in secret. Things that are born out of our
natural corruption and the idolatry of our heart. These images of
man himself, they're idol gods, and they are reflecting the limitations
that they themselves have, right? And you see that they're working
towards what they think their god is requiring of them. Regarding their limitations,
we see in the scripture that these idol gods, they can't move,
they can't speak, they can't do anything, even when called
upon by their worshipers. I think of Elijah, right? When he was dealing with the
false prophets of Baal, right? The 400 of them, and it's just
Elijah alone standing in that day in the gospel truth and in
his hope, and he gave them every opportunity. right, to sacrifice,
you know, to prepare a sacrifice and dress it for their god, Baal,
and gave them the best of circumstances. And it says that they even went
so far as to abuse themselves, right? They cut themselves until
their blood gushed out. And they danced and, you know,
jumped up on the altar and hooted and hollered all day long, all
day long. And it says that none regarded
them, no one regarded them, none of their god, No one from their
God regarded them. And so one thing that we see
there is that our God doesn't require our sacrifice first,
right? You see that people will say,
well, you know, we got to do things. You know, God's not going
to do anything. We've got to do things. And they don't see
how man has corrupted and ruined things throughout the ages, right?
Man has putting his hand to things has just messed things up. all
the time. We do it in ourselves, right?
When we think we're going to fix something, how often do we
make a situation worse by the things we do? And it's, what
does he say in James, that the wrath of man does not work the
righteousness of God. It doesn't. And so we learn that. But our God doesn't require,
I mean, he may use us. He'll give us a heart. and his
grace and spirit by which we are made strong for the work
that he's prepared us to do and to bear the fruits that he's
determined, foreordained that we should bring forth and bear.
But in terms of our salvation, In terms of our obtaining or
getting or increasing our favor with God, He's not requiring
sacrifices from us for those things. Our favor, our sacrifice
by which we come to the Lord is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
All right, man speaks of his sacrifice to motivate God to
do something for him, but our Lord reveals in his word his
sacrifice in love and grace for us, right? For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And we know that by his one offering,
he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, right? That's
the sacrifice. When we're speaking to others
of the sacrifice God requires, it's coming to Him in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Coming to Him in faith and hope
and joy and peace in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now,
idolatrous man, he believes that his works are what earn him favor
and earn him an audience with the Father. Look at verse 12,
Isaiah 44, 12. The smith with the tongs both
worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh
it with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength
faileth. He drinketh no water, and is
faint." And so he's working hard, laboring hard, even to the point
of fainting, thinking that that's what God will find favoring.
And religion throughout history is full of that. Martin Luther
comes to mind, who crawled on concrete with his bare knees
and whipped his back to beat out sin from him, thinking that
this is his sanctification, to inflict wounds of Christ upon
him and other false notions. But it's not that, I mean, you've
probably known people, I've known people that came in to work and
boasted that they were up all night, and only to show the scabs
on their elbows for how they prayed and rocked in their prayers,
and then showed, see this, and so what? So what? And they received
their glory then, then and there, right? They received their glory.
So in that verse 12 there, right, it speaks of man who worketh
in the coals, And it just makes me think of how man is tweaking
and adjusting his false God. In the heat of trials that we
go through, we're working our God. Well, that didn't work,
so maybe God's this way. Well, he didn't answer me there,
so maybe God's this way. Maybe he's waiting for me to
do something more, make a bigger sacrifice. And he fashioned it
with hammers, right? Through the harsh hammers of
life just beating on you, he's formatting and working who his
God is, and how God works, and what he does. And based on his
own personal strength, the strength of his arms it speaks of. Based on our strength, that often
determines how much a person leans upon their God. If they're
weak and always getting beat up, they're leaning on their
God a lot more. And if they're strong and take
care of themselves, they lean on their God a lot less, right? That's how man is. But, you know,
we just see all this fashioning and working based on what they
find and experience, right? Isaiah 44, 13, the carpenter
stretcheth out his rule. He marketh it out with a line,
he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with a compass.
and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty
of a man, that it may remain in the house. And so after all
this contemplating and thinking about and considering what's
going on, he fits it with claims. He's tweaking his God. And when all is said and done,
it appears after the figure of a man, or according to the beauty
of a man. Or some would interpret that
according to the appearance of a woman. Because a woman is fairer
than man, she's prettier than man. So his God becomes an effeminate
thing and he makes it to remain in the house and he keeps it
and he does, he looks after it when it pleases him and that's
about it. It's meant to be put up in the
house and never, it's weak and submissive to him and never able
to go beyond that man's imagination. Isaiah 44 14 He heweth him down
cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth
for himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth an ash,
and the rain doth nourish it. Now, those trees are probably
pretty good hardwood for making an idol that will last. But one
thing you notice is that none of those trees are fruitful trees. I think the oak maybe makes an
acorn for a squirrel, but not fit for you and I. I don't need
acorns. But none of those are really
fruitful, fruitful trees. And so at best, you know, carnal
man, according to his word, according to the scriptures, At best, we
bring forth fruit unto death. Romans 7, 5, for when we were
in the flesh, the motions of sins which were by the law did
work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. And that's what the flesh can
bring forth fruit. But it's fruit unto death. It's
not profitable to anyone. And so man doesn't see his own
folly in any of this. In spite of all this, he doesn't
see his folly. So verse 15 through 17, look
at those. Then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take
thereof and warm himself. Yea, he kindleth it and baketh
bread. He gets warm by it, and he uses
it to cook his food. Yea, he maketh a god and worshipeth
it. He maketh it a graven image and
falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the
fire, and with part thereof he eateth flesh. He roasteth roast
and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself and saith,
aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. Having seen what his own
strength and wisdom produce, he proceeds to then make a god
of it. Verse 17, And the residue thereof
he maketh a god, even his graven image, he falleth down unto it.
and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me,
for thou art my God." And so the reality is, he's just worshiping
his own works. And that's what we see there
in the Old Testament scriptures. And today, men and women are
carving their God out of the scriptures. They're just taking
out what they like, and they're just working that God out. You know, we see a dilemma, right,
in those that confess or profess to believe on Christ, because
man does know that there's a God, right? He knows that there's
a God and that he's going to come into judgment one day and
stand before that God, but, you know, left to himself, he doesn't
know God except he's born again, right? And we know the Lord's
teaching us that. Yet, there are some who do continue
in idolatry, even with the knowledge of the Lord. There are people
that know a lot. They know a lot, and really,
they're spoken of in Romans 1. If you look at Romans 1 there,
you know, even with the knowledge of God, he refuses to worship
God as the Lord reveals himself in scripture, because that's
really what idolatry is, right? There's a certain knowledge of
him, but it's a refusal to hear what he says about himself in
the scripture. And Romans 121 through 23 says, because that
when they knew God, right, there was a knowledge there, 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 changed. the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds
and four-footed beasts and creeping things." Right? And so his denial
of the knowledge that he has, because it doesn't suit him,
you know, he knows a lot, but he still doesn't believe it.
He denies what God has revealed of himself to us concerning his
sovereignty and wisdom and that He is our salvation, right? We
see it on many spectrums under what people call Christianity,
right? And believing on Christ. We see
those who see that God is sovereign and yet glory in their free will. And then we see that God is our
justification and our sanctification, yet they glory in their works.
and make them, their works to supersede Christ's work and to
do something that Christ's work isn't capable of doing. And it's
those things that lead to reprobation. That's where we see reprobation.
Verse 28, even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which
are not convenient. So we see that in scripture about
reprobation. God just isn't zapping people.
We see that there's a knowledge that they're given and they just
refuse it. They just continue in their rebellion
and their hatred of the truth and God gives them over to reprobation. So in our In our text, we see
that idolatry was largely described there as the carving out of wood
and stone and precious metals. But we know that today, it largely
centers around the works and the will of man, largely. And it was in the Jews' hearts,
too. They probably knew better than
to practice idolatry. But we see the scriptures where
they were just filthy, filthy, abominable sinners who thought
little of the God, the true and living God as he revealed himself.
All right. And so we're called to declare
Christ, to declare Christ our righteousness, because that's
the very point that religious men stumble over. It's that we're
not our own righteousness. Our works are not our righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ and him
alone is the believer's righteousness. And religious men are ignorant
of God's righteousness and therefore are going about to establish
their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we patiently labor in that call, because all men are dead in trespasses
and sins. And we know what our Lord is
saying, right? Who hath formed a God? Well,
all of us were guilty of forming a God. And so we too were naturally
ignorant of God, who is a spirit and must be worshipped in spirit
and in truth. And so Isaiah 44, 18, they have
not known or understood, for he hath shut their eyes that
they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. And some would say that's the
evil one who blinds men's hearts, but ultimately, that's speaking
of the Lord. And, you know, because he works
all things after the counsel of his own will. And what we
see in that is it requires the grace of our God to open our
eyes to open the prison that we're bound up in and to bring
us out to draw us out of that darkness. All right. And so. So we're patient, waiting upon
him to do that for others that we care for and have opportunity
to speak to. All right, Isaiah 44, 19 and
20. Because none considereth in his
heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have
burned part of it in the fire. Yea, also I have baked bread
upon the coals thereof. I have roasted flesh and eaten
it. And shall I make the residue
thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk
of a tree? 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?" And so, you know,
we can look at man's idolatry and say that's just utterly stupid. That's just stupidity. I can't
believe anybody would do that, but we know. The Lord reveals
to us that when we were in religion, that's exactly what we were guilty
of. That's exactly what we did. We
held on to our false views of God, and we had no understanding. We didn't... We were ignorant,
right? We couldn't see our blindness.
We didn't see it and therefore we weren't ashamed of it. And
so we continued in it. And so we did all those things. We worshiped the God of our imagination.
We twisted scriptures as it suited us. And we believed various philosophies
of men because it sounded good to us. But our Lord reminds us
here. All right, you can't it says
they cannot deliver that man can't deliver his soul and none
of us can deliver our soul and what he's saying to us is we
all need to be regenerated. We all need to be made alive
by His Spirit, and that's exactly what our Savior did for us. We're
sinners in need of His grace, and He provides it freely and
abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. So, He calls us through
this Gospel, revealing to us each time we meet what He's done
for us, how that we're not to think of ourselves more highly,
but to rejoice in His salvation, giving Him all the thanks and
the praise and the glory for it. So while corrupt men make
their idol gods, turn over to 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians
2, and look with me at verses six through eight. 1 Corinthians
2. This is our last scripture we'll
look at. He says, Paul says, we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect and were made perfect by the
Lord Jesus Christ, according to the measure of faith that
he's given to us. Yet not the wisdom of this world,
nor of the princes of this world that come to know. But we speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory." You see that
it's hidden. That's why a man doesn't see
it and doesn't understand, but he's purposed you to hear this
word. He's purposed to make it known
to you through the gospel. which none of the princes of
this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. And you and I would not be saved.
We'd yet be in our sins. But our Lord has provided full,
free salvation in Christ. So thank him, brethren, for delivering
you and your brethren from the folly that we see recorded here
in idolatrous man. And so Who hath formed a God? Every one of us by nature until
the Lord delivered us. So pray for those you care about
and encourage them in the gospel. Pray the Lord bless that word
to your heart. All right, brother, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Father, we
thank you for your mercy and your grace. Lord, we see the
the corruption that is in man and what we are in Adam, what
we were by nature. But we thank you, Lord, for your
grace and mercy that in your son, Jesus Christ, you delivered
us. You paid the price of our sins. You satisfied our debt to holy
God and to the law. And Lord, you have made us righteous
with your own blood. And that you've given us life
in your spirit. And Father, we thank you for
your grace and mercy which has called us, and Lord, that you
keep us, enabling us to endure to the end. Father, we thank
you for delivering us from the false idols that were in our
hand, showing us that they are but lies. And Lord, that you
have revealed to us Christ. And Lord, As we have need, we
pray and ask that you would continue to teach us and keep us and grow
us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. For it's upon your grace that we depend. And we thank
you so much for your salvation in Christ Jesus, our Lord and
Savior. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Let's stand and sing a closing
hymn out of your soft back, 113. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, 113. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb. Ransomed souls, your voices raise. Sing your great Redeemer's praise. Praise Him, God, the great I
Am. Praise the sin-atoning Lamb. Worthy, worthy is the Lamb, sinner
saved by God's decree. Praise the Lamb of Calvary, praise
Him for His dying love. Praise the Lamb enthroned above. ? Worthy, worthy is the Lamb
? Jesus, Savior, blessed Lamb ? We would ever praise your name
? You redeemed us with your blood ? Paid us kings and priests to
God Worthy, worthy is the Lamb Righteous, just, faithful and
true Are the wonders that you do Grace and glory in you shine
Love and mercy all divine It's pretty clear.