If you take your Bibles and turn
back with me to Isaiah chapter 44 Isaiah chapter 44 Now entitled this message a God formed
and a God that forms a God that is formed and a God
that formed God here is making a contrast between Himself, the
only true and living God. He tells us in this chapter,
He said, Beside Me, there is no God. I am, from first to last,
I am God and there is no other God. It's as though God looked
over here and God looked over here and looked all around and
says, There's no God but Me. And so he makes a distinction
here. In the very beginning of this chapter, he's talking to
his people. He says, Here now, O Jacob, my servant in Israel,
whom I have chosen, thus saith the Lord, that made thee, and
formed thee from the womb. God declares that he is the one
that forms. He is the one that creates. He
is the one that saves. And then if you go over to verse
9 and 10, He now makes a comparison between Himself and every other
false god. Notice, He said, they that make
a graven image are all of them, what? Vanity. Empty. delectable things, their desirable
things shall not profit. And they are their own witnesses.
They see not nor know that they may be ashamed who has formed
a God or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing. So it's my two points this morning
that the God that is formed and the God that formed. First of
all, the God that is formed. And we know this, that man by
nature is totally and absolutely corrupt. The scripture says every
thought of the imagination of the heart, you got it? Before
it actually becomes a thought in his mind, it's an imagination
of his heart, is continually evil. It's continually corrupt. Therefore,
the corrupt nature that we are born with is nothing less than
a perpetual God factory. Man is born in sin. This is true
and he loves sin. But there's a problem with that.
He's also born with a conscience. The law of God, Paul says, is
written in the heart of every man. So then his conscience must
of necessity be quieted. The guilt of his sin either because
he's heard the gospel preached and he feels the guilt of his
sin or he's in some kind of trouble. His sin has brought him to some
kind of sickness or trouble. It's then he seeks some kind
of peace, inner peace within himself. Therefore, he must try
to escape guilt. Because he himself knows. That
God, whoever he is, must punish sin. Paul declares this in Romans
chapter one, and I won't take the time to go through the whole
chapter there, but he he's declaring this to every man knows there's
a God. I apologetics is a useless thing. It's just a useless thing. You're trying to convince a man
of what he already knows. You're trying to convince him
that God is when he knows that God is. The scriptures plainly
declare this, that all men know there is a God. He said even
by the creation, they know what? They know the power of God and
they know that the wrath of God is against unrighteousness. This
is something that everyone is born with. with his knowledge. But because he is spiritually
dead, he cannot really know the full nature and person of God. He can't know who God is, really.
He knows there is a God. He knows he's powerful. He knows
that he's going to punish guilt. But he really doesn't know the
extent of his holiness, nor does he understand the extent of his
own depravity. And so what does man do with
this knowledge? He creates he forms a God in
his own mind. Listen, this is and I know this
that most God most the false gods and we're going to deal
with this most false gods are not made with hands anymore. I mean, there's a Catholic church. They got a bunch of things that
they make with their hands, a bunch of little gods they make with
their hands, but for the most part, It's in the imagination
comes from the thoughts of a man. But in order to form a statue,
you've got to have a thought of it. Right. Got to have a picture
of it in your mind. So what is these false thoughts?
It comes from the natural man comes from his evil imagination. So he cannot know the nature
of God. And because he is totally depraved,
he is when he hears the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know what
he he he rejects that God. It's natural for him to reject
that God, he said, when you hear of salvation by grace through
faith in Christ, he cannot come to the knowledge of that God. Except what? Except the father
draw him. This is important that no man
can know God or be saved of God except God reveal himself. I can describe God to a lost
man all day long, but I can't reveal him. I can't make that
man see him. It's kind of like a blind man.
You take a blind man and you try to describe a rose to him. Someone who's born blind, try
to describe the beauty of the color red in a rose. He can feel
it, he can touch it, but he can't really see it. This is the way
men perceive God. He can't know God except God
reveal Himself. Unless God teach him. Jesus said
that, didn't He? In John chapter 6, No man can
come unto Me. except the father which has sent
me draw him as it is written they shall all be taught of who
God God unless God the creator comes and opens our understanding
and revelation of the righteousness that is in Christ no man will
ever worship the true and living God therefore because of his
depravity in his heart in the death of his soul Because of
his weakness and inability to deliver himself from guilt, men
will always form a God in his own mind. A God. He forms a God. And that verse,
God asked this question. Who hath formed a God or molten
image that is profitable for nothing? Why would you make a
God that's not profitable? Why would you form one? He goes
into great detail about this guy. He said this worker, he
said in verse 12, he said there's a smith, he takes the tongs and
he works really hard. He's got a God in his mind and
he begins to fashion it and he's sweating and he's laboring. He
don't even eat. And he begins to faint with this
labor of making a God. That carpenter, he takes the
line and he carefully measures it out. Carefully crafts it.
I mean some of these statues are just absolutely gorgeous
in their craftsmanship They spend so much time on these idols to
make their God so beautiful But he said why in the world would
you do that when that God can't profit you When that God can't
save you He said they're of no profit Now listen, I don't care
what name you give your God You form a God of your own. Listen,
you put any name you want on it. Buddha. Allah. Zeus. Hey. You can even put Jehovah on his
name. You can call him Jesus. But if
he is a God that you have made, he is no God at all. If He is
a God that you have made by your own thoughts, I get this a lot,
well, I think God is like, I don't care what you think God is like.
If your God is made up of your thoughts, then your God is not
God. Well, I feel like God, well,
if your God is made up of your feelings, your God is not God.
You formed Him. You formed Him with your thoughts,
you formed Him with your feelings. Our gods like this, we have traditions
and this is the tradition says our gods like this. Well, if
your God is made up of tradition and your God is not God. And your God is of no profit.
If your God is made up of your thoughts and feelings and traditions,
your God is of no value to your soul. Why you made him? You made it. That brings to mind
that sculptor in the Catholic Church who made those crucifixes.
He made them so beautifully. His work was all over the Catholic
Church at that time. And you remember on his deathbed,
he was dying and that priest, he held up one of those crosses
and he said, Behold your God. And in despair that man looked
up and said, I made that. that God was no help to him. He made it. If you made your
God, he is of no help. Therefore, God calls out a challenge.
God throws down the gauntlet here. Look at verse seven. Look at verse seven. God, he
says, first of all, he said, I'm the first and last. Beside
me, there's no God. Listen, who as I shall call and
shall declare it and set it in order for me. Since I appointed
the ancient people and the things that are coming. And shall come,
let them show them, he said, Look, if you're a God, show me
something. Show me what show me what what tell me what was.
That should be the easiest thing, right? It's already happened.
You should be able to tell me what it is. Better yet, tell me what's coming.
If you're God, tell me what's coming. I mean, the God of this
generation is wringing his hands. He don't know how this thing's
going to end. He's just hoping that somebody's going to accept
Jesus. That's a God formed, friend.
That's not a God. Not a God to be feared, a God
to be pitied. So God, look at Isaiah 41. He
does this in the previous chapter. Look at Isaiah 41, verse 21. God calls him to the mat, man.
He tells him, he said, look, if you're a God, I want you to
answer these questions. He says, produce your cause. You gods come here, produce your
cause. Say it, the Lord, bring forth
your strong reason. Say it, the king of Jacob, let
them bring forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show
the former things what they be that we may consider them. Kind
of chuckle at that, that we may consider. God said, you tell
me and I'll consider it. And know the latter end of them,
or declare us things for to come. Show the things that are to come
hereafter, that we may know you are gods. Yea, do good or do
evil, do something. If you're a god, do something
that we may be amazed. I think, remember what the prophet
Elijah did? They're out there cutting themselves
and praying to their God and said, maybe your God went to
the bathroom. Your God's taking a walk somewhere. He can't hear
you. Cry louder. He's making fun of them. Well,
they should be made fun of. Your God is nothing. Your God
is something you formed. He's vanity. Do something, do
good, do evil, do something. And so then consider the God
that is formed. Look at verse. I want you to
consider that every God is formed is made like unto man or less
than man. He's either made equal with man
or less than man. He can't be greater than the
creator, can he? If I form a God, then obviously
I'm greater than the God I made. I made it. So his God has to be either equal
or less with himself. Now notice what he says in verse
12. Go back to your text and. In verse 12, he said. The smith
with his tongs both work at the coals and fastened with a hammer
and work at it with the strength of his arms. Yeah, he is hungry
and his strength faileth and he drinketh no water and he is
faint. The carpenter stretches out a rule and make it that out
of line. He fitteth it with plains, he
maketh it out of with a compass, he maketh it after the figure
of a man according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain
in the house. When men make a God, they have
to start with what they know best, themselves. They have to
form a God, he has to start with himself. False gods of natural
men are always given the same wicked, petty, lustful character
of the man that formed it. Man, by nature, cannot conceive
of a holy God. Cannot conceive of a holy God. He cannot conceive of a righteous
God and a God that is merciful. These two things do not, they
don't connect. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? They don't know. God said that about himself,
didn't he? In Exodus chapter 34, he said, I am the Lord, the
Lord God. Keeping mercy for thousands.
Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And what will by no
means clear the guilt. This is why many cultures have
multiple gods, because they can't conceive of God in one. One God,
they have to. Have to have many gods to form
their their complete idea of who God is. One God could never
satisfy the thoughts of who they believe God should be. I kind of I kind of chuckle listening
to people talk about God. You have two people sitting there
talking about God and what they got totally opposite opinions
of each other and they could they could both agree to disagree. Well, you're God and they acknowledge
this, they acknowledge that each one's God is just as valid as
the other one. You know why they both formed
their God and they're trying to. They're trying to give consent
to the other one, so they wouldn't they wouldn't judge their God. So these gods that they make
are cruel. They're unjust, proud, powerful,
merciless. Why? Because they are made like
unto men. God said this in Psalm 50 and
verse 21. These things hast thou done and
I kept silent thou thoughtest. that I was altogether such in
one as by sale. So every God formed comes from
the imagination of man is like unto a man. I'll tell you this men hate instruction
when God declares who he is in this word he declares who he
is. Men hate that. Why? It goes against the God
that they have formed. The thoughts of their imagination
of God is contradicted by what God says of himself. So what
do they do with this word? They throw it behind their backs.
They cast it out. So what does man do by nature?
He consents with fornicators and thieves. He speaks corruption,
yet God does not punish sin immediately. Therefore, they believe God to
be like themselves, because God don't punish sin. They think
God just as unjust as they are. A man is truly full of sin and
free from righteousness. Friends, God is holy. God is
just. And he will not overlook sin. The true God will not overlook
sin. Yet we know this about every
God that is formed, that they're going to overlook sin. Every
God that is made of man will overlook sin. If the true God confesses himself
that he will by no means clear the guilty. Is this your God
of you? That is as unjust as you are.
What I mean by that, every God that is formed will take any
old sacrifice that the that his creator gives him to take. I
believe my God saves you if you'll just accept Him. Oh, what about
blood? You need blood? What does the
true God say? Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sin. They're God. The God in the churches
today is a God formed after the imagination of a sensual, unjust
man. This God desires something that
He can't actually obtained. He desires to save all men because
He loves them. He creates man, but somehow man
brought death and sin into this world and their God is... How'd
that happen? As though He had no power over
it. He couldn't stop Adam from doing it. And so what does this
God do? He sends His Son into the world
to pay for their sins. He loves them so much He sends
His Son, yet, listen, He's so gentle He won't violate their
will. He hopes that they will somehow
choose Him. So that His Son's blood actually
accomplishes nothing unless they unless the man allows it how unjust is this how unjust
is a God to send his son to die for sin and then charge the one
that he died for if this is the God that most
men believe in our generation is that he died for their sins
except for the sin of unbelief, and they got to somehow pay for
that by believing. It is unjust for Christ to pay
for the sins of all men and then charge them with the sin that
he paid for. How foolish then is it for a
man to trust in a God whose love they cannot save? If God loved Judas and Peter
the same, What does the love of God have to do with salvation? Answer would be nothing. If you
love them the same. But we know that's not true. If you knew if you were your
loving parent. How many of you would if your
children? Were dying. If it was in your
power to save them, how many of you would neglect their salvation
or neglect to save them? None of us would. Yet this is how they perceive
God, that he loves and wants to save men from hell, but will
not do it except the man give him permission. This friend is a God formed.
It is not the God. Of the scripture. Secondly, a
God that is formed is powerless. He's not only like a man, he's
not only unjust, but the God that is formed of men is powerless.
Look at verse 13. He says this. He makes him after
the beauty of man for what purpose that it may remain in the house. The gods of men are formed, have
no power but what their maker gives them. In Psalm 115 God
said this, they have eyes but they can't see. They have ears but they can't
hear. They have hands but they can't touch. They have feet but
they can't move. They have a mouth but they can't
speak. What is this saying? It's saying
that all gods that are made by men are without power. I remember
that story of Walter Groover in Mexico. Young boy was saved. Lord saved him through the preaching
of the gospel. And they're an idolatrous people there in Mexico.
They are statues for everything. God's for everything. And he's
trying to tell his dad, he said, Dad, these gods, they're not
God. And he tries to preach the gospel
and he said, No, son, these are our gods. And that boy one day
took a hammer and he smashed all of those gods except one.
And he laid the hammer right at the feet of that one God.
And he comes in and dad says, What did you do, son? And he
said, Nothing. I didn't do anything. He did it. And his dad said, Son, we know
that's not true. He can't do that. That's what
I've been trying to tell you, Dad. He has no power to do anything. He has no power. That's a God
that is formed. He has no power. He is subject
to his Maker. He makes Him to leave Him in
the house. That God can't follow Him. That
God can't move. That God can't move unless He
moves Him. So if a man desires to hide his
sin, all he's got to do is put his God in the closet. If he desires to be forgiven,
all he has to do is make up some ritual. Some prayer to be rehearsed. In other words, their God is
made to accept whatever they call righteousness and whatever
they call a sacrifice. Over in Jeremiah 10 and verse
3, it says, For the customs of the people are vain. For one
cutteth out a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands
of the workmen with the axe. They deck it with silver and
with gold and fasten it with nails and with hammers, that
it cannot move. This is another comparison that
God makes in Isaiah. He said, I am a God that carries
you. Any God you need to carry is
not God. Behold the vanity of this. They say, well, God, I fasted
you, I gave you, I fasted for you. When that Lent comes around,
I got friends who are Catholic and they just want to talk about
how they're sacrificing. They're fasting. Well, I gave
up ice cream, what'd you give up? Is that all your God wants? Give up ice cream? Tell me how
this works. I gave up meat, but I ate fish.
I still don't understand that one. Because that's me, to me,
that just seems like me. Why, they make up all these things,
their God is powerless. They have to make up their doctrine.
That's why God says in our text, they are their own witnesses.
They didn't consult me. They're their own witnesses.
How about this one? Well, I accepted Jesus. Find
out where he says it in this book, you need to accept him. as though you have power over
him. And he's begging your acceptance.
Well, okay, I guess I'll accept him. That's a God that's made. That's
a God that's formed. They say, therefore, I accept
you. Therefore, you are obligated to save me. By the omnipotent power of my
will, I accept you. Their God is powerless to demand
anything but what they desire to give Him. But our God is nothing like that. Our God is not one that's formed. He is the one that formed us. Our God, the psalmist says, is
in the heavens and hath done what So ever he hath pleased. Altogether a contrast from a
God that is formed. A God that is made by your feelings
or thoughts. Our God created the heavens and
the earth and all that is in them is subject to our God. All is subject to Him. He made
them and they are subject to Him. The true God of heaven spoke
and his word, by his word he created all things. Go to Isaiah 40, look at verse
25. I like this. Talking about images
and idols and God says, who are you going to make that looks
like, that has anything like me? To whom will you liken me? or shall be equal, saith the
Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold who hath created these things, and bringeth out their
host by number. He calleth them all by names
by the greatness of his might, for he is strong in power, not
one faileth. You see the stars? How many names can you come up
with? He named them all. He named them all. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment
is passed over from my God? I know this. We often think about
that. We say, man, God, have you forgotten me? How is that
possible? Don't you know who I am? Hast
thou not known? Hast thou not heard? That the
everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary. There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
to them that have no might. He increases strength. Even the
youth shall faint and be weary. The young men shall utterly fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint. Who has power? If there is any lacking in strength.
Who gives strength? Our God is all powerful. You breathing. Breathe in, breathe
out. Where did that power come from? God gave you that power. And he has a power to take it.
Our God, the gods of men that created by them, they're nailed
down and they are powerless. But our God power and wisdom
never fails to do his own sovereign will. God, who must do according to
the will of man, has no power of what the man gives him. He
has eyes but he can't see, ears he can't hear, arms he can't
keep. But our God, our God is a shield
to all who trust Him. But all whose God is formed in
their own making needs to be thrown away. Listen, if your
God is made by your thoughts and feelings, throw Him away.
He is good for nothing but the ash heap. He cannot save. You should throw him away, but
you should then turn to the true and living God, the one who says,
I am God and there is none else. There's none beside me. Why? Because he alone has power to
save you. That guilt that you feel, The wrath of God that's against
unrighteousness. The only one that can save you
from God is God. No other God will do. All who worship God must believe
that he is. You can't worship a God you don't
know. God must reveal Himself to you. And that He is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him. How do we seek Him? How
does a man know who God is? God reveals Himself
in His Word. His Word is plain. His Word is
very clear. By His Word. by his means of
salvation. There's no other way for a man
to be saved. The trouble is, there's none
that seeketh after God, except God give them the ability. And
I want to see the God that is formed. The God that's formed. Unlike the gods of men, that
men form, the true and living God is sovereign over all things. Go to Isaiah chapter 46. Look
how God describes Himself. This is God. If your God's not
sovereign, He's not God. If your God is subject to circumstance
or the power and will of man, He's subject to... If there's
anything outside of His control, He is not God. Listen to what
God says of Himself. Isaiah chapter 46, look at verse
9. I remember in this one, he's contrasting the God that is to
be carried versus the God that carries. And he says, remember
this and show yourselves, men, bring it again to mind. Oh, you
transgressors, remember the former things of old, for I am God and
there is none else. I am God and there's none like
me. Here's the distinction. Declaring the end when? from the beginning from ancient times of things
that were not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure and he gives that illustration
he said I'm going to call a man that doesn't even know me doesn't
worship me I'm going to use him to save my people Israel And
I'll send him to hell. Exactly what God did. Cyrus named
him by name before he was born. This is the God in whom we serve. He is a sovereign God. And all
who know this God understand this. It was He who formed us
and not The other way around. Go back your text and look at
that, he says, you first of all, notice this, he says, Oh, Jacob,
my servant, verse one, Israel, whom I have chosen. We know this,
that the sovereign God before the foundation of the world had
chosen a people. I don't think that my God chose
a people where your God's not God. Sorry. That's just so. My God said, I have chosen you.
You that know God, how is it you know God and others don't?
God said this, I chose you. Our God is sovereign over all
things, purposed for his own glory, that he should choose
some of Adam's race. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places according as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world. And we should be holy and without
blame before Him, in love, having predestinated us under the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace,
wherein He hath made us, He formed us, He made us accepted in the
beloved. Any God who had not loved and
chosen to save. But has left salvation up to
the will of fallen man is not God. That's a God formed. Our God that formed us. He chose
us. He purposed that we should be
saved. Listen, I want you to understand
if there were no election, there would be no salvation. Election is not salvation elections
unto it, but without it there would be none Had God left we
would be no different than the fallen angels had God not chosen.
I don't like people to say We'd all been like Sodom and Gomorrah
the scriptures that say had God not left a remnant Here is hope for sinners, that
there is mercy to be found with God. There is hope of forgiveness
and eternal life because God chose Jacob. Because God has
sworn to save them. He didn't swear to save all men,
otherwise all men would be saved. You understand that? If God purposed
to save all men, there would be no hell. If He did, Therefore he put Jacob his church
his elect into union with his son. He made Jesus Christ his
son to be all our salvation. He made him to be the mediator
and high priest of all his people. This is what the word of God
speaks concerning the coming of Christ who would redeem Israel.
Look at verse 22. This is the result. Let's read
verse 21. Remember these. He's telling
you, remember these vain idols and these people, these wicked
men. Remember them, O Jacob and Israel. Remember this comparison,
so you're not confused as to who God is, who I am. For thou
art my servant, I have formed thee. Thou art my servant, O
Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. Now why do they have any
hope of this? Verse 22, I have blotted out
as a thick cloud thy transgression, as a cloud thy sin. Return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee. Here is the hope of every child
of God, the hope that God won't ever forget me, the hope that my God is God. Here it is, He blotted out my
sin. Jesus Christ has come into this
world and by His one offering, one, one, He has forever plotted
out all our transgressions, all our sins. I like that as a big
cloud. It's just not not, you know,
you get that white out, you put it on your paper, you may still
see the indention in the back somehow. You'll see that. Oh,
no, it's like he poured white out all over the thing and you
can't see nothing. He painted the page with it.
You can't see nothing. Why? He blotted them out. Believer in Christ, we have this
hope that we trust in our God because He formed us. He redeemed us. It was by His sovereign will
we were chosen. It was by the righteousness of
Jesus Christ that we are made righteous and acceptable with
God. It was by the blood of Jesus
Christ that the justice of God is forever satisfied. And in the purpose of God, He
came to us in our idolatry. We were bound down to a God of
our own making. had no clue who God was or who Christ was. We
had thoughts, we had feelings. But when God came to us, those
thoughts and feelings of our God vanished. They just were nothing, they
were empty. And at that moment, through the
preaching of the gospel, God formed in us a new man. I like the way Paul puts it,
we are created after God in true holiness. When something's created, what
was there before? Nothing. When God created the world, what
was there? Nothing. What righteousness was in you
before God formed it there? Nothing. And God created us after
the holiness of God That new man This is why men are so confused
when John says He that believeth on Christ sinneth not John you just said in the first
chapter If any man say without sin he's a liar and the truth's
not in him How in the world do you say we sin not? What does
that mean? It just shows you that there
are two natures inside of us One that constantly sinning and
one that is perpetually holy This is why there's a struggle
You got to struggle Because God has formed in us a new man We
are created We are His workmanship Ephesians 2 We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. So when God says, I formed thee,
he made us. And what happened when he formed
us? He said this, behold, the Lamb
of God will take away the sin of the world. When that command
came to your heart, when you found out your God was nothing,
and you found out all you did is sin, you can't Make yourself
acceptable with God. When you heard that, behold the
Lamb of God. It had taken away the sin of
the world. Could you do anything else? When that command came, I could
do nothing else. I could do nothing but believe on Jesus Christ. I confess, if then it was by
the grace of God, He formed a new nature in me so that I should
believe Psalm 100 verse 3 know you that
the Lord hath made us and not we ourselves what part did you
have in this in your salvation name something
that you can contribute I have nothing My salvation is
totally, completely dependent upon God and none of myself. It was not by our works or goodness
He saved us. That's the God of this religious
age, but we who are saved by the grace of the living God know
it was by his grace, his power. It was by the will of God that
the blood and righteousness of Christ should save us. And it
was by the power of the spirit. He gave us both life and faith. We're in Titus. It says in verse chapter 3, it
says, For we ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceiving,
serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,
hating one another. But after the kindness and love
of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness which
we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed
on us abundantly through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Is this
not a great contrast? The God of men is powerless.
He only can do whatever his creator gives him to do. He can't move
himself. He can't see, can't hear, can't
touch, can't feel. He's a God of no value. But the
true and living God is one that forms salvation. He's the one
that willed salvation. He's the one that accomplished
salvation. He's the one that applies salvation. And he's the
one that keeps salvation. This is God. This is God. He is all our hope. Now notice this, go back to your
text one more time. Now what is the result of this?
Verse 23, the result of knowing the true and living God. He says,
sing, O you heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Why do you sing? I tell you,
we got a lot to mope about, don't we? We got a lot to complain
about, we do a lot. If you got something that exceeds
all other things in this life, you got this, the Lord hath done
it. What'd he do? Anything that's
done, he did it. Especially my salvation. Sing,
for the Lord hath done it. My salvation is done. Therefore,
he that chose us, He that formed us, look at verse 2, He says
this, He said, I made thee, I formed thee from the womb which will
help thee. You need help. To what God will you turn if
you need help? The God you form or the God that formed you? God says to His people, I will
help thee. I will help thee, fear not old
Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jethron, whom I have chosen.
I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the
dry ground. Is your heart dry? To which God
will you turn? God says, I'm going to pour rain
on the hearts of my people and they'll be refreshed. And he said, I will pour my spirit
upon thy seed and my blessing upon that offspring. This is
a hope of this that When we preach the gospel, there's going to
be an offspring. There's going to be there's going to be some
who come and hear this. You know what he said? I'm going
to bless them. I'm going to bless my church. Those that come to
me, I will bless them. Notice this. He said they shall
spring up among the grass and the willows by the water courses.
He will feed us. What's your food? You to believe
what's your food? Christ is the bread of life.
We feed on him. And a willow by watercourse.
What a refreshing picture that is. Shade. Rest. Rest. We rest under the mighty shade
of Jesus Christ, our hope and our righteousness. Therefore. All who worship a God that is
formed should be ashamed. If your God is made, By you,
you should be ashamed. What a puny, pathetic God if
you made him. But my God is not one that's
made. My God formed me. My God saved
me. My God chose me. My God redeemed
me. My God keeps me. Why? Because
my God is God. And there is no God beside my
God. I'm so thankful for such a God.
Powerful God. I pray God will bless this to
the hearts of his people. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Father, dismiss us with your
blessing. Pour out your spirit upon us. I do ask for your grace and mercy
and forgiveness upon my inability to declare this, but Father,
I know it's of your grace and power. I know if anyone is blessed,
you bless them. If anyone is saved, you save
them. If anyone is helped, you help
them. So that all the praise and glory
belong to you. Bless us as we part. I pray that
you'd be gracious to us. Bless the food as we fellowship
together. I pray you'd bless that today.
In Jesus' name I ask. Amen.