Psalm 115, and we're looking
mainly at verse 1 this evening, and the title of the message
is, Who Gets the Glory? Who Gets the Glory? The scripture
says, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give
glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now, at the time of this psalm,
we can account for this, that the Israelites or David, whoever
wrote this psalm, was in some type of trouble, some type of
difficulty. And it seemed that all was against
them. It seemed that they were either
small or weak or defeated because the enemies of God had risen
up and asked the question, Where is thy God? Where's thy God? Israel, if your God is so great,
if your God has chosen you, if your God has given you salvation
above all nations, then where is your God? This question of the heathen
has not changed. God's people are often small. God's people are often weak. It seems as though the enemy
of God's people are mighty against us. And they say, if your God
is God, then where is your God? Why are you so defeated? Why are you so small and weak? But the answer the psalmist gives
is the same answer we give. Our God is where He's always
been. Our God is where He was from
the beginning. Our God is in the heavens. And
our God is doing everything according to His own sovereign will. That's where our God is. So no
matter what it seems to be, no matter how it seems that the
church is defeated, no matter how small it may be, or how great
our enemies are, listen, you who are believers in Christ,
our God is where He's always been. Our God is in the heavens. And you know what He's doing?
He's doing exactly what He wants to. Look around you. Whatever's happening is according
to the will of God. That's our God. Our God is in
the heavens. And therefore, the psalmist begins
this, he begins this psalm by ascribing glory. ascribing glory not to the church,
not to themselves, not to Israel, but rather ascribing glory to
whom it belongs. He says, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. Now listen, the difference, the
difference between the true worshipers of God and the false gods of
the heathen are in the answer to this question. Who gets all
the glory for the salvation of man? Now, if you want to know
if you're worshiping the true and living God, or you're worshiping
a false god, the answer to this question will solve that. We'll
figure that out for you. Who gets the glory? Who gets
the glory for the whole salvation of man? Is man saved, holy and
completely by God? Or does man have some part to
contribute? Is salvation of the free and
sovereign grace of God alone? Or must man contribute some work
of the flesh, some act of the will, or some religious deed
to be saved? And listen, there's only one
answer. It can't be both. It is an either-or
question. Man is either saved by God completely,
wholly, or he is saved by his own works. There's no mixture. Man likes to have a mixture,
but there's no mixture. It can't be either-or. It's got
to be either-or. It can't be one or the other.
We can see this clearly in Romans 11. Go over to Romans 11. Look
what the Apostle Paul says about this matter of salvation. He says this beginning in verse
5. He's talking about God's sovereign
election. He says, "...even so, then at
this present time there is a remnant according to the election of
grace." And the election of God, he has already stated in the
previous chapters, was before the foundation of the world. And it is called, not the election
of works, but the election of grace. Even because the objects
of His salvation, the objects of His election, were chosen
not based on any good in them, not chosen of God because of
what He foresaw in them, not chosen because of their talents
that God could use. But they were chosen according
to the election of grace. Paul in the previous chapter
uses the illustration of Jacob and Esau. He said, The children
not yet being born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. God's love for Jacob, as well
as His love for all of the elect, was not according to works, but
rather according to grace. And therefore, Paul says in verse
6, if by grace, listen, if salvation is by grace, if the election
of God which is unto salvation is by grace, then it is no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more of grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. You see, if you infuse works
and grace together, you destroy the meaning of both words. The moment the works of man become
necessary for salvation, It is no longer salvation by grace,
but salvation by works. Therefore, listen, all freewill
works religion are worshipers of a false god. A god who cannot save wholly
and completely by his own sovereign free grace and power but must
rely upon man in some way to assist him, is nothing less than
an idol." If God needs your assistance, then your God is nothing less
than an idol. A God that needs our act of obedience
and righteousness to add or finish His salvation is as useless as
a dumb idol. Look what the psalmist says about
these heathen gods. He says about their god, he said,
their gods are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. They
have mouths, but they don't speak. They have eyes, but they don't
see. They have ears, but they don't hear. They have noses,
but they don't smell. They have hands, but they handle
not feet, have they? But they don't walk, neither
speak they with their throat. And listen, they that make them
are like them. What is an idol? It is a dead
god. That's what it is. It is a lifeless
deity. And you know, those who worship
a lifeless deity are themselves without life. They are like their
gods. Any god who does not completely
save man by his own power and grace is a dead deity and not
worthy of any worship at all. But listen, all who worship the
true and living God, we who have been saved by God We confess,
we confess that God has saved us and we have not contributed
anything to His salvation. He did it all on His own. By His own grace and power, God
saved us. Why? Our God is in the heavens. And you know what our God does?
Whatsoever He pleases. He pleases to save His people
from their sins. You know what He does? He saves
His people from their sins. And He does it all by Himself.
We who are saved, we know this. I didn't save myself. God saved me. We confess that
salvation is the sole work of God in the Trinity of His sacred
persons. And it is all by his own free
grace that we are saved. Therefore, all the glory for
salvation belongs to God. We confess that. If you are a
worshiper of the true and living God, you readily confess this. that you have no part or parcel
in this matter of salvation. You did nothing to earn it, merit
it, or assist God in it. It is an act of the sovereign
free unmerited favor of God. Therefore, all the glory, all
the praise, all the honor, all the dominion, all the majesty
belongs to God. And we readily give it to God. It is His. It belongs to Him. All the wisdom of salvation belongs
to God alone. And none of the glory Belongs
to us in any shade or degree Therefore we cry with the psalmist
we who worship the true and living God who sits upon the throne
of heaven We cry this not unto us Oh Lord not unto us But unto
thy name give glory Unto thy name give glory Now God in Isaiah 42 and verse
8 says this. He says, I am the Lord. I'm the Lord. If he's the Lord,
then you're not. You're not. Neither am I. I'm
not God and neither are you. God says, I'm Jehovah. I'm Jehovah. That's my name.
And listen, my glory I will not share with another. My glory. To whom does glory belong? It belongs to God. The scriptures
are very clear regarding the glory of God. Glory belongs to
God. But also equally clear are the
scriptures regarding our glory. Our glory. You know what the
scripture says about your glory and my glory? All flesh is grass, and listen,
the glory of man is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower, your glory, falls away. It fadeth away. Let a man boast
ever so boldly. Let him brag about his contributions
to God and men. Let his mouth be ever so loud
and his deeds be so great as he can make them. Listen, when
he dies, so does his glory. When a man dies, there goes his
glory. It dies with him. And every man who ascribes glory
to himself is a self-righteous man. And when that self-righteous
man dies and he tries to present his glory to God, when he stands
before the holy God, he'll say, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? Look at my glory. Look what I
did for you. I preached in your name. Cast
out devils look at this what I've done for you. I've done
many wonderful works And you know what God will say about
his glory He'll say depart from me you that work iniquity So
what is man's glory but iniquity? All of man's glory is nothing
but sin that's because all our works are unrighteous and and not worthy of glory. You
know what our best deeds are worthy of? To be ashamed. We should be ashamed of our best
deeds. That's what they're worth. They're
worth nothing. If you go over to Isaiah chapter
64, God tells us about man's glory, about man's works, Isaiah 64, beginning in verse
4. For since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, neither
hath the eye seen, O God, besides thee, what he hath prepared for
him that waiteth for him. Thou meetest him with that rejoiceth
and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways,
behold, thou art wroth, for we have sinned." From the beginning, God testifies
that man has heard or seen nothing. He's not seen nothing. He's known
nothing of God's salvation or mercy or grace. Yet God has prepared
salvation even before the world was. Yet because of our sin,
the Scripture says He was wroth. In other words, His judgment
fell on us. When Adam sinned, justice fell. We've sinned against God. We've
come short, isn't this what the scripture says? We've come short
of the glory of God because we've sinned. Therefore, in verse 6, he tells
us, we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags. And we all do fade as the leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And look what happens because
of our sin. And there is none that calleth
upon thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee. Isn't this the word of false
religion that grace is some mystical thing that you must lay hold
of? False religion says, God, Jesus
died for you. All you got to do is reach out
and grab it. Scripture here says that no one
calls on God's name. The scripture says there's none
that stirreth himself to take hold of God. No man stirreth
himself. Imagine, if you will, a corpse,
a man that is dead, and you were to take that man and drop his
dead body into a sewer. That man would never complain. He would never complain because
he could not smell the stench. He would never desire to be clean. But the moment you give that
man life, I promise you this, he will desire nothing more than
to get out of that sewer. Man by nature does not desire
to be free from sin until God gives him life. Then he smells
the stench of his own unrighteousness. He smells the stench of his own
sin and he desires nothing more than to be clean. To be pure before God. I can tell you that God has purposed
to save sinners by Jesus Christ. I declare unto you the gospel,
that there is no hope in your own works or righteousness, but
God has sent His Son to die for you, for sin, to die for sinners. And everyone who believes on
Jesus Christ, you may be clean, That's the gospel. That's the
message of free grace. It's believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Jesus Christ provides righteousness
and atonement for everyone that believes on Him. But I tell you
this, no man will come. They will not stir themselves
to confess their complete inability and total corruption. Man by
nature will not confess his sins, neither will he forsake all and
follow Christ. I'll tell you, yes, natural man
desires to be saved so long as he can have some part in it. So long as he can have some glory. Some cooperation between Him
and Jesus Christ. Why will men not come to Christ
alone? Even because they desire by nature
some glory for themselves. Some glory for themselves. I
met a man this weekend, I told you about enjoying fellowship
with him, and he's told me some things about his former religion
that just are appalling. You don't think it really would
happen, but it did, it happened to him. These religionists were
were celebrating a feast of some sort, and they told them this. In order to be accepted of God,
they needed to get rid of all the leaven in their homes and
their cars and their clothes. And this man, believing this,
went out and he was cleaning his car and making sure there
was no breadcrumbs in his car. Because he thought by this work,
by this effort, that he would be accepted of God. Oh the burden and vanity of such
liars and false prophets. But I'll tell you, this man was
saved not by getting the leaven out of his car. This man was
saved not by the works of his hands and not by the preaching
of that fool. This man was saved by the grace
of God. This man was saved by the power
of God. The Spirit of God came into this
man's heart. And you know what he saw? He
saw that all of his religion was nothing but vanity. He saw
that all he had believed before was a lie. And even so does every
sinner who is saved by the grace and power of God knows this,
I've sinned. I know that. I know that. I have sinned. I know this, that
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I know that. And therefore we know that our
salvation is completely. absolutely and wholly the work
of God alone. So then, who gets all the glory? Not unto us. What are we? Sinners, devoid
of any righteousness at all. Not unto us, O Lord, but unto
thy name. Give glory. Give glory. We bow down before God and realize
that salvation is of the free and sovereign grace of God alone.
Now, let us see in our worship of God that these two attributes
that the psalmist gives. He says, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name give glory. Listen for the reason.
For thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. As I've looked at these
two attributes of God, I notice this. They are totally opposed,
seemingly opposed one to another. What's the truth? The truth has
to do with God's justice. It has to do with God's justice. Consider the truth of God, which
is His justice. It is opposed to all sin. Opposed to all sin. Habakkuk
says in 1.3, He said, Thou art a purer eye than to behold iniquity.
In Psalm 11, verse 5, it says, The wicked and they that loveth
violence. Listen, God hates. Hates. the wicked. God is angry with the wicked
when? Every day. Every day. If God is holy and just so as
to never excuse sin, how then is he able to show mercy
to us who are truly guilty? You see the conflict? You see the discrepancy? How
can God be true and yet show mercy? The truth is we deserve
hell. That's the truth. If you want
to know the truth, that's the truth. We're guilty. God is not one that pretends. We pretend, don't we? We like
to pretend. Somebody does us wrong and we
may pretend they didn't. Why? Because we're unjust. We're
unjust and we forgive others because we're unjust. We want
to forgive somebody so when we mess them up, we want them to
forgive us too. We're unjust people. God is not
such a God as to be undressed. So how then can God show mercy
at the expense of His truth? He can't. Will God pardon men by suppressing
His justice? And if He suppresses His justice,
how do I know that if He shows me mercy today, that He won't
come back later and show justice? There'd be no surety, would there?
There'd be no comfort. How then can these two attributes,
truth and mercy, be fully satisfied? Because God will not show mercy
at the expense of His justice. He can't. How then can these
two coexist? Yet we know God is just, but
we also know God's merciful. The Scripture says that He delighteth
in mercy. God pardons sin. The Scripture
says He passeth by transgression, and His anger is not forever. Tonight as I preach, who among
you desires mercy. But which of you deserves mercy? Nobody. Matter of fact, the very
definition of mercy has to do with no self-defense. If you got some self-defense,
you don't need mercy. Only those who have no defense
need mercy. And if you need mercy, then we
must come to God without merit. And God says, I delight to give
mercy. I delight to pardon iniquity. But how can he do it? This psalm, as I've studied it,
most people believe that it was sung during the Feast of the
Passover. You remember that Feast of the Passover was the reminder
to the nation of Israel of how God delivered them from Egypt.
Israel heard of the deliverance of God and yet they did not believe
it. They rebelled in their hearts,
and yet God said, I'm going to deliver you because of my covenant
that I made with Abraham. And so God gave them a sign,
and they were to slay a spotless lamb and put his blood upon the
doorpost and upon the lentil. And that night God passed through
Egypt in judgment and killed the firstborn of man and beast
who had not the blood. But everyone who had the blood,
God said, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. Passover, the Passover. And he did, he passed over the
house that had the blood. Now let me ask you, did those
in the house that had the blood, were they any better than those
who didn't? Were there anything in the purse?
When God passed over, did they say, when I see the goodness
of the person in the house, I will pass over you? No. They were
just as deserving of God's wrath as every other man that didn't
have the blood. Why is it that God's judgment
would pass over them and not the other? Because of the blood. That's why the blood made the
difference. This is a picture. This is a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Lamb of God. That Passover Lamb could never
remove sin, but I tell you that the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ,
can and did remove sin. Behold, sinner, Jesus is the
Son of God, the spotless and sinless Lamb of God, the righteousness
of God. He merited as a man, but that
was not enough. He must have paid for sin. Justice must be satisfied. Therefore, when Jesus Christ
was made an offering for sin, God imputed our iniquity to Him. He took our guilt that He could
not stand, that justice must be satisfied, and He put it on
His Son. And God poured out all the vengeance
and hatred for sin on His beloved Son. God poured out the vengeance
of his justice in full measure on Jesus Christ. Truth demanded sin be punished. Truth demanded justice be satisfied. So Jesus suffered for all the
sins of his people. And when justice saw the travail
of his soul, listen, truth was satisfied. Truth was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. Not with
our offering. With His offering. His offering. The reproaches of them that reproached
Thee fell on Me. Jesus Christ, listen, He is the
only sacrifice God has or ever will accept. There's no other
sacrifice for sin. This is it. It's the only one. His sacrifice. And God, to testify
to every man that He was satisfied, raised up Jesus Christ from the
dead, To show that His justice was
completely satisfied by His one offering. And now God has sent
His Holy Spirit into the world. And you know what the Holy Spirit
is doing now? He is applying the blood. He's
applying the blood. The blood of the Lamb has been
shed. Now then the Spirit of God takes
the blood and applies it to the heart in the new birth and gives
us life and faith so that when God sees the blood he passes
over us because justice is satisfied. We were dead in sins, we were
vile by nature, enslaved to Satan, unaware and unafraid of our condition,
and yet God came to us. Out of all the people in the
world, He came to us. How many others did He leave,
and yet He came to us? Why is it He would come to you? Why is it that the Spirit of
God would apply the blood of the Son of God to your heart? Can you find any reason in yourself? There is no reason in ourselves. He came and gave us life by His
grace. By His grace. By His grace, He
spoke to us. By His grace, He gave us life
and salvation. How did He do this? He does it by the same means
He does it for every one of His people through the preaching
of the gospel of His grace. God has predestinated His people
to salvation. Jesus has accomplished this salvation. And the Spirit of God at the
appointed time applies this salvation through belief of the truth by
the means of the preaching of the gospel of the glory of God. That's how. He does it every
time. Now have you believed on the
name of the Son of God? I want you to understand this.
Nobody is ever saved by believing in election. Nobody's ever saved by believing
in the irresistible power of the Holy Spirit. The only way a man is saved is
through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And when a man
believes that Jesus Christ is all his righteousness, redemption,
wisdom, sanctification, When a man believes that Christ is
all, His salvation, it is the election of God that comforts
our souls. It is the irresistible power
of the Spirit. We know that we would have never
come to Christ had it not been by the irresistible grace of
the Spirit of God. We know these things. But His
salvation comes by faith in Jesus Christ, not by an act of chance
or by the will of man, but by the grace of God alone, I believe. I believe on Jesus Christ because
the Father chose me. I believe on Jesus Christ because
the Son has redeemed me. I believe on Jesus Christ because
the Spirit of God came and gave me life and faith. And you know
what? I will believe on Jesus Christ unto the very end because
I am kept by the power and grace of God. So where then is my glory
out of all that? I don't get any. What part did
I have in that? God chose me, Christ redeemed
me, the spirit calls me and he keeps me. Where's my part? I don't have any glory. I don't get any glory and neither
do you. Who gets all the glory? God does. God does. I like this scripture. Not unto
us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory for
thy mercy and thy truth's sake. Listen to what the psalmist said
in Psalm 86. Surely his salvation. Whose salvation? God's salvation. Surely God's
salvation. His salvation is nigh them that
fear him, that glory may dwell in the land. The glory of God,
which is his salvation, has come to us and has revealed to us
in our hearts that in Jesus Christ, listen, mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Where? In the Son of God. So where do we glory? We glory
in Jesus Christ. Where is the glory of God manifest?
Where truth and mercy meet together in the Son. That's where the
glory of God is. And we who believe on Christ
see the glory of God where? In the face of Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness, our peace with God. And if any
man is ever to give glory to God, to be accepted of God, it
must be by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone. And so then, as we look around
us, the church seems to be in perpetual
trouble. Seems to be. Yet we know this, our God is
in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he pleased.
How do I know that? Because he saved me. He saved
me by his grace. And notice what he said he'll
do. Go over to verse, look at your text and go to verse nine. It says, O Israel, trust thou
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their
shield. You that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord hath been mindful of
us. Listen, He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. So what will God do? He will
bless us. Bless who? Those that trust in
the Lord. No matter what's happening, you
should trust in the Lord. Why? He is your help. And he is your refuge. And listen, he is mindful of
you. I know you love me. But I promise
you don't think about me all the time. He's never stopped thinking about
me. He is always mindful of you. And you know what he'll do? He'll bless you. He'll bless you. He'll increase you. Now listen,
he says in verse 17, the dead will not praise the Lord. Don't
expect the lost to give glory to God, they won't. They won't. I know you bang your head against
the wall and you say, why won't they believe? Why won't they
give glory to God? They're dead. They won't give
glory to God until he gives them life. But we will bless the Lord. How? By ascribing all glory to
God for salvation. By believing on Jesus Christ,
who is both truth and mercy. Have you believed on Christ? Then we worship God by giving
Him all the glory. Who gets the glory? God does.
God does. He has saved us. We've not saved
ourselves. And He will bless us. Trust Him. Trust Him. When should you trust
Him? Always. Always. I pray that God help us to give
Him the glory and praise for all our salvation. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.