Good evening. If you will open
your Bibles back to Psalm 115, excuse me. And I just want to tell you all
that I so much look forward to Wednesday. Every week, you go
to work and you just get worn out. You know, to come into the
house of the Lord and sit and hear his word faithfully preached
is such a comfort to us. We're sheep and we need to be
fed. We want to be fed. And we're so happy when the Lord
does feed us. I'm so thankful for Gabe and I hope he feels
better and truly let us remember him. But you know, I've been
called upon to stand here tonight and whatever we're called upon
to do, we should do it as unto the Lord, seeking his praise
and his glory. And I pray that he'll bless us
tonight in spite of this sinner. Our text is gonna be Psalm 115,
verses one through three. And let's read those three verses
again. Psalm 115, verse one 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. The title of this message is
Why We Glory in the Lord. You notice in verse one, the
psalmist writes, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory. He wanted all the glory to go
to the Lord. And let's pay attention to the
fact that it says not unto us twice. I mean, he was getting
this point across. Let us glory in the Lord. Why
did he say that? We don't know who wrote this
psalm. Most of us assume David probably wrote it, but it doesn't
matter. This was undoubtedly somebody who had experienced
the salvation of God. This was somebody who experienced
and who knew in his heart that salvation is of You see, that's
the only person who's gonna pray for all glory to go to the Lord,
someone who's been saved by the Lord. Can we honestly say from
the bottom of our heart, God forbid that I should glory? You know, this matter of where
our glory is is a matter of great importance because if we glory
in something, you know, we think a lot of it, really we're hoping
in it. If I glory in myself, I'm trusting in myself. If I
glory in God, if I'm glorying in the Lord, all my hope is in
the Lord. Now for our message tonight,
I want us to consider two questions. And as we answer these two questions,
I pray God will cause us to glory in Him alone. Now our two questions
are, who is our God and what has our God done? And if he's
pleased to show us who he is and what he's done, I promise
we will walk out of these doors rejoicing and glorying in the
Lord. Now look with me here in our
text of verse two. It says, wherefore should the
heathen say, where is now their God, but Our God is in the heavens. Who is our God? Who is our God? Our God is the sovereign God. We know the first verse of the
scriptures, in the beginning, God. If I could sum up everything
I believe, it would be in those three words, in the beginning,
God. And what did He do in the beginning?
He created the heaven and the earth. Not only is our God in
the heavens, our God is in the heavens, He created the heavens
and the earth. He spoke everything into existence.
How glorious, how glorious is our God. Our God is the sovereign
creator of all things. He created everything Jeremiah
10 verse 12 says he hath made the earth by his power He hath
established the world by his wisdom and hath stretched out
the heavens by his discretion This is our God our God is in
control And you know that that gives me great peace to know
that my God is powerful. My God is wisdom He speaks it
and it comes to pass. That's our God Where is now their
God? I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. That's our God. Our God, Gabe
says this all the time, and I just love it. It's so simple, yet
so profound. God is God. If we just knew what
that meant, God is God. Our God is God. Turn over with
me to the book of John chapter one. John chapter one. Who is our God? John chapter
1, look at verse 1. John 1 verse 1 says, In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life, and the life was the light of men. Look down at verse 14. And the Word, excuse me, and
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Who is our God? Our God is Jesus
Christ. Now, yes, we worship the triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but Jesus Christ is God. You
know, the sad thing is, all of us by nature, we don't know that. You read about how Paul prayed
that he might know Him. This is life eternal, that we
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ. Why does
it say God and Jesus Christ? Emphasis on Jesus Christ, that
I might know Him. This is life eternal, to know
Him and be found in Him. Notice how it says here, it says
in verse 3, that all things were made by Him. Nothing was made
without Him. We will not be saved. Not one
of us will be saved without Him. Not one of us. Him is life in
him is light in him is all grace and he is the truth Jesus Christ
is 100% man and 100% God we've all heard that and and I say
how glorious how can you explain that I can't but I know this
man's sin man must die only God can save us Christ died as a
man, and he's God. He died as God, our substitute,
our substitute. He's both man and God, how glorious. And I rejoice to know that he
cannot fail. He died as our successful substitute, and he saved all
for whom he died. Who is our God? Turn over with
me to Revelation chapter 19. Revelation chapter 19 Revelation 19 verse 16 says and
he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written King
of kings and Lord of lords You know many people speak of Jesus
and This is His name, King of Kings, all caps, King of Kings
and Lord of Lords. And as the King sits on His throne,
so our King, the Lord Jesus Christ, sits on His throne in the heavens.
And you know what a king does? I got to thinking about this.
We don't have a king, we have a president. Very different,
yeah. But a king, if a king does anything,
a king reigns. Speaks and it comes to pass the
king has his way. We'll look up at verse 6 here
in Revelation 19. This is our king and I heard as it were the
voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and
as the voice of mighty thundering saying Hallelujah for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth Our Lord and our God reigneth He's the
Lord God omnipotent. That means he has all power,
all power to do as he will. Our God is infinitely glorious,
is he not? The Lord Jesus Christ is king.
He's my king and he reigns over me. He has his way with me. And I want that to soak in because
naturally we've got it backwards. We think we do with him as we
will. You know, Tony just read it for us about the little G
gods of false religion. Now we make these gods and they
that make them are like unto them. No ability. I don't reign. The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns.
I want to show you this over in Daniel chapter four. Familiar
text of scripture. Daniel chapter four. Here we have the account of King
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. Daniel chapter 4 verse 28. Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. Daniel
interpreted his dream. And here we see what happens
in verse 28. It says, all this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
At the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the kingdom
of Babylon. The king spake and said, look what he said, is not
this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom
by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty?
Look at my kingdom, verse 31. While the word was in the king's
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken. The kingdom is departed from
thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall
be with the beasts of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know
that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled
upon Nebuchadnezzar. And he was driven from men, and
did eat grass as oxen. And his body was wet with the
dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers,
and his nails like birds' claws." Can you imagine? I mean, can
you imagine? This man, this mighty king, here
he is, become a beast in the field. Looking like a beast,
he is a beast. He's eating the grass. And look
at verse 34, and at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored
him that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion,
and his kingdom is from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. and he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? At the same time, my reason returned
unto me, and for the glory of my kingdom, mine honor and brightness
returned unto me, and my counselors and my lords sought unto me,
and I was established in my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added
unto me, Now, is Nebuchadnezzar, is he
just back to his old ways? Here I am, mighty king. Everything's
been restored unto me. Nothing's changed. It's like
it never happened. Oh no. Look at verse 37. Now
I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the capital K,
King of Heaven. all whose works are truth, and
his way is judgment, and those that walk in pride he is able
to abase. Have we learned, have we experienced
that those that walk in pride God is able to abase? I'll tell
you this, the first thing God hates is a proud look, and that's
every single one of us as we're born into this world, so proud.
But those that walk in pride, our God, our King, is able to
abase. You see, Nebuchadnezzar thought
he was in charge. And it's no different, you know,
for us to say, oh, well, let's give God our heart. Let's let
him into our heart. Let's fill in the blank. I'm not in charge. This matter
of eternity, this matter of salvation, eternal life, I'm not in charge. Here I am just walking in pride,
working my way to heaven. That's exactly what Nebuchadnezzar
was doing. He had set up some gods and said,
if you don't bow down to my gods, I'm gonna cast you into a fiery
furnace. Is that what he did? And what happened? Their god
was able to deliver them, and he showed his power, and he delivered
them. That's our god. Nebuchadnezzar
found out who the king really was. He said, now I praise and
extol and honor the king of heaven. I pray God would give us a Nebuchadnezzar
experience in the heart, break us, lay us low, and show us who
he is. Who is our God? Our God is sovereign,
the sovereign eternal creator who's from everlasting to everlasting.
He's on his throne. Our God is Jesus Christ himself. He is our God. He is king over
all. What a glorious God we worship.
What a glorious God we've been. Pleased to know. What has our
God done? We see who he is. What has he
done? I'll tell you this much. Every
time I come into this place, I need to be reminded what God
has done for me. Because we don't go around thinking,
oh, I'm living for God. Look what I'm doing for God.
Oh, no. It's the exact opposite. You know, Gabe stands here, whoever
stands here. May God give us the grace to declare what great
things He has done for us. And may we give Him all the glory.
What has our God done? Look back at Psalm 115 and look
with me at verse 3 again. Verse three says, but our God
is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Don't you just love that? Let
me ask you a question. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Is this your God? God does whatever he's pleased
to do, whatsoever. There's purpose in that little
word, so. God does whatsoever he's pleased to do. Is this your
God? Does your God have his way? Does your God do whatsoever he's
pleased to do? Is your God the glorious God
of this book? And when I ask, is this your
God? What I'm really asking is, are you putting all your hope,
all your trust, everything, all my eggs are in one basket. Are
you relying fully on this God to save you? By the grace of God, I can say
that I am. I have nowhere else to go. There's no one else I
can put my trust in. No one. Our God is God. Our God
is God. He does what he will, with whom
he will, when he will. That's God. That's our God. What
did Nebuchadnezzar say? He said he doeth according to
his will in the army of heaven among all the inhabitants of
the earth. None of us can stay his hand. God, what are you doing?
Let us praise him for what he's doing and what he's done. This is the God of the scriptures.
This is the God of the Bible. This is the only living and true
God. Again, my prayer is that he would
make himself known to us, perhaps for the very first time. I that
speak unto thee, I am. I am the Messiah, I am the Christ.
God has his way in the whirlwind, You know, and in the storm, a
storm comes along, we get so worried, oh, what's going to
happen? Our God's in the heavens. He has his way. He sends the
storm. You know, we complain about everything. He sends it.
Let us praise him for it and trust in him. I want to show
you something here in 2 Peter chapter 3. This matter of God doing as he's
pleased, God having his way. 2 Peter chapter 3. Verse 9, The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Does God want everyone to be
saved? You know, many, many people will
take this verse out of context and say, well, He's not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Is God, is that what God wants? Does God want everyone to be
saved? Notice that word there. It says,
He's long-suffering toward or to us-ward. That simply means
to us. He's long-suffering to us. Well,
Well, who's he talking about? Look back at 2 Peter chapter
1. He's long-suffering to us, not willing that we should perish.
Look at 2 Peter 1 verse 1. This is how we know who he's
talking to. Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ
to them that have obtained like precious faith. with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Who is God not willing that should
perish? Those who have obtained like
precious faith. Well, how do we obtain faith?
It's the gift of God. By grace are we saved through
faith. It's the gift of God. It's not of works, lest we should
boast it. It's all God's work. Those who've obtained like precious
faith, those who by faith, God-given faith, follow Christ. Well, who's
that? Who did our Lord say is never
gonna perish? He said, my sheep, they hear
my voice, I know them. Is that not comforting? My sheep
hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me by the faith that
he's given us. We follow him. He said, I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall
any man pluck them out of my hand. Yes, somebody's not gonna
perish. Praise God, there is a people
who shall never perish. I'm so glad that what our Lord
does is forever, that we can't add to it, that we can't take
away from it. If God wants me to be saved,
if God wants any of us to be saved, we will be saved. God
spoke it, God said it, that settles it. It's gonna happen. He will
not lose a single one whom the Father gave him, whom the Father
sent him to save. He did not shed one drop of his
blood in vain. Gabe brought a message on, the
message that's not in vain. If Christ died for all, well,
it's all vain. It means nothing. Our God does
as he's pleased. What has he been pleased to do?
I want to get down to the meat of this message. What has God
been pleased to do? Turn to Isaiah chapter 53. The sooner we learn that everything
happens according to God's purpose, everything that God does is on
purpose. We would be wise to learn that.
And we would be wise to look for God's purpose, to come here
and pray, Lord, show me what you're doing. Reveal to me who
you are, what have you done, why have you done it? Here in
Isaiah 53, we see what our God has been pleased to do. Isaiah
53 verse 10 says, yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. And that word bruise is not a
light word. You read the whole chapter. Christ, He came into
this world, the substitute of sinners, and He was forsaken
by the Father. God, forsaken by God. We can't
begin to enter into that. But we know this, it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. We, by wicked hands, crucified
and slayed Him. But it was all determined to
the foreknowledge of God. It was God's purpose that that
happened. You know, you're pleased to do
something? There's purpose involved in that. I'm pleased to come
home every night. I'm pleased to come here. I'm pleased to do the things
that I do. Why did it please the Lord to Bruce, his only begotten
son? Why did it please him to forsake him? I can tell you this,
it was not so that whoever decides to believe in Jesus will be saved.
You know, I saw John 3.16 sitting somewhere, and this is what it
said. They had an altered version. For God so loved the world that
whosoever, I'm sorry, that whoever, for God so loved the world that
whoever believes in Him will be saved. Again, the purpose
in that little word, so whosoever will. All the whosoever's God
has purpose to save, all the whosoever's that will at God's
appointed time cry out for mercy, we will believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and we shall be saved. God did not bruise His only begotten
Son to make it so that we might be saved. He did it to save us,
God's purpose. Look over in 1 Samuel chapter
12. Here we'll see the purpose of God. 1 Samuel chapter 12. Verse 20. 1 Samuel 12, verse 20. And Samuel
said unto the people, fear not, you have done all this wickedness.
Have we done all this wickedness? I believe I'm a sinner talking
to other sinners. We are nothing but wickedness.
Well, hear what Samuel says, he said, fear not, you've done
all this wickedness, yet turn not aside from following the
Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart, and turn ye not
aside, for then should you go after vain things which cannot
profit nor deliver, for they are vain. For the Lord will not
forsake his people for his great name's sake. Because it hath
pleased the Lord to make you his people. Why did it please
the Lord to bruise him? Because it hath pleased the Lord
to make you his people. It hath pleased the Lord to save
a people from eternity. This is the purpose of God. Well,
who are his people? Who are the people of God? I
want us to see what the Apostle Paul said concerning himself.
Turn over to Galatians chapter one. Galatians one, verse 15. Galatians
one, 15. This is Paul's testimony. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. Has that been our experience?
If I'm saved, is it because I'm this great Christian man, or
is it because God was pleased to separate me from my mother's
womb long before I was born, from eternity, long before my
parents were born, long before any of us inhabited this earth?
God separated us from our mother's womb. How glorious. What did Paul say? Who was Paul?
Paul was a sinner. He said, this is a faithful saying
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. Gabe just told us a week
ago today, Paul, though I be nothing. That was Paul's testimony
of himself. He said, I'm nothing. I'm less
than the least of all saints. I'm the chief of sinners. Who
did it please the Lord to make his people? Sinners. Sinners. Christ said, I come
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to save sinners, and
sinners are his people. Well, how did he save sinners?
How did he save us? By becoming us. He said, I'm
a worm. I'm a worm. He became us. And He died as
our substitute. He took our place. Just like
Barabbas. What did the people cry? Oh,
crucify Him. You give us Barabbas. You give us that murderer. That's
us. Who went free? The murderer.
The guilty one. The sinner. Who died in our place? Christ, the spotless Lamb of
God. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of
the world. This is our God. This is our Savior. Is this good
news to you? This is such good news to me.
What other message could give us any hope? What other message
could cause us to rejoice? If you find one, you let me know.
It's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Does
this make us want to glory in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him
alone? Oh, I pray it does. I pray it does. I want to show
you one more thing here. Look in Psalm Psalm 85. Psalm 85. Verse one of our text says that,
let us glory in him, let us give glory unto thy name for thy mercy
and for thy truth's sake. Mercy and truth. Well, look here
in Psalm 85 verse 10. It says, mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. How can mercy and truth be met
together? We know what mercy is, right? Mercy is not giving
us what we deserve. Not giving us what the truth
of God says we deserve. Well, what's that? The wages
of sin, we've all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth it shall
surely die. God will by no means clear the
guilty. This is the truth. How in the world can that be
met by not giving me what I deserve? If God is just, which he is,
how can mercy and truth meet together? Because not only is our God a
just God, Our God is a just God and a Savior. You know, he would
have been right. God would have been right to
just, if that verse just said our God is a just God, amen.
Amen, Lord. That's right. But praise God
he was pleased to Bruce his son to send him to be the Savior
of sinners. Call his name Jesus for he shall
save his people from their sins. Praise his holy name. He is both
just God's not gonna save us at the expense of His justice.
He is both just and justifier of all them which believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He can justify the ungodly such
as me because that's who Christ died for. That's who Christ came
to save. Who is our God? Our God is the
God of salvation. The only God of salvation. Our
God is God. We worship God. He that glorieth, let him glory
in. the Lord and in Him alone. I pray God will cause us to think
on these things and to remember who our God is, what He's done
for sinners such as us, and cause us to glory in Him. All right.