Psalm 115. Psalm 115. I'm thinking about,
since we've been going through the Psalm pretty much every week,
I'm thinking about starting to go back and forth with Job. I've
been thinking about going back and forth with Job and the Psalms. I think it would do me good.
I was telling Rebecca the other night, I don't like to feel like
I'm just trying to get through something. When I start feeling
like that, it needs to change. And I've been looking at the
book of Job, and we may, we will, Lord willing, start doing some
of it also. I titled this, Our God is God. Our God is God. That is so comforting
to me, to have that thought. We do not worship an idol anymore. At one time we did, and we worshipped
something. Nobody goes through this life
and not worshipped something or someone. But God has saved us by His grace. and we worship the living God. God is our God. I can go to bed
tonight. It doesn't, whatever calamity is going on, whatever
calamity may be going on, we can go home. We can go home. We can lay down and we can go
sleep because our God is God. He's God. That's the best pillow
you can lay your head on tonight. Our God is God. Now, after recounting
the Lord's great deliverance of Israel back in Psalm 114, it's only fitting that Psalm
115 starts out, not unto us, and it starts out with a negative,
not, not unto us. Now, I'm not an electrician,
but doesn't it take a negative and a positive to have light?
We ought to have a negative and a positive. It's just like you
and I have to hear about our sinfulness and what we are by
nature before we could really understand and hear about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And now we have light. Now we
have understanding. We understand why the Son of God came. We understand
who the Son of God is. We understand our need of Him.
That's light. That's light. But not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory for Thy mercy
and for Thy truth's sake. You know, God's people are jealous
of His name. They're jealous. They don't want
to hear someone slander their Father's name. You know, my parents,
my mother and father, God blessed me with great parents. And nobody is going to run them
down in my presence. Nobody is going to speak in a
derogatory manner of my mother and father. Well, my heavenly
Father is far greater than they are. He's far greater. We're jealous of His name. I
don't want to listen to anybody taking God's name in vain or
talking in a derogatory manner about God. And this is why He says here,
and He's asking this request, that the Lord would rise up He'll
rise up for His namesake. This is why He wants Him to rise
up. Not unto us, not for me, not
for my glory, not for my vindication, but for Your name, for Your namesake. Lord, for Your glory and for
Your mercy and Your truth's sake, rise up and cut these men off. I would to God that He would
rise up and cut off a lot of these preachers. that every day
just lie on God, lie to the congregation, slander His name, speak blasphemously
about Him. But what he's asking here is
for the Lord to rise up and put to silence the nations who are
questioning the truth and mercy of God toward His people because
of their circumstance. Have you ever had anyone say
to you, and I've had this said to me, I thought you were a Christian.
I lost my job. I lost my job one time, and a
man said to me, you must not be living right. You must not be living right.
I thought you was a Christian. That's the world. It's an opportunity they take
to take a jab at God, our God, the God of heaven and earth.
And he's saying here, shut them up, shut them up. Here's what
happened. They had lost the nations that
surrounded Israel. They had lost their fear that
they had when Israel first came into Canaan. You remember when
they crossed Jordan, it says those nations, they saw them
coming across, their hearts melted. But they hadn't seen that for
a while. They hadn't seen any of those demonstrations and miracles
and power of God. And I tell you what, it doesn't
take natural man long to get over that kind of fear. That's
a fear that doesn't last. As soon as a problem goes away,
the fear goes away. And this is what was happening.
So Israel's in a tough situation. I don't know exactly, they don't
tell us here what situation they were in, but they were in a tough
situation. And the heathens, all those nations around there,
were poking fun at them. Where's your God? I thought your
God could deliver you. And this is what has the psalmist
all troubled, and it troubles us when they do this. But notice this, listen. He says
here, "'For thy mercy, rise up for thy mercy and thy truth's
sake.' His grace and truth are under attack." That's what's
under attack. His grace and truth are under
attack, and it hasn't changed. Has it? It hasn't changed. God's grace and truth is still
under attack in this day. All these thousands of years
later, it's still under attack, and it'll always be under attack
in this world. And I tell you, we do pray that God would rise
up in His time, in His time, and cut them off. Cut them off. Wherefore, why should the heathens
say? Why should they be allowed to
say? Whereas now their God, and one of the renderings of this
is their God is dead. Their God is dead. This is said over in Psalm 42,
they said to him, where is your God? They said it to Elijah. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? They said it to him. And they're
saying it here. And he's saying, why should the
heathens say, why should they be allowed to say, where is now
their God? Why are the nations allowed to
question the existence of God, the mercy of God, the truth of
God? Why are they allowed to question this? Why does God allow
this? Why does God allow this? Well,
I think, first of all, he does so, and there's probably many
reasons I don't have written down here, but one reason is
to show their ignorance. They're ignorant of God. You
don't say that, do you? You know where God is, and He'll
tell us where He is here in a minute. It's the same God that we worship.
But it reveals their spiritual ignorance of God. And it reveals
their depravity. And it reveals their spiritual
death. If you just let a person talk long enough, really, if
you let a person talk long enough, you'll find out who they are.
Just let them talk. If you want to find out who somebody
is, just let them talk. And that's what he's doing here.
Why do you let them do this? Well, to expose their ignorance,
to expose their depravity, to expose their spiritual death.
And I think most of all for this also is that you and I could
come here tonight and be thankful that we are not under that number
anymore because we were at one time. You know, he lets these
things happen and we can see that was us at one time. That
was us. And He also does it to prove
faith. And when God proves faith, it increases faith. And I know
this about faith. I want to know I have it now,
not after I die. I want to know now. I want to
know now that I believe God. Not when I die and I meet God
and I stand before God. Every time someone dies, my first
thought is this. They know who God is now, for
sure. They've met God. And I want to know, I have faith
now. And God allows these things to
happen to try our faith, to test us, to prove us, so to speak. But here's another reason why
He allows this to happen. Over in Genesis 15, I thought
of this just a little bit ago, over in Genesis 15. In Genesis 15, look in, this
is, let's see, Genesis 15, verse 16. He says here, "...but in the
fourth generation they shall come hither again." This is Israel,
they've gone into Egypt, and God's saying they're going to
come out in the fourth generation, you know, 400 years in this fourth
generation they're going to come out. "...but in the fourth generation
they shall come out hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full." It's not time yet. This is how Our God has absolute control
over all things. And I'm trying to figure out
how to say this. There's a measure of sin and
iniquity that God will allow a people, the Amorites, a person
to go to before He cuts them off. And He's saying here that
it's not time yet to cut them off. There's a measure of iniquity
they got to reach. And this is another reason why
He allows them to do what they do. But here's the answer He
gives. He says in verse 3, But our God
is in the heavens. He's in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever He hath pleased. Listen to Isaiah 46, 9-11. This
is our God. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. And from
ancient times, the things that are not yet done say, my counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure, calling the ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far
country. Yea, I've spoken it. I will bring
it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. This is our God. Our God is in
the heavens. What does this mean? It means
He's sovereign. He's above all. He's above all. It means He providentially deals
out each day's events from heaven. It means this, being the sovereign,
He kills and He makes alive. He wounds and He heals. He lifts
up and He brings down. He makes rich and He makes poor.
He gives light and creates darkness. He brings the flood, the drought,
and the pestilence. God does this. He lifts up the
stormy wind. He tells the lightning where
to strike. He feeds the birds and clothes the fields with flowers
where no gardener is. He fills the empty with good
things and sends the full away. He does all this from heaven
where His eye beholds every little thing." Our God is in the heavens. He's not on a shelf. He's not
on a shelf. Come here, let me show you my
God. Come here. They've got statues of Buddha and all these other false deities, false gods, false
idols. But our God's in the heavens.
He's in the heavens. But let's talk about your God
for a minute. That's what he's saying now. He said, you ask
me, where's our God? Our God's in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. He's not answerable
to anybody. But now let's talk about yours. The heathens round about there.
They say, let's talk about yours. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. Their idols have a monetary value. Our God doesn't. Their God has a monetary value.
You can weigh it out. You can weigh it out. If it's
made of gold, you can weigh it and say, well, that thing's worth
about $2,000. That's about what your God's worth. You can't put
a price on the God who rules heaven and earth. You can't do
it. He said, they have mouths, but
they speak not. They can't speak words of comfort,
words of grace, words of truth. They can't converse with you. Eyes have they, but they see
not. What did Hagar say? What did
Hagar believe? Thou God seest me. It says that there's none can
hide from God. It says the darkness is as light
before Him. His eye is on His elect. He sees. He sees every living
thing. They have eyes, but they don't
see. They can't see when you're in
trouble. They can't see your heart. They can't see a broken
heart. That idol on a shelf can't see
a broken heart. Can't do it. They see not. They have ears,
but they hear not prayers. They hear not petitions. They're
just dumb idols. They have noses, but they smell
not. They smell not. They have hands,
but they handle not. You know, our God has the whole
world in His hands. But they have hands and they
don't have anything. Empty hands. Feet, have they? But they can't
walk in your shoes. They can't walk with you. Did
our Lord not walk in our place? Did He not travel the roads that
we travel? Did He not travel this life that we travel? They
can't do it. They never get off the shelf.
Or they never get out of the temple. It's amazing, it is amazing
how depraved we are by nature. He says this in Isaiah, he said,
you take a piece of wood, and you use it to burn heat with,
you use it to cook with, and then the residue of it, the remainder
of it, you whittle a God out of it, and you say, here's my
God. And you didn't even consider what you just did with part of
it. You cooked with it, you heated with it, and then you call it
God? Wow, I mean, that's how spiritually
dead and depraved the human race is. Have feet but they walk not,
neither speak they through their throat, they cannot speak words
of comfort to you, they can't do it. And listen, they stay right where
their makers put them. right where they put them. I
used to, several years ago, I was, went to this place that I exercised,
and there was this couple there. They were, they was Buddhist, they was Buddhist,
and they had a, I come through there one day and I saw a statue
sitting on the table there, a Buddha. I thought, what in the world?
It was to bless the place. I gave that place up. But they
really believed that. I mean, they honestly believed
that. Not realizing they stayed right
there where the maker put them. That little Buddha statue never
moved. It never moved. It didn't do anything for those
who got hurt there. Because a few of them got hurt. And I'll tell you something else
about these idols. They never interfere with the sinful conduct
of their worshippers. And that's exactly the kind of
God they want. They want a God, an idol that
doesn't interfere with them. They want a God that will
not stop them from fulfilling the lust of their flesh. That's
the kind of God they want. That's why they whittle it out
and stick it on a shelf. because it'll stay there. And they that
make them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusts
him. The makers and the buyers, the worshipers are one. I read
somewhere today, I don't remember which commentary I was reading,
but it said, like God, like people. They're just alike. You notice the one thing they
didn't have? They had a mouth, had ears, had nose, had hands,
had feet. They were whittled out there.
They didn't have life. They did not have life. Our God
is life. And our God gives life. Their God sits on a shelf, and
that's it. It's just a piece of dumb, it's
either silver, gold, or wood, depending on, I guess, how rich
you were, what it would be. And it says, they that make them
are like to them, so is everyone that trusts in them. How are
they like them? How are they like them? Dead. Dead. That's what it says. They're
dead. They're just like them. Dead. They're dead. There's no life in them. Dead
in trespasses and sins is what they are. Those who worship them,
they are dead in trespasses and sins. But our God is not like
that. Our God is in the heavens. Our
God has done whatsoever He hath pleased. And because of that,
He says in verse 9, "'O Israel, Trust thou in the Lord. Trust Him. Don't worry about
their jeering. Don't worry about their comments.
You trust the Lord. Don't you doubt God because of
some foolish idiot running his mouth. You trust Him. You have confidence
in Him. Don't you let anyone break that. O Israel, trust thou
in the Lord, and here's why, He is their help and their shield.
You see, our God can help us through trouble. Call upon Me
in the day of trouble, I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify Me. No idol ever said that. That
idol to the goddess of Diana never said a word, never spoke. And this is to us ministers.
Here in verse 10, O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. Trust
in the Lord. You know, as a minister of the
gospel, as a preacher, pastor of the gospel, you sell out,
you sell out, you sell out lock, stock, and barrel, and you trust
the Lord to provide. You trust Him to provide. You think, I don't know, when
I get older, I don't know what's going to happen. I know what's
going to happen. When I get older, I'm going to die. That's what's going to happen.
But until then, the Lord's going to take care of me. And then
when that time comes, He's going to take me across and present
me to the Father, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. That's
how I'm going to be presented, and you. O house of Aaron, trust in the
Lord. He's their help and their shield. He's their help and He's
our protection. I would to God we could, sometimes
I wish He could open our eyes or would open our eyes and let
us see how shielded we are. How shielded we are. Going home,
going home, A few years ago, when I first started coming down
here, I was going back and forth every week, this tractor and trailer come
very close to me. He came over and I thought, oh man, I thought
we was going to get it. And it hit me how many ways we
can die and how easy it is to die. But he didn't let it happen.
And it's not like, well, weren't you lucky? No, God Almighty stopped that. Stopped that. Satan, I'm telling
you the truth, Satan would have loved to have taken that tractor
and trailer and rolled right over top of me. But the Lord
said, no. No. It's like he said about Job,
you can touch what he had, but you can't touch his life. He's
mine. Oh, you ministers of His, house
of Aaron, trust the Lord at all times. Trust Him. He'll provide.
He'll take care. And in verse 11, you that fear
the Lord, trust in the Lord. He's their help and their shield.
Notice that the Lord is the same to all His people, to Israel,
to His ministers, and to you that fear the Lord. You say,
well, where do I fit in that? Do you fear the Lord? This is
where you fit in at. And He's the same. He's the same. He helps the lowest to the highest. And I hate to even say that when
I make reference to God's family, because we're all one in Christ.
But you know, Paul said, I'm the least of the saints. But listen, no matter the circumstance,
He is ever mindful of us, and will bless us. You are a blessed
people, you know that. We are a blessed people. Blessed
beyond measure. It can't be counted. Our riches
cannot be counted. I started to title this, He Will
Bless, He Will Bless, He Will Bless. This is in verse 12, "...the
Lord hath been mindful of us, and because of that He will bless
us, He will bless us, the house of Israel, He will bless the
house of Aaron." He will bless, He will bless, He will bless.
It's like, get a hold of this. He will bless us. You say, but He's taken some
things from me, some hard things. He blessed you. That was a blessing. You know, when Jacob wrestled
with the angel, and he asked him his name, and he changed Jacob's name to Israel,
because as a prince, he had power with God. And it says, and he
blessed him there. After he had crippled Jacob,
and after Jacob had wrestled with him, and he was about to
meet Esau, right there in the midst of all that fear that Jacob
had, he said, he blessed me there. And one day, one day you and
I will look back on every trial, every trial, every heartache, and we'll say, he blessed me
there. That's where your greatest blessings
will show up at when you look back. He will bless them that fear the
Lord, both small and great. You say, will He bless me? I'm the least of the saints. And I mean, there are saints
who believe that. They're the least of the saints.
Well, as he gives us verse 13, "...who are the least of the
saints, he'll bless them that fear the Lord, both small and
great." Small faith and great faith,
he'll still bless. You know, saving faith is saving
faith, whether it be great or little. It's still saving faith. "...And the Lord shall increase
you more and more, you and your children, Zion has many children. It's been thousands of years
now. And the Lord has redeemed a multitude.
Scripture says that it's a company that cannot be numbered. That's
what it says. That's what it says. He will increase you. He will
increase your faith. Your repentance, your love, your
joy, every spiritual blessing, He will increase. He will bless you. And we need to recognize this
truth here in verse 15. Ye are blessed of the Lord which
made heaven and earth. You are blessed. This ought to stop our complaining. put a song in our heart and a
snap in our step, you are blessed of God. I tell you, just the
fact that we believe God ought to make us walk humbly before
God. And the one who blesses us is
the one who made all things in heaven and earth. And He owns
all things. And He's able to bless us with
all things. They're at His disposal. I tell
you, I love the thought, this is my Father's world. I love
that thought. It's my Father's world. It's
His. He owns it. He owns it. Now, I know He says
here in verse 16, He says, Even the heavens are the Lord's, but
the earth hath He given to the children of men. This is where
He made Adam out of dust. And He gave him dominion over
the fish of the sea and the fowl of the air. Of course, we know
what happened. Adam fell. But man's dominion is on this
earth. He lives on this earth. Now listen.
First of all, seeing that God has given this to men to live
on, He's going to hold them responsible for how they use it. He's going
to hold them responsible. And then this, this is all they
have. Well, I don't know, now that
I know the truth, it would just be, I look at people and I know
they're dead in trespasses and sins, they're spiritually dead,
they don't know what's going on, but I look at them, I thought,
this is all you got. And you don't know how long you
have that. There's some who don't live very long. There are some
who don't make it to old age. This is all they have. This is not even comparable to what we have and
what we have coming. It's not even comparable. And here's a fact. In verse 17,
the dead praise not the Lord. Neither any that go down into
silence. Now he's talking about two people here. The dead praise
not the Lord. And then those who go down to the grave, take
them out to the graveyard and bury them. They go down into
silence. The spiritually dead do not praise
the Lord. Have you ever turned the news
on? Or the weather channel on? Do
you ever hear anyone giving praise to God? Do you ever hear them
talk about what the Lord did today across the world? The dead don't praise Him. They don't praise Him. Those
who lie silent in the grave, they don't praise the Lord. Those
who perish don't praise Him. But now listen, that's not so
with us. That's not so with us. We who are not dead, We will
praise Him, says in verse 18, but we will bless the Lord. The Philistines won't do it,
the Amorites, the Hittites, the Jebusites, they're not going
to do it, but we will. This is a holy resolve. I mean,
this is a resolve that It doesn't matter what the world does, we
are going to praise God. I don't care if it's just two
of us, we're going to praise God. And listen, from this time
forth, if I've never done it before, and I love that statement,
I love that statement. Because usually by the end of
the day, I feel like I completely failed the whole day. But tomorrow
is another day. You know, every now and then,
I send my granddaughter a text. And I'll send her a text in the
morning before she goes to school. I said, it's a brand new day.
Nobody's ever used it. Make the best of it. Every day
is a brand new day. So every day is this time forth,
right now. Right now. I cannot undo my past. I can't undo from this second
past and this second past. They just keep on passing, don't
they? I can't undo those. But I can resolve this time forth
and forward, by God's grace, I'm going to praise Him. I'm
going to praise Him with my lips, praise Him with everything about
me, my whole body. My whole body and all that He's
given me is going to be engaged in praising the Lord. Praising
Him. From this time forth and forevermore,
throughout eternity, throughout eternity, praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.