Turn back to Psalm 115. Psalm
115. The title of the message, Our
God is God and He will bless us. Our God is God. We do not worship a false god. Our God is real, and He has promised
to bless us. He's promised to do that. Now,
back in the former Psalm, in Psalm 114, the psalmist, he recounts
the past wonders which God had wrought to His honor for Israel
in delivering them out of Egypt. and holding back the Red Sea,
and then going over on dry ground, and then he held back Jordan,
and they went across there. He recounts this. And in this
present psalm, God is entreated by the psalmist to glorify himself
again. That's what we want God to do
here, glorify yourself again. This morning, Not for our sakes,
but for your glory's sake, for your name, because of who you
are. Lord, show forth your power and your glory for your name's
sake. Not just so we can be entertained.
Not just so we can see something. That's what the Jews say, show
us a sign. Show us something here. I don't
want God to show me a sign. I want God to honor his name,
to honor himself through the preaching of the gospel and through
our worship of him. And that's what the psalmist
is saying. You see, the heathen were presuming that because of
the absence of miracles and the trouble that Israel was going
through, that God had forsaken them. Somebody goes through some
real heartaches, some real deep trouble, and the unbeliever or
the false religionist, it's like, where's now your God that you
make so much of? And that's why he's saying here,
he's saying here, Lord, don't let, why are they allowed to
say, where's now our God? And what we have in the first
two verses is a plea to God to vindicate his honor. That's what he wants him to do.
And he says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us. This is not why
I'm asking for this. But unto thy name give glory
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is your God at now, Israel? You're in all this trouble.
Where is he now? You know, God's people are jealous
over his name. You're jealous over his name.
I'm jealous over his name. I'm jealous over my wife's name.
Now, if you want to say something good about my wife, you can say
it all day. You want to talk about, you want to say something
good about my kids and my grandkids? Have at it. But if you're going
to start bad-mouthing them, you're not going to fight. There's going
to be trouble. There's going to be trouble.
Now, I'm not going to stand and listen to anybody bad-mouth my wife.
I wouldn't do that. How much more God? How much more
God? God's people are jealous over
His name, and the psalmist is asking God to rise up, and I
wouldn't have thought He'd do it in this day, to rise up and
stop the insults of the ungodly who question His mercy and His
truth towards His people. The psalmist is angered. He's
angry that God was no longer feared as he was when he brought
him out of the land of Egypt. Lost men never fear God for long. As soon as trouble has passed,
you can mark this down. As soon as trouble has passed,
fear is gone. Fear is gone. It's just superficial.
The only fear that lasts is one born out of reverence and awe
of God Almighty. And that only happens when a
man or woman is born of God. Isaiah said, when I saw his glory,
when I saw him high lifted up and his train filled the court,
you know what he said? Woe is me. I'm undone. I'm undone. that kind of fear and reverence
will last. But the kind of fear that just
comes on you when you're in trouble, and when trouble's over and it's
gone, that's not of God. That's just a human emotion.
That's all it is. Now, the repetition of the words,
not unto us, not unto us, David's saying, we're not asking this
for our sakes. But for thy glory's sake, for
your honor, for your name, Lord, do it for your name's sake. And
here's the question. Why should the heathen nations
be allowed to insult or question the mercy and truth of God towards
his people? When the people of God suffer,
when they go through a heavy trial, the ungodly rise up and
they hurl insults against God. What happened when our Lord was
hanging on a cross? Here's what they said. He trusted
in God. He trusted in God. Let's see
if God will have him now. Spurgeon said this, when the
prayers and tears of the ungodly seem to go unanswered and their
miseries are increased instead of relieved, then the wicked
multiply their taunts and even argue that what they have is
just as good, if not better, than what the Christian has.
But what they don't realize is God is cementing their feet in
unbelief. While at the same time, with
that trial, he's instructing and teaching his children and
weaning them from this world. But let this ring loud and clear. Our God is God. Don't ever, let's never forget
that. Let's never grow weak in that
area. Our God is God, but our God,
he said, is in the heavens. Where is now thy God? He's in
the heavens. That's where he is. And he hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. Our God, first of all, listen,
our God is. Todd Nyberg has a message he
preached sometime a few years ago on the isness of God. The isness of God. God is holy. God is righteous. God is love.
It's a great message. But here's where it starts. God
is. God is. God is. He is self-existing. He's on the throne. He's in heaven. He's ruling over all according
to His good pleasure. He's ruling things as it pleases
Him. He is above the insults of men. God has no peer pressure. Wouldn't you like to live like
that with no peer pressure at all whatsoever? God has no peers. He has no peers. Our God is not
on a shelf somewhere. Our God is not hanging around
our necks. Our God is not in our billfold. Our God is in the heavens, the
heaven of heavens. He's above all. Our God is above
of all. Our God is in the heavens. He's
always been, He's always existed. Our God is eternal. We can't comprehend this. There's
never a time He never existed. He's eternal. What's he saying here? What's
the psalmist saying? He's saying our God is supreme
above all powers. And he has done exactly what's
pleasing to him. The Lord reigneth upon a throne
high and lifted up. Our God is incomprehensible. You can't comprehend Him. Our
God is absolute in His will and infinite in His power. That's
our God. And He hath done whatsoever He
hath pleased. His decree is being fulfilled. That's what's going on today.
The decree of God, the purpose of God. That's what's being fulfilled
today. This thing, He didn't just wind
it up like a toy and let it go. His purpose. His eternal purpose
concerning Christ and concerning you is being fulfilled. He's accomplishing it. And whatsoever
he hath pleased, the Lord has accomplished. We try to do things. God does
things. Whatever he sets his mind to
do, he's of one mind who can turn it. Whatever his hand is
set to do, he accomplishes it. It happens. He makes it happen. Now, verse four and eight, we're
given an accurate description of the false gods and their worshipers. He says here, their idols are
silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear not. Noses have they, but
they smell not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not. Neither speak they
through their throat. They that make them are just
like them. So is everyone that trusts him.
Now, the psalmist says, let's talk about your idol. He doesn't
even call him a god. He didn't say, now let's talk
about your god, because there's only one god. So we can't talk
about your god, because he doesn't exist. There's only one. There's
only one. And first of all, let's talk
about your idol. It's the work of men's hands.
It's the work of your hands. There's only one God and all
others are false. All others are the work of men's
hands. Their idols are less than they are. If it's the work of
my hand, it's less than I am. Does not the scripture say, does
not the builder of the house, is he not worthy of more honor
than the house? The fact that men worship that
which is less than themselves is a testimony to their own human
depravity. A God that we can imagine is
no God at all. A God that I can comprehend is
no God at all. A God that I can whittle out
is no God at all. At all. Our God is the God of
revelation. Scripture says who by searching
can find out God? No one. No one. God must reveal himself to you
or you'll never know him. He's too incomprehensible for
us to grasp. A God who we can imagine is nothing
more than an idol. A God that I can conjure up is
nothing more than an idol. That's all it is. And men fashion
a God like themselves. Dead. Lifeless. You whittle something out, they
put it on a shelf, and they call it God. Not realizing that there's
no life in that thing. And he said, and those who whittle
them out, those who imagine one, is like then is dead. Silver
or gold, listen, silver or gold may give us some monetary value
if you melt it down and sell it. But it does not give it deity. It does not give it life. It
does not give it holiness. Our God, the scripture says,
is spirit. God is spirit. The old writer
said, God is uncompounded spirit, uncomplicated. He is pure spirit. He's not gold and silver, wood,
hay and stubble. And we should never feel inferior
to any other religion. You know why? Because their God
is not God. Their God is not God. Gold and silver, someone said.
Gold and silver are good servants, but they are cruel masters. Cruel masters. And now the psalmist
turns in verse nine and he speaks to God's people. He's speaking
to us now. He's speaking to us. You won't
spend a lot of time on those idols. It's worthless. Spend
time on speaking to us about God. Learning about Him. He says, oh Israel, these are
God's elect. Trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
Whatever others do, whatever others may say, let the elect
of the Lord keep fast to him who chose them. Stay fast to
him, close to him. We should prove our loyalty to
the Lord by our confidence in Him, our trust in Him. It doesn't matter what men say
about our God. Our God is God. And we're trusting
Him. In whatever the situation, we
trust Him. Whatever men say, trust Him. Cast your whole weight,
your whole being upon Him and trust Him for the outcome. Trust Him. O house of Aaron, this is me,
the ministers of the Lord. O house of Aaron, trust in the
Lord. I'm going to move down here in probably about three
weeks and pastor this congregation. I'm trusting the Lord for that.
I'm serious. I'm trusting the Lord. He's in
this. I'm trusting the Lord that there's a ministry here and not
just coming down here to have a service, but to have a ministry
here and to get the gospel out. And I'm trusting the Lord for
that. Trusting the Lord to prepare
my heart, give me the ability to do it and prepare your heart
and give you the heart to do it. Oh, house of Aaron, Those who
are called to minister to his people, trust him, lead, listen,
and this is to me, this is to me, lead with confidence. Spurgeon said something, I've
repeated this, I don't know how many times, but I have never
forgotten this. Spurgeon said, the limping of the leader is
the lameness of the people. That's powerful. The limping of the leader. If I get up here and limp and
become weak, that'll come right out of the congregation. Lead,
Henry told me one time, he said, we was talking about doing, talking
about doing something. He said, well, whatever you do,
when you do it, he said, don't look back. And he pointed that
finger at me. He said, don't look back. You
just go forward. That's what the Lord said to
Moses one time. Moses praying about something
and the Lord said, Moses, I'm gonna put it in my words. He
said, Moses, I said, go forward. Quit crying, quit complaining
and go forward. Lead with confidence. He is our
help. He is our shield. He's our protection. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. He's our shield. And you that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. This is all of you now. Trust
in him. Whatever you're going through,
whatever he brings your way, whatever our situation is here
as a body of believers, let's trust him. Follow after him. In that same conversation when
Henry told me that, gave me that advice, I was wanting to know
a direction to go. He said, well, he said, the path
is never clear. He said, what I can tell you
is when that one stone comes up, step on it. He said, now when the next stone
comes up, step on it, but you'll never have a clear path. The just shall live by faith.
You know, it's, if you start looking like Peter, if you step
out of the boat, he said, Lord, if it's you, bid me to come to
you. He said, well, come on, Peter. Peter stepped out of the
boat, and for a few steps, that man walked on water. But then
he started to look at the wind and the waves. And he got scared,
and he started going down. And he just cried, Lord, save
me. And he grabbed me by the hand
and lifted him up. He lost his confidence. He started looking
at the, he started observing the wind and the waves and lost
his confidence in Christ. You and I will never go forward
if we ever lose our confidence in Jesus Christ. It won't go anywhere. Nowhere. Ye that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
He's our help. And He's our protection. He'll
take care of us. He'll take care of us. Who's
taking care of you? I told my wife this. I said,
if I pass away, if I die before you do, the Lord will take care
of you. I said, He's using me right now
to take care of you. I said, if He takes me, He'll
take care of you. He's your husband. I said, your
husband ain't gonna fail you. You're not your heavenly husband.
He's not gonna fail you. He's gonna take care of you.
Trust Him. Call on him. In fact, I've told her, I said,
call on him before you call on me. I said, call on your real
husband first. Maybe the problem will get taken
care of and I won't have to deal with it. Call on him first. He's your real husband. He's
your eternal husband, right? Trust him. How many times is this word gonna
be used the rest of this song? Trust him. Trust him. Trust in
his power. Trust in his faithfulness. Trust
in his grace. He said, my grace is sufficient
for you. You believe that? I tell you, he got a way of helping
you believe it. He put you through it. And when
you come out the other side, you're gonna look back and you're
gonna say, his grace is sufficient. It is sufficient. When we cannot
see our way out, when we are like that child of
light sitting in darkness, trust in the Lord. Just trust Him. That's easier said than done,
but I tell you what, it ought to be easy. Look at the one we're
trusting. We're trusting the Lord. We're
our God who made heaven and earth. That's who we're trusting. We're
not trusting something willed out, sticking on a shelf. We're trusting the Lord. The Lord has been mindful of
us. He's mindful of us right now.
You know, He said the very hairs of your head are all number. Do you know how many hairs on
the head of your children? He does. He knows how many hairs
is on your head. That's how intimately he knows
his children. He knows them very, very well.
Trust him. The scripture says, the Lord
is on thy side. His name shall be called Emmanuel, God with
us. You know, it could have been
the other way around. It could have been God against us. But it's
Emmanuel, God with us. The Lord has been mindful of
us. And because of that, he will bless us. That's a promise. He will bless the house of Israel.
He'll bless his elect. He will bless the house of Eric.
He'll bless the ministry. If I'm faithful in study and
prayer, we're faithful to him. He'll bless us. He'll bless this
ministry. He'll not forget his own. You
were bought with the price. Would you forget, if you gave
your son or daughter, if you gave one of them for somebody,
would you forget that person that you gave them for? No. No,
you wouldn't do that. You bought with a price. It's
not possible for the Lord to forget us. It says in the scriptures,
will a mother forget her sucking child? And the answer to that
is yes, she may. Over in Isaiah. And we see that,
we've seen that. I mean, it's sad. It's sad that
a mother can just abandon her child. I mean, that's really
unthinkable. But the Lord said, but I will
not forget thee. A mother may forget her second
child, but I will not forget you. I won't do it. He will bless, seeing He's ever
mindful of us, ever considering us, ever looking over us. You
know, there's not a second that you are off His mind. Not just
as a body of believers, but individually. As if you were the only one that
existed. And if the Lord has once blessed
you with salvation, He will continue to bless you and bless you and
bless you until he calls you home and you stand before him
and see his beauty. And then that will be the greatest
blessing. That will be the greatest. And he will bless them that fear
the Lord, both. And just in case somebody out
there is just saying, I know he's not talking to me. This
can't be so. This can't be that good. Surely he can't be talking to
me. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small, it says
here, and gray, but over my margin, it says both small with the gray,
together. Long as a man fears the Lord,
it matters not what his position is, whether he's rich or poor.
That doesn't impress God. The reason it doesn't impress
him is because he's one of the major rich. He said, I make the
rich and I make the poor. And he's not impressed with it.
And whether a man is rich or poor, no matter what his station
is, if he fears the Lord, that man, that man, that woman will
be greatly blessed of God, greatly blessed. And the Lord will increase
you, he said, more and more, he'll increase you more and more,
you and your children. He'll increase you, listen now, He may increase you by taking
away. He may do that. You say, how
in the world does that increase me? That doesn't add up. Well, he'll increase your knowledge.
He'll draw you to him, and you'll learn more of him. Job said,
before the trial, Job was a righteous man. The Lord said he was. But
I tell you what, I don't believe that Job didn't know the Lord
like he did at the end of it. Because at the end of it, he
said, By the hearing of the ear, I have heard of thee. But now,
but now, mine eye seeth thee, and I pour myself as sackcloth
and ashes. The Lord will increase you in
spiritual knowledge, faith, love, hope, grace, and this is what
we need to increase in. Now, when you think of increasing,
when you think of the Lord increasing you, what do you think of? More material things? When God asked Solomon, he said,
ask me anything, ask me anything you want and I'll give it to
you. Solomon said, give me wisdom. Give me wisdom. This is the increase we want.
I want to increase and I want to know, Paul said, all that
I might know him in the fire of his resurrection, in the fellowship
of his suffering. that I might know Christ. I would
do God that every one of us would have a greater and greater hunger
for knowing Christ and less of these things. Less of them. He said, I'll increase
your children. It is a great blessing when the Lord increases
the church with spiritual children. I love to see the Lord fill this
place up with his sheep, his children. I love it. But it's
especially an unspeakable blessing when they are your own. When
they are your own. You are blessed of the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. Do you know that? Do you know
that? Verse 15, you are blessed of
the Lord, which made heaven and earth. We're not talking about
some dumb idol. We're talking about the living God. And note the power he speaks
of here, which made heaven and earth. He has the power. Listen,
if he has the power to make heaven and earth, he has the power to
bless you. Don't you think so? He has the
power to bless. He has the power to save you.
He has the power to keep you safe. He has the power or the
right to forgive. He has the power to make you
a son of God. He has, our God has the power.
Heaven, the heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's. Now the
earth is given to the children of men. In heaven His greatest
glory is seen. And to men he's given this earth
and that's all they got. I'd be sad, wouldn't I? Yeah, I'm telling you, it's sad
if this is it. If this is all you and I have,
it's a sad day. It's a sad day. Now the dead, he said, praise
not the Lord. Spiritually dead men don't give
the Lord glory due unto his name, and neither do those in hell
give him glory. He said neither do those who
go down to silence. When the rich man lifted up his
eyes in torments, two things he asked for. First of all, drink. And then he said, send somebody
back to warn my brothers about this place. There's no faith and repentance
in that. He didn't say, Lord, have mercy on me, forgive me. He didn't say, send somebody
back and tell them the gospel. He didn't say, send somebody
back and warn them about you, with whom we have to do. No,
just this place. That's all false religion is
doing, is warning people about hell. They got movies out showing
the children about the burning hell. Scaring them to death. I hate those guys. Really. I mean, to take children now,
to take children and try to scare them into making a profession. Just so they can gloat. Just
so they can say, we have so many saved here at our revival. You know, if we have a revival,
if God was to give a revival, why would I or any of us, why
would we want God to have a revival? For the same reason David says
at the beginning of this psalm, not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but for thy name's sake. Get, have a revival for your
glory and your honor and your name and your truth's sake. The
gospel. Not just so we can brag. We had
a team saved in this. No, you didn't either. You just
made, you made a twofold the children of hell is exactly what
you did. That's what happened. But here's an earnest resolve,
and I quit. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth
and forevermore. Boy, if we could have that kind
of resolve. Praise the Lord. We who have
been given life in Christ, we will bless the Lord. David said
in Psalm 34, I will bless the Lord at all times, whether I'm
up or down, it matters not what goes on. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth. Starting right now, starting
right now, let us be resolved to bless the Lord. I can't do
anything about tomorrow. I cannot undo yesterday. I can't do it. But I can start
right now from this day forth with the resolve to bless the
Lord, to bless His holy name. Well, I pray God bless His word.
Okay.