Psalm 115. Now, don't put your singing voice
away. You're going to need it again
here in a little bit. Psalm 115. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto your name give glory, for your mercy, and Christ is
declared to be the promised mercy. And for your truth's sake, and
Christ declares himself to be the truth, It's not us, but it is unto God's
name, give glory for his mercy and for his truth in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why should the heathen, the King
James is wherefore, why should the heathen, the Gentile, say,
where is now their God? Why should unbelievers say to those who are the true
followers of Christ, where is your God now? Where is He now? The answer is, verse 3, but our
God is in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has
pleased. Now how often can you say that? How many days out of the week
is that true? How many hours out of the day?
24-7. It cannot, it has not, it does not, and it will not change. Our God is in the heavens. And
whatever happens in this 24-hour day that we're in, whatever takes
place anywhere in this world, I'm telling you, God either does
it or he allows it to be done. Which means it conforms to his
purpose and he uses everything under the sun to bring to pass
his will. He cannot be defeated. He cannot
be wrong. He cannot make a mistake. Not
in be God. We can do all of those things
and we certainly are not God. 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. Now every once in a while you
see this little statement. I forgot who wrote it now. I
had it on my desk a few days ago, and now it's disappeared
again. But it says that God has no eyes
but your eyes, and no ears but your ears, and no mouth but your
mouth, and right on down the line. And that's a lie every
time it's stated. If that's who God is, He does
not deserve the worship of any human being. But that is not
who he is, and that is certainly the crux of Psalm 115. Look what it says now after describing
the idolatry of the Psalmist's day. Verse 8. They that made
them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusts in
them. O Israel! Trust you 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 has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. And this is not limited to Israel
of old, it is spiritual Israel. 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. The Lord shall increase you more
and more, you and your children. That is, believers and younger
believers. You are blessed of the Lord which
made heaven and earth The heaven, even the heavens are the Lord's,
but the earth has he given to the children of men. The dead
praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from
this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord." Now you might
put a marker there. I may want to refer to a statement
or two in that reading. Now we take our hymnals. We begin
with number five. Now my proposal this morning, having
to do with... Let me read you a statement from
John Newton. You remember him? Wrote Amazing
Grace and a bunch of other things, and was an Anglican preacher
in London. I forget, I think it was in the
late 1700s perhaps, and previously had been the captain of a slave
ship and led a rough and immoral life for many years and was finally
captured in Africa and God saved him. Here are some statements by him
that I want to use as a springboard to answer several questions. He titles this, and I've titled
this message, The Religion of the Gospel. The Religion of the Gospel. The religion of the gospel arises
from a right knowledge of God and of ourselves. To know Him
is to know ourselves. You can look anywhere in this
book you want to, and you find people that met God, and the
very first thing you hear out of their mouths, Oh, wretched
man that I am. Look at it. Job, Isaiah, David. Saul of Tarsus. Many, many, many
people in the scriptures. Secondly, the religion of the
gospel arises from a sense of the great things that God has
done for us in Christ. Thirdly, the religion of the
gospel produces A well-grounded hope, well-grounded hope based
on the word of God and of our interest in Christ Jesus the
Lord. The religion of the gospel produces
a principle of sincere love to the Lord Jesus. Now you know,
bribing people to love Christ is a losing proposition. But
a work of grace in the soul produces this and increases it and matures
it. So the religion of the gospel
produces a sincere love to the Lord Jesus who first loved us. The religion of the gospel consists
of a total surrender of ourselves to Christ Jesus as our Lord and
our Savior. Now some preachers talking about
you can have Jesus as your Savior and later on, you know, if you
decide you want to live a little bit better than that, you can
take Him as your Lord. No, you can't have Him like that.
You can't have half Jesus and then half later. It's all now
or all none. You may not come to Him until
then. I can't tell you when that will
take place. I have nothing in me to accomplish that or to make
it happen in any individual case. God alone can do that. But I
know one thing. When you come to Christ, you
come to take Him all together as He is. Every one of his attributes
which match those of the Father and of the Holy Spirit belong
to us in Christ. All right, next. The religion
of the gospel makes the goodness and grace of God to us to be
the motive and the model of our attitude and conduct toward others. And I hasten to add, we fail
miserably, every last one of us. When it comes to that, if
you're looking perfection, don't look in here. And don't look
in your own heart. We must look to Him who is perfection
itself, our blessed, blessed Savior. Finally, Mr. Newton says the religion of the
gospel presses upon believers three goals. all of which are
unattainable in our life in this world. We'll only truly reach
them in glory. Three goals. Number one, the seed of which this religion
of the gospel is the seed of which is sown here and begins
to grow, and even may be said to begin to mature. But it does
not reach full maturity in this world. And here's what we have. Three
things. Total commitment to Christ. Total communion with Christ. and total conformity to Christ. And all of these things, we chase
them, we follow them, we long for them, but we shall not have
them in their full maturity until we leave this world or Christ
returns, whichever takes place first. I was looking at those
five questions, and I ran across some notes of many years ago. This is just cornbread and taters. This ain't a French restaurant
in Paris. This is just simple stuff. And there's no need for
me to put on airs before you. I've been here too long. You've
known me too well. And none of us need to be pretenders. There's no future in pretending.
Alright, here's the first question. Now, I can't resist the temptation
of asking you to turn with me to some scriptures, and I shall
try to limit it to one for each question, and I've got seven
questions. So, I think we can make it and still meet the deadline. Y'all don't have this place wired
now, so I just go out of sight, do you? Alright, Hebrews chapter
4 is our first scripture, and then I'll give you the question
before I tell you the verse. Hebrews chapter 4. Fourth chapter of Hebrews, verse 12. Verse 12. For the word of God is quick,
that word means alive. The word of God is alive and
powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword Piercing even
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and that distinction
is absolutely necessary. Most of today's professing Christianity
is in the soul. You notice how many churches
have started an early 8.30 service or something like that on Sunday
morning? That's for those that won't rock music and all this,
you know, Jesus Christ Superstar and the rest. You can have it,
I don't want it. Dividing asunder soul and spirit,
and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. This is the Word of God. Now my question to you is simply
this, and it's very personal. Is this book, the Bible, really
God's Word? If so, how much of it is God's
Word? And how do you tell what is and
what isn't, if indeed there's some in here that isn't? And
there isn't. It's all His or none His. We are not left to decide what
part of this book we like. We'll keep that part. Like one
of the early presidents, Thomas Jefferson if I remember right,
was a deist. He had a copy of the Bible. He
went through his Bible and he took out every miracle in his
Bible was cut out with scissors. Now on some pages he didn't have
much left. And what he had left wasn't any
good because he's lost sight of who God is. There's a statement in Psalm
119 relative to the Word of God. David said, therefore, I esteem,
I value all your precepts concerning all things to be right And I hate every false way. You
cannot love the truth and love to see men going to hell in their
religion. You can't do it. If you withhold
the truth in order to maintain or keep a friendship, you've
already sold the gospel. It's gone. Do you follow me? People are going to perish unless
they are brought to know and love and worship the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I don't know but one way
to accomplish that, and that is to preach the gospel and support
other people that do as well, especially in foreign countries. All right, the second question. I need Isaiah 46 for this one. I wish I could just press a magic
button and the Bible would be just like I want it to come out.
But it doesn't work that way, and I'm really glad it doesn't. Isaiah chapter 46. I'm one page off, just give me
a second. Here we go. Isaiah 46, verses
9 through 11. Now here I want you to bring
this question with you to this little bit of a reading, just
a few verses. Here's the question. Who is the God of the Bible? Who is He? The Lord God Jehovah,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is this God of the Bible? Isaiah 46, verses 9 through 11. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. In other words, there isn't but
one God. And he's revealed himself in
three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Verse 10, declaring the end from
the beginning. Now, do you know how crazy that
would be for me or you to do that? If we had to say what's
going to happen the rest of the day, we couldn't do it. But God,
from one eternity to the other, sees everything to utmost perfection
to the carrying out of His will and His purpose. Lord, I've already lost my verse
here, y'all. Ten. Ten. I want to say seven.
Alright. Declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done. Look what
he says. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Everything God pleases, He does. Could you imagine what it could
be like not to ever be disappointed? Or discouraged? Or throw up your
hands and say, what's the use? Not God. That's who the God of
the Bible is. Question is, is that my God? You remember what David said
in Psalm 115? They said, David, where is your God now? I don't
know what tragedy or whatever had happened to make them think
that David's God had deserted him. But they said, where is
your God now? And David said, my God is in the heavens. That's
where He is. He's on a throne and He's bringing
to pass everything that suits Him. And preventing everything
that is detrimental to His ultimate purpose. Now, you understand
that there's plenty of use for heartaches and disappointments
and sickness and death, but there's just some things that God will
not allow to take place. I don't know if I can convince
you of this, so I'm not going to try. There's a devil and there
are demons, and they are in this world in which we live. At least once a year, look at
a TV or read a newspaper, you're quickly reminded of it. Do you understand what I'm saying?
But these things are simply permitted by God, and they do not occur
automatically, nor in defiance of His will and purpose. And
here's what I want to tell you. And this person we call the devil
or Satan. Now listen carefully. He's God's devil. Now you might
think that radical. Did not our Lord Jesus in the
Gospel accounts, did He not give and withhold permission to demons?
Just take that one guy in the New Testament, the guy from Gadara, the maniac
of Gadara in Mark chapter 5 and in Matthew and Luke as well,
but I don't remember those chapters. And the demons that were in that
man asked our Lord Jesus Christ for permission to put themselves
inside 2,000 head of hogs. And by the way, that was a forbidden
meat for the Jews. You remember that, don't you?
These guys had it far enough out of town, they thought they
could get by with it. But anyway, that whole herd of
pigs ran into the sea and perished. They begged our Lord to allow
them to enter those swine. And He gave them permission,
and they went. Let me finish this reading or
I won't make it. My counsel, the last statement
in verse 10. My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure, calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man that executes my counsel from a far country. God uses
kings that were Believers. And he used kings that were just
out and out pagans. And they did not have one clue
as to what God was about or what he was doing. And yet they did
exactly what he told them to do. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Now, I don't see any ifs and
ands and buts in that statement. It's cut and dried. It's as simply
and powerfully stated as it could possibly be. So why should little
peons like us Tell God you can't do this, that or the other. Or
if He does something we don't like, or allows something to
happen we don't like, we just sulk forever. I've seen people
at funerals voice themselves about the death of their loved
one. I'm mad at God, they would say. Well, you can be mad from
now to eternity if you want to, but if you had an ounce of sense,
you'd call on God for mercy. Our days are numbered in this
world. God has appointed their end.
David said in Psalm 39, Lord, make me to know my end. Now listen
to this. Not when it is, not how it is,
and not where it is. Make me to know my end and the
measure of my days that I might apply my heart to wisdom. There
are some things a fellow just shouldn't know. Namely, the day
of his death. And some other things that I
don't have on my mind, and what little mind I have, I better
put it on what I'm doing here. Alright, the next question, right
here in Isaiah now, so hang on. Chapter 42. Now this one is like
not even counting that, it's a close, right? Isaiah 42, and
here's the question. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's the God-man. He's the one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But here
in Isaiah 42, we read verses 1 through 8. The Lord God Jehovah, the Father,
is speaking, Behold my servant. And the servant here is Christ.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect. Christ is God's first
elect, and all the rest of his election is in Christ. In whom my soul delights, I have
put my spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street." Do you know what that really
says? Christ is satisfied to the way things are progressing
in his kingdom in this world and among the inhabitants of
this world. Let me put that another way.
He's saving everybody today he had ever intended or purposed
to save and for whom he died. No more and no less. And he's
using the preaching of the gospel to bring it to pass. But if all
you hear is a preacher's voice, you ain't heard nothing. If God
doesn't speak, in that life-giving word and say, live, yea, I say
unto you, live. If you want a word picture of
that, write this down. Ecclesiastes 16, about verses
1 through 18 or so. I go back to verse 4 in Isaiah
42. I better just finish reading
this because I'm not going to ever make it. He shall not fail
nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth, and
the isles or the coast shall wait for his law. Thus saith
God the Lord, he that created the heavens and stretched them
out, he that spread forth the earth, And that which comes out
of it, he that gives breath unto the people upon it, and spirit
to them that walk therein. I the Lord have called you in
righteousness, and will hold your hand." These are words addressed
to Christ. And will keep you and give you
for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. Thank God for that statement.
To open the blind eyes? I thought people had to open
their own eyes. Well, I used to think that too, but it was
dead wrong. Spiritual sight is all by grace,
and therefore by God. Much confusion about the physical
and the spiritual. But spiritual blindness is the
worst disease this world has ever seen. I the Lord have called you in righteousness
and will hold your hand and keep you and give you for a covenant
of the people for a light to the Gentiles. To open the blind
eyes. to bring out the prisoners from
the prison. I can't help but tell you now
on this blindness, if you'll read John chapter 9, you'll read
of a man that was born blind, didn't even have any eyes, and
the Lord Jesus healed him. But even though the Lord Jesus
had healed him, and after he got kicked out of the Jewish
religion, in the meantime, in John chapter 9, the Lord Jesus
finds this man again, and He says to him, do you believe on
the Son of God? I'm telling you, the Lord had
just performed one of the greatest miracles recorded in the four
Gospels. And he has the audacity to ask
this man, do you believe on me, on the Lord Jesus? Now here is
utter, complete honesty. The man said, who is he, Lord,
that I might believe on him? And our Savior said as plainly
as he said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well in John 4, I
am He. And the man said, Lord, I believe. You can be made well by Christ
with physical seeing, but that doesn't mean that the eyes of
your soul has been anointed and opened. To open the blind eyes,
verse 7, Isaiah 42, to bring out the prisoners from the prison,
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house, I am
the Lord. This is my name, and my glory
will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. Alright, question number five.
Who did the Lord Jesus come to save? If you will turn to Matthew
chapter 9. And hold on to that for just
one moment and look back in that same book of Scripture to chapter
1. So you've got your finger at
chapter 9, and we're going to come to it in just a second.
But I want to begin with a statement Curtis used in that funeral Friday
morning. Mary tells Joseph that she is
to be pregnant with the Messiah. Joseph is making plans to quietly
divorce Mary. You know, just as quietly as
possible. You know, separate. So God sends
an angel to talk to Joseph. And in the course of that conversation
in verse 21, the angel told Joseph what to name this boy that was
to be born to Mary without a human father. Mind you, this is truly
a virgin birth. And I'm telling you, if it isn't,
If it is not, if Joseph or some other man is the father of that
child, then he cannot save us, nor himself for that matter,
because he's got the same nature we have, which is Adam's fallen
nature. And there ain't many people that
know anything about that in our generation. But I'm telling you,
it is the truth, and it's in this book. That angel said to
Joseph, I'll tell you what verse, Matthew 1.21, "...you shall name
him JESUS." All caps, right? The word literally means, Jehovah
is salvation. And the angel doesn't just depend
on Joseph finding out the meaning of the word. He tells him what
it means. He shall, doesn't say he'll try,
he shall save his people from their sins. And that's what he
does. He's been doing that since the
Garden of Eden. Do you understand that for over
4,000 years, God saved people simply on the covenant promise
of Christ that He would come and accomplish redemption for
His chosen people? Now, that's called taking Him
at His Word. His Word is His bond. Alright, Matthew 9, verse 13,
just one verse. Who did the Lord Jesus come to
save? Matthew 1.21 said it was His
people. Let's read it here in verse 13
of Matthew chapter 9. Can I back up to 12? Because
you need to start a little further back. The Lord Jesus is eating
with... a tax collector by the name of
Matthew, but Matthew is too modest to tell us that. We have to find
that out from one of the other gospel writers. So in verse 12,
but when Jesus heard that these people are badgering his disciples,
asking this question, why does your master eat with publicans
and sinners? But when Jesus heard that, he
said unto them, They that behold people who are well do not need
a doctor. And he's not talking about the aches
and pains of the body, he's talking about the soul. But go you and
learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Did you know there is nobody
in this world righteous unless they are made righteous through
Christ and the gospel? This is true. I don't mean to
tell you that people aren't good natured, that they don't do many
things for their neighbors and put us to shame perhaps in all
kinds of gifts of charity and so forth. But I'm telling you,
that does not cut the mustard when it comes to God. God is pleased with one sacrifice
and one person, and that's His Son, the Lord Jesus. And in old
eternity, He gave Christ a people. They're called God's elect in
the covenant of grace. And Christ promised to come into
this world and suffer and bleed and die and redeem them, and
he has done so. And now this world is still standing
until the last of Christ's sheep have been brought into the fold.
This world is a stage, has been from the beginning of time. is
a stage upon which God displays the glory of his grace to poor,
helpless, hell-deserving sinners in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the whole thing in a nutshell. Well, I was going to try to answer
question number six. How does God save? And I'll just
cite you a verse out of Psalms, and then I'll add two or three
little things to it, so we can get to number seven. Psalm 65,
4. Blessed is the man, or woman
for that matter, blessed is the man That God, oh, I lost my train
of thought. Blessed is the man whom God chooses,
elects, and causes to approach unto Himself. You see, we don't
bring ourselves, we may think we do. We sing in that hymn,
I sought the Lord and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek
Him seeking me. We didn't know that to start
with, but we know it now. 1 John 4, 19 says, we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. That, my friend, is the order. Always, always, always. Alright, Acts 13. Sorry, Doug, I'm infringing on
your territory. Acts 13. And the question is this. I didn't actually finish my last
question. How does God save? He saves by providing a substitute
for sinners in our Lord Jesus Christ. He saves by our Savior
making a divine satisfaction to the justice of God, enabling
God to be just and still justify the ungodly. God saves by Christ
being made our federal head and representative. We heard that
this morning out of 1 Corinthians 15 in the Bible class. Christ
is that substitute. He's the one who's rendered the
satisfaction, and He's our federal head. God takes the human race
in two people. You can find this in 1 Corinthians
15, starting at about verse 44 or 45. There's a fellow called
Adam in the garden. His name in the New Testament
is the first Adam. Right? The name for our Lord
Jesus Christ is the last Adam. In the first Adam, we fell, we
perished, we are born spiritually dead. In the last Adam, we are
raised to life in him. In that same passage, a verse
or two later, Adam is called the first man, and the Lord Jesus
is called the second man from heaven. Same application in both
cases. All right, Acts chapter 13. Paul has been, earlier in this
chapter back at verse 14 and following, Paul has been in a
place called Antioch of Pisidia. Not the same Antioch that we
have in the first part of chapter 13. It's two separate places.
And these people have become very upset because Paul's preaching
did not sit too well with the Jews that made up the synagogue
in that city. And so they begin in verse 45
contradicting and blaspheming him to no end. And in verse 46,
we pick up our reading, Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold
and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, that is, the Jews, and seeing you
put it from you and judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life,
lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so has the Lord commanded
us, I have sent you to be a light of the Gentiles, that you should
be for salvation unto the ends of the earth. And when the Gentiles
heard this, they were glad. And if you're a Gentile, you
ought to be glad. The gospel is not just for Jews. It's for spiritual Jews. And
we are one of those. By the grace of God. When the
Gentiles heard this in verse 48, they were glad and glorified
the word of the Lord. Now, you ain't going to believe
this statement. It's in your Bible. And as many
as were ordained. That's first cousin to predestinated. As many as were ordained to eternal
life, believed. You mean before they were believed,
they were already ordained to eternal life? Yep. And we've
already found the purpose of God can't be changed, can it?
He doesn't not do anything because it's too difficult, does He?
There ain't no such thing. So I've got a question for you
based on this statement in Acts 13. Oh, and by the way, the next
statement said, and the word of the Lord was published throughout
all the region. Here's the question. Might be a good one for you to
take home with you. Is God trying to save everybody? Is He trying to save everybody?
Now my answer is simply this. The word try and the word God
are never to be joined. They do not belong together.
God does not try. We've already read in Isaiah
42, he cannot fail. God help us to see these things.
I'm telling you, they're the very heart and soul of the conflict
that exists in this day. Whose God is the real God? We're born idolaters, and if
God doesn't change it, we'll die in idolatry. Thank you.