Some of you might not know, but
I know, and so does my wife, that is one of Ella's favorite
songs. Visiting us from Texas out here
just to be with us during our worship service. That's not altogether
true. She came to visit her daughter
also. But anyway, thankful that the ladies sung that song, not
only for the glory of our Lord, but for Ella as well. I remember,
and I shared this story more than once probably, but when
you get my age, you don't even apologize for doing that. But
years ago, I heard about a preacher in Montana. He woke up. One Sunday morning, he lived
about a mile up the river from the church that he pastored. And it was in the winter, the
river was frozen over, and a heavy snowstorm came through that night. The roads were impassable. He
couldn't get to the church. And he said, well, nobody else
is going to be there anyway. And he said to himself, well,
Maybe there might be somebody to show up. So he put on his
ice skates and got his Bible and skated down the river. And
when he arrived at the church property, which was right on
the riverbank, some of the deacons were outside talking and they
saw him skating on Sunday. They immediately had him in one
of the meeting places, confronting him with what he was doing on
what they call the believer's Sabbath. He said, what else was
I supposed to do? If I hadn't put the skates on
and skated down here you wouldn't have a pastor for this morning's
service. They looked at each other and
didn't know what to say. One of them asked him, well did
you enjoy it? He said, of course not, I didn't
enjoy it, it's cold, it's miserable. I said, well, okay, as long as
you didn't enjoy it, it's all right. That's their definition
of Christianity. Don't enjoy life at all, especially
not on Sunday. Well, I say that to say this,
it's a miserable rainy day today. And you didn't have to put on
your ice skates, but you did have to get out in it to be here,
and we welcome you. So very thankful that God has
brought us together. Turn to Isaiah chapter 12, as
we continue in our verse-by-verse study of this book of Isaiah. And this 12th chapter has been
such a blessing for me. I trust it has been for you as
well. Pastor Don Fortner said, and I wholeheartedly agree, No
one ever sought Christ who did not need Him. You will never
be saved until you are lost. Salvation is delivered from danger. You will never flee to Christ
for refuge from the wrath to come until you know that you
are under the wrath of God and deserve to be. You will never
trust Christ until you know you are going to hell and ought to.
There is no conversion without conviction. There is no pardon
for sin without a confession of sin. And there will never
be a confession of sin from you until it is wrought out of you
by the power and grace of God the Holy Spirit. I say Amen.
Goodness comes from God and it's the goodness of God that leads
us to repentance and God grants repentance to those that he is
pleased to grant repentance to. Graduates from many of today's
Bible colleges, and this has been going on for decades, have
been taught that if they want to be successful pastors of large
congregations, they must avoid controversial issues. must not
make the people they're preaching to feel uncomfortable, must not
labor too much on the subject of sin, and must not make anyone
feel like they deserve to be turned into eternal torment for
their sins. Instead, These college graduates
have been taught by their so-called Bible college professors that
God loves all of Adam's posterity, that God is trying to save the
whole human race, that man's eternal destiny is in his own
hands, that God is waiting on the individual to give him permission
to do something. There are People who have been
pastoring churches, religious groups, but not God's people,
for years, who have been taught these kinds of things, and they
keep teaching them. And we have people who are taking
over as pastors of churches who are present-day graduates with
these views in mind. They have no concern for God's
glory. They could care less what the
Word of God teaches. The eternal souls of men and
women mean nothing to them. What entices them into the ministry
is honor and prestige. from their congregations, their
paycheck, their so-called standing in the society in which they
live. They are just wolves in sheep
clothing. They blatantly deny that the
great three-in-one is a covenant God. They blatantly deny that
God has a covenant people. And they blatantly deny God's
sovereign covenant mercies through the perfect redeeming work of
Jesus Christ our Savior. They make the cross of Christ
of none effect. They make the promise of God
in Christ of none effect. And count the sanctifying covenant
blood of Jesus Christ an unholy thing while they blatantly despise
the spirit of grace. Their false doctrine of free
will, self-righteousness, or any other false doctrine of salvation
by the works of man has reduced the miracle of the new birth
to an act performed by man. And in doing so, when they do
this, they deny that Jesus Christ saved his people at Calvary.
What they're saying, whether they will admit it or not, is
that they have done something that has made them acceptable
in God's sight. In other words, they have done
something God could not do for them, making themselves more
powerful than God, exalting themselves above God. Now, I am well aware
that what I have just said is very offensive to works religionists. But I have chosen my words deliberately
to point us to God's exalted Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I've titled this morning's message,
His Name is Exalted. And those very important, holy
inspired words are taken from this morning's text, verse 4
of Isaiah chapter 12, which says, And in that day shall you say,
Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among
the people, make mention that His name is exalted. That's just loaded. That's just
loaded. This is the second time in this
12th chapter of Isaiah that the Holy Spirit draws our attention
to these three words in that day. I've said this before and
I'll say it again and I'll do exactly what I've said. If I
read it once in the scripture, I believe it. If I read it twice,
I'm going to preach it. And I read it twice in this 12th
chapter. In that day, that day is referring
to that glorious day we were delivered from the power of darkness. That glorious day when God translated
us into the kingdom of His dear and only begotten Son, that glorious
day when the Holy Spirit enlightened our minds, giving us faith to
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, that glorious
day when we, under the preaching of the true gospel of God's grace,
experienced the miracle of the new birth by the life-giving
power of the risen, exalted Christ of God. In that day, these words
were formed in the new heart that God has given to us, causing
us to express ourselves verbally with these words for the glory
of our great God. Praise the Lord. In that day,
our text says, shall ye say, praise the Lord. The word shall
is imperative. If God has done a work in our
hearts, we're going to praise the Lord. And we're not going
to be ashamed of Him. We're going to declare that.
We're going to testify that He is our Savior for His glory.
And we're going to praise the Lord. In that day, these words
were formed in our mouths, in our hearts, but they came forth
from our mouth, not only as we expressed ourselves before
our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, not only when we went
into the waters of baptism, but also every day of our lives.
In that day, God the Holy Spirit revealed to us that Jesus Christ
is Lord of all, that His name is exalted above all names. And
that's the day we called upon His name, crying out for mercy.
And God blessed that cry because He's the one who put that cry
in our hearts. And we've been crying out to
Him Every day since, in that day, we declared His doings among
the people, and we continue to declare His doings among the
people. When we made a profession of
faith, we declared that Jesus Christ is our Savior, that He
Himself obtained eternal redemption for us, that He by Himself purged
our sins. that He saved us. He didn't try
to save us. He didn't do something to make
it possible for us to save ourselves. Jesus Christ is our Savior. He
saved us, and we declared that then, and we declare it today,
and by God's grace, we'll declare it tomorrow, the next tomorrow,
every day that we're allowed to live on this earth, we'll
declare that Jesus Christ is our Savior. In the Gospel written
by John the Apostle, His closing words of that book that he wrote were these, and there are also
many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should
be written, every one, I suppose that even the world itself could
not contain the books that should be written. Amen. John was declaring
Christ's doings when he wrote those words. All the apostles
of Jesus Christ declared God's doings when they spoke to others,
when they preached, when they wrote. And we also do the very
same thing. We declare and we rejoice in
the honor that God has bestowed upon us in doing so. We declare
that Jesus Christ is our creator. Things came into existence by
the word of His mouth. He just spoke. And it was there. Nothing was there before. He
just spoke and it was there. And He has been, by His divine
providence, holding all of this together by the word of His power
ever since He created it. I'm not denying God the Father.
I'm not denying God the Holy Spirit. But I'm declaring the
works of Jesus Christ. He brought you into this world
and He can take you out of this world. That's His prerogative. And every day that we have lived
on this earth, we have enjoyed His air that we breathe. The
water that we drink, His food that we eat, His ground that
we walk on, everything that we have comes from Him. Now this
has always been true, but it has not always been true concerning
Christ the God-man. He wasn't a man before, He is
now. There's a glorified man in heaven.
His name is Jesus Christ the Lord. And we declare His doings. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. But keeping in context with the
other verses in Isaiah chapter 12, when we declare His doing,
we're talking about salvation. Our text tells us in verse 1,
that God's anger has been turned away from us. And we know this
is because of Jesus Christ. Verse 2 tells us that Jehovah
is our strength. He's become our salvation. God
is my salvation. So all of this is pointing to
God's wonderful gift to us, a miracle of His grace in giving us eternal
life. Salvation is of the Lord. And
so we declare with Jonah, salvation is of the Lord. So when we declare
His works, which our text is telling us, verse 4 is saying,
declaring His doings among the people, I believe this is referring
to salvation. Salvation by the finished work
of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now the last part
of our text says, make mention that His name is exalted. make
mention that His name is exalted. We can't do that if we don't
know what name our God is referring to. He's referring to the name
of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word mention means to
mark so as to be recognized, to remember, Be mindful. Recount. Record. Put to remembrance. Think on. Make mention that His name is
exalted. All of God's preachers, when
we preach, we remind all of us That it's the name of Jesus Christ
that's above every name. God has given Him a name which
is above every name. At the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee should bow to His absolute sovereignty. That's
what the text in Philippians chapter 2 is referring to when
it says that He was obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given
Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow. Of things in heaven, things in
earth, things under the earth. That's His absolute sovereign
rule over everything. He's Jehovah God. The name of Jesus Christ is that
name that honors and glorifies God the Father. When we bow to
Him, confessing that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord of all. That's
what brings glory to God our Father. Coming to the Lord's
table on a regular basis not only reminds us of the death
of Jesus Christ, our Savior, but also reminds us that he has
risen from the grave, that he has entered into heaven itself
there to appear in the presence of God for us, that he is seated
at the right hand of the majesty on high to keep us in remembrance
of his death till he comes again. Make mention. Remember that His
name is exalted. Be mindful of this. As pilgrims
and sojourners, we are to walk through this world remembering
the name of Jesus Christ, remembering that His name is exalted, to
be reminded that we are richly blessed because of Jesus Christ
our exalted Lord. To be reminded that nothing can
separate us from the love of Christ because of Jesus Christ
our exalted Lord. To be reminded that we are kept
through faith by the power of Jesus Christ our exalted Lord.
We are free from the wrath to come because of Jesus Christ
our exalted Lord. We need to be reminded that there's
coming a day when we'll be presented faultless, faultless, without
any blemish, without any spot, without any stain, before the
presence of God, because of Jesus Christ, our exalted Lord. And
to be joyfully reminded that nothing can relate to our
charge and that we can have boldness in the day of judgment and we
will spend all eternity in heavenly bliss because of Jesus Christ
our exalted Lord. So these truths concerning His
name points to the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. I
want to take you over to John Chapter 5, if you would turn
there please. John chapter 5. There is none other name under
heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved but the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior. And last week our
subject was the wells of salvation. God himself by his convicting
power made us thirsty for the waters of eternal life. He gave
us spiritual eyes to see that Jesus Christ is that living water,
that He is the only one who can quench our spiritual thirst. Water is so, so important to our, to our living,
physically speaking. And it is just a good word to
use to illustrate the water of life. So listen to what Pastor
Don Fortner said on this subject of living water. He said, water
is a gift of God. It is something no man can create. If we have water, God must give
it. So it is with God's salvation.
Water is vital. This is not an optional, add-on
luxury. Water is indispensable to life. No one can survive without it. Without it, we die. Again, the
comparison is obvious. Without God's grace, God's salvation,
God's spirit, we must forever perish under the wrath of God.
Water meets a universal need. Water is not the requirement
of some men, but of all men. All the sons and daughters of
Adam stand upon equal footing here. It matters not how rich
or poor we are, how learned or illiterate, we must have water. It matters not whether we are
male or female, black or white, water is something we all must
have. It meets the needs of all men
alike. So it is with God's salvation.
All who are without Christ are lost. All who have Christ are
saved. All who are without Christ are
without grace and without hope. All who have Christ have life.
Water comes down from heaven. It is not of the earth and earthly,
but from heaven and heavenly. Again, this is true of God's
grace and salvation in Christ. Salvation is of the Lord. God's
salvation is well described by the word water because water,
like salvation, is a gift that has multiple benefits, Pastor
Fortner goes on to say. It cleanses the filthy, it cools
the fevered brow, it quenches the thirsty, it refreshes the
weary, and it satisfies the soul of a man. Water is something
of which we never tire. You may get tired of city water
with all its human corruptions. You may tire of yuppie plastic
bottled water with its stale stagnancy. But I defy anyone
to walk by a cool mountain spring gushing out of a hillside on
a hot summer day without stopping for a drink. So too, those who
drink of this water will never tire of it. Chosen sinners never
tire of electing love. Redeemed sinners never tire of
blood atonement. Forgiven sinners never tire of
divine pardon. Saved sinners never tire of saving
grace. Water is sovereignly distributed. In many places, it is abundant.
In other places, it is scarce. In some places, it comes seasonally.
In other places, it seems to fall freely at all seasons. So
it is with God's salvation. In some places, God sends the
dew of heaven occasionally. In some places, He opens the
windows of heaven and rains grace every day. In some places, He
sends not so much as a cloud. This water, Pastor Fortner goes
on to say, this living water comes to sinners only from Christ. If you would have this water,
you must get it from Him. End of quote. I read that and
I thought, you know, I can't put that in any way that would
improve upon the analogy as far as comparing
the water of this life to the water of eternal life. We must
have it. We must have this water. The water that we need for our
preservation physically and the water of life that we need for
our eternal life. I thought about this, I thought
about what Pastor Faulkner said, and I thought about what a man
would give for his eternal soul. If we gained the whole world
and lost our soul, what have we gained? So I thought about
a millionaire with millions of dollars, a lot of it in his possession
out in the middle of a desert, dying of thirst. What would he
give for just one drink of cold water, or hot water for that
matter? He would give all that he had,
everything that he had on his possession. And if that wasn't
enough, he would try to come up with some way of giving all
of his possessions that he has in the banks just for a little
water to quench his thirst. What would you give for the water
of life, There's absolutely nothing you can give. Nothing. But you can ask. You can ask. Our Lord Jesus said to that woman
at the well, He said, If thou knewest the gift of God, and
who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest
have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
Have we asked? Have we asked the right person? Have we asked in the
right manner? Have we been made by the convicting
power of God the Holy Spirit to see that we have nothing to
offer, that we're bankrupt, that we deserve God's eternal wrath,
that we have sinned against Him and hell is our rightful desert?
Have we come to the point where we see our need of Christ so
much we're willing to do anything to gain what He gives, what He
only can give, that is this living water. Well, if God has made
us thirsty, and I know the Word of God teaches us, whosoever
will, let him drink of the water of life freely, but we have to
be made thirsty. And if God has made us thirsty,
if we see that we either have to have this living water or
we perish, Are we willing to humble ourselves and come before
our God, bowing down to Him, crying out for mercy in the name
of and for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior?
Years ago, right after the Lord saved me, I had two men that
I worked with. I rejoiced in talking about Christ
and what He had given to me. And two men seemed interested.
And they came to church one Sunday morning. We had a visiting preacher. Bill Hodge was a visiting preacher. And we met with him. Me and these
two men met with Bill Hodge. And here's what one of them said
to my pastor friend. He said, we would like to have
what Gene has. Evidently, they're There was
something shining from me that attracted them. I believe it
was Christ. I hope that I was living for
His glory. But they said, one of them said,
we would like to have what Gene has. And he said to them, Bill
Hodge said to them, we were right there in the worship hall. Nobody
else was there. He said, are you willing to bow down? right here before God, and in
the name of Jesus Christ, cry out for mercy, confessing your
sins to Him. They looked at one another and
shook their head and walked out. Evidently, they weren't thirsty.
Well, I brought you to John chapter 5 for a reason. Make mention
that His name is exalted. And here in these scriptures
before us, we have the account of an impotent man that was by
the pool of Bethesda that our Lord Jesus had healed. And when
he was asked by the Christ-hating, self-righteous Jews who it was
that healed him, he didn't know. The Lord had not revealed that
to him. But later, the Lord came to him
and told him, in verse 14, Behold, thou art made whole. Sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee. And in verse 15, the man
departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him
whole. And you know, he said this with joy. I know he was
rejoicing and declaring the works of Jesus Christ in his life.
In verse 16 we read, and therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things
on the Sabbath day. Now there were many impotent
folk there, but the scripture tells us a great multitude of
impotent folk lay there. But our Lord Jesus came to one who was a certain
man, his eye of eternal love was on that one individual that
he healed. And those Jews were so angry,
hated Christ so much, that they wanted to kill him. He had healed
on a Sabbath day. and they were willing to justify
murdering him on the Sabbath day. That's just typical of self-righteous
religionists. Look at verse 17, but Jesus answered
them, my father worketh Hitherto, and I work in verse 18, we read,
therefore the Jews sought the Lord to kill him because he not
only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his
father, making himself equal with God. In these two verses,
our Lord Jesus is declaring to those self-righteous Jews that
he was equal with God the Father. In the matter of salvation, He
said, My Father worketh who to and I work. And what He had done
when He healed that infinite man, was according to the perfect,
sovereign will of God Almighty who sent His Son to do His will. And God works all things after
the counsel of His own will. Jesus Christ works all things
after the counsel of His own will. And He called God His Father,
making Himself equal with God. And they did not misunderstand
Him. Those Jews did not misunderstand
what our Lord was saying, because they wanted to kill Him, because
He made Himself equal with God, saying that He was doing the
work. But His Father also did the work
sovereignly as it pleases Him. Look at verses 19 and 20. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself of what He seeth the Father do, for what things soever
He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father
loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth,
and He will show Him greater works than these that ye may
marvel." Here in these two verses, our Lord Jesus teaches us that
He can do nothing except that which God the Father does. And what He does perfectly harmonizes
with the purpose and will of God Almighty. As the God-man, our Lord Jesus
had perfect knowledge of His Father's will. Actually, He,
the Lord Jesus, was omniscient. knowing all things. Peter said
this. The Lord said, Lovest thou me? Peter said, Lord, you know I
love you. You know all things. Our Lord Jesus is omniscient. And these two verses teach us
not only that He works according to exactly what God would have
Him to do in perfect harmony with God Himself, But He teaches
us that the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things
that Himself, all things were known unto our Lord Jesus before
He did them. He did them according to what
God had purposed for Him to do. He knew, oh, get a hold of this. He knew before He went to the
cross that His Father would turn his back on him. That
God the Father would forsake him. He even cried out, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He knew that, yet he went. He went because of his love for
his own people. He went there knowing that if
he did not go through that indescribable painful death,
that ignominious death of the cross, there would be no hope
for those who were given to Him in the eternal covenant of grace. He knows all things. Look at
verse 21. It says, For as the Father raiseth
up the dead and quickeneth them, Even so, the Son quickeneth whom
He will." The word quickeneth means give life. Only God can
give life. Life comes from God. All life
comes from God. I don't care if it's animal life,
plant life. I don't care what kind of life
it is. All life comes from God. Our
physical life comes from God. Our eternal life comes from God.
He alone is the dispenser of life. And our Lord Jesus puts
himself on equal plane with God the Father by telling us this. As God the Father gives life
to whomsoever He will. The Lord Jesus said, I give,
I quicken, I give life to whomsoever I will. That's sovereignty. He has the absolute sovereign
right to give eternal life to as many as God the Father gave
him. And He exercises that right.
And that's His sovereign prerogative. There were many impotent folk
there by the Pool of Bethesda, but He only healed one. That's
His sovereign choice of doing that. He did that because He
has the sovereign right to do it. He heals as He pleases. He makes sick as He pleases.
It's our Lord Jesus who's in control of all of these things.
So verse 21 teaches us that Jesus Christ has the same power of
God the Father in giving life to the dead. It also teaches
us that our Lord and Savior is sovereign in all things, and
especially giving life. Verses 22 and 23 says, For the
Father judgeth no man would have committed all judgment unto the
Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the
Father. He that honoreth not the Son
honoreth not the Father which hath sent him. All judgment has
been given to the Son. We must all stand before the
judgment seat of Christ. The Scripture tells us that God
our Father has appointed a day in which He will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof
He hath given assurance unto all men, and that He hath raised
Him from the dead. That's Acts 17.3. Now why has
God done that? Why has God committed all judgment
unto the Son? Why has He put all things under
His feet? Why has He put all things into
the hands of Jesus Christ? Why has He given Him all power
in heaven and earth? Why has God done that? So that
all men would honor the Son even as they honor the Father. If
we don't honor the Son as we honor the Father, we don't honor
the Father who sent the Son. It's just as simple as that.
So our text is teaching us from Isaiah chapter 12 to make mention
that His name is exalted. God has given Him a name which
is above every name. And we should not be bashful
about declaring this. We should be honored every time
we have the opportunity to tell folks that we are dealing with,
whether it's our own immediate family, whether it's our co-workers,
whether it's friends that we socialize with, or if we're on
some kind of a trip, meeting strangers on the way, we should
be ready and willing to tell folks, Jesus Christ is my exalted
King. His name is above every name.
God has highly exalted Him. He's on His throne of power.
And we better bow down to Him. If we don't, there's coming a
day when we will. Look at the Scripture on the
front of this morning's bulletin, if you will. I took this from
1 Timothy 6, verses 12-16. It reads this way. Fight the
good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, whereto
thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before
many witnesses. I give thee charge in the sight
of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who
before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession, that thou
keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the
appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. which in his times he shall show
who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of kings, the Lord of
lords, who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no
man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to
whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. That's a powerful portion
of God's Word. And I know Paul was writing to
Timothy. But the application should be made to each one of
us. Fight the good fight of faith. And it's a fight. It's a fight. And it may cost us. Cost Abel
his life. We heard that from Brother Brad
Ward this morning during the devotional time. He Look to Christ, and only to Christ. And that's our profession of
faith. Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We
must fight the good fight of faith. Not only because of those
who oppose us, who would try to distract us and take our eye
off of Christ, but because of that old nature that we're still
plagued with. that tries to surface, rear its ugly head in a moment's
notice, and it can't. We must fight the good fight
of faith. We must keep looking to Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith. Trusting in Him for whatever
it is that we are going through, whether it be trials of heavy
persecution or painful things that we endure and walk in this
life, we're not... Just because we're God's children
does not mean that we won't get a cold, or a flu, or cancer. These things don't happen by
accident. There are no accidents with God. He has purposed all things. And
we need to be calling upon that name which is above every name
for our every need, whether it's those things that I've just mentioned,
whether it's the physical needs that we have every day, our food,
our clothing, our water, our shelter, our homes, all of these
things are in the hands of Jesus Christ, our heavenly Joseph.
He dispenses them as it pleases Him. And we just need to humble
ourselves before God in the name of Jesus Christ, crying out to
Him for whatever our need might be, and also crying out to Him,
giving thanks for all the needs that He has provided for us.
So fight the good fight of faith. That fight is going to go on
until we're delivered from the body of this death. And that
won't happen until God's appointed time as well. Our Lord Jesus
confessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. Pilate said,
don't you know I have the power to either crucify you or set
you free? And our Lord Jesus said, you
wouldn't have any power over me at all if it hadn't been given
to you from above. So that's true. That's true with
everyone we come in contact with. They have no power over us. I
put a little article under Food for Thought. I've titled it Something
to Ponder. I wrote these words. Everything
that happens is according to the permissive will of our Lord
Jesus Christ for His glory and for our good. Knowing this, we
should never And I put the word never in capitals and in bold
writing. We should never allow the actions
of others to offend us. That's easier said than done.
But that's true. So the name of Jesus Christ has
been exalted above every name. Not everybody knows this. And
maybe it's because we haven't been bold enough to declare it. I don't know. I know that even
when we do declare it, only God can make it known to the heart
in a way that will give Jesus Christ the glory and benefit
the one that we're talking to. But we need to be bold enough.
We need to identify our God. You know, it's easy to say, well,
God has blessed me. It's just as easy to say, the
Lord Jesus Christ has blessed me. So we're identifying our
God when we use His name. His name is exalted above every
name. Every religious person in the
world will make a testimony like that. God has blessed me. But
only those who have Christ in their hearts, who know that His
name is exalted, can say that, giving glory to Him for our friends
or whoever we're talking to, for their good. So it's the name
of Jesus Christ. And if they don't know His name,
there's coming a day when they will know His name. Because that
scripture I put on the front of this morning's bulletin says
that in His times He will show who is a blessed and only potentate. That word is dunastis, a Greek
word. It's where we get our word dynamite. It means power. He's a blessed and only power.
In His times, He will show that He is the blessed and only Potentate,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And what an honor, folks. What
an honor God has bestowed upon us to be instruments to glorify
our Father in Heaven by declaring His name, the name of Jesus Christ
is exalted and His name is above every name. If you want salvation, His name is that name which is
given among men, whereby they must be saved. That's the only
name. Isn't it wonderful to know that
God has given us this understanding? And what an honor to be able
to share this with others, to ask them this question. Have
you called on His name? Have you asked Him for the living
water if you knew Him? If you knew that Jesus Christ
is God Almighty, that He is the living water, that He gives life
to those that He is pleased to give life to, you would ask Him
to tell folks this, to let them know that Jesus Christ, that
very man who was hated and despised of men, who was nailed to that
cross, who died who laid down his life for his sheep. That
very man has risen and he has entered into heaven itself. And
right there he is right now, at this very moment, has been
for over 2,000 years as Lord of all, ruling and reigning over
everything in this whole universe. And what comfort that brings
to the hearts of God's people. during any kind of a situation,
whether it's painful or whether it's on the mountaintop of success,
to know that He, Jesus Christ, is Lord of all and whatsoever
He is pleased to allow us to do is for His glory. So God bless us as we continue
in this pilgrimage walk before Him with this awareness before
us. His name is exalted and use his
name in reverence as we are allowed the honor of serving him in this
life below.