Thank you. It's a delight to
be with you again this weekend. Shelby and I cherish your pastor
and his wife and this congregation. You have an article in your bulletin
by Brother John Chapman. My friends at Spring Lake, North
Carolina, Bethel Baptist Church have just called John to be their
pastor. He will be moving there in just
the next week or two, so you remember that congregation in
prayer. Better than 250 years ago, there was a one-eyed Baptist
preacher in Wales. His name was Christmas Evans.
And he was a man greatly used of God, much in demand. Wherever he went preaching, usually
there was a large crowd gathered. And one night, he was scheduled
to preach. The place was packed. The preacher couldn't be found. Mr. Evans, nobody knew where
he was. And two of the men in the back
said, have you seen the preacher? And they said, no, so let's see
if we can find him. And one went this way and one
the other. A little bit, they came back
upstairs and the fellow said, did you find the preacher? He
said, yes. He said, well, did you tell him it's time to preach?
He said, no, I left it. He said, it's time for services
to start. He said, but Brother Evans was on his knees crying to God. Lord God, I've
gone into the pulpit by myself for the last time. If you won't go with me, I will
not go. We read earlier today, except
they be sent. Except they be sent. How shall they preach? Except
they be sent. I'm here today with the responsibility
under God to preach to you, eternity bound men and women. Some of
you, I pray, this day will be the day God will call you by
his grace. Some of you, maybe this day will
be the last day you walk on this earth before you meet God in
the blessedness of everlasting glory. All of you are going through
difficulties, trials, heartaches, burdens, struggles. How on this
earth can one man with one message speak to every heart? It can't
be done by a man. But if God has sent me with his
message for you, you're in for a treat today. I ask you to pray
for your pastor, for myself, for the Chapman, these other
men who preach here, faithful men around the world, as they
prepare to preach the gospel. And faithful men, when you prepare
to preach, prepare like everything depended on you. That's what
faithfulness requires. But they understand that they
can't do anything without God. Pray that God will send them.
Every time they stand to preach, oh God, send him to speak to
your people. Let's open our Bibles again to
the Song of Moses in the Gospel of Exodus, chapter 15. The Lord
God has just saved his people Israel out of Egypt after 400
years of bondage. He brought his chosen out of
the land of bondage with his high hand and stretched out arm. And he saved those Egyptians
typically in that typical fashion. He saved those Egyptians exactly
the way he always saves his elect. He saved them by his own purpose. He purposed that they go down
into Egypt. He purposed that they remain
there for 400 years. And he purposed to bring them
out at exactly the time he brought them out. If God saves sinners,
and he does, he saves them according to his purpose. He saved these
people by promise, his own promise. He said to Abraham, 400 years
from now, I'm going to bring them back. They'll go down there
and they'll sojourn 400 years, but in 400 years, I'll bring
them out of that land. And he promised before the world
began eternal life to a people whom he gave to his son to redeem
and save in covenant mercy. And he saves those people at
the appointed time of love according to his promise. But those who
are saved by God, by his purpose and by his promise, are saved
by his purchase as well. The children of Israel were purchased
symbolically, ceremonially, by the blood of an innocent lamb.
sacrificed in their stead so that they were preserved in the
hour of judgment when God passed through Egypt and slew the firstborn
in every house in Egypt. But the firstborn in Israel lived
because blood was shed for him. So God saves his people, all
his people, by the purchase of his darling son's precious shed
blood. and he saves them by his power.
He said stand still and watch me. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Salvation is not something you
do for God. Salvation is not the result of
something you do for God. Salvation is not a cooperative
effort between you and God. Salvation doesn't depend upon
you, what you decide or what you will. Now listen carefully
to me. You children, you young people,
listen to me now. You who don't know God, young
and old, listen to me. All it'll take for you to go
to hell is for God to leave you alone. Salvation doesn't come by the
will of man, but by the will of God. not by the power of man,
but by the power of God. It takes life-giving resurrection
power to bring sinners to life and faith in Jesus Christ the
Lord. Now let's read this one part
of Moses' great song of deliverance, Exodus 15 and verse 11. We'll focus our attention, and
I hope our hearts on this one verse in this marvelous song. Here, Moses calls our attention
to the fact that in saving his people, the Lord God set himself
apart from all his creatures and set himself apart distinctly
as God, showing himself to be God by the salvation of his people. We live in a generation of many
women, as it has been the case in every generation since the
fall of our father Adam, where men have a very high view of
man and a very low view of God. Men think highly of themselves
and think very little of God. The religious world particularly
has a very high view of man and a very small view of God because
they don't know God. If ever you come to know God,
you're going to know that he alone is God in all his character,
exalted above all creation and all that men would call gods.
Exodus 15, verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O Lord? Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Go back and read the book of
Exodus carefully, the first 14 chapters of Exodus, and read
about the wonders God performed in the land of Ham. Do you know
that every single wonder God performed in the land of Ham,
All of those marvelous judgments that he performed were judgments
that God performed upon the very things the Egyptians worshipped
as God. God judged their gods. Dagon fell before him again and
again and again and again. And Israel came out walking over
top of the gods of Egypt. And Moses says, who is likened
to thee, O Lord? Who is likened to thee among
the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? And I have an
unusual title for my message this evening or this morning.
Once in a while I like to say things to impress fellas. The solitariness of God. The solitariness of God. That's
my subject. The solitariness of God. that
which identifies God as God alone. You see, he who we worship alone
is God. All the idols that men have carved
out of one of the rotten pieces of timber in the dark forest
of man's depraved imagination and call God. All of them are
weak and helpless and dependent and need you, not God. He whom we worship, the God of
this book, he alone is God. And if the God you worship is
not such a God as is described in this book, the God you worship
is an idol. You may as well worship a rabbit's
foot or worship yourself. The God of Holy Scripture, He
alone is God. We know that God is great in
wisdom, wondrous in power, and abundant in mercy. But this degenerate
religious age, this age of religious idolatry and perversion parading
in the name of Christianity, for the most part, knows nothing
of God's being. Nothing of his character, nothing
of his attributes. And you can't trust a God you
don't know. There are very few who understand
that God is infinite. majestic, and great beyond imagination,
glorious. And I want to do what I can to
inspire your hearts and my own to trust, to adore, and to reverently
worship the Lord God Almighty, showing you something of his
solitary excellence as God. It is the solitary excellence
of God that inspires reverence for him and faith in him and
devotion to him. A God who needs you, you won't
worship, you'll just use. A God who depends on you, you
will not serve, but rather He serves you. The God of Holy Scripture
is God altogether independent of you. And you need Him and
get everything from Him. This God we worship, this God
we trust, this God we rely upon. He is indescribably great. Now let me make seven simple
statements concerning the character of God. Number one, understand
this, there is one God. Here, O Israel, the Lord, our
Lord, is one God. It must be stated emphatically
and then stated clearly, there is only one God. There is but
one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and ye in him,
and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by
him. There is one body, one spirit,
even as you're called in one hope of your calling, one Lord,
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above
all and through all and in you all. Isn't it amazing how simple
the most profound things are? God uses big, big, big words
to describe dogmatic things. One. One Lord. One faith, one baptism,
one hope, one God, one savior. They're just one God. One God
and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. God is alone in his being. There is none beside him. There
are many angels, many men, many of all of the creatures, but
God is one. He only hath immortality dwelling
in light, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen nor
can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting. Now this is
stressed for this reason. Because there is one God, Our
allegiance is due to him alone. Because there is one God, our
affections are to be directed to him alone. Because there is
but one God, all who know him, trust him, and worship him are
one in him. One God. Number two, God is eternal. Now that's a word that just gets
bigger and bigger and bigger every time I try to study it.
We can't really get a handle on eternal. Angels are not eternal. Men are not eternal. And contrary
to these frog kissing, tree hugging, mother earth worshipers, matter
is not eternal. God's eternal. God's eternal. Turn back to Genesis chapter
one. Genesis chapter 1 In the beginning, God In the beginning, God There was
nothing before the beginning but God In the beginning, God
There was nothing and no one but God. There was a time before
time began when God dwelt alone in the ineffable glory of his
own great being. There was no heaven in which
he set his throne and manifested his glory. There was no earth
to be his footstool or engage his care. There were no angels
to sing his praise, no universe to be upheld by the word of his
power. There were no men created in his image and after his likeness. There were no hours or months
or days or years. No ages. From everlasting in
old eternity, God was alone in his glory in need of nothing. God. He's the great I am, the
eternal God, who says, I live forever. The psalmist says of
him, thy throne is established of old. Thou art from everlasting. His name is Alpha and Omega,
the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the high and
lofty one who inhabiteth eternity. He's the high and lofty one who
inhabited eternity. God's eternal. This great God,
who alone is eternal, is and must be the creator of all things. If God alone is eternal, if in
the beginning God, whatever comes after that, God made it. he's
the creator and he who is the creator of all things is the
ruler of all things he's in control of all things you and me all
the angels and all the devils, all the demons of hell and the
prince of darkness, all good things and all bad things, all
life and all death, all sickness and all health, all trouble and
all peace. He says, I create light and I
make darkness. I make peace and I create evil. Oh, I never heard anybody talk
like that about God. You never heard anybody talk
about God then. You just heard folks talking about an idol.
God, who's the creator of all things, is the ruler of all things. And that one who is the ruler
and possessor of all things is the disposer of all things. He
topples kingdoms when he will. He's appointed an hour when you're
going to die. Then you can drink all the cabbage
juice you want to, you won't live a second longer. Or you can smoke all the cigarettes
you want to and you won't die a second sooner. Oh, you can't
talk like that. Well, let me try it another way.
You can drink all the cabbage juice you want to, you won't
live a second longer. Or you can smoke all the cigarettes
you want to, and you won't die a second sooner. At the appointed
hour, you will breathe your last breath. And all the doctors in
the universe can't stop it or prolong it. It won't happen.
It won't happen. Whenever somebody comes shoot
you, not till God appoints it. Not till God appoints it. I've
not at least been afraid of somebody shooting me. That'd be a pretty
good way to go. Be suffering for a long time.
When God appoints it, I'll leave here. By whatever means God appoints,
you too. That's just the way it is. Well,
I don't like that. Well, learn to get along with
yourself then, because you will never know God. God rules everything. God possesses everything. And
God disposes of everything as he will. Exactly so. Here's the third thing. Our Lord
Jesus Christ declares, God is spirit. And they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. God is spirit. Now we live in such a superstitious,
ignorant age, we think of spirit, we kind of think about Casper
the ghost. God is spirit. Spirit. The Bible often describes
God in such words as these, the hand of the Lord, the eyes of
the Lord, the ears of the Lord, the arm of the Lord, the mind
of the Lord. But those are mere anthropomorphic
terms. That's another $10 word from
a 50 cent fellow. But it simply means they're human
terms by which God to our puny brains. Let me tell
you who I am. I'm almighty! Here's the arm
of the Lord. They're just human terms by which
God accommodates our puny brains to give us some understanding
of who and what he is. God is spirit. Spirit. There's nothing physical
or tangible about him. Nothing limited about him. He's pure, infinite, eternal,
incomprehensible, all-comprehending spirit. Even under the types
and shadows of the Old Testament, ceremonial worship. The Lord
God forbade anything to be made as a representation of him. I would suggest that you, if
you've got any crosses, that you melt them down and make you
a nice pocket fob out of them. It's just idolatry. If you've
got any pictures of Jesus or angels or angels hanging around
somewhere, just take them and burn them. Don't send them to
somebody else's yard sale. Get rid of them. It's just idolatry. It's just idolatry. We don't
need those things. Only papists who worship stumps
need those things. Folks who worship God don't need
them, but they make me feel close to God. That's because you're
an idolater. It's because you're an idolater.
I can't tell you how many times I preached in places, and there'd
be a cross hanging behind me. And if I preached there, and
it's back there, I'd say, that's a piece of idolatry. That's a
picture of Jesus, where I was a boy, the place where I was
converted, the church where I went, the former pastor, and they had
a picture Supposed to have been John the Baptist and some little
lone-haired effeminate looking fella and one of my friends brought
a fella to church with him and he saw that picture and he said,
is that your God? Is that your God? Well, I wouldn't
worship those things. Well, why do you fuss about it
then? Why do you fuss about it? Get rid of the idolatry. Get
rid of it. God's spirit. And if you need
a cross or an angel or a picture of Joseph or Mary to help you
worship God, you're in bad shape. You're in bad shape. Because
God is spirit, in Exodus 20, he expressly forbids every form
of idolatry. His commands forbid the acceptance
of any other god. The worship of God through any
image. The representation of God by anything visible. Or the
use of religious images and symbols and pictures. Pictures of Jesus
and crosses and crucifixes and religious relics and angelic
forms. They anger me. I want to throw
rocks from stained glass windows with Mary and her halo. I'm honest. I won't throw rocks. I don't
suggest you do. That's what I want to do. It's
just idolatry. Just idolatry. My little granddaughter,
I love her. She's 19 now. Yeah, 19 now. And just finished her first year
in college. When she was about three, she
and her mom and dad were going down through Asheville, North
Carolina, and I told them, I said, y'all be sure to stop at Biltmore
Dairy Bar. I told them the exact exit to
get off. I said, you'll get the best ice cream you ever tasted.
So they got off at Biltmore Dairy Bar in Asheville, North Carolina,
and Audrey Grace is waiting to get ice cream. She's just swinging
on the bar back and forth, and there's a woman who came in.
Audrey Grace saw something around her neck. She said, what's that?
And the woman said, what? She said, that. And she said,
oh, that's my necklace. And the guy says, no, that. And
she pointed at the little pendant on it. And the woman said, oh,
that's my guardian angel. Now, this is my three-year-old
granddaughter. She's sharp. She said, what for? And the woman said, well, it
watches over me, makes sure nothing happens to me. Audre Grise said,
hell, it's got no eyes. Oh, but that's my guardian angel. You're in trouble if that's your
guardian angel. All true worship, all true service to God must
be spiritual heart worship. It's not sufficient to come to
God on bended knee, or with prostrate body, or with words of praise.
We must worship God in our spirit nature, in our spirits, by God
the Holy Spirit, with our minds, our hearts, our wills, our souls,
worshiping God alone, spiritually, with sincerity, in truth, according
to God's revealed truth. Number four. Turn to 1 John chapter
5. Now, if you happen to have one
of those Bibles that have been messed with, you won't be able
to find this text. 1 John chapter 5, verse 7. God is a triunity. You often hear your pastor and
others use the word triune God. That means the tri-unity of the
three persons and the one Godhead. First John chapter five, verse
seven. Every reference Bible I know of, every one of them,
has a note on 1 John 5, 7. There may be an exception, all
that I've read so far. And every modern translation
since the revised version, every one of them, will tell you that
1 John 5, 7 shouldn't be in the Bible. How come? Because this is the one passage
of scripture, the singular verse of scripture, where that which
is the vital doctrine of Christianity is clearly stated, and that is
the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. First John chapter five, verse
seven. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. They're not three emanations
of one God. They're not three different names
for the one God. They're not three different representations
for the one God. They are three persons in one
Godhead. These three are one. And the three persons of the
Holy Trinity are always actively engaged in the saving of God's
elect from everlasting to everlasting. In the first chapter of the book
of Ephesians, and that's just one of many places, you'll find
that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are
described as each performing specific works in covenant grace
on our behalf for the saving of our souls. The scripture tells
us that God the Father chose us in Christ. God the Son redeemed
us by his blood. God the Holy Spirit called us
and sealed us by his grace. You have a picture of it even
in the book of Genesis. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth and the earth was that is the earth
became without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the waters the
spirit of God brooded over the darkness and God said let there
be light and there was light God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Ghost, always working for the saving of his
people and for the glory of his name. In the New Testament, the
doctrine of the Trinity is expressly declared in 1 John 5, 7, and
it is frequently represented to us. When our Lord Jesus was
baptized in Matthew chapter 3, There's God the Son in the water
with John the Baptist. And here is God the Holy Ghost
descending on him in the form of a dove. And then God the Father
speaks from heaven and says, this is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Your pastor's about to baptize
you. And he's gonna baptize you as the Lord commanded in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. That's
clearly revealed in Scripture. And the only reason 1 John 5,
7 is commonly omitted from the Scriptures is because men seek
to pervert God's Word. There's no other reason. Now
you folks who want a modern translation, I know we need a modern translation. We can't understand that hogwash. That's just hogwash. I'll tell
you why folks want a modern translation. Jim, everybody's trying their
best to get God to say what he didn't say. If we keep whittling
it down, we'll soon read about it, we'll be reading a digest
for it. God said what God said. God said
what he said. The Lord Jesus Christ plainly
declares the gospel doctrine of the Trinity. He said, I will
pray the Father and he will give you another comforter that he
may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, the apostolic
benediction, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love
of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Well,
Brother Don, I didn't know the Trinity was so important. Now
you do. Now you do. The Word of God sets forth one
God in three persons. The Father is God, the Son is
God, and the Holy Ghost is God. And all three persons are distinctly
called God in the New Testament. We read in the Bible about the
Lord, Jesus said, this commandment have I received of my Father.
There you see, he can't be really equal with the Father. Well,
let's try that out. Let's try that out. The Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. joined together in a solemn compact
of grace by which the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost each
pledged themselves to specific works performed for the saving
of his people. And those things are revealed
to us as the everlasting covenant. And the Son of God stepped forward
before the world was and said, Father, give me Gene Arbon. Put him in my hands. I live for
it. I'll bring in everlasting righteousness
for him. I'll redeem him with my precious
blood. I'll be made sin for him. I'll
put away his sin. I'll glorify you in saving him.
And when I'm done, I'll bring him and present him before you
faultless. Faultless before the presence of your glory. And the
father said, all right, you do that. Then you ask me and I'll
give you the heathen for your inheritance. And they stuck hands. And the son went back to do the
work his father gave him to do. See that pretty little blonde
over yonder? You might be surprised at this, but I'm still stronger
than her. She still would have a tough
time making me do anything. But once in a blue moon, not
often, But once in a blue moon, I'll say to her, honey, today's
your day. The other day she was getting
things ready for cooking, doing a lot of cooking for church dinner.
I mean, she cooks a ton for church dinners. And I was helping her. You know what she was doing?
And I don't move real fast, but I'd run around the kitchen as
fast as I could, and I'm lost in the kitchen. And she'd say,
open this can, dump that in there, stir this up. And I was just
doing whatever she said. Like a little child, just doing
whatever she said. Not because I'm weaker than her, not because
she has power over me, but because I was willingly obedient to her
wish for that hour. And the Lord Jesus Christ, the
God-man, our Savior, voluntarily subjected himself to do the will
of the Father and said, Lo, I come to do thy will. Oh my God, I've
opened my ear. I've not turned myself back from
it. I've set my face like a fence. I will do what you commanded
and the father honors the son, giving him power over all flesh
because of his obedience unto the father. Number five, God
and God alone is independent and self-sufficient. Now we all like to cherish independence. Some of you may be unaware of
the facts of it and have very distorted understanding of the
reasons for it. But back in the 1860s, there
was a lot of bloodshed in this country by fellows who lived
south of the border. And the reason was for independence. For independence. We demand independence. The nation was founded on independence. But I hate to burst your bubble. Ain't none of you independent. There's no such thing as an independent
creature. There's no such thing as an independent
creature. You or me. God is independent. totally self-sufficient. God is solitary in his being,
in his eternality, in his spirituality, in his triunity, and in his independence
and self-sufficiency. What does that mean? That means
God alone needs nothing. That means you can't benefit
God and you can't injure God. You can't bring him anything
to enrich him. You can't give him anything to
make him happier. You can't give him anything to
make him more glorious. And you can't do anything to
distract from his glory. In old eternity when God dwelt
alone in the glory of his triune persons, he was self-contained
and self-sufficient in need of nothing. He needed nothing to
make him happy, nothing to make him glorious, nothing to make
him complete, and he is still independent, self-sufficient,
and in need of nothing. I know you probably heard preachers
make statements like this, God created man because God lived
and God is love. But there was a great vacuum
in God, because he had nothing to love. So he created you, so
he could pretty please have something to love. When I step in that, I wipe it
off. God doesn't need you. Who do
you think you are that God needs you? Who do you think you are
that you can add something to God? The psalmist said, my goodness
extendeth not unto thee It doesn't reach God. God gains
nothing from his creatures. Even the praises of his redeemed
add nothing to him. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God forever and ever and blessed be thy glorious name which is
exalted above all blessing and praise. God Almighty predestinated
his elect to salvation, to the praise of the glory of his grace,
according to his good pleasure, not to make himself more glorious,
but to show his glory so that you can enjoy it. Oh, my soul, thou hast said unto
the Lord, thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee,
but to the saints that are in the earth and to the excellence
in whom is all my delights. Turn to Romans chapter three.
Romans chapter three, I'm sorry, Romans chapter 11 and verse 34.
I want you to see this. Who has known the mind of the
Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Now those are two questions you
need to pause and give an answer to. Who knows the mind of God? You sure don't, I don't. Except
as he makes it known. You don't even know my mind.
John, you can't possibly know what's on my mind. You're not
inside me. Don't know where you can know what's on my mind if
I tell you. And his wife looks up at you. I know what's on your
mind. No, you don't. You just presume you do. Or you
look at your wife and say, I know what you're thinking. No, you
don't. You just presume you do. And that's a big presumption.
I know the mind of the Lord. No, you don't. You just presume
you do until God makes it known. Or who hath been his counselor,
that is, who informed him? Who told God so? Who told God
so? Not you, not me. Or who hath
first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again?
There's an article in your bulletin, it's one about Brother Jack Shakes.
Folks expect rewards from God for something you did. I'm gonna
give God a diamond, he'll give me $1,000. He'll call that good
God in debt. What kind of God are you talking
about? Watch him wear that off my foot.
My soul. What folks think of God? It's
meaningless. and worse than meaningless is
idolatry. For of him and through him and to him are all things
to whom be glory forever. God gains nothing from man. That
means it's impossible for man to bring God under any obligation
to himself. God loses nothing by the wickedness
of his creatures. Job said, if thou sinnest, what
doest thou against him? Or if thy transgressions be multiplied,
what doest thou unto him? Sin is man's attempt to rape
God, but it's not raping God. Sin is man's attempt to shove
God off his throne, but God's unmoved. Your sin doesn't affect
God. As man can add nothing to God's
glory, so man can never diminish from God's glory. He made all
things to show forth his glory and everything's going to. You
too. You too. Me and you both, everything
gonna honor God. Read Revelation chapter four.
Thou hast made all things for thy pleasure they are and were
created. Everything that moves and wiggles
will honor God. either bowing before him in reverent
faith, trusting his darling son, or bowing before him in terrified
judgment as you're cast into hell. But everything will worship
and praise and honor God. I'm talking about God, the solitariness,
the self-sufficiency of God. All that we experience of God's
grace, all that we experience of his goodness, we experience
because of his sovereign good pleasure. Our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Let me tell you what pleases
God. This is Bible language. It pleased the Lord to make you
his people. It pleased the Lord to give his
son preeminence and give his son fullness in all things. It
pleased the Lord to bruise his son in the place of sinners.
It pleased the Lord to reveal his son in me. And it pleased
him to do it by sending me a preacher whose feet are beautiful. He'd
come bring in the good tidings of salvation by Christ. How we thank God and praise and
adore him for the good pleasure of his grace toward us. But we
know also that God is totally independent of his creatures,
utterly self-sufficient without us. What are the nations? What are the nations? All the
nations. Shelby and I landed in San Diego
the other day and driving back and forth to meetings down there
with Brother Eric and those folks in San Diego and then got up
here riding with your pastor and his wife. It's a wonder we got any sanity
left. You folks got a lot of people out here. I mean, you
got a lot of people out here. In Danville, on a busy, busy,
busy Friday night, we might have three folks at one stoplight,
and we've only got two. I mean, y'all got a lot of people. But
this is nothing. Think of all the billions around
the world, all the nations of the world, all mankind. the great United States, the
great British Empire, the great country of Russia, China, all
the great nations of the world, all the nations. What are they? Just a drop in a bucket. Just
a drop in a bucket. So what God says, read it for
yourself. God describes himself in Isaiah,
said no, just a drop in a bucket. Just the small dust of the balance. Just the small dust of the balance.
I used to go to the feed store and buy our feed, not our feed
but our grain to plant gardens. Shelby and I planted a garden
for years and we'd buy three pounds of corn. And they'd weigh
it out in those scales. Three pounds. And they'd dump
it in a bag. You know, I have never once asked
that fellow, wait a minute, break the dust out of that. Because dust is insignificant.
That's you. And me. And all of us together. Totally insignificant. The only
thing that matters is God. His will. His pleasure. His glory. His people. He brings the princes
of the earth to nothing and makes the judges of the earth vanity.
God is solitary in his majesty, unique in his excellence, peerless
in his perfection. He sustains all, but he's independent
of all. He gives to all, but he's enriched
by none. Here's the sixth thing. This great solitary God can only
be known by self-revelation. You can't know him except he
make himself known to you. You can't know him. You can't
know him. The preacher, all men know that
there is a God. Yeah, they do. Romans 1 says so, Romans 2 says
so. That means that you folks who call yourselves atheists
are liars. All of them. All of them, just liars. You
suppress the knowledge of God, you push it down. I have had folks, especially
have sensitive ears, who listen to me preach like this. But the
reason they're there, they can't cover it up, they have to hear
me. I can be heard, but men suppress the knowledge of God. They suppress
God's voice in creation. They suppress God's voice in
conscience, that voice that says God he is and I'm gonna meet
him and God's gonna deal with me in judgment. They say no God,
no God, no God, but they know he is. They just don't know him. Should I, be walking along in the middle
of Africa somewhere and lose this piece here. And get washed
over in some dirt and sand. A hundred years from now somebody
finds that thing and it's still running. Wow. Hey Joe, what do you call
that? I think they used to call that
a watch. A watch. Well there must have been a watchmaker.
That'd make pretty good sense, wouldn't it? That would make
pretty good sense. Somebody made this. If you think
it just popped into being, you've been smoking strange stuff. Somebody
made this. His name's the Creator. He's
God. But I'll tell you what, you can
put that watch on and wear it for a hundred years. My wife
bought it for me a long time ago. I know the name of the fella
who made it. His name is Rivard. but I don't
have a clue who he is and I'm not likely to ever know him.
All I know is it was a watchmaker who made the watch. That I can't
deny. If you would know God you won't
know him by creation and you won't know him by learning and
you won't know him by science. You'll know God only if God steps
into humanity and reveals himself to you in a man. And that man
is Jesus Christ whose name is the Word of God. Behold the Christ
of God revealed in this book and here the Lord God steps into
time and says, look here, watch this man! who he is and all he
does and all the results of what he does, that's God. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. All of it. But still, you can't
know God. Our Lord Jesus Christ walked
on this earth, folks that ate the bread, and ate the fishes
and drank the wine and were healed by his hand, healed by his touch,
healed by his disciples. They saw him walking across water,
they saw disciples walking across water, wondrous things. They never believed him. They
didn't know him. They didn't know him. Oh, they
said they believed him, but they didn't. They didn't know him. They didn't
have a clue who he was. They didn't know him. They didn't
know him. There was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus who
stood by one day while they were stoning God's servant Stephen
to death. And he was holding the clothes of those who stoned
him because he hated the name of Jesus Christ the Lord. But
he didn't know him. Well, wait a minute now. He said
in 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he said, we knew him
after the flesh. His name is Rivard. We read about
it, we heard about it, but we didn't know him. But it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace to reveal his son in me. And if God reveals His Son in
you, you can't help but to know Him. He's in you. And you find yourself believing
Him. One more thing. Turn to Michael chapter 7. Here's
something else about God. that distinguishes him from all
the imaginary gods that men have made throughout history. There's
never been a God like this one. Never been a God like this one.
He's the only God there is for he is God who forgives sin freely
without any reparation made by you. We're justified Can you say it? Freely. Freely. Freely. Freely by his grace through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Here is God who demands satisfaction
for sin, but he pays the satisfaction he demands. Here is God who demands
reparation, restitution, but he makes the reparation and the
restitution he demands and the forgiveness he exercises is free. Micah chapter seven, verse 18.
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth
not his anger forever, Because he delighteth in mercy. What a word. What a word. He delighteth in mercy. Because he does, he will turn
again. He will have compassion on us.
He will subdue our iniquities. And thou will cast all their
sins into the depths of the sea. Thou will perform the truth to
Jacob. and mercy to Abraham, which thou
hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Oh, how we ought
to thank God for so arranging the affairs of the universe as
to make himself known to sinners in redemption by Christ. Let
me show you one more text of scripture, Romans chapter 5,
or chapter 6, Romans chapter 6. There's one of those texts that
you probably read over all your life and if you stop and read
it you'll think this is a strange text. God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. Is that what it says? But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin. But you have obeyed from the
heart That form of doctrine which was delivered to you, being made
free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Oh
God, thank you for your wisdom, your mercy, your grace. Thank
you. Thank you for being God. And for condescending to create
a world in which a whole race of men would fall out of whom you would choose a people in
whom you would reveal yourself and revealing yourself in your
son in the free forgiveness of sin now Now I see something of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ, my crucified redeemer. That's
God. Anything else is just a pretense. May God make himself known to
you. Amen.