three years now and love you
dearly John and Vicki his wife so glad you're here. Where are
you Vicki? Okay she's back right over here. Good to be able to drive up here and see
you northerners now. Now that I live in the South,
I used to have to drive South to see you. Now I've got to drive
North to see you. And I'm thankful to be here,
thankful for the invite. You know, I couldn't think any
more highly of a person than I think of your pastor. I've
known him, we've said today, 40 years. It's been 40 years
we've known each other, sat under Henry's ministry for 30 some
years. And I stand here and I have to
say this, who is sufficient for these things? I've been preaching for a good
number of years now. And I feel the inadequacy of
it. I mean this. I feel the inadequacy of it more
now than I did when I was young. I wasn't smart. I didn't know
anything. I didn't know I didn't know anything. I just didn't even know enough
to know I couldn't preach. And then I found out I couldn't. And then that's when I think
the Lord started enabling me to preach. And you find out you
can't do it. And He'll enable you to do it. Turn over to Isaiah 40. Isaiah
chapter 40. The title of my message tonight is The
Greatness of God. The Greatness of God. Let us
never lose sight of the greatness of our God. Over in chapter 39,
Isaiah tells Hezekiah that Israel is going to go into captivity
to Babylon. They have some very dark days
coming up. You know, they were in captivity
for 70 years. And after that, he tells him,
he says, Comfort ye my people, saith your God. And he's speaking
of his people, his true Israel. He tells Isaiah to comfort them,
and every preacher that he's called since is to comfort God's
people. And one of the great comforts
that we have is in the greatness of our God. We do not worship
nor serve a puny God. There is no weakness in any way,
shape, or form in our God. None. Whatsoever. And no matter what circumstance
or how dark the night may be, if we can keep our minds stayed
upon our great God, My, it'll carry us through. It'll carry
us through the darkest hours. Someone said this, worship is in direct proportion to our
thoughts of God. If we have high thoughts of God,
worship will be high and holy worship. If we have low thoughts
of God, I had written down, it'll be low worship. It'll be no worship.
If we have low thoughts of God, there'll be no worship of God. A. W. Tozer said this, what comes
into our minds when we think of God is the most important
thing about us. What comes into our minds? when
we think of God Almighty is the most important thing about us. Now, I know that most preaching
that goes on today sets forth God as the servant of men, giving
men and women the sense of being the sovereign and God the servant.
God wanting to do something good for us if we will let Him. God
has no wants. God has a will and a purpose.
He has no wants. God's never wanted to do anything. And who in the world does man
think he is that he's going to put a check on God Almighty? He rules over heaven. He does
as he will, with whom he will, when he will. And he gives no
account of any of his matters. God does not ask anyone. He doesn't take counsel with
anyone. We'll see this here in a minute. He doesn't take counsel
with anyone over any matters. I want you to listen to this.
Let me tell you what low thoughts of God lead to. I read this the other day. I'm
not going to read the whole poem. A man named William Ernest Henley
said in his poem, Invictus, that means unconquerable, It matters
not how straight the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my faith. I am the captain of my soul. Being the captain of your soul
is the ultimate goal in life. That's what low thoughts of God
lead to. Absolute foolishness. High thoughts
of God says Jesus Christ is the captain of my soul. He's the
captain of my salvation. And I want Him to be the captain
of my salvation. I've already messed up enough.
I sure don't need to have that responsibility on my hands. I
don't need that. But let's look and start in verse
12. Do you know, he says in verse 9, at the last part of that verse,
he says, Behold your God. That's exactly what I want us
to do tonight. In these next few verses, I want
us to behold our God. Our God. Not a God. Our God. The God of heaven and
earth. The God of salvation. The God
of redemption. The God and Father of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Our God. Now, he says here in
verse 12, Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? Who in one hand can take all
the water in this world, the deepest oceans, all the oceans,
all the rain and the clouds that go overhead, all the water in
the streams? Who can take and measure them? Who can tell you how much water
there is? God can. There's one that can. God can. Almighty God can. Our Lord can. And meet it out
heaven with the span. Who can measure? Look, you look
at heaven. Look at the expanse of the universe. How great it is. We have telescopes
and we keep looking out there and it just keeps going. The
stronger the telescope we have, the further it keeps going. And
yet he says here that our God, With the span of his hand, that's
the distance between my thumb and my finger. With one hand,
he's able to measure the distance of it. He can tell you to the
thousands how big heaven is. To the thousands. Now, to a machinist,
I'm an old machinist, that means something. Our God can do that. Our God
can do that. and comprehend the dust. He knows exact weight of this
earth. Our God knows the exact weight
to the ounce of what this earth weighs right down to the dust
that's on it. And here's something that just
really amazes me. And He's weighed the mountains
and scales and the hills and balanced God. In His power here,
in His infinite wisdom, God has so balanced this earth that as
it rotates, it doesn't shake and rock and roll. Going again,
as a machinist, I know what it is to balance an impeller. I
know what it is to balance a fan. I know when they are out of balance,
it's shaking the motor out of the house. And God Almighty has
positioned the hills and the mountains and the valleys and
the water in such a way that this ball turns in perfect balance. All the engineers in the world
couldn't even begin to touch that. What wisdom! What power! What power! Who has directed
the Spirit of the Lord or been His counselor? Who taught God
how to do this? Huh? You know, you and I have
got to go to school. The first thing we have to do
is learn our name. That's the easiest thing in the world. Your
name. You've got to learn it. God's never learned anything.
Who's his counselor? He doesn't have one. He is infinite
in wisdom. He's infinite in knowledge. And
you can't comprehend it because God is incomprehensible. If you
can comprehend God, you've got the wrong one. You've got the
wrong one. You missed it. God is incomprehensible. He can't be comprehended. God is infinite in knowledge.
He's never learned anything. He's always known everything. Everything. He knows it. Who
has ever given God counsel? No one. He created the heavens
and the earth just as He willed. Just as he willed to do. You
know, when God created Adam, he didn't create Adam first and
then get his opinion on the garden. He created the garden of Eden.
He created the earth and the garden of Eden, made everything
ready. And then what did he do? He created
Adam and put him in it. And that's exactly how salvation
is. It is the complete work of Jesus Christ, and he's going
to put us in it. He's chosen the people that just
is ready. Our Lord says, enter into the
kingdom prepared by my Father from the foundation of the world.
You're not going to add or do anything to it. You're not going
to change anything. He made it just as He will. No
one counseled Him. And with whom took He counsel?
And who instructed Him and taught Him in the path of judgment?
and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding. Who instructed God on judgment
and justice and equity? What law school did he go to?
Where did he learn that? It's his nature. He's a just
God. It's his nature. He's a just
God. Who taught God how to be a just God and a Savior? Who
taught Him substitution? Who taught Him that? No one. No one. He's God. He's God. He knows all these things. Behold,
he says here, behold the nations, Or as a drop of a bucket. You
turn on the news and you get all tore up. You see all these
nations, this is doing this, this is doing that. You know,
North Korea is going to shoot off something. We get tore up over these things.
And God said, these nations all together are a drop of a bucket. You know what a drop of a bucket
is here? It's after you pour all the water out, and there's
a drip. There's a drip off the bucket. And he said, all the
nations together are nothing but a drip. Now why in the world
would you and I be upset or scared or anxious about anything going
on out there? It's under the absolute control
of our God. The nations, think the mighty
nations, this nation, It's under the control of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's under His control. He said,
Behold, the nations are just a drop of the bucket, and are
counted as the small dust of the balance. That's the dust
that collects on the balance as it sits on the shelf. He said
that's all they are. That's all they are to God. They're
nothing. What He's doing here, He's setting forth the nothingness
of all of this. He's the one that's great. That's
why Paul said in Colossians, set your heart, your mind on
things above. Now if you really want knowledge
and understanding, set your heart and mind on things above, not
on things of this earth. Not on things of this earth. Behold, he said, he takes up
the isles as a very little thing in comparison in comparison to
the greatness, the majesty, the incomprehensibleness of God,
there's nothing that can be compared to Him. There's no challenge
to God's power. You know, when I go through a
trial, or some of you may be going through a dark hour, there's
no challenge to God's power. Now listen, listen, the things
we go through, The trials, the heartaches, the difficulties.
These things we go through is not because of some weakness
in God. We're going through them because
of the will and purpose of God. God has willed and purposed everything,
every tear, every tear I'll ever cry. God Almighty, listen, He
brought that into His eternal counsel. He saw the good in it. He ordained the good in it. And
then in time, it comes our way. In time, it comes our way. We need high thoughts of God. Our thoughts of God need to be
worthy of God. They need to be worthy of God.
We'll never worship Him until our thoughts are worthy of Him.
And he says here in verse 16, "...and lebanon is not sufficient
to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burn off him."
Whatever. Whatever. In this life, anything on this
earth, whatever we attempt to honor God with, it falls far
short of giving Him the glory due unto His name. There's one who honored and glorified
God perfectly. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Everything else falls far short.
Everything else. Listen here in verse 17. All
nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted to Him less
than nothing in vanity. They're less than nothing. That's
less than zero. That's below zero. But listen
here. God made everything out of nothing. Everything out of nothing. He
made them out of nothing. They are still nothing. And they
are going back to nothing. And it is amazing how much we
make out of nothing. Isn't it? And what's even more
amazing is how afraid we are of nothing. I never, I mean this honestly,
I never, ever, ever have a reason to be afraid. Our Lord said to
his disciples time and time again, why are you so fearful? Why are
you so afraid? God is on the throne. Our God
rules over all. I could be on the hottest battlefield
on this earth, and I am no more in danger than I would be sitting
at the right hand of God in glory. I'm that protected. I'm that
protected. And he's going to give a reproof
here. He says in verse 18, To whom then will you liken God? Have you seen the greatness of
God? that's just been set forth here.
To whom will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare
to Him? What leader, what emperor has
ever risen that's like God? Let me ask you then, how do you
make an image of someone who's invisible? Now you tell me how
you do that. I'll tell you what a man does.
He takes his imagination, which is as fallen as can be. He takes
his imagination and he whittles out of God like himself. You
thought I was altogether like yourself. As I was telling Paul
today, if we think God is like ourselves, We could not have
a lower thought of God or a higher thought of ourselves. To think
like that. You thought I was altogether
like you. And that is the preaching that
goes on in false religion, in Arminianism. That's the preaching
that goes on. Setting forth God. Like themselves. There's no comparable to God.
The only way I can describe God, I've learned this, the only way
I can describe God is to use His own word, because I don't
have it. I don't have it. God is incomparable. Everything
I would use to compare falls way short of who God is. There's
no one like God. The workman, he says, but the
workman's foolish enough to try it. He melts a graven image,
and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and he casts
silver chains. Here's the stupidity of this.
This is what happens when men are left to themselves. Here
we have the lesser trying to make the greater. We have the lesser trying to
make the greater. And then what he does, he covers
it over with gold. He's too cheap to make it out
of solid gold. You know, that would just be too much of a God,
really. That'd cost too much. So what he takes, he takes something
cheap and then he covers it with gold and makes it look expensive.
Then he puts chains on it. I mean, you know, he gets real,
he dykes it up really, really, really. Makes it look like something,
man, and people come in and they're like, oh. How foolish. How foolish. He that is so poor, so impoverished,
that he hath no offering. Here's what he does, he chooses
a tree. He chooses a tree that will not
rot like that's something, like that's impressive. He seeks unto
him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not
be moved. The poor man can't afford an
idol like that, like the one with gold, so he makes one out
of expensive wood and he gets him a cunning workman and he
whittles it out and he takes it and he fastens it down so
nobody steals it. And that's stupid. I mean, you'd
think somebody would wake up. Unless God wakes them up, they're
not going to. He fastens it down in case somebody
bumps the shelf and it falls off. And yet this man is going to
bow down and say, this is my God. Have you not known Have you not heard? Has it not
been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from
the foundation of the earth? And what he's doing here, he
states a negative in order to express a positive. Yes, you
have heard. You're without excuse. Do you
realize sitting here tonight that you're getting a revelation?
Do you realize that? Right here is God's Word. You're reading it, and you and
I are reading who God is. God is revealing Himself right
here in His words. You and I are getting a revelation
of who God is. We are without excuse. We are
without excuse. It says in Romans 1 20, For the
invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
Even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. It is written in Psalm 19, 1.
Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
It says the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament
showeth His handiwork. Day unto day utter speech, and
night unto night showeth knowledge. What is that speech? What is
that knowledge? That God is. that God is. Now that God is,
you reckon we ought to seek Him? You reckon we ought to seek our
Creator? You reckon we ought to seek the
One who made all this? The One who has demonstrated
His power, you reckon we ought to seek Him? Oh, He says here in verse 22,
It is He that senteth Now that doesn't sound like somebody
that's all tore up, does it? That does not sound like someone
who wants to do something if you'll just let him. He's fitted. He's fitted. Unaffected by the
wickedness of man. Unaffected by all this stuff
that keeps us all anxious. God's unaffected. You know why? He's absolutely orchestrating
everything on this earth. All of what looks like chaos
to us is being orchestrated by God. It's being directed and
orchestrated by the hand and purpose of God Almighty. It's not just happening. God is bringing it to pass. It
is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. and inhabitants
thereof are as grasshoppers." You know, we ought to see things
like God sees them. If we would see things as God
sees them, what worship we would give Him. What true worship we
would give Him. And what fear it would relieve. And what right fear it would
instill. A right fear of God. I remember
Paul wrote an article once, I've never forgotten this, he used
that scripture, the fear of man brings a snare. And in the article,
I may not quote this verbatim, but in the article Paul wrote,
he that fears God fears no one. He that fears a man fears everyone.
You fear everyone and everything when you fear a man. But if you
have a right fear of God, you have no fear of anything else. You have Elijah standing before
the 400 prophets of Baal, facing them down. And then just a little bit later,
he takes his eyes off God and runs from Jezebel. His fear got misplaced. It got
misplaced. It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth, and inhabits thereof as grasshoppers. He stretches
out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent
to dwell. He spread out the heavens, ladies, he spread out the heavens
as easy as you throw a sheet over a bed. Just as easy as you
throw a sheet over a bed, God casts out the heavens. But here, someone said this,
and I thought it was good. He said, what we have here is
sovereignty stacked upon sovereignty stacked upon sovereignty. Incomprehensible
sovereignty. That's what we have. Man may impress us, but not God. I tell you this, if we really
get impressed with God, nobody else will impress you. Not even yourself. Not even yourself. If we see who God is, and not forget that, and not
take our eyes off of that, no matter how dark the hour, we'll give Him the glory due
unto His name for the first time. Listen, he said he brings the
princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth
as vanity. God sets up and he brings down.
God does that. God does that. I am not the least,
I'm telling you the truth, I'm not the least concerned with
the political landscape. It's in the hand of God. Do I
have my opinion? Yes. But so do you. And what's
it all worth? And we all have one. And everybody
here is entitled to mine. And that's what an opinion is
worth. I'm telling you the truth. Now, Zion's God is on the throne. He sits up, He brings down. I
kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. How does
the Lord do all these things? Is there evil in a city? And
I have not done it. My hand is not in it. Trouble.
When those towers came down, was God asleep? Was God asleep? Did anyone die accidentally? You see, that's the God nobody
wants to hear, except God's people. And He has to save them in order
for them to hear it. Our God is sovereign over all.
He lifts up, He brings down, He says He brings the princes
to nothing. Men in great power are just men. That's all they
are. They're just men. You know, for
a long time, Saddam Hussein thought he was somebody. And then one
day God said, that's enough. That's enough. That's the end
of you. He brings down one and lifts
up another. God is the one who said, my counsel
shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Not the counsel
of princes and kings and presidents. No, my counsel. Not the counsel
of Congress and Senate. My counsel. My counsel. That's what's going to stand. Yea, he said, they shall not
be planted. Yea, they shall not be sown. Their stock shall not
take root in the earth. And he should just blow up on
them. And they're gone. They're gone. They thought they was going to
hang around. They thought they was going to get this, get that,
get that established, get this established. And God said, that's
it. You've gone far enough. Just like the sea. Just like
the sea. He said, hither shall thy proud
ways come and no further. He puts a stop to the sea. Now,
what's me and you? What is a man? If God Almighty
can stop the ocean, He says, here's your boundary. He said, God has set the boundary
of every human being on this earth. God has done that. Then He repeats the question,
to whom will you liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy
One? If God is the standard, then what can we compare to Him? There's only one that was equal
with God, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. And that's Jesus Christ, the
Son of God. If you'll notice here, he says,
to whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal, sayeth the
Holy One. It's got to be holy to be equal with God. Don't overlook
that. If you're going to compare something
to God, it has to be absolutely perfect as He is. And there's
only one, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, He says, lift up your eyes
on high. Behold, who hath created these
things that bring out their host by number? He calls them all
by names, by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong
in power, not one fell. Look up. Don't always be looking
down. He created that too. I was reading an article the
other day and it was talking about in the galaxy they have
come up with billions and trillions of stars in one galaxy. And you
know God has named every one of them? Every last one of them
has a name. Every last one of them has a
purpose. Even the ones you and I can't see. Even the ones that
are out there we haven't even seen or discovered, they have
a purpose. God did not create anything without
a purpose. They have a purpose. And He's
called them all by their name, and not one of them has failed.
I was thinking the other day, it just struck me when the sun
was up around noon, and I looked at the sun and I thought, it
has never ran out of fuel. It's never dimmed, it's never
gone dim, it's never... The heat has never gone down,
the light has never... It's been the same for thousands
of years. It's never failed. And we take that for granted,
don't we? How many times do you just get
up in the morning, oh, it's a beautiful day, what are we going to do
today? It's so pretty out today. And never think of the sun and the
power of that sun and the power of God's Word that keeps that
sun giving you and me a beautiful day. Oh, he said, look up, lift up
your eyes on high. And now, listen here. He has
said all of this to come to this. All this has been said to come
to this. In verse 27, why do you say, O Jacob, Jacob have
I loved? He saw thy haste. Why sayest
thou, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my ways hid from the Lord? My
justice passed over from my duty. Does God not see? Does He not
see my pain? Does He not see my heartache?
Does He not see my loss? Don't have such low thoughts
of God. He gave you the pain and the
heartache. He may have allowed you to sin
that brings it. Because we sin and it brings us heartaches.
It's like He allowed David to do what he did. But yet, yet
God turns what you and I mean for wrong, do wrong, He brings
good out of it. If He brings you to Himself,
He's brought good out of it. If He's let you fall, And that
fall has led you to seek the Lord and to cry after Him for
mercy and forgiveness. He's brought good out of it.
Honey has come out of the eater. He knows how to bring honey out
of the eater. So why do you talk like that?
Why do you talk as if God, if the weakness is in God, if God's
asleep? He said, has you not known, have
you not heard, the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth? He faints not, neither is weary. He's not
that. You know that. He said, you know,
the problem's not with God. It's not with God. He says, He
gives power to the faint and them that have no might, He increases
strength. We are the weak ones. Listen,
Paul said, when I'm weak, then am I strong. I am never stronger
than when I'm weak and I realize my need of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm now at my strongest, when I'm at my weakest. Even the youth
will faint and be weary, and the young men will utterly fail.
Don't envy youth. Don't envy youth. It'll fail
also. It'll fail. And don't wish you were young
again. Don't wish you were young again. I want you to get this. Set your
mind on things above, for soon you will be. Soon you will be
young again. Your youth will be renewed. Eternal youth. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as
eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and
not faint. Those who trust the Lord shall
have all the strength they need to fight the good fight of faith
all the way home. All the way home. Now, I want
you to get this, I'm done. This God, has just revealed himself
to us one more time out of his word. This God who has the power
and the wisdom and the knowledge who is infinite in all. You know
everything about God is infinite. Everything about God is infinite.
Everything about God is unmeasurable. Everything. This God is Jesus Christ, our
Lord, our Redeemer, our Savior, our High Priest, our Sacrifice. This God that we just read about
is our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how great thou art! I pray
God, from this moment on, that you and I would have high thoughts
of God. Alright. I'm going to change the hamline. Jeanette and John will be number
34. Number 34. Everyone knows, most people know,
And this can quote Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God. You know who loves
God? First, it's those he first loved.
Those that are called according to his purpose. But those that
love God love to hear God preached as God. Do you ever get tired
of hearing your God exalted like that? I love that. And I love
the man who preached it. You love God, you love the man
that he sent to preach himself. I love you brother. That was
a God exalting message. It blessed my heart. And I anticipate
another one right after this. Let's stand as we sing number
34. This goes perfectly with that message. Number 34, Immortal
and Invisible. Immortal, invisible, God only
wise, Enlightened, accessible, hid from our eyes. Most blessed, most glorious,
the ancients of days. Almighty, victorious,