I hope you will take the time
to read the articles in the Bulletin this morning, two excellent articles
that sum up what I am trying to say
this morning. I may refer to one of them in
a moment. Psalm 2, so if you want to be
finding that, you can. But we'll be reading from Isaiah
40, preaching from Psalm 2, and reading from Isaiah 40 in a moment.
If today's religion were not so wicked and so blasphemous,
it would be comical. If it weren't so tragic, if the
end of it were not so tragic, it would all be very funny. The God that most are pretending
to worship today no more resembles the God of the Bible than a candle
does a sun. The gospel that men are supposedly
preaching, the so-called gospel, Paul said in Galatians 1, some
who preach another gospel, which is not the gospel. But the so-called
gospel that they are offering men and women today is so absolutely
worthless, it's a wonder that anyone would fall for it. 20th century religion—and it
hasn't been just confined to the 20th century, it's been going
on for centuries—20th century religion claims to worship a
God, small g, who loves everyone and wants to save everyone. The same God, they say, that
made everything, that made the heavens and the earth, they'll
give him that much credit. They say the same God that made
everything wants you to be happy, wants you to be healthy and wealthy,
not to be sick and so forth. Well, I ask one question. One
question will show the absurdity of all that. If that's what God wants, then
why don't we? Why isn't everybody healthy and
wealthy? Huh? If God loves everyone and wants
to save everybody, why doesn't he? Huh? If God is God, then why doesn't
he do something? Huh? Why doesn't anybody ask
that? If God's God and everything's
in his hands and his control, they'll say that much. They draw
near with their lips, the Scriptures say. If God's in control, they'll
say that, then why didn't he do something? Well, they say, but the devil,
the devil, he's against you. Oh, then there's another God?
In other words, the devil is just as powerful as God, then.
God is trying, and the devil is trying, and they are on equal
terms. So the devil is God, then. Think I'll start worshiping him.
Think I'll start praying to him. Please, Mr. Devil, leave me alone. If he is equal with God, why
don't we pray to God? Why don't we pray to the devil,
too? Yeah, but man, they say, man
must decide. He must let go and let God. Oh, wait a minute, then there's
another God here. Man's a God. Then he's as powerful
as God. Is that right? So that means
God's not God after all, is he? God's trying, the devil's trying,
and it's up to us. You take that to its logical
conclusion, Henry, and who does that tell you who the real God
is? Us. We cast a deciding vote, they
say. Let me ask you something. They
talk about the love of God, and I absolutely abhor and detest
all this talk about the love of God. They say, God loves you
and Christ died for you and God wants this and God wants that.
If I love my daughter, if I love my wife, If I loved my friend,
would I stand idly by while things were happening to them? Would I just let the enemy have
at them? Would I? If I loved my daughter
and I wanted her to be healthy and wealthy, she'd be healthy
and wealthy. Count on it. As much as lies
within my power. Right? Doesn't that make this all absurd,
what they're saying about the guy with the Bible? Well, look
at Isaiah chapter 40. This is what God says about himself. As I say it, everybody's just—if it weren't
so tragic, it'd be comical, wouldn't it, the things that they're saying
about God. They don't get it from the Scriptures. Here is what God says about himself.
Let's hear what he says about himself. Look at verse 12. He
begins describing himself. Isaiah 40, verse 12. He asks
this question, Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his
hand? Now, the ocean, the world is
two-thirds water. You know all the oceans, the
Mediterranean, the Pacific, the Atlantic, the Gulf, and so forth,
all these oceans, vast bodies of water that God's hand there, measured it
in the palm of his hand. That's what it says there. He
meted out heaven with a span. In other words, that's the ocean
in the palm of his hand. It says he measured the heavens
with one hand. How big am I going to make the
heaven? Let's say that big. It's infinite
to us with a hand, with his hand. The dust of the earth in a maize,"
dust, he calls it dust. How heavy is the earth? The dust
of the earth. "...waved the mountains in scales,
and the hills in a balance." Read on. That's God's infinite
power as Creator, isn't it? Verse 13. "...who hath directed
the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath taught him."
This is talking about the infinite understanding of God, the wisdom
of God. He knows all. He never learns
anything. God's never learned anything. He never forgets anything. He never learns anything. Well,
these preachers today say, well, there's a new name written as
soon as somebody makes their little two-bit decision down
front, you know, and baptized, and there's a new name written
in heaven. In other words, God learned something he didn't know
before. A new name. Oh, God said, oh, that took me
by surprise. I wasn't expecting you. No, he
never learns anything. God never learns anything. Acts,
chapter 15, verse 18, says this. Acts 15, 18, if you've taken
notes. It says, Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. You don't want to turn to it,
but Isaiah 46 says the same thing, declaring the end from the beginning. The things that are not yet done
say, My counsel will stay. I'll do what I decided to do
in the first place. I'll do it all. Nobody will change
it. That's the God of the Bible, Joe Parks. That's the God of
the Bible. Well, who did he take counsel
with? Who did God consult when he decided
to do something? Not the devil. He wasn't around
yet. Not man. You know, you've got to cast
your deciding vote, Henry. Has he ever asked you? This is
what God is saying. God is talking sarcastically
here. Who did he ask anything? Not
man. Look at verse 15. Here it describes
man. The nations are as a drop of
a bucket. They count it as a small dust
of the balance. Nations, whole nations of people,
like a drop in a bucket to God Almighty. Do you see that? Verse
17. All nations are before him, are
as what? What does your Bible say? God needs you, or you're something
to God. That says you're nothing. Huh? Nothing. They're accounted to
him. If you can get less than nothing,
what's that? He just says it's vanity, a big
zero. Like Brother Donnie Bell said,
all we are is a bunch of zeros. A bunch of zeros. If you put
158 trillion zillion quadrillion megaflops, that's computer numerical
language, That's us, a bunch of megaflops. If you put a megaflop quadrillion
zeros together, what would you have? Zero! The only thing that gives any
value to them is if you put a one in front of them, right? God
said there's one. There's just one man that ever
lived on the planet named Jesus Christ, one person worthy of
God's recognition. The rest of them are a bunch
of zeros. The only way he's going to acknowledge us is if we're
behind that man. Right? We're with him. Otherwise,
we're nothing. Right? Nothing. Less than nothing. Vanity. Verse 18, let's read
on. God says, Well, who are you going
to liken me to then? God says, all right, let's hear
what you have to say about me. To whom, then, will you liken
God? What likeness will you compare to God? Let's ask twentieth-century
man in all his wisdom. Let's ask him. Well, we've got
our cute little bulletin boards in front of our churches, and
they say things like this. You've read them. They have little,
you know, there's a hundred thousand verses of Scripture full of truth,
but they won't put those up on their little bulletin boards.
They'll put man's clever little sayings, you know. Our little
sayings are more clever than God's words, see. And here's
what they say about God. They say, God is like Coke. He's
a real thing. Almighty God is like a bottle
of Coke. See what I'm saying? If it weren't
so blasphemous, it'd be funny, wouldn't it? If the end were not so tragic,
these people going to meet an infinitely holy and all-powerful
God, thinking he's like a bottle of Coke. If the end were not
so tragic, it'd be funny, wouldn't it? But it ain't funny. God says
in another place, in Psalm 50, thou thoughtest I was altogether
such as one as yourself. Didn't he say that in Psalm 50? He said, you thought, what do
you think? I think God's this way. It doesn't
matter what we think. It's all wrong. What he says
about himself. Well, they say this, they say
God is like Hallmark cards. He carried enough sin to bear
best, you know. Isn't that cute? That's so cute. You ever hear Peter, you ever
heard Paul say that? You ever heard James or John
or Sons of Thunder stand up and preach about God and being like
a golden card? See if it weren't so blasphemous.
Well, they say, Well, God's like hairspray. I've seen this on
a Church of Old Town boys. Hairspray, mind you, he'll hold
you up all day. An old preacher years ago said,
You'd better be glad I'm not God. See, God's merciful. If it weren't for his mercy,
he'd have been done with this mess a long time ago. A long
time ago. Well, what do you say? Now, that's
the world out there with our clever little bulletin board.
What do you say? Look at verse 21. Read that. Have you not known?
Have you not heard? Yeah, you heard, you just heard
it. I've just been reading it to you. Now we're without excuse. Has it not been told you from
the beginning? Yeah, God's been, this word's
been around a long time. Have you not understood from
the foundation of the earth, verse 22, it's he that sits on
the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof, or is what? What? What about mighty man? Grasshoppers! Grasshoppers! Turn over to the book of Daniel.
Try to find the book of Daniel. It's just about four books over
from Isaiah. You need to see this. I need
to see this again. The book of Daniel, chapter 4. You see, we need to know the
God of the Bible. If we don't know the God of the
Bible, we're worshiping a God of our imagination. We're worshiping
the God of modern America, and we're going to be in for a frightening
awakening when we meet the God of the Bible. If he's God now,
if God is God, and if this book is his word, if he's written
a book and it's all about God, it behooves us to know this God,
to know what he says about himself. Otherwise we've got something
that's the figment of our imagination, right? Or otherwise we're following
something everybody else is saying. Correct? And if this is not God's
word, I'm throwing it in the garbage can. I'm going out there
and just eat, drink, and be merry. If this is not all of God's Word,
if you can call any of it in question, throw it all away.
Right? Because who's to say what's right
and what's wrong? But now, if God wrote this book
and every bit of it is true, and it tells how he is, I'd better
pay attention. Hadn't I? Because John 17.3 says
this is eternal life to know the true God. There's a lot of
them out there worshiping false gods, not the God of the Bible. That's what I've been saying
resembles what they're saying about the God today. It shocks
some people when they first hear it, don't it? A lie has been
told so long on God. God's Word has been so perverted
and so twisted over the years that you have a man stand up
and merely read the Word of God. It shocks people. Well, that's
not the God I've been hearing about. No, it's not, because
people aren't reading the scriptures. Men aren't preaching the Bible.
But this is the God of the Bible. This is the God we're going to
meet. This is God we must know. It's only God worth worshiping,
Sammy. They talk about the God today
who has no hands but your hands. Well, that means I can beat God
in an arm-wrestling match. He doesn't have any hands. I
can beat a no-end man any day in arm-wrestling. Can't you stand? I'm making fun of the God of
this day. You should better believe that
I'm making fun of it. You're going to see in a minute
how God's going to make fun of them some day. You'll see it
in just a minute from Psalm 2, if I ever get to it. Daniel 4. There's a man named Nebuchadnezzar
in this story who was a great king, one of the greatest kings
to ever live on this planet. Nebuchadnezzar. Mighty, powerful
king. It says in verse 31, verse 30,
he was bragging about what all he had done. Daniel 4, verse
30. The king spake and said, Do you
look at my great Babylon that I have built for the house of
the kingdom by the might of my power for the honor of my majesty? Look what I have done. I am somebody,
aren't I? It says, While the word was in
his mouth, There fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar,
to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from you, they're
going to drive you from men, your dwelling shall be with the
beasts of the field, you're going to be like an oxen eating grass,
and seven times shall pass over thee until you know, you're going
to know, Nebuchadnezzar, that the most high rulers in the kingdom
of man, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." The Most High ruleth. Not some poor Jesus that the
people got pictures all over their wall, you know, he's leaning
behind a rock with his heart exposed, it's all broken for
you, and a tear running down his eye. The Most High The one that John saw over in
Revelation 1, that says, When I saw him, I felt at his feet
as a dead man. It says, His head and his hair
were like wool, white as snow, his eyes were as a flame of fire,
his feet like unto thine brass that burned in a furnace, his
voice as the sound of many waters. He had in his right hand seven
stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword. John
said, This is Jesus Christ. This is what he looks like now.
Revelation 1, read it for yourself. He said, When I saw him, I fell
at his feet as a dead man. Isaiah saw the same thing, didn't
he? He said, I fell as dead. Job said the same thing, my countenance
melted before me. Daniel saw the same vision. The
Most High, that's who Christ is, not poor little Jesus. The Most High, ruleth and reigneth. The Most High Jesus Christ. Look
at verses 34 and 35 here in Daniel 4. Look at it. He taught Nebuchadnezzar
a lesson, didn't he? At the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
and I praised and honored him that liveth forever, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation." Watch it now, verse 35. And all inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will and the army of heaven. and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can say his hand, or say unto him, What are
you doing? You can't do that. He can and
he does." That's the God of the Bible,
isn't it? Are you reading the same Bible
I'm reading? This is the God of the Bible.
You ever heard anybody say anything like that about God today? That's the God of the Bible.
Now turn over to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. And I have this one question
to ask. Why? Why? One word. Why? Why do men and
women Why do men and women bother believing
in this God today? Huh? He can't do anything for
anybody. Why bother? It doesn't make good
sense to me. Does you? John, does it? Why
bother? A God who wants to save me but
can't. Well, I don't need Him. A God that loves me but stands
idly by while things things I think are evil happen to me, I don't
need a God like that. Do you? Why? Why do men pretend to worship
a God like that? He can't save or help anybody.
Huh? He sits back helplessly and watches
all this suffering and violence and misery. Why? Why believe
in a God like that? Why bother going to church? I
wouldn't go to church to worship somebody like that, would you?
I wouldn't waste my time. It's my off day. It's not my
off day, it's your off day. Why go on your off day to worship
a God like that? I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Look
at verse 1 here in Psalm 2. He says, Why do the heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing? Why? Now, heathen and the people. Let me just define what this
is talking about here. Heathen. The Jews called anybody
who wasn't a Jew, heathen. Right? Heathen. And the people
were called God's people. The Jews were called God's people.
That's what they thought, God's people and the heathen. That's
who this is talking about, Jew and Gentile. That takes in everybody,
all people. Jew and Gentile. Gentile and
Jew, most everybody is religious. Not just Jews. The heathen, non-Jews. We're Gentiles, you see. We're
Gentiles. We're not Jews. Nobody in here is a Jew. Except spiritually. And I'll
not go into that. That's another verse of Scripture.
He is a Jew which is one inwardly. But at any rate, all of us are
Gentiles in here this morning. Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles. We have his letters and so forth. Everybody is religious, aren't
they? It would be hard to find somebody
that doesn't go to church somewhere, somebody that isn't religious
somewhere. Religion is all the rage today. It's all the rage in our day.
And I have to ask, why are these people doing what they're doing
today? Have you ever asked that? Have you ever looked at some
of this stuff that's going on on TV and all over the world
today? I have to ask, why? Why are these
people, have you ever seen this dude on TV who, what's his name,
Carl something or other? And he's got a special anointing
now. He's really special. Everybody
else has got this and that. He's got the anointing of laughter. Everybody's being smitten, they
say, by the Holy Spirit with laughter, uncontrollable laughter. And if you'll turn on his program
sometime, you'll see people laying all over the floor. I'm serious. If it weren't, it boggles your
mind. Laying, grown men and women,
Laying all over the floor in front of him, and he's stepping
over him like dead bodies while he's preaching. Laying there. And I had to ask, why are these
people laying there? Huh? Do you? And they're laughing. Some of them, huh? They're laughing. Why? Why are
they laying there? And then you have, you see them,
you see all manner of ridiculous things. A man talking, he'll
be preaching or talking all of a sudden. in an unintelligible
voice, he'll be talking in a normal, and all of a sudden he'll be
saying, I have to ask, why did he say that? Don't you? What is he saying there? Why
did he do that? Did he just belch? Huh? Why? Somebody needn't make fun
of this stuff. It's not the Holy Spirit. They're
attributing it to the Holy Spirit's hand. They're saying the Holy
Spirit does it. Ain't nowhere in the Bible it says that. It
says there's no language without signification. You ought to read
it sometime, 1 Corinthians 14. We'll put all that in the dust
where it belongs. Paul said don't let anybody speak
in a language that's not known. If somebody's going to preach
in another language like one of these Mexican pastors come
up here and preach to us, what if he got up and started speaking
in Spanish? I've always found the old, you know, nobody knows
Spanish. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14, he said, you'll be like a
heathen, a barbarian, he said. Let him speak, let there be an
interpreter, a translator. Let me help go on. Why are these
people swaying and swooning? You turn on this evening, you
see all these people closing their eyes and doing like this.
Why are they doing that? What's all this about? Is this
a ballgame? They're doing the wave? Is that it? Somebody score
a touchdown? I didn't see it. Huh? Why are these people waking up
early in the morning, going down to sunrise with their eyes closed?
They're sleeping is what they're doing. They've got their eyes
closed on the side of the hill, and they don't want to be there.
They want to be in bed. Why are this crowd of people
waking up for sunlight, looking to the east? Why? Scripture says God's the Spirit.
Pagan idol worshipers worship the sun when it comes up. There's a man down in Mexico,
I went down there, he stood in the middle of one of those old
idolatrous temples, stood out in the middle, he was going to
things like this, you know. It's a sign, you know, just like
the old, you did everything like that. They're doing the same
thing in Christian religion today, aren't they? Doing the same thing. Why? Well, somebody asked that question,
preacher, what are you doing that for? What's all that mean? Why? Why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? What is all this going on today? Why do they imagine
a vain thing, a God of imagination? Why won't preachers preach the
Bible? Why? Because it'll cost them their
jobs. It will cost them their jobs.
You get up and tell a nice Sunday go-to-meeting group of people
who are all dressed up that the Bible says they're a worm, they're
not going to come back. They're not going to come back. They're not going to pay you
big money to come out and sit while you call them a worm. Well,
that's what the Bible says. You better find you a man that
tells you what the Bible says, whether we like it or not. You
see, worms receive mercy. Didn't Scripture say, Fear not,
thou worm of Jacob? Everybody else has cause to fear,
but worms. Worms get mercy. I told you that
story about the ants in my yard one time, didn't I? The ants
that got in my lunch and destroyed my lunch, you know? It was my
lunch, and they destroyed my lunch. Found them in my lunch
one time, and I took every one of them and threw them in the
trash can and set the trash on fire. Burned them up. Burned
them all. Scalded their little bottoms.
Why? That was my lunch, and they messed
it up. They had no right to it. They
were trespassing my property. We've messed up God's world,
haven't we? He's going to burn it up. Well, remember me telling
you also about one ant? After I got through burning all
those ants up, I sat down and got rid of those fellers. And
there's one ant that I missed crawling around. I reached to
get me a match, and he crawled over under a rock. I said, you stay right there.
You stay right there, and I won't bother you. Get out from under
that rock, I'll burn you alive. But stay right there. Who's that
rock? What does the Scripture say?
He said to Moses, when God was going to pass by, God, who's
a consuming fire in the Scripture, says, God put him in the cleft
of a rock, doesn't it? This there Moses put God in the
cleft of a rock. He said, you can't see me. You'll
be consumed. You're flesh, I'm spirit. When
I pass by, I'm going to set you in the cleft of the rock, and
you'll be safe. And Paul preached about that
rock being Jesus Christ. All those who are in Christ are
safe. Christ can go right up into the presence of God, be
in God himself. If we're in him by faith, we're
safe, we're safe. Well, why do people imagine a
God of their imagination, a gospel of their imagination? Here's
another question, and I'm not getting through this, am I? Why
are there so many denominations when everybody's saying the same
thing? Why are there so many denominations
and different groups and Methodists and Baptists and Episcopalists?
They're all saying the same thing. Everybody's saying, God loves
you, Jesus died for you, and won't you accept him as your
personal Savior? ...council together. This is
alluding to men in particular. take counsel together. They do. They get their counsels. They
all gather together, and as I've said before, there's a great
what's called an ecumenical movement going on today to combine or
unite all faiths. Isn't that the way the word is,
Terry? Unite all faiths. Now, Ephesians 4 says there's
one faith. Isn't it? One faith. If there's any other faith than
the one faith, it's false faith, right? It's a lie. Is that right? That's what Scripture said. But
they're uniting all faiths into one common ecumenical church
union in love. You know, love one another. What
they're doing is uniting, verse 2, together against the Lord. I say, they're not united against
the Lord, they're worshiping the Lord. Are they worshiping
the Lord that I've been talking about this morning? Is anybody preaching the God
I've been talking about this morning? If you get the average
person out of the average church sitting on this service this
morning, they'd be gnashing their teeth at me. Right? They would be gnashing their
teeth at me, saying, that's not my God. Yes, it is. It is your God. It's not the
God you've imagined, it's not the God you're in love with and
you're worshiping, but it is your God. It's everybody's God. I read it from God's Word, didn't
I? It is your God. But they unite against this God,
the God I've been preaching this morning, against the Lord and
against his anointing. Anointing. God's chosen people. God's chosen Christ. See who
that's talking about. You can preach, and here I'll
give you an example, you can preach any God you want, any God you like, any way you
want to preach Him, no matter how ridiculous. You can beg for money, they'll
fill your pockets. I mean, you can blatantly, obviously
be asking for money, and they'll send it to you. You can be the
crook, biggest crook on the planet. And they'll send you money, and
call God, all sorts of ridiculous things. And people will esteem
you highly, and they'll fill up your church buildings, and
fill up your pockets, and make you rich. But you stand up and
declare, God's in the Bible, and they'll hate your guts. Right? Everybody will hate you. Why? Read on. They say, verse 3, Let
us break their bands asunder. Let's put these people out of
business, cast away their cords from us. Bands and cords now
are restraints, aren't they? Bonds, restraints. That's talking
about the reign and the rule of God Almighty. That's what
that's talking about. Law and absolute truth. Don't
be so dogmatic, preacher. Don't be just as dogmatic as
God is. Don't be so narrow. Christ said
the way was narrow. Don't just say there's one way.
Everybody, he's worshipping this way, he's worshipping, they're
sincere. Scripture says there's one way. Why do you think they
killed Jesus Christ? Because he was saying these very
same things. He stood up one day and said,
for what good work do you stone me? They say, we're not stoning
you for good works. You can feed the masses. You can heal the sick and do
all you want to like that. But just don't say you're God. We'll not have you reign over
us, rule over us. We have our free will. We'll
not hear of a holy God who punishes and judges. We'll not hear that. We'll hear of a God who loves
us. We'll hear that. We'll not be
called sinful, helpless, useless, nothing, vanity. We'll not be
called that. Don't call me a nothing. I'll have you know I'm something.
I know what you are. I'm somebody. He's somebody. We're somebody. I'm okay. You're
okay. Right? I'm special. God needs me. We have much to
offer. Don't call me nothing. I didn't. I'm just telling you what God
said. They'll say, away with this sovereign grace religion,
away with that, anything but that, anything but that. Remember
me telling you about that man? My father has been a pastor for
forty years, and nearly forty years ago, when the Lord established
a church there, Forty years ago, there was a
man who moved into town, was transferred into town from somewhere
else, and he was working, I think, at the steel mill or somewhere.
No, insurance man is what he was. And some client came in,
and he said, I'm new. I'm from out of town, and I'm
looking for some place to go to church. Where do you recommend
I go to church? The fellow said this. He actually
said this to him. Well, just about most anywhere. He said, go anywhere. They're all but one place. He
said, don't go up there at that 13th Street where that mayhem
fellow is. Don't go up there. That's where
that man went. He's been there for 40 years.
That's exactly where he went. Strength of sin is the law, you
see. Don't go there. I bet you, I'd be willing to
bet you that the average person in this town, this county, would
say the same thing about this. Go anywhere but up there at Central
Baptist. They believe in election. Wait
a minute. Is election in the Bible? Yeah,
but they preached predestination. Well, is it in the Bible? Yeah, but They preach, God is
holy and man is sinful, and man can't do it. Is that in the Bible?
Yeah, but I think I'll go with the Bibles being preached. How about you? Like I said, otherwise,
let's just stay home. Why are we messing up our days
off? But if God really spoke, and
he wrote a book, and I want to know what he says in it, don't
I want to know what he says in it. If he wrote it, I'm going
to believe it. If God said it, that settles
it, whether anybody believes it or not. Salvation is to believe
it. And here's the miraculous part
of it. He has to make you believe it. Psalm 110.3 says, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. There's a time when
they go all their lives religious like everybody else, thinking
God's this way and God's that way, and never having bothered
to look at the Bible, and somebody just quotes something like I've
been reading this morning to them and says, I don't believe
that. Right hand or sword? He did it. Joe, you did it. John, you did it. Keep pointing
at all of you. You did it, didn't you? I don't
believe that. Do you believe now, Henry? God's
people may will him in the day of his power. They believe what
they once hated. They hate what they once loved.
They believe God. They dare to believe God. Hosea
3.3, Amos 3.3 says, Can two walk together except to be agreed?
I'm not going to walk with God unless we agree. God agree with
me? Everything about me is wrong.
It's me agreeing with God, you see. It's not a popular opinion
either. Count on it, people. Popular
opinion is generally always wrong. Right? Ask Noah. Ask Noah. Ask Lot. Popular opinion is generally
wrong. Generally wrong. Don't follow
a popular opinion. All right, read on, I've got
to hurry. Listen, here's a guy, the title
of this message was God's Derision. Look at verse 4. It says, He
that sits in the heavens shall laugh. Is that what you're reading?
God will laugh. It says, God shall have them
in derision. It would be like me walking through
my yard and those ants, like one of those ants saying, You
can't do that! Those little ants, I'm walking
through my yard, say I'm cutting my grass, and there's a bunch
of ants. And I'm getting ready, and they
say, Stop! You can't do this! I don't cut my grass, huh? Makes
no mind to me, huh?" You say, men aren't like that. No, because
they're grasshoppers. Then what did you say? Grasshopper. And someday men
are going to stand before Almighty God and see him as he is, and tremble, and God's going
to deride them. That's what he said. You didn't
say that, John? He says God's going to have him
in derision. He's going to say, Now, what
was it you wouldn't let me do? What was it that you said I could
not do, but you wouldn't let me? What was that? I forget. Refresh my memory. What I cannot
do, God says. I can't do what? Men are going to be confessing
God as he is then, aren't they? Oh, you're God, you're God, you
do all you want to do. You do what you do. He's going to say, I'm God, aren't
I? Yes. Found it out too late, didn't
you? Here's God's displeasure. That's
God's derision. Look at verse 5. Then shall he
speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. God shall speak in his wrath.
Scripture says he spoke once, under the fathers by the prophets.
Old Testament. They've disregarded that now,
haven't they? That's the old Bible. Don't need to read that.
Right? Know what they say? That's the
old Bible. You don't need that. Malachi 3.6 says, God says, I
am the Lord. I change not. Same God of the
Old Testament, same as the God of the New Testament. Same God. He hasn't changed one bit. They say God spoke once. Hebrews 1, verse 2 says, God
spoke in the beginning unto the fathers by the prophets, hath
in these last days, we're in the last day, spoken unto us
by his Son. He sent his Son down here to
speak to us. Did men hear him? When Christ stood and proclaimed,
did they hear him? God in human flesh, did they
hear him? No. What did they say about him? He says here he's going to speak
again. You know, men everywhere are talking about, God spoke
to me, God spoke to me, last night God spoke to me. No, he
didn't. That was a bad pizza before you went to bed. That
wasn't God speaking to you. Huh? That was indigestion. Take
you some of my lancet, it'll go away. That wasn't God. God doesn't speak to men any
other way than this book. It says he's going to speak again
out loud. One more time, Joe. One more
time, he's going to speak again. Old Brother Scott Rich, an old
preacher, faithful preacher of the gospel, he said, everybody
everywhere is wanting God to speak. No, they don't either. Because the next time God speaks,
it's going to be in wrath. Huh? Once he spoke, yea, twice,
but men perceiveth it not. So he's going to speak one more
time. Hear ye, hear ye. Here's what he's going to say.
He vexed them in his sore displeasure. His displeasure. Here's what
he's going to say. Same thing he's been saying from
the beginning. Read it, verse 6. I've got a king on a throne. I want you to meet
him. Here he is. Here's my king. And split the heavens wide open.
to reveal his Son. As lightning goes from the east
to the west, Christ is going to appear in heaven, like God
said, and he's going to set his Son. For here is my King and
your King. Here is the Lord, not the one
you made Lord, the one who has been Lord from all eternity.
Here he is. Bow to him. Then he says in Isaiah
45, every knee will bow and every tongue confess he is Lord. He is Lord. That's the decree, isn't it?
I'll declare the decree. This is Christ speaking. The
Lord has said unto me, you are my son this day that I have begotten
thee. Read on and I'll quit. Ask of
me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
A few of these heathen that I was talking about, Gentiles like
you and God Almighty reveals his Son to them now. Salvation
is for us to see these things now. Salvation is to have our eyes
open to the God of the Bible now. Everybody's going to have
their eyes open then, and they're going to see him as he is then.
That will be in judgment. Salvation is now to have our
eyes open, our ears open to what he's saying in his Word, and
have our heart open to say, I believe that, yes, I believe that, and
then cry unto this God for mercy. Lord, I've sinned. Have mercy
upon me. Let the blood of Christ wash
away my sins. The righteousness of Christ.
Charge that to me, Lord. I need that. I need to cry. Help
me, Lord, I'm ignorant. Help. That's now. That's salvation,
to have that now. You see, everybody's going to
be crying that then. Am I right? They're going to be crying for
the rocks and hills to fall on them. Why? Hide them from the
face of him. Who's the him? If God's all love,
huh, Ed? Why would they be crying to be
hidden from a God who loves them? Must not be true then, huh? Romans 8.39 says the love of
God is in Christ. Doesn't it say that, John Davis?
You have Romans 8, don't you? It says the love of God is in
Christ. God loves all those in Christ, those who believe his
Son. The wrath of God abides upon the wrath. And God is going to set his King,
and he's going to say in the same derision, here's my King,
here's my King. He reigns. Now, what are you
going to do with Jesus, huh? That's what preachers are saying,
aren't they, to men? What will you do with Jesus? God's going to say the same thing
in derision. What are you going to do with
Jesus now, huh? That's not the question. Never
has been, never will. The question is, what's he going
to do with us? Because he's Lord. That's the Jesus Christ of the
Bible. This is my King. He says, Every knee will bow.
He says, Now listen, you be wise, verse 10. Be wise now, therefore,
O kings. Be instructed, you judges of
the earth and of everybody else. Serve the Lord with fear. You
see that? Fear the Lord. Didn't I say at
the beginning, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom?
Rejoice with trembling. Kiss the sun, lest ye be angry.
Don't do it on the cheek. You don't kiss the sun. Judas
did that, didn't he? Can Judas kiss Jesus Christ on
the cheek? We're not on equal terms. I kiss my wife on the cheek because
we're equal. We're not on equal terms as the
Son of God. He says we're to bow at his feet, kiss his feet
in adoration and worship, like a dog. Do you know what the word
worship means? Look it up sometime. Nearly every time you'll see
the word worship in the A man or woman come to worship Christ
like the woman caught in the act of adultery worshiped him
at his feet. You know what it says? Look it
up. It says, like a dog licking his master's hand. That's worship. And they're not
on equal terms. Kiss his feet, lest he be angry.
And you perish from the way, he said, when his wrath is kindled
just a little. Just a little. Blessed are they that put their
trust in him." Do you believe this one I've been preaching
this morning? I'll tell you what, if you do, God will reveal him
to you. And you can put all your trust. God is to be feared, but
you can trust this God that he'll have mercy on you and grace and
love you. This God does love. He loves
those that fear him. He loves those that love his
Son. He'll have infinite mercy on those that love his Son, those
that believe his Son. He'll have infinite mercy. He'll
receive them into his family, all those who love his Son. You
can trust him. You can trust him. He'll never
cast you out. All that the Father giveth to Christ will come to
Christ. He'll in no wise cast them out,
no matter how sinful they are. Just trust Christ. There's trust
outside of Christ, though God is a consuming fire.