Great Is The Lord

Q: What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

The Bible proclaims that 'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable' (Psalm 145:3). The Scriptures consistently affirm the immense greatness of God, underscoring that He is exceptional in His nature and deeds. In Psalm 145:3, it states, 'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; His greatness is unsearchable.' This reflects not only the qualitative aspect of His greatness but also the quantitative, suggesting that His attributes and actions surpass our comprehension. For instance, His creative power and sovereign governance over all creation display His greatness and majesty. Furthermore, from the perspective of redemption, as the sermon highlights, His work in saving a people for Himself showcases a profound depth of mercy, grace, and love, further solidifying His supreme status.

Q: How do we know God's mercy is great?

God's mercy is revealed through His compassion, as stated in Lamentations 3:22-23, 'His compassions fail not; they are new every morning.' God's great mercy is illustrated in the nature of His compassion towards sinners. Lamentations 3:22-23 affirms, 'It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed; because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.' This emphasizes that God's mercy is not only abundant but also renewed daily, signifying His enduring patience and love towards humanity. The sermon expounded on how God, despite being omniscient and aware of our sinful nature, extends mercy rather than immediate judgment. His readiness to forgive and restore those who turn to Him in faith exemplifies the greatness of His mercy, making Him worthy of our praise and devotion.

Q: Why is the concept of God's sovereignty important for Christians?

God's sovereignty assures Christians that He governs all things for His glory and the good of His people. The sovereignty of God is a fundamental doctrine for Christians, emphasizing that God is in complete control of all creation and events. This is particularly comforting for believers, as it assures them that nothing happens outside of His divine will. In Jeremiah 32:17, it states, 'Ah, Lord God! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and stretched out thine arm; and there is nothing too hard for thee.' This reinforces the notion that God rules over all circumstances, working them for His glory and the ultimate good of His chosen people. The sermon highlights that understanding God's sovereignty provides a framework for trusting Him in trials, as it affirms His plans are perfect and purposeful, revealing His greatness in how He orchestrates all things according to His eternal wisdom.

Q: How does God demonstrate His greatness in salvation?

God's greatness is uniquely displayed in the work of salvation, where He sacrifices His Son for the redemption of His people. God's greatness in salvation is manifested through the sacrificial work of Christ and the profound implications of His grace. As the sermon articulates, the Lord Jesus Christ, being of great goodness, righteousness, and mercy, willingly took on the punishment for the sins of His people. Ephesians 2:4-5 illustrates this, stating, 'But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.' This passage encapsulates the essence of grace, showcasing that God's willingness to save unworthy sinners is a testament of His unmeasured love and mercy. Every aspect of salvation—from Christ's incarnation and perfect obedience to His atoning death—exemplifies the greatness of God, which calls for our utmost praise and reverence.

I want you to turn to Jeremiah
32 this evening. Jeremiah 32. I ask you to mark
Psalm 145 because our text is in Psalm 145, and we'll be spending
time there. Our text is a great verse of
Scripture. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised. His greatness is unsearchable.
Now, I once brought a message entitled, that Christ is wonderful. And I looked it up. In fact,
five years ago, I preached that message here. He is wonderful. And I know the first time I brought
that message to 13th Street, my wife, among others, told me
that since I brought that message, that except as the word is used
in reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, it had pretty much fallen
out of their vocabulary since that message. And I know we as
nuns, we're talking about sometimes we say things ignorantly, or
we say them thoughtlessly, or those around us use a term so
much we become accustomed to it. And I don't mean to split
hairs over this. I'm not trying to take words
out of your vocabulary at all. I'm simply trying to point out
the names of our Lord Jesus Christ. And let me illustrate perhaps
why this is important, the point I'm making. Many of you know
that your pastor, Paul, had a brother, Robbie, who was killed in Vietnam.
And a woman wrote to Doris, wrote to Paul's mother, Doris. And
it's difficult to imagine the audacity or the ignorance of
this person. But what she wrote was that her
little doggie of many years, her precious pet, had recently
And the family, she said, was just devastated by this dog's
dying. And she wrote Doris and told
her that she now understood exactly how Doris felt when her son died. What an insult, what a reproach
that is to the life and memory of Doris and Henry's dear son.
To compare him to a dog. And maybe we ought to be more
careful when we say that a fireworks display is wonderful, or that
movie was just wonderful. Do we really mean that seeing
those things was the same as seeing the Lord Jesus Christ?
Because that's his name, wonderful. And I assure you that when we
do that, it's an insult and a reproach on God's dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. But tonight I want you to see
another word that we're a little too careless about, and I think
mostly just ignorant about. It's another of our Lord's many
names. If you look here in Jeremiah
32, verse 17, Jeremiah 32, look at verse 17 with me here. Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast
made the heaven and the earth by thy great power, and stretched
out on it. And there is nothing too hard
for thee. Thou showest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest
the iniquity of thy fathers into the bosom of their children after
them." And notice this, the Great. Is there a capital G in your
Bible? Well, I was taught that meant
that's a name of something. And this is the name of a person.
Look what else it says, the mighty God. That's another of his names. And who is this? Who is the great
one? It's the Lord of hosts is his
name. It says. Do we see great, G-R-E-A. I tell you, I've never since
reading that scripture, felt the same when Tony the Tiger
comes on and says frosted flakes are great. There's no doubt in
my mind. They're not great. Now, they
may taste all right, but they're not great. The Lord Jesus Christ
is great. And how great is he? Well, he's
greater than Satan. John wrote in 1 John 4, he said,
the Lord is Greater is he, he wrote this to believers, greater
is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So Christ
is greater than Satan. How great is he? Moses wrote,
the Lord is greater than all gods. He's greater than Buddha. He's greater than Mary and the
Pope. He's greater than all gods. He's greater than Confucius.
He's greater than all gods. I'm not worried about the Muslims
over there and the Mohammedans. The Lord Jesus Christ is greater
than all gods. How great is our Lord? Our Lord
Himself said, My Father, He's greater than all. And here's one we need a little
help with, though. How great is He? We need some
understanding here. Job said, God is greater than
man. That's where the problem comes.
That's where we bucked up. You see, by nature, in our heart
of hearts, we really don't believe that God is greater than we are.
If we did, we'd all bow down to Him, wouldn't we? He wouldn't
have to break our knees to get us down to form. He wouldn't have to break the
knees of our heart, would He? But we will not bow by nature.
We resist the truth, that truth. But let me see if I can make
this point to you. What is so great about men? What is man's
greatness? I'll turn over to 2 Kings 8 with
me. 2 Kings chapter 8. And I'm going
to give you an example of the great stuff we're made of. 2 Kings chapter 8. Eliphaz in the
book of Job. Do you know what he said to Job?
was what was great about Job. He says, Is not thy wickedness
great, and thine iniquities infinite? That's our greatness, our sin,
our evil, our wicked nature. That's what's great about us,
and I'm going to give you an example here of the great stuff we're
made of. In 2 Kings 8, look at verse 7. It says, Elisha the prophet came
to Damascus, and Ben-Hadad, who was the king of Syria, he was
sick. And it was told him, saying, The man of God's come here. And
the king said unto Hazael. Now, Hazael was the chief of
all Ben-Hadad's armies. He'd made him the ruler over
all the armies of Syria. It's Hazael. And the king said,
Take a present in your hand, and go meet the man of God, and
inquire of the Lord by him, saying, Shall I recover of this disease?
Now, follow me here. This is something I'm going to
show you. So Hosea went to meet him and took a present with him,
even of every good thing of Damascus. Forty camels worth of stuff.
And he went to stand before Elijah and he said, Ben-Hadad has sent
me to say, shall I recover of this disease? In verse 10. And Elijah said unto him, Go
say unto Ben-Hadad, Thou mayest certainly recover. Notice the
wording of this. Thou mayest certainly recover. However, the Lord has shown me
that Ben-Hadad shall surely die." Why do you weep? Why do you weep? And Elijah answered, because
I know the evil that you, Hazael, will do unto the children of
Israel. They're strongholds you're going to set on fire. They're
young men you're going to slay with a sword, and you're going
to dash their children on the rocks, and you're going to rip
up their women with children. And Hazael said, What? What? He said, Am I such a dog? that
I should do this great thing. And Elijah answered, The Lord
has showed me that thou shalt be king over Syria. So Hazael
departed from Elijah and came to his master, who said unto
him, What said Elijah to thee? And Hazael answered, He told
me that thou shouldst surely recover. Boy, now you think that's
wicked. Read the next verse. And it came
to pass on the very next day, on the morrow, that Hazael took
a thick cloth and dipped it in water and spread it on the face
of Enhadad so that he died, and Hazael reigned in his stead."
What's great about men? Our wickedness. Who could have
planned so wicked a thing, and yet if you read on later In the
Chronicles, you know what we read? Hosea had a son years later. You know what he named him? Ben-Hadad
II. How wicked, great is our wickedness. And before we now sit back and
go, boy, that Hosea was sure a rascal, wasn't he? What a rascal
he was. How great was his wickedness.
Maybe we better realize You and I are guilty of the same thing. Satan was guilty, Adam was guilty,
and you and I are guilty too. If we could, do we know ourselves
well enough to know that if we could, we would find us a cloth
and dip it in water and try to sneak up on God and put it over
his face and smother him. And Hosea, this is amazing, Hosea
thinks he got away with it. You see, it left no marks. He
did his wickedness in secret. We think we're getting away with
something when we perform our great wickedness. And, oh my,
God Almighty, we're standing there watching when Hosea did
it. And he watches us in our great
wickedness. We're just like Hosea. So, seeing
what's great about us, maybe we better find out what's great
about Christ. why he's great. And greatness, our text says,
great is the Lord. Great is the Lord. And the criteria
of greatness is generally two things. Number one, who you are. And secondly, what you've done.
Isn't that how we measure greatness? Oh, he's President of the United
States. He's Premier of China. He's King of Saudi Arabia. So who you are means something,
and then what you've done. Let's look first at who this
is. Who is the one who has the name Great, capital G-R-E-A-T? Look at our text in Psalm 145.
David knew, and David said first of all in verse 7, do you see
it? He said, They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great
goodness. The Great One, you see, passed
by Moses and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and abundant, great in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgressions and sin." The Lord is great in His goodness
to us. He's also, in verse 7, you see,
"...and they shall sing of thy great righteousness." Now you
turn back just a few pages to Psalm 48. Hold Psalm 145. We're
coming right back. You turn back to Psalm 48 with
me. And let's read about His great righteousness. Psalm 148,
1. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of
our God, in the mountain of His holiness. In the mountain of
His righteousness. We know that Christ is the rock,
but do we know how great a rock He is? He's not some pebble or
some stone or some boulder. His righteousness is so great,
it's a mountain before us, how holy He is. I tell you, a people
that is so greatly wicked need a Savior who's greatly righteous. Better hope He's great in righteousness.
And then look back at Psalm 145, verse 12. to make known to the sons of
men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom."
The glorious majesty of his kingdom. How majestic, how glorious is
the Great One. I'm going to read you two verses
here. Listen. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, thou
art very great. Thou art so great, you're clothed
with honor and majesty. who covers thyself with light
as with a garment." He is so glorious in his being. We're
trying to find out who this is now. That's what makes the man
great. You know who this is? When Isaiah
saw him the first time, Isaiah said, in the year the king was
our dad, I saw the Lord. And he said he was high and lifted
up. He said, and his tree filled
the temple. His glory was so great, it filled
the whole temple up. And He said He was so great,
everybody around Him just cried out, Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God. The whole earth is full of His
glory. That's how great is His glory. Now, this is who we're
talking about. And back in Psalm 145, look at verse 8. The Lord is gracious and He's
full of compassion. Great compassion. You don't turn
over here, but I'm going to read you one verse from Lamentations. Listen to his great compassion.
Listen to this. This I recalled in my mind, the
prophet said, and therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies
that were not consumed, because his great compassions, they fail
not. They are new every morning. great
is thy faithfulness." See where that song came from? Foot makes
it a great song if it's about the great woman. His compassions
are great. It's a good thing they are. He'd
have wiped us out a long time ago, wouldn't he? Huh? And then
back at Psalm 145, verse 8, it also says, "...slow to anger,
and of great mercy." Great mercy. David said, "...as the heaven
is high above the earth, So great is His mercy towards them that
fear Him." Fear Him? Did I say fear Him? Well, it's
a reverential respect or awe. It's the kind of fear a man would
have. What do you suppose would have happened if old Hazael had
been there just about to put that wet cloth on the face of
Ben-Hadad, and Ben-Hadad's daddy had stepped out from behind the
screen and said, caught in the act. If we ever
understand that we've been caught in the act of our great wickedness,
oh, we'll fall down in trembling and fear before a holy God. But
you see, He's great in mercy, great in mercy. Listen to this,
I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and I
will glorify thy name forevermore, for great is thy mercy toward
me. and thou hast delivered my soul
from the lowest hell." Where's the lowest hell? I don't know,
but I got a feeling those who tried to smother God Almighty
are going to wind up there. That's the place folks go who
try to kill the Son of God. And then back in Psalm 145, verse
11, it says, "...they shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
and talk of thy great power." Now, there are so many scriptures
that deal with the great power of Christ. I've chosen just one
to show you something. Turn the page to Psalm 147, just
one page over. And I've chosen this one particularly. Psalm 147, verse 5. It says, "...great is our Lord,
and of great power." Now, that's clear, isn't it? But notice what
kind of power. His understanding is infinite.
or his understanding is great. And I'm showing you this for
this reason. Just as zeal without knowledge is wildfire, power,
power without wisdom is total destruction. All you've got to
do is look at Iraq, right? Power without wisdom is total destruction. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
one who is great in power, is equally great in wisdom. shall
not the judge of all the earth do right?" You see, He's not
only great in power, but He's great in wisdom. And then finally,
in Psalm 145, notice in verse 8, it says, The Lord is great,
He's greatly gracious, greatly gracious. And you turn with me
to Ephesians 2. I want you to see this one. Ephesians
chapter 2. Oh, He's great in His grace and
love. Ephesians 2, verse 4, But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace you are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." Now, that's who this is. You see who, and
I haven't touched the tip of the iceberg, but I told you a
little bit about who he is, and let me tell you, he's great,
the greatest of the Lord. But what's he done? If greatness
is a measure also of what a man's done, while we could read, if
you just listened when Terry read Psalm 145, we could talk
day and night about the many works of the great one, what
he's done, and everything he does, he does it great. There's
no mistakes or failures. by the one who's great. And I
know we might consider the work of creation. That's great, isn't
it? And we might consider his works of providence. They're
great. We can look back and see that, can't we? And we might
consider the works he does to sustain us, and we might even
consider his works of wrath and judgment. And they all get him
glory now. Everything he does gets him glory,
because he does it so well. But there is one work. One work
which glorifies all the attributes, which is one work that glorifies
all that He is. David called it here in Psalm
145, they're wondrous. It's a wondrous work. He said
it's a mighty act. It's a righteous way. It's a
holy work, he said. What do you suppose this work
is? This one great work. It's the
work of redemption, the work of salvation. That's the great
work. Let me see if I can sum up for
you what the Great One has done in this great work. You see,
our Lord being of great goodness, well, He chose a people to be
great, just like the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord being of
great compassion, He left heaven and came to earth as a man in
great humility. And our Lord having great mercy. He didn't execute judgment on
his people right away, even though he caught them in the act of
murdering his son. He shows great mercy. And our
Lord, being of great righteousness, lived a great, perfect, holy
life on this earth. And our Lord, being of great
grace and great love, took the punishment, the great punishment,
for the great sin of his people, and he gave them his great righteousness
in its place. And our Lord, being of great
power, was enabled to endure the great wrath that was due
his people. And being of great power, he
was able to raise himself up from the grave. And being of
great power, he'll someday bring a great multitude with him to
his Father. And they'll be so like him they'll
be called great also. And I like this. Our Lord being
of great and glorious majesty, he did all of this, all this
great work, without ever compromising his greatness. You see, he didn't violate his
justice for the sake of mercy. He didn't violate anything that
he is by what he did, because he's great in his person and
he's great in his work. He is the great one, and that
gets him great glory. Turn to 1 Chronicles with me,
1 Chronicles 29. 1 Chronicles 29. Our text said,
Great is the Lord, but it also says, He's greatly to be praised. You see, that glory takes many
forms, because all things shall praise the Lord. You know that
scripture. All things shall praise the Lord.
But one group will more than just praise Him. I suppose Becky
and I, when we were on a trip recently, we were in a restaurant,
and some folks came in and sat down, and they prayed real loud.
real loud. And the fellow over and over
kept saying, we just want to thank you for this, Lord, and
we just think that you've done real good. And we just, you ever
heard that phrase fall over and over and over again off the lips
of some of these television folks? Well, let me tell you, I don't
want to just thank him. I want to greatly thank him.
I don't want to just praise his name. I want to greatly praise
his name. It's not a just matter with me.
I don't want justice. I want mercy. But there's one group that will
more than just praise Him, and that's the redeemed, the objects
of the work of redemption. They'll greatly praise the Lord.
In 1 Chronicles 29, you listen to, here's David, the one who
wrote this psalm, you listen to what he said, how he praised
the Lord. See if this sounds like great praise to you. Therefore
David blessed the Lord before all the congregation, and David
said, Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, for ever
and ever. Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and
the glory, and the victory, and the majesty, for all that is
in heaven, and all that is in the earth, is thine. Thine is
the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.
Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over
all. And in thine hand is power and
might, and in thy hand it is to make great and to give strength
unto all." It's in his power to make great. Do you know what
that's saying? It's in his power to take those who are greatly
wicked and make them like his Son, to make them great too. Don't you want to be great? I
want to be great in Christ. And look at verse 13, "...now
therefore," understanding that, David says, "...now therefore,
our God," he said, "...we thank thee." Oh, we thank you. "...and
we praise thy glorious name, great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised." Greatly to be praised. David closed the Psalms
this way. I mean, bless her heart. I know
why some folks don't praise the Lord. They've not seen Him. If
you've ever seen Him, it won't be a problem anymore. You'll
greatly praise Him. David saw Him in the last psalm
he wrote, the last recorded words of David. Listen to them. Praise
ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary.
Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him in His
mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent
greatness. Praise Him with the sound of
the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and the harp. Praise
Him with the timbrel and dance. Praise Him with the stringed
instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals.
Praise Him upon the high-sounding cymbals. Let everything that
hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. It's not
this foolishness, is it, from the PTL club? That embarrasses
me. I want to greatly praise the
Lord, the Great One. You see, His greatness is unsearchable. Great is the Lord, greatly to
be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Now, there are
two measures of greatness I haven't mentioned. One is, don't we measure
the greatness as something about the quantity of it, and then
the quality of it, its pureness. So let's look quickly, turn to
Job 5, and I'll deal quickly with this, and I want to about
the quantity of Christ's greatness. You look at Job chapter 5. Paul elsewhere wrote that, O
the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of
God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding
out. We really can't understand, I
realize, but just a little bit of either the quantity or the
quality of Christ's unsearchable greatness, but I want to give
you the sense of this word in this psalm when it says, Great
is the Lord and his greatness is unsearchable. The word great
there means high, higher than we can reach. It means deep,
deeper than we can probe. It means wide, wider than we
can see. It means full, fuller, fuller
than we can contain. And it means more and more and
much more. And much, much, much more. And
much, much, much, much more. And more. It means great. Great
is the Lord. His greatness is unsearchable.
And I don't know if any of you have ever been to the Grand Canyon
before. But if you have, you realize
what I'm going to say is true, that you can't see the bottom
of the thing. And you can't reach the other
side. And you can't stretch your hand
down and get your drink out of that river. And you can't really
even imagine the power that made it or comprehend the magnitude
of it. You can't do that, can you? But let me tell you what
you can do. You can walk up to the edge of
that thing, the brink of that canyon, and you can see the beauty
of it. And you can stand in awe. And
you can drink in the marvel of it. And you can stand in amazement. Even though you can't probe the
seemingly unsearchable depths and widths and the magnitude
of that Grand Canyon, you can seek and search out some of the
grandeur of that canyon, and you can certainly tell others
what you saw. Can't we? You see where I'm going
with this? My friends, you and I will never
probe the unsearchable vastness, the infinite greatness of Christ.
But don't let that hinder our seeking and seeing the portion
of His greatness that we can see in His Word that's revealed
to us. And it has to be revealed. It
has to be revealed. And what we do see, let us tell
others. We don't have to expound on the
great mysteries. Just tell Him the part of His
greatness He's shown us. If I wanted to see the greatness
of Christ, I'd do just what it says here to do in Job 5. You
look at verse 8 with me. It says, I would seek unto God. That how great Christ was. I
seek God. And unto God would I commit my
cause. If I knew I was greatly wicked,
I'd commit that cause to Christ, which doeth great things, you
see, and unsearchable things, marvelous things, without number."
How great is He? What's the quantity of it? It's
without number. You see, He gives rain to the earth and sends water
upon the field to set upon high those that be low, and those
which mourn may be exalted to safety. And then turn to Ephesians
3, and I'll briefly, I want to show you not just the quantity
of His greatness, but also the quality of it. In Ephesians chapter
3, both the quality and the quantity
of His greatness must be revealed by the Spirit of the Great One.
In Ephesians 3, verse 3, how that by revelation he made known
unto me the mystery." And then in verse 8, "'Unto me, who am
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.'"
Men of the world have their greatness measured by how low they start
compared to what height they finally reach, don't they? Yeah,
I started out a poor kid peddling a newspaper route, and now I'm
a millionaire. I started out in a hovel on the
wrong side of the tracks, and now I live on a mansion in the
mountains. I started out reading my primer
by firelight, and now I'm President of the United States. That's
how the greatness of men is measured, is it not? Let me show you how
great is the quality of Christ's greatness. Jesus Christ our Lord,
his greatness is measured by how high he started. He was one
with the Father, with the majesty on high, with how high he started
compared to the lowliness to which he came. He condescended
to be a one. That's unsearchable majesty. Majesty so glorious and of such
quality that it's not compromised by such condescension But that's
unsearchable greatness. This was the God-man, the great
Lord Jesus Christ. And in 2 Corinthians 1, I want us to see one other. I
can't stop without showing you one more aspect of the quality
of His greatness. In 2 Corinthians 1, we must look
just for a second at the death of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1, look at verse
9. But we had the sentence of death
in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in
God which raised up the dead, who delivered us from so great
a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet
deliver us." You see, it says there, the death we're due is
a great death. The death Christ suffered in
our place was a great death. If you really read the description
of what they did to him now, what we did to him in them, it
says his visits were marred more than any man. It was the most
awful thing to have ever beheld, I'm sure. And we could measure
the greatness of his death in the quantity, because he died
for all the elect of all generations, and his one death was sufficient.
It accomplished the work of salvation, the work of redemption for all
his people. But let's consider the quality
of that death. You see, it had to not only put
away the multitude of our sins, our many sins, but this great
death had to bear each sin, our particular sin, our great sin,
of which all of Adam's race is held accountable. Our Lord had
to die, had to take on himself the actual blame, the great wickedness. of the great deed, Jesus Christ
had to die and stand accused of having taken a cloth and dipped
it in water and come up on his own father to murder him. That's what you and I are guilty
of. And Christ died for all the sin of all his people. He had to stand accused and die
for trying to murder his father. That's a great debt. What a great
debt you and I owe the Lord Jesus Christ. Great is the Lord, greatly to
be praised. His greatness, that's unsearchable
greatness. And one more scripture, Matthew 13, I'll close. Matthew chapter 13. As you're
finding that, I want to remind you, call to your mind another
scripture in the book of Matthew a little later on. I'm sure you'll
remember this. In light of what's been said
tonight, our Lord's disciple asked him an amazing question.
I think you'll find in light of what we've read tonight, this
is an amazing question. His disciples came to him and
said, Lord, we've been thinking. He said, we want to know who
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. That's an amazing
question. There's no doubt about that.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the greatest. Boy, he'd be greatly
just, wouldn't he, if he'd have just wiped them out over there.
Because he was the great one. Is that what he did? No. He's great in mercy, great in
compassion. He's great in longsuffering.
So he called a little child over to him, called one of these children
over and got him up on his lap and he said, he said, he said,
Those of you who would be as this little child, those of you,
if you would be converted, he said, they would be the greatest. Meaning that if they would humble
themselves, fall at his feet, they'd be just like Christ someday,
who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I don't know if you
saw this or not the other day on TV, or in the newspaper too,
I read it also. And in St. Louis, there was an
11-year-old boy sitting at a baseball game between the St. Louis Cardinals
and somebody. And Willie McGee, the center
fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals, dropped a fly ball. It fell off
his glove. And as he was running in at the
end of the inning, I guess it upset him so much, he took his
glove and threw it up into the sand. And this 11-year-old boy
caught it. And he held that thing. And some
man ran down there and said, son, I'll buy that glove from
you. He said, no. He said, I'll give you $200 for
that glove. And this little boy said, no,
sir. Can't have my glove. He said,
son, I'll give you $250. I got the cash in my pocket. And this little boy said, no,
no. And he clutched that glove all
the tighter. Finally, this man said, son, you just name your
price. He said, you change your mind. He said, you name your
price. I got the cash with me. You see, he didn't know. I mean,
it didn't matter to him that he could go out and buy five
or six gloves, brand new ones. You see, he found a priceless
glove. He found, to him, it was the
glove of great price. And nothing was going to take
it from him. And look here at Matthew 13, look at verse 45.
Matthew 13, 45. The disciples said, Who's going
to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven? Now right here it
says, Again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man
seeking goodly pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great
price, went and sold all that he had and bought it. If we ever
realize the great price that our Lord Jesus Christ paid for
our great sin. If it means we've got to sell
all we've got, if it means we've got to move out, no matter what
it means, we're going to get a whole, we're going to get all
we've got to get that grave purged. The great one, the great one,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised. His greatness is unparalleled. Our Heavenly Father, we stand in amazement of the
Lord Jesus Christ, of how great he is, of who he is, and what
he's done. Oh, the greatness of his majesty. Keep this great one ever precious
in our hearts. in our minds cause us to commit
totally to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're so grateful for the gospel. We're thankful that you've given
us men who are faithful to preach this great gospel. We're grateful
for Brother Paul and Mindy. We pray you bless them while
they're away. Bring them home refreshed, invigorated. Enable Brother Paul preach this
great gospel for many years. Bless him and the people in this
place. Do it for the great glory of
Jesus Christ. Lord, we're grateful, so grateful
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Help us to greatly praise him
in days ahead. It's in his precious name that
we give this thanks. Amen. Well, Joe, let's close
with a hymn that's probably More appropriate than any time I ever
sang it. I'll let Joe come and announce
the hymn. Number 37. How great thou art. Number 37. Sing the first and the last. Please stand. Number 37. How great thou art. The first
and the last. The first and the fourth. The. O Lord my God, see I in awesome
wonder Consider all the worlds I have made I see the stars,
I hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displays. When faint but slow, Thine savior
God to be, Thou break Thou all. Thou great Thou art. Then sings my soul the Savior
God to Thee. Thou great Thou art. Thou great Thou art. When Christ shall come, when
shall our black world age good, when, taking hold, what joy shall
fill my heart? Here I shall bow, in humble adoration,
in narrow vain, I'll raise my cup, I'll raise
my cup, I'll raise my cup, I'll raise my cup. I'll raise my own. This thing I told my Savior God
to be. I'll raise my own. I'll raise my own. Thank you for listening. I don't know. I don't know. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it off. I'm going to turn it back on.

Great Is The Lord

What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

How do we know God's mercy is great?

Why is the concept of God's sovereignty important for Christians?

How does God demonstrate His greatness in salvation?

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Great Is The Lord

What does the Bible say about the greatness of God?

How do we know God's mercy is great?

Why is the concept of God's sovereignty important for Christians?

How does God demonstrate His greatness in salvation?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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