Thank you, Joe. Let's go back
to that passage of scripture he read to us, Psalm 135. And we do indeed ask our God to bless
as we meet together this evening. We realize, I trust that we've
just got to have the presence of the Spirit of God with us.
I sure don't want to stand here in my own left-of-my-own power, which is
nothing. I don't have any power. I need
the presence and the grace of God the Holy Spirit. And if God
would be my helper this evening, I've got a little bit of an unusual,
very unusual title. had difficulty coming up with
a title for this message. But here it is, Is Your God a
Puppet? Is Your God a Puppet? Let's go down Psalm 135. First of all, look at verses
five and six. David, and we would assume he's
the writer of it. Generally, whoever has written
the psalm before it or the last writer who's been mentioned is
therefore the writer of the next one, Psalm 133. It says, A Song
of Degrees of David. We may correctly, I believe,
assume he's the inspired writer of 134. and also 135. And so David says here in verse
five, I know that the Lord is great. And I know that our Lord is above
all gods. And then he says, whatsoever
the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth. in the seas and all deep places. He says, whatsoever the Lord
pleased. What does pleased mean? Whatever
the Lord purposed to do. Whatever the Lord willed to do. Whatever the Lord delighted to
do. That's what he's done. Now, in
the reading of this psalm, as our brother Joe just read it
to us, David, he wrote some things about the gods of men. He had this to say about the
gods of men. If you'll notice down in verse
15, he said, the idols of the heathen are, they're silver and
gold. the work of men's hands. And then he says, and this is
why I entitled this message, Is Your God a Puppet? Because
this reminds me of a puppet. They have mouths, but they don't
speak. They have eyes, but they can't
see. They have ears, but they can't
hear. In fact, he says, there's just
no breath. There's no breath in their mouths. As I read this passage of scripture
and worked on this message, I thought about this. If you want to see
the very height of religious insanity, here it is. To worship a God you have manufactured. That is absolutely the height
of religious insanity. Why, if you worship a God you
have made with your hands, you might as well worship your hands.
you might as well worship your hands as to worship something
that your hands have made. Now, yes, wood and gold and silver,
they're useful to us if we use them rightly. But nothing about wood or gold
or silver is deserving of worship. is deserving of reverence, is
deserving of any all. Certainly they're not worthy
of any praise. They're not deserving of any
worship. And if we did not know better,
if we did not know better, we would think it would be absolutely
impossible for anybody who had any degree of intelligence who
worship a being that they had made with their own hands. You
think surely man would not do that. He would worship the creator. He would not worship that which
he has made or invented himself. But that's what men do. And that's
what men have been doing for thousands of years. Now, let
me give you an illustration. Go back to Exodus chapter 32.
The book of Exodus chapter 32. Israel, as you know, they had
experienced a multitude of mercies from God. After all, he's the
one who brought them out of Egyptian bondage by the blood of the Passover
lamb. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. What a wonderful thing. God spared
the firstborn of Israel. And with Egypt, all the firstborn
of the houses of men and beasts died. They saw what God did. And then God led them through
the Red Sea. That Passover lamb, of course,
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then he led them
through the Red Sea. And there's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the way. He's the way to
safety. He's a way of deliverance. And
then God gave them water. They were thirsty. God gave them
water from a rock. And Moses, he hit the rock. And that's a picture of our Lord
being beat and hitten by the rod of God's justice. God beat
him. God, the script says, he's smitten
of God and afflicted. And the water of salvation comes
out to us. And then they saw that God provided
bread for them, bread for them every morning. They received
the bread of heaven, all of these things that God had given to
them. And now Moses goes up on the
mount along with Joshua. Joshua doesn't go all the way,
but Moses goes up on the mount. He will receive from the hand
of God two tablets of stone. On those will be the law of God. As Moses was dealing with God
on behalf of the people, as he was receiving God's Word, down below, something was going
on. Chapter 32, verse one, and the
people, Exodus 32, one, when the people saw that Moses delayed
to come down out of the mount, The people gathered themselves
unto Aaron and they said unto him, up, make us gods. This is absolutely astounding.
If it wasn't in here, you'd say, no, they would never do that.
Not these people who, they had witnessed all of these miracles
of God. These people wouldn't do that.
Well, wait. They said, up, make us gods which
shall go before us. As for this preacher, as for
this Moses, this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the
land of Egypt, we don't even know what's become of him. Well,
he just disappeared. And Aaron, he said unto the people,
break off your gold. golden earrings which are in
the ears of your wives and your sons, your daughters and bring
them unto me. And all the people break off
the golden earrings which were in their ears and brought them
unto Aaron and he received them at their hand and he fashioned
it with a graving tool after he had made it a golden calf. And they said, these be thy gods,
O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
Now, I believe that they looked at this golden calf. They said,
this is a representation of God. This represents God, but it's
an idol, an idol. And so we get to verse five.
And when Aaron, he saw, he saw it, he built an altar before
it. And Aaron made a proclamation. He said, tomorrow will be a feast
to the Lord. We'll worship God through this
golden calf. Watch verse six. They rose up
early on the morrow and they offered burnt offerings. and
peace offerings. And the people, they sat down
to eat and drink and rose up to play. Where did they get these
offerings? Where did they get these animals?
You remember back earlier in the book of Exodus, God sent
throughout Egypt darkness, an awful pitch black darkness, and
it lasted three days. Absolutely horrible. But God
gave light in all the houses, all the dwelling places of Israel.
They had light. And boy, there is a spiritual
picture there in it. God gives to his people light.
He gives spiritual light. He illuminates. He reveals the
gospel to us. He reveals unto us Christ Jesus,
who is the light of the world. The Lord's people have light
and Israel had light. Egyptians, they were in darkness.
They couldn't even see their hands in front of their faces
and they couldn't do anything for three days. Pharaoh, he called
for Moses and Aaron. He said, take the darkness away. Tell your God, take the darkness
away. I'll let all of you go, but you can't take your flocks
with you and you can't take your herd with you. Now, here's what Moses said.
Moses said, thou must also give us our animals, the sacrifices
and the burnt offerings that we may sacrifice unto the Lord
our God. You're gonna have to give us
everything. All the beasts, all the sheep, all the goats, all
the bullocks, all the oxen, they're all gonna come with us because
we're gonna go out, we're going out of Egypt and we're gonna
worship God. You can't worship God without
blood. You can't worship God without
an offering. And that's what he's saying.
He's saying to Pharaoh, no, we're all going. because we're gonna
offer sacrifices to God. And they begin their journey.
And as Moses is gone up on the mountain, the people said, hey,
we got all these animals. And we're gonna offer some of
them to a golden calf. And that's exactly what they
did. Oh, the depths of idolatry that
men will stoop to. And as I said, you would think
these people would know better. Well, you'd think we'd all know
better than to participate in idolatry. But here they bowed down to and
they offered sacrifices to a golden calf. Of course, in our country, we're
a civilized country. Most people wouldn't think about
bowing down before an idol fashioned out of wood or gold or silver. But they worship religious relics. They worship religious pictures. And they worship gods. that they
have fashioned, not literally out of their hands, but they
fashioned them in their own vile imaginations. And they have gods,
men and women have gods that they worship and they dare to
call these gods, Jesus, Jehovah, the Lord. but they're not the
Lord of glory. They're not this God over here
that David wrote about in Psalm 135, that whatsoever the Lord
pleased that did he in heaven and in earth and in the seas
and in all deep places. Oh no, oh no. The gods that they
fashion are puppet gods because they can't do anything, their
gods can't do anything unless the people pull the strings. And that's the gods that most
of our family members and most of our neighbors, most of our
friends, that's the kind of gods they worship. They're puppet
gods. You say, are you calling into
question their sincerity? No, I'm not. no more than I would
call into question the sincerity of those false prophets that
stood over against Elijah on Mount Carmel. I don't know what
time those guys started offering their offerings to Baal and putting
them up and then shouting and crying and praying and begging
that Baal would send fire down from heaven, but it got to be
lunchtime And Elijah said, maybe you better cry a little louder.
Maybe he's taking a nap. Maybe he's on a long journey.
You wanna see sincerity? From 12 o'clock to three o'clock,
they got up on the altar and jumped. They hollered, they screamed,
they cut themselves to the scripture says the blood gushed out of
them. My friends, that's sincerity
right there. That's somebody that really means
business. Oh, Bale! Oh, Bale! Do this work for us. Bale was their puppet. He was their puppet. He had eyes,
but he couldn't see. And he had ears, but he couldn't
hear. He had a mouth, but he couldn't
speak. There's no breath in him. There's
no breath, there's no life in him. And people who worship a
puppet god, they're just like the puppet that they worship.
They don't have any breath in them either. They're dead. They're dead in
trespasses and they're dead in sin. They can't see. They can't
see the glories of God. They can't see the demands of
God. They can't see the holiness of
God. They can't see their own depravity.
They can't see the necessity of a blood sacrifice offered
by the Lord Jesus, which actually satisfied the justice of God. They can't see. And they can't
hear. And the word of the gospel is
preached unto them, grace, grace, grace, Christ, Christ, Christ,
but they can't hear. There's no breath in them. No
breath at all. They're not alive. just like
their puppet gods are not alive. I started to call them wheelchair
gods, wheelchair gods. They just push them around where
they want to. You see, they're idols, they're
gods, the gods of a good many people we know, and I understand
that they're well-meaning, I understand they're sincere, but that doesn't
count for anything. I tell you what counts with God,
perfection. I tell you what counts with God,
satisfaction to His justice. And a puppet God can't do that.
And you meaning, meaning well, having good intentions, that's
not gonna satisfy God's justice. The only thing satisfying God's
justice is the blood of one who's equal with Him. That's the Lord
Jesus. Look again here in Psalm 135.
Look at verse 15. He says, the idols of the heathen. The heathen. You know what the
heathen means? Well, here's the first meaning,
nations. The idols of the nations. Then
the second meaning is Gentiles. Then the third meaning is people
in general. That's a whole of us. You see,
any man who does not worship the God of the Bible, who doesn't
look to God for everlasting salvation, who's endeavoring to do something
to recommend himself to God, who's going about to establish
a righteousness of his own, he is a heathen. It doesn't matter
who he is, he's a heathen. We live among the heathen, my
friends. We live among the heathen and
we love them, we pray for them, but they're heathen. And I'll
go back, you say, well, but they do so many nice things and they're
so sincere. The people who killed our Lord
Jesus were sincere people. They're religious people. In
fact, our Lord told His disciples in John chapter 16, before His
death, He said, they're gonna persecute you, they're gonna
mistreat you, and they're gonna kill you, and they think they're
serving God when they do it. And those Jews, the Sanhedrin
who met, those 71 men who are the highest religious leaders
in all of Israel, They thought they were serving the cause of
God when they had Jesus of Nazareth arrested and then they sent him
over to Pilate and said, we want you to crucify him. They were
full of sincerity and they called on God and they prayed and they
read the Bible, but their gods were puppets too. You see, any God who isn't the
one true and living God, the God who does his will among the
armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth so that
none can stay his hand or say unto him, any God that can't
do what he wants to do is just a puppet God. That's all he is,
he's just a puppet idol. If the God you worship, those
of you who are watching by way of internet, I say this to you
too, if the God you worship needs your permission to do anything,
He's your puppet. He's your puppet. And we're covered
over with this today. We're covered over. If the will of your God is subject
to the will of man, If his desires cannot come to pass unless you
let him have his way, you got a puppet God. A puppet God. They're dead. They're dead. That's why David says in verse
18, having made this statement at the end of verse 17, Neither
is there any breath in their mouths. He says, they that make
them, they're just like them. They're just like them. There's
no breath in them at all. They're not regenerated. They
hadn't been born again. They don't have the life of God
in the soul. They have no spiritual breath.
Let me ask you, why would anybody Bow down to a God that can't
hear, that can't see, that can't move, and ultimately can't save. We have been in places out of
this country where people have a literal God that they carved
out, they put it in their homes. We've been in homes and we see
these things that people have They give money. They have a
bowl there for money. In restaurants, you put money
in this dish for the gods. In houses, a banana, bowl of
rice, pieces of oranges. And I'm just waiting for the
day when one of those idols eats a piece of that orange. You reckon
that's gonna happen? I always wondered who gets the
money? Who gets the money? These restaurants,
and of course, it goes back to the home base of these false
religions, but all of these things, and those gods just sit there
just like this. They can't move. Can your god
move? Can your god see? Can your God
hear? Does your God have breath? The
God of the Bible breathed into Adam at the very beginning, the
very breath of life. Can your God do that? Look with me in Isaiah chapter
46. Isaiah chapter 46. Look at verse five. You say, well, why do men worship
a false Jesus? Why do they believe a false gospel? Why do they pray to a false God? Because they have no breath.
They don't have any life. Look here in Isaiah 46 verse
five. God says, to whom will you liken
me and make me equal and compare me that we may be like? They
lavish gold out of the bag. They weigh silver in the balance
and they hire a goldsmith and he maketh it a God. They fall down. Yes, they worship. And then they put him up on their
shoulder. Verse seven, they bear him upon
the shoulder. They carry him. They set him in his place, and
that's where he stands. And from that place, he shall
not move, not till they move him. Yea, one shall cry unto
him, yet he can't answer, and he can't save him out of
his trouble. You see, the Lord says to Israel,
go back in verse four, and to your old age, and even to your
old age, I am he, even the whore hares will I carry you. Our God
carries us. Well, here's a big difference
between these puppet gods. Puppet gods have to be carried. The real God, he carries us. He's carried us upon his bosom,
upon his heart, upon his mind from all eternity. He gave us
to the Lord Jesus. He gave us to his son and he
joined us to him in everlasting union according to God's free
and sovereign grace. And he has borne us all along. Our Lord Jesus has never been
up on our shoulders to carry. I can't carry that burden. I can't carry him. Thank God
he can carry me. And I tell you, he started carrying
me from old eternity, and he's carrying me now, and he'll carry
me right on into glory. That's the kind I want. I don't
want a God that can't see, and a God that can't hear, and a
God that can't speak, and a God that doesn't have any breath.
I need God Almighty. I need one who can save. One
who can save. In fact, go back to Isaiah 45. Isaiah chapter 45, look at verse
20. God says, assemble yourselves
and come, draw near together ye that are escaped of the nations. Let's come in here together.
Let's all gather together, God said. I've got something to say. Will you hear what God has to
say? He says, they have no knowledge
that those that set up the wood of their graven image, they pray
unto a God that cannot save. God says people who do this,
they don't have any knowledge. They may have sincerity, they
may have good intentions, but they don't have any knowledge.
They don't have any knowledge of God. They don't have any knowledge
of the mess they're in. They don't have any knowledge
of what it takes to save a sinner. They don't have any knowledge
about blood redemption. They don't have any knowledge
about imputed righteousness. They don't have any knowledge
about justification by grace. They don't have any knowledge
at all. And they pray to a God that can't help them. And this
is the sad thing. It's actually heartbreaking to
me. You watch all of these people
who are involved in false religion and they're praying to gods that
can't save them. They can't save them. But our
God can, the God of the Bible can. And he does. Look at verse
21. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me. He has no rival. He has no competitor. a just God and a savior. That's who we need. We need a
God who's just and holy, who does right, who will punish sin
and has punished the sins of his people in a suitable substitute
of his own choosing, even the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a just
God and only as he's a just God can he be a savior. He can't
be a savior without being a just God. And he says, there's none
beside me, just one. Boy, you think you're right and
everybody else is wrong? I'm saying we're all wrong and
God's right. And every man chooses the wrong
way for himself, but God's way is the right way. One way to
God, that's all. Our Lord Jesus, he said, it's
a narrow way. Few there be that find it. You're
looking for it? I'm looking for this narrow way.
Few there be that find it. And this narrow way is himself
one person, Christ Jesus. It's just like in the Old Testament.
Out of all the world, I don't know how many people lived on
this earth well after the flood, millions and millions of people,
maybe a billion people on the earth. You know where God was
worshiped? One place, and that's all. One
place at the tabernacle. Well, what about all the rest
of the people of the world? Well, what about them? heathens, in darkness, going about to establish a righteousness
of their own. No matter how well intentioned
they were, there was no worship of God except at the tabernacle. God said, that's where I'll meet
with you and that's where you'll meet with me. And I'm telling
you the Lord Jesus Christ Not Jesus who's a doormat, not Jesus
who's a hell insurance policy, but the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
a way to God, and He's the only way to God. And there are multiple
ways. There are many ways to God, but
they mean well, I'm sure they do mean well, and they'll go
to hell. They gonna perish. in their ignorance,
in their blindness, in their deafness, in their lifeless condition,
because all through life they've been worshiping puppet gods. And you worship a puppet god,
there's no hope for you. You live and die worshiping a
puppet god and you think he needs me? He's gotta have my approval? I'm the one who dots the I and
crosses the T in his salvation. He can't do it without me. You
have that kind of attitude, you're not going to glory. Are you trying
to steal his glory? He's not gonna let you in. Got a puppet God. Keep reading,
look verse 22. The Lord says, look unto me.
Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth for
I am God. These others, they're just pretenders
to the throne. I am God. I do save. I am almighty. He said, there's
none else. There's nobody like God. He said,
I've sworn by myself In fact, the word's gone out of my mouth
in righteousness and shall not return. That unto me every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall swear. And surely shall one say
in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Not in myself,
not in my puppet God, but in the Lord God of glory and Jehovah,
God who saves. Even to him shall men come and
all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. And the
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. The God of the Bible, he does
all of his pleasure. How important is true worship? It's vital, isn't it? It's absolutely
vital. The Lord says, In Exodus, go
back over to Exodus. Let me give you this. And I'll
quit. Go to Exodus 34. Now this is
after this episode is over. The Lord has dealt with Israel
and Moses has stood between an offending people and an offended
God. We need one like that. We need
a mediator. We need somebody who can satisfy
God against whom we've sinned. And somebody who can meet all
the needs of us who have sinned. That's what Moses did. He stands
as a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at Exodus chapter
34, look at verse 12. God says, take heed to thyself
lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land where
you're going, lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee.
Destroy their altars. Break down their images. Cut
down their groves. Don't you go easy on false religion. Don't try to get along with them.
Don't try to walk with them. Don't try to fellowship with
them. Amos says, can two walk together except they be agreed? Well, I don't know why you folks
at 13th Street Baptist Church don't get along with all the
rest of the churches in the area. Why doesn't your pastor go to
the ministerial meetings? Because two can't walk together
unless they be agreed. They worship puppet gods. I can't
have any fellowship, any spiritual fellowship with anybody who worships
a puppet god. I can be friends with somebody
who's in false religion, try to help them, and we can have
a very shallow relationship, right? You know, friendship and
that sort of thing, and we understand, and we try to get along with
people, but listen. We can't get along on religious
things. Because they worship a wrong
God. I can't walk with them. And you can't either. I can't
walk with them without compromising the gospel. And I sure don't
want to do that. Well, people are going to be
upset with you. I'd rather people be upset with me than God Almighty
to be upset with me. I don't answer to any man. I
don't answer to religious council. I don't answer to the ministerial
association. I answer to the master, to the
Lord. Watch it here. 34 verse 12, I've
read. Verse 13, cut down, destroy their
altars, break their images, cut down their grove. And you see,
you say, why did you bring this kind of message tonight? I'm
destroying their altars. I'm breaking their images. I'm
cutting down their groves. That's what I'm doing, just chopping
away a little bit. Lest there might be somebody
here tonight or somebody watching and you think, well, I don't
think they're so bad. It's their beliefs. It's what
they hope. It's the God that they worship.
That's where we differ. And God says this, verse 14,
for thou should worship no other God. Here's the reason the word
for means because. This is a reason when you get
into the promised land, you destroy all their altars, you find an
altar, you find a church building. I mean, this was tough back then.
Burn it down. Cut them altars down. Oh, you're
gonna hurt their feelings. You can't win them like that,
preacher. I'm not trying to win people.
I'm trying to honor God. And I'm trying to tell the truth
so that people who believe the truth will know the truth, because
that's the only message that'll set you free, is the truth. And here's the reason to destroy
their altars and break their images and cut down their growth.
don't you worship any God but me. For the Lord whose name is jealous. Do you know that's one of the
Lord's names? One of his names is jealous. He's a jealous God. And I'm telling you and I, we've
got to take a stand for the gospel of grace. We've got to take a
stand for the God of the Bible. I don't mean be mean. I don't
mean be cruel. I don't mean for your life to
be offensive to people. That's not what I'm saying at
all. And I'm just saying when it comes up in a conversation
and we're standing for the truth, you just tell people, I believe
the God of the Bible. The God who's God. He's not a
pretend God. He's not trying to do His will.
And here's the absolute I put it as plain as I can put it.
The generation we live in, the religious people around us, they
have an idol, and they worship at the idol of free willism.
That's where they worship. I'm telling you, you worship
at the idol of free willism, you might as be worshiping a
golden calf. That's what it is. It's just
another golden calf. I don't want to worship a golden
calf. I want to worship the Lord God
of glory through Christ Jesus, the Lord, who's the only Savior
of sinners. Well, hope that'll help somebody.