Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord,
but unto thy name give glory. The Scriptures tells us that
flesh, God will not let no flesh glory in his presence. It tells
us very plainly. Now if a man have worth to glory,
not before the Lord. And God made Christ unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, that no flesh
should glory in his presence. And since salvation's of the
Lord, and we're saved by grace, not of works, because if works
enter into it in any way, man would have reason to boast, and
God would not be supreme. But the sweet psalmist of Israel
here makes a distinction between his God and the gods of the heathen,
the gods of the people of his day. Not only did David make
a definite distinction, but so did the heathen. They said, where's
your God? We got ours. Where's yours? We
got ours. We can set him up in our house.
We can put him in our car. We can hang him on the wall.
We can set him somewhere and look at him. But now, where in
the world is your God at? We can see ours. Oh, ours is
made out of silver, and ours is made out of gold. Where's
your God at? You can't see him. How can you
go worship him? So they made a distinction. And
David makes a distinction, and the heathen makes a distinction.
And the God of the average religionist of this day is no God at all,
none whatsoever. You know, Cain and Abel had different
gods. Cain and Abel. Cain had a God
of the works of his own hands. He come to offer what he did,
what he labored for, what he thought was acceptable, and God
said, nope, it's not acceptable. Abel brought what God required,
and that was a blood sacrifice, a lamb. The innocent for the
guilty. I have to have blood because
I'm a sinner. I have to have blood, I have
to have a sacrifice, I have to have something to get the wrath
of God and the justice of God off of me. And the only way to
do that is through a blood sacrifice. And you know as well as I do
that the God of this age, I was reading a book today and the
man was talking about all the talking about perfect churches,
and he says, the average church today, love is their only thing. Love is their only thing. They
don't talk about repentance. They don't talk about Christ.
They don't talk about the cross. They don't talk about any of
those things. If they can just convince you that God loves you,
and you can make the decision, yes, that God does, then you're
all right. But now I tell you, it's not
a difference here when we're talking about these gods, the
God of the heathen and David's God and our God. It's not a difference
in opinions. People say, well, we can have
a difference of opinion. Not in this business of who's
God we can't. It's not a difference in the
concept of God. Not a difference in the way we
worship. It's a difference in gods. Our God is in the heavens. He's not on a shelf over there.
He's not on a wall. He's not a statue in some cemetery. Our God is in the heavens. What
does He do while He's there? Just exactly as He pleases to
do. That's what He does. And I love a God like that. I
love worship. You can worship a God like that.
Now listen to me. There's no alternative Either
God is supreme, absolutely so, or there's no God at all. Either
His will is over our will, or our will is over Him. Either
His purpose is controlling us, or our purpose controls Him.
Huh? If we can frustrate Him in any
way, any way at all, He's not a God to be worshipped. but ignored
and held in contempt. That's why Paul said, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. I'm not going to frustrate it.
I'm not going to make it something that's useless, that's aggravating,
frustrating. I'm not going to frustrate the
grace of God. Why not, Paul? Because if righteousness,
acceptance with God, having the righteousness of God, come by
the law, come by anything that I've done, then Christ is dead
in vain. And I'm not gonna frustrate the
grace of God. Now, almost everyone will agree
to there's a supreme being. You know, people will point out,
they'll talk about the old man upstairs. I was out in the boat
with my two brothers one day, and one of them was going to
AA meetings. I started talking to him about
God, and he said, well, you know, I believe in a supreme being,
and I prayed to a supreme being, and I said, well, the supreme
being can't do anything for you. God can. But everybody believes
in a supreme being. Either he's a woman, or he's
a man, or he's an entity somewhere out there. But oh my. But you come down to an absolute
supreme God, That's another thing all together. Where do we learn
about God? How in the world can we learn
about God? David said, here, our God's in
heaven. Where's your God, David? We can
see ours. When Rachel left her father's
house to go off with Jacob, she took her father's gods and hid
them on the mules. And her labor come rushing after
them, said, who's got my gods? Who's got him? And he went through
everything and Rachel had him. She said, she said, and race
this God over here, and it'll work out all right, I'll get
this one. Take these with me. And oh my, oh that's what he
says, not unto us, not unto us, this is true. But unto God be
glory. And the psalmist said in Psalm
50, 21, he said, God said, you know what? You thought I was
altogether a one like you. You thought I was like you. You
said certain things, you thought that's the way I talk. You cue
somebody something, you think that's the way I am. You cuss
your mother, you cuss your brother, you cuss your sister, you do
all these things and you think I'm that way. But I'm not that
way. How are we going to learn about
Him? There's only one place to learn anything about God. That's
from His blessed book. Huh? From the Scriptures. That's
why He says, not unto us. Not unto us. Not unto us! Be glory, but oh God, You get
all the glory. God, You get all the praise.
You get all the honor. And the Bible's full of absolutes.
God's an absolute. He's absolutely God. He's absolutely
powerful. Every attribute of His is perfect.
And here's another thing that's absolute. Man's an absolute aside
of Christ. He's an absolute sinner. from
the top of his head to the sole of his foot, from the inside
of his heart to the outside of his flesh. He's a sinner. Absolutely
so. And he cannot change his state
or standing without God doing something for him. And here's
another absolute. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
is the only absolute savior of sinners in this world. There's
nobody else that can save a man. Nobody else. And I tell you,
the Scriptures is universal about that. That's the supremacy of
God. He said, our God, He does as He pleases in the heavens,
in the earth, in the seas, and in all deep places. I want you
to see something with me over here in Daniel. Daniel is right
after the book of Jeremiah. A little 10 chapter book there. Look in Daniel 4. This is a heathen
king now talking. The testimony of a heathen king.
Y'all may remember when God put him out to pasture and left him
out there seven years and his hair got so long it looked like
a bunch of feathers. And his nails grew so long they
looked like eagle's talons. And look what he says here about
God now. He returned to his, he said in
verse 34, at the end of the days, after seven years out there dwelling
in the dew in the body, at the end of the days, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding turned
unto me, and I blessed the Most High. I praised and honored him
that liveth forever. whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.
And listen to this now. You talk about throwing this
generation a curve, and all the inhabitants of the earth are
reputed as nothing. Everybody except me. That's what
everybody says. Oh, that's talking about everybody
else. That's not talking about me. That's not talking about
us, that's talking about somebody else. He said, all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And listen to this, and he doeth
according to his will, up there in the army of heaven, and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and no can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? Oh my. Now look what he said
in verse 37. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise
and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are
truth and his ways judgment, and those that walk in pride
he's able to abase. Oh my. That's God. That's who we're talking about.
That's God. He has set his mind, and who
is able to turn it? That's what Job asked. All he's
purposed, he does. All he desires to do and decreed
to do, he performs. There's no wisdom, there's no
counsel, there's no understanding against the Lord, none whatsoever.
So God Almighty, He's absolute, absolute supreme being in this
universe. His supremacy is above everything.
Look what else he says here now. Second thing. His supremacy is
seen from His being the Creator. Being the Creator. You know,
man can make things. He can make things if he's got
something to work with. But only God can take nothing
and make something. You and I, if we make anything,
we've got to have materials. We've got to have something to
work with. But God didn't have anything to work with, he just
said. He just said. He spoke and it was done. He
commanded and it stood fast. First thing he said was, looked
up and he seen darkness all around, said, let there, God created
the heavens and the earth. Earth was out form, water was
out void. Darkness was upon the face of
the deep. And God said, let there be light. The lights come on. He said, I'm going to put me
a sun up there for light by the day. And I'm going to put a moon
up there for light by the night. And I'm going to put stars up
there. And I'm going to give light for the night and I'm going
to give light for the day. And you know what else he said? He
said, as long as this earth stands, there'll be four seasons. They
keep talking about climate change. Well, the climate change, it
changed from yesterday to today. Yesterday was a beautiful day.
You go out and do some few things. Today it's raining. Climate changed. But listen, as God said, as long
as the world stands, there'll be summer, fall, winter, Harvest
time, four seasons, he said, be four seasons, as long as the
world stands. And I'll tell you, he's the one
that made us. And I'll tell you, he made the
first man. There had to be a first man.
People, you know, they ask, which comes first, the chicken or the
egg? It's obvious. The chicken come first. How did
the chicken come first? God made him. Made a chicken. He made a rooster. He made a
bull. He made a cow. He made a calf. He made everything that's made
on this earth. There's not anything on this
earth that God did not make. There has to be a beginning somewhere.
He said every seed would produce after its own kind. An apple
tree produces apples. And so on, you know, that's what
we're talking about what God creates and he took a man and
this is them We say that he twists down with his hands But God didn't
have to reach down with his hands to get a handful of dirt to make
a man He just spoke to the dirt and the dirt stood up and he
said I want a man coming out of you and that was an inanimate
object standing there and that inanimate object was a Just a
man standing there like a statue He had hair, he had eyes, he
had hands, he had a mouth, he had nose, he had feet, he had
everything that a man would have. But one thing he didn't have,
he didn't have life. Where's that coming from? God. God just... He said, that shocked you. Well,
you imagine what it done to Adam. Huh? You imagine what he did,
what Adam just... He come alive. He come alive. And that's the way it is right
now. When God speaks, and that's all it takes, Him speaking, speaking,
and He gives life to dead souls. And when you get life from God,
you know it. You'll know it. You know you've
passed from death unto life. Oh my. You know, it's He that
made us. We didn't make ourselves. Oh,
people talk about it all the time. You know, I'm a self-made
man. Self-made man. Well, you know what Spurge has
said about self-made man? He's a very poorly made man.
That's the truth. A self-made man is a very poorly
made man. But it's God that made us. We
didn't make ourselves. We didn't create ourselves. You
know, He made us who we are. Why am I the stature I am? Why
do I have the voice that I do? Why do I have the health that
I do? Why do I have the color of hair that I do? Why do I have
the color of eyes that I do? God made me that way. He could have made me something
else, but then I wouldn't be me. God made me the way I am
with my mind, my intellect, everything I've got, God gave it to me.
There's no doubt about that. And He made us who we are in
every respect. Our intelligence, our wisdom,
and we all have a natural constitution. All of us have what we call a
natural constitution. That means that we, things we
like and we don't like, things we do and things we won't do.
Our nature dictates to us what we'll do in this life. And God
gave us that nature. He made us naturally, And bless
His name, He's the one who made us spiritually. Naturally He
made us, and because we have life, a spiritual life, He's
the one that made us spiritually. We're born again, not a corruptible
seed, be incorruptible by the Word of God that lives and abides
forever. What could we possibly, if we
couldn't make ourselves, how could we make ourselves spiritual
beings? How could we make ourselves a holy person? How could we make
our nature holy? How could we make our, regenerate
ourselves? We can't, we couldn't even make
ourselves. So God comes and regenerates us and makes us new creatures
in Christ and gives us the spiritual life that we have right now. And whatever your spiritual stature
is, whatever your spiritual stature is, and we have a spiritual stature
like we have a physical stature. Some people learn quickly. Some
people remember things very vividly. Some people grasp the gospel
real easily. Other people have to struggle
with it. Some people have great assurance. Some people struggle
with it. But we all are made up spiritually different people.
Some folks, they'll listen to something and say, boy, I don't
know if I believe, I don't understand that. Well, one of these days
you will. You may not understand it now,
but one of these days, God will say it's time for you to understand
and you'll understand. Our spiritual understanding is
in God's hands just like our natural understanding. And He'll
feed us and teach us and instruct us. And listen, I'm telling you. You know, I can teach you things
from the Bible. And I can get an outline and
put it together. And I can stand up here and say things to you
from the Scriptures. But if you get anything out of
it, the Holy Spirit's Word's got to do it. Now ain't that
right? All right, let me go home now.
And I'll tell you, you know, he made us natural, he made us
spiritual. He's the potter. He is the potter. You know what
that makes us? Clay. You say, clay? Clay. Clay in the potter's hands. And I'm gonna show you two things.
First of all, I want you to look in Romans 9. Look in Romans 9. Romans 9. I want you to see this.
He's the potter, we're just the clay. That's all we are. You know, he told Jeremiah, he
said, Jeremiah, I want you to go down to the potter's house.
What do you want me to go down there for? Well, I want you to
look at that potter. When he puts that clay on the
wheel, I want you to watch him. And I want you to watch while
he makes things. Every once in a while, he'll make something
and say, boy, that's just right, but who wanted it? And then he'll
get something on the wheel that didn't come out right, and he
just breaks it, makes more clay out of it. But look here in Romans. Chapter nine, verse 20. Nay, but O man, who art thou
that replyest against God, shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Why did you make me
like this? Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Now listen to this here, of the
same lump That's all a human race is, is a lump, a lump of
clay. Has he not pottered power over the clay of the same lump
to make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor? Make
one a beautiful, beautiful flower base and make another an ashtray. People put their cigarettes out
there, huh? Oh my, that's the way he is. Now look over here
with me in Isaiah 45. Oh my, listen to this. Isaiah
45. You know, as long as I'm in His
hands, He can do with me what He wants to. That's all I care
about. As long as I'm in His hands. And look what He said here in
Isaiah 45 and verse 6. We owe Him our very being. Look
what He says. They that may know from the rising
of the sun unto the west, there is none beside me. I am the Lord,
now I'm God. From the time the sun comes up
till it goes down, I'm God. That's what he's saying. I form
the light, you see any light? And I create the darkness. If
you're in the light, I made it for you to be in it. And if I
bring darkness upon you, you're gonna have darkness. I make peace,
and I create evil. Now when it says here, I create
evil, he's not talking about that he creates sin and evil
things. That means he creates trouble.
He creates the trials that people go through, what people call
evil in this world. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Drop down, ye heavens from above. Let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, let them
bring forth salvation. Talking about the cross. And
let righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
Now listen to this now. Woe unto him that striveth with
his maker. See how that's capitalized? Let
the potter strive with the potter to the earth. Shall the clay
say to him that fashionist, why makest thou? Or work, he hath
no hand. Oh my, who would ever turn to
God and say, oh my, I don't like what you're doing. I don't like
the way you make clay. And I know this, that if all
heaven Everything on Earth and Satan
and all of his dominions and all of his Demons and everybody
in hell all got together and they all formed an allegiance
and they called the Confederacy and They said I'll tell you what
we're going to overthrow God once and for all How do you think
God would react? You know what he'd do? He'd just
sit there. Laugh! The scripture said he laughs
at them and has them in division. Oh, he'd sit there and all the
combined powers in heaven, earth, and hell cannot change him or
move him one iota. You know, man, when they got
a hold of Christ, they did the worst they could possibly do.
And then they turned around thinking they was doing the best they
could do by getting rid of an imposter. But you know what God
willed out of that and what God purposed out of that? That everything
you did was all doing my will, accomplishing my will and my
counsel. And you know what it brought
out of it? Salvation to the ends of the earth. You said, I'll
kill him. God said, I told you, I determined
you'd do that. I did it with my wicked hands.
I determined that you'd do what you wanted to do. And you did it. And He is the
one that brought salvation and saved multitudes that no man
can number out of what man did to Him. And God willed all of
that, huh? Oh my. He has them in divisions. And let me hurry up here, I'm
taking, I don't want to take too long on Wednesday night.
You know, let's talk about the creation being obedient to the
Lord. You know, the heavens, He's in the heavens. There's a difference in God's,
but I'll tell you what, the creation, the work of His hands, shows
us that he's absolutely supreme in this universe. All things
obey his word. All things obey his word. All
things obey his will. Whether it's animate, something
that can move, or whether it's inanimate, an object. You know, he told the Red Sea
part, and two million people went across it and dried ground.
And when Pharaoh got in it, it drowned him. And he took the
dust of the earth and created a man out of it. He brought light,
and that's an inanimate object, and he brought light out of darkness.
And the earth, he had control over the earth, Korah. And both
of them told Moses, Moses you're not the only one out here. We
want some power out here too. We're going to take over. We're going to help you out.
And God said no you're not. He opened the earth. Swallowed
them up. Tell you something else. In Joshua
chapter 10. The Lord made the son stand still.
Stand absolutely still. while they was in a battle. So
it'd be daylight to win that battle. And then over in Hezekiah's
day, he turned the sundial back 10 degrees. And here it is, it's
12 o'clock, he turned it back 10 degrees. Now you say, what
in the world does that mean? Well, that means that every four
years we get an extra day. Now how'd that happen? God moving
the sun to suit himself. Every year you gain a fourth
of the day. And at the end of four years, you get a whole day.
That's because of the way God dealt with the sun. Huh? Oh my. Ravens carried food to
Elijah. And did you ever read in 2nd
Kings that iron swam? It didn't say iron sunk. Iron
floated. It said, iron swim. Iron don't swim. If God says
it does, it does. He said, I want you to swim,
and it swam. You read it yourself in 2 Kings
6. Oh my. He tamed the lions for
Daniel. He caused fire not to burn his
children. He created a storm for Jonah. and he calmed the storm for his
people out on the Galilean Sea. He creates storms and sometimes
he'll create a storm for us just so he can come and calm it for
us at the same time. He controls the power and the
will of the devil. When we studied, studying in
Job, Satan two times tried to get Job to cuss God. that he
failed both times. You imagine what you say, I'm
going to cause this man to do this and come to find out you're
a failure. Satan's a failure. How do you
know he's a failure? Because he couldn't do what he
said he could do. He couldn't do it. And let me
tell you this, God has perfect control over the wills of man. Perfect control over the will
of man. Now how in the world can you say that? Well, we've
seen over there in Romans, he says, yeah, man doth resist his
will. And men do resist his will. They ignore his word, have a
deaf ear at his word, having his commandments. How can this
be if we say God controls all every man's will? Well, God's
will has two parts to it. God's will has two parts to it.
Well, first of all, we have this word right here. That's the revealed
will. That's the revealed will of God. That's God's revealed
will, this blessed book. And then there's a will of decree. And in that will of decree, and
we say decrees, but God had one decree. He declared the end from
the beginning. That's what He did, one decree.
And that's always carried out to the minutest detail. But when it comes to this word,
this revealed will, most men are rebels. They do not want
the revealed will of God. They don't want to do what He
says to do. And I tell you, in His word, all disregarded His
revealed will. That's why they're called rebels.
Now let me show you something in John chapter 12, and I'll
hurry up. John chapter 12. Look here in
verse 37. Now John chapter 12, and look
down here in verse, yeah, verse 37. Look here now, this is what
I'm talking about. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. Oh my, raise
the dead, give sight to the blind. Didn't bother them, didn't move
them a bit. That the saying of Isaiah, the
prophet might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord who hath believed
thy report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed.
Now listen to this now, therefore they could not believe because
that Isaiah said again, he hath blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart that they should not see with their eyes nor understand
with their heart and be converted and I should heal them. So there's
a multitude of people that disregard his word. I disregard his word,
you disregard his word until he brought the gospel in power
to hearts and lives. And I tell you none, me, you,
or nobody else, none absolutely obey Him or walk perfectly as
He wills for us to in His Word. None of us do that. But His own
eternal counsels, they're gonna be carried out regardless of
who and what goes on in this world. He works all things out
to the counsel of His own will. And beloved, I'm grateful to
this. We're not subject to fate. We're
not subject to chance. We're not subject to luck. We're
not subject to a destiny. We are in the hands of a God
who rules this world from His throne. I don't do His will perfectly,
but I tell you what, I know someone who did. That was the blessed
Son of God. And whatever He did, I did. And
let me show you, I'm gonna show you one thing and then I'm done.
Deuteronomy 29, 29. Deuteronomy 29, 29. Look down here, Deuteronomy 29,
29. Look what he says here now. This
is what I'm talking about, the revealed will and the decorative
will of God. The secret things belong unto
the Lord. That's His decree. That's His
eternal purpose. But those things which are revealed
belong unto us and to our children forever that we may do the words
of this book, this law. Secret things belong unto Him.
I don't understand it. I don't understand how that men
do exactly what they want to do and still carry out God's
will perfectly. I don't understand that. But
I know it's so because the scriptures tells us it's so. I don't understand
why I don't obey Him perfectly. And the only way I can see that
I obey Him perfectly is to obey Him is for what Christ did in
me being in Christ. Complete in Him the head of all
principality and power. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us to meet tonight.
Thank you and bless your holy name that you allow me to talk
about you, speak of you again. Lord, we talk of your sovereignty,
but to be supreme, that means you're above, beyond anything
that could ever be. It's the most highest superlative
there are. And Lord, you are the highest.
You're the glorious, most glorious, You're eternal. And Lord, of
all things that's in this world, You're above them all. And Lord,
I am so thankful, and I bless Your holy name, that I find my
rest in You, find my hope in You. I hope my will will be lost
in Your will. And God, bring glory to Yourself
through this congregation of believers. Worlds without end,
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what
Jesus said to me there all away away your sins are pardoned and
you are free they're all taken away they're all taken away away
they're all taken away away they're all Taken away, away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. My sins are all taken away. They're
gone. See you Sunday, God willing.