I hear in Psalm 115, it says
this, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give
glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should
the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in
the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. Now, I want to talk about God
being supreme. You know, when you go through
doctrinal books, when they talk about the attributes of God,
they just mention them. And I can't hardly do that, you
know. If we're going to talk about God, we want to go through
His attributes, that that makes Him God. And here the sweet psalmist
of Israel makes a distinction. And here's God's, and in the
God's are the heathens. Our God is in the heavens. Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. And not
only does David make a distinction and draw a definite distinction,
but so do the heathen. That's why the heathen ask wherefore
the heathen say, where is your God at? The heathen ask David,
they ask Israel, where is your God? Because they had a distinction,
their God and the God of the Hebrews was different. And where
is now your God? So they understood that there
was a distinction between the gods. And the God, little g,
of the average religion of this day, and all gods, is no God
at all. And I have no compunction in saying that, no fear in it.
It's not a difference in opinion we're talking about here. When
they said, Where is for now your God? Our God is in the heavens.
Their gods are made out of silver and gold. There's not a distant
difference in opinion. Well, your God and my God would
just agree to disagree. There's not a difference in our
concepts of God. God's not a concept. It's not
a difference in the way we worship. It's a difference in God's. An
absolute difference in God. David said, Our God is in the
heavens, and He does as He pleases, always does as He pleases. When
it says He does as He pleases, and I mean, beloved, that means
He's doing as He pleases and always as He pleases. Now, I
know this, that there's no alternative. Either God is supreme, and absolutely
so, or He's not God at all. There's no alternative. That's
the way it is with grace or works. It's either all of grace or all
of works. That's why Paul said, if righteousness
came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And if Christ
is dead in vain, then, beloved, there's no hope. We're either
going to be saved by our righteousness, or we're going to be saved by
Christ's righteousness. God either crucified His Son
to save a people and to provide everything they needed, or else
we've got to save ourselves. There's no middle ground. And
there's no alternative between God as He is, and either His
will is over us, or our will is over Him. There's no middle
ground there. Either He has His will over us, or our will is over Him. Our
will is paramount. Either His purpose is controlling
us, or our purpose controls Him. It can't be both, can it? And
I know, miss, if we can frustrate, frustrate Him in any way, any
way whatsoever, He is not God. He is not a God to be worshipped,
but He's a God to be ignored. He's a God to be held in contempt.
And I do hold a God like that in contempt. If I can control
Him in any way, or frustrate Him in any way, or my will is
power over His will in any way, then He is not worthy of my worship. He's not worthy of my praise.
He's just worthy of my contempt, my loathing, and my absolutely
ignoring Him. But if He is supreme, and He
has power over my will, if He controls me, not me Him, if His
purpose is over my purpose, Then I'll worship Him. I'll bow down
to Him. Because our God is in the heavens.
I don't have to pick Him up and take Him with me wherever I go.
When I move, He's already there. Wherever I'm at, He's standing
looking at me. And most everyone will admit that there's a Supreme
Being. Oh, there's a Supreme Being.
But they don't mind calling Him a Supreme Being as long as they
can define what a Supreme Being is and what a Supreme Being can
do. You know, their idea of a supreme being and my idea of a supreme
being is two different things. But an absolutely supreme God,
that's a horse of a different color. And where do we learn
of this God that's absolutely supreme? Where do we learn He
as He is, not like we thought He was? You know, that's what
God told the Told them one time there, Psalm 50 says, you thought
I was altogether one just like you. You had it in your mind
that I was like you. And how many people think God
is like them? I've told you this so many times
over the years, you can find somebody that has no religion
whatsoever. Go to New York, Chicago, Paris,
France, Berlin, go any place on the planet you want to go,
find you somebody. Don't know anything about religion,
not been in a church, not read a Bible, and say, now, tell me,
what's God like? Do you believe the rest of Him?
Well, tell me what He's like. You know what He'll tell you?
Well, first thing He'll say, He's a just God, and He's a loving
God, and He's a merciful God. And what they mean by that is,
and I say, well, what do you mean by being just? That means
that He's going to save all of us, and He's doing the best He
can. What do you mean by His love? That means He loves all
of us. He could not possibly be God and not love everybody.
Well, if He was going to save you and you had salvation, how
would it be? Well, I'd have to let Him. I'd
have to give Him permission. He would never impose His will
on me. Well, how do you think you'll
be accepted of Him? Well, because, you know, I've
done the best I can. I haven't been all that mean.
I know I've made a few mistakes in my life. And then describe
God in the way the average Baptist in Presbyterian does, sitting
in a pew today. I had a call from a woman today. Let me tell you this. I had a
hard time understanding it, but the first she called to find
out, to ask me some questions. She said, Are you the pastor?
And I said, Yes. Can I ask you some questions? I said, Yes.
I could tell she was an older woman, and she said, The first
question she asked me, Do you believe the Bible, and do you
preach from it? That's a good question. I never had nobody
call and ask me that. That's the first thing she said.
Do you believe the Bible? Do you preach from it? Second question is, are you a
Baptist? I said, yes, ma'am. I said, baptism
is for believers. Baptism has no saving power in
it. Baptism is for people that God's
already saved by His grace. Yes, I agree. That's right. That's
right, she said. She said, well, why do you have
grace in your name instead of Baptist? And I began to tell
her, I said, because we believe that salvation is wholly and
completely and entirely by the grace of God, irrespective of
anything man does. She said, that's right, that's
right. She said, the next question I want to ask, do you have a
dress code? I said, just don't wear no Levi's
if you're a woman. But you know, that's what I'm
saying. There's some people out there
that God has taught some things. She said, I'll see you Sunday.
But so you see, there's some people that has an interest in
the Bible, want to know what God says. And if we want to know
what God says, we've got to go what He says about Himself and
His blessed Word. Is that not right? So let's look
here at Psalm 115. And we learn from the Scriptures
here that God is absolutely the absolute, universal, supreme
God of heaven and earth. And the Bible's full of this.
The first three verses tells us, not under us, O Lord. But
now everybody else has to say, under us, O Lord, be the glory.
It was our will, it was our rights, it was our power that saved us,
it was our works that saved us. But no, that person that knows
God says, not under us, O Lord, not under us, but under thy name.
Thy name be glory. I, thy name, give glory. What
for? For your mercy. And all in respect
to this, for your truth's sake. To know the truth, to hear the
truth, to believe the truth. That's why we're your Godhead
now. We've got our gods. You know how many gods they had?
They had Ashtoreth. They had Baal. They had Dagon. They had Mercury. They had Jupiter.
And you go on and on and on with the gods they had. But here He
says one God. Warn God. And beloved, look over
here at Psalm 135 with me just a minute. The Bible is full of
this. And it absolutely astonishes
you whenever you realize so many people don't know what it is.
And I told that lady today, I said, you know, we want people to bring
their Bibles and sit with their Bibles open and follow along
in the Scriptures with us. We want to see whether these
things are so. She said, yes, everybody ought to carry a Bible.
Yes, carry Scriptures, and not just carry them to keep the dust
off of them, carry them to use them. And here it says in Psalm
131, 35 in verse 1, Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the name
of the Lord. Praise him, O ye servants of
the Lord. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts
of the house of our God, praise the Lord. For the Lord is good,
saying, Praise is unto his name, for his name is pleasant. For
the Lord hath chosen, he's the God of election, hath chosen
Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. For
I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord, see how that's
capitalized, Jehovah, our Lord, Jehovah, is above all gods. See
how that's little g? Now listen. Whatsoever the Lord
pleased, did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all
deep places. That sounds like He's God, don't
it? And, oh, beloved, I'll tell you,
that's why, you know, as He hath thought, so shall it come to
pass. Let me show you another one over here of the testimony
of a heathen king in Daniel chapter 4. I'll show you what the Bible
says about it. If we want to know what God's
like, if we want to know if God is worthy of our worship and
our praise, look with me in Daniel chapter 4, verse 34. This is
a heathen king, a testimony of a heathen king. The Bible's full of the absolute
universal supremacy of God. People like to talk about a supreme
being. It may be he, it, she, or they. Like books about angels. I ain't
interested in angels, I'm interested in Christ. People want everybody in the
church to go away feeling good about themselves. I don't want
people to go away feeling good about what Christ did for them,
and the joy in their hearts, being full of joy in their hearts
that Christ accomplished salvation for them, that God is sitting
on His throne, that God controls their lives and meets the needs
of their hearts and souls. Look what I said here in verse
34. This is Nabi Knesset. He'd been out eating with the
beast for seven years. God put him out there eating
like an ox for seven years. Then his mind returned to him.
He said, At the end of the days I never can ever lift up my eyes
unto heaven, and my 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, and his kingdom is
from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and he doeth according to his
will. doeth according to his will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What in the world
are you doing? What are you meddling in my business for? Beloved, I tell you, all God
has purposed, He does. All He has decreed, He performs.
Proverbs 21 30 says there is no wisdom nor understanding nor
counsel against the Lord. And I'll tell you where we see
that God is supreme above all. In the fact that he's the creator,
he's the creator, he spake and it was done, he commanded and
it stood fast. God said, let there be light,
and there was light. God separated light from the
darkness. And then he turned around and said, let us make
man. And he took man out of the dust of the earth. You know people
say, that's ridiculous. God took man out of the dust
of the earth. And he took a handful of dust, a handful of clay, a
handful of mud, and he formed him a man. And that man was just
standing there as a statue until God Himself breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. And that man would have never
lived had not God given him life. It's He that made us, not we
ourselves. It's He that gives us life, not
we ourselves. He's the one that gave us a soul,
not we ourselves. He's the one that gave us a mind,
not we ourselves. He's the one that gave us an
intellect, not we ourselves. And, O Beloved, it's He that
made us. And then He took out of Adam To make a woman, he took
a rib. How do you make a woman out of
a rib? I have no idea. I have no idea, but God did. Didn't He? Oh, it's He that made
us, not we ourselves. He made us who we are in every
respect. We have absolutely nothing to
glory in. There's not a thing in the world
that we have including our minds, our bodies, our health, our wealth,
our homes, our cars, absolutely nothing, a job, absolutely nothing that we can
glory and say, we accomplished this on our own. All God's got
to do to make a man a blithering idiot is just let a rock hit
him at the right time. Let him stumble and fall and
hit his head. That's all it takes. That's all it takes. All it takes
is for a man to make the wrong step, make the wrong move. That's all it takes. And what's
between us and that happening to us? Is it fate? Is it chance? Is it luck? What's between us having something
like that happen to us? You know how many people got
up one day, and before the day was out, they were sitting in
a vegetative state that was as healthy as we are? That's why
I say it's God that makes us today. We have absolutely nothing
that we can glory in. We thank God for our strength.
We thank God for everything. And He made us naturally, and
He makes us what we are spiritually. Look over in Romans 9. Look in Romans 9. He makes us
what we are spiritually. He made us, not only to make
us what we are naturally, but He makes us what we are spiritually. He's the potter and we're nothing
but the clay. It says here in verse 20, Nay, but, O man, who
art thou that replies against God? Would you answer a dispute
with God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Why have you made me like this?
Why did you make me the shape I'm in? Why did you make me the
intellect I have? Why did you make me the stature I have? Why
did you make me with the hair I've got? Why did you make me
with the... You go on and on and on. Why hasst thou made me
none? Have not the potter, power over the clay, of the same luck,
and here's the key to it, of the same luck, to make one vessel
under honor and another under dishonor? And out of the same
lump, out of Adam, out of that same lump of clay, God makes
one a vessel of honor and one a vessel of dishonor. But it
all comes out of the same lump. No difference in the clay. You
know what made the difference in the clay? The potter made
the difference. The clay made no difference in
itself. The clay had no part in it. The potter takes the clay. The potter's the one that puts
it on the wheel. The potter's the one that decides what he's
going to make. The potter's the one to choose. And that's why
he says, if hath not the potter power over the clay to make the
same love, one vessel of honor and another under it, dishonor.
And listen, if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his
power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of
wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory." What he's saying here is that men,
because the power has power within them, that God's to show his
wrath and be very patient in his wrath. We're living under
the endurance, the patience, and longsuffering of God right
now. The world's living under it. We're living under it. Except
we're vessels of mercy, vessels of glory. They're vessels of
wrath. And God's wrath just waits. Men are living under the patience
and longsuffering of God right now. And oh beloved, we owe our
very being to God Almighty. And if all heaven... Oh my, I thought of this so much
today and yesterday. If everything in heaven, every
being in heaven, every being on earth, and every being in
hell got together and they said, I'll tell you what we're going
to do. We're going to overthrow God. What do you reckon would happen?
How would God react? How do you reckon God would react? Oh, here comes the whole universe!
They're going to attack God! They're going to overthrow God!
Man says, my God's not that way. Oh, listen, who cares what your
God's like? It does not entail God at all,
what men think about Him. Oh, God is true in every man's
life. But if they all got together,
what do you reckon God would do? I'll tell you what he'd do. He'd do just exactly like he's
doing right now. Sit on his throne, continue to
control the world, raise up kings and sit down kings, save people
and damn people, bring people in to make them vessels of mercy,
make them vessels of dishonor. He would continue to manifest
his grace and manifest his wrath, manifest his justice, manifest
his truth. He would still be God and not
move a hair's breadth. that the whole world raised up
arms against Him. In fact, His Scripture says that
He would laugh at them and have them in derision. The man done
his worst against God when Christ was on this earth. They plotted
His death for over three years. And not only did they do their
worst, but they done their best to put Christ out of business,
to put God out of business. They said, well, I'll have this
man to reign over. They took him out and they said,
now we're done with God. Now we're done with this man
Christ Jesus. Now we're done with this blasphemer. Now we've declared war against
God. We'll wipe our hands of him.
And we've got our religion. We've got our fasting. We've
got our tithing. We've got our good works. We've
done the best. We have got our religion. We've
got our phylacteries. We've got our prayers. We've
got our synagogues, we've got our Bibles, we've got our churches,
we've got our preachers. We don't need God! And they done the best and the
worst they could, and you know what happened? Christ cried from that cross
and said, it is finished. And it wasn't finished as far
as man was concerned, really, though we put God out of business.
But salvation was finished. God's covenant was finished.
Justice was satisfied. Law was fulfilled. And salvation,
purpose from all eternity. was finally full and accomplished,
and Christ finished the work that the Father gave Him to do,
and everyone for whom He died, beloved, will hear and believe
the gospel one of these days." Oh my! He just has them in derision. And I'll tell you something else
about Joseph and his supremacy. The obedience of his own creation,
the works of his hands, they show that he is supreme. You
know all things. Now, listen to me. I'm going
to explain something here in a minute. But all things obey
His Word. All things obey His will, whether
they're animate or whether they're inanimate. You go through the
Scriptures. You notice here, the flood. It never had rain before. When God said, Let there be rain,
there was rain. It never had rain before. He said, It ain't
going to stop raining. Until everything on the top side of
God's earth is destroyed except the people in that ark. And oh, what about the Red Sea?
How about the Red Sea? He has about two million people
that need to go from Egypt to the other side, over to Canaan.
How's he going to get them all over there? They can't go directly. Can he swim? Can he walk on the
water? He calls and he's willing to
blow. And I mean immediately, just as quick as that water parted,
immediately they start walking across there. And they said,
done it on dry land. You know how long it takes for
water, even if you let it dry up, how long it takes for it
completely dry up? It drew up because God said it's
going to go across on dry land. And they went across on dry land.
Huh? And the dust of the earth obeyed him. And he says, you
know, I want the dust to turn into lice. And lice, the dust
turned into lice down in Egypt and attacked all them people
until he told the dust to lay back down. And oh, beloved, the
earth, he controls the earth. And old Dothan, they told Moses
and Aaron says, you know, you fellas, you fellas ain't the
only people around here. We're holy, too. We want to be
able to preach, too. We want to have a part in this
thing, too. We want to take it upon us. And oh, my, they started
intruding in the office and telling them what they wanted to do and
how they wanted to run this outfit and all that. And Moses said,
well, you show up tomorrow and I'll be here tomorrow. And everybody's
on the Lord's side. Get over here. And everybody's
on their side. Get over there. About time they got over there. The earth opened up. Korah, his
family, It went down into hell, and the earth closed right back
up over them. Then you know God caused the
sun to stand still for Joshua and Isaiah. He caused the sun
to be still so that they could defeat that army before it got
dark. And let me show you, look over here in Isaiah 38. He caused
the sun to go back ten degrees. He caused it not only to stand
still, but he caused it to reverse itself for ten degrees. Who do
you think we get this leap year? It's because God stopped the
sun one time, turned it back ten degrees. Isaiah 38 and 8,
look here, God gave a sign to Hezekiah when Hezekiah was going
to die. God told him, I'm going to give
you a sign, but I'm going to give you 15 more years. And this
should be a sign in verse 7. It says, Behold, I'll bring again
the shadow of the degrees which was going down in the sun, the
Isle of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees
by which degrees it was going down. It's one thing to stop it, but
to make it go backwards. Then God's over there made out
of silver and gold can't do that. Huh? Oh no. And ravens. He used ravens. Not only did he have control
over Adam and then Adam and Isaac, but he had ravens. Carried food
to feed Elijah. Elijah's sitting down over there.
What am I going to eat? Well, here comes some raisins.
In the morning, they brought him some food. Lunch time, they
brought him some more food. Supper time, brought him some
more. Yeah. And I, that fellow was
using that axe, you know, when they was cutting down some trees,
going to build a house, a school for the prophets. And that handle,
you know, that axe head fell off. Got in the river and the
fella said, oh my, I borrowed it. What am I going to do? I'll
have to replace it. I can't afford it and all that. And over the
last year or so, he said, don't you worry about it. And he just
said something, throw something in the water, and that iron got
come up. And you said, people said, float
it. It swam. That iron actually swam. You
know where it swam to? Swam all the way to Daneville.
That's all it had to do was reach down and pick it up. That says don't swim. If God says they swim, they swim.
Now, I can't make one swim. If I drop one in the water, if
I want it back, I got to go in after it, don't I? But God don't have to do that.
And what about those lions? I thought about this. You know,
we talk about Daniel and the lion's den. Those lions, no doubt. They had those fellas, they had
those lions, you know, they'd starve them and they'd taunt
them. And those lions would just roar and claw and jumpin' up
and growling and all that, you know, just jumpin'. And then
Daniel's standin' there and they thought, boy, we're gonna, oh, we're gonna
have, we're gonna, oh, we're gonna eat tonight. Oh, they would
just jump and growl and claw at one another and claw at the
walls in that den there. And boy, they took Daniel and
throwed him in. Them lions got just as calm and
as quiet. Never, never growled. Stayed in there overnight. Oh,
the king come out there. Oh, Daniel! Oh, Daniel! I'm here,
old king. I'm here, O King. Don't be afraid. My God, My God, which is in the
heavens, not like that one you got out of silver and gold with
the clay feet. My God, which is in the heavens,
He has shut the lion's mouth. Huh? And when they burnt that
furnace seven times hotter and throwed those children, Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego in it, It killed the men who threw it
in. And one of them stood way back and said, boy, we didn't
throw three in there yet. We did throw three. I see another
one in there. That looks like the Son of God.
He said, let that fire go down. The boys walked right out there.
No sins. And you know, God creates storms,
or calms storms. He created a storm. to get Jonah
into Nineveh, had him thrown overboard, and then He calmed
the storm for His disciples on the Sea of Galilee. If He causes a storm for you,
it's going to be for your good, and if He calms the storm for
you, it's going to be for your good. He does it to give His
glory. And, oh, beloved, I'll tell you this, he that controls
the power and will of the devil. God and the devil's not butting
heads to see who's the best and who's the strongest and who's
the wisest, and it's good and evil. No, no. There was a man
praying one time, and the Satan come up, and he said, God said,
where are you going? He said, I'm going to and fro upon earth,
seeking whom I may devour. He had to ask God for permission
to do anything that he'd done while he was on this earth. And
when our Lord would come upon men full of the devils and say,
O Jesus, thou Son of God, thou Most Holy One, have you come
to torment us? We know who you are before our
time. Oh, listen. And I'll tell you
the history of it. Everything obeys the will of
God. But now God has perfect control over the wills of men
because He's supreme. I'm going to show you something. some things here in a minute,
but look over here in Exodus 34, verse 24. Exodus 34, verse 24. He has perfect
control over the wills of men. It says here, in verse 23, ìThree
times in the year shall all your men children, three times in
the year shall all your men and children appear before the Lord,
the God of Israel. For I will cast out the nations
before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall any man
desire thy land, when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord
thy God thrice in the year." Now why did he say no one will
desire your land? They're going to go up to worship
God three times a year up in Jerusalem. Passover, Feast of
Tabernacles, and the Day of Pentecost. And so they go up there three
times a year. And here's what those heathens
would do. Here's what men would always say when they catch the
men going, let's go take the land. Let's go take their houses.
Let's go take their wives. Let's go take their spoils. Let's
take everything. God says, I'm going to put it
in their hearts that they won't desire your land. When you go
up there, they won't desire your land. You go up there three times
a year, your place will be safe when you get back. That's what He's telling them.
that all men would, you know, the king's heart's in the hand
of the Lord and turn us loose for every will. But now listen
to this. And I know you're saying this.
Well, I know men resist His will. And men do. They resist His will. They ignore His word. They have
a deaf ear to His commandments. Well, how can this be? I'll tell
you two things about God's will. It's manifested in two ways.
There's His revealed will. That's this right here. That's
His revealed will. That's all you and I know anything
about. This right here. This is His revealed will. This
is what He tells us to do. This is what He tells us. He
tells us to believe. He tells us to repent. He tells
us to seek Him. This is God's will. And all men
disregard it. All men do. Nobody, nobody by
nature regards the Word of God. And this is why men are called
rebels, because they rebel against the Word of God. They rebel against
His revealed will. But then the second, not only
does He have a revealed will, but He has a will of decree.
And that will of decree, beloved, or purpose, is carried out to
the minutest detail. Even people that resist His will.
I was working today on Jude for Sunday night. And you know, He
even used wicked men and called them His servants. He makes wicked
men serve Him, do His will. And so His will of decree, His
purpose, is always carried out to the minutest detail. Does
His revealed will? Nobody, nobody pays any attention
to that until He overcomes their will, until He reveals Himself
to them. But His will of decree, it's
always carried out to the minutest detail. Now, I'm going to say
this about all of us, and this is true. You'll have to agree
with this. None absolutely obey Him or walk
perfectly according to His revealed will. None of us walk absolutely
perfectly according to His Word and the will that we know for
ourselves. Do any of us walk into all the
light that we have? No. But I'll tell you something. Does that make God a liar? No, none of us absolutely, perfectly
obey Him or walk perfectly in this world. But His eternal counsels
are going to be carried out perfectly. He works all things out to the
counsel of His own will. Of Him, through Him, and to Him
be all glory, both now and forever. It's given to us to believe on
the name of Christ. And that's why we say, if it's
the Lord's will, we'll go here, we'll go there, we'll do this,
we'll do that. And let me show you this in closing,
Deuteronomy 29, 29. And I'll tell you, this is what's
so glorious about it, is that we have someone to go to. We
have someone to carry our burdens to. We have someone that we get
forgiveness from. And we're not trying to be saved
by our will anyway. And we're not trying to be saved
by our walk, though we want to walk up right before the Lord.
We're not going to be saved by our obedience. We look to be
saved and trust to be saved only by His obedience. We're not going
to be saved by any righteous act we do, but by our Lord's
righteousness. Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. That's that will of decree. That
will that He carries out in our hearts and in our lives and in
this world. But those things which are revealed, Belong unto
us and to our children forever and ever, that we may do all
the words of this law. And it's in our hearts. I know,
as a believer, it's in our hearts to do perfect, to do what's right,
to live to the glory of God. And one of these days, we'll
be able to do it perfectly. Be able to do it perfectly. Beloved,
we're not subject to fate, chance, And our lives are ordered by
the God of heaven and earth. Where now is their God at? I'll
tell you where mine's at. He's in the heavens. I'll tell
you this story in closing. I'm done really. But this is
a true story. This is a true story. This young
boy got converted. He's been a Catholic. He's been
raised Catholic. His daddy's a Catholic. His mother's
a Catholic. God saved him by His grace. And
he'd witnessed to his family, witnessed to them all the time.
And they said, no, no, no, no, what? He looked and said, they
held up his crucifix and said, I'm trusting Christ. I'm trusting
this Christ on the cross. Well, they were gone one day
and that little old boy got his hammer out and he just destroyed
that crucifix of his dad, just beat it all to pieces. And his daddy comes in and he
says, Oh, son, what have you done? You've destroyed my God.
You've destroyed my crucifix. You've destroyed my idol. He said, if he was God and he
could do anything for you, I certainly couldn't have destroyed him.
God opened that man's heart just that quick. If a hammer can tear
your God up, or a furnace can melt him, or a house can burn it down,
or a fire can burn it down, it ain't going to do nobody no good.
Is that right? Ain't you grateful that God is
who He is?