Let's open our Bibles together
to Exodus chapter 15. Exodus chapter 15. Our pastor's asked that we read
the first 19 verses. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord. For he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He
is my God. I will prepare him in habitation,
my Father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency, Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
Thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.
And with the blast of thy nostrils, the waters were gathered together.
The floods stood upright as in heat, and the depths were congealed
in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide
the spoil. My lust shall be satisfied upon
them. I'll draw my sword, my hand shall
destroy them. Thou didst blow with thy wind,
the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord? Among the gods, who is like thee?
Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Thou
stretchest out thy right hand, the earth swaddled them. Thou
and thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them in thy
strength unto thy holy habitation. The people shall hear and be
afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestine. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab trembling
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them. By the greatness of thine arm, they shall be as still as
a stone, till thy people pass over, O Lord, till thy people
pass over, which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place,
O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord
shall reign forever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went
in with his chariots, with his horsemen into the sea, and the
Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went
on dry land in the midst of the sea. Let's go to our Lord in
prayer. Our God, Father in heaven, Lord,
we thank thee for this thy word. Lord, truly, who is a god like
unto thee? Lord, we thank you for the privilege
of gathering together here as a people this morning. Lord,
let us not take this for granted. Lord, the privilege of worship. to sing these hymns of praise,
to read thy word, Lord, to offer up our thanks unto thee, Lord,
to hear thy word proclaimed. Lord, cause us to be thankful
and not take these things for granted. Truly, what a privilege
it is to approach unto thee. Lord, we thank you that, Lord,
you've delivered your people. Lord, that you've taken our sin
and cast it into the depths of the sea. Lord, that you have
redeemed us, Lord, by the blood of thy son. Lord, we thank you
for the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, enable us to worship thee
here this morning. Lord, bless us as we're here,
and Lord, bless our pastor as he stands in this place to proclaim
the truth of thy word. Lord, take that which you've
laid upon his heart, that which he's studied and prepared, and
Lord, speak to thy people this morning. Lord, speak through
thy servant. Lord, we thank you for these
many young ones that you've given us. Lord, we have so much to
be thankful for. Lord, we pray that you'd watch
over and protect and keep them, Lord, in this world. But Lord,
above all things, that you would be merciful to them, Lord, that
you would reveal your son to them, that you would, Lord, cause
us, cause our people to see Christ, enable us to rest in him in all
things. Lord, for those in our neighborhood
in a time of trouble and difficulty, those who are sick and those
who are away from us, Lord, that you'd comfort and heal and, Lord,
enable them to return speedily here to this place. Now, again,
We thank you for this opportunity to gather together. Lord, bless
us here this morning. Bless us with your words. Set
aside the thoughts and cares of this world. Let us seek Christ. For it's in his name we pray
and give thee thanks. Amen. Just keep your Bibles open to
that passage Brother Eric just read for us. I've titled the message this
morning, Who is Like Unto Thee, O Lord. I hope the Lord's given
me a message and enables me to preach it in such a way that
we're simply awestruck at who God is and that he has enabled
us to know him and to worship him. Now the scene here is Moses
leads the people in singing this song The Lord has just set his
people Israel free from bondage in Egypt. They've been there
430 years, and now they're free. They crossed over, Israel did.
They crossed the Red Sea on dry ground. You know, they got trapped
there at the Red Sea. Pharaoh's army was coming, and
they were scared. They thought surely they'd be
destroyed, and Moses told them, stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. The Lord delivered them through
that Red Sea. They walked through on dry ground,
And then Pharaoh and his army, the mightiest army in the history
of the world at that point, they were going to come through the
Red Sea and chase them down. And Lord brought that walls of
water down on them, destroyed that mighty army, drowned them
all in the Red Sea. Now to anybody watching this
go on, it was obvious the Lord has brought his people out of
bondage at me with a mighty stretched out arm. The Lord set his people
free. And he did it through a picture
of the blood atonement of Christ. Remember that Passover? That
was the first Passover. That's what caused Israel to
be set free. Remember that all the firstborn in the land of
Egypt died and they thrust Israel out. They gave them all their
gold and silver and told them, here's money for your journey.
Get out of here. They were delivered through the blood atonement.
The Lord delivered his people by himself. over three million,
may have been three million men, I don't know, it could have been
more, but at least three million slaves were set free against
their master's will, and they never fired a single shot. The
Lord set his people free, didn't he? The Lord did, and everybody
knew it. And now Moses leads all three
million of these former slaves in singing this song of praise
to God. And it's such a great song, and
I'm not gonna get it for time's sake, into any of the verses
except one phrase in it, in verse 11. Who is like unto thee, O
Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Who is like unto
thee, O Lord? Well, the answer's no one, no
one. There is no God like our God. There's no idol like our God. There's none like our God. And
I want to give you six ways that that's true. Number one, there's
no God like our God in his holiness and his grace. Now there's no
idol. This is what we read in Isaiah
chapter 40. There's no idol that can be compared
to our God. You know, idols, they either
forgive sin without punishing sin or They're so strict that
they punish nearly every sin, and you just gotta be real good
to please them. You gotta be very, very careful,
you know, because they pretty much punish all sin. You gotta
do something pretty spectacular to please them. One or the other,
I mean, they either ignore justice or they're just completely just.
No idol man has ever devised has found a way to both forgive
sin and punish sin at the same time. you won't find a single
idol, you won't find a single message that men have come up
with that can do both of those things at the same time. Be merciful
and just at the same time. Can't be found. The only place
that can be found is our God, the true and living God. That's
why there's none like him. There's no Lord like our God.
Our God, the God of the Bible. He's holy and he's merciful. He's both just and he's forgiving. You know, Moses Song here, he
says, the Lord is glorious in holiness. God's holiness is majestic. It's majestic. God is holy. He's holy. He's without sin.
Another meaning of that word is other. He's other than us. God is holy. God's character
is holy. So everything God does is majestic
in its holiness. He will never ignore sin. He's
glorious in his holiness. We saw that he destroyed Pharaoh
and his army in the Red Sea, every last one of them. But you
know, God is also merciful. He redeems his people. Look over
at verse 13. Thou and thy mercy, now you're
holy, you're glorious in holiness, but thou and thy mercy has led
forth the people which thou hast redeemed. Thou hast guided them
in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. God redeems his people
from their sin. In the night of the first Passover,
the Lord gave us a picture of how you can do this. He gave
us a picture of the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. In God's
redemption, when God redeems his people, all sin is punished. There's not a single sin that
goes unpunished. The firstborn in the Israelites'
houses, they lived, didn't they? They all lived. Why did they
live? Because when the Lord came through
in judgment that night, he passed over the houses of the Israelites,
because there was blood on the door. Blood on the door signified
there's already been death in this home tonight. The substitute
has died. The blood's been applied. And
God could pass over that house because he saw the blood. Justice
has been satisfied. Sin had already been punished
in the person of the substitute. But when the Lord came to the
houses of the Egyptians, there was no blood, was there? No blood
on the door. There'd been no death in that
home yet that night. Sin had not yet been punished
with death in that home. So God came in and he killed
the firstborn in justice. And that's what God said he'd
do. So he's just in doing it. He's just and holy because he's
majestic. He's glorious in his holiness.
Everything God does is holy and right. It was right for God to
come in and kill that firstborn because there's no blood. Sin
must be punished. God must punish all sin. And
sin will either be punished in the death of Christ our substitute
or in our eternal condemnation. One way or the other, all sin
will be punished. The only way a holy God can pardon
your sin, forgive you of your sin, is if Christ died as your
substitute. See, that's how God is both just
and merciful at the same time. He's merciful to you because
he dealt in justice with his son, your substitute. Look over
at Micah chapter 7. If you have the authorized version,
that's page 1158. It's between Jonah and Nahum. If Christ died for you, you are
redeemed and you can never die, never. Micah seven, verse 18. Who is a God like unto thee that
pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage He retaineth not his anger forever because
he delights in mercy. He will turn again. He will have
compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities
and will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou
wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham, which
thou has sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. God pardons
the sin of his people. He passes by the transgression
of his people. Why? Because he cast their sins
into the depths of the sea. And that's a picture for this.
He made their sins to not exist anymore. I mean, now we can send
an unmanned submarine to find old shipwrecks and things, but
then they couldn't. Something's cast into the depths
of the sea, it doesn't exist anymore. Gone forever. That's
what Christ did with the sins of his people. He cast them into
the depths of the sea. He made them to not exist anymore
when He shed His blood to pay for those sins. God punished
sin, didn't He? He's just. And He's merciful. That just, merciful salvation
can only be found in the Lord, Jehovah, our God. Salvation that
satisfies holiness and mercy? That's doing wondrously. That's
what Moses said the Lord does wondrously. The most wondrous
thing God has ever done is save his people in justice. Show mercy
to them in justice. That's the most wondrous thing
God has ever done. There's no God like our God. If he saves you, you can never
lose that salvation because it's just and right. If God punished
Christ for your sin, the same justice that demand Christ die
as your substitute also demands that you live. That salvation
can only be found in Christ. There's no God like unto our
God. All right, number two, look at Deuteronomy chapter 33. There's
no God like our God as a refuge from God's justice. Deuteronomy 33 verse 26. There is none like unto the God
of Jeshurun, who writeth upon the heaven in thy help, and in
his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms, and he shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy them. Christ
our Savior is God's eternal refuge, and that refuge is held up by
God's everlasting arms. Now to my way of thinking, that's
safe. To be hidden in Christ, held up by God's everlasting
arms, that's safe. Nothing can touch you there.
If you're hiding in Christ, God's justice can never touch you. Never. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one and only refuge that can stand up to God's wrath
against sin. He already did it upon Calvary's
tree. God's wrath against the sin of
his people. The father made his son sin for
his people. And the father poured out his
wrath upon his son. But it didn't destroy the son,
did it? When sin was put away, what did Christ do? He gave up
the ghost. It's the only sacrifice that
ever consumed the fire. He suffered until the fire of
God's wrath went out, and then he gave up the ghost because
justice demands death for sin. He's already held up as the refuge. Now you hide in Him. If you're
hiding in Christ, God's justice can never touch you because it's
already been satisfied by the death of your substitute. I thought
of that. I was going over my notes this
morning and I thought of that. You're not hiding in Christ like
a guilty criminal. Well, they just can't find you.
Your justice just can't You're hiding there as a guilty criminal,
but you're safe because nobody can find you. That's not the
case. You're safe in Christ, because
if you're in Christ, brother, God's wrath's not even looking
for you. Not looking for you. It's already been satisfied by
the death of your substitute. See, there's no other refuge
like Christ our Savior. No refuge. All man's religion
comes up with something based upon you to do that makes your
sin okay. Maybe you confess your sin to
a fella, you know, in a little dark booth or something, you
know. Maybe you say so many, you know, their little mantras.
Maybe you give so much money to the church. Maybe you do so
many good works. Whatever it is, something, some
part of your safety depends on something that you do. Every
other religion but the gospel. Every religion gives you something
to do. It depends upon you in some way. And God's word tells
us how that deal will end up. Oh, you think you got a refuge,
don't you? It's a refuge of my works. It's a refuge of things
I've done to make God happy with me. And God calls it a refuge
of lies. He said, my wrath comes, it'll
sweep it away. The only refuge that won't be swept away is Christ
our Savior. Everybody in him will always
be safe. And that brings me to the third
thing. Look at the book of 1 Samuel. 1 Samuel chapter 2. The third thing is this. There's
none like our God as a foundation of salvation. If our salvation is going to
stand eternally, there's got to be a foundation. but know
God like our God as a foundation. In 1 Samuel 2, verse 1, and Hannah
prayed and said, my heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine
enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. Not something
I've done, in thy salvation, the salvation you gave me. There
is none holy as the Lord. for there's none beside thee.
Neither is there any rock likened to our God. Now that rock that
Hannah's talking about is the Lord Jesus Christ, the foundation
of our salvation. Peter said that Christ is that
rock. He's the chief cornerstone. He's elect. He's precious. And
he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. He'll never
be found guilty. If Christ is the foundation of
your salvation, you can never be moved. You'll never be moved
off of him because Christ will never be moved. It's not because
you won't be moved. It's not because the strength
of your faith is so strong, you won't be moved. If the foundation
of your salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll never be
moved because he can't be moved. As I said a minute ago, he's
already stood up to the wrath of God for the sin of his people.
If the father's wrath didn't move him, nothing else is going
to. Nothing's going to move him. He's already shielded his people
from the fire of God's wrath. He bore it for them. Now you
hide in him. You hide in that rock and you'll
be safe. You build all of your hope upon
him and you'll be safe. Now we don't have time to turn
to all these scriptures, but let me read you a few scriptures
here. Show you that Christ, our rock, and why we can depend upon
him. David said in Psalm 62 verse
six, he only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not be moved. Now, if
the only hope I have is Christ, I'll never be moved. Never. Now, if any of our refuge, if
it depends, if our refuge, we're hoping to hide from God's justice
against our sin, If any of that refuge is based on my works,
it's Christ plus something I've done to shore that thing up.
If my works has anything to do with it, I've not built on Christ
at all. I've built on the sinking sand
of man's works and God said that refuge will be swept away. But
if our refuge is built on Christ and Christ alone, we built upon
the solid rock and we'll always be secure. Always. That's why
David said, I shall not be moved. If I'm built on Christ, founded
upon Christ, I shall not be moved. And I'll tell you why we shall
not be moved. Here's the other thing about Christ our rock.
He's made his people perfect. Like I said a little bit ago,
it's not like you're guilty and you're hiding in Christ and you're
just getting away with it because nobody can find you because you're
hiding in him. Christ has made his people perfect. That's what
our rock has done. Deuteronomy 32 verse four. He
is our rock. His work is perfect. The work
of righteousness that our savior came to do is perfect. And that's how he made his people
perfect. He didn't obey the law for himself. He was already righteous. He's already holy. Why was he
obeying the law? For you, his people. He's obeying
the law for his people as their representative and his work is
perfect. His obedience is perfect. His
righteousness is perfect. His holiness is perfect. And
that's the perfect righteousness of His people. Our Rock is not
just like a rock sitting there in the dirt doing nothing. He
came and in His work made His people perfect. In Our Rock,
I thought about this. When I was a kid, we'd go to
visit our aunts and uncles and the whole family, you know, get
together, holidays and things. Man, I slept on a sleeping bag
on the floor. I mean, I was fine. I thought
that actually, I thought this is just as comfortable as a bed.
I can't sit on the floor for five minutes anymore. Hiding
in a rock, sitting on a rock. Honestly, that doesn't sound
all that appealing to me. It seems pretty uncomfortable
to me. Christ our rock does not give his people a hard, ungiving,
difficult place to rest. Christ, our rock, gives his people
the sweetness of the gospel. We're not up here just talking
about doctrinal facts. This gospel's sweet. You know,
if we fall into the trap of just preaching against all the error
out there in the world, we're going to have a hard edge to
us. The gospel is sweet. It ought to break our heart and
tenderize our heart every time we hear it. Christ our rock gives
his people the sweetness of the forgiveness of our sin, the sweetness
of acceptance with the father. He gives us the sweetness of
his love for us. Can you think of anything sweeter
than the one who's majestic in his holiness, loving somebody
like you and me? I can't. It's sweet, isn't it? That's our rock. I'm not just
making that up either. Deuteronomy 32 verse 13. He made
him to suck honey out of a rock. Now, how in this world are you
going to get honey out of a rock? Only Christ our rock. He gives
his people the honey the sweetness of the gospel. You're not going
to find any other foundation that gives you that. Every other
foundation that man gives you to try to build your salvation
upon is always going to give you bitterness. Because it's
going to give you something to do that you can't do. And if that wasn't enough, what
our Rock gives his people, on top of all that, our Rock was
smitten. He was smitten for our sins.
Remember, it's not long after they sang this glorious song
of redemption when they came out of Egypt. I mean just days. And they were complaining at
Moses. Why did you bring us out here in the wilderness to die?
You brought us out here to die in the thirst. It would have
been better for us if we just stayed slaves. And remember what the Lord did?
He told Moses. He said, I'll be on that rock. Take your rod
and you smite that rock. And Moses did. and outgushed
water. Outgushed water enough for three
million people and their animals. Saved them all from dying of
thirst. One rock. One smiting. Oh, there's no rock like our
rock. What other rock can give you water? Scripture in other
places calls it a flinty rock. Water don't come through this
thing now. Water didn't seep through it like osmosis or something.
Water came from the rock. What rock can do that? None,
but our rock. And Paul told us that rock was
Christ. That rock, that great rock in
the wilderness followed the people through the wilderness and Paul
said that rock was Christ. He was smitten one time. He was smitten once by his one
sacrifice for sin. He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. When Christ our Savior was smitten,
when that old, hard-hearted, mean Roman soldier, you know,
he's used to seeing death. He just, you know, just like,
pour it on. The Lord's already dead. But just for meanness sake, he
poked that spear up into the Savior's side. And John said,
now I saw this. I saw this. This is true. I'm
an eyewitness to this. Out flowed blood and water. Our
rock was smitten and out flowed blood and water. Blood to atone
for sin. Water to cleanse us from all
of our sin. Now I ask you, what other rock
can do that? What other idol can do that? Can you name one?
That both pays for your sin and cleanses you from sin too? No
one but Christ. There's no God like unto our
Lord. None. Oh, what a Savior. What a Savior
we have to trust. It's just mind-blowing, isn't
it? Right? The fourth thing, look at Psalm
71. Psalm 71. I touched on this a minute ago.
There's none like our God in His righteousness. Psalm 71, verse 19. Thy righteousness also, O God,
is very high. Who has done great things? O
God, who is like unto thee? God himself is righteous. It's like holiness. It's his
nature. His nature is to be righteous and holy. And in and of itself,
that's a wonder. No one else is righteous but
our God. Not one. There's never been a man to live
who's righteous except the Lord Jesus Christ. The only one in
all of creation who's righteous is our God. He's the only one.
That makes it a wonder, doesn't it? But David says here God has
done great things. One of the greatest wonders God
has ever done is making his people truly righteous. The father made
the son sin. He made him sin for his people.
And the Savior took that sin of his people into his own body
upon the tree, and he put it away by the sacrifice of himself.
And because that sin's gone, it's been washed away, the price
has been paid in full, the Lord Jesus Christ made his people
to be the righteousness of God in him. He made them to be righteous. That new man born of God is righteous,
and he can never cease. I know the flesh is still there
and all he can do is sin, but the new man, born of God, can
never sin because his nature is righteous. The old man, all
he does is sin because that's nature. The new man can never
sin because that's his nature. And people will say, I know you've
heard People say this. They say, well, no, we're not
really righteous. That's just the way that God
sees us. We will be someday, you know, in heaven, but we're
not really righteous now, because that's just the way, you know,
that's just what God's calling it. I beg your pardon. Beg your pardon. God's holy. He's not an unjust judge that's
going to call something it's not. The way God sees things
is the way they really are. The problem is the way we see
things. The way God sees things is the way they really are. You
and I are looking on the outward, on the flesh. Well, there's no
evidence of righteousness there, is there? God looks on the heart,
the heart that he made, the heart that he gave you, the heart that
he made righteous. No one else, nobody else even
claims to do this. There's not another idol even
claims to do this, to make God's sinful people to be righteous. Oh, there's none like our God
and his righteousness that he gave his people his righteousness
and actually made him righteous. All right, here's the fifth thing. Look at Psalm 89. There's none
like our God and his faithfulness. Psalm 89 verse 8, O Lord God
of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee, or to thy faithfulness
round about thee? Now the true living God is a
covenant God. As I tell you often, when we
talk about God being a covenant God, what we mean is this. What
God is doing now is what he promised to do before creation. What God
is doing now is what he promised to do for man ever got here.
You know, people make it sound like, well, God's sovereign,
but the way they make it sound is, well, God is, is reacting
to what you and I are doing. And he sees, Oh, well, you know,
they've seen, or they've gone off on a tangent here and I've
got to react. I've got to correct things. Keep constantly, you
know, bringing it back so that my purpose is accomplished. That's
like autopilot on a plane. If I understand how that works,
autopilot, you know, the wind blows this way and the autopilot
keeps correcting it. God's not correcting things.
He's doing what he promised to do before he created anything.
That's what God is doing. He promised he's going to do
it and he's faithful to do it. He's faithful. The Old Testament
scriptures are full of that truth, aren't they? And the example
that we'll use is God bringing the children of Israel out of
Egypt. You know, God promised Abraham he'd do that. He said,
Abraham, your descendants are gonna go down into Egypt. And
they'll be there about 400 years, I'm gonna bring them out. Now
it took a long time for it to happen, but that's just exactly
what God did. He did it, and he did it in the
time that he said he'd do it. God always keeps his promise. And all of that is given to us
as a picture of salvation. Now God's faithful to keep his
promise. He's faithful to his word. Then that means the salvation
of God's elect is sure. Because God promised to save
him. In Hebrews 10 verse 13 says he is faithful that promised.
He'll keep his word. See the salvation of God's elect
is not based upon our works. It's not based upon our faithfulness.
It's based upon God's covenant. God's covenant of grace, His
promise to save His people by His grace. Not through our works,
but through the work of Christ. By His doing and His dying, God
has promised to save a people. And right now, that's just exactly
what He's doing. He's saving and feeding and keeping
His people by the preaching of His word. Now, God does save
His people through faith, by grace, through faith. Through
the faith that God gives you. If you would be saved, you must
believe on Christ. I call on every one of you right
now, you and me both, believe on Christ. But now I'm not giving
you work to do. The only way we can believe Christ
is if God gives us faith to believe him. We're saved through faith. But also don't be mistaken about
this. Faith is not a work for you to
do, something you to make up and produce in yourself. And
also don't be mistaken about this. We should be faithful. Oh, we should be faithful. But
no part of our salvation is based upon our faithfulness, our faithfulness
to keep ourselves, our faithfulness to Christ. And that's a mighty
good thing because our faith is so weak and so fickle. I mean the slightest thing can
shake our faith. I mean, just something in the
flesh, just anything can shake our faith. But salvation is not
based upon our faithfulness. It's not based upon the strength
of our faith. We should be faithful. Oh, our faith should be so strong? Well, let's just be honest with
each other. It's not, is it? Well, I'm glad to be able to
tell you salvation is not based upon the strength of your faith
or your faithfulness. Salvation is dependent upon the
object of our faith. Salvation, the salvation of a
sinner is dependent upon the faithfulness of Christ to do
everything necessary to save his people from their sin. And
that's just exactly what he's done. Hold your place in the
Psalms. We'll come back there in just
a second. Look at Galatians chapter two, Galatians two and verse 16. knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, by his works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by
our works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no
flesh be justified. How are we justified? By the
faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to fully accomplish
everything that the father sent Him to do. And I tell you, that
makes me glad. I'm so glad that salvation depends,
all of it, upon Christ, the faithfulness of Christ. Christ saves His people. He tells His people, I've done
it all for you. It is finished, He said. Well, that takes all the pressure
off, doesn't it? There's no idol. like our God, they all put pressure
on you. They all put pressure on you.
Years ago, I worked for a man. He was very religious. Very,
very, very wealthy. And he told me, he said, every
once in a while, I got to tell that preacher of mine, quit calling
me out and telling me to give more. Just let everybody give. Quit calling me out. He said,
does your pastor do that? I said, never. He didn't believe
me. He did not believe me. Because
just going to church, going to his religion, having that religion
put a guilt trip on you and put pressure on you is just normal. He just thought that's what religion
is. Our Savior takes all the pressure off. Now aren't you
thankful to depend on Him? Aren't you? Alright, here's the
last thing. Look at Psalm 113. There's none like our God in
his pity for sinners. Psalm 113, verse five. Who is like unto the Lord our
God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the
things that are in heaven and in earth. We think about our
God being high and lofty. And we really got no idea. Our
God is so high above us. He's so high and holy. He has
to humble himself to behold things in heaven. I mean, you and I
just, we, we strain and we can't even imagine what heaven's like,
the glory of that place. He's got to humble himself to
behold things in heaven. That being so, try to imagine
how God's got to humble himself to behold us, specks of dust
in his creation. How far does he have to humble
himself to look at you and me? I'm telling you there's no God
like unto our God. He doesn't just look at his people
in their low estate. He does something about it. Look
at verse seven. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust. He lifteth the needy out of the
dunghill. that he may set him with princes, even with the princes
of his people. He maketh the barren woman to
keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye
the Lord. Now if the Lord's got to humble
himself and look at things in heaven, just look at him. How
did he humble himself to become an embryo in the womb of a virgin?
How far did he have to go down? How far did he have to humble
himself to take on him flesh so that he could save a sinful
people in the flesh? I'm sure many men have said it,
but the first man I ever heard say this was Brother Happy Eights.
He said, Christ being made flesh, that's the longest journey ever
taken. And it was a journey down, buddy. Oh, how he humbled himself. And then he humbled himself further.
How did the holy son of God humble himself to be made sin for his
people? How did the prince of life humble
himself to die for the sin of his people? It's unimaginable,
unimaginable. Get a hold of your seat. He humbled
himself and he did all that because he loves his people. He said
he did it for the joy that was set before him, the joy of redeeming
his people that he loves from their sin. Now I'm telling you,
there is no God like our Lord. Nobody else would pity such wretched
cases as you and me. Man's religion is always looking
for the princes of this world, the rich and the powerful, somebody
that can do something for them. Our God has such pity for his
people. He saved somebody that can't
do anything for him. Who else? But our God would save
a sinner like me. All of my sin is willful sin
and willful rebellion against him. Yet he's the one that came
paid for my sin. Who else would do that? Nobody
but Jehovah. There's no God like our God.
Who else would save a dead, stinking, rotten sinner and give him life
even though they could never do one thing to please him? Who
else would do that? I ask you. Nobody but our God,
only Jehovah. Who else would love a rebellious
sinner so much that he would slaughter his only son to pay
for my sin? and bring me into his presence.
Who? Nobody but our God. Oh, there is no God like unto
our God. Many of you here know him. Aren't
you glad to know that God? Aren't you amazed that God will
reveal himself to you? That makes you worship, doesn't
it? If He'll show us who He is like that, we'll worship Him.
I pray we will. Let's bow together. Our Father,
how we thank You that there is no God like unto Thee. There's
no Savior like our Savior. Father, I pray, I beg of You
that You would take Your Word as it's been preached this morning,
enable us to see Your glory in it. Enable us to see the glory
of Christ our Savior in it. and cause us to run to him. Cause
us to bow at your feet and worship. Thankful, grateful, heart-cheering
worship. Worship and adoration of our
God, who's so great and high and lofty, yet would still do
something for the lowest of the low like we are. Father, how
we thank you. Bless your word for your glory.
Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake and
his glory, Amen. All right, Jonathan. Y'all remember
to check this directory down here so I can make sure I got
everything right, all right?