Psalm 115. Now if I start trying to tell you
what I'm planning to preach on in just a few minutes, but Psalm
115 has something to do with it, I assure you. I may not ever
get around to the hymns, so I'll read this with only a minimum
amount of comment if I can. Psalm 115. Let's pray for the Lord's help,
shall we? Lord, we gather in this house
of worship. We have open before us your holy
word. Lord, we desperately need a word
from above. This world is full of speech
and words and languages of all kinds and types. Just about all of it put together
is worth next to nothing. But Lord, if you would speak, oh, what a day that would be. We need, O Lord, a word from
you. We live in a dark day. We live in a day of much religion,
big and getting bigger. But we live in a day of a little
Jesus with big religion. We need a word from the living
and eternal God who inhabits eternity. Lord, this little place is not
so much as a speck on the globe, but if you would lower yourself
to come among us, speak a word of life to our souls, it would be the best place on
this earth, without question. Lord, help us. We cannot help
ourselves. You can do all things. Nothing is hard for You. If You would this day Take your
words from this book. Speak them in power to our souls. Who can describe what would happen? Lord, help us. For Christ's sake,
in his dear name, help us. Amen. Psalm 115, those that are unlabeled we simply
refer to as Psalms of David, it opens with one of the most
needed statements of our generation, But unto your name give glory
for your mercy and for your truth's sake. David's plea, his prayer, may
God make it mine and yours. He continues in speaking to the
Lord, Why should the heathen say, where
is now their God? What the circumstances are, what
has just happened in David's life or experience, I'm not at
all sure. But if you're familiar with the
record of his life in the books of Samuel, you'll certainly know
there was plenty. Why should the unbelieving world,
why should they say, where is now my God? Some tragedy, some
great difficulty, some great trial, whatever the reason, people
are born believing if you love God, bad things don't happen
to you. And I'm here to tell you that's
an absolute lie. Now nothing happens to God's
children without His permission and His divine purpose. But believers have more trials
and difficulties than unbelievers by far. Where is our God now? Right now this morning. What's
he doing? Is he having a tough time? Is
Sunday especially difficult for God because men won't let him
do what he wants to do? That's the modern version of
who God is. That's not the Bible account.
David declares in verse 3, But our God is in the heaven. He has done whatsoever He is
pleased. You can read that statement on
Monday morning and it will mean the same thing, Tuesday morning,
Wednesday morning, any day, any time, anywhere. That does not
change. If this world tomorrow is afflicted
with a world war, that statement will be as true then as ever
it was. On the morning of 9-11-2001,
this statement was still true. Our God is in the heavens. He
has done whatsoever He has pleased. That's never untrue. I might
die before I finish reading this psalm, but that statement will
still be so. The gods of men are declared
in verse 4 to be idols. Many professing Christians have
an idol for their god. They call him by the right names,
even call him Jesus. But the problem is that their
Jesus and the Jesus of the Bible are opposites. They're not the
same person. We've thrown our Bibles to the
scrap heap. We don't read them any longer.
No wonder we're ignorant as to what is inside them. I'm talking to myself as well
as to each one of you. We have no excuse whatsoever.
None. Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men's hands. So any God but the true God is
created how? The works of men's hands. To put it simply, we either worship
ourselves or we worship the God of the Bible. That's the only two there is.
And worshiping ourselves is the same thing, by the way, as worshiping
the devil because he did this before you and I were ever made
before man was ever created. The work of men's hands. Here's
a description of idol gods. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they hear
not. They have... Wait a minute, I've read too
many ears. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes have they, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak through
their throat. And it won't surprise you to
hear a preacher say, God has no hands but your hands, no eyes
but your eyes, no feet but your feet, and all that kind of tommyrot.
And it's every bit a lie. If your God is like that, He's
an idol. There's no other way around it. Truth demands that we say what
we find in this book, and that's what we find. They that make them, in verse
8, are like them. We love ourselves and we want
God to be like us, and so we create in our imaginations a
God just like me, just like you. They that make them are like
them, so is everyone that trusts in them. O Israel, trust you
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You that fear the Lord, trust
in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.
The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will
bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron.
Now forget about literal Israel. This is spiritual speaking. Spiritual
Israel and spiritual Aaron. Verse 13, He will bless them
that fear the Lord, both small and great. He has and He does
and He will. The Lord shall increase you more
and more, you and your children. You are blessed of the Lord which
made heaven and earth. The heaven, even the heavens
are the Lord's. But the earth has He given to
the children of men. The dead, praise not the Lord,
neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the
Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord." Well, Psalm 115 is as close as
I can give you to a text this morning because I have too many
and they're scattered all over the Bible. But I have seven questions
that I've, I think I've named it, questions of eternal consequence. Questions of eternal consequence. If you're still in the book of
Psalms, you turn to Psalm 119, The first question has to do
with the Bible, the Holy Bible, the Word of God, the Scriptures
of truth. Here's the question. Is this
book, the one I have before me and the one you have before you,
is this book really the Word of God? I mean from Genesis 1 to Revelation
22, whatever the verse is, 21 or 22, is this whole book the
Word of God? If it is not, we have no basis
on which to preach or to even talk about eternal and spiritual
things. Without this book, religion is
nothing more and nothing less than the opinions of men. But
if what this book says about itself is so, we cannot afford
to ignore what this book is about. And it's all about God having
mercy on sinners in Jesus Christ. And that's the subject From Genesis
1, 1 to the end. Did you turn to Psalm 119? Look
at verse 128. Here's a verse that I just really,
really like to re-read. And I'm sure I've called it to
your attention many times. I read this statement from this
pulpit in 1981, the first time I set foot behind this pulpit.
This was my opening statement, Psalm 119, verse 128. Therefore, I esteem all your
precepts, all your teachings, all of your word concerning all
things to be right, and I hate every false way. You can't love this truth in
this book and love the God that people have that's not even God.
You can't do it. You can't kowtow to Him. You
can't tip your hat to Him. You can't say, well, yours is
just as good a God as mine. You can't do that. We esteem the words of this book
to be what David here calls them right. Concerning all things,
we have no alternative but to hate every false way. I don't have the time, but I
need to show you one other verse, please. All the way to the other
end of our Bibles almost, 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy. Chapter 3. You all are going to beat me
there, and this is never going to do. There we go. 2 Timothy chapter 3. I was getting
worried. Reading verses 15, 16, and 17.
Paul is writing to Timothy. This is one of Paul's last letters
called a prison epistle. And he's talking to Timothy about
the Scriptures, about the Word of God, which for the most part
when Paul wrote these words was simply the Old Testament, the
New not having yet been penned, except for the letters that preceded
this that Paul wrote, and maybe one or two of the Gospels having
already been mentioned by this time, already been created and
brought into existence. 2 Timothy 3.15. Here's what the
Bible says about the Bible. And speaking of Timothy, that
from a child you have known the holy scriptures, namely the Old
Testament. Now watch this. Which are able,
even the Old Testament is able, Timothy, to make you wise unto
salvation. Has it made us wise unto salvation? through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture, verse 16, all
Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness
that the man of God, the child of God if you please, may be
perfect. Throughly, thrown through, furnished
unto all good works. That, my friend, is the Bible,
the Word of God. It is either that or it ain't
anything. It's nothing. It's nothing. So what's it going to be? Is
this book the Word of God or is it not? I'm telling you, it either is
or it isn't. You can't sit on that fence.
You're going to fall off on one side or the other. Second question, and a question indeed. Did you
save Psalm 115? I forget to remind you to do this,
but you know, We can't leave Psalm 115 out. That's our reading
passage and it has something to say about the second question. You ready for the second question? Who is the God of the Bible? You want it a different way?
Who is God? But who is God described in the Bible? You can't just
say, well, now we're going to talk about who God is. You have
to have some point of reference that is absolute truth. If you
just want to have a discussion and everybody's opinion is worth
as much as the next opinion, you're going to have scrambled
eggs, scrambled God, and then wind up with no God at all. You
can't do that. God is who God says God is, not
who we say He is. Psalm 115, verse 3, here's the
God of the Bible describing Himself in His own words. But our God,
David's God, and my God, and I hope your God, our God is in
the heavens. What kind of God is He? He has
done whatsoever He has pleased. I'm here to tell you that statement
will be absolutely true the day that we're born, the day that
we're born again, the day that our closest loved one dies, and
the day of our death is not going to change that. Our God rules
all things. The Lord Jesus is the absolute
monarch of this whole universe. Everything answers to Him. Nothing
happens without His permission. Not even a leaf falling from
a tree or a kingdom falling flat and being conquered by another.
I'm telling you, He rules everything. Those of you with enough smarts
to do so, you could figure this out pretty easily. If there's
anything in this world He doesn't control, He can't control anything
else. I can't explain that, but I just
know that's how it is. That's how it is. Our God is
in the heavens. He has done whatsoever He has
pleased. So how come all over America
today preachers are telling people, God wants to do this and you
won't let Him? That is not so. That is an absolute
lie. Whether Billy Graham says it
or somebody underneath him, it does not matter. Till we find out who the true
living God is, we don't know a thing about ourselves, nor
about God's mercy and grace in Christ. Daniel, can you give me Daniel
just a second? Chapter 4. I started to say, raise your
hand if you've never heard of Nebuchadnezzar, but I won't do
that to you. You might turn the tables on
me. Nebuchadnezzar was a king who ruled virtually
all of the kingdoms of the world in this day. He has a dream. None of his smart
people that he has on his staff can interpret the dream. Somehow
or another, he finds out about Daniel. And the God who sent
that dream sent him Daniel to interpret the dream. And Nebuchadnezzar
rose in such power and might, and he was full of himself, thought
he had everything just where he wanted it. And so he began
to fill himself with pride. I'm going to try to read this
until I get to the exact place I want to talk about it. Verse
28, Daniel chapter 4. All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of twelve months,
he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon. The king
spoke and said, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for
the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the
honor of my majesty." You reckon he wasn't full of himself? While the word was in the king's
mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar,
to you it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from you and they
shall drive you from men and your dwelling shall be with the
beast of the field. They shall make you to eat grass
as oxen, and seven times, perhaps seven years. The word seven in
the Bible means a perfect number. So a perfect number of times.
How long that is, I don't know. But it's long enough for this
man to grow hair like an animal, claws like a bird. Seven times shall pass over to
you until you know that the Most High, here's the lesson Nebuchadnezzar
is going to learn, like it or not, He didn't ask to learn it,
but God said you'll learn it. That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and
He gives it to whomsoever He will. And I'll just make a little
prophecy right here this morning. Whoever wins the White House
in November will do it because God said it. or he ain't going
to get it. The same hour was the thing accomplished,
fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men
and did eat grass as oxen. His body was wet with the dew
of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers and
his nails like birds' claws. And at the end of the days, I,
Nebuchadnezzar, and here's a changed man, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted
up my eyes unto heaven, and my understanding returned
unto me. And I blessed the Most High,
that is, the Most High God, and honored Him that lives forever, whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. You can't be God and not have
an everlasting dominion. And His kingdom is from generation
to generation, never changes. And all the inhabitants of the
earth, all of us put together of all time, for that matter,
in reputation compared to God, we are nothing. does according to His will in
the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of men. And none
can stay His hand or say unto Him, What do you? What are you doing? God does
as He pleases in the armies of heaven and among all generations
of men. Now is that your God? Is that
my God? Or is it not? If it is, there ain't but one
like this. He's revealed Himself in three
persons in order to help us understand a little bit better who He is,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Who is the God of the Bible? The quick and easy answer is
He's who He says He is. And anybody who says otherwise
is not telling the truth. Third question. Let's take one passage, Romans
Chapter 3. If I could be an artist, like
my friend Marvin Stallnicker, who can draw anything and paint
I would draw you a portrait of ourselves this morning. But I
can't even write my name anymore, let alone draw. I never could
draw, for that matter. But if I read you some statements
out of this book, that is a perfect portrait of each one of us, all
of us. If God would own these words
to our hearts, we would see ourselves like we have never seen ourselves
before. So have you guessed the third
question? Not only who is God. In this book, when people like
Nebuchadnezzar found out who God was, they found out who they
were. I mean several examples of that.
So the next question is, who am I? Who am I? In the light of who
God is, who am I? He's everything, I'm nothing. Romans chapter 3, verse 10 through 19, here's a picture of you and a
picture of me. And if you don't believe it and
if I don't believe it, I can't help you and you can't help me. But I know who can. As it is written, Romans 3.10,
there is none righteous, no, not one. Not me and not you. Not in ourselves. We are the
opposite of righteous. Verse 11, there is none that
understands. We cannot understand divine things. We cannot read and understand
this book. It has to be revealed, revealed. And the problem in today's religion
in America is that the preachers are just as lost as the people
to whom they preach. Neither one knows the God of
this book. If they did, they would not be
where they are. People would be pleased and maybe
even a little more interested than that to put you out the
door. They wouldn't wait for anybody else's permission either. None that understand, here's
the third part of our description. There is none that seeks after
God. And yet the Bible plainly says
that no man finds the Lord who does not seek Him. Ah, the Bible
contradicts itself. No, just in my stupid understanding,
that's all. The whole thing is solved with
1 John 4.19 which says we love Him because He first loved us.
We seek Him because He first sought me. That's not hard. We just don't like what it says.
I hate the way that preacher preaches, yeah. I don't blame
you. Verse 12, they're all gone out
of the way. You and me are all gone out of
the way. We are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good,
no not one. Our throat is an open grave with
our tongue we have used to seat. The poison of asp is under our
lips. Our mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. But we may be talking about how
much we love Jesus. But I'm telling you, if it ain't
so, that's worse than profanity. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
our ways, and the way of peace have we not known. There is no
fear of God before our eyes. Now we know that what thing soever
the law says, it says to those that are under the Here's the
whole purpose of putting these statements before us, that my
mouth and yours may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Then with God's help and direction,
we just might wind up at a gate called mercy, begging the Lord
Jesus to have mercy on our souls. My friend, that's our portrait.
It's right there in those words. All right, the fourth question.
Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is He? Paul, let's do the
quick one. John chapter 1. That's closest
by. John chapter 1. I was going to
ask you to let's go to Isaiah 42 and a couple of other places,
I'm getting desperate. John chapter 1. Now I need to read you 14 verses.
That's a whole lot, I understand. So I'm going to try it. Who is the
Lord Jesus Christ? Here's one of the apostles, the
apostle John. In this gospel that bears his
name, it is a gospel revelation of who Christ is, what Christ
has done, why he did what he did, and where he is right now.
But who is he? Number one. And then we have
reason to think about and talk about what he's done. What he's
done is what it is because of who He is. Who He is. Here's who He is. He's called
the Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is God Almighty. The same was in the beginning
with God. Speaking about this Uncreated
Word, the Lord Jesus Christ. All things, verse 3, were made
by Him. And without Him was not anything
made that was made. He made me, He made you, He made
everything that's ever been made. He's our Maker, our Creator. In Him was life, and it still
is. And His life is the light of
men. If we know anything about God
and anything about ourselves that's true, it came from this
person called the Lord Jesus Christ who is the light of the
world. In Him was life and the life
was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness
and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent
from God whose name was John, John the Baptist. The same came
for a witness to bear witness of the light. that all men through
him might believe. John the Baptist was not that
light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true
light which lights every man that comes into the world. He,
this light, this Word, this God, this Creator, He was in the world. He made it and then came down
here to visit it for thirty-three years. He was in the world. knew Him not." Verse 11, He came unto His own,
even to His own elect people for that matter. He came to His
own nation, the Jews. He came unto His own, and even
His own received Him not. I wonder why? We don't like who He is. We don't
like what He's done. We don't mind a little advice
and a little help along the way, but we don't need a God this
big. We need one that needs our help. And the God of this book ain't
that God. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power or authority to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on His name." Now don't stop at the end of
verse 12. I bet you for the first half
of my life I thought the whole passage stopped right there.
I didn't even know verse 13 was in my Bible. Wouldn't have believed
if I'd have known. People that believe on His name
are described as people whom God raises from a spiritual grave
by new birth. Which were born. Who were born. Not of blood. It's got nothing
to do with who we're kin to. Who our mom and daddy is or anything
else. Which were born. God of blood. Not of blood. nor of the will of the flesh.
It's not if I'm willing. It's God willing. Nor is it of the will of man. Another person cannot give me
salvation. This is the work of a triune
God alone, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, How were we born if we are
born again? Born of God. And He receives from us no help
and no cooperation. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Let me try to answer one more
question. I think this is vital in the day in which we live.
Who did the Lord Jesus come to save? Modern religion cries everybody. He died for everybody, shed His
blood for everybody. I'm here to tell you that's not
so. You've heard it a million times in this pulpit, that's
not so. Whomever he died for, he must have. He cannot lose
a single one. All that the Father gives me,
he said, shall come to me. Him that comes to me, I'll in
no wise cast out. Who did the Lord Jesus come to
save? All right, Matthew's gospel.
Just two little statements. The first one is in chapter 1. Last Sunday we saw the same kind
of language that we're about to read in Matthew chapter 1
in Isaiah 53. Now does the Lord Jesus Save
good people or bad people? Righteous people or sinful people?
Who does he save? The book is not silent on the
subject. We are told quite plainly in many, many places. We sang
it in that hymn a little bit ago, Christ receiveth what kind
of men? Sinful men. That's the only ones
he receives now. People that aren't sinners do
not need this Savior. They just need a little good
advice and they'll be on their way. Matthew 1.21, Joseph is told by the angels
to name the child that Mary is carrying at that moment and give
him a specific name in Matthew 1.21. You shall call His name
Jesus. Why? For He shall save His people
from their sins. And Christ has no people that
are not sinners. And if you ask them individually
if they're a sinner, they will add to it and not subtract from
it. They'll say, oh no, not me, I'm the chief of sinners. Paul
said, this is a faithful and true saying, Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Matthew chapter
9. Matthew 9 and verse 13. Let me
read 12 and 13. Our Lord's just called Matthew
the publican. And though Matthew does not tell
us, I think it's Luke's gospel that does, that Matthew has the
Lord Jesus and the other apostles, and I don't know how many more,
over to his house that same night of that very day. And so they're
at Matthew's house and Christ and His disciples are eating
with publican. tax collectors and sinners. And
in verse 12, when Jesus heard what they said, why does your
master eat with publicans and sinners? He said unto them, they
that behold do not need a doctor, a physician, but they that are
sick. And then he makes this statement,
but go Learn what that means. That the Messiah, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Savior of sinners, only came to save sinners. Go learn what that means. And
now the statement, go learn what that means, not only refers to
the statement we've already considered, but it has to do with the statement
that follows it. Here it is. I will have mercy
and not sacrifice, for I'm not come to call the righteous, or
the good, or the holy, or the sanctified. I'm not come to call
the righteous." Well, who did he come to call? But sinners
to repentance. Sinners. We have had generations of people
in the time that you and I Well, I can't speak of the younger
ones, but most of us have been around, that religion has taught
us that there are certain things that we must do in order to prepare
ourselves for Christ to save us. We must start reading our
Bible a certain amount, praying a certain amount, giving a certain
amount, attendance a certain amount, and on and on. It just
gets more ridiculous the longer it goes on. We're telling people
how to improve themselves so God will look favorably on us.
You know, it creates those things become actual antichrist. And
the very reason that God has no mercy for us, because we think
we can do something to deserve salvation, go learn what that
means. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And then I was going to ask you
how God saves, and it is the work of a triune God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. And then I was going to try to
finish up and wished I could have jumped to this question
and done so. I was going to put this question to ourselves specifically. Is God trying to save everybody? Is He or not? The Baptist God, the Methodist
God, the Catholic God, and so on and so forth, yes, He is. The God of this book? No, He
isn't. God is saving every last single
sinner that He intends to save, every day that rolls by on the
face of this earth. And when He's saved all that
He intends to save, this world will come to an end, and not
until then. We're going to still have summer
and winter until time is no more. And you can tell that to your
global warming friends. I don't care.