Now let's open our Bibles to
the book of Psalms, the 138th Psalm, 138. The title of this message is,
Other Gods and Other Gospels. Now here in Psalm 138, verse
1, David said, I will praise thee I will praise
thee with my whole heart before the gods," you see, that's a
little g, before the idols and the heathen gods and the false
gods that are all about in the midst of false gods and idolatry,
will I sing praise unto thee. Now David was as vexed and angry. about idols and other gods as
we are about other Gospels. Another Gospel is to have another
God. To preach another Gospel is to
preach another God. And nothing, nothing is more
troublesome or trying to the soul of a true believer and to
be in the midst of and surrounded with worthless vile counterfeits,
claiming to be God and claiming to be the gospel of God. And that's what we are in the
midst of today, other gods and other gospels. David said in
Psalm 96, verse 5, all the gods of the heathen are idols. All the gods of the heathen are
idols, but the Lord made the heavens. The Lord is an almighty
God, a creating God. I want you to look back one page
to Psalm 135. Psalm 135, beginning with verse
15. And when I read this scripture,
we're not just talking about something that was prevalent two or three thousand years ago,
I'm talking about now. Verse 15 of Psalm 135, the idols
of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do
not speak. They do not speak with authority. Our God speaks with majesty and
authority. He said, I've spoken it, it shall
come to pass. I've purposed it, I'll do it.
God speaks. And these heathen gods, they
have eyes, but they don't see. They have ears, but they hear
not, neither is any breath in their mouths. God has no, they
tell me, hands but your hands, and no feet but your feet. Well,
the idol God has no hands and no feet, but the Lord of heaven,
his arm is not shortened that it cannot save. His ear is not
heavy that it cannot hear, and the eye of the Lord is in every
place, beholding the evil and the good. But verse 18 says, they that
make these idols are likened to them. They make their idols
like themselves, and they're like their idols. And so is everyone
that trusteth in them. likened to them. Bless the Lord,
O house of Israel. Bless the Lord, O house of Abraham. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. Ye that fear the Lord, bless
the Lord. Praise the Lord. Blessed be the
Lord God out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord. Turn to Isaiah 44. The 44th chapter
of Isaiah. We have Isaiah talking about
this same plague. this same pollution and corruption
that had gripped the earth. In Isaiah 44, verse 15, he says,
Then shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof,
and warm himself. Yea, he kindleth it, and baketh
bread. Yea, he maketh a god, and worshipeth
it. He makes his own god. He maketh
it a graven image, and falleth down thereto." He makes his own
God. He fashions it and forms it,
conceives it in his mind and imagination. God is what he wants
God to be. His God is. Verse 17, "...and
the residue thereof he maketh a God, even his graven image,
and falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth to
it, and saith, Deliver You're my God. You're my God. God's not who we think he is.
God's who he says he is. God's not who we make him to
be. God is who he declares himself
to be. And Paul, the apostle, said they'll
come preaching another God, another Jesus, another spirit, and another
gospel. And he detested the thought of
another gospel, yet he said, even if an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel, let him be accursed. And the beloved
John warned, oh, how he warned of false prophets. Over here
in 1 John chapter 4, 1 John chapter 4, he says this, he says, writing to the church, Beloved,
believe not every preacher. It says believe not every spirit,
but this is the spirit that speaks through the preacher. Every preacher
preacheth by some spirit, either the spirit of God or the
spirit of covetousness, the spirit of idolatry, the spirit of pride,
the spirit of greed, an evil spirit. Don't believe everybody
that says he's a preacher, but try these spirits, whether they
are of God, the One God, the Living God, the Eternal God,
because many false preachers have gone out into the world,
many of them. Peter said there were many in
the nation Israel and there are many today among you. Hereby
know ye the Spirit of God. Here's the way to know. Every
spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ, Jesus, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the well-beloved, is come from heaven to earth
and made in the likeness of flesh, is of God. And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of
God, and this is a spirit of antichrist. Antichrist. Where if you've heard that it
should come, you've read that the Spirit of Antichrist will
come, and even now already is in this world. Turn back to our
text in Psalm 138. And David said, before these
false idols and false prophets and false preachers and false
gods, before all of this, in the midst of all this idolatry, I will direct my my praise and
my prayer and my thoughts to thee, O God. I will praise thee
with my whole heart." Now, I ask, dare any of us approach the living
God with anything less than the whole heart? Now, an idol may be worshiped
with form and ceremony. An idol god, a false god, may
be worshipped with the bowing of the head or the bending of
the knee, or with processionals or whatever,
outward, visible form and ceremony. But the living, eternal God is
only worshipped with the heart. You see what I'm saying? This
is what David has said. These people go through their
contortions and their forms and their ceremonies and their rituals
to worship their gods. In our day, they count the beads,
they give the signs, they bow and kneel and lift up hands. They go through all of these
contortions and positions and rituals and an idol. He is worshipped with that sort
of thing. It's an outward ceremony in form,
but the living God is worshipped in the heart. That's what he
says here, I will praise thee with my whole heart, my heart. We are true Israel that worship
God in spirit, not in form and ceremony, but in spirit. God says this, he says, my son,
give me your heart. I'm not really interested in
your bodily exercise. Bodily exercise profiteth little.
Give me your heart." As a man thinketh in his heart, that's
what he is. He said, God knows your hearts,
and that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination to
God. Our Lord said, these people honor
me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And you know what Peter said
to Simon Magus? Your heart's not right with God.
Your heart. So David opened Psalm 138 with
these words, I will praise thee with my whole heart, with an
undivided heart, with a single heart. with a genuine heart,
with a broken heart, with a contrite heart, with a sincere heart,
O God, I will praise Thee. And before all these idols and
false gods and false gospels, will I sing my praise unto Thee."
Now look here at verse 2, and let me add this. You know Joshua
says Do what you will. But I speak
only for myself. He said it's for me. And my house,
we're going to serve the Lord God. Let those who want to play the
game of religion play it. But I will praise Him with my
heart. Let those who will compromise
and patronize and socialize, let them do it. But I will praise
Him with my heart. Let those who will promote and
proselyte and build a following, but let us with David praise
him with our hearts. Let those who will seek great
things for themselves, but let us sing with the hymn writer
of old, My God, My God, the spring of all my joy, the life of all
my delight, the glory of my brightest days and the comfort of my longest
nights. In darkest shadows, if he appear,
my dawning is begun. For he's my sole sweet morning
star, and he is my rising sun. Blessed is the man, O God, whose
heart is stayed on thee. who waits for thy salvation,
Lord, for he shall thy salvation see." So whatever you are told in this
day, and whatever you have heard, and whatever you may believe,
the worship and faith that is born of grace and is directed
toward the living God is a heart business, not a hand business,
nor a foot business. It's a heart business. So I will praise Thee, the living
God. Let others do what they will
with my whole heart. And in this mess and in the midst
of all this idolatry and false worship and compromise, I'm going
to sing praise to God. Now watch verse 2. And I will
worship for Thy holy temple. I will worship for thy holy temple. I will worship for thy holy temple."
Now listen to me carefully. Listen carefully. In the Word of God, back here
in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, turn over
there with me, chapter 12, we'll get some insight into this now. You see, I get a picture of those
of those Arabs or Muslims out there turning in the direction
of Mecca, or whatever that is, and saying their prayers. That's
not what you're advocating, is it? Not now. Here, when David
wrote this, he said, I worship toward thy holy temple. Now watch
this. In Deuteronomy 12, beginning
with verse 10, this is important. Deuteronomy 12, now when you
go over Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God
giveth you to inherit, and when he giveth you rest from all your
enemies round about so that you dwell in safety, then there shall
be a place, a place, which the Lord your God shall choose to
cause his name to dwell there, and thither to that place shall
you bring all that I command you, your burnt offerings, your
sacrifices, your tithes, The heave offering of your hand,
all your choice vows which you vow unto the Lord. You shall
worship before the Lord your God, ye, your sons and your daughters,
your men serveth, maid serveth, the Levite that is within your
gate. For as much as he hath no part
nor inheritance with you, he ministers about the tabernacle.
Take heed to yourself that thou offer not thy burnt offering
in every place that thou seest, but in the place which the Lord
shall choose in one of thy tribes, there I shall offer thy burnt
offering, and there shall I do all that I command thee." There
was a tabernacle. That's what David is talking
about here now. Stay with me. Turn to 1 Kings 8. Here is Solomon praying at the
dedication of the permanent tabernacle, the temple, in 1 Kings 8. First Kings 8, 29, the Lord said
to Israel, said, I'm going to have a tabernacle, a holy place
in the Holy of Holies, separated by the veil, in the midst of
the tribe of Levi, the Levites shall serve. That's where you
bring your offering, that's where you bring your bullets, that's
where you bring your sacrifices, that's where you come to meet
God. All right, now watch First Kings 8. Solomon is talking here
in verse 29. He's praying at the dedication
of the temple. Verse 29, 1 Kings 8, "...that
thine eyes may be opened toward this house night and day, O God,
even toward the place of which thou hast said, My name shall
be there, My name shall be there, that thou mayest hearken unto
the prayer which thy servant shall make toward this place."
Toward this place. And hearken thou to the supplication
of thy servant, thy people Israel, when they shall pray towards
this place." Turn to the book of Jonah. Now,
this is interesting here, the book of Jonah. And David said,
while you're finding that, I'm going to quote you a verse over
here in Psalm 28. David said this, he said in Psalm
28 too, he said, Hear the voice of my prayer or supplication
when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle,
or toward thy holy sanctuary." Now over here in Jonah, Jonah
was in the belly of the fish. He said, out of the belly of
hell I cried. Now look at verse 4. Then said I, I am cast out
of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple."
That's what he said from the belly of the fish. Now verse
6, I went down to the bottoms of the mountain, and the earth
with her bars was about me forever, yet hast thou brought up my life
from corruption, O God. When my soul fainted in me, I
remembered the Lord, and my prayer came in unto thee, into thy holy
temple. Where are you getting at, preacher?
Back to Psalm 138. I've established something here,
and this is what David, the man after God's own height, the sweet
psalmist of Israel, the king of Israel, son of Jesse, forerunner
in the lineage of Christ, talking about the living God, and all
the false idols and gods about him. the heathen gods of their
imagination, and he said, I'll worship toward his holy temple.
Jonah from the belly of the fish said, I'll look again, one more
time, out of my despair toward thy holy temple. Our Lord said
in Deuteronomy, and we'll set a temple, a tabernacle in the
midst of you, don't go anywhere else to sacrifice. Well, this
tabernacle or temple typifies and represents our Lord Jesus
Christ. That's Christ in the Old Testament.
That's right. That tabernacle, when God first
gave the dimensions and everything to Moses to be made, that tabernacle
from its very description to Moses and the sacrifices, everything
about it is Christ. If I had an hour this morning,
two hours, I could describe to you how did that, even the coverings
of the tabernacle, denote and reveal the Lord Jesus Christ,
that badger skin, common, ordinary, dull, brown badger skin. That tent looked like any other
tent. But underneath that was the ram's skin dyed red, that's
his blood. And then there's the goat's skin,
which represents the scapegoat, and then the white linen, on
the inside. There were four layers on the
inside, the white, pure, holy white linen, his perfection within. And in that tabernacle was the
furniture. There was the showbread, Christ
the bread of life. There was the candlestick, Christ
the light of the world. There was the altar of incense,
the intercession of Christ. There is the veil, which he rented
twain, inside In the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant
and the Mercy Seat, that's Christ. And the blood of the atonement
offered once a year covered that Mercy Seat and ran off the side. And inside that Ark was the broken
Law of Moses. And every sacrifice and picture,
you see, and between the cherubims, overlooking the Mercy Seat, was
the very Shekinah glory of God. God's name was that. God's glory
was that. God's grace was there. God's
love was there. And that's the reason all the
way through the Old Testament there was no sacrifice or worship
except that which was in the Holy Tabernacle and the Holy
Temple. No atonement except which is there. And I'm saying this
to you. I don't worship toward a denomination
or toward headquarters somewhere. I don't worship toward Rome or
Jerusalem or Washington. I don't worship even toward my
books or my theology or my doctrine. I don't worship in a form or
a ceremony. I worship in heart to that holy
temple Christ, to that holy tabernacle Christ, to that one atonement
Christ. to that one mercy seat, Christ,
just like David of old and Jonah and all the rest of them said,
I'll journey to Jerusalem. Well, I'm going to Christ. I'll
look toward the temple. I'm going to look toward Christ.
Your name is there in the temple. Your name is Christ. Your mercy
is Christ. Your grace is Christ. Your Shekinah
glory is in Christ. So whatever we have, if it's
a building, let it be just so it's fixed to take care of the
comfort and the needs of the people, but we worship Christ.
Burn it down, worship outside. Put no sentiment or affection
or attachment on a building or a system of doctrine or denomination
or your books or anything, because these things are but materialistic
things that fly away and fade away and pass away. The glory
of God is in Christ. Love Him. Trust Him. Believe
Him. Look to Him. Rest in Him. Be obsessed with
Him. Pray to Him. That's where it
all is. That's what David said. Sure,
that tabernacle, if I'd been living back then, I'd have skedaddled
to the tabernacle. I'd have got ahold of one of
those priests, and I'd have cried, go to God for me. And I get hold
of Christ and I say, go to the Father for me. Let the blood
be propitiation for me on the mercy seat. No, not that mercy
seat or that blood, that's type, picture. Let his blood be propitiation
for me. You see what I'm saying? But
today's idolatry would rebuild that thing. And Americans would support it.
I guarantee you, I promise you, that if tomorrow they talked
about tearing down that thing over there, the dome or whatever
it is, and putting that temple back up, American fundamentalist
churches would back it 100 percent. Guarantee you. They'd pay for it, Paul. They'd
take up offerings. They'd take up offerings. They'd
reinstate that temple and reinstate its sacrifices, which would be
an abomination to a holy God, but not to their God. Not to
their God. David said, I'm sick to my soul
with the idolatry about me. I'm sick to my soul and my heart
of anger and vexed with the compromise and the The ignorant, they pray
to a God that can't hear, and they look to a God that can't
see. And they preach a God that's
weak, has no hands, and no feet, and no mouth, and no ears, and
no eyes. But I worship towards your holy
temple. I look to Christ, the perfect
Savior, the eternal Savior. And what's this? Verse 2, And
I'll praise thy name, thy name, Jehovah my righteousness, Jehovah
my banner, Jehovah my provider, I'll praise your name for your
loving kindness." Loving kindness, that's his grace. Back here,
if you'll hold that place and turn to Psalm 51, that's what
David prayed in his anguish. Psalm 51, he said, verse 1, "...have
mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness." according
to your loving kindness. Over here in Psalm 130, listen
to him here, he said, Oh Lord, verse 3, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, who would stand? If you charged sin and marked
iniquity and held men totally responsible for every word, thought
and deed, who could stand? But verse 4, there is forgiveness
with thee. I praise you, he said, for your
loving kindness and for your truth. Now watch this next line,
this next verse. Watch this carefully. The old
J.C. Philpott said this. He said to me, this is one of
the most remarkable statements in the whole book of God. It's so comprehensive and so
amazing and so encouraging. What is it? For thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. Now hold still and listen. I will praise thee with my whole
heart In the midst of idolatry, before the false gods, I'll praise
thee. I'm going to look, I'm going
to worship toward thy holy temple, toward thy holy Son, toward thy
designated Redeemer, toward him in whom all things, all fullness
dwell. And while I look, I'm going to
praise thee for thy lovingkindness and truth, for thou hast magnified
thy word above all thy name." And the name of God, the name
of God, includes all the perfections of God, everything that God is,
is that right? Everything that God is, the name
of God. His name is majesty, holiness,
justice, love, glory, righteousness, sovereignty, everything that
God is. The name of God includes all
the attributes, the perfections of God, everything that God is,
in which God has revealed himself as having. That's the name of
God. And yet, he has magnified something
Above all this, above all this, and you know what it is? It's
His Word. His Word. Oh, with what jealousy, with
what regard, with what total commitment the Lord God has to
His Holy Name, and yet He said, above it stands His Word. With what jealousy God guards
his holiness. With what jealousy God guards
his justice. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. With what jealousy God guards
his glory. He said, I'll not give my glory
to another. And yet above all his name stands
his word. So faithful is the Lord God to
his word. that he would soon sacrifice,
if possible, all things, and to depart from his word. Therefore, what a firm salvation belongs to the believing sinner
who can rest upon his word. What confidence, what assurance
for those who look to the Word." Well, who is the Word? Well,
it's twofold, inseparable. It's his incarnate Word and his
written Word. Christ is the Word of God. Turn
to John 1. Oh, if we could, my friend, if
we could get hold of this, it would thrill you beyond words.
You say it's deep. It's not deep, it's just so. Anything's darkness to the blind
man. Anything, no matter how elementary
it is, it's darkness to the blind man. Any voice, any noise, be it sweet
or sour, be it high-pitched or low-frequency, be it offensive
or be it pleasant, is head to the deaf man. Don't sit there
and tell me how deep it is. It's not deep. I'm just simply
saying, God Almighty, in this redemptive work, in this redemptive
glory, the redeeming God, the redeeming God has elevated and
magnified His Word above all His name. That's what He said. And verse 1 of John 1 says, "...in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word
was God, the same was in the beginning with God." Verse 14,
"...and that Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld
His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth." That's Christ. There are three that
are directed in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. And God hath given him all preeminence.
You can rest in him. God hath given him all glory.
You can rest in him. God hath given him assurance.
He said, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy foots to. Christ will be exalted above
all things and have preeminence. And a lot of writers say it's
the written word. In other words, God is so jealous
of his word that he would soon, that he would soon sacrifice
all things and depart from his promise. Well, that's good assurance
too, but that's not what he's talking about here totally. But
you can't separate the written word and the incarnate word.
Christ is the word. He said this, he that hath heard
me hath heard him that sent me. But what confidence that gives
us. Let's look back at Psalm 138 again. What confidence that
gives us. And my friend, let me tell you
this. What warning it ought to give
us to beware of these fellas that are coming up with new visions
and new revelations. And God told them this and God
told them that. These new revelations and new
visions, if they speak not according to the Word of God, it's because
there's no light in them, no dawning in them. God hath magnified
his Word above all his name. That's his Son. God, who at sundry
times in diverse manners spake to our fathers, but the prophets
hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son. And you talk
about the holiness of God and the majesty of God and the sovereignty
of God and the justice of God and the righteousness of God
and the glory of God. Let me tell you something. His
redemptive glory, His redemptive work, His redemptive purpose
in Christ Jesus, He has exalted and magnified, yea, above all
those things. And if you can find your way
by faith into Christ, If you can find your way through the
mess and the maze and through the mist of all this foggy bottom
religion and get your eyes on Christ, I'll look toward thy
holy temple, toward no one else and nothing else, and I'll not
be detained or deterred or distracted. I'm going to look to Christ,
come flame or flood. Well, God's promise gives you
confidence and assurance, for he's exalted that above all his
name. See what I'm saying? You can
do it. Don't let anybody shake you.
Don't let anybody trouble you. Don't let anybody come to you
with all this new junk. That tabernacle still stands.
It's Christ. That atonement still lags. It's
on the mercy seat of glory. And none have ever been condemned
or ashamed who can rest in Him and Him alone. That's just so. They go on shaking hands and
raising hands and talking about the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
speaking in tongues and gifts and all this. You go on being
distracted if you want to. But I'm going to look toward
that Holy Temple. I shall not be moved. I shall
not be moved. In verse 3, he said, In the day
I cried, he answered me, strengthening me with a strength in my soul.
All the kings in the earth shall praise thee, O Lord. Yea, they
will when they hear the word of thy mouth, and they shall
sing in the ways of the Lord, for great is the glory of the
Lord. Verse 6, Though the Lord be high,
ye say, O he wouldn't, he wouldn't mess with me, he wouldn't. God
wouldn't have anything for me. Wait a minute, hold the phone.
Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly. Ask Mary Magdalene about that.
Ask the thief on the cross about that. Huh? Ask blind Bartimaeus about that.
Though the Lord be high, yet hath he respect to the lowly.
But the proud he knoweth afar off. And though I walk in the
midst of trouble, he'll revise me, he'll stretch forth his hand
against the wrath of my enemies, and thy right hand shall save
me." Now watch this, "...and the Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me. All my interests are safe in
his hands." Leave it there. Take your burden, take your sin,
take your need, take your desire to the Lord and leave it there.
He'll perfect that which concerns you. It says over in Philippians
1, verse 6, God will finish what he starts. That's what he says
here. The Lord will perfect that which
concerns me because God's work is perfect. Man's work is incomplete. We start a house and there it
sits. You don't have enough to finish it. But the Lord won't
rest until he's finished what he set out to do and stands back
and says it's good. And we're his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Now, I'm going to read you something
quick. If salvation were partly of God
and partly of man, it would be like a house built partly on
a rock and partly on sand, and it soon would fall. If our dependence were upon the
Lord Jesus Christ in a measure and on our own works to some
degree, it would be like that doomed tower that never reached
the sky. doomed to failure from the start. Oh, to know in heart and truth
the full meaning of the words salvation is of the Lord. Taught by the Holy Ghost through
the word in heart and experience and the only way to learn the
full meaning of salvation is of the Lord is by that spirit
and by that word. Someone said a man will lie broken
at the foot of a cliff, every bone dislocated by the fall,
and yet still hope in some way to save himself. Piles of sin can cover him, mountains
of transgressions, a landslide of iniquity bury him alive, but
he'll still cling to the hope that someday he'll dig his way
out. Isn't that us? You can crush human nature and
grind it to powder, but every particle of dust that you pick
up will reek with pride and self-righteousness. Huh? Only the Holy Spirit of God can
make a man surrender and throw up his hands in helplessness
and cry, Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. greatness and glory. In the midst of the gods and
idols of this world, O God, I will praise thee with my whole heart.
I'm going to worship toward your holy temple, Christ Jesus, because
you've magnified him above all your name. And in him I can never
be lost. In him I'll never be ashamed. Our great God, oh, to have some revelation today
in this place of your greatness. When filled with awe and reverence,
our mouths are stopped. When men are awed by the presence
of God and have nothing to say, when prayer is reduced to groanings
which cannot be uttered. We fall before thy matchless
throne, thy mighty majestic throne, and just praise the Lord. Once again we look afresh and
anew, a new commitment of soul and heart. We look toward thy
holy tabernacle who tabernacled among us in human flesh. And
find in him all we need, all we need, all the law demands
and all that justice requires, and we're satisfied. And we know
that our hope is secure and all our interests are saved. because
you'll perfect and complete and finish what you set out to do. For the glory of him who loved
us and gave himself for us, in his name we pray. Amen.