I’m thinking about David in the Old Testament. He so badly wanted to build God a house. And he’s praying and asking God, he’s telling Him what he wants to do. He’s going to get this much money from these tribes and they are going to do all the stuff.
And then it is like he pauses—and if you look at it—he says, “but I can’t get anything without You giving it to me first.”
What a conundrum, when you think about it. Here you are trying to show God how you love Him with your efforts. You want to give Him all this stuff—but on the other hand you are saying—but I can’t give it to You unless You gave it to me first.
Does that mean you stop praying? No. That means you start to understand Who God is and your heart gets to that place where you know He is going to provide for you, so you can provide for Him and His work. Why? He gets the glory. Not your physical hands and your great mind. He’s got to get the glory. And that’s how He gets it. David understood that, we just got to pick up on that. And He’s self-contained, what are you going to give Him?
These people that are working their way unto salvation, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
What kind of work can you do greater than the cross? There is no other way. He did the work—we do the believing. That’s the way it is. Anybody that adds to that—that is blasphemy. That’s what’s heresy. How in the world can you add to the cross? ‘Well, I’ll just do good and keep the commandments.’ NO YOU WON’T! You can’t keep the commandments. Just when you said that you were going to keep the commandments—you lied. And if you break one, you break them all, DUMMY!
Think about that. What can you add to Calvary? Nothing. NOT A THING!
You can’t add anything to God. You can glorify Him and make Him greater than anybody else around. You can do that, right? Because if there is only one God—that’s Him. The greater all of us are, which is a big zero with the ring rubbed out, right? But if we get behind the One, the One gets greater—in the minds of people. It doesn’t make Him greater than what He is already, but with people with whom we come into association with—by our witness—we are adding them zeros to that One. We are making our God greater amongst the people that we know. That’s what we are supposed to do—that’s our witness. He’s self-contained. He exists.
3. He doesn’t change. You know a lot of things change in our world, but God never does.
His love doesn’t waver when we do things we shouldn’t. His commitment to us doesn’t change depending on His mood.
He simply is Who He is, and He never changes. I mean, He may not find us faithful all the time, but He remains faithful. Right? I hope you know them verses.
4. He isn’t going anywhere. What’s good about that? Well, it means that we can trust Him.
Listen, don’t trust your stocks, your bank account, your job, your looks or your popularity. All of those things can go away over night, but nothing is going to move God.
5. His Name proves His sacrificial love.
Jesus shows us this when He says, ‘Hey, Guess what! (I’m paraphrasing) You know that God that you claim to serve? Well, I’m Him.’ That’s what He is saying to the Jews, right? ‘You know, the God you say you are serving? The God of Abraham? I’m Him!’
He said, “I AM the I AM!”
And what Jesus showed us about the I AM is that He is a God Who sacrificed His very life so that we could live. I mean, you can’t find bigger love than that! And you think about every day why we won’t call on His Name—even sometimes during the invitation in the church service. If you are already saved, good! During the day, during the week, how many times do you call on His name—give Him thanks for what He is doing in your life? How many times your knee goes down? Why? That’s humility, before a righteous and a holy God. And you are saying, “God—my goodness—I remember when I said Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. But Lord Jesus, in this flesh I ask You every day to be merciful—please be merciful to me—today!”
He’s a gracious, loving God—but you need to expect that mercy! You get mercy when you humble yourself. And not until. Think about that.
When a minister finished speaking at a medical school, a young cynic came forward to say, “I have just digested a cadaver, but in no place did I find a soul. How can you tell people a soul exists?” “Well,” the minister asked, “When you opened the brain, did you find a thought? When you opened the heart, did you find love? When you dissected the eyes, did you find vision?” The obvious answer was ‘no!’ and the young doctor got the point.
People run around and say there is not electricity. Stupid! Put your finger in the socket. Wet it first. I mean, you know? ‘Well, if God is God, can he create a rock big enough that He can not lift?’ Wow! That’s a good question! No, it ain’t. It’s stupid! It is so stupid. ‘Well, if He is a God, why did He let men put Him on the cross?’ What would you call Him if He wiped out everybody? A bully? He wanted to prove a point about how He loved us. He already knew He could take care of everybody.
If you remember, there was a multitude of angels that were ready to come down and fight for Him if He wanted them. But that wasn’t His time yet, remember He told Pilate. Now when He does come back, He’s coming back with them at the Second Advent. Amen. But us to ever argue with people over some of this stupid stuff, know this, they must be saved. They get the Holy Ghost and then they can discern what truth is. Right now, they are blinded by the god of this world.
You got tribulation? Christ had tribulation.
You got troubles in this world? He had troubles in this world.
Did Christ come to save everybody? He sure did. Will everyone get saved? Nope. Why? Because it is up to them to believe. Not everyone is going to believe. But the sacrifice was for everyone.
And here He is coming before a religious group that claims to know the Great I AM, that knows the Pentateuch, those five great books of the Bible, knows about Moses, their main prophet is Isaias. Jesus Christ quoted Isaias, I think, more than any prophet in the Scriptures, in the Gospels. He put the Bible right back to them. And here, they watched the personification of the Word of God in front of them. The very Word of God in front of them—and they rejected Him.
And here today we have the WRITTEN WORD of God, and we are saved and have the Holy Spirit of God. And Peter said he had a ‘more sure word of prophecy,’ meaning the Scriptures. He said he touched, he talked to the Lord, he had emotional contact with the Lord, but now he says we have a ‘more sure word of prophecy,’
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (I Peter 1:23).
“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17).
So, here we are, saved people, watching multitudes of people out there disrespecting doctrine—couldn’t tell you if they had the real Word of God or not—but they can say that they have the thoughts. But see, there are perception is their thoughts. They don’t have the Word of God on it. And here we have little Bible-believing flocks being designated as cultic because they raise this ‘paper pope’ up instead of a physical one.
Well, I’ll stick with this Book! But the other part of the formula is the witnessing. If we got the Book, and the truth, then we better get the mouth in operation. And we get the tracts out and we tell people about Who we know. Who do we know? The Great I AM. We know Who He is! I’m telling you. And He is greater than Abraham. You got to be saved!
Now we know that the first prayer of Jesus was recorded in Matthew 11, and it sounds sort of strange. Yet when you consider it carefully, it is a fantastic prayer . . .
“At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:25-30).
So, we look at that and we see, hmm? We see why Christianity is available to every man. Our religion is based on faith, and not intellectualism. We can never know God through our minds only. We must see Him with our hearts and our souls. Because of this, even those that have weak minds can know and love Christ, as well as the very brilliant.
Now, we too, should thank God because we can know Him through faith—rather than through intellectualism. It has been wisely said, “He who has a testimony is never at the mercy of ‘who has an argument.’”
We can know ‘about’ Christ with our mind, but to ‘know’ Christ requires the leap of faith in our hearts. What does that mean? No matter what intellectuals are out there, or skeptics are out there, you can look them right in the face and say, ‘I was once blind, but now I see. I was once lost, but now I’m found.’ They can ramble on all they want, because, why? Because you know.
You may not be able to answer all the questions and dot the ‘I’s’ and cross the ‘T’s’ but you know personally that He is your Saviour.
You don’t have to be a brilliant person and try to debate everybody out there on that issue, but you ‘know!’ and if you know, nobody can take that from you. And that thing will carry you all the way to heaven. Because after all, we are signed—sealed—and delivered. I mean, what a blessing that is.
You need to take heed to that and think about that today of what you have everybody out there don’t have. And it is a gift. And Christ is offering it. And we are ambassadors for Christ. The Bible says that’s our ministry. So, nobody gets away with saying, ‘I’m not a preacher,’ ‘I’m not a this . . . or that.’
We are all preachers. Proclaiming the truth is our business. The Gospel is our business. To everybody that we come in contact with.