Well, I'm kind of sorry to break up this happy singing going on. So anyway, very good, very good. Oh, goodness, we need to go ahead and dismiss. The clock up here says it's 825. Well, it's very good to see everyone tonight. We're going to go to Psalm 115. Psalm 115. Most of the books of the Bible are books. They have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They have an introduction, a body, a conclusion, and they're divided into chapters. But the book of Psalms is not like that. The book of Psalms is a collection of poems. And so technically, each psalm is its own self-contained unit. It's not a chapter in a book. It's a poem. So that's why as you open there to the Book of Psalms, you'll see it says Psalm 114, Psalm 115, rather than chapter. That may have been more a pet peeve than anything else, but anyway, thank you all for being here this evening. Let's dive into Psalm 115. Let's bow for prayer. Dear Father, we come before you at this time. Thank you, Lord, for the happy, joyful singing. Thank you for the truth of the songs that we're singing, Lord, that there is within our hearts a melody that you put there and that we're looking forward to the day of being in your presence. And Father, we know and understand these truths. not because we've had some sort of a big emotional experience or explosions and fireworks and loud noises and trumpets and all of that, but because of the confirmation of the truth of the Holy Spirit. the confirmation in our hearts through through the word of God and through the clear instruction of your word. So we thank you, Father, for the well, what what you gave to Elijah, that still small voice, that sense of the presence of God and the truth of God that passes all understanding. So we're grateful for that. Father, we ask now your blessing as we go into your word tonight and we thank you for it. And we pray in Jesus's name. Amen. Psalm 115 is a psalm of those that are in captivity. If you'll come with me for an introduction, come with me to the book of Psalms, Psalm 137. Psalm 137 is also a psalm of those in captivity. It kind of gives us a setting of the heart and mind. It says, By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our hearts upon the willows in the midst thereof, for there they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing unto us one of the songs of Zion, So there they were in captivity and experiencing the grief and the sorrow of being removed from the homeland, being in exile, removed from home, taken away from home, the loss of that comfort, that assurance, and all of those things out there, exiled. And this psalm comes to us with that same sort of a background. Let's take a look here at verses 1, 2, and 3, and then we'll get into the psalm itself. 1, 2, and 3 says this. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen then say, where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens. He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. So the heathen is saying, where is their God? Where is their God? If their God is so great and so wonderful, then why has he allowed these things to come upon them? Why has he allowed them to be removed from their land? Why is he allowing them to experience his grief and this sorrow and all of that? And so this psalm is in answer to that. This psalm is in answer to that. Where is now their God? And the answer is, He's here. He's here. Let's go back into verses 1, 2, and 3. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and thy truth's sake. We want the Lord's blessing. We want the Lord's provision. We want the Lord to intervene in our lives, but he says here, not for us, not for our glory, not for our honor, but so that people can look at what's happened and say, look what God did. Look what the Lord did for those people. You remember the account of the man that was in the tombs in Mark chapter 5, and the Lord cast the demons out of him, and they were called Legion, for we are many. And that man wanted to go get on the boat with Jesus when Jesus left the country of Gadara there. And he wanted to go be with Jesus, but Jesus told him, go home and tell your friends what great things the Lord has done for you. And I thought about that and I thought, by that time, that guy that had been running around in the middle of the night screaming, keeping everybody awake. Wouldn't let anybody put chains on him. He'd just break them and continue acting like a wild banshee. This guy, he probably didn't have many friends to go tell what the Lord had done for him. He had to make some friends. So that may be what the case was. But anyway, it says he went and he published in that whole region what the Lord had done for him. And it says that everybody that heard it marveled. They marveled at what God had done for him because it was something that the Lord had done. So the Lord was the one that received the honor and glory for that. Not the demoniac. He didn't receive glory, but the Lord that had released him and saved him received the glory for what the Lord had done. Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God? But all of these things had happened to the children of Israel. They had gone into captivity because God had determined that's what they needed. They had rebelled against him. They had turned against him. They had turned to to idols, they had turned to immorality, et cetera, et cetera. And the Lord determined, you're going into captivity. They went into captivity in Babylon. They went into captivity in Assyria, different captivities. And it says here in verse three, our God is in the heavens. He had done whatsoever he hath pleased. And that's really the thought I'd like for us to camp on the most here for a few minutes tonight is that the Lord does as he pleases to. Think about creation. Go all the way back to the beginning. That's a pretty amazing thing to consider, to go all the way back in time. And I appreciate so much having the opportunity to hear Brother Pat teach about this, teach about the two laws of thermodynamics. and the idea that the first law is of course the law of the conservation of matter and energy which indicates that there is a set amount of matter and energy in the universe and that the universe does not poof into existence. But when you go poof, it kind of, it's, anyway, things don't poof into existence and they don't poof out of existence. There's a set level amount of matter and energy in the universe. But the second law is that the amount of usable energy is diminishing. And so whenever you stop to think about that, if you go backward, then the amount of usable energy going backward would be increasing to a specific point of the maximum amount of usable matter and energy, right? And then it's all downhill from there. But that means there was a beginning point. There was a beginning point. And we know that matter and energy do not create themselves. They do not poof themselves into existence. And yet there they are. Matter and energy is here, and it's gradually wearing out. As it says in Psalms and in Hebrews, it's wearing out as a garment. But it clearly had a beginning, and it couldn't begin itself. Something outside the universe, something outside nature, something outside the cosmos had to generate the cosmos, had to generate the universe, had to generate nature. Well, that makes sense, doesn't it? Well, whatever it was that was outside nature, whatever it was that's outside the cosmos, whatever it is that's outside the universe, had to be powerful enough to, from its own self, generate something outside of itself. Oh wait, a person might say, well, nothing existed before the universe, it just happened. Well, if nothing existed before the universe, then nothing is still all that would exist, right? Because out of nothing comes nothing. So if there's something, that's proof that something has always existed. If anything exists, it's evidence that there's something that has always existed that was never created. I guess we're taking an excursion here into pure logic, aren't we? But anyway, there it is. So something existed that was never created that had the power to generate things outside of itself. And look at what it generated. A magnificent universe beyond our ability to measure. Oh, there's lots of guessing about light years and this and that, but we're still guessing. We're still guessing. But the truth is it's obvious that something always existed that had the capacity to generate a universe outside of itself. And we know that that thing that had that capacity, that thing that had that power, that thing that had the intelligence to generate a universe that is so coordinated and complicated, and then to generate life on this particular speck in the universe, That thing was intelligent. That thing was intelligent. Every time I learn something new just about the human body, it just boggles my mind. Whether you're talking about hearing or seeing or the ability to touch or taste, we love that mind-boggling sense of taste, don't we, especially? But all of these things are just so magnificent. Whoever would have even thought of that? And it's just marvelous, marvelous. What a wonderful being, what a wonderful person it was to come up with all of those, all of those things, just so many things, so many, so many. But anyway, why did God generate the universe? I can tell you, it says in the book of Revelation chapter four, verse 11, For all, for thy pleasure, all things were created. The Lord has done whatever he pleased. And according to Psalm 115 verse three, the Lord has done whatsoever he hath pleased. Well, that's true with the people of Israel, but isn't that true with everything that God does? It's not like there's somebody standing behind God's back with holding God's arm up behind him, you know, pushing him up with a full Nelson or a half Nelson here. You gotta do this. That's not how it is. God does whatever God wants to do. And He made this creation because He wanted to. It was an act of His will, His will that pleased Him to do that. But that's not all, that's not all. Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ is a manifestation of the fullness of God. If you want to see what God is like according to this book, If you really want to see what God is like, you have to look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Come with me to the book of Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. Let's see here, Colossians one and it's verse 19, it says, it pleased the father that in him that is in Christ should all fullness dwell. For in Christ dwells in chapter two, verse nine, for in him, again, that is in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. It pleased God that the ultimate manifestation of his person is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Boy, you know, hearing that, what that does to me is that it stimulates me to say, man, I want to read the gospels. I want to see this Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder there are four accounts of him. It's so wonderful and magnificent that one story wouldn't do it. We need to see four different pictures of him. You may have been to someone's home where they may have pictures of their children. And here's a picture of their son. And look, there's a picture of him in his basketball uniform. There's a picture of him in his graduation gown. Here's a picture of him in his military uniform. Look, there's a picture of him whenever he was in kindergarten, his first day at school. But in order to get a full idea about what this person is like, just one picture doesn't cut it. Let's look at him from different facets, different viewpoints, different perspectives. And that's what we have in the Gospels. We have those four different perspectives of Christ. They're not contradictory, they're complementary. They don't contradict one another, they complete one another. So it's wonderful. But as you read those accounts of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're seeing what the person of God is. That's mind boggling. But it pleased God to reveal, to give us the ultimate revelation of him is in a human being that came to earth. that became one of us and lived among us to show us what God is like. And you know what else pleased him is that it pleases him to give people the kingdom. Let's go to the book of Luke, Luke chapter 12. Luke chapter 12 and verse 32. Just to see something else that pleased God. Luke 12, 32, or excuse me, it's, yeah, 32. But rather, in verse 31, but rather seek ye the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock. It is your father's good pleasure to give unto you the kingdom. God does not give people the kingdom grudgingly. He gives people the kingdom joyfully and with great pleasure. No wonder the scripture tells us that there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repented. God is pleased to take somebody that has turned away from Him, is in rebellion to Him, and to reconcile that person to His Son and to bring that person into the Kingdom of God. And of course, we know that happens when one is born again, don't we? Because the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, there except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. But those that believe in him and are born again, they're going to see the kingdom of God, and it pleases God to give them the kingdom. The Lord does what he pleases, and the Lord is pleased to save people. In fact, come with me to 1 Corinthians, because in 1 Corinthians chapter Chapter one, the apostle Paul tells us exactly who it is that God is pleased to save. First Corinthians chapter one, let's put in a verse 19. He says, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, now catch this, okay, for after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save, what does your book say? It pleased God to save them that believe. Right now, some people would say, well, God just kind of picks eeny, meeny, miny, moe, you know, pick a tiger by his toe or something. And, oh, you get saved and you go to hell and, you know, and God sort of arbitrarily, in the mystery of his sovereign will, went eeny, meeny, miny, moe. But this, and he pleased who he would, and we have no idea why he chose some over others. Well, it tells us right here why he chose them. It pleased God to save those that believed. It pleased God that those people that would hear the gospel and respond to it, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, it pleased God to say, ah, I'm saving you. So he's looking for that. So the Lord has done what he is pleased, but we're not done yet. We're not done yet. There's one other thing I'd like to point out that the Lord is pleased to do, and that's in the book of Philippians chapter two. Philippians 2.13 tells us something else that God is pleased to do. For it is God that worketh in you. Let's see, I want to be sure and get it correct here. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God is, if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, God is at work in your life. And he's not working in, he's not working in our lives in order to give us whatever we want. He's got a better plan than that. He's working in our lives to do what will please him. And of course, what will please him is for us to grow. in the knowledge of Christ, for us to grow in our relationship with Christ. That's what pleases Him. That's what pleases Him, our spiritual growth. Well, anyway, let's continue on. Let's go back now to Psalm 115. But the idea is that our God is a doer. He does what pleases him, whether we're talking about creation, or if we're talking about what the Lord does in our lives individually, our God does things. And I think that each one of us, if we could sit down with one another and just ask this question, can you tell me three things that God ever did in your life? Well, I know all of us would wanna share our testimony of salvation. But there are other things that the Lord has done in our lives. There are answers to prayers that the Lord has done. There are material blessings that he has given to us. There's been the joy and the peace of having the presence of God with us through some of the most difficult, horrible times of our life. And yet that peace of the presence of God that passes all understanding, going through those difficulties. The Lord does things, and we've experienced those. Our God is a doer. But look at the idols here in verses four through eight. Their idols, now their here is in reference to the heathen. The heathen are saying, where is their God? Okay, well, our God is in the heavens, and he's doing what he wants to do. Their gods, their idols, the gods of the heathens, they are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 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. Well, I think he's just about listed our five senses there, hasn't he? Feet have they, but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are likened to them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. So the gods of the heathen, as we say down in Arkansas, they don't do nothing. All right, they don't do anything. They just sit there. They just sit there, they don't see or hear or talk or do anything. Our God does all of those things, doesn't he? Our God does all, the book of Proverbs says, shall not the one that made the seeing eye and the hearing ear, shall not he see and shall not he hear? The Lord sees and hears and the Lord does. We have a wonderful God, isn't it? Isn't it a horrible thing that people will settle for less than the God of heaven? Jonah said, they that observe lying vanities, or idols, they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Mercy is found in the true God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, let's continue on. Verses 9 through 11 is an admonition to trust in the Lord. O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Well, I know in a very real way, all eyes are upon the nation of Israel right now, aren't they? And it's just heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking. The whole situation over there is heartbreaking. It's heartbreaking for the innocent people that were slaughtered by the Palestinians. And it's heartbreaking for all of the innocent people of Gaza that are being killed, again, because of Hamas. and Hamas is hiding among civilians. That's their strategy. That's the way they do it. Their thinking is anybody that dies for Allah has got an instant trip to heaven just because they died for Allah. So they look at all of the collateral damage of their Muslim friends as, hey, we're helping you get to heaven because you're dying for Allah here. So they don't care. They don't care. They're not looking at things the way that we do. They look at things in a very rational, logical way if you follow their reasoning, but it's based on a false premise, isn't it? But oh, that Israel would trust in the Lord. And we know that there are those among them that do, but as a nation, Israel's not trusting in the Lord right now. They're not, but the Lord is bringing these things upon them so they will. So they'll see their need for the God that called them out, the God that redeemed them from Egypt and the God that has been with them throughout all the centuries so that they will turn and trust in him. Oh, Israel, trust now in the Lord. He is their help and shield. Oh, House of Aaron. Of course, this is the family that the Lord called out to be the picture of what Christ is, to be a picture of the intercessor, in a way to keep it with the Old Testament reference, to be a picture of Melchizedek, the true priest of the Most High God. Oh, House of Aaron, trust in the Lord. House of Aaron, you're not all that and a bag of chips. You need to trust in the Lord. It's the Lord that you represent that's the true intercessor. House of Aaron, trust in the Lord. He is their help and shield. And then, ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, whether you're of the house of Israel or if you're a Gentile. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, for he is their help and shield. And we should trust in the Lord. The Lord is our help and shield. You know, Psalm 46 says something about the Lord being our help. Let's take a quick look at that Psalm, Psalm number 46. And verse one. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He's present, isn't he? The Lord is present. I can't help but always go back to Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Everyone? Thou art with me. Thou art with me. We need to maintain that awareness that the Lord is with us. He is our help. He is a very present help in trouble, and he is our shield. While we're in Psalms, let's go to Psalm number three. Psalm 3 verse 3 tells us, but thou, O Lord, art a shield for me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. And of course, the shield is the defensive, the defensive weapon, isn't it? Lord, you're the one that keeps Satan from completely destroying me. You're the one that holds back the power of sin to completely wipe me out, Lord. You are my defender. You're my shield. So because of who the Lord is, trust in him. And then verses 12 through 15, the Lord will bless us. The Lord will bless us. Let's go there to verse 12. 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. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye are blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth. So I want you to know, according to the scripture here, if you're one that fears the Lord, If you have come to a point of turning away from sin and yielding to the influence of the Lord, to trust Christ as your Savior, the Lord's been mindful of you. The Lord is mindful of you. Psalm 8 says, what is man? That thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him. The Lord is mindful of us. He does think about us. Didn't Jesus tell the apostles, the very hairs of your head are numbered. If the Lord has that intimate knowledge of the hairs of our head, isn't he aware of all of our thoughts and all of our concerns and all of our burdens and all of the struggles and difficulties? He is. He is. And he will bless you. I'd like to remind us of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 11. Jeremiah 29 verse 11. And of course, this is referenced specifically to the people of Israel, but as we're going to see in a couple of more verses, that principle carries on into those that have trusted Christ as their savior. Of course, verse 10 is a reference to the fact that God planned for the people of Israel to go into captivity for 70 years, and then he was going to bring them out. And then he was going to fulfill that particular plan that he had for them. But notice what he says to them here. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. To give you an expected end. And this word end here is frequently, well, usually in the Old Testament, tikvah is normally translated hope. It's usually translated hope. Interesting, the national anthem of the nation of Israel is hatikvah, which means the hope. And of course, their hope is that they would be settled in the promised land once and for all. That's what that song is all about. But there's an even greater hope than the hope of the Jewish people that they'll have a homeland. And we share in that greater hope. I'd like to share with you a few verses on this as we close. Titus chapter three, verse five. Titus three, verse five tells us a part of that hope. Notice what he says here in Titus. I'm sorry, it's not Titus 3.5, it's Titus 2.13. It says, the grace of God that bring us salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our hope is that Christ is going to return. He's our great God. And that's our hope. That's our confidence. Now, what does this word hope mean? Well, some of us may be sitting here tonight thinking, well, this is all well and good, but I've got things I need to do tonight before I go to bed. And so if that's the case, your hope is that church is going to dismiss at some time. Or for some of us that may be in here and we're hungry, you know, and maybe we didn't get to eat supper or maybe we didn't get to eat as much as we wanted to, you know, or maybe we didn't get that dessert we were hoping. Our hope is that we'll go home and we'll enjoy that dessert or that supper that we didn't get. That's what we're looking forward to. You know, it's our confidence. It's what keeps us going because we know that's going to be fulfilled. And that's the idea of hope. It's something that you know is going to happen that keeps you going, keeps you encouraged, keeps you focused throughout the difficulties. So our blessed hope is the appearing of the great God and our Savior. 1 John chapter 3. 1 John 3 also tells us about hope that we have. 1 John 3 says this. Behold, verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. So God's not done with us yet. We're the sons of God now, but he's not finished. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And notice that verse three, and every man that hath this hope, what hope? The confidence that when he shall appear, we shall be like him. That's the hope. What is that a reference to? That's a reference to the fact that when Christ comes, we are going to be raised from the dead with a body like his glorious body. Of course, that's from Philippians chapter three, verse 21, isn't it? Let's go ahead and look at that and we'll have to close on that verse. Philippians chapter three, verse 21. Paul says this, our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hey, there's the great hope, isn't it? the coming of the great God and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall, when he comes, who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body. In other words, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is, according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Hey, those are some other things that our God does. He does as it pleases him. Are we resting in our active doer of a God? We can. We can rest in him and we can trust him and we can serve him. Amen. Amen.