♪ Behold her danger and falsehood in her will ♪ ♪ Against all foe and traitor she ever shall prevail ♪ We now go to God's Word. Please open your Bibles with me in Psalm 115. Psalm 115. It's page 648 in our Blue Bibles. Psalm 115. So for the sermon this morning and for the evening, we will look at this particular psalm. And so I'll be reading this morning the whole psalm and we will read it again tonight. Psalm 115, the Word of God says, Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where is their God? Our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak. Eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel. feet but do not walk and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trust in them. Oh Israel trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Oh House of Aaron trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. You who fear the Lord trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord has remembered us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth. The heavens are the Lord's heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man. The dead do not praise the Lord, nor do any who go down into silence. But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Our God, we now open your word. And may your Holy Spirit work in our hearts as your servant, preach your truths. This we ask and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Our Catechism asks, what is the chief and highest end of man? And it is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Historically speaking, solideo gloria, or to God be the glory, was forged, fortified, and flourished in the context of the doctrine of justification, famously by the reformers. Now, the doctrine of justification is of first importance in the Christian life. It is the doctrine by which the church either stands or fall, Martin Luther said. But we need to know that it is foundational in a sense that the grace that saved us is the same grace that sustains us. Therefore, whenever we say, solideo gloria, or to God be the glory alone, we do so in view of God's saving work. At the heart of this confession of our chief and highest end, being the glory of God and our enjoyment of Him, is founded in our righteous standing before the Holy God only through the imputed righteousness of Christ in us, all by grace through faith. And having that hope, having that eternal hope, we can say glory to God, not only in victories and happiness, but even in our seeming defeats and in our sadness. Why? Because we have a living hope. And the psalmist's knowledge of God as his deliverer has changed the way he prayed. It has changed the way he sang his songs. It has changed the way he saw everything else. His knowledge of God has become a lens through which he lives and have his being. And so when we say to God be the glory alone, first and foremost, we give thanks to God for saving us. But not only that, we say to God and we say our thanks to him for he sustains us. And that is our prayer for all of us as we open God's word today. Now I have two points for this morning's sermon. I also put there keywords and usually I put keywords for the children. So children, you have to remember the keywords so that when you get home, you can just tell your parents the keywords and they will explain to you what it means. Let's hope so, right? So the first point, the glory belongs to God. Who is like the Lord? And we can see that in verses 1 to 3. Now the keywords for children, remember, Like no other. Like no other. Now the second point, the godless become like their idols. We become what we worship. And we can see that in verses 4 to 8. The key words for the children, like our God. Like our God. Now Psalm 115 was a prayer either in view of their current afflictions which they are experiencing from other nations that were mocking them. We can see that in verse 2. Why should the nation say, where is their God? These nations were mocking the people of God. Or this prayer is looking back on their deliverance from the hands of their enemies. So the phrase, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory, we need to understand it is anchored upon the indicative that God is in the heavens and he does what he pleases. I think that's given for all of us. Whenever we look at the scripture, we look for two things, right? The indicatives, meaning the doctrines, the truths that are being taught in the scripture, and the imperatives. the commandments that are anchored on those indicatives. And so when the psalmist said, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory, first and foremost, it is anchored upon the truth that we can see in verse three, our God is in the heavens. He does what he pleases. Though the world around us, especially right now, may receive that phrase as narcissistic, right? We, as people of God, believe otherwise. God deserves the glory because He is God. In the book of Isaiah, God said, For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it. In the book of Ezekiel, God said, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name. And that's what set him apart from all of creation. God is self-glorified. God, we can say, is full of himself. There is nothing outside of him that can influence him to act. He is that great. And that's why He deserves all the glory. But the good news for us is that God is great, but God is also good. Verse 3 tells us who God is. He is in the heavens and He does what He pleases. But in verse 1, the psalmist tells us what God does in relation to His creation. particularly his people. And we can see that in verse 1. He said, For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. That's the second indicative that we can see here. In another version it says, Because of your loving kindness, because of your truth. Again, the imperative of glorifying God is anchored upon the indicative of His supremacy. And to understand God's supremacy in the lens or in the light of His loving-kindness and truthfulness, that, my beloved, is most edifying. The God who is self-glorified, self-satisfied, self-existent, who is never in need, who is not obligated whatsoever to be good to sinful, wretched, narcissistic, two-eyed monsters like us. The God who is in the heavens and who does what he pleases is true to himself and true to his covenant promise that he will be our God and His love for us will endure forever. Glory to God because of His loving kindness and because He is truth. We are in for a treat, right? If God does all that He pleases, imagine that, and He is good all the time, then whatever He does, as He pleases for His name's sake, we can be sure that it's also for our good. Our good and for His glory. Our God is in the heavens, He does what He pleases because of His faithfulness and because of His truth. Therefore, to give God all the glory due His name is not just the acknowledgement of God's superiority and how he deserves nothing less, but it is also our thanksgiving for his goodness towards us, undeserving as we are. First, for his saving grace, and second, for his sustaining grace. Now it's interesting when we look at the scripture, whenever God proclaims his name, it is never divorced with God's merciful behavior, towards sinners, whether it's in the form of judgment or blessing. Whenever God proclaims his name, it is always accompanied by his goodness towards his creation. That is why when we look at the redemptive story, God has provided good things and good means in order for man to be right with God. We can see that in the Old Covenant and the Old Testament. But the grand story, the climax, is when God gave his son Jesus Christ to live the life we cannot live and die the death we should have died. And by our union with him, we are redeemed. Louis Burkhoff said this about our union with Christ. By this union, believers are changed into the image of Christ according to his human nature. What Christ affects in his people is, in a sense, a replica or reproduction of what took place with him. Not only objectively, but also in a subjective sense, they suffer, bear the cross, are crucified, die, and are raised to newness of life with Christ. They share a measure in the experiences of their Lord. Now this tells us, beloved, as people who are united in Christ, We have the responsibility to give glory to God in everything. But it also means that it cannot be divorced with our being good to our neighbors. God glorifying himself at the same time being merciful to sinners. Therefore, we glorify God and at the same time being good to others, especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ. but not exclusively. Are we following that sense that we glorify God in a sense that we mirror, we shadow forth His perfection and His nature and His goodness in our lives. And therefore, worship is not just prostrating prostrating before the Holy God. It is also mirroring His goodness towards others. The indicative is that whenever God declares His name, it is never divorced with His goodness to His creation. The imperative is that when we glorify the name of God, then we mirror His goodness to others. especially to our brothers and sisters in Christ. But again, not exclusively. If God's goodness is experienced in our union with Christ, is God not good to those who are outside of Christ? That's the question. The answer? God's wrath is what's left for anyone who is outside of Christ. But it does not mean that God is not good to them. if that makes sense. The only reason the unbelievers are living proud right now is because God is good to them. He is merciful and patient with them and is calling them to repentance. Not only that, God's goodness is experienced in all the good things and blessings that are given to all the peoples under heaven. The sun, the rain, the food, the joy of love, in family, in marriage, the joy of having kids, and friendship, the thrill of watching competitive sports or playing competitive sports, the awe in creation, in creating our own craft, in art, in music, in cooking, in planting, in our professions, In motherhood, God is good to all. But as Jesus said, what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? It does not mean that everything else in this world is meaningless besides Christ. No, all the good things in this world are but fragments of God's goodness, which is to be sought ultimately in Christ. All the beautiful things in the world are but fragments of God's majesty, which is reflected through the beauty of God's Son, Jesus Christ, and His redemptive work. So really, outside of Christ, what's the point of life? In Christ, not only do we do everything else in the light of eternity, but we can actually experience pure joy and true happiness in whatever we do, because we do it for the purpose of glorifying God. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to your name give glory." Now for the second point, the godless become like their idols. We become what we worship. We can see that in verses 4 to 8. And the key words for children, like our God. Now in verses 4 to 8, if we look at our Bibles, the psalmist responded by mocking back these nations and their false gods and idols. The heathen nations said to the people of God, where is your God? Makes sense, right? Because these heathen nations, they have their gods. They can see them, they can touch them. And so the psalmist responded by mocking back their false gods and idols. And as one powerful line goes, to silence the accuser, to silence the arrogance of these heathen nations towards the one and true God, to silence their ignorance. All sinners are created in the image of God. Therefore, all are wired to worship. And one of the basic truths about worship, as I mentioned in my first point, that as people who are united in Christ, we reflect and we shadow forth the glory of God. And the goal really of worship is to be a virtual reflection of God's glory in and through our life. Joel Bicke, the name Joel is really good, and Elder Joel will agree. And another Joel, Beaky, said in his book, he requires a pure reflection of his moral excellence in man. Makes sense. Why? A contrast to the heathens who become like the idols that they worship. As we become like what we worship, as we worship God, these heathens become like their idols. And so from verses 4 to 8, let me give several truths. So we can see here in verse 4, we can see that worship must be rendered to the Creator, not the creation. It says in verse 4, their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. The first thing, which I believe also is the main issue that the psalmist addressed was to contrast the God as Creator who lives in the heavens, though not explicitly, but as implied in the text, God being the creator of everything under the heavens, which obviously what makes him superior over all things. Now, of course, we do not believe that heaven is up there, right? And hell is down there. That's just, you know, a play of words that usually superiority and heavens and glory, we look up to that. We look forward to that spiritual place, right? But it's not up there somewhere. But whenever the scripture uses the heavens, it means power, it means authority. and it means superiority over all things. So the psalmist contrasts our God as the creator compared to the idols that these hidden nations worship. Our true God is in the heavens. He is beyond us. He inhabits our realm beyond our existence. On the other hand, the psalmist mocked the heathens. Your gods, well, you made them. Wait, what? Their idols are silver and gold, the work of man's hands. Even if they are made of silver and gold, wow, silver and gold, their value will never appreciate because they are made by human hands. Gods who are created by the ones who worship them. What absurdity is that? You create what you worship? You worship what you have created? That does not sound right. But see beloved, that is the basic essence of idolatry that even Christians are tempted to do. And when we go back to the very beginning in the garden, we can see that man was created for two purposes. to worship God and rule over creation. And both are founded on the wonderful truth of Imago Dei or the image of God. We are created in the image of God which means to reflect the glory of God in our service to Him and through our stewardship of His creation. Remember, these purposes were put in reverse when man sinned. Man worshipped the creation rather than the Creator. And man overruled God rather than being faithful to what God has entrusted for their hands to do. And that is why this pattern was also evident in the first two of the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel through Moses. Worship God alone and do not make for yourself idols. Because man in his fallen nature has constantly broken these commandments. We are naturally, in our fallen state, worshippers. And because of sin, we worship the creation rather than the Creator. We are, in our sins and misery, idolaters. As John Calvin puts it, our hearts are a factory of idols. Now, there are two implications in verse 4. First, it's probably the more emphasized application in terms of worshipping the Creator rather than the creation, is the stern warning against worldliness, which has its root on the teaching about the jealousy of God, that God is jealous. God is self-glorified, therefore He must be jealous for His own glory. And again, God's jealousy for His glory is demonstrated through His love for His unfaithful wife, as pictured in the Old Testament, the Israel. And this jealousy is also expressed in the life, ministry, and passion of Jesus Christ to glorify his Father whose love is demonstrated to sinners through his redemptive work. And so that the Bride of Christ become just like him in his singular desire to glorify his Heavenly Father. Therefore, beloved, we must value God above all else. let us be watchful not only in living a worldly life, but even the danger as we do good deeds and enjoy good things and love good people and even practice godly discipline, but all to glorify ourselves and have it our own way. There's a danger in that, right? That even in doing good things, We are tempted to glorify ourselves and to do it for our own sake. That's why the psalmist in the very beginning was very empathic. Not unto us, O Lord. Not unto us, but to your name. Give glory. Now the second implication is not necessarily making idols out of this world. Listen carefully. but making idols out of our false representation of the God of the Bible. Now, let me share this interesting insight. Apparently, all Roman gods and Greek gods were shapeshifters. For example, Zeus is known to shapeshift in order to allure beautiful women. Another god named Proteus is more famously known for using shapeshifting whenever enemies are pursuing him. Basically, they transform into another shape or form as need arise. Interestingly, many people who claim to believe in the God of the Bible, whether knowingly or out of arrogance, perceive God as somewhat of a shapeshifter. Even portraying the God of the Old Testament is different from the New Testament, right? And as if God has also adopted into the changes in our culture. And so therefore, we must amend and revise our ecumenical creeds and confessions just to be relevant to the culture. Well, this nation is not likely that they believe that the God of the Bible is a shapeshifter. It is mainly because of one, they really do not know the God of the Bible. And number two, they have made the God of the Bible a portable God. A portable God. A portable God whom they can summon anytime and they can somehow manipulate becoming something they need at a particular moment and at a particular time. Really convenient, right? And that is very obvious in this generation, where the world justifies and tolerates sins. Once upon a time, these people did not believe in God, right? These people were atheists. Right now, they are using our Bible, misrepresenting our God, to justify their sins. The world justifies and tolerates sins, and they, as we know, highlight only the God who is love. Well, the God who is love is the God who is holy. Therefore, His love is holy. But also, His holiness is loving. And let me propose to you, brethren, a shape-shifting God is the opposite of what we need right now in this generation. A shape-shifting God is no God. And that is the difference between the Creator and the creation. A famous scholar named Herman Bavinck said, The contrast between being and becoming marks the difference between the creator and the creature. Every creature is continually becoming. It is changeable, constantly striving, seeks rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest in God, in him alone, for only he is pure being and no becoming. God does not change. We call that In a technical term, God is immutable. God does not mutate. God does not change. God does not shapeshift. And we need a God who does not change. Worship is founded on the truthfulness about who God is. Our Creator, but it does not stop there. Our God does not change, therefore, that what sets Him apart from His creation. He is that Being. and we are the creation as we are becoming. And therefore it means that it should penetrate every aspect of our lives. God does not change, this is true, but it's impossible to believe in him without being changed. Now, next verse, we can see that worship must be life transforming. We can see that in verse 5. They have mouths, but do not speak. Eyes, but do not see. Then verse 6 and 7. They have ears, but do not hear. Noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel. Feet, but do not walk. And they do not make a sound in their throat. Now, in fairness with the heathens, in fairness with these idolaters, the context of their taunt towards the people of God, asking them, where is your God? And the psalmist answering, our God is in the heavens and he does what he pleases, does not mean that these heathens did not believe that their gods are not in the heavens. Because they did. They did not believe that their gods are composed of gold and silver and woods and earth. But what they believe is that the images that they were making become vessels for their gods. This is animism. And I just discovered that in the Philippines before the colonizers, we've been colonized by Spaniards, Chinese, Japanese, Americans. And before that, they were animists. We have this very description in Psalm 115. We have made for ourselves these shapes and images that we worship. Interesting, right? So, these images become vessels for their gods to assume and inhabit. So basically, these idols become representations of their gods. And by them, they somewhat perceive it as their gods being near to them. That's interesting, right? The god who is far, but the god who is near. And so they make these idols and images. And so the god who is far can indwelt in those idols, and that they can perceive them as god being near to them. So they also believe that when these idols are consecrated by their priest, the gods become one with the vessels. Hence, the worship of these handmade idols makes sense. It was not really foolish in the sense that it was meaningless. It makes sense. These people are smart, but they're foolish in the sense that they don't know God. And those desires of worshiping someone and something is a fragment. It's a fragment in their heart where the law of God is written. And so they look for someone to worship. God will never dwell in any carved image nor in any temple made by human hands. What he did was to become flesh and dwelt among us through the second person of the Trinity, Jesus Christ. Now, again, those are fragments of who God is, right? These heathens, are making idols so that their gods who they do not know can inhabit them and they can make them near with them. But then it's actually a perfect picture that what God will do in the new covenant is to send his only son and incarnate in flesh. and live among us. And Jesus Christ, after he ascended into heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit and dwelt in us. That, beloved, is a picture of God being transcendent and God being imminent, right? We know that. Transcendence, that God is beyond us. Immanence, that Emmanuel, God is with us. And the incarnation of Jesus Christ And the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in us is a perfect picture of that. Now the Holy Spirit dwells in us. Unlike animism, we do not become like God. We do not become God, I mean, but we become godly, conforming to the image of God as our bodies have become the temple of God. The first Adam failed to live out his purpose in reflecting the glory of God in worship and in stewardship and all of us fell in him and die in sin. But the second Adam, Jesus Christ, who is the very image, the reagents of God's glory, and the exact representation of his nature made purification of sins. And by our union with him, we have been made alive. So brothers and sisters in Christ, let us offer our bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. not conforming to this world, but being transformed by the renewal of our minds. So by testing, we may discern what is good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, in short, living in total dependence to God. To understand the statement of the psalmist, he is in the heavens, he does what he pleases. In the lens of this heathens doctrine of idol making and animating, it seems that what the psalmist also wanted to achieve is to establish That as God's creation, we are fully dependent to Him, to our God who is in the heavens. And it's not just talking about our daily basic provisions. It's talking about literally living, speaking, seeing, hearing, smelling, feeling, walking, and breathing. So the question for the heathens is how do you depend your life on something which cannot even make a sound in their throat? Now, that sound in their throat is not clearing your throat. because it's itchy. In Hebrew, we have this guttural Hebrew letters that you have to pronounce them with your throat. Chesed. For example, chesed. So the psalmist was mocking them. Your idols cannot even make that sound. Not even that. What can be more weird than to depend your life on senseless and motionless, lifeless images and idols? That the very basic things you do, they cannot even do. And as an application for us, worship is depending your life to God. For we ought to think of God even more than we draw of our breath. Grigori of Nazianzus said that. And so in verse eight, we can see that worship must be God conforming. In verse eight it says, those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them. And we close our sermon in this point. We become like what we worship. Again, as created in the image of God, as we live to worship him, we conform to his image. Not that we become God again, but we become like God in character, which is true evidence of becoming spiritually alive. For the heathens, since they do not worship God, Naturally, they worship some parts of this creation, because there is no middle ground, right? We are wired to worship, whether we worship God as spiritually alive in Christ, or we worship this material world as unspiritual or spiritually dead, just like the inanimate world. While the psalmist was speaking in literal sense, as this graven images literally have mouths, eyes, ears, hands, and feet made of silver and gold, Other part of scripture tells us that this has spiritual implications actually. Remember in Isaiah chapter 6, God commanded Isaiah to tell these words to the people. Go and say to these people, keep on hearing but do not understand. Keep on seeing but do not perceive. Make the heart of these people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed. Isaiah himself recognized his unclean lips, and then the angel touched his mouth with tongs and told him that he was forgiven. The next thing that happened is Isaiah being sent to be the mouthpiece of God, speaking the messages of the Lord. having seen the glory of God, having heard the word of the Lord, having sent by God to go. Mouths, eyes, ears, the idolaters have become like their idols, right? Spiritually blind, spiritually deaf, they are lifeless, worldly, ungodly. They do not trust the Lord, they do not depend on God. And in the context of Isaiah, these words are addressed not to the other nations, but to the nation of Israel. Here we can see that the words of the psalmist, while explicitly talking about the idolatrous nations, are proclaiming these words to God's covenant community as rebuke, and also as a warning. The Israelites did not really have a good record in terms of the sin of idolatry, right? The most famous image is the golden calf, if you remember that, a young bull which believes to be the symbol of power and strength. Now what's interesting about the bull is that since time immemorial until now, the body part which is more highlighted is its head because it's hard and its neck which is stiff. The hard-headed and stiff-necked Israelites, They have really become what they have worshipped. Remember, when they made that golden calf, they became what they worshipped. Hard-headed, stiff-necked people. So beloved, let us become like God, the one true God who we worship. And so let me challenge everyone, may Christ's magnificence be seen in our lives, in the words that we speak, in the voices that we listen to, in the things that we fix our eyes upon. May our lives be an aroma to this rotten world. May we walk in ways of the scripture, and may we sing and pray with the psalmist. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. because of your loving kindness, because of your faithfulness. Now before I end this message, if you are here today, and you know that you have been living in rebellion to God, and you have been living in sin and an idolatrous life, probably not explicitly, not literally that you make yourself silver and gold images that you bow down to, It can be that you are living your life for yourself. You're probably enjoying life, right? That's good. That's a fragment of God's goodness in this world. But always remember that outside of Jesus Christ, what's left is eternal punishment. Even in a sense that you have lived your life solely for yourself, in your own ways, thinking that you do not need God in your life because you think you are strong enough on your own for your family and for your goals and friends. I implore you this morning, repent of that sin. Repent of that unbelief. You are not the center of the universe. You are created to worship your creator. and live and have your being through him and for him. The good news is that Jesus Christ, who is the very image of God, died on the cross for your sins. And so call to him, confess your sins with your mouth, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, and you will be saved. A sinner saved to be a true worshiper of God. Now before I pray, let me speak to the children. Children. you are a covenant member of God's family. And so as your parents and your grandparents strive to become like the God that we worship, it's fair to say that you become like your parents, right? So come here every Lord's Day, sing with us, listen to the pastor preach, Pray with us, have fellowship with us as you continue to grow in your knowledge of God. Look to God and look to your parents as they become more like their God. Let us pray. Our gracious God and loving Heavenly Father, not to us, not to us, but to your name, give glory as we struggle with idolatry as we struggle with priorities as we struggle with how much comfort probably we have in this world and how comfort sometimes can turn us away from me we pray that your message this morning will be a reminder to us that we are to wake