[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. We'll be to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. What you believe about God has so much to do with what's going on in your heart.
[0:15] In Romans chapter 11, we're going to learn this morning to stand in awe of God. To stand in awe of God. The Bible tells a story in Isaiah chapter 44 that I will get to in just a minute.
[0:29] We'll read our passage. But in Isaiah chapter 44 verse 9 and following, the God of heaven kind of makes fun of idol makers and false god makers.
[0:42] And he just enjoys laughing at them. In Isaiah chapter 44 verse 9, he said they that make these graven images, those that form these images of God are all worthless and empty and vanity.
[0:57] Nothing about it is of any value. And he says they form a God. He said who hath formed a God or made an image, they're going to be ashamed or they're going to be embarrassed.
[1:10] He talks about the blacksmith who grabs the metal and takes that metal and forms it into the likeness of a man. And he talks about a carpenter who goes out into the woods and cuts down a tree. And he uses that tree to warm himself in verse 15.
[1:23] He cuts it up and he warms himself. And then he bakes some bread with it. And then whatever is left over, he makes a God and he worships it. He burns part of it with the fire. And part of it he uses to cook his food.
[1:35] And after he's all warmed to the fire, he takes the leftovers, the residue, in verse 17. And he makes a God and he falls down before this God he's made.
[1:46] And he worships it and he prays to it and says, You are my God. And then he said in verse 19, he said these guys don't understand anything. They have no knowledge and they have no understanding. They don't even realize what they've said.
[1:59] They don't realize how foolish they are when they talk. They say, I burned part of it in the fire and I've made bread on some of the coals and roasted flesh. And I've eaten and I took what was left over and I made of their therefore an abomination.
[2:11] He says, and they feed on ashes. It's empty. It's worthless. It's tasteless. Because it's a God of their own making. And they ought to stand. They ought to stand in awe of the God of heaven.
[2:25] Verse 21, God said through Isaiah to the nation of Israel. He said, they make a God, but I made you. They make a God, but I made you.
[2:36] And thou shalt not be forgotten to me. I won't forget you. They made a God, but I made you. And so this morning I want you to go with me to the book of Romans chapter 11. And I want to challenge you today to take the passage of scripture and learn about our God.
[2:51] And I want you to stand in awe. I want you to stand back and say, wow, what a God we serve. The song they just sang. So true. What a God we serve.
[3:02] How we worship our God. How we know such great things are in. So read with me if you would, Romans chapter 11, verses 25 and following. The Bible says, for I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, that you should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in.
[3:23] And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall come out of Zion the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
[3:36] As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes, but as touching election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.
[3:48] For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also might obtain resurrection.
[4:01] For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all. Oh, the depths of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
[4:12] How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been his counselor? Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
[4:24] For of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. Father, I pray that today you might take this passage of Scripture and drive it into our hearts.
[4:37] I pray, dear God, that you might cause us to believe you, to stand in awe of you, to worship you, and to know that you're not a God of our making. You're not a God made after our image.
[4:49] You're not a God that we imagine. But you are the God of the Bible, the God of the creation, the God who judges the universe. You're the almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-existing, ever-present God.
[5:01] And I pray, God, today that we would worship you and magnify you and realize who you are, and I'll give you praise for all in Jesus' name. Amen. In Romans 9, 10, and 11, you've got something really wild going on.
[5:14] In Romans 9, 10, and 11, the church has been chosen, and God is beginning to use Gentiles. And the Jewish people, obviously, they're like, man, what has happened? God set us aside.
[5:24] God's not using us. And they kind of maybe don't like that. And basically what God says in chapters 9, 10, and 11 is this. I'm God. I choose who I'll use. I choose what I'll do.
[5:36] I'm God. You don't make the rules. I make the rules. You don't choose who I'll use. I choose who I'll use. I am God. And then he says, I haven't forgotten the Jews. I am going to do them, but I'm at work.
[5:49] And basically Romans 9, 10, and 11 scream out that he is God. They scream out that God is almighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, all-able.
[6:01] He is the great God of the universe. And you should stand and we should stand in all of his great presence. Now, if you have your Bible open to Romans chapter 11, just a couple of things before we really get started on that, there's this great thing going on in our lives right now in verse 25, and that is that God had this mystery where he would bring in the Gentiles and he would use us, the Gentiles, to get the gospel message around the world until the fullness of the Gentiles come.
[6:27] There's this period of time, and it's a short period of time when he chose to use us to get the gospel to the world, and you and I should take very big advantage of the fact that God is using us today for this period of time.
[6:40] In verse 26, he is going to save Israel. He's going to come back and Israel is coming back. Israel is coming back. Somebody asked, I think it was the king or queen of England at one time, asked a Bible scholar, they said, in one word, prove there's a God.
[6:54] In one word, prove there's a God. Sum it all up in one word. And the guy looked at him and said, Israel, God named the people all the way back in Genesis. They still exist.
[7:06] No, they're small and nobody. They still exist. God has had his hand there. All the promises of the Bible revolve around the fact that God is going to use those people, Israel. But I want to take you to three things about God that you'll take home with you today.
[7:19] Three things about our great God that you should remember today. And the first one is this. God always keeps his word. God always keeps his word. Look if you went at Romans chapter 11 and verse 29.
[7:32] Now you've got to get this straight. These three chapters are about eternal security. They're about the fact that God saved us and God will keep us and that we don't have to worry about God ever changing his mind or God ever going back or God ever forgetting us.
[7:46] God won't do that. The Bible says in Romans chapter 11 and verse 29, for the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. Once God does it, it's done. Once God does it, it's done.
[7:59] The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18, that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation.
[8:13] We can have strong comfort in this. We serve a God who does not, cannot, will not lie. He is a God of complete honesty.
[8:23] He did not set Israel aside permanently. He had made promises to Israel in the Old Testament and he will yet fulfill those promises. He did not fail in that. And God made promises to us.
[8:35] This morning, if you're saved and if you're born again, you are saved because of what God promised. You have believed God. You have taken him at his word. You have trusted him.
[8:45] And he says in this verse, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. I don't say it without meaning it. I don't do it without finishing it. I am who I say I am. I am the God who keeps his word.
[8:57] Can you say amen about that? You can trust God. He keeps his word. I'd like to share some verses. You can just write them down if you can't keep up. But in the Bible says in Hebrews 13, 5, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have.
[9:12] For I have said, I will never leave thee. I will never leave thee nor forsake you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. If you've been born again, if you're a child of God, if he saved you, you have a promise.
[9:25] He will never leave you nor will he forsake you. In Matthew chapter 28 verses 18, 19, and 20, where he gives us the Great Commission, he finishes the Great Commission saying this, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
[9:37] I will carry you all the way through. I will carry you to death and past death. I will carry you all the way through. In John chapter 10 and verse 27, the Bible says, verse 28, he says, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.
[9:54] Nobody can ever pluck them out of my hand. Nobody can ever pluck them out of my Father's hand. He is greater than I am. And the Father and I are one. And you're in both of our hands. Nobody will ever take away your salvation.
[10:07] In Romans chapter 8 and verse 31, which we went through as we came through the book of Romans, and you've read that and studied that and gone through it. Here's what he said. Who shall separate us from the love of God? Who can be against us?
[10:19] Look at Romans 8, 31. If God be for us, who can be against us? Today I'm saved because God did a work. I didn't save myself. God saved me.
[10:30] You didn't save me. If you're born again, you were saved by the grace of God. You weren't saved by what you did. You weren't saved by your believing. You weren't saved by your getting baptized. You weren't saved.
[10:41] You were saved because you simply received a gift bought and paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we're saved. And who can be against us if God be for us?
[10:51] By the way, verse 33, he said, if somebody wants to say something bad about God's people, who could do it? Who could say it? Because it's God that made it right. So how are you going to make any accusations?
[11:02] A man walks up and makes an accusation. God says, hold it, buddy. I'm the one that made that right. The devil walks up and makes an accusation. God says, wait a minute, buddy. I made that right. It's God that made it right. But verse 34 said, somebody wants to condemn you.
[11:16] Somebody wants to put you down. Somebody wants to say it's not true. And he said, hey, it's Jesus that died. And he's even standing at the right hand of the Father. And he's praying for us right now.
[11:26] If you're a born again believer, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you have trusted what he did on the cross in heaven, in heaven, no matter who would come to accuse you, God's on your side.
[11:37] Jesus is on your side. No matter who would say anything, it is God himself and Jesus himself that stands there. And he ends up in Romans chapter 8. He said, who will separate us from the love of God? And he said this. He said, it's nothing big, nothing little, nothing in heaven, nothing anywhere, nothing under the earth, nothing above the earth, nothing ever made, nothing that ever will be made.
[11:55] Nothing shall ever separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We serve a God who keeps his word. Can you say amen?
[12:06] We serve a God who keeps his word. By the way, the God who keeps his word said this. I started it in you and I will finish it in you. I started it in you and I will finish it.
[12:18] The Bible says in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6, being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you, he will perform it. I started it and I'll finish it.
[12:29] That's what he said in Philippians chapter 1 and verse 6. Now, Romans 9, 10, 11 are about this. Here's what's going on. The Israel stood up and said, Is it possible that God didn't keep his word, that he made us his people and he said he was going to do great things with us?
[12:45] And Paul says, That's absolutely incorrect. He said the God who made those promises will always keep those promises because he never fails. There's a mystery you don't understand. There's some things going on maybe that you don't understand, but you can mark this down.
[12:58] God gives his word and God keeps his word. You see, If God would lie to Israel, he could lie to us. But God never lies. Could you say amen?
[13:08] I am saved and I'm going to heaven and I believe that I have been made a new creature based on what the word of God says and I can trust God and what the Bible said. Now, some of you this morning might be saying, Well, wait a minute.
[13:20] Are you saying then that if I'm a Christian, if I've trusted Christ, that everything's okay and I don't have to worry about my salvation? Yes, I am. You say, Are you saying once saved, always saved? Yes, I am, but no, I'm not.
[13:33] I just want to get that really clear before I go on. I am saying, Yes, once you're saved, you're always saved. But you need to understand, I'm going to read one more verse about him not lying. You need to understand something. That doesn't mean once you prayed, you're always saved.
[13:45] Some of you were somewhere in a church, somewhere, and you prayed when you were two and a half years old and your mama did the praying for you. And everybody reminds you that you prayed, but you don't remember it.
[13:56] You never meant it. It never came out of your heart. You never trusted Jesus. And you made that decision and you lived like the devil ever since then. He's a God who keeps his word. And before I move from that place where he's a God that keeps his word, let me remind you that he disciplines his children and he keeps us because we are his.
[14:14] In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 6, the Bible says, Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges, spanks, whips every son whom he receives. So if you're a born again believer this morning, mark this one down.
[14:28] If you're a born again believer this morning, he started a work in you, he's going to finish the work. He started a work in you and he's going to carry you all the way through. He that saved you will finish up what he did in you.
[14:39] And you can't just be saved and live like the devil and think, hey, nothing's ever going to come of this. All of God's people are either changed or chastised. Either a new creature, a new nature starts to show up or God does some spanking and chastising and disciplining us to wake us up.
[14:59] First truth, he is a God who does not lie. I am saved and born again because I trust what the God of heaven said in the Bible. I trust him.
[15:09] The second thing I want you to see is this. Look if you would in Romans 11, 32. Romans 11, 32. The Bible says he has mercy on all. Write that down. He has mercy on all.
[15:21] The Bible said in verse 32, For God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all. Now listen to this. This is a big lesson you've got to get.
[15:33] Are you ready? Look at this way. I really need you to pay attention. You see, God said, I have shown that all of y'all are failures and all of y'all are mess-ups and all of y'all have sinned and all of y'all have failed God.
[15:45] Every person, every human, every race, everywhere. So that anybody who ever gets saved is by the mercy and the grace of God. Not one person ever gets to God by doing this.
[15:56] I'm a pretty good guy. You see, the Jews were thinking, what's he doing bringing in these Gentiles? We're the good guys. And he said, No, I have shown you something. You guys don't believe and you guys don't do right and you guys have failed and you guys are no good so I had to have mercy on you.
[16:12] And by the way, those Gentiles, they don't do good and they are messed up and I have to have mercy on them. It's always God having the mercy. It's God having the grace. That grace is extended to everybody.
[16:23] That mercy is extended to everybody but not everybody will accept that mercy. This morning, you may be here and I would tell you that the God of heaven loves you, that Jesus Christ, I don't want to cross to pay your sin debt, that you can be saved, that all of you can come to know Him, that you can know His forgiveness, that you can know it.
[16:42] His mercy is extended to all but you might not accept it. The Bible says in Romans 6.23, The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[16:54] God extends mercy. The Jews did not deserve that God would ever choose them or use them. The Gentiles in the church do not deserve to be chosen of God or used of Him.
[17:05] God saw all under sin and in unbelief so that He could be the one who acted. I want you to get this. God is the one who acts in salvation.
[17:16] The Bible says in Galatians 3.22, look at this verse for me. Galatians 3.22, The Scripture has concluded, how many under sin? Would you tell me? The Scripture has concluded, how many under sin?
[17:27] Say it again. The Scripture has concluded, how many under sin? All under sin. That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that, what? So how many are under sin?
[17:39] And how many of them will be saved? Those that, somebody sit over here, say it again. How many are under sin? And how many will be saved? Them that believe. How many are under sin? And how many will be saved?
[17:51] Them that believe. So salvation and grace are extended to all. Let me just say this to you. You love God because He loved you first. That's what 1 John says. You love God because He loved you first.
[18:03] By the way, God loved you while you were still a sinner. The Bible says in Romans 5.8, but God commended or showed or proved His love toward us and while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us.
[18:14] It's God doing a work in us. Every good thing that happened in our lives is due to His grace and mercy. We're saved by grace with no works of our own.
[18:26] We are sanctified by grace with no works of our own. We are secure by grace with no works of our own. God found all of us in a helpless condition so He could show mercy on us.
[18:40] Two things I hope you've seen this morning. Number one, God doesn't lie. How many repeat that with me, would you? God doesn't lie. Would you say that with me? God doesn't lie. The second thing is He had mercy on all.
[18:50] You ready? He had mercy on all. That doesn't mean all are going to go to heaven, by the way. You need to understand that. There's a very erroneous doctrine, a bad doctrine in the Bible. Not in the Bible, excuse me.
[19:01] In churches, the Bible is completely against and that is a doctrine of universalism that everybody's all going to end up in heaven someday. That everybody someday is going to go to heaven.
[19:11] That's not true. Not everybody goes to heaven. Not everybody goes to heaven. You go to heaven because you trust what Jesus did on the cross of Calvary.
[19:22] It's never based on, well, everybody's going to be saved. It's never based on how good you are. All can have mercy, but it's extended to those that believe. The third thing I'd like you to see, and I want you to go with me if you would to verse 33, and we'll spend the rest of our time in verse 33.
[19:38] Write this down. He's beyond our understanding. He is a God that is beyond our understanding. We'll go from verse 33 to the end of the chapter now.
[19:49] He is beyond our understanding. The Bible says, This is basically what the verses say.
[20:21] We don't understand Him. He's much bigger than we are. Now, if you had that little false God in Isaiah chapter 44, we'll check those verses out in a minute, you could understand Him.
[20:34] You went out in the woods, and you cut down the tree, and you fixed you some beans. You cooked some beans on it, and you grilled some hamburgers over the top of the rest of it, and you put some in the house to warm the house up with, and what you had left over, you made a little God, and you made Him the way you like Him, and you made Him look that good, and then you bowed down to Him.
[20:53] You might understand that God. But the God of the Bible says, Hey, you didn't make me. I made you. You didn't make me. I made you. You're not the big one.
[21:04] I am. The world says that we have made God in our image. The Bible says, No, sir. You got it backwards. The God of heaven made us. So let me give you some things you might want to know.
[21:15] He has no limits to His knowledge. No limits to His knowledge. Get ready for some verses coming your way. No limits to His knowledge. He knows all, and He sees all.
[21:27] He knows it before it happens. And as Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 8, the Bible said, God writing through Isaiah said this. The Old Testament prophet said this. God gave him this.
[21:38] My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways. He says, Lord, you guys don't understand the way I think. You guys don't do things the way I do things. Verse 9. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts.
[21:52] Than your thoughts. Hey, as high as the heaven is above, as high as the heaven is above the earth, that's how much God's, the thoughts are different from ours. You get on a jet and fly somewhere, you're going to go to 35,000 feet.
[22:04] You might even get to where you're bumping nearly 40,000 feet as you fly around. And God looked down and said, you know how high my thoughts are? They're so high, they're higher than the sky is above you. That's how high they are.
[22:15] You don't think like me. You don't understand me. There is no limit to me. I am God. I am God. We're to stand in awe of Him. We're to stand and say, wow, He's a creator God.
[22:25] He's a judge God. He's the God who made it everything. He's a God that knows everything. The Bible says in Psalm 139 and verse 4, there's not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it all together.
[22:39] Basically, here's what that says. Look at this. You're about to, you're about to say the word. You're about to let the word come out. And God said, I already know what you're going to say. You say, the word's on the tip of my tongue. God said, yeah, I know. I already know what it is before you say it.
[22:50] Because I'm God. I am that big. I am so big. I know what you're going to say before you say it. Not only that, nothing is hidden from Him. There's not a place you can go, not a thing you can do, not a way you can cover it up.
[23:05] You can't put it in a lead box and hide kryptonite. You can't dig a hole deep enough. You can't find a place high enough. There's nowhere you can go. There's no way you can cover up or hide from God.
[23:15] The Bible says in Hebrews 4.13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest or shown or clearly seen in His sight. All things are naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
[23:28] You know what God was saying? He said, look, I know what you're going to say before you say it, and I see everything you do. When you're in the quietest place, the most hidden place you've ever been in your life, I see what you're going to do.
[23:39] I am God. No limit to His knowledge. No limit. He counts the hairs on your head. Matthew 10.30. He knows the end from the beginning.
[23:50] Did you know before it ever happens, God already knows it? Did you know that God, when God created the world, He already knew how the world would end? See, He knows the end from everything.
[24:01] I mean, there's nothing He doesn't know. The Bible says in Isaiah 46.9, remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else.
[24:12] I am God, and there is none, nobody like me. I declare the end from the beginning, and from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.
[24:25] God says, I can tell you what's going to happen ten years from now. I can tell you what's going to happen a thousand years from now. I can tell you what's going to happen a million years from now, because I am God. There is no limit to His knowledge.
[24:37] The second thing about Him, He's beyond our understanding, no limit to His knowledge. There's no one equal to Him, or ever has been equal to Him. No one's ever been like God, ever. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 46, and verse 34, excuse me, Romans chapter 11, and verse 34, For who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counselor?
[24:59] Who knows what God's thinking? Whoever gave God advice? You see, you can know some really important people, and you give them some advice.
[25:10] You can even say, I think I know what the President's going to do next. I think I know what the President of Russia is going to do next. I think I understand. Some of you might be so important, you could make a phone call and talk to somebody very important, but God says this, don't nobody know what I'm doing.
[25:25] Don't nobody know what I'm doing. Ain't nobody going to give me a call. Ain't nobody going to give me any advice. I'm God. That's really hard on us, isn't it? You know, we want to think of God as some little piece of wood we formed.
[25:37] We want to think of some little piece of brass we made. We want to think of God doing what we want. We want to say, God, this is how you have to do it. And God looks and says, excuse me? I made you. You didn't make me. I know everything, and there's no one my equal.
[25:49] We only know about God what He chooses to reveal. We know God through His Word and the revelation of His Son, Jesus. Nobody gives Him any advice. God is eternal.
[26:00] No beginning and no end. Let me just say this to you. This is extremely difficult to understand. But before the beginning, He already was. He doesn't have a beginning, He doesn't have an end.
[26:14] When you were in math class and they drew a finite line and they drew a line segment and they put a dot here and a dot here and said that line starts here and that line ends here. That was a line segment. Then they drew another line.
[26:24] They put an arrow on each end and said that line goes into infinity. That describes God. Because as far back as you could possibly ever go, if you could go a gazillion, gazillion, a million miles back that way or years that way or whatever that way, He'd already be there.
[26:37] And if you could go that far that way, He'd already be there. He said, Hey, I have no beginning and I have no end. I am eternal. Get this one. He has no needs. God doesn't need us.
[26:49] God doesn't need anything. He's all sufficient. Self-contained. He doesn't need anybody. He doesn't even need fellowship with man. I often hear people say, Well, God needed somebody to have fellowship with so He made man.
[27:02] No, He didn't. He didn't need that. He's good enough to let us have fellowship with Him. But it wasn't like God was up in heaven saying, I've been here a gazillion, million years and I'm lonely. I think I'll make a man. He wasn't lonely. He's God.
[27:13] Everything's in Him. He doesn't need anybody. He's God. I mean, that'd be just about like you said, the little brownie you made. You know, you made those brownies. You got a pan of brownies and the brownie looking up and saying, I know you needed me.
[27:26] I know you was lonely without me and so you made a brownie. No, you looked after the brownie and said, I don't need you. In fact, I'm fixing to eat you. It's done. I don't need you. God says, I don't need fellowship.
[27:38] He doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our worship. He doesn't need anything we have. We need Him. We need Him. But He doesn't need us.
[27:49] He is the Lord, the King, the ruler, the owner, the controller. Stand back. In all, He is God.
[28:00] When you come into the church house, you need to realize that somebody's so big, your mind cannot understand. Somebody who knows everything before you ever know it. Somebody who had no beginning and no end.
[28:11] Someone who needs absolutely nothing. Chose to let a little speck of dirt like me have fellowship with Him. What a wonderful, gracious God I serve.
[28:23] No one can counsel Him. In Isaiah 44, 80 said, Isaiah says, Fear not, neither be afraid. Have I told thee from that time, and have I declared it?
[28:34] Ye have been my witnesses. And then God says, this is so funny. God's talking to Isaiah, and He said, Is there a God beside me? Yep. There's no God. I don't know any. God says, Isaiah, do you reckon there's any other gods?
[28:48] Isaiah said, Nope. There's not. I'm the only one. I don't know another one. Never have met another one. I'm God, and not another one exists anywhere. Can you say amen? He is a God beyond your imagination.
[29:02] But from there on down, He starts just almost, He's just mocking man. He looks down and says, You puny little nothings. You live 70, 80, 100 years, and you die.
[29:13] And you go out in the woods, and you cut down a tree, and you go in the house, and you warm your hands by the fire you make out of the tree, and you cook a hamburger over the top of that, and you warm you some beans over that, and whatever you have left over, you sit on the side in the light of the woods you were burning, and you cut a little God out, and you fall down in front of Him and say, Oh, you're my God.
[29:31] He said, Ha, ha, ha, ha. See, we don't serve a God that we made. By the way, you'd say, We don't do that. We're not idol worshipers. Oh, but you've got a God you made.
[29:43] You want a God that does salvation the way you want it done? You want a God who answers prayers the way you want them answered? You want a God who fits into your little box and does everything the way you want it?
[29:54] You want a God you understand. And the God of heaven looks down and says, Sorry, never happening. Too big for you. Your little brain would blow wide open if you ever tried to understand me.
[30:07] Too big for you. All gods that men have made are nothing but jokes. By the way, I want you to go over to chapter 11 and verse 36. You can never think God owes you anything.
[30:21] 11-35. You can never think that God owes you anything. Who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again. I want you to circle the word first.
[30:32] You know what God says? You know what Paul said here? You know what the Apostle Paul said? He said, Who do you reckon gave God something first and then thought God ought to pay him? Who do you reckon gave God something first?
[30:43] Well, here's the key to it. First. Nobody can give God anything first because He was first. And anything you have, the air you breathe, the life you have, the world you live in, the way your heart works and everything about you, the God of heaven did it.
[31:00] He said, Hey, you can't come to me and say, God, you owe me. I did that for you. God looked at me and said, You did something for me? Let me see. I made you. You breathe air. I made for you. You eat food. I made for you.
[31:11] I mean, everything about you is something I did, and you think you, but some of us do that. We're like, I've been going to church all my life, and I've been doing this, and I've been doing this, and I've been doing this, and I've been doing this, and God owes me.
[31:22] The God of heaven looked down and said, Excuse me? Let's get that, let's turn that around. I don't owe you. I don't owe you. God doesn't owe us anything. God doesn't owe us anything.
[31:35] We owe God. He doesn't owe us anything. If you have given to God, it was after He gave it to you. Your life is in His hand. You would never think that, no matter what you do, that He owes you.
[31:46] You should never think that. All we ever do is in response to what He did. By the way, everything is all about Him. This is really not a prosperity gospel message.
[31:59] And this is really not a popular, positive thinking message. This is not about how great you are. This is how great He is. Stand in awe. Stand in awe.
[32:10] We worship the great God of heaven. The Bible says in Romans 11, 36, For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things, to whom be glory forever.
[32:21] Amen. Everything on this planet is His. Colossians 1, 16 says, For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things were created, by Him, and for Him.
[32:39] In Revelation 4, verse 11, the Bible says, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, honor, and power, for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are, and were created.
[32:49] He gets glory for making us. He gets glory for saving us. He gets glory for making us holy. We are big. He is small. He is first.
[33:00] We are last. Stand in awe of a great God today. We stand in awe of the great God of the universe. He can be trusted.
[33:12] He keeps His word. He saves us when we do not deserve it. He made it all, knows it all, and does it all. He made us. We didn't make Him.
[33:24] I'm finished with this. I want you to understand this morning, we didn't come here to talk about what make you prosper. I didn't come here this morning. The passage of Scripture is about this. He is a great God.
[33:36] And the fact that you are allowed to even talk about Him, or know Him, is because He's such a good, and gracious, and merciful God. The fact that you and I could ever think that He would give us life, is because He's a good God.
[33:50] The fact that we could ever think we could go to heaven, is because He's a good God. The fact that He would ever answer a prayer, is that He's a good God. Stand in awe of God.
[34:02] Stand in awe of God. We should walk in here and say, wow, what a great God. Every one of us ought to be thinking, I don't deserve to be here.
[34:14] I don't deserve to talk to Him. I don't deserve to hear from Him. I don't deserve that He would save me. I don't deserve that He'd forgive me. He is a great God. Stand in awe of a great God.
[34:28] Father in heaven, I ask you to work this morning, and I pray that those who have never trusted Jesus, so they could know you, through what you did on the cross of Calvary, I pray God that today they could know, what a great and awesome, wonderful God you are.
[34:43] Holy Spirit, I pray you'd convict hearts, I pray you'd show men, that you know everything, you see everything, you are everywhere. I pray God you'd do a great work. God, show your power today.
[34:56] Work and move in our lives, in our midst, and I will give you glory. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.