The god Wi Pe Yap Aws
Standard; Do you hurt for the lost? Is there an ache in your heart for your acquaintances who do not have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Family members? Spouses? Friends? Neighbors? Co-workers? People groups?
Who are the lost? How can you tell? Jesus gave us the acid test in
Mt 7:20 "Therefore by their fruits you will know them. 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
You've heard of people practicing law. They hang a shingle outside their office and announce to the world that they are lawyers. The unbeliever hangs a shingle on his lifestyle and while his lips may say one thing, his life says, “I have no regard for God's Word.” I practice lawlessness
1Co 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Yes, the lost are out there. You know them, and they matter to you, and many of them are so close to you that you want to believe that all is well with their soul, but the facts speak differently. Well listen, if you are heavy of heart for the lost, then this Psalm is for you. It is a challenge to each and every one of us to show the reality of God through our lives.
Ps 115:1 Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, But to Your name give glory, The word “glory” here means weight. And the psalmist is pleading to the Lord to give visible credence to His name. He doesn't want the world saying, “Oh that Israel, aren't they something special? No! Let Israel be something special because God is their Lord. Let the glory come to the name of the Lord.
How? Through what channels should this glory flow?
Because of Your mercy, Because of Your truth.
Through the channels of His mercy and truth. The channel of His mercy is His unwarranted loving-kindness toward sinners like you and I and the channel of His truth is through His Word. The challenge for us is to demonstrate His loving-kindness to others in every day situations and to verify His truth as we live it. Let the world see that His truth works! God's way is the better way. How are they going to see these things, if we, who are believers don't demonstrate them.
Be loving and kind to others in tangible ways. Jesus said in Joh 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Live your life according to the truth of God's Word. It points people to God! As E.M. Bounds says in his book “Prayer” “The character and conduct of the follower of Christ, Christianizes the world, transfiguring nations and individuals.”
Joh 3:21 "But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
Not to us but to Your name be the glory!
Every time you or I ignore God's truth, disobey His Word, we weaken our testimony and we dim the spotlight that should be aimed at God. And thereby give a poor reflection of the Living God.
Now, we aren't perfect. We are going to slip up, but if handled correctly that slip-up can lead to opportunities to witness and conversion.
I remember one time when my mother and step-father were up visiting. I had just returned to the Lord as a prodigal. And if you don't know about us returning prodigals, we usually are pretty outspoken about our faith and we typically are very zealous for the salvation of others. We want them to experience what we've experienced. They knew of my new found faith in Christ, as I had been very vocal about it.
Anyway, they were in the house and I was trying to get a homemade kite to fly for my son, Jay. Well, nothing worked and I became very frustrated and proceeded to make a complete idiot out of myself as I destroyed the kite. When I came back in the house with the shredded and mangled kite, my step-father said, “Oh, that's what it means to be a Christian.”
Talk about a blow to the solar plexis. How should I respond to such a charge? I don't know what came over me, it had to be the grace of God, because in the next instant I got on my knees before my stepfather and apologized for my behavior and asked for his forgiveness.
And he saw something he had never seen in me before.....genuine brokenness and humility, and he had to wonder where it came from. Well it came from God and to Him be the glory and a short time later Joe and my mother gave their lives to Christ.
Friends, verse 2 says,
2 Why should the Gentiles say, "So where is their God?"
In other words, why should the Gentiles have to look elsewhere to find God? He should be right there. ever before them in our acts of lovingkindness and verified, lived out truth as found in God's Word.
But honestly, what is the world seeing when they look at us? They see a people who for the most part pick and choose who they will be loving and kind to and a people who pick and choose what they will trust and obey in God's Word. And so we have a world of unbelievers who are now picking and choosing what they wish to believe about God and they are making Him over into their image.
However, verse 3
3 But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He pleases.
Our God should be ruling supreme in our lives, doing what He pleases and not the other way around.
We should not be doing whatever we please. But since we are, the Gentiles do the same. They craft their own gods with their own imagination, because we are doing the same.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;
6 They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell;
7 They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat.
They were much like the god I have brought with me this morning. This is the god “wi pey a paws.” The people who worship this god believe that if they wipe their feet before they enter a home they will not offend the goddess of the home, kind of a weird religion, because the reality of wi pey a paws is he has no life in him at all. Only the life and power that the worshipers give him.
Same thing with the god Buddawieser, and por nog raffie, and matty eerie alism.
8 Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.
Did you ever notice how you become what you worship? Your object of worship typically consumes you!
If your god is Budda weiser, most of your time, thoughts, energy, and money is spent on satisfying his demands. Same thing with por nog raffe, and matty eerie alism. The weird thing is, the god isn't making the demands, he can't speak. Rather it is your own flesh that makes the demands, and you are allowing an inanimate object to control your life.
You become like that which you worship. Someone has said you can tell who a person's god is by looking at their checkbook, that's only partially true because you can also tell a person's god by looking at their day planner, and by that which occupies their thoughts.
Unbelievers are looking for love and fulfillment in all the wrong places.
Now the Psalm takes a turn, and this is where I believe it is most helpful as it concerns your passion for the lost. It is a challenge to you and I to prove the reality of God to an unbelieving world as we put our trust in His Word, trusting His promises and obeying His commands.
9 O Israel, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.
11 You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; He is their help and their shield.
How does the grammar of these verses sit with you? Wouldn't it make more sense to say, He is OUR help and OUR shield? But no, it reads THEIR help and THEIR shield. THEIR = the Gentiles!
And I believe the Psalmist is reminding us that God is their only hope, just as He is our only hope, but how will they know if they never observe us exercising trust in God and His Word?
O Israel ( O church, O individual congregations) start acting as a unit, start acting like you trust the Lord. Start doing things His way! Church instructions are found in the Second Chapter of Acts, and the Epistles. Man up church!
O house of Aaron ( O pastors and elders) start acting like you trust the Lord. Start doing things His way. Give yourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word! Your instructions are found in the Book of Acts, Titus, and 1 Timothy!
O you who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, (O you individual temples of the Holy Spirit, start acting like you trust the Lord in your daily living.
Our God has eyes that see. He is aware of any and all attempts on the part of our congregation, our spiritual leaders, and all believers to trust in Him and His Word.
2Ch 16:9 "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
Our God sees!
12 The LORD has been mindful of us; He will bless us; He will bless the house of Israel; (the church that does this) He will bless the house of Aaron. (clergy) 13 He will bless those who fear the LORD, Both small and great. (Congregations)
How will He bless us?
14 May the LORD give you increase more and more, You and your children.
He will give us increase. He will save the Gentiles, those unbelievers that we are burdened for. He will use our evident trust to build their trust. He will use our trust, our obedience to lead others to the one true living God. You may not think you are getting through to the lost in your life, but never weary of trusting God. Believing His promises and obeying His commands and submitting to Him in EVIDENT ways..
Trust Him for the results.
The psalmist then ends with a prayer for all who through the end of the age will trust and obey the Lord.
15 May you be blessed by the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S; But the earth He has given to the children of men.
The psalmist reminds us that God has given us our time on earth. We have a role to play in the salvation of souls, while they and we occupy terra firma. And the most important role we can play is to display a visible trust in God and His Word.
This is our business....be about it because......
17 The dead do not praise the LORD, Nor any who go down into silence.
Therefore from this moment on, let us commit to bless the Lord and glorifying His name, and we bless Him each time we trust His Word, believing it and obeying it.
18 But we will bless the LORD From this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!
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