Our Praise to God — Chuck Smith

Welcome to the Word for Today, featuring the Bible teaching of the late Pastor Chuck Smith, founder of the Calvary Chapel Movement. This radio program is a verse-by-verse study through the entire Bible.

And on today's edition of the Word for Today, Pastor Chuck focuses on our praise to God as we pick up in the 135th Psalm, beginning with verse 1. And now with today's message, here's Pastor Chuck.

The Exhortation to Praise the Lord

Psalm 135 is a psalm that begins and ends with the Hebrew word, Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him, O servants of the Lord. The exhortation to praise. Emphasis, three times over.

Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God, praise the Lord. Why? For the Lord is good. Sing praises to the Lord. Why? Because it's just pleasant. It's good. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure.

God's People as His Peculiar Treasure

Now, Peter tells us that the Lord has chosen you for his peculiar treasure. He said, we are a chosen nation, that we should bring forth praise to Him, and that we are His peculiar treasure. That is one of the most amazing things to me of all.

The fact that God treasures me. Now, I have every reason in the world to treasure God and consider Him as a glorious treasure, knowing Him. But for God to consider me as a treasure, His treasure, is something that I find hard to really grasp.

Paul prayed for the Ephesians that you might know what is His exceeding inheritance in the saints. How much God does treasure you. If you only knew how much God treasured you, how much He values you. God's treasure.

The Sovereignty and Greatness of God

For I know that the Lord is great. The Lord is above all gods. He's to be praised because He is above all gods. He's great. There are other gods, and men have worshipped other gods, and men today do worship other gods.

But Jehovah is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that He did in heaven. He reigns in heaven. He's sovereign over the universe and in the earth and in the seas and all of the deep places. This is intended to just take everything in the universe.

The Lord does what He pleases. He's sovereign. He reigns. He rules. He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. Talking now about the rain cycle. He makes the lightnings for the rain. He brings the wind out of His treasuries.

Can you see any wisdom in that? I cannot fathom the audacity of the evolutionists that can look at all of this and just think that it all just so happened by chance that this is the way it works, you know.

It's so irrational to worship nature, to look at these things and say, marvelous, that's God, you know. But there is one true and living God who is above all gods. He is the God who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of the man and beast, who sent the tokens and the wonders into the midst of the old Egypt upon Pharaoh and upon all of his servants, who smote the great nations and slew the mighty kings, Sihon, the king of the Amorites, Og, the king of Bashan, and all of the kingdoms of Canaan.

And He gave their land for a heritage, a heritage unto Israel, His people. For the name of Jehovah endures forever, and His memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations. For the Lord will judge His people, and He will repent Himself concerning His servants.".

The Idols of the Heathen and the True God

Now he goes on to contrast now the living true God, the creator of the universe, with the gods of the heathen. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold. They are the work of man's hands. In other words, there are man-created gods.

They'll say, well, God is the invention of man. The idea of God was created by man because man needed to believe in something, and so he made up God. And so God is sort of a creation of man rather than man being created by God.

And what a turnaround. You know, well, I created God, you know. Absurdia me rediculum, you know, it's just. But it is acknowledged that men did make idols, and they did worship these idols. The idols were representative to them of their gods.

False Worship and the Idols of Human Desire

Now, ancient man lived closer to the truth than we live. We have created so many facades upon facade upon facade that, man, it's hard to find the real person. You know, you have to dig through one facade after another to get down to the real person.

They live closer to nature, closer to earth, closer to reality, closer to truth. We hide the truth so many times behind the facades. They marveled at the reproductive capacity of man, the power to create new life.

And thus they began to worship the reproductive organs of the body, and they made idols to represent these things. And they would worship that because, after all, the mystery of the origin of life, new life, a new child, it was marvelous, it was mysterious.

How does it happen? You know, we know it does, you know, it was one of those things that was sort of shrouded in mystery to them, but it was godlike, the capacity to create, and so they worshipped it.

They had the female sex goddess, Asherim, which was to the Greeks Aphrodite, which was to the Romans Venus, and all of the statues that went with it, statues of Venus, the statues of Aphrodite, the statues of Ashtoreth, the female goddess of sex.

And all of these idols represented their objects of worship. Now in our world today, we have many people who worship sex. It's their god or goddess. But you see, they don't carve out little idols anymore.

Oh, they have pictures maybe in magazines that would be an equivalent, in a sense, to the idols. But if you look at a person's life, their whole life revolves around sex, sexual encounters, encounters, the excitement and sensuality, and that's their whole life.

That's what their life revolves around. That's really what they live for. That's what they talk about. That's, you know, that's just what they're after. And it is really the god that controls their life.

Their life is controlled by this. Now we're too sophisticated to make an idol today, but nonetheless it's still the god. In those days, they enjoyed pleasure also, and so they had their god of pleasure, Molech.

And the little idols of Molech actually represented the fact that they lived for pleasure. Their whole life was geared around the pleasure principle. And there are people today whose lives are all centered around pleasure.

You know, the hedonists, the philosophies that said that pleasure was the chief good, and there are people today that buy into that. And pleasure is the chief good in their whole life. You know, they only work in order that they might get off on the weekend, so they can take off with their ATCs and everything.

You know, pleasure, man, thrill, excitement, you know, I love it. You know, it is that rush, that thrill, and all of these things. And they live for that. It's, you know, getting on the curl of that wave, and feeling, you know, as you're going down, and oh man, free ride on nature, you know, just great, great, great, good rush, good thrill.

And they live for that. That's their life. Now they don't have little idols that they say, well, you know, and where they put their candles, and they offer their prayers, and all to this little god of pleasure, you know.

But nonetheless, they still worship pleasure. It is their god. There were those in those days who worshipped power. I want to have, I want to possess, I want to rule. And thus they had their little god of mammon that represented their chief goal of life was to possess, and to control, and to rule.

There were those who worshipped the intellect. They said the most important thing in life is to know. And they were constantly studying, constantly reading, constantly trying to gain as much insight and knowledge as they possibly could.

And they had their little idol that they carved, and they said this is the god of knowledge. And they worshipped knowledge, their desire to know. And so the gods of the, or the idols of the heathen are made of silver and gold, but they are the works of men's hands.

Idolatry as Self-Worship

Men have made these gods themselves. Our god made us. When they made them, they put mouths on them. But the psalmist wryly observes, they can't talk. You know, they carved out a little mouth on that little idol, but it can't talk.

They have eyes, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. And neither is there any breath in their mouths. In other words, when man makes a god, he makes it like himself. If a man does not worship the true and the living God, then he does worship a projection of himself, self-worship.

If I were God, this is what I would do. This is how I would be. This is what I feel is the most important thing in life. And so this is what I worship. This is the thing that rules me. This is the ideal that governs me.

This is my master passion. And it's a projection of me. It's sort of like me. And so when a man makes a god, he makes it like himself. Because I have eyes, I carve eyes on my When a man makes a god, he makes it like himself, but he makes it less than himself.

Because though I carve the ears, the little god still can't hear. Though I carve the eyes, the little god still can't see. Though I carve the mouth, the little god can't talk. So I have made it like me, but in reality, I have made it less than me.

But verse 18 is the killer. They that make them are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusts in them. Inescapable truth of life is that you become like your god. If your god can't see, you're becoming blind to the truth yourself.

If your god can't hear, you're becoming deaf to the voice of God in nature. If your god is insensate, you are becoming insensate. If your god is false, you are becoming false. For a man becomes like his god.

Becoming Like the God We Worship

Now remember, when you made your god, you made your god like yourself, but you made it less than yourself. Thus, if you are becoming like your god, you're on the road down. If your god is a false god, becoming like your god, you're degrading.

And so, I want you to observe all of those who have rejected the true and the living God, and watch their lives. Their lives are in the process of being degraded. Sin is degrading, and to worship pleasure is degrading.

To worship money is degrading. Now, on the other hand, if a man becomes like his god, if you're worshiping the true and the living god, and you're becoming like your god, think of how wonderful that is.

And the Scripture affirms that that is true. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It doesn't yet appear what we're going to be, but we know when he appears, we're going to be like him. Why? Because I'm becoming like my god.

Paul said, and we, with unveiled faces as we behold the glory of the Lord, are being changed from glory into glory, into the same image by the power of his spirit within us. That's why it's so important that you worship the true and the living God, because that is always an uplifting.

You're becoming better as you worship the true and the living God. If you're worshiping a false god, you're going down. You're being degraded. I've observed something else that I think is rather interesting.

The Futility of Worshiping Intellect, Power, and Pleasure

For those who have established the intellect as their god, to know to understand is the most important thing in the world. Thus, I spend my hours in study, pouring over volumes that I might expand my understanding of the world around me.

Well, tell me, friend, what about the eternal God, the one who created the universe? The ultimate knowledge would be the knowledge of that eternal God. Tell me about him. I'm an agnostic, and they make it sound like they came right out of class in Harvard.

They give it sort of a nasal kind of a Harvard tone so that it really sounds sophisticated. I'm an agnostic. Oh, interesting. Do you know what agnostic means? Yes. Not to know. Comes from the Greek. Gnosko is to know.

Put the A in Greek as a negative prefix, sort of like our non in English, a negative prefix. A is a negative prefix in Greek. So you have theos, God. You have atheos, no God. You have gnosko, to know in Greek.

You have agnosko, from which we get agnostic, and that's not to know. You know what the Latin word is for not to know? Ignoramus. And so here's a guy who says, well, I believe that to know is the most important thing, and I spend my life studying, pouring over the volumes.

Oh, tell me about ultimate knowledge. Oh, I'm an ignoramus. And in reality, that's what they're telling you. Isn't that fascinating? You make knowledge your God. You worship it, and you end up with a confession of ignorance.

The person that worships power ends up a slave. There is a very wealthy man who befriended me, invited me out to lunch. The interesting thing, though, this fellow has never had to really work a day in his life, but so often I get stuck with the bill.

He's very clever at that, because he has a hard time spending his money. He has a hard time letting it go. And I've met people that, you know, just have become a slave to their money. Yet, you know, that's what they worship.

They worship it so much they can't let it go. And thus, rather than really enjoying it and using it, they just seek to amass more and more, and they're never satisfied. So you make power your God, and you become a slave.

You make intellect your God, and you become an ignoramus. You make pleasure your God, and you become filled with lust. And you begin to have an unfulfilled desire, or worse than that, an unfulfillable desire.

The desire is still there, but you can't fulfill it. And so you go around in a continual lust, never satisfied, always seeking more. And yet, you've made fulfillment, that thrill, you know, that moment of thrill as your God, and you become satiated, jaded, and tragic.

They that worship them have become like them, so has everyone that trusts in them. Oh, bless the Lord, oh, house of Israel. Bless the Lord, oh, house of Aaron. Bless the Lord, oh, house of Levi. And ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord.

Worshiping the True and Living God

How wonderful it is to worship and serve the true and the living God, to be coming like Him, a God of love. I'm becoming loving, a God of purity. I'm becoming pure, a God of holiness. I'm becoming holy, God of righteousness.

I'm becoming righteous, God of peace. I'm filled with peace. Blessed be the Lord out of Zion, which dwells at Jerusalem. Praise ye the Lord.

And we do hope you'll make plans to join us. But right now, if you'd like to secure a copy of today's message, simply order Psalm 135, verse 1, when visiting thewordfortoday .org. And while you're there, be sure to browse through the many additional biblical resources by Pastor Chuck.

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And now, on behalf of The Word for Today, we'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry with your prayers and financial support. And be sure to join us again next time as Pastor Chuck continues his verse-by-verse study through the Bible.

That's right here on the next edition of The Word for Today. Now, once again, here's Pastor Chuck, today's closing comments.

May the Lord be with you and keep you in His love and grace this week as you walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ. And may the Spirit of God work in you as He is conforming you into the image of Jesus.

I pray that this week you'll spend a lot of time in the spiritual development, growing spiritually in the things of the Lord, in the ways of the Lord, walking in His path. May it be a good week for you.

The Word for Today has put together a booklet series by Pastor Chuck called The Answers for Today. It addresses questions pertaining to hot topics such as, what does God say about alternative lifestyles?

If God is love, then why are people so against Him in the first place? And of course, the always-asked questions, why does God allow suffering? Or what is the rapture? And when is Jesus coming again?

It's time these questions are put to rest and we help our loved ones come to a simple understanding of the Bible and how to have a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. To order The Answers for Today booklets individually or collectively as a set, you can call The Word for Today at 1 -800 -272 -9673 or you can order them online at thewordfortoday .org.

I want to encourage you, order these to keep on hand because you never know when you're going to get asked that question. This program has been sponsored.

By The Word for Today in Costa Mesa, California.