Psalm 135, “I Know that the Lord Is Great”

Intro: Maybe the biggest problem with the American church is its low view of God. Our cultural ideals of rugged individualism and self-determination have often conditioned us to minimize God's greatness while exalting our own. The Bible however paints a much different picture of God. In this message on Psalm 135, we unpack several reasons why we as Christians should know that the Lord is great.  

• “The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us….With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience life in the Spirit. The words, ‘Be still, and know that I am God,” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century.” –A.W. Tozer (The Knowledge of the Holy).

Text: Psalm 135

Three Reasons I Know That the Lord is Great:

1. BECAUSE OF HIS SAVING GRACE

A). Israel’s Election.

• Deuteronomy 7:6-9

B). How God has specifically acted on my behalf and your behalf if you are a Christian.

C). The word “chosen” as a comfort, not controversy.

• Colossians 3:12 
• 1 Thessalonians 1:4 
• Romans 8:28-39

D). What must you do to be saved?

• Repent and Believe in Jesus
• Charles Spurgeon on repentance: “I shall be content if I leave this one thought with you; look not beneath the ice to find fire, neither hope in your own natural heart to find repentance. Look to the living One for life. Look to Jesus for all you need between the gate of hell and the gate of heaven. Never seek elsewhere for any part of that which Jesus loves to bestow, but remember, Christ is all.”

• Charles Spurgeon on faith: “See, then, that the weakness of your faith will not destroy you. A trembling hand may receive a golden gift. The Lord’s salvation can come to us though we have only faith as a grain of mustard seed. The power lies in the grace of God and not in our faith. Great messages can be sent along slender wires, and the peace-giving witness of the Holy Spirit can reach the heart by means of a threadlike faith which seems almost unable to sustain its own weight. Think more of Him to whom you look of the look itself. You must look away even from your own looking and see nothing but Jesus and the grace of God revealed in Him”

2. BECAUSE OF HIS UNSTOPPABLE POWER

A). A Biblical View of A Great and Awesome Mighty God.

• Daniel 4:34-35
• Isaiah 45:5-8
• Isaiah 46:8-11
• Romans 11:33-36

B). A Mistake American Christians often make.

• Turning this truth solely toward his individual acting on our behalf in our immediate circumstance.

3. BECAUSE HE ALONE CAN SATISFY

A. What is an idol?  

• John Calvin the great reformer said that the human heart is an idol factory.
• An idol is anything (even a good thing) that takes the place of God in your heart.
• Idols always lie.
• Idols never satisfy.

B. What are our idols as a culture / your personal idols?

• Financial stability, personal health and beauty, youth sports, relevancy.