That passage, Brother Greg read, Isaiah 65, 17 through 25, that goes so well with our text in Psalm 135. That new heaven and new earth, there will be a new heaven and new earth, but you notice there the Lord said, I create my people who are rejoicing. And that's what our psalm is declaring. It's a psalm of praise praising the Lord because He creates His people anew. He creates us entirely new. And so throughout this psalm we're commanded to praise the Lord, to give Him the glory. He made us, not we ourselves. And I'm talking about salvation. I'm talking about creating us anew spiritually. He made us. I looked up this word, made us. And I want you to just listen to this from the scripture. He said in Isaiah 43, 7, everyone that's called by my name, for I created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have made him. Ephesians 1, 6 said, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 2.6 said He raised us up together and He made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. In every way He made us. He created His people. Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in life. Revelation 1.5 says the Lord Jesus loved us and washed us from our sins and in His own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God his Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Paul would even attribute anything to himself in being made a minister. We saw last time from 2 Corinthians 3, he said, he has made us able ministers of the gospel, of the New Testament. Paul says, Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. He created those born again of God, have been created by God entirely new. He made us. Psalm 100 verse 3 says, Know ye that the Lord he is God, it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. Now last time we ended here with Psalm 135 verses 13 and 14. This is why his name will endure forever. This is why His memorial will endure throughout all generations, why He'll be remembered. It's because the Lord will judge His people. That means the Lord is always working right in this world for His people. He's working what's right and just for His people. Christ justified His elect. And so he's not going to pour out wrath a second time. He won't pour out justice a second time. Justice is satisfied for all for whom Christ died. He satisfied justice for a particular people. And so the Lord will call his people, he'll create us anew in spirit, and he will keep us and guide us and protect us and keep us knowing his name. He'll judge us, but he'll defend us from our enemies. And it says here, it says that he will repent himself concerning his servants. It means he'll turn, he'll repent himself, he'll turn himself because Christ is our intercessor. Ever living to make intercession for, he will turn and hear us when we call. We just read it in that passage Brother Greg read. Before you call, he'll answer. And while you're calling, he'll answer. Christ is at His right hand, and what He's doing, He's doing for His people. So never forget that, brethren. No matter how it may look to you, and it might look bad to you, but it's right. Whatever the Lord's doing for us, it's just that. It's for us. He's doing it in our lives for us because it's what we need. and he's gonna keep his name in our hearts and keep us looking to him and trusting him. This is what the true, one true God does. He's in the midst of his people and he is working what's right for his people and he's causing us to call on him and he's hearing us and having compassion on us for the sake of Christ, having mercy on us for the sake of Christ. But brethren, it's not so for a man who has made his God. It's not so. The man makes his own God, makes his God like himself. And both he and the God he's made, they're alike. They're unable to do anything. Let's read verse 15. The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Now read verse 18. They that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. Now this passage is almost exactly like Psalm 115. And why would the Lord repeat something like this to us when it just almost exactly is Psalm 115? Why does He repeat it? Because we need to hear it. Because it's needful for His people. We need to be reminded and it's needful for us. Now, last time when we looked at Psalm 115, we contrasted man's idols with the one true living God. Well, this time I want to focus on what verse 18 says. It says, they that make them, they that make their idols, are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth in them. My subject is like begets like. Like begets like. And here's what we're gonna see. Man makes his God like himself. Man makes his God and he makes his God like himself. He makes it in man's image. And everyone that trusts in an idol is like the idol. But God creates his people. See, man makes his God, but the true God makes his people. He creates his people. Man makes his God in his image. God creates his people and he creates them in his image. He makes them like him. Like begets like. We're going to see this is what makes God's children give him all the praise and all the glory. He has made us, not we ourselves. That's what we're seeing here. The contrast between how man makes his God and how God makes his people. All right, first of all, man makes his idol gods, but the one true God, he creates his people. Man makes his God, our God makes his people. Look here in verse 15, the idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hand. Now this is the depravity of the heart, right here. rather than worship the one true and living God, rather than worship the one true and living God, man will take things that the one God of heaven and earth has created, things he's made, silver and gold, and they'll make a God, a statue, an image, like themselves, and rather than worship the one God that made those things, they'll worship that image. Now that's depravity, isn't it? That's depravity, brethren. The Lord said through Isaiah, he said a man will take a piece of a tree and he'll take it to a workman and he'll have it overlaid in gold and said he'll burn part of that tree, make a fire to warm himself and he'll use it to make a fire to make him some bread, something to eat. and then he'll make a god out of the rest of that tree and bow down and worship the god. So he's used part of it to warm himself and to eat, to make bread, to eat, and the other part he worships. This is what the Lord said, He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Now, I've said this to you many times, a man doesn't have to make a statue. The image starts right here in the mind. And if a man imagines a God that needs, his God needs him to help him in some way. His God can't do, can't say without the man doing a part of the work. That's an idol. That's not the God of this book. That's an idol. and that man's worshiping an idol, whether he has made a statue or not, it's an idol just the same as a statue is. But while man makes his God, God creates his people entirely new. We were no different from idolatry. We were the idolater. God found us in our idolatry, worshiping ourselves, worshiping the works of our hands, not looking beyond just every day and what we were doing. And God turned us. He created a new heart within us. Entirely new heart within. And it's all his work. Man makes his God out of something that's already been created by God. But God creates his child out of nothing of ourself. He creates his child out of nothing. He makes his child out of nothing that existed before. He can't use anything that's of us because we fell in Adam and everything about our sin nature is sin. He can't use anything that's of us. It's sin. It's going to return to the dust. It died in Adam and it's going back to the dust. God creates a new spirit, a new heart by the Spirit of the Lord. He does that. We were conceived in sin so He can't use anything of us. Listen, He said in Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you." How does he do that? The Spirit of the Lord enters into his child. The Spirit of the Lord is God. He's a living person of the Godhead. And the Spirit of our Lord enters into us, and He creates a new spirit, a new heart, a new man, Our Lord said, this is why we must be born again. We can't do this work. We're sinners. That's all we are in ourselves. But he said, that which is born of flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Holy Spirit is spirit. If a man has to help his God, and has to have a part in making this new creation. He's worshiping an idol. He hasn't been made new. Because when you've been made new, that's when you know you didn't have a part in this. The Lord did this. The true God creates his people. We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to the praise and glory of God. That's the only time we will truly start to worship God is when he's worked his work and created us anew. Our Lord, I know I say this, I quote this passage, but it's so very important. Our Lord said, it is the spirit that quickeneth. But that's a small s spirit and really what it could be said is it's the spirit that is quickened. And he said the words, he said the flesh profits nothing. That's all we are by nature is just sinful flesh. It profits nothing. He didn't have a part in this. And he said the words, I speak their spirit and their life. So this is the Lord quickening. He gives that new spirit when He enters in, and it's Him speaking this gospel that quickens you in a new man. Don't you know that when you sit here and you hear this gospel, and when the Lord really speaks to your heart, He renews you. He revives you. And you know, you see Him, and you know Him, and your heart's quickened. Sometimes it's so powerful, it's like it's the first time you heard him, but he renews you. And this is an ongoing, he continues to do that. He never takes his spirit from us, we just, it seems to us sometimes like he has, but he doesn't. But he keeps renewing you inwardly. Now, let's go a little further here. Man makes his idol God like himself. But the true God, when he creates his child anew, he makes us like him. Like begets like. That's what our Lord meant when he said, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Like begets like. Now listen, Psalm 135, verse 16. He said, they have mouths, but they speak not. The unregenerate man has a physical mouth, so he makes him a god, a statue that has a mouth. And if he just imagines his God, he imagines him speaking, being able to speak. But his idol can't speak. His idol cannot speak. He makes him a statue, puts him out, and it can't do anything. It's a statue. Isn't it amazing that men will worship a statue? It's just as offensive that men worship this God they imagine that has to have a man to help him. It's just as offensive. It's just as much idolatry. But his idol can't speak, and that natural man that made him, he's just like his idol. He can't speak things spiritual. He can't speak the truth of the gospel consistently. Somewhere, he's going to give man glory. He may say some true things, but somewhere in his speech, he's going to give man the glory, because it's coming out of his heart. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. You know, when the Lord told the Pharisees, you'll know them by their fruit, or when he told his apostles, you will know them by their fruit, he was speaking of false preachers who preach a false gospel. Listen, the Pharisees had natural hearts. They had unregenerate hearts. Go with me to Matthew 12. I want you to see it. Matthew 12. They had unregenerate hearts, and so they preached a God who was just like themselves. And listen to what the Lord told him. Matthew 12 verse 34. He said, O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? See, they can't speak. They're like their God. They can't speak. They can't speak good things. They can't speak the gospel. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man, this is a man regenerated by God in whose heart there is no guile. He's been made truthful. It's a new man in which the spirit abides. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things. An evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. See that? A man cannot speak the gospel, not consistently, He's going to give man glory somewhere along the way. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks until God creates a new heart. God's got to make a new heart. A man can't speak consistently until God gives a new heart. He's going to give man glory that belongs to God at some point. The Spirit of God creates this new heart. And he creates it in his child. Christ is formed in us and Christ is revealed in us. And so he gives you the pure language of the gospel. And he's gonna keep his child speaking the truth of the gospel. We're gonna speak and we're gonna give our triune God all the glory. We're gonna give our Lord Jesus all the glory. From the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Only His people have this pure language. He said in Zechariah 3.9, Then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve Him with one consent, with one heart. That's what He does. Scripture says, Our Lord said they should be all taught of God. This is what God our Father does, Christ our Lord does when He's revealed in the new heart. You have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things. What does that mean? Does that mean you know every bit of doctrine and you're able to speak deep theology and all that? No, it means you know Christ is all. You know He's all. And knowing He's all, you know all things. You know Him who is life. And we speak that we do know. Look at 1 Corinthians 2.12. 1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. You see that? That little-ass spirit, that's the spirit He's given us. It's of God. That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God, which things also we speak. Not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual, scripture with scripture, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth or discerneth all things. Yet he himself is discerned of no man, no natural man. Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. See that the Lord, man makes his God, he gives him a mouth, but the idol can't speak. And the man that made him is just like him. He can't speak the truth of God. But you've been made anew by the Lord, given a new heart by the Lord, and the Spirit of God's made you to know the things freely given to you of God, and those are the things we speak. We speak these things from the Word of God. Verse 16, Psalm 135, 16. Eyes have they, but they see not. Man has his physical eyes, so he makes him an idol god that has physical eyes. But the idol can't see, and neither can the man see. But God creates his child, and he gives us spiritual eyes. He gives you new eyes. He gives you faith, and we see by faith. We walk by faith, not by carnal sight. Remember when our Lord, he took that blind man, he led him out of town. That's what the Lord's going to do. He's going to lead you away from vain religion. And he led him out, and the Lord gave him sight. He sped upon his eyes, and the man, first he could just see men as trees walking. Then the Lord gave him full sight, and the scripture says, and he was restored, and he saw every man clearly. When the Lord gives you these eyes, these spiritual eyes, faith to see, that's when you see every man clearly. You see Adam, you see the first man Adam, and you see he fell, and you see you and every other sinner in this world fell in Adam. dead guilty in Adam. You see your own self clearly. You see that in my flesh dwells no good thing. For the first time you see I'm the sinner. But bless God you see Christ clearly. You see that in Him is all the fullness of the Godhead. You see that He came and laid down His life and justified His people and He makes you know He justified you. And you cast all your care on Him and trust Him. You see clearly now and you see by faith brethren Listen, Hebrews 2, 7 says, Thou hast made Christ a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest Him with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that's not put under Him. But right now, we see not all the things put under Him, but we see Jesus. We see the Lord Jesus. We see Him by faith. who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, we see him crowned with glory and honor. You see him by faith, don't you? We see him crowned with glory and honor. This one that by the grace of God tasted death for every chosen sinner. And you see that it became Him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of our salvation perfect through suffering. He's the perfect captain of our salvation who worked out a perfect salvation, who perfectly justified us, who perfectly saved us from our sin. You see, this One who came down and did the sanctifying through His blood, you and This one who does the sanctifying and you who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he's not ashamed to call you brethren. It's what he did. You see him and you see him by faith now. Because he gave you the eyes. Look at verse 17. They have ears but they hear not. Man has physical ears so he makes his idol have ears. But the idol can't hear and neither can the man hear. just like his idol. Our Lord looked at those Pharisees and he said, why do you not understand my speech? He said, even because you cannot hear my word. Well, they had physical ears. Couldn't they hear him speak? Yeah, they could hear him just like everybody can hear me right now. But they didn't have these ears we're talking about. They didn't have spiritual ears. They couldn't hear the truth of the gospel. And that's how natural man is and that's how his God is. His God can't hear, He can't do anything, the man that made Him is just like Him. But God creates His people and He makes us in His image. God can hear, God can see. He sees His people, He knows His people, He looks on the heart. He can hear, before they call, I'll hear them, He said. And while they're calling, I'll answer them. He speaks. He speaks this gospel affectionately into our heart. Our God's living. He's alive and He does all these things. And He creates us in His image. We were dead. He makes us alive. We couldn't see. He gives us sight. We couldn't hear. He gives us hearing. We couldn't speak. He put a new heart in us and makes us speak the gospel. Christ said, He creates His child and gives us new ears to hear Christ, to hear His gospel. He said, My sheep hear My voice. I know them and they follow me. And he said, and a stranger they will not follow. They recognize the voice of a stranger. When you hear this gospel go forward, if you hear the gospel say that God chose whom he would freely by his grace, not based on anything in us, you say, that's the voice of my Savior. chose us in Christ. We've been accepted in Christ from eternity. God only looked to His Son. You hear the voice of Christ when you hear that. When you hear that Christ came and laid down His life and really and truly accomplished our redemption, He wasn't trying, He did it. and now He's risen to the right hand of the Father and all His people are in Him and we're there in Him and therefore God shall hear us and He shall have compassion on us and He will work what's right for us. You hear Christ's voice when you hear that. When you hear the gospel declare you must be born from above, you must be born of God, when you hear this message that we're seeing in this psalm, that it's God who creates us and not we ourselves, that He does it all, A to Z, you hear the Lord Jesus speak. and you know it's his voice. But if man's given, if he's given man glory and he's putting it in man's hand in any, it's like if Kalen was playing his piano over here and all of a sudden hit just a note that had nothing to do with the song, you'd know it right away. That's a bad note. Well, when you're hearing this gospel and you hear somebody all of a sudden say, but now you got to do your part. Whoa, whoa, whoa. You just sounded the wrong note. That's a stranger. God's children here to the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. They're not just awful little, there's no light in them. That's the word of the Lord. Listen to verse 17. Neither is there any breath in their mouth. Man is... He's dead spiritually and dead is his idol God. Christ is the life. He made us. He gave us life. And He's the life. He is the life. He's our righteousness. He is the gospel. That's who He is. He is salvation. Man makes his God liken to himself. Look there in verse 18. They that make them are like unto them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. But God makes his child like him. He creates us anew like him. Look at Colossians 3. I want you to see these texts. Colossians 3. Colossians 3.10, speaking of God's saints, created anew, you've put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. See that? Look at Ephesians 4. Go back to your left to Ephesians 4 and look at verse 23. The believer is renewed in the spirit of your mind and you've put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the new man. Our sinful flesh one day shall return to the dust. You're dying, I'm dying physically, we're going to die, and our sinful body is going to go back to the dust. But our Lord Jesus is going to come and create a new body. Just like He's created a new spirit, He's going to create a new body. And everybody that's in heaven will be the creation of God alone. That's what you read, Greg. It will be a new heaven and a new earth created by our Lord, and all His people will be made new, entirely new. Nothing of us, nothing of our flesh. He did it all. Right now, it's in spirit. When He gets done, we're going to be embodied soul and spirit, entirely created anew by the Lord. Beloved, now we're the sons of God, and it does not appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now, let me give a word to the idolater. One reason, and I'm talking about anybody that hasn't professed Christ, hasn't confessed themselves to be absolutely ruined in sin and totally trusting Christ alone for salvation. I don't want to be mistaken. If that's you, you're the idolater. Now let me say a word to you. The reason you don't like to come hear the gospel. Let me tell you why. A carnal man Even when he hears the truth of the gospel preached, he only hears judgment. He only hears himself condemned. That's all he hears. And to him, the God of this Bible is a strict taskmaster. To him, he thinks God's a strict taskmaster. And so a natural man, when he becomes religious on his own, That's the God of his imagination, is a strict taskmaster, because he's making a God like himself. And when he preaches, he loves to condemn people, and he loves it, because that's the natural God of his imagination. Listen, the one true God that we're speaking of delights to show mercy. Judgment, condemnation, that's called his strange work. He delights to show mercy. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He said this, saying to them, as I live, said the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel? That's what the Lord said. Look at, if you can get there, go to Micah 7, verse 8. You're familiar with this, but I want you to see this whole passage right here. Jonah, Micah, Micah 7 verse 18. Who is a God, like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? This is talking about his elect remnant, his inheritance. He passes by their transgression. He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again. He will have compassion on us. That's what our Psalm said. That's how come His name's going to endure forever. It's all of Him. He will turn again. He will turn to His people and He'll have compassion on us. He'll have mercy on us. He will subdue our iniquities and I will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob and the mercy to Abraham which I was sworn unto our fathers from the days of old. Now listen, indeed God's holy. Indeed He will by no means clear the guilty but He performed the truth. He did. Somebody will say, what's the truth? It's what Christ performed. That's what it is. And He is that truth. He came, and He bore the sin of His people, and went unto the justice of God for His people, and satisfied God's justice, and He will perform the mercy. Because you see, without the altar, unless He turned to us and had compassion on us, and made us entirely anew, we'd have never turned to Him. But when He's done this work in His people, and it's through this good news that He does it, and when He creates His child anew, He gives you life, He gives you ears to hear, He gives you eyes to see, He gives you an entirely new spirit and a new heart, and you call on Him, and He has mercy on His people. And He's just to do it because Christ performed the truth and the mercy. He's done it all. He's done it all. He performed the truth on the cross, laying down His life, and He comes and performs the mercy work in the heart of His child. And when you find out He really delights in mercy, and you see this gospel and see what He did, For the first time, you know the true God, and then you start delighting in mercy, and you start delighting in the truth. And you know this, it's always just to be merciful to His people, and long-suffering to His people, and forgiving to His people, because Christ has satisfied justice for His people. He's put away our sins forever. Oh, and the right thing to always do is remind one another of this good news of this gospel. But you see, until then, man's God, man is unjust, and man is harsh, and he's a judge, and he's self-righteous, and he makes a God that way. He thinks God's that way. And it's just a lose-lose situation because the gospel just grates on him because all he hears is judgment. Oh, that God will give you ears, make you alive and create you anew and make you like Him. Now, to you brethren, the Holy Spirit commands us to praise God for making you, for not letting us worship an idol that we made. He says, praise God. Now, let's just read this out. This includes everybody He's made anew. He says to His elect Jews in Israel, Bless the Lord, O house of Israel. He says to all His ministers that He created, He says, Bless the Lord, O house of Aaron. Bless the Lord, O house of Levi. He says to all His elect Gentiles that He created anew, Ye that fear the Lord, bless the Lord. That takes in everybody He's made new right there. And this is the true Zion, the true Jerusalem, the true church. He commands us, blessed be the Lord out of Zion which dwelleth at Jerusalem. You're going to hear His church give Him all the glory because we know He didn't leave us to ourselves. Here's His commandment to you, praise ye the Lord. Brethren, Don't ever, ever, ever be haughty towards somebody who's an idolater. Don't be haughty towards people who don't know the Lord because you and me didn't know the Lord. We were idolaters. And it was God's grace and mercy alone. He turned to us and He had compassion on us and mercy on us. And brother, do you see the riches? He only does this for a remnant. He doesn't do it for everybody. but he did it for you. That's not to puff us up and say, oh well, I'm just, God's grace made me different. No, when you really know that truth, you know, I would be still in my idolatry. I still see so much idolatry in my flesh. And yet He keeps having mercy and He keeps showing us compassion for His namesake because He has dealt with our old man in Christ. He put away our old man. He judged our old man. And He's going to deal with our old man within us. We can't deal with our old flesh and men, but He's going to keep you knowing Him, keep you hearing Him, keep you seeing Him by faith, and He's going to keep you to the end. That's how His name's going to continue to endure. So we say, you know how Psalm 115, I said it's just like this Psalm, you know how it starts? Not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory. for Thy mercy and for Thy truth's sake. We don't have a thing to rejoice in in ourselves, but we have everything to rejoice in in our Savior. And we glory only in Him. Praise Him, praise Him. Go, when you lay down tonight, thank Him. Just thank Him. That's why He did this, so we praise Him. Give Him the glory. Thank you, brethren. Amen. All right, Brother Greg.