Well, it's a pleasure to have Sue with me. She is always there working and helping. You
know how she is. I count on her. She's a perfect partner in marriage and in ministry. I particularly
like being in church with her because she won't reprimand or rebuke or whip me in public.
So at least I get a stay there for a little while. Are you ready to worship the Lord? Oh,
you're already worshiping the Lord. My God, Sandra, when we were singing that about how great our God
is, I'll just tell you it felt like that something opened up and just a moment I began to realize
that no matter how much I tried to imagine, He is more than that. He is great. Great is our God.
Hallelujah. How great is our God. You can stand with us again if you like. I have a message that
the Lord has just placed within my heart. Going to be reading in the book of Isaiah, the book of
Isaiah, the prophet, and just trying to share God's word with you from Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 9.
Something that God has just imparted and breathed into my spirit and I'm just anxious to declare
what thus says the Lord this morning. I told someone recently, I said, Brother Terry, I'd like
to say it this way because I had an uncle, Church of God preacher up in Indiana, he used to say it
and I heard it and I thought that's me to a T. He said, I may not be a great preacher, but I sure
feel great when I'm preaching. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Pastor? Amen and amen.
I can see Brian's eyes kind of light up there a little bit too. Amen. Thank God. Going to be
looking into Isaiah 46 verse 9. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is
no other. I am God, I'd like you especially note this phrase, and there is none like me.
Hallelujah. I want to use for a subject this morning one word, incomparable. Incomparable.
Can you say that with me? Incomparable. All great God Almighty, thank you for the sense of your
presence that is already permeating and saturating this sanctuary. You are here. Dios esta aquí.
We know that the presence of the divine is in his house today with his people today. Glory to God.
Thank you for that, oh Lord. And just help us in your presence, worship and magnify and glorify you
and you alone. Can you say amen? Amen. Praise God. You may be seated if you like. Hallelujah.
And you can enjoy the rest because I mean you'll probably be sitting a couple of hours or so.
Well, hopefully it won't be that. Listen, incomparable. Now just to give a little context to this verse of
scripture in Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 9. These words come out in the 8th century BC,
8 centuries before the Messiah came and Israel was in a particularly difficult point in their history.
An upstart nation, the Assyrians, had come up and had just conquered everyone around them and they
were oppressing other nations and Israel was caught right in the middle of it and being ground under
they healed of their superior military might of the Assyrians and the Assyrians were worshippers of
Asher. And Asher, as you know, was really a primitive form of Babylonian religion that later would
expand and grow and become such a pivotal factor in the history of God's covenant people. But in
this case something unique happens because Asher and the Assyrians were just taking over everywhere
unstoppable it seemed like. And in the middle of that there's this long section where the Lord
speaks to Israel and the only way to put it is he gave them a reminder. He reminded them that no
matter how helpless or hopeless they felt that there is only one true and living God, their God,
their Lord. And in the midst of all of that they could realize that he was who he is and he always
is who he was. Oh it's amazing the way but God didn't simply state it if you read several chapters
there in this section God didn't just simply tell them he showed them how it worked and he used two
ideas brought together to show them who the true and living God is. He reminded them of their history
and he reminded them of how that in advance of anything happening he had told them what he was
going to do and then he did it and now he's telling them what he done. Glory to God he took them all
the way. Remember the things of old go all the way back to eternity. He took them back to as far as
our mind can take time and went to the creation and he went to have that happen and he reminded
them of the great flood. He reminded them also of the patriarchs and he reminded them of the Exodus
event and how it unfolded. He took them on up until he could tell them about the conquest and
how the kingdom had developed and taken place. Oh he reminded them of everything that had happened
and he told them how that in advance he always told them what he was going to do and how he was
going to do it and then he did it and he let them know that there is only only only the one who is
able to do this is worthy to be called God. Only the one who can get the testimony of history is
unanimous. There is one God. There is one Lord. He is the true God. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. He is the Lord of hosts. My God can somebody say amen again.
Hallelujah. What that means in a nutshell is there's no one like God. He's incomparable.
No literally it means unable to be compared. A little more technically it means he is without
equal or rival in extent or in kind. It means that he is the opposite of ordinary. He is the
opposite of commonplace. I'm here to say something today that I believe there's some folks here
already know there is nothing ordinary about our God. There is nothing commonplace about our God.
He is incomparable. Look the world over with all its gods and goddesses and you won't find
anyone that even comes close. He's totally different in nature and in extent. He is the
incomparable God. He is the one that can say remember the former things of old for I am God
and there is no other. I am God and there is none like unto me. My God look out devil.
You know this is a theme that occurs again and again throughout scripture.
Let me remind us of a proud prince in Exodus chapter 9 and verse 14. You know the account of
Pharaoh and what happened. Let me remind us also that Pharaoh was a proud figure. A proud prince.
He had been taught that he was God. Some spark rayed from Ra the sun god. He had been taught and told
all his life that he was divine. That he was sublime. That he ruled by divine fiat. That he was
the one. He had been taught that none could withstand his will and everybody around him acted like
that was true until there was this raw bone figure came up out of the desert and said the Lord God
of the Hebrews said let my people go that they may worship me. Oh my he was offended at the very idea
that anyone would challenge him and so he began to resist. You know how the plagues came. Oh I love
when we get to chapter 9. Oh glory to God in verse 6 because when we get there and other plagues have
happened and another plague the plague of hell is about to begin and at that point God says the Lord
says tell this to Pharaoh I am about to let the full force of my plagues on you. If you don't
repent and you don't hear I'm about to I ain't holding nothing back is how we'd say it in Tennessee.
You're fixing to find out and this is what he says in verse 14 that you may know that in all the
earth there is no one like me. Pharaoh you may wear the crown of Egypt. Pharaoh they may put you
on the pyramids. Pharaoh they may tremble when you walk in the streets but I want to tell you on all
this earth you don't begin to compare to the Lord God Almighty of heaven and earth. He is incomparable.
He is in my God. He is incomparable.
One of my favorite I don't know why I've always liked it. One of my favorite accounts of the
incomparability of God takes place in first Samuel chapter five and verses one through five.
It tells us about a fallen figurine. Israel had gotten ungodly. Israel had compromised their
covenant and because of that the Lord refused to go with them into battle and give them victory
and on top of that the ark of the covenant their symbol of God's presence their visual reminder of
their covenant was taken by the Philistines. Those pagan worshipers descended from the Phoenician
wanderers, seafarers, worshipers of Dagon the fish god to see God. They took the ark and they made a
categorical mistake, a categorical error. They made the assumption, well I love this one, they made
the assumption that since they had captured the ark Dagon was greater than the God of the Israelites.
He was greater than Yahweh. Oh they made the assumption that their God had conquered Israel
had conquered Israel's God and they took the ark into Ashdod their city and took it into
the temple of Dagon and they laid it in the altar. They placed the ark in the altar before
Dagon as if to say we bring you this deity, this defeated deity and lay him before the mighty Dagon.
Oh those priests had a spell. They sang and shouted a little bit. I imagine they did a little
hand clapping and I'll imagine they got all excited and all enthusiastic and it kind of got late. They
shut up the place and went home. They came back next day with the intention of starting their
celebration all over again but there was a minor glitch in the plan
because Dagon their God was lying down flat before the God of the Israelites.
They picked him up. Priests are stubborn.
Preachers in general, present company excluded, can be stubborn but no one is more stubborn than a pagan
priest. They picked their God. Let me just say it this way. If we have a God we have to pick up.
If we have a God we have to prop up. We need to get with another God.
They picked their God up, propped him back up in his place, decided everything was okay. I can just
hear some of them now. If it had been folks around today, must have been some sort of minor earthquake
or tremor or whatever. They were just going to be in the temple of Dagon. They were going to be
in the temple of Dagon. There was a tremor we didn't get. Probably just knocked him over. Didn't have anything to do
with our religion or his deity or anything. It's probably something. There was a tremor I imagine.
There was something. We'll just put him back up there, put him back in place.
The ark seemed to be okay. We'll leave it where it is.
Oh glory! Can somebody say amen? They came back in the next morning, switched on the light so
to speak. When they walked in they found out that indeed things were different. They weren't like
they were before. Well part of it was Dagon was lying face down before Yahweh but that wasn't all.
His head was chopped off. His hands were chopped off. My God in that day the Philistines learned a
lesson. There's nobody like God. There's nobody like God. There's nobody like God. There is only one
true and living God. I don't want a little G God. I want the big G God. I don't want an idol that's
broken and busted on the floor. I want the God of heaven and of earth. Can somebody give me a shout right now?
Hallelujah!
Our God is incomparable. Oh let me hurry and give you another example. There's so many I can't cover
them but I want to get a couple. A devout dedication. This time we move over to 2 Chronicles
and go to chapter 6. I'm going to hone in on verse 14 but before I do I want to tell you
that when I was a young preacher I preached a lot on chapter 7 verse 1. Uh-huh and I still like it.
You see chapter 6 is where they got the temple ready and Solomon goes in to pray and he stretches
forth his hands toward God and verse 14 is where he begins the prayer but the last verse
of chapter 6 the prayer ends and chapter 7 verse 1 opens with God saying amen.
Did you ever pray and somebody says amen? Well God says amen. Well he says it a little different
than we do. When God says amen to prayer, when God says amen to worship, when God says amen to
what we offer him, he doesn't just say it he shows it. I tell you how it happened. The fire fell and
the glory filled. The fire fell and the glory filled. The fire of God fell and consumed that
sacrifice and the glory filled the house. The priests could not even stand to minister. They had
to get out. They couldn't dwell in the midst of that glory. It was too much for them. I tell you
when we offer God worship and we offer God prayer and God says amen the fire will fall. The glory
will fill the house. Somebody hear? Let's give him something to say amen about. Let's give God
something to say amen to. My God it feels like camp meeting up here. You're right.
But lately as we ate, I mean mature,
sometimes, oh Terry I know why you're laughing,
we began to see further insights
and now I begin to realize why that prayer could end the way it did.
I begin to realize why that prayer could end the way it did.
It's because in the very first verse, the very first words when Solomon began to pray,
he stretched forth out his hands and he said oh Lord God of Israel there is no one in heaven or
earth like you. My God he started out with incomparable. He started out with incomparable,
unique, unable to be. He started out the God I'm praying to. He's not lined up in somebody's
pantheon somewhere. He is the one, the one and the only one. You go through my God he told Pharaoh
no one in earth but now he says no one in heaven or earth. There's no angel. There's no principality.
There's no human. There's no demon. There's no one like God.
Ah
You see one more example and this is my personal favorite
because we move to John's gospel chapter 3 and verse 34. The Bible says there speaking it's been
talking about Jesus our Messiah our Savior our Lord and it is talking about him and it says God
gives the spirit to him without measure. Some translations say without limit.
Now we realize that God didn't start giving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
We moved into a new phase and age of God's gracious dealings with us at that point. We realized
that throughout time there have been sporadic outpourings and episodic outpourings on individuals
and groups but that is not even the point here because he gave him as the Messiah the Son of God
the Spirit to accomplish his ministry here on earth but no matter whether it was pre-Pentecost
no matter whether it is in the New Testament or no matter whether it's today with every case except
one. Everyone to whom God gives the Spirit is limited. We're all finite. We're all, I'll put it
this way, we're all measurable. We're all none of us are infinite. We are finite. The Holy Spirit as
God is finite. He's inexhaustible. He's omnipresent and omnipotent. There's no limit. There's no
end to him but God gives to each of us according to our capacity to receive which is always limited.
When the Bible says we are filled it means we get as much as we can hold not as much as he can give.
I hope somebody got a hold of that one. Glory to God. I'm telling you it is true that in the Spirit
that in the Spirit-filled life as we continue day by day it's not just a once upon a time
I got filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a matter of day by day growing and expanding and enlarging
so that more and more and more and more of us can be filled with more and more and more of him.
My God let him fill us today to the full until we just run over. But when he gave the Spirit to Jesus
something incomparable was taking place because God the infinite one
gave the infinite Spirit to the infinite Son of God.
Are you with me here? Something happened incomparable. Something happened. The reception
of the Holy Spirit was not dictated by limitations because there was no end and is no end to the
the exhaustible of Jesus Christ or the inexhaustible of the Holy Spirit. So God gave the Holy Spirit to
him without measure. I'm going somewhere with this but let's just go right here. One thing that that
shows us is how incomparable Jesus is. Oh it took me a while to get there but I'm where I want to be.
I'm here to preach Jesus. I'm here to preach Jesus Christ the Son of God. I'm here to preach Jesus
the incomparable Messiah. The immeasurable I call this point the immeasurable Messiah. I want to
talk about the immeasurable Messiah. There is no end. There is no limit. There is no measuring of
him. He is the one. I'm here to tell you there's nobody like Jesus. I'm here to tell you he's
incomparable. I'm here to tell you there's no religious founder or leader or thinker or speaker
or writer or philosopher that's even in the same category or class. There's only one like Jesus.
There's only one like Jesus. He's in he's in he's incomparable. My God somebody knows what I mean.
Just worship your Lord and your Savior. The immeasurable Messiah.
The incomparable Son of God. Oh a way of illustration.
Recently the Southwest Research Institute has been using the Hubble Space Telescope
to examine some uncharted areas and some uncharted objects. A short time ago they published in the
scientific planetary journal, are you with me so far, an article about something they discovered
that they had not ever ever seen before. There's a large asteroid belt that orbits between Mars and
Jupiter which they knew but they found an object, a meteor within that. They named it 16 Psyche. 16
Psyche. And their investigations and explorations of it indicate that it's unlike anything they
have ever found. For one thing asteroids are usually made out of mostly bits of dust and rock
compacted together with the force of gravity in our solar system or universe even. You know but
here they found out that this asteroid 16 Psyche is made entirely of metal. Not dirt, not dust,
not rock but metal and furthermore that it's made of iron and nickel. Anybody remember the nickels?
It's made of iron and nickel and get this they've calculated its size and weight and constitution
and they have estimated its value. 16 Psyche is worth 10 quintillion US dollars. Now in case
quintillion is not a phrase you throw around every day like me, in case you're wondering well how
much is that like a quintillion 10 quintillion is a 10 followed by 18 zeros. It makes millions and
billions and all of that look like pocket change. In fact when the scientists were trying in their
little journal to help the rest of us normal ordinary folks, non-scientific folks understand
how much it was worth they put it this way. They said that that asteroid that meteor is so
extraordinary because its value exceeds the total economic worth of the combined resources
and economy of the entire planet earth.
That little rock is worth more money than all we got.
Now you know how scientists are they're you know so they realize that the universe is a big place
so they start saying things in that little journal. 16 Psyche appears to be unique.
It's possibly one of a kind. We suggest that nothing like it has been and to our knowledge
doesn't exist elsewhere. Now they're doing well you don't have to be a scientist to know what
they're doing. They're hedging their bets aren't they? They're hedging their bets because this is
why they're hedging their bets. They're hedging their bets because they're hedging their bets
because this is why they're hedging their bets. They know the universe is a vast expanse and they
realize that it might be some time but with continuing exploration with continuing development
of scientific abilities they may just may possibly find something somewhere sometime that's a little
bit larger a little bit more valuable than maybe 16 Psyche is. So they want to say right now it may
be unique it may be if you will incomparable but there's a possibility that somebody else may find
something better or bigger or more valuable at some point in time and you know what I'll give
them that. It may be that somewhere in all of this expanse of universe there is another meteor another
asteroid belt that has one that has a greater value but today I am not going to play it safe
and I am not going to hedge my bets and I'm not going to suggest anything. I'm going to declare
thus saith the Lord. I'm going to say for I am God and there is no other I am God and there is
no one like me. I'm going to say that the God that created all this there you're not you can search
wherever you want to you can go wherever you like you're not going to find another God like this
because he is God. He is incomparable. The Assyrians couldn't do anything with him. The
Babylonians couldn't do anything with him. Nobody is the devil can't do anything with him. He is God.
I'm here to say that he is God the incomparable one there is no one like unto him. Today we have
the privilege of coming into this place and worshiping the incomparable God.
Wow!
You see he might have created a bigger better rock
but he is the creator of it all
and he is incomparable and I can invite and challenge us here today as well.
You want to know if God's incomparable ask him to do something nobody else can do.
Oh I'm not talking about playing games with God. He's not jumping off the temple
to put on a show for the devil. No no no no I'm not but I'm talking about we got a need
that nobody else can take care of. We got a prayer that nobody else can answer. Oh glory to God
somebody here knows exactly what I'm talking about.
I want to tell you right here today I felt the Holy Spirit in prayer before we ever came into this
building today impart this into my spirit. There are those here today you have a need that nobody
else can meet. They would if they could but they just fall short. They're finite they're immeasurable
but oh there is one here today that told me that we'd come in here and come to him that we would
find out that he is God and there is no other there is no one like him. He will hear his people
and do what we need.
If you believe it could you stand up with me now please. Glory to God.
As our musicians are coming.
Here's what the Holy Spirit says. I'm speaking to my people this morning says the Lord.
I want you to know you think too small and you dream too small.
And I say unto you even if your wildest dreams were to come true it would not be adequate
because I have not come to make your dreams for me come true. I have come to make my dreams for you
come true and my plans for you exceed all that you can ask or imagine or comprehend or even dream.
For I the Lord your God had big plans huge dreams for my people says the Lord.
Can we just worship the Holy Spirit and reverence his presence here a moment.
Yes Lord thank you God have your way Lord praise God.
The Holy Spirit says thus I will not speak to you in generalities.
I will tell you specifically that I have placed you and I have planted you with full
intents and purposes of what I will perform. For I say unto you I have called you together according
to the fullness of my wisdom and counsel and I have determined to set up a barricade against
the encroaching forces of worldliness and evil and I have looked for a church and I have looked for
a ministry that still is enthralled with the beauty of holiness and I have found you to be so
and I have chosen you to raise you up that holiness might spread like a banner throughout the land
in a time when worldliness and wickedness and iniquity is the filthy garment and cloak you will be
adorned as a bride without blemish or spot and all will see that God is holy and God's people are
holy saith the Lord.