Let's turn in our Bibles together
to Isaiah 52 and we'll begin reading in verse 7. Isaiah 52
and verse 7. I don't know of anything more
comforting to the people of God than to know that their God reigns,
that he is absolutely sovereign, over the armies of heaven and
over all the inhabitants of the earth, and that he does what's
right and what's good. And through all of our struggles
and all of our difficulties, we're able to rejoice in the
Lord. And I'm so thankful that the
Lord put it that way. Plenty of examples of believers
in scriptures that were troubled, as we just sang, that they were
fearful and discouraged, and yet they went to the Lord in
their time of need. And the Lord doesn't tell us
to rejoice in our circumstances, He tells us to rejoice in the
Lord, in Him. And oftentimes He sends us difficult
circumstances in order to cause us to find that our only hope
and strength is in Him. The Lord tells us to be thankful
in all things, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. Sometimes there are things it's
hard to be thankful for, but even in those times, we're able
to be thankful that our God reigns, that He's in control, and that
he does what's right. Isaiah chapter 52. A couple of
weeks ago, I brought a message on the mountains that God touches. And we looked at Mount Sinai
and Mount Calvary and the Mount of Transfiguration and Mount Zion, the church. The Lord is always touching that
mountain. And every time we gather together,
our hope and prayer is that he will touch this mountain, this
little hill, the Lord, the scripture refers to the individual churches.
And so even though verse seven is what Paul quotes in Romans
chapter 10, how beautiful are the feet, upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace. When Paul quotes that, he's talking about the gospel
preacher, We know the Lord Jesus Christ is the shepherd of the
sheep, and he's the preacher of the gospel. He is the gospel,
and it's his feet. It's his feet that are beautiful
upon the mountains. How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth
peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation. That's what's good. It's what's
good is that our sins have been put away, that our God reigns
on his throne and that he does what's right and he does what's
good for his children. Bring good tidings of good that
publish salvation that saith unto Zion, thy God reigneth. That's what I want the Lord to
speak to our hearts tonight. Our God reigns. He's raining. Thy watchman shall lift up the
voice, with the voice together shall they sing. For they shall
see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. God's
children see eye to eye when it comes to the gospel. And what great rejoicing we have
together. Join our voices and our hearts
together in praise Bring forth into joy, sing together you waste
places of Jerusalem. For the Lord hath comforted his
people. He hath redeemed Israel. Not
he will redeem Israel if you'll do your part. He hath redeemed
Israel. He has purchased us. We are the
purchased possessions of God, which he bought with his precious
blood. The Lord hath made bare his holy arm. The holy arm of
God is the Lord Jesus Christ and he's laid it bare. I think
about when our Lord cleansed the temple and how when he made
that whip and raised his hand to restore the house of prayer
from the den of thieves, that his arm was made bare. And every time we come together
and we join our hearts together in worship and prayer. The Lord
is making bare his arm and showing us that it's that it's all in
him and it's all of grace. The Lord hath made bare his holy
arm in the eyes of all the nations and all the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God. Let's pray together. Our merciful and gracious and
glorious Heavenly Father, we pray this hour that you would
make your arm bare, that you would reveal once again the good
tidings that you reign, that you reign sovereign in the heavens
and over all the inhabitants of the earth, that, Lord, you
have done good for your people and continue to work out their
salvation for them. Lord, we pray that you would
open your word, open the windows of heaven, open our hearts, speak
peace and truth to us as we struggle in this world as your children
seeking to find our faith and our hope in Christ. For it's
in his name we pray, amen. Let's stand together once again
and we'll sing hymn number 212 from the hardbacked hymnal, 212.
? Wash away my sin ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? What can make me whole again ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? Oh, precious is the flow ? ? That
makes me white as snow ? I know nothing but the blood
of Jesus. For my pardon, this I seek, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this I plead, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. O precious is the flow, makes me white as snow, no other
cloud I know. Nothing can poor sin atone, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not a good that I have done,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow, That
makes me white as snow, No other crown I know, Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. As we were singing that, I was
thinking of a question that someone asked a preacher one time. He said, is Christ all you need? And he said, if he's all you've
got, he's all you need. And that is so true. The Lord brings us to the end
of ourselves so that all we have and all we need is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 145. I wanna try to continue this
thought on the kingdom of God. the rule
and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in his kingdom. We'll begin reading in verse
10 of Psalm 145. All thy works shall praise thee,
O Lord, and thy saints shall bless thee. All his work in election,
his work in redemption, his work in regeneration, his work in
sanctification, His works are glorious and they're perfect. And those that are the benefactors
of His, the beneficiaries of His work, praise Him for them. Praise Him for the perfection
of them and for the completion of them. Look at verse 11. They shall speak of the glory
of thy kingdom. the glory of thy kingdom and
talk of thy power. This kingdom is a glorious kingdom. It is a powerful kingdom. There's
no kingdom on earth like his kingdom. To make known to the
sons of men his mighty acts and the glorious majesty of his kingdom. So what we want to do, We want
to make known to the sons of men His mighty acts and to make
known the glory of His kingdom. The kingdoms of this world are
so frail and so temporal and they're all in His hands. He
raises them up and puts them down and the Lord made it clear that His
kingdom is not of this world. heart of the kings of this world
are in the hand of the Lord and he directs them with us so ever
he wills. He's over the kingdoms of this
world. Our hope is that the Lord will
give us eyes of faith to not look upon that which is seen
but that which is not seen for that which is seen is temporal
and that which is not seen is eternal. We get so caught up
in the temporal things of life, don't we? Those are the things
that bother us, the things that discourage us and worry us is
the temporal things. And the only escape from those
temporal things is the eternal. For that which is seen is temporal
and that which is not seen is eternal. The disciples asked
the Lord one time, they said, Lord, why do you speak in parables? And you remember what the Lord
said? He said, because it's not for them to know the mystery
of the kingdom of God. This is a great mystery. This
is a hidden truth. This is something that the world
can't see. They don't know what we're talking
about when we speak of our God reigning over all things. And when we're in trouble, we
find our hope and our comfort in his sovereign mercies and
care. They don't know anything about
this as a mystery. This is something the Lord has
to open our eyes to see. This is the eternal, which is
not seen by the natural eye. And so, David in this psalm of
praise is speaking of the kingdom of God. Look at verse 12 again,
to make known to the sons of men, his mighty acts and the
glorious majesty. The kingdoms of this world are
anything but majestic. Oh, men like to puff themselves
up and parade themselves around as if they were something, but
we see through that, don't we? We see the frailty of the kingdoms
of this world and the foolishness of the kingdoms of this world.
But His kingdom is majestic, glorious in majesty. Look at
verse 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Now
that's what I want to be a part of. I want to be a part of a
kingdom that's an everlasting kingdom, one that endureth from
generation to generation, because every generation is born and
lives and dies. and all their thoughts and dreams
and accomplishments just pass away with them. But here we have
the promise of a kingdom that cannot be seen with the natural
eye, a kingdom that's eternal, a kingdom that's established
in heaven, a kingdom where God Almighty said to his son, sit
down here at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool
for I have made thee. I have made thee a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. And Melchizedek, by translation,
according to Hebrews chapter seven, is king of righteousness
and king of Salem. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the king of righteousness. He's the one who's righteous
in and of himself. And he's the one who has the
sovereign right to give his righteousness to another. And he's the king
of Salem, and the word Salem means peace. In another place
in scripture, he's called the king of peace. He's called the
king of Israel. He's called the king of the Jews. Don't you love it when Pilate
asked the Lord, he said, are you the king of the Jews? And
the Lord said, do you ask this for yourself or because you heard
it from another? And Pilate said, don't you know that I have the
authority to crucify you or to release you? You have no authority
whatsoever except that which is given to you from heaven.
And so Pilate brought the Lord Jesus out and said, behold, your
King. He did it mockingly, but he spoke
as the Lord gave him words to speak because when he put that
plaque on the cross, He put it in Hebrew, he put it in Greek,
and he put it in Latin. The language of the religious,
the language of the common man, and the language of the intellectual.
And so that every man could see Jesus of Nazareth, king of the
Jews. Put on there that he says he's
king. What I've written, I've written. That's who he is. And God used this man called
Pilate to declare before the whole world who the Lord Jesus
Christ is and no man's without excuse of bowing before him. What is faith? It's to kiss the
hand of the king. It's to bow before him. It's to worship him. And God's people are made willing
to do that so that they delight. They delight in coming to their
sovereign king, their omnipotent king, their king whose heart
is full of nothing but mercy and love for them. And they come
into his presence. And they say with Saul of Tarsus
on the road to Damascus, Lord, Lord, what would you have me
to do? Lord, I... Got no place else to go, we just
bow before the king. This is the kingdom of God. This
is the great mystery that the world cannot see. This is what
David's talking about. David knew something of a kingdom,
but he knew his kingdom was temporal. Revelation chapter 15, verse
three, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the king of saints. The King of those who have been
sanctified, those who have been set apart. He is our King. And we rejoice in having Him
to be our King. The Lord's given us a spirit
of faith and of worship. And we're not like the world
who raises their fist in rebellion and says, I'm not gonna have
that man reign over me. Now, every child of God suffers
with the unbelief that they bear in their old man that limits
how much they bow before their king. They want to be more submissive
to him and they grieve. You see, whereas the unbeliever
grieves over the thought of submitting to God, And they rejoice in having
it their own way. The believers is just the opposite.
They rejoice in submitting to their God and they grieve in
their own heart over the experiences and the unbelief that they have
when they don't submit and follow and bow to him as they ought.
It's just the opposite, isn't it? What's your experience? You see, it's just Our Lord came preaching the kingdom
of God. Turn with me to Mark chapter
one. Mark chapter one. Look at verse, look at verse
14. Now after the John was put in
prison, John had to be, had to be removed. Oh, John grieved. John thought he sent his disciples
back to the Lord to ask him, Aren't thou the one or should
we look for another? This doesn't seem to be working
out right for me. What am I doing here in prison?
I thought you came to, the Lord told me you were the coming king. And yet John was looking for
some sort of resurrection of David's kingdom, wasn't he? He
still didn't understand that. the eternal matters of the kingdom
of God. And so here in his fears and
in his struggles, he's wondering, are you the king? Are you the
Messiah? Are you the Christ? Or should
we look for another? Go tell John, go tell John the
things that you've seen and the things that you've heard. And
when they heard what the Lord Jesus was doing and what he was
saying, John took comfort in that. And after that John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God. That was the content of his message.
The rule and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ and the good message. The word gospel means good news.
So he's preaching the good news of the reign of God. Tell Israel
their God reigns. It'll be good news to them. It'll
be the comfort that they need in all the trials and troubles
and uncertainties of this world to know that their God reigns.
It'll be peace to their hearts and the king of peace will establish
peace with them. And that peace of God, which
is beyond understanding, beyond the understanding of your circumstances,
better than understanding will keep their heart and their minds
in Christ Jesus, the King of peace, the King of righteousness. He came preaching, the gospel
of the kingdom of God. He reigns not only over the armies
of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth, but he reigns over
the devils of hell and reigns over hell itself and reigns over
the grave and reigns over death and reigns over sin. He reigns. He reigns. He's unthreatened
and uncontested. In Psalm 2 where it says, kiss
the son lest he be angry. Well, that's what we do. We come
before him, we just kiss the son. We bow before him. That's
what worship is. It's willingly bowing to the
reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that same Psalm, the Lord
says, those who won't bow, he holds them in derision. He laughs
at their rebellion against God. Let us break his bands asunder.
Let us deliver ourselves from him. Oh no, he reigns over them
too. He reigns over the living and
over the dead. He reigns sovereign over the
believer and the unbeliever. There's nothing contested in
his reign. Our God reigns. This is the kingdom
that he came preaching. This is the gospel of the kingdom
of God. What a kingdom it is. Look at
look at verse 16. Now, as he walked by the Sea
of Galilee, I'm sorry, verse verse 15 and saying the time
is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and
believe the gospel. The kingdom of God's at hand.
The kingdom of God is here. It's right there, right at hand. It's
not far off. The Lord calls on his people,
repent, believe the gospel. And we know those are two sides
to the same act of grace, the same work of grace in the heart,
believing and repenting. So I illustrated it a couple
of weeks ago. We breathe in the life-giving
oxygen of faith and exhale those things that need to be expelled
from the body. And there's repentance and faith. The Lord gives it when he enables
us to believe. Oh, we get so caught up with
the things that the Gentiles worry about, don't we? That's
why you're here tonight. That's why I'm here tonight.
Because my life's like your life. We get caught up in the things
of this world, and we worry about things, and we try to figure
out how to fix things, and we get We get our eyes off of Christ,
and what'd the Lord say? The Gentiles seek after those
things, but you seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these other things will be added unto you. You have Christ,
you have everything. Seek Him. When we get in trouble, we've
got to go someplace to find some help. The Lord shuts us up to
where we've got no place else to go, and what a great place
that is to be. What a great place it is to be.
That's what our Lord's saying. Seek ye first the rule and reign
of the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. He's the one who'll give
you peace. He's the one who'll give you
understanding. He's the one who'll give you wisdom. He's the one
that will speak comfort and hope to your heart, deliver you from
all your sin. His righteousness, he's the righteous
one. In another place, the Lord's
Romans chapter 12, turn with me there. It's the last few chapters, the
last few verses of Romans chapter, I think it is chapter 12. It's the passage that says the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness. and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. We'll find it in a minute. First
Corinthians chapter 15 says, flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. No, this body can inherit the
kingdom of God. It's a spiritual kingdom. They
said, Lord has to give us a new nature. to find ourselves in
Christ, in the gospel of the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a great mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. In the twinkling of an eye, the
trump of God shall sound. The dead in Christ shall rise.
There's our hope. There's an eternal kingdom. All
these earthly kingdoms, you know, from the time of our Lord's birth
to the hour of his death, his kingship, his sovereign authority
was the reason men wanted him put away. You remember when the wise men
came from the East? Because they had seen the star?
And where did they go? They went to King, little K,
Herod. And they said, where is the king
of the Jews? We've seen his star. And Herod
was troubled, the scripture says. You telling me that there's a
king that's been born that's going to threaten my authority? And so Herod sent those wise
men. They said, you go find him, come back and tell me where he
is so I can come worship him. Well, he didn't intend to worship.
He was going to kill him. And the Lord spoke to the wise
men. The wise men went back another way and spoke to Mary and Joseph,
told them to take the Lord to Egypt. And then Herod had all
the babies in Bethlehem and the surrounding area. slaughtered
in hopes to what? Remove the king. I'm not going to be threatened
by someone else to take my power. And then the Jews met together
right before our Lord's crucifixion. The Pharisees did, the leaders
of the Jews, and they said, If we allow this man to remain,
the Romans will come and they will take away both our place
and our nation. They'll take away our position
of power and they'll take away our followers. We can't have
this. You see, it was the kingdom of
God. It was the reign of Christ that men hated then. And then
when Pilate said, here's your king, what did the Jews say? They said something they've never
came out of their mouth before, but their hatred for the Lord
Jesus Christ and for his reign over their lives was so deep
and so strong that they were willing to say, we have no king
but Caesar. And don't you know, as soon as
the word Caesar came out of their mouths, they thought, did we
really just say that? Did we really just say that?
Yeah, you did. You'd rather bow to Caesar than
bow to Christ. From the time of his birth to
the time of his death, and nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. Men still will not bow. They will not bow. Oh, what a blessing it is. for the spirit of God to make
us willing in the day of his power, to come and kiss the hand
of the king, to trust the king, to believe in the king, to submit
to him, to wait on him and his ultimate coronation when he comes
in all of his glory riding upon that white horse and all of his,
all of his, subjects coming with him. Oh, what a glorious day
when that kingdom of God is ultimately established. We don't make Jesus king, we
don't make him Lord. In the very first sermon that
was preached after the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts
chapter two at Pentecost, Peter summarized his message after
telling them about the Lord Jesus Christ and who he was. He summarized
his entire message by saying this, God hath made this same
Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ. God has made
him to be Lord. You don't make him Lord, how
blasphemous is that? To think that we have the power
to make him Lord. What a blessing it is to bow
to him, to be able to say in every circumstances, hard circumstances
and easy circumstances. I don't say good and bad circumstances. I say hard and easy. where we know that there are
no bad circumstances for the people of God. Why? Because our
God reigns. He does what's right. And he
works all things together for good. And so we cannot say in
the good and in the bad, but we can say in the easy times
and in the hard times, our God reigns. Faith acknowledges and rejoices
that Jesus is Lord and Christ and that God has made him so. People of God still do what Thomas
did when they see his wounds. What are these wounds upon you?
Oh, these are the wounds that I was wounded with in the house
of my friends. Isn't that what Zachariah said?
When we get to glory, we're going to see the wounds of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and we're going to know that the only reason
that we're there is because of those wounds. He was wounded for our transgressions.
And we'd like Thomas bowed before him. And what do we say? Oh,
my Lord and my God. Oh, what great hope, what great
comfort we have in bowing before the king and kissing the hand
of the king in worshiping the king. And in the book of Revelation,
when all the saints in glory are gathered together in that
heavenly choir, what do they sing? Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and power and honor. And Mike, for thou has
created all things and for thy good pleasure they are and were
created. Lord, you're the creator and
sustainer of all of life. What is our Lord said? Tell them
that their God reigns. He's the sovereign savior of
sinners. You remember in John chapter
21, Peter, oh Peter. I'm sure that Peter figured there's
no hope for me, not after what I did. Oh, no hope for me. I've sent my way away. I've sent
my way outside of any opportunity of grace. And the Lord told Mary,
tell Peter and the disciples that I've risen. And then when
our Lord shows up at the Sea of Galilee, Peter said, I go
fishing. He's out in the boat. And the Lord saw them. He said,
cast your net on the other side. This is John 21. Well, we've been fishing all,
all night, but if I command, we'll do it. And they did, and
they couldn't hardly bring. And John realized John was the
one who said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. And what did Peter do? Peter
jumped out of the boat in the water and swam as fast as he
could to the shore and fell at the feet of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
Peter, love us. Thou may. Oh Lord, you know that
I love you. What a, nothing's changed. You see the world still refuses
to bow. They refuse to believe. And the
people of God still find their only hope in their Lord and their
King, their master. And we follow his example. Turn
with me to John chapter 13. John chapter 13, verse four, the Lord rises from
supper and he laid aside his garments and he took a towel
and girded himself and after that he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the
towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he Simon Peter, cometh
he to Simon Peter. Peter said to him, Lord, does
that wash my feet? And Jesus answered and said to
him, What I do thou, thou knowest not, but thou shalt know hereafter.
You're gonna understand. After the coming of the Spirit
of God, you're gonna understand all of it, what I've done for
you and how I've made you clean. I made you clean. You remember what Peter, Peter
goes on to say, Lord, wash not, if I wash not your hands, your
feet, you have no part in me. Lord, wash not my feet only,
wash me all over. No, Peter, you're already clean.
You're already clean. How am I clean? You're clean
through the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the
world. You're clean because I have drank damnation dry. I have emptied
the cup and the bitter dregs of God's wrath have been poured
out upon me. You're clean. I made you clean
by virtue of your union with me. Your sins have been put away. You have a perfect righteousness
in Christ. Now the Lord goes on in this
story, in this event. Let's skip down to verse 13.
You call me master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. If I then your Lord and master
have washed your feet, You also ought to wash one another's feet,
for I have given you as an example that you should do as I have
done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is
not greater than his Lord, neither is he that sent greater than
he that sent him. If you know these things, happy
are you if you do them. We know that we have bowed in
faith to Christ because we love the brethren. We do. We have a union with the people
of God that we don't have with anybody else. And we see our need to have our
feet washed. And how do we wash one another's
feet? Do we have some sort of ceremony where people come down
here and take their shoes off and wash their feet? No. How
do we wash one another's feet? Well, we're doing it right now.
And every time you speak to a brother or sister and every time you
encourage one of your brethren in Christ and remind them that
their God reigns, then you're washing their feet again and
again. And we walk out in this dirty world and we get our feet
dirty. This kingdom is an eternal kingdom.
We just read that in the Psalm, Psalm 145. What a contrast between the kingdom
of God and the earthly kingdoms. You remember in Daniel chapter
2 when Nebuchadnezzar had that vision of that great figure.
It had a head of gold and arms of silver and belly of brass
and legs of iron and feet that were mingled with iron and clay. And those were the kingdoms of
this world. That was the Babylonian kingdom, the Greek kingdom, the
Roman, I mean, the Medes and the Persians, the Greek kingdom,
the Roman kingdom. And we are now in the kingdoms
of some strong and some weak. And we see that in the world,
mingled with iron and clay. That's where we are. Miry clay,
some nations are, and some nations are very, very strong as far
as earthly kingdoms go. But then what happens in that
story? Well, let's turn there. Daniel chapter 2. Turn with me
there. Verse 44. And in the days of
these kings shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom
which shall never be destroyed. What happened to the Babylonian
kingdom? Well, you've seen pictures of Baghdad. That's smack dab
in the middle of the Babylonian kingdom. Okay, not much over
there now, is there? That kingdom fell. Medes and
the Persians, Syria. Well, you see what's left of
that. The Greeks, the Romans, all these kingdoms have fallen. God shall set up a kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. For as much as
thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without
hands." That was the end of the vision. Nebuchadnezzar saw this
great stone that was cut out of a mountain without the hand
of a man. And that stone is Christ. And
it was God's hand that cut him out. And the stone came and it
crushed the great figure. and that it broke in pieces the
iron, the brass, and the clay, and the silver, and the gold,
and the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to
pass hereafter. And the dream is certain and
the interpretation thereof sure." And God's people say, amen, I
believe that. I believe that. I believe that
Christ is that king, that kingdom, that he is building his kingdom
right now. That one day all the kingdoms
of this world, thankful for the prosperity and
the freedoms that we've enjoyed in this nation, but it's, well,
it's just what, well, turn with me to Daniel chapter four. You're there in Daniel, turn
over just a page to Daniel chapter four and look with me at verse
17. This matter is by the decree
of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones
to the intent that the living may know. that the Most High
ruleth in the kingdoms of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He
wills, and sets up over it the basest of men. You see that,
don't you? He's talking about all the kingdoms
of the earth now. God rules over them, and He sets
up over them the basest of men. We'll leave that where it is
and let you think about that for a minute. Turn with me to
Isaiah chapter 40. Isaiah chapter 40. I've made reference to this Sunday,
and I want us to look at three verses in Isaiah 40. We'll begin
reading at verse 15. The nations, the kingdoms of
this world, the United States of America included, are as a
drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing. Lebanon is not sufficient to
burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burn offering. You took
all the beast of Lebanon, all the sacrifices that man could
possibly make that would not be sufficient for him. All nations
before him are as nothing and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. Can that be any more clear? Thank God for the freedoms we
enjoy and the prosperity we've had in this country. Thank God
for the opportunity that we have to worship together in freedom. But this kingdom is just like
every other kingdom. God reigns over it, and he's given it to
the basest of men. And it is but to him, compared
to the kingdom of God, a drop in the bucket, a speck of dust
on the scale, nothing to him. What's the Lord telling us? He's
telling us that the kingdom of God is everything. The kingdom
of God is everything. And that passage I was looking
for in Romans is Romans 14, 17. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. It's not what goes into a man
that defiles him, it's what comes out. It's what he says about
Christ. All the religions of the world
trying to get into the kingdom of God. It's all about touch
not, taste not, handle not. And what's the Lord saying? The
kingdom of God's not drinking meat, it's righteousness and
it's peace and it's joy in the Holy Ghost. Our God. Rain is a man. Our merciful Heavenly Father
comfort our hearts. By. Showing us the glory of Christ
and enabling us to rest our hope. In the Gospel of the Kingdom
of God. For it's in Christ's name we
ask it. Amen. Number 12, let's stand together.