Before we begin the message,
I do want to make an announcement. Brother Carroll Poole, I don't
know if many of you have heard of him, pastor in North Carolina,
passed away this last, I think it was Monday. He was a very faithful witness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was a very faithful pastor
there. for many years, has prayers for the church and
for his wife, Pat, as they struggle with the loss of their pastor,
and she struggles with the loss of
her husband. Don't quite fully understand the cause. He had shoulder surgery. And
they were thinking it was the medications or the complications
with the surgery, but I think it was something totally different. But the Lord, we know this, that
the Lord is the one that called him to himself. The Lord called
him home. And I know he'll be sorely missed
there. Pray for this church as they
enter the ranks of those without pastors. seems to be a growing number. And I pray that God would keep the
light shining in these places. I hope tonight's message will
comfort you concerning these things. These things are troubling,
and I know we have a lot of troubling things. But I hope that you get
this. Our Lord Jesus Christ is ruling. He doesn't feel like you and
I feel. He's not discouraged. We are. It doesn't take much
to discourage me. It just doesn't. Slightest wind
and I'm like, ooh, what's happening? The Lord is controlling all of
these things at once. These are not happenstances. They don't happen in the order
they're happening by chance. These are designs. I keep referring to that scripture
in Isaiah in my mind. The righteous man perishes or
he dies. and no man layeth it to heart." I know everyone's very hurt and
emotionally upset concerning the passing of that young political
man. How many people knew Carroll
Poole, a faithful man who preached the gospel for decades? And that same text goes, "...to
save them from the evil that is to come." Our Lord knows what He's doing.
May God give us grace and faith to trust Him rather than what
we see or what we think or reason within ourselves. So pray for this church, pray
for this family. Pray for God's churches, those
without pastors, remember them. And I know this, since I was
put behind and running behind, Quite offsetting. I don't feel
like I'm ready. I went over this. I still
don't feel like it's ready. I had to put it down this afternoon.
If I kept going, we just would never end. So I had to put it
down. And I thought, well, I'll get
here early and go over it. The Lord had other plans. Pray for
me. I long to preach this to you. It was a comfort to me, and I
pray it will be to you. And this is going to take the
spirit of God to do it. We need it. We need it. And I just want to share my appreciation
to you, you who are faithful and desire this word. It's encouraging
to me. It's encouraging to me when God's
people desire to hear the Word. And friends, this is not common. I wish it were common. I long
for it to be common. It's just not common. But God
is still moving and there are things that are encouraging me
along the way. I know God has his people and
he'll call them. And he don't need us, but I do pray he uses us. Let's bow and pray to him. Our gracious Father, thank you
that you've seen fit to draw us to this place at this time
to hear this message. It is your word. It is rich and
full. Your Word is eternal. Your Word is sharper than any
two-edged sword dividing asunder soul and spirit. And as it's wielded in the hands
of the Holy Spirit tonight, I pray that you would use it for your own glory, for the glory
of Christ, that everything that is said may redound to the glory
of our Lord and Savior for His triumph, for His victory at Calvary,
for His resurrection and ascension to the throne of glory where
He now sits and rules over all things. We pray, Father, that
you would comfort your people in their times of trouble. Pray
for Carol's wife and his congregation. Father, we pray for them. We
ask you to bless them, to pour out your spirit upon them. But,
Father, we ask that for ourselves. We need you. Strengthen your
people. Encourage them to continue, regardless
of what the world does. Father, I do pray that you'd
forgive us our sins, that you'd cleanse us of our
unrighteousness, that you would make this word
effectual to the hearts of your people. Father, I do beg you, this is
a very wicked and vile generation, and our nation is the chief False religion runs wild. The
Word of God is despised, twisted. The Gospel is hated. Father, I know you have an elect
people that you will save, that you have saved. I know you will
call them. Even do so tonight. Bring in
your people, Father. Please, be merciful. that they
tarry no longer in the wilderness, that they tarry no longer in
the grave, that you would call them to life, to faith in Christ alone. We ask these things, Father.
We plead for them in the name of Jesus, our Savior, for His
sake. Amen. Alright, Psalm 24. I've entitled this message, The Sovereign
Rule and Triumph of Christ. The Sovereign Rule and the Triumph
of Christ. The psalmist begins, the earth
is Lord. and the fullness thereof, the
world, and they that dwell therein. For He hath founded it upon the
seas, and established it upon the floods." And by way of introduction,
I think that these three Psalms, Psalm 22, 23, and 24, I would long for you to see what
I see about these Psalms, how they flow together. They all
three magnify Christ. Psalm 22 magnifies His suffering. That Psalm begins, My God, My
God, why hast thou forsaken me? We see that His suffering in
Psalm 22. how that He suffered on Calvary's
tree, dying for our sins, suffering the justice of Almighty God. And that suffering was in vain,
for He says in that chapter, He hath not despised nor abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted. He didn't despise it. God was
pleased with it. Neither hath he hid his face
from him when he cried, he heard him. My praise shall be of thee
in the great congregation, I will pay my vows." What was his vow? His vow was to save us. That's
what Christ vowed. He said, I'll die, but yet listen,
I'm going to praise thee, where? In the congregation, among my
people. We know this was true because
God raised him from the dead. God raised him from the dead.
He did pay that vow. In verse 28, 7 and 28 of that
chapter, it says that all will turn unto
the Lord. There was no vanity in his suffering,
was there? There was no emptiness in his
offering. His offering was victorious.
And then Psalm 23, you know that's a common one, right? The Lord
is my shepherd. This speaks to us of Christ as
our shepherd. We all like sheep have gone astray,
turned everyone to his own way. And what? The Lord called us.
He found us as our shepherd. It shows the gentleness and compassion
of our Lord Jesus Christ as the shepherd. He said, I am the great
shepherd of the sheep. I know my sheep and have known
them. I lay down my life for the sheep.
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them I also
must bring. And so when this psalm comes
to that conclusion, it says this, He said, The Lord is my shepherd,
I shall not want. What are you lacking? You that
are His sheep, what are you lacking? You lack nothing. Though you're
in the midst of your foes, surrounded by your enemies, you're going
to lay down in green pastures, drink from steel waters. The
Lord is my shepherd. And now we come to this psalm
here, and this psalm speaks of Christ as King. This psalm speaks
of His victory, of His ascension to the throne of glory. of His triumph. Now there are three things in
this psalm I want you to see. First of all, the glory and dominion
of Jesus. I want you to see this. You have
to see this. The glory and the dominion of
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's necessary. If we're going
to have any comfort, any hope, then you have to know this. He
is ruling over all things. Secondly, we want to see the
perfect acceptance of Christ by God. What our name is this,
His triumph, His victory. And thirdly, I want you to see
the glory and dominion of Christ in the salvation of His people.
So first of all, the glory and dominion of Christ. I'm sorry,
the third thing is the triumph of the King and the opening of
the gates. I misread that. I said, that
didn't make sense. I was telling you number one
again. So it's the glory and dominion of Christ, the perfect
acceptance of Christ, and the triumph of the King and opening
the gates of glory. So here it is, the first, the
glory and dominion of Christ. Read that with me again. The
earth is the Lord's. and the fullness thereof." Anybody
misunderstand that? The earth belongs to God, and everything
in it belongs to God. But not only the plant life,
the animal life, the weather. People acknowledge that. They
say, well, that belongs to God. You see a tornado come and say,
well, that belongs to God. You see a hurricane come and
say, well, that's God. They can't say anything else.
Has to be. Plants grow. Well, that has to
be God. But it doesn't stop there with
plants and animals and weather. Look at this. the world and they
that dwell therein. Everybody dwells on it. The earth,
all that's in it, and all the people on it belong to God, are
the Lord's. For he hath founded it upon the
seas and established it upon the flood. David sets forth this
one who suffered on the tree, this great shepherd of the sheep,
he now declares this, he is the Lord ruling over all his creation. Behold, he is, our Lord Jesus Christ is God,
the very God. He is the Sovereign Creator of
all things. In Colossians 1.16 it tells us that for by Him were
all things created that are in heaven, that are in the earth,
visible and invisible. I like the way the apostle has
to clarify everything because somebody is going to say, well
what about that? Was it visible? Well, He did it. Well, what about
this that you can't see? Invisible. Things you can't see
belong to Him. Whether they be thrones or dominions,
principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and
for Him. A man by nature is so corrupt and
blinded, full of pride, to suppose that somehow he's a free agent. It's God's, everything belongs
to God except me. I'm a free agent. I get to choose
whether I belong to Him or not. Isn't that silly? That's the
dumbest thing I think I've ever heard in my life, yet religions
are founded on it. This is the foundation of all
free will religion, is that man is sovereign over his own destiny,
over his own soul. Whether to receive or reject
him belongs to man, that's their argument. Now, we do not argue that man
is without will. That's silly. I would never argue
that man doesn't have a will. I know this. The Word of God
declares that he does. The problem is it's not free.
It's not free. The idea of free will is sovereign
will. There's only one who has sovereign
will and that is God who rules all things. A man can make a
choice of carnal things. You do that all the time, don't
you? Choose a hamburger or you choose chicken. Unless you go
to Kentucky Fried Chicken and all you got is chicken. How free
is your will? You can't choose a hamburger
at Kentucky Fried Chicken, can you? Now listen, now you don't
make it. They can choose carnal things,
but man cannot choose what he does not know. Nor can he choose things outside
of his reach. Why? Because man's not will. Will is not free. It is written,
there is none righteous, no not one. Can a man be righteous by
will? Can you will to be righteous? No. There's none righteous. No
not one. There's none that understand
it. How can you choose something you don't understand? You can't. There's none that seeketh after
God. How can you choose what you didn't seek? You can't seek
after God because no man seeks after God. There's none that
doeth good, no, not one. So regardless of how men feel
about it, all men are the servants of God,
for all things are made by Him and for Him. You belong to Him. This idea that man gets to make
God Lord is a foolish notion. He is Lord. And whether you love
him or whether you despise him, you belong to him. He is yours. You are his. Everything He has is for the
glory. Ezekiel 18 and verse 4 says,
Behold, all souls are mine. Is this a toss-up between God
and Satan like the religious world would have you believe?
Well, you know what? You can give your soul to the
devil or you can give your soul to God. No, it belongs to God. It isn't yours to give. God owns you. This is the eternal praise of
the whole Church of God. In that Revelation 4, it says,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are
created. So then, He who made all things
owns all things and people. Let us be sure that this is by
His sovereign will He is moving all things and all people and
events and time and eternity of providence and of circumstance
for His glory according to the good pleasure of His will. The
Lord Jesus Christ sits on the throne and He is doing all things
after the counsel of His own will. Everything. Isn't this
what He told us in Isaiah 46? He said, I'm God and there's
none else. There's none like me. Declaring
the end from the beginning. Who does that? We try to get here on time. We
couldn't even get determined to get here on time. Outside of our circumstance,
we could not control the circumstance. Yet God says, I'm God, I've declared
the end from the beginning, from ancient times of things that
are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all
my pleasure. Believer, tonight I want you
to look to the throne of God and see who sits there. I want you to see who sits on
the throne. Is this same Jesus who came and
gave himself for us? Who loved us with an everlasting
love? He sits on the throne of glory,
doing all things after the counsel of his own will. Therefore, let
us by faith know this, that he is ruling all things, all things,
for his intended purpose. Now what is his intended purpose?
That's important, isn't it? If we knew he was ruling all
things, it would be a fearful thing if we didn't know what
he was doing. But he did tell us what he is doing. He said,
I know my thoughts towards you. Thoughts of peace. Isn't that
comforting coming from the King of Glory? The King of Glory says
this to his people, I know what I'm thinking. My thoughts of
you are thoughts of peace and not of evil. to give you an expected
end. I'll tell you what, you don't
know what to expect next, do you? I mean, you don't know in
providence, you don't know what to expect. You do know what to
expect in the end, don't you? What's going to happen in the
end? Don't you know that? You have
an expected end. What is that? He's redeemed you? He's called you, He'll keep you,
and you'll spend eternity with Him. That's an expected end. See, there are circumstances. Our lot is by no means then accidental. But every sickness, every weakness,
every joy, and every pleasure, every pain is purposed Ordained
and ruled over by the sovereign Lord Jesus Christ everything
everything This should comfort the believer this should just
cut through our souls And none of these people rule anything
He rules everything Remember that vision in Ezekiel,
the wheel within the wheel? I use this a lot because I think
it's comforting for me to understand how God is ruling. What's happening? Why am I so confused? The scripture in Ezekiel pictures
in chapter 1, the vision is there's a wheel and inside the wheel
is another wheel and it's spinning. And the Spirit of the Lord is
moving this wheel straight forward. It doesn't turn to the right.
It doesn't turn to the left. What is this? This is the providence
of God. Whatever God decreed is going
to happen. What makes us so confused is
that we're trying to look at individual providences to figure
out what's going on. We try to trace an individual
providence back to the love mercy of God and it only makes us dizzy. We can't do it. Can't figure
it out. I like what Matthew Henry wrote about this.
He said providence represented by the wheels produces changes. Sometimes one spoke of the wheels
at the top, sometimes at the bottom. But the motion of the wheel is
on its axle tree is regular and steady. What doesn't move in
the wheel? The hub. The axle. What then
is to be our focus? It's not the providence. It's
the hub. That thing that doesn't move.
Here's something that doesn't move. The earth is the Lord's. and the fullness thereof, the world and all they that dwell
in it." Now that doesn't change. I don't care what providence
takes place, that don't change. It's immutable. Jesus Christ is ruling over all
things. So when the providence put us
on the bottom, What Matthew Henry was saying
is this, what's on the bottom will eventually be where? On
the top. And listen to this, whatever's
on the top will soon be on the bottom. You see how that works? Are you at the bottom? These things are fixed, friends.
The only thing that doesn't move is Christ. Everything else is
movable, mutable. But know this, God's providence
doesn't turn to the right or the left. It's always straightforward.
It's doing exactly what He determined to do. And what is that? That we who are on the bottom,
sinners, will eventually be where? On the top. Exalted. He's going
to save His people. That's what providence is. It's
the moving of God in the salvation of his people. That's his purpose. And I know
this, that believer, we do suffer, but our suffering has meaning.
Our sorrows, our pains, as well as our joys and our victory have
purpose. And each action is purposed to
set off another, and another, and another. For what? to work
all things together for the good of God's people and the glory
of God. It's going to work that way. And so rather than looking at
a fixed point, looking at a certain providence, look at a fixed point
and we won't be so confused. We won't be so rattled if we
would just know this, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
thereof and they that dwell in it. Who doesn't belong to him? Name
one man and one act of any man that is not decreed by God. The
betrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ was decreed. His crucifixion
was decreed. Could they do anything else?
I want you to see the absolute sovereign rule of this. The Jews
said we can't kill him on Passover. You know that's what they said.
They said, we can't kill him on Passover. God said, yes you
will. And he overruled them to accomplish
his will. And he was crucified on Passover. Why? Because he was a Passover
lamb. That's why. In that psalm, in that Isaiah
that I just quoted, he said, my counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. And then he gives us an example
of that. You remember the example? Calling a ravenous bird from
the east. In Isaiah 44, he calls that ravenous
bird by name 200 years before he was born. Cyrus. That's what his mama's going
to name him. Cyrus. Anybody change that? Could that
be changed? No. And God opened the gates
for Cyrus. Cyrus conquered Babylon for this
purpose. Listen to this. To execute my
counsel. What do you think all these politicians
are doing? Exercising his counsel. You see them and they act like
fools. God's just showing you what they really are. What we
are by nature. So, they're executing His counsel. They're doing His will. And that is to save Israel. That is His whole purpose in
everything He does. I want you to get that. Everything God does. Now, you don't need to see how. You don't even need to know the
particulars. What does it really matter? You
know that it's so. Why? The earth is the Lord's,
and the fullness thereof, and everybody that dwells on this
planet belongs to Him. And He uses them according to
the counsel of His own will. He didn't ask anybody what to
do. He did it according to the counsel of His own will. For
what? For our salvation. For our salvation. And notice the second part of
that. Look back at your text. He now takes your eyes from the
throne and He puts it upon the earth. Look at this. For He hath
founded it upon the seas and established it upon the floods. He is taking your view from an
immutable thing to a very mutable thing. Changeable. Unchangeable. Christ rules. Go back down to
the earth and what do you see? The earth is founded upon an
unstable foundation. Floods and seas. Isn't there
anything more unstable than a sea? It just, one minute it's calm,
one minute it rises. It's unstable. What is he telling
us about the earth that God made? Everything here is transient. Have you found that out? That
everything here is transient, it's just passing, it's just
fleeting? This world and all that's in
it is unstable, uncertain. Its riches, its pleasures are
as unstable as the sea. Therefore, upon what are we to
set our hopes of life? Friends, this life is a vapor,
isn't it? And everything in it is so mutable, so changeable. One minute, and then it changes. You think it's going this way,
and it changes. Yet this mutable world is controlled
by an immutable God. Secondly, we see that Christ
has ascended to the throne of glory. He is seated on the throne
of glory. Secondly, we want to see that
He is the only acceptable Savior. Look at this in the next verses.
In verse 3, Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord, or who
shall stand in his holy place? Now, again, he took his view
from the immutable God and he put it on the mutable world and
it posed a question. Since everything here is so changeable,
God rules over all things, yet here in the world everything
is mutable. I can't put my trust in anything here. Who then is
going to be able to stand before God? Who can ascend before such a
God and stand? That's the only question that
really matters, doesn't it? Because we die, it's going to take place, is appointed unto men once to
die, and after that, what? What comes next? Judgment is
there anything more important than that you anything else going
on in your life is really more important than that? Psalmist doesn't think so he's
asking the question. He's being honest who who? Shall ascend to the hill of the
Lord and when you get there if you can get there who is able
to stand and in the holy place. Be accepted. Be accepted. The answer is clear in verse
4. He doesn't leave you to wonder. Listen to this, this is the only
one. He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. So he's talking about both outward
action and inward thoughts. Both have to be pure, free from
sin. Who hath not lifted up his soul
to vanity or sworn deceitfully. That totally disqualifies everyone
in the human race. When our father Adam lived in
the garden, he walked with God without fear. That's astounding
to think about, that he walked with Adam in the cool of the
day and there was no fear. But the moment
Adam fell and sinned, that communion was broken, forever broken. Why? Because he had sinned. He had
sinned. Death swallowed him up. He lost
every blessing and fellowship with God. And at that moment,
so did all of us. When Adam sinned, we sinned. I know people don't like that,
but I really don't care. It doesn't matter. Your opinion
about the fact doesn't really matter. Wherefore, as by one
man's sin entered into the world, death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. For what? All have sinned. You
sinned when He did. So this excludes us, doesn't
it? You have clean hands? Who has clean hands? Whose hands are free from sin? Whose heart is pure? who has not lifted himself up
with pride and vanity, or sworn deceitfully lied, who we all
have sinned and come short of this. But I'll tell you, it's none
of us that this scripture is speaking about. There is only
one person this scripture could testify of. The same one that
rules is the same one that's acceptable. This is what Robert Hawker said,
Where shall we look among the fallen sons of Adam for one to
answer this description? All have sinned and come short
of God's glory. But there is a man, there is
one man whose name is wonderful and who hath been found worthy
as a representative of the poor nature to both ascend and to
dwell there. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord, and who shall stand? There's only one man that's ever
ascended. Our Lord Jesus said this Himself. He said, no man
hath ascended to heaven, but there's one that would ascend, This is Him, He that came down
from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Who shall
ascend to the presence of God and who shall stand? Only the
Lord Jesus Christ did this. Jesus, the God-man. that when
He had purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high. I love the picture of this in
Revelation chapter 5. You remember when John was weeping.
The Lord of glory had been exalted. But the book was sealed. Salvation
was closed and no man could open it in heaven or earth. Who shall
ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Who shall loose the seals of
this book of salvation? And John seeing no man began
to weep that there was no hope for him. And one of the preachers
there, he came and he said, Oh don't weep. Don't weep. For the
Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book. and loose the seals thereof. Our Lord Jesus Christ, as a lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world, He alone has clean
hands and a pure heart. Therefore, look now and see the
person who has ascended." Who is He? Who has ascended to the
throne of glory? It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why? because he had clean hands. He
was innocent of all sin and a pure heart. Isn't this your hope? My hope is in him who had clean
hands and a pure heart. In Romans 3.22 it says the righteousness
of God. How is the righteousness of God
merited? By the faith of Jesus Christ. And you remember in Hebrews chapter
9 He said, He offered not the blood of bulls and goats, but
offered His own blood once. Listen to this, Hebrews 9.12,
having obtained Eternal Redemption. See the victory here? The question
to us is damning. Who shall ascend? Oh yeah, He
that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Jesus Christ has ascended. Notice this in verse 5. What
shall He receive? He shall receive blessing from
the Lord and righteousness from the God of His salvation. Where are all the blessings of
salvation found? When Christ ascended, what did
He receive? He received all of the blessings
of the covenant promises of God. They're in Christ, aren't they?
All of the promises of God, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, pardon,
peace with God, all of those covenant promises are found in
one man, Jesus Christ. No place else. Why? He earned them. You realize that He is the only man
to earn righteousness. He earned it. Merited it. By His own obedience. I don't think we understand how
far our Lord condescended. I don't think we really grasp
how low He actually descended when he came into this world
to do this, how low he had to make himself. That he had to
trust God for everything. Remember the temptation of Satan
was to make stones bread. He was fasted for 40 days. He
didn't eat food for 40 days. He was hungry. He could have
made those stones bread. It would have been nothing for
him. He had the power! But in order to save us, he had
to submit himself even to God for his food. And he did it. He merited the
salvation of God. Behold, our Savior is now ascended into the very presence of God
for us. and look and see that God has
glorified Him. God has glorified Him. Is there any reason why we preach
Christ and Him crucified all the time? To me it's no wonder,
because God has highly exalted Him. God has given Him a name
that is above every name. that at the name of Jesus every
knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that
He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. God has honored Him. God has magnified Him. God has
exalted Him. Therefore, it is nothing we should
all exalt Him and praise Him. God has exalted Him because He
has accomplished something that we could never do. Accomplished
the salvation of his people therefore in sovereign grace the Savior
who created all things and sustains all things has Saved his people
now in verses 6 to 10. I know got to move fast verses
6 to 10. We see the salvation of all those
that Christ represented Look at this, and this is the generation
of them that seek him notice the pronoun change here It goes
from He and Him to them. We by nature never sought the
Lord. This is the generation of them that seek Him. By nature
we never sought the Lord. Until the Spirit of God came
and gave us life. until He quickened us by the
power of His Spirit, giving us a heart, a desire,
a longing, and faith to believe. You could not believe had He
not given those things. You would have never sought Him
had He not found you. When He awakened us to our depravity,
the bondage of our heart, it's then by grace we heard the message,
Come to Me! I hear a lot about, there's a
lot about coming to Calvinism. Don't buy into that. Nobody is
saved by coming to Calvinism. You got it? Nobody is saved by
coming to a creed or a system. I don't come to a system. I come
to a person. He said, come to me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, come to me and I'll give you
rest. And by the grace and power of
the Spirit, I did. So the generation of them that
seek Him are those that are found of Him. Those who believe on
Him. Once we're awakened, we come
to Him. It's then we seek to be accepted
with God, but where? Where shall we be accepted? Look
at verse 7. Lift up your heads, O ye gates,
and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is the king of glory? The Lord, strong and
mighty. The Lord, mighty in battle. When the Lord came to you, he
came not as a weak, effeminate savior. He came as a conquering
king. When his word came to you, it
was not a word of invitation, it was a word of command. And that word of command by the
power of the Spirit was met with a willing heart. Isn't that right?
Why? Because the scripture says, thy
people shall be willing. When? In the day of thy power. Why? Because the Lord of glory,
the King of glory, He has lifted up the gates. I
thought of this, He has opened the gates. I thought of Samson. Remember
how Samson took the gates off the hinge? Everything that separated
us from the King of Glory, He removed the bars and He came
in. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not
weakly knocking at the door, He removes it. opens it, and
he comes in as a mighty conquering a king. See, our Lord Jesus Christ has
opened the gates of heaven. Who then could shut them? He rules all things. He himself
has accomplished the salvation of his people. And now he says,
now the gospel is lift up! Rejoice! Lift up your heads. Lift up your heads. Man, my head
hangs down a lot, does it yours? And my head hangs down in shame,
my head hangs down in sorrow, my head hangs down in sickness.
What does the gospel tell me? Lift up. Lift up. Why? Because the King of Glory
is mighty in battle. He has unhinged the bars of... and the gates are now open wide
to receive all who come to God by Him. The King of glory has
removed them for us. Look now and see that He has
opened heaven. Isaiah 60 and verse 11 said, Therefore thy
gates shall be opened continually. Isn't this glorious? They're
open continually! For who? For sinners! I know
God's going to elect people, I just don't know who they are.
I just know this, they're sinners. They're sinners. Jesus said, I am the door. If
any man enter in, he shall be saved and go in and out and find
pasture. Lift up your heads, O you gates,
lift them up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory
shall come in. Who is this King of glory? It
is the Lord of hosts. He is the King of glory. Friends, our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler over all things. This is without question. But
who shall ascend before his presence? Who shall stand before him? Well,
he's the only one that's ever able to do that. He's the only
one that's ever been able to ascend to heaven and be accepted
of God. But by doing that, he saved his
people. And then what does he do? He
is going to conquer them. Every one of them. The gates
are open. Nothing's stopping a sinner from
coming in. You know that? There's no opposition
here. When the Lord God comes and he quickens
a man to life and faith, that man will come. And he's going to come in a way
that glorifies and magnifies the honor of God. Which is how? By Jesus Christ. That's the only
way to come. I know that you're troubled. I know that you're troubled.
But if Christ is ruling all things, if our Lord has ascended to heaven
for us, and there sits and intercedes for us, He's taken the bars of
our sins away? Anything that would remove us
from His presence? Why then should we not rejoice? Everything's moving according
to plan. Everything's going exactly according
to schedule. Which is what? The salvation
of His people. He's going to save His people. Who will stop Him? And when Nebuchadnezzar asked
that question, when he found out, when he put him out there
to eat grass like an ox, he said this, he said, who can stay his
hand or say unto him, what doest thou? Nobody. Who's going to stop him
from saving you, delivering you, keeping you, forgiving you, pardoning
you? Listen to this, not even you. not even you. May God comfort us with this,
that we may look to Christ and glorify God because of Him. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, pray you'd
bless the message to your people. Comfort their hearts, strengthen
them. Our Lord Jesus, as you sit upon
the throne of glory, thank you for obtaining our salvation.
Thank you for removing all that would keep us from heaven and
eternal life. Thank you for drawing us to yourself
and cleansing us, giving us a heart of faith and love. And I pray
you'd keep us, sustain us in the times of trouble. And I pray
this in Christ's name. Amen. Oh.