God is great. God is good. Holy and true are all His ways. Let every creature shout His
praise. The Lord of hosts, Ancient of
days. God is great. God is good. The Lord is King throughout His
vast domain. He is Lord, all in all. The Lord is at home where the
Lord shall reign. He is Lord, all in all. Through earth and heav'n, one
song shall ring. The faithful heart lives and
moves free. A rising day shall look like
he. Always be brave. Our sister, Nancy Clark, who's
out of town tonight, she and I love that hymn, especially
that last line of that hymn. Arise, ye saints, salute thy
king. And every time we sing that,
I look up at her, she looks and smiles at me. Salute our king. All right, back to Mark chapter
one. Mark chapter one. Read with me again verses 14
and 15. Mark 1 verses 14 and 15. Now,
after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, time is fulfilled. and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. The gospel of the kingdom of
God. That is our text and that is
our subject. Now all the peace, all of the
rest, all of the comfort, all of the hope, of the child of
God comes from believing that our God reigns. All the peace,
all the rest, all the comfort, all the hope of the child of
God comes from believing that our God reigns. This is what is called the gospel
of the kingdom of God. you break down the word kingdom
very simple it means the domain of the king our king our god
have domain. Our God the god of the Bible. Is God. He is God our God reigns
and rules over all principalities and powers our God is God Our
God has purposed all things, all things. Our God has predestined,
our God has predestined all things. Our God has ordered all things. Our God controls all things,
good and evil. Now, these are things you've
heard for years now, and this is what gives us joy and rejoice. All our hope, all our peace,
all our comfort, all our rest. Our God controls all things,
whether it be good or what we think is evil. And it's all according to His
infinite wisdom and His power. Our God and our God have made
the same Jesus we read about, who was crucified, both Lord,
that is, King. He has delegated all authority
to his Son. He hath made him King. He said,
I've set my King on my holy hilltop. And he had made him to be Christ.
That means the savior of God's elect people. Now this is the
good news. The gospel, in other words, of
the kingdom of God. Though many say that, most do
not believe. But this is all our hope. I'll
say it again. All our peace. All our peace. We have peace because we believe
that all things are ordered according to God's eternal all wise purpose
all things have been ordained by God. Even my salvation was
ordered by God. And that gives me peace. We have
comfort. We have comfort in our God. He's called the God of all comfort.
And our comfort All our comfort is in believing that our all-wise,
loving, heavenly Father is in absolute control over all of
us. That's all our comfort. There
is no comfort other than that. All our rest—the world is full
of unrest—but all our rest comes from believing that we don't
have to work our way to Him. We trust the Word of Christ. We rest there. We're resting
in peace. All our hope for the future is
called hope because it's not yet fulfilled and experienced,
yet it's sure hope based on the covenant and promise. But all
our hope is in the Word of our God who cannot lie, who said,
The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him. Do you fear him? I do. The eye of the Lord is upon them
that hope in his mercy. Every true sinner hopes in God's
mercy. That's all we plead for, is mercy,
by the eye of the Lord. It's upon Him, in favor, in mercy,
in grace, in salvation. Those, it's merely, simply hope
in His mercy. So all our hope, our hope of
eternal life, our hope of heaven is in our reigning God. Now,
the sovereignty of our God, the sovereignty of His Christ, His
Son, the sovereignty of God's Holy Spirit is more than a doctrine.
I'm not arguing for the sovereignty of God. I'm preaching to God's
people. I'm declaring your God unto you
for your hope, your peace, your comfort. The sovereignty of God
is our salvation. The sovereignty of our God is
our salvation. The sovereignty of His pride
is our salvation. Right? The sovereignty of the
Holy Spirit is our salvation if He's not sovereign. If he
doesn't keep his people, we'll be lost in the end. If Christ
is not sovereign, if he did not do what he set out to do, then
we'll be lost in the end. But he is sovereign. All power
is given unto him in heaven and earth. And he gives eternal life.
And he said, I give it unto them and they shall never pay it.
Now his sovereignty is our salvation. God's sovereignty is our salvation.
He ordains ourselves. He's given commandment to Satan. Now, that's good news, isn't
it? That is good news. The gospel of the kingdom of
God. Turn with me to John chapter
10. John chapter 10. The gospel of
the kingdom or the dominion of the king is good news indeed. Good news. But not to the world. Now, this is all I'm going to
say, I think, is all I'm going to say about the world. Most of the time it's a waste
of breath to say what they believe, but to the world, everything
I just said is not the gospel at all. They don't believe that. They really don't believe that.
They don't believe that God reigns. They really don't. Or that Christ
reigns or the Holy Spirit. They don't believe that at all.
to the religious world, God is merely a figurehead, a figurehead,
a token vehicle. Now, the Lord and King, Jesus
Christ, Brother Barnard used to talk about King Jesus, he had just finished telling
the people who he was. They said to him, look at verse
24, the Jews came round about and said unto him, how long dost
thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us
plainly. Jesus answered, I told you. And he believed not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. I know them, and they follow
me. And I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. I and Father are one. No doubt now, is it? At least not to us. Then the
Jews, it said, these were the religious people, the most religious
of their day, took up stones again to stone him. I'll read
on. Jesus answered them, many good
works have I showed you from my Father. For which of these
works, which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered
him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy,
and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. We don't stone you, they said,
for a good work. We'll take all the good work
that you want to perform. We will be the recipients of
all that you give us, all that you do for us, all you feed us
and clothe us and heal us and all of that. We'll take it. Just
fine. But just don't be saying you're
God. What they're saying is what our
Lord prophesied when he said the people would say, we will
not have this man reign over them. We will not have this man
reign over them. Well, men are no different today. Men
are no different today, despising and rejecting God as God, and
Jesus as Lord. Old Brother Barnard used to say,
don't tell me who your Savior is, tell me who your Lord is. You'll notice nearly every single
time recorded in scriptures is always in that order, the Lord
Jesus Christ. You don't have him as your Savior
and later make him Lord. What happens in salvation is
first you find out he is Lord, whether he's your Savior or not.
You find out he is Lord and you bow to him and you call upon
the Lord. Now, so they call upon Him, they've
not believed. They call upon Him as the Most
High God and Lord and King for mercy. And then they hear the
message of salvation. Then they hear that He is their
Savior. That's what the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of this And to all those that fear his name,
the son of righteousness, he tells them, I am thy salvation. And today Jesus, as Lord, is
despised and rejected of men. They choose rather to believe.
That man is in charge of his own destiny. That man is in charge of his
own destiny, and God is but a mere bystander in the affairs of men. Now, I will never understand,
as long as I live, I will never understand why men and women
want or need a God like that. Can you? I will never understand
why men and women want or need a God who does not want bad things
to happen and yet they do anyway. Can you explain that to me somebody?
What good is it that God does not want bad things to happen
and they do anyway and he or maybe he's a she. Can't do anything
about it. It merely stands back and waits. Why? Does anybody want that? But to you who believe, the good
news is, our God reigns. Look at Daniel chapter 4. Daniel
chapter 4. Do these same old truths give
you joy and rejoicing? Brother Todd and I were looking
at this passage together. We kind of worked this message
up together. That's like Paul often wrote Paul and Silas to
the church. I guess they sat around and talked
about these things. Daniel chapter 4. I told you not too long ago,
but that woman who spoke to my wife,
she spoke first to Becca Stonica. And both Becca and my wife told
her what they believed, that in our God's name, this woman
had lost a loved one. She was very angry, very angry. I don't know who she was angry
at, But Becca and my wife both told her that their comfort in
the loss of someone dear to them, all their comfort was that God
did it. It's that God reigned. As he
said in Deuteronomy 32, I killed. And this woman said to me, I
don't find any comfort in that. She said, I don't believe that.
I don't believe God had anything to do with the death of my wife.
Then what? I don't understand, do you? I
don't understand. Then what comfort does someone
like that find in God? Why believe? Why did He stop
it? If God didn't want it, why didn't
He do something? What do you mean, God? Aren't you glad that God reigns? That God does all these things.
Aren't you glad? That's the good news, the glad
tidings is, our God reigns. Not only in his kingdom, not
only in the kingdom of heaven. Men will grant him that much.
Men will give him sovereignty in some areas, in nature, not
much. Just so they don't have to pay
insurance. But to grant him sovereignty in nature and some things. But aren't you glad that God
reigneth in the kingdom of men? Over all things on this earth.
Look at Daniel chapter 4. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar. You love
this story, don't you? It's one of my favorites. Verse
1 of chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar, the king, unto
all people. Nations and languages that dwell
in all the earth, peace be multiplied unto you. I wish the whole earth
would hear the message of Nebuchadnezzar, don't you? Back then they did. He was the king and, buddy, they
heard. He said, verse 2, I thought it
good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought
toward me. What the high God hath done to
me. That's how you began your prayer
tonight, Brother Patrick. Most high heaven to God. The high God. How great, verse
3, are His signs and how mighty are His wonders. His kingdom
is an everlasting kingdom and His dominion is from generation
to generation. Read on with me. Now, old Nebuchadnezzar
Nebuchadnezzar told his story, let me just paraphrase. He told
his story how he became like a beast, how the Lord, he had
lifted himself up in pride, Nebuchadnezzar, you know the story. And the Lord,
Nebuchadnezzar apparently was one of the Lords. So he was a
pagan king, I believe he was one of the Lords, don't you Ed?
What he believed is what I believe. And, but anyway, he had lifted
himself up in pride, thinking that he had done all that he
had done in his kingdom. Well, he that exalts himself
will be obeyed. The Lord is able to obey. So
he did. The Lord brought him down. This is Nebuchadnezzar's
story. He said, I thought it good to tell you the Lord's wonderful
works to me. And the one, the first thing
he did to me, the most wonderful thing, I didn't think it was
at the time, but the wonderful thing that God does to proud
sinners. When he goes to save them, bring
them down. Bring them down. He became like
a beast, like a dumb animal in his understanding, or that is,
in his ignorance. He didn't have any understanding. You remember
David? David one time got to bemoaning things in the world. And he said, you know, I was
like a beast. I'm so foolish. I had more understanding than
that. It's all according to God's purpose. Well, Nebuchadnezzar,
God brought him down like a beast. Literally, he became, he looked
like one, and God sent a messenger named Daniel. Everybody that's
going to hear of the true God, the God who reigns, and everyone
who hears of the Christ will hear it through a messenger.
Verse 17, and Daniel, here's the message, here it is, this
matter is by the decree. of the watcher and the demand
by the word of the Holy One to the intent. In other words, God
gave the decree, sent it to Nebuchadnezzar as he did concerning us, to the
intent that the living may know that the Most High ruleth in
the kingdom of men, not just heaven, men, and giveth it, giveth
what? Whatever it is in the kingdom
of men, whatever it is on this earth. great or small, whatever
it is. He giveth it to whomsoever he
will, and setteth up over it, the basis of men. He repeats this over and over.
Look at the last line of verse twenty-five. He said to Daniel
said to Nebuchadnezzar, you're going to know till you know that
the most high ruler in the kingdom of man and give it to whomsoever
he will. You see, Nebuchadnezzar was going,
I will. This is what I have done and
I have brought. He didn't do anything. Like the
Lord said to Pilate, you could have no power over me at all
except that me giving you something. No. All authority, all power,
all powers that be are of God. Look at the last line of verse
32. He keeps continuing this. Until thou know that the Most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, not just heaven, but men,
and giveth it to whomsoever he will. You like that? Look down
at verse 25, or verse, I'm sorry. verse thirty-four. Let's just
read these verses. This is my favorite passage in
all of God's Word. At the end of the days, at the
end of all this, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up mine eyes unto heaven,
and mine understanding returned unto me. How do you know? Because this is what he said.
And I blessed the Most High, and I praised and honored him
that liveth forever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, his
kingdom from generation to generation, and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. That's understanding. That comes
from God. A man is less than a beast if
he doesn't have this understanding. If a man thinks that man does
anything according to his own will, he's worse than a beast.
He doesn't have any understanding at all. The fear of the Lord,
that is the reigning one. is the beginning of all wisdom. No one has any wisdom at all.
No one has any knowledge of anything at all. Oh, they might know how
to put some figures together. They might know how to do this
and that and the other, but no real knowledge apart from knowing
God. This is understanding. Read on.
And he said in verse 35, all the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. And He doeth, who doeth? God
doeth according to His will. Where? In the army of heaven
and... He doeth according to His will. Do you love this verse? He doeth
according to His will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth. God Almighty, His will is being
done. His will is being done. And none can stay his hand. None can stay his hand. Whatever
God hath purposed, whatever God hath willed, he will perform. He said, I have purposed it,
I'll do it. I've spoken it, I'll bring it
to pass. None can stay his hand. God will
work. Who will let him? None can stay his hand, and none
can even say, what doest thou? Even if they could, he'd give
us not account of his matters anyway. Now, Daniel, so Nebuchadnezzar,
so my reason returned unto him. Now he's thinking in his
right mind. He knows who God is. He knows
what man is. Nothing. He knows whose will
is being done. And look at verse 37, Now I,
Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven,
all whose works are truth, his ways judgment, and those that
walk in pride. He's able to obey. And salvation is for him to do
that now, in this life. To bring us, like Brother Marvin
preached on, at his footstool. To make his enemies his footstool. Now aren't you glad that the
Most High reigneth in the kingdom of men? Men. And giveth it to him. Aren't
you glad of that? Now there's a notable election
taking place very soon. a notable election, and the stakes
seem very high to me, as they do to nearly everyone, I believe. World peace, national security, economic stability,
yes, a notable election is about to take place, and the lot is
going to be cashed into the lap. aren't you glad that the hold
is frozen there? It's unbelievable. I'm so glad. I'm so glad that
all my peace is set. All our comfort, all our hope is our God in the kingdom of
heaven and give us it to whomsoever we will. And he can set up over
it the basis of it. I can't say who I think that
is. Okay, go back to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. Now, though men despise and reject
the sovereignty of God, especially in salvation, especially, we
rejoice, don't we? Glory in this. Don't you? Glory in this. This is our glory. God glorified. I love that passage
in Romans 8. It says whom he did predestinate,
he called whom he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
Past tense. But wait a minute, I'm not in
glory yet. Oh yes, we've been glorified by God. How? just like Peter, James, and John,
when they went up on that mountain to behold Christ's glory, to
see who He really is. The whole world thought He was
just a man, but God revealed Himself to them. And He's revealed
Himself to them. God, who caused the light to
shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, given unto us
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. Where is it?
It's in a person. I've already been glorified, haven't you?
This is glory. This is glory. It's a glorious
message of the glory of God. We've been glorified already.
We really have. Would that we would listen to
every message as we did the first time we heard it. We thought
we were in glory. First time we heard this message
of God's glory. And so we glory in the dominion
of our King. Now there's several examples
here in the Gospel of Mark. That was the introduction. There's several examples at the
outset of this gospel according to Mark, or recorded by Mark,
of the sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ. What caught
my attention, I've been reading this gospel of Mark, and just
the very first line just jumped out at me, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. Several other passages in God's
Word begin that way, though. The beginning. In the beginning,
God. In the beginning was the Word.
The beginning. Now, there's several examples throughout this gospel
of the sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Years ago, a famous Roman king
who was one of many. At the time, he was a great king.
Julius Caesar was his name. But he's just one of many minor
kings. But this, that king one time
said, vini vidi visi. I came, I saw, I conquered. What he was talking about was
going into a little place called Asia Minor. This minor king conquered
a minor country. And he said, I came, I saw, I
conquered, and they were lauded him and thought he was so great.
Well, what that minor king said? This whole chapter is about that. It literally says that. Look
at verse 2. It is written in the prophets.
This is all as it is written in the prophets. Predetermined,
prerecorded. Behold, I send my messenger before
thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. Who? God. I love that passage in Isaiah
25. Our God. In that day, our God
shall come. He'll save us. And that's what
the people will say. This is our God. Who is Jesus?
That's my God. As Thomas said, My Lord is my
God. That's what John said, didn't
he? He's the Spirit of the Lord.
The Lord and God. True God. This is a true God
in eternal life. Our God. as it is written, came,
verse nine. It came to pass, as written,
everything that God has written, everything that God has determined,
everything God has prerecorded, will come to pass in time. It
came to pass in those days, the days predetermined by God, that
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee. Well, yes and no. Where did he
come from? There was a child born, yes,
in Bethlehem, and he grew up in Nazareth. Oh, but the Son
came from God, came from heaven. He said, I'm from above. I'm
from above, my Father hath sent me. He came from God, verse 11,
and so there came When he came, there came a voice from heaven
announcing who he was, saying, Thou art my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. It's only a couple of times that
God spoke out loud. In the last several thousand
years, God has only spoken out loud a couple of times, and both
times were concerning his son, in response to his son. The only
thing that God has to say to mankind, like The writer of Hebrews
said, God has spoken on us, God who spoke to us in divers manners
and sundry time has spoken unto us in these last days by his
son, by his son, through his son, according to his son, about
his son. And so this man, Jesus, though
he was just a man to the natural eye, yet this was God, manifest
in the flesh. And he came, it says he came,
came to pass that he What did he come to do? What did Jesus
come to do? Well, he said, I'll tell you
what he said, I know what they said. He said, I am come to do my Father's
will. The first thing he said, one
of the first recorded words that he uttered on this planet, first
recorded words uttered by Jesus on this planet was when he was
12 years old. You know what they were? That's right. I must be about my father's business. I'm on business from the father. You know what the last words
recorded by him? When he hung on the cross and
said, Get his pen. He came to do the father's will.
He came, he said, to fulfill all righteousness. He came to fulfill all righteousness.
Why? To show us how? To do it for
us. To impute that to us. He came
to glorify the Father as a man. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But this man came as a man to
glorify God in his life, in thought, word, and deed. And he did it. as a man and God couldn't contain
himself. I'm well pleased for his righteousness. He has glorified it. And he came,
the scripture said, he said, he said, I've come to seek and
to say that which is love. That's why he came. He came to
seek and to say. So he came. And he saw it. Look at verse
sixteen. It came, look at verse sixteen.
It says, now as he walked, as he walked by the sea of Galilee,
he saw Simon. Now it's not, not he's walking
by the sea, whistling, you know, just looking at things. Oh, there's
two fishermen. Oh no. He's looking for them. He saw as He looked upon them. He's looking for them. Were these
but random fishermen who happened to be in the right place at the
right time in the right manner? Were these just lucky fellows?
Huh? No. This is the Most High God. This is the Sovereign King. Savior
of his people who came to seek and to save his people. These were objects of the eternal
electing love of the sovereign Lord. These are objects. These
are children in the covenant of the King. He knew them. He foreknew them before the world
began. Simon and Andrew. Lucky? Oh, no. Blessed. Blessed. These men were where they were
at this moment in time, at this exact moment in time, this very
day, this moment in time, they were where they were because
the Sovereign Lord put them there so that He would come by that
day and find them right where He would He came in the fullness of time
to do the Father's will, to fulfill all righteousness, to glorify
the Father, to seek and to save His people. Before the world began, now,
he said, at 33 AD, in man's recorded time, 33 AD, in the month of
Ibid, or whatever it is, at the day of such-and-such, at the
hour and second before I am going to walk by the Sea of Galilee,
and Andrew and Simon are going to be right there, about where
I put them, and I'm going to call them. He came, he saw, I'm
going to conquer. I'm going to overcome them, conquer
them. And it's the same with you, everybody
in here. You didn't hear the gospel by
chance. You were where you were at the time. God put you there,
because God chose you. He came, He saw, He looked on
them, and He conquered them. Look at verse seventeen and eighteen.
He said, how does he conquer? How does the Lord conquer anybody?
How does he overcome? How does he subdue? How does
he arrest? How does he bring to himself? How does he do that? Not signs and wonders. The Lord
didn't perform one sign for these fishermen. It was a little while
before they saw a sign. He came, he saw, I came, I saw, and he come with
a word. He said, verse seventeen, unto
them, come. Now a good master He's able to
train his dog to come when he calls, right? He's a good master. He said,
You call me Lord and Master. You say, Well, so I am. Everyone he calls, Brother John,
comes. Yes, sir. He said, You call me
Master. You say, Well, that's what I am. And the Master came. He saw. He said, you come. Two grown men, been fishing all
their lives. Their whole livelihood, their
hopes, their dreams, their everything. That was their life. That's all
they cared about, fishing. Ask somebody to fish. Ron's not
here, he'd tell you. Bob would talk to you, he'd tell
you. Any other avid fishermen in here? Those two are. There's
one, John. Not as avid as those two. But
real fishermen, these fellas, that was their life. They had
hoped. Now, they were building up a
pretty big business. You know that? These men weren't poor,
like you may think they were. They were in business. They were
in business with James and John and others. They had boats, not
just one boat, boats. They had servants. You notice
there were servants down here? working for the people working
for him and it was a pretty thriving business. And they were in a
big time a lot of best. Now the Lord. Chosen. When God comes calling you don't
have to. You know I'm sure. When God comes,
call him. You don't have a choice. When
he says, come, you come. And you're glad of it. You're
glad he didn't give you a choice, aren't you? He came, he saw, he called, he
said, come after me, and I will. He didn't say, if you will. He
said, I will make you. He just told them what he's going
to do with them. He didn't ask them what they would do for him.
if they would come. Kings don't do that. Kings don't
make requests. Kings give commands. Masters
call and say, good enough, the creature will come. And he said,
I will make you to become fishers of men. So he came, he called. And look, he went on a little
further. Now in verse 19, we've gone a little further than this.
He saw He came, he saw James and the son of Zebedee and John,
his brother, who also were in the ship, mending their nets.
Their whole lives were fishing, was fishing. These fellows, hard
to deal with, hard to conquer. Mindy and I went in a fish store
down in Florida, and a big old warehouse where they would crab
I've never seen so many crab traps in my life. They sent them
all over. How many did you say? How many? Thousands? Thousands and thousands of crab
traps they sent all over. Anyway, we went in this big warehouse
and we were inquiring about buying some fish. Anyway, we came back
out and he said, those are some rough fellas, aren't they? I didn't tell her, but I wanted
to get out of there, too. Tried to act a little tough at
the time. They are rough fellows. And these fellows were probably
no different. Probably no different. How's
a Jewish teacher? A Jewish teacher. convince two
longshoremen, two rough, rough, poor, rough, rough fishermen
to drop everything they're doing, to leave their livelihood and
just follow Him to who knows where. A mere teacher became. But now the sovereign Lord does
it, and He did. It says, look at verse 20, and
straightway, He called them, and they left their father. They were going to inherit the
business, Brother Stan. This was Zebedee and Sons' fishing
business. At a moment's notice, they dropped
everything, thought nothing of it, to follow this. That's the
power of it. That's the call of the king.
And they went after him. I love that verse 20. They went
after him. Turn with me very quickly to,
well, look at verse 45 before we turn to Isaiah. Look at verse
45, down in the last line. It says, They came to him from
every quarter. He went out into the wilderness,
He could no more openly enter into the city who he was without
in desert places. That's a message in itself. You've
got to go to him without the camp. He's not going to be found
in the midst of that mess called religion, but you can go to him
outside the camp. That's where he is, in the wilderness.
And they came unto him from every quarter. That really struck me,
Roy, when I read that. From every quarter. I've read
that before. I've read that somewhere. Every
quarter, what do you mean? Isaiah 43, turn over there with
me. Every quarter. They came unto
Him from every quarter. You're going to like this. You've
read it before. Isaiah 43, look at verse 5 through
7. Got it? Fear not, for I am with
thee, I will bring thy seed. This is God speaking to His King,
Christ. I will bring thy seed from the
east, gather thee from the west, I'll say to the North, give up. And to the South, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth, from
every corner. They came to Him, every corner. Everyone is called by my name.
I have created Him for my glory. I formed Him. Yeah, I've made
Him. I'd love to go on, but we've got to Go back to Mark 1. So he came. He saw. I'm going to teach you a little
more Latin, OK? That's all you need to know. Victim factum,
vini vidi vici. He came. He saw. He conquered. He looked on his
own. He came. He saw them. He called
them. That's my story. That's your story, the gospel
of the kingdom, the dominion of the king, the lordship of
Jesus Christ. Look at Mark 1, look at verse
21. It says, And now they went into
Capernaum, a straight way. Now, he's still talking about
the disciples and the Lord now. There's James, John, Simon, Andrew. They went. They were following.
He didn't know where he was going, but they were following. And
they came into Capernaum and straightway immediately on the
Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue. I've heard of
that before too, haven't you? The king shall suddenly come
to his temple. Malachi wrote about it. And he
taught. And it says in verse 22, now
they were astonished at this time. Now this really happened. You
know that? This really happened. were in their boats one day,
and along comes the Lord Himself. Come. And they were drawn, mysteriously,
irresistibly, powerfully drawn. She dropped everything and went
after Him. Followed after Him. And I know He was speaking. I
know He was talking to them. I know He was teaching. I know
He was. Well, they went into the synagogue. and sat down and
just like us, when we, when the Lord first called us by his grace
and by his gospel, we marveled, astonished at what he had to
say. Never heard it like this before.
Didn't they? They probably, maybe they did
go, all good Jews went to, went to, What they go to, they went to
something. All good Jews. Well, they probably did too.
And this time, they were hearing from the king. And no man spoke like this man.
And it says they were astonished. Every word, I love the thought
of that everything that preceded from my scriptures of grace. Everything that came out of the
mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything he said to the disciple
everything he said was a revelation. You've been around some people
that think they know everything, haven't you? Sure you have. He
did. are. Everything. Was a revelation. And in that isn't that how it's
been with you ever since he called. That he keeps opening up his
word. We don't need science and miracles
and wonders of the world he said, an evil adulterous generation
seeks out the sign. No sign's going to be good. But we say with David, look at
this person, open my eyes and I might behold wondrous things
from your law. And we do. And we're astonished
at his doctrine, for he teaches as one having authority. Why, when he spoke, they thought,
He knows the Bible so well. That's what they were thinking. He knows it like he wrote it.
He did. He can quote, I'm amazed how
much he can quote. Well, I believe the author can
quote his own book, don't you? He teaches as one having authority. He acts like everything he says
is so. Brother Todd loves that next
line, not like a scribe, not as a scribe. Oh my, got a bunch
of those today. He came, he saw, and he conquered. This is the gospel of the kingdom.
Good news, isn't it? Our God reigns, not only in the
kingdom of heaven, Also, the kingdom of men, he giveth it
to whomsoever he will, and he setteth up over it the faces
of men. The lot's cast in a lap, but
the whole disposal is of the Lord. That's good news. Don't worry. All your hope, all
your peace, all your comfort is right there. Our God reigns. Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, we're so glad. We praise
your holy name that you've caused us to know this. Oh, you through
God. And then it eternal life. And
all authority is given under thy son. You've set your king
on the holy hill of Zion. And we are Zion. We're your church. And we bow and we confess with
our tongue. And bow the knee to this most
high king. Thank you, Lord, for revealing
him to us. We glory in him. We rejoice in
him, our king. Give us hope, peace, comfort,
rest from all worry and fear according as we fear thee. That's
in Christ's name we have met tonight. Amen. You're dismissed.