I'm very thankful in God's good providence to be
here one more time. Betty and I are thankful for
this congregation, for this place where God has
raised up a witness for his truth and certainly for your great
kindness to us. I brought along a few copies of
a little book list that I publish. It's an excerpt from the preface
of an old hymnal. hymnal that contained the hymns
of a man by the name of Joseph Hart. When I read it, I was so struck
by it. First of all, because it had
the testimony of a man by the name
of J.C. Philpott in the beginning. If you've ever read anything
by J.C. Philpott, a faithful preacher
of the gospel in many days past, then you know what I'm talking
about. But he referred to this as the
most weighty piece of writing ever penned by man after the
scriptures. And it is so full of the scriptures. But he begins by saying, Jesus
Christ and him crucified is now the only thing I desire to know. In that incarnate mystery are
contained all the rich treasures of divine wisdom. This is the
mark towards which I am still pressing forward. This is the
cup of salvation of which I wish to drink deeper and deeper. This is the knowledge in which
I long to grow and desire at the same time a daily increase
in all true grace and godliness. All duties, means, ordinances,
etc., are to me then only rich when they are enriched with the
blood of the Lamb, and in comparison of which all things else are
but chaff and husk. I delight to read anything that
glorifies and exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that I might have
that resolve and determination this morning that the Apostle Paul had when
he said, I determined to know nothing among you Save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. I would invite you to open your
Bibles this morning to Psalm 135. Little did I know when I drove
up before the building this morning that you would have my text on
the side. Psalm 135. There is a truth that is to be proclaimed to all. But it is, as part of the gospel,
just as the gospel is, a saver of life unto life to some, and
a saver of death unto death to others. Two times in the Psalms, the word goes out, among the heathen, that the Lord reigneth." Again, in another psalm, it says,
the Lord reigneth. And you know with that ETH in
the King James It speaks of a continual action. The Lord is reigning. Let the people tremble. He sitteth between the cherubims. Let the earth be moved. Say this, sound this, declare
this to all The unbelieving world, the Lord reigns. But also we find it in this expression
in the book of Isaiah. In that passage that Paul makes
reference to when he speaks of the gospel of Christ. In Isaiah
52 and verse 7, it says, 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 saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. It is to Zion, it is to the true
people of God, it is to the elect of God, good news. say unto Zion, not simply that
the Lord reigneth, but say unto Zion, thy God reigneth. And this is essential to this
good news, essential to the gospel. Because the Bible not only declares
that God is, it also tells us how He is. It tells us that He is the universal
sovereign. If you look here in Psalm 135, The psalmist quotes and makes
reference to what all of God's people are made to know. He says in verse 5, For I know
that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did he in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep
places." When we say that God is the absolute
sovereign. That means that he is supreme. He is supreme in power, possessing
supreme dominion. He is the sovereign ruler of
the universe and is superior to all. As God, He acts like God. He rules. And this simply means
that God does what He will, to whom He will, when He will, and
how he will, and nobody can stop him. He proved that, and he showed
that to a man who was an earthly sovereign, and brought him to confess, and
I'm speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, you and I have no imagination
as to what that man's power was on the earth at that time. But when he lifted himself up
and sought to take the credit from the sovereign himself, God
brought him low. And he's made to confess in Daniel
4 this undeniable truth. He says, and all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will. in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or
say unto him, What doest thou? Some have tried to avoid the
reality of this by saying something like this, the word sovereign
is not in the Bible. It may not, as that exact word,
be in the Bible, but the truth of it is on almost every page. And when the Apostle Peter writes
in 1 Timothy 6, speaking of him, he says, which in his times He
shall show who is the blessed and only potentate, the King
of kings and Lord of lords. And when we define that word
potentate, it's defined as a person who possesses great power or
sway, a sovereign, a king, a monarch. And he is being exalted here
not only above earthly princes and potentates, but above the
highest celestial hierarchy. He's the only potentate. And if God is not in charge,
if he is not in control, then whatever else he is, it doesn't
really matter. Doesn't really matter at all. But this is essential to his
being God. And it is the delight of everyone
that he saves. It is the delight of all who
are brought to know him when he reveals himself to them in
the truth. Hold your place and turn back
over to Psalm 115. I say it is the delight of His
people. It was the delight of the psalmist. In verse 1 it says, Not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy Name give glory. for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Wherefore should the heathen
say, and the heathen are simply all unbelievers, all who do not
know the living God. Wherefore should the heathen
say, where is now their God? They look at the circumstances
around them, they look at the affairs of this world, they look
at what happens oftentimes to the people of God, and they say,
where is now their God? But look at what the psalmist
says in the next statement, but our God, Not just God in some
generic sense, but our God is in the heavens, he hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. That's our God. Our God is in the heavens. He is not a piece of stone or
marble or metal or wood. Our God is in the heavens and
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. It pleased Him to make us His
people. It pleased Him through the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. He hath done, he is
doing, he will do whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols
are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths,
but they speak not. Eyes have they, but they see
not. They have ears, but they hear
not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their
throat. And notice this, they that make
them. Whether they ever are fashioned
out in some material thing or not, all idols begin in the minds
of fallen men and women. He says, they that make them
are like unto them, and so is everyone that trusteth in them. that trusts in them is like them,
dead, lifeless, hopeless. But he says, Our God is in the
heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. And that involves
those from the very lowest to those that are the very highest. People fret about what men do. But the Proverbs tells us that
the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as the rivers
of water, he turns it with us, soever he will. That's the king's
heart. That's the earthly sovereign's
heart. But that heart is in the hand
of him who's the true sovereign, and just like the rivers that
he courses on this earth, so he turns the hearts of these
earthly sovereigns whithersoever he will. And that means that the notion
of something men call free will is simply rebellion against God's
will. There can only be one free will
in the universe. There can only be one free will. There can only be one will that
counts. But that's been an issue for
a long time. That was the issue in the garden.
But before that, it was the issue with that one that Isaiah calls
Lucifer. Remember him? Whether he's called Satan or
the Devil or Lucifer, whatever it is, In Isaiah, he records,
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High." That's the devil. But God says this, yet thou shalt
be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. So whatever men say, whatever
they decide, whatever they determine in time can never alter what
he determined before time. can never alter His will. And so when men act in these
ways, they respond in rebellion toward the sovereign God, He
simply looks down from heaven and He says, These things hast
thou done, and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether
such a one as thyself. But I will reprove thee and set
them in order before thine eyes." He teaches us to pray. Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. And if God was not an absolute
sovereign, He could not maintain His throne. He would have already
long ago been dethroned. And He could not carry out His
purpose. which he says concerning his
people was a purpose of grace that was given unto us in Christ
before the world began. If he was not an absolute sovereign,
he could not save his people. He could not glorify himself. His will And the accomplishment
of that will by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's all
of our salvation. Some say that He has a permissive
will and that He has a direct will, but the Bible says He has
one will. And so we read in the book of
Job that very thing. It says, But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? And what his soul desires, even
that he does. They say, Well, God wants to
do this, but he can't because of man's will. They say he is
trying to do this, but men won't let him. That's not what it sounds like
to me. He says whatever he desires. That's what he does. And if he didn't desire to save
me, I would never have been saved. If He hadn't desired to have
me for His own, I would have never known that life that is
in Christ. But you see, He is in the new
creation sovereign like He was in the first creation. The psalmist
says, For He spake, and it was done, He commanded, And it stood
fast. He says, Let them praise the
name of the Lord, for He commanded, and they were created. He hath
also established them for ever and ever. He hath made a decree
which shall not pass. That's His decree. Then in the Proverbs He says,
The Lord hath made all things for Himself, yea, even the wicked,
for the day of evil. That's our God. In Revelation
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 and were created. You see, our problem naturally
is that we make God little and man big. The false gospels of
this world are always man-centered, not God-centered. The so-called
evangelism of our day is always man-centered, not God-centered. It is always first what can be
done for man and not what must be done for God. I'll never forget
hearing Brother Scott Richardson say one time, Before God can
do something for you, He must do something for Himself. He
must maintain His decree. He must maintain His will and
His purpose. He must maintain and glorify
His holy sovereign self. The God that is preached in this
day, is so pitiful, and so weak, and such a failure, and so helpless,
and so bound by man, he cannot be the God of the Bible. The apostle said of that day,
And every day, apart from God's grace, there is no fear of God
before their eyes. Why? Because He is always presented
in such a way as to be a pitiful and pathetic being when He is
the universal Sovereign. He is not a bystander to the
affairs of this world. He is the mighty God and therefore
He is the Savior. The God of glory controls all
things and He controls all people. And the Bible knows nothing of
this chance and fate. and love and mother nature and
all these foolish things that are simply used to deny the God
that is. In Daniel it says, And he changeth
the times and the seasons, he removeth kings, and setteth up
kings, he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them
that know understanding. He says, I kill and I make alive. He does whatever he will. And
we know what is good and what is right not by our own opinions
and not by what men say. We know what is good and right
based on what he does and what he says. He's not your good buddy. He's
not somebody that's a piece of silly putty in your hands. He's
not somebody that if you allow to save Him, He'll save you. He's God Almighty. He's the One who rules and reigns. And surely the wrath of man shall
praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He'll restrain. I don't always understand it.
Maybe I don't even most of the time understand it. Maybe you
and I don't see how it is that what's going on in this world
right now, that it in some way is as the first call of God. But I know two things. That as He works all these things
after the counsel of His own will, there are two things that
He's doing. Number one, He is saving Zion. He is saving all His people from
their sins. In the midst of everything that
is going on, in the midst of every hindrance and all the opposition
from all the world and from their own selves within them, He is
calling out His people. And he's getting himself glory. Because as this sovereign Lord
and Savior, he's the only one that deserves any glory. Are
you glad about that? Is it good news for you to hear
that the gospel is to go out and is a part of that command
and those good tidings and that good news that this is it, that
our God reigns? We're in a time right now where
so many are just shaking their heads. You know, you listen to
the news, you just shake your head, you say, what in the world
is going on? I know what's going on. I'm afraid
that often times I don't rest in that. I get all disturbed
and everything, but the Lord brings me back to the true spiritual
senses of the matter, and that is whatever is going on. It's God's will. You say, I don't
see how it can be. Well, it's only because you can't
see Him. The heathen said, now, where
is now thy God? Well, the psalmist said, our
God is in the heavens. And He hath done whatsoever He
hath pleased. And if you have a problem with
that, it's because you don't know our God. He is a glorious Sovereign. He
is glorious. And this blessed truth not only
exalts God as He is, but it humbles man while also giving him hope. You see, the Sovereign God is
our only hope and our only Savior. And he saves because he wills
to, because he can. And when there was no reason,
there is no reason in any of his people to save them. And there is no ability in them
to save themselves. They all shall be saved, all
the spiritual Israel shall be saved, and their glory in Him,
because He acted in divine sovereignty. As a matter of fact, folks, that
is His glory. That is His glory. Hold your
place and turn back over to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus chapter 33, and listen
to a man as he asked God to show him thy glory. And I'll say this, this is a
man who hadn't seen anything. This was a man who'd seen a lot. This is a man who heard the voice
of God speaking out of a burning bush, This is the man who saw
all the plagues and all the deliverances of God's people out of Egypt. He's the man that saw the Red
Sea part and make a way for them and more things than I could
ever mention. And he's saying to Jehovah God,
show me your glory. That interests me. Show me your
glory. If you and I had seen what Moses
had seen to this point, we would probably have gone on national
TV and done a worldwide tour just to tell people what we've
seen, written a dozen books. He said, Lord, show me your glory. And look down at verse 18, and
he said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And so God says,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. You mean that's God's glory?
That's His glory. Oh, He's glorious in every way.
He's glorious in all of His personal attributes. But His glory to you and me as
sinners is a willingness to save those who not only can not save
themselves, but who are so lost and dead in sins, they don't
even want to be saved. That's how he describes us, as
those who are dead. As those who are so blind, we
don't want to be saved. The only way we can be saved We are those if left to ourselves,
if left to our own devices, which he says are only evil continually,
you and I would perish. If he leaves you to your free
will, if he leaves you to your making
a decision for him, If he leaves you to establishing a righteousness
before God that he can accept, I'm telling you this, you're
going to die in your sins. That's a fact. And so when there's nothing in
us, no reason in us, I can remember years ago, I got
all emotionally involved in the song a man was singing, and I
was thinking that was the Lord dealing with me. But it had this
line in it, Lord, I might be worth saving, don't give up on
me. I am thankful now that even though
he knew I wasn't worth saving, And he knew that if left to me,
I'd never be. He had already purposed to save. And he could do that because he's the sovereign. Look
over in chapter 34. In verse 5 it says, And the Lord
descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed
the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering and abundant in goodness, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation. And somebody says, I'm not buying
into that. Or they say something like this,
I hear all the time, my God is not like that. And they're right. But our God is in the heavens,
and He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. And if it pleased
Him to save sinners like we are, helpless, doomed, rebellious
sinners, if it pleased Him to save us, shall we not praise
Him and thank Him forever? He's not talking about healing
you from a bad cold. He's not even talking about healing
you from cancer or a life-threatening disease. He's talking about saving
your eternal soul. And we're so blind. We look at
the face of this sovereign. We hear him state these things
in his word, and by nature we hate it. How did Moses receive all this? Verse 8 says, And Moses made
haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. You see, you never worship God
until you worship Him as He is. You can go wherever, you can
hear whatever, you can have funny feelings, you can feel good about
yourself, all these things, but you never worship God until you
worship Him as He is and you never worship Him before you
are bowed before His glory. Somebody said, I don't like this
sovereign God. I don't like this sovereign grace.
I don't like this God not giving everybody a chance. But nowhere
does it say that salvation is by chance. And the glory of this is. The
absolute glory of this is, as far as you and I are concerned,
is this glorious sovereign who could either save us or pass
us by, who could either show us mercy or leave us to our own
selves, who could be gracious to us or give us the fruit of
our own works. He said, I will be gracious. Now, he didn't say, I won't.
In other words, his glory and the emphasis of his glory, his
sovereignty, is this. I will. I will. And his decision His will to
save a people and His Son. That's your only hope. What He
does, what He has decided, what He has sent His Son into this
world to do. And if you notice here, He talks
about being gracious and showing mercy and at the same time in
no way clearing the guilty. That's really the glory of God.
sovereign grace. That God shows himself in Christ's
crucify to be this just God and a Savior. Not a just God, but also a Savior. The word is and there, it's a
conjunction, joining these two things. He is at the same time
in the exercise of His sovereignty, in the exercise of His sovereign
grace and mercy, a just God and a Savior. How? In Christ crucified. This is the same thing that Paul
quotes in Romans 9. It's not something new. Like the old writer said, if
it's true, it isn't new, and if it's new, it isn't true. That's
right. He's God, and there's none like
him. He's God and He's God alone. He's God and He's the only Savior. If you ever are saved from your
sins, it'll be by Him. It'll be in that way He's appointed.
It'll be in that one that He's appointed. It'll be in that grace
that honors Him as a just God and a Savior. That grace that
Paul says in Romans 5, that does what? Reigns in righteousness
unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, when you read John 17,
our Lord calls upon the Father and He says, Glorify Me with
that glory that I had With you before the world began, what
glory is that? His glory as the Redeemer, as
the sovereign Christ and Redeemer. And he says, because you've given
me power over all flesh. Now that's sovereignty. But the
next statement is sovereign grace. You've given power to the Son
over all flesh that He might give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. If you get eternal life, if you
get salvation, It will be in Christ alone. He
gave us a picture of this a long, long time ago when there was
a famine in Egypt. And God had appointed, and even
the earthly monarch had appointed at the same time, Joseph to be
over all the crops and the harvests and the gathering into all the
storehouses, that abundance of food. And the Pharaoh made Joseph the
sovereign over it all. And if you got in anything, if
you got a sack of grain, you had to go through Joseph to get
it. He's a type of Christ. But you know what it says? It
says that Joseph opened the storehouses. And my friend, if the Lord Jesus
Christ who in His sovereignty is described as the King of kings
and Lord of lords, who after His glorious accomplishment of
the salvation of His people rose from the dead and is now seated
at the right hand of the Majesty on High, He opens His storehouse to you. It's a storehouse of grace. He
alone can do it. He can alone give it. But we'll
come to Him as the Sovereign. Do you ever notice what we are
commanded in the Gospel? Who it is that we're to believe
on? Some say we're to believe on
Jesus. Well, He has a little more title than that. First thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you're the sovereign. Everything
of life and salvation is yours to give or to withhold. I am
in no way deserving of any of it. All my righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. If I have a robe that covers
me and makes me acceptable to God, if I have a righteousness
that's imputed to me and that enables me to stand acceptable
before God, it's yours. You have to put it on me. And
I pray that you will. Because all power is given unto
you in heaven and in earth. Somebody said, well, if I believe
what you believe, preacher, I'd never preach again. If I didn't
believe it, I would never preach again. Because he says, go and
preach how I am and what I've done. Because all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. The Father loves the Son. And
He has given all things into His hand. So if we believe, if we are found
the objects of His grace, if God reveals His glorious self
to us in the person of Christ, we will be like those Ephesians
of whom Paul says that we have obtained an inheritance being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who works all
things after the counsel of his own will. But we bow. You see, when Paul described
his own people after the flesh, he said they have a zeal toward
God. But it's not according to knowledge.
Well, Paul, how do you know that? He said, because they, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, they're still going about to
establish their own righteousness. And they have not, what's that
word, submitted, bowed, They've not submitted themselves
to the righteousness of the sovereign, to the righteousness of one outside
themselves, the Lord Jesus Christ. One day, at the name of Jesus,
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess What? That He is Lord, Sovereign. My prayer is that God will bring
you to the knowledge of Himself and you will do it now. Thank God His sovereignty in
that day will be no surprise to me. It will shock a lot of
people. And when everything is said and
done, that glorious Zion, the Lord's Church. When John saw them in the Revelation,
he said, And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude,
and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings,
saying, Alleluia. Hallelujah. The Lord God Omnipotent
reigneth. That's what I say right now.
Hallelujah. The Lord God Omnipotent rules. That's my hope, that's my comfort,
that's my rejoicing, and that's the truth. I'm going to tell everybody that
the Lord reigns. But it's a delight to say to
Zion, to those who truly believe on Him, our God reigns. He rules. God bless you. Thank you.